Angel relaxed with me, her back smooth and tight against my chest. Cupping one swollen, taut nipple in my hand, I rested my chin on her shoulder and stared out at the dark shadows of the mountains.

I was drifting off when she spoke.

“I’m flying home in a few days.”

Well, that was a miserable ass way to break from the beginnings of a light sleep. Jerking upright, I blinked and shook my head to rid myself of any leftover fogginess. Had I heard her right?

“What?”

When the response remained the same, I scowled. She laughed a little, having turned on her back to stare up at me.

“I guess that means you’ll miss me.” Cupping my face, she rose upward and pressed a kiss to my jawline. “Then I think you’ll like my idea…I was thinking… you could come with me.”

Narrowing my eyes on her face, I studied the look in that soft, pretty ocean of blue in her eyes, then slowly, I nodded. I wasn’t much for families, but I’d heard how she talked about hers. I knew enough to surmise that not all of them were as fucked up or as twisted as mine were. Besides, if her parents were going to be actively performing the role of the bump’s grandparents, I should meet them. Sooner rather than later. Made sense.

“I’ll do that. You live in Canada, right?”

“Yes.” She smiled serenely. “Close to Niagara Falls. About a half-hour from the border.” She pushed at my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go book you a ticket.”

“Don’t need to.” Now that she’d gotten me wide awake, I was good and hard—again. Dipping my head, I rubbed my lips over her left nipple. “The guys and I have a private plane. We can leave anytime.”

Whatever response she might have made was lost as I thrust in, her pussy still wet—wet from me, wet from her. I caught her right leg behind the knee, I pulled it up over my elbow as I pushed up onto my knees. “I could spend every night for the next six months doing nothing but this,” I said, grunting as she tightened around me, snug and silky and wet. “Do that again, mon ange.”

She whimpered and clenched down around me as I caught her hip, pulling her in closer, tighter. Thrusting with short, shallow pumps, I rode her, half mindless with want for her already. Angel’s moan shattered the air only seconds before I lost it, coming in her hard and fast as if I hadn’t already spent myself over and over again.

She was shaking, shuddering, twisting around my dick and crying when I finally emptied myself.

As we collapsed down against each other, she heaved out a sigh. “Here I was thinking I’d have to talk you into coming with me,” she said sleepily.

“I’m happy to fake hesitation, if that’s what you want.”

“Nah. I need some sleep.”

* * *

“You’re going home with her.”

Sly said the words like they were foreign to him.

Glancing at him over my shoulder, I said, “Do I need to say it in another language? My Cajun is pretty shitty these days. I know you don’t speak it either, but I can try, if you think it’ll help.”

“How about you try repeating it to yourself, in English, and hear how stupid it sounds?” Sly suggested. “You don’t even know this woman. And now you’re going to go meet Mommy and Daddy?”

Put that way…I shrugged and resumed packing. “I’ve already contacted Wes Grogan. He’s been begging to fill in for me on my show nights. Leonard’s handling the notifications for those who’ve bought tickets.”

“People are coming to see you, not Grogan,” Sly bit off.

“You know those disclaimers LeVan insisted the lawyers add to the ticket sales websites? Shows subject to last-minute headliner adjustments and cancellations. Ticket holders are guaranteed a refund. Remember those? It’s a good thing he fucking did that.”

Unconcerned, I grabbed a few shirts. We were leaving in the morning. I had the flight plan cleared and ready. All I needed to do was finish packing, then handle this part—telling the guys. Well, telling Sly. LeVan took it like a champ. No skin off his back—as always.

Sly was taking it like an asshole—as always.

Neither of their reactions could ever surprise me anymore.

Normally, when Sly got stuck in a rut with one of these moods, I ignored him until he mellowed out. But I was part of the reason he was in this mood—and another part of the reason was the baby. Well, I wasn’t going to let him take it out on her or her mama. So, after putting a few more things in the suitcase, I turned around and met Sly’s gaze. He needed to hear me break it down for him.

“Dude. Come on now. I’m not kidding anymore. You need to understand something before you end up taking this too far for us to ever fix it. I don’t know how Angel and I can make things work, but we’ll have to do it—as in just Angel and me. You’re my friend and my business partner. That’s all, dude. Not chief life decision maker, or consultant to my drama, or a prying, nosy as fuck son of a bitch. This is life, dude. Things change. Thing have to change at some point for the three of us. LeVan’s been dropping hints for months now that he needs more time off than what he gets. He’s getting hitched. That’s a given. And when he said he wanted to take three weeks for his honeymoon, you started up with the same shit, acting like he was walking out on us. You need to chill. Or get a stable woman. Or just…chill.”

Sly’s mouth clamped into a flat, straight line, red flags standing out against the pale skin of his high cheekbones. “I just asked—”

“You didn’t ask shit,” I said. “You ordered. Stuck that fucking nose where it didn’t belong.”

Sly stared at me, brilliant blue eyes firing hot. “We have commitments,” he said with a scowl. “For the next eighteen months straight, we have performance obligations. Am I the only one who remembers that?”

“No, you’re not. But you’re also not the one getting married, and damn straight you’re not the one who has a baby on the way. So deal with it. Take up the slack. Or shut the fuck up.”

“I see. What you’re saying is because I remember to keep my dick in my pants and didn’t have some girl show up preggers out of the blue from ages ago, that means it’s okay for you to screw over our fans?”

“Really think hard about how you talk when it comes to anything about me and Angel, all right?” I pointed my entire extended hand in his direction. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t let LeVan hear how you’re talking about him and Thea.”

Sly, looking disgusted, turned away. “I don’t give a shit who hears me. Neither of you seem to give a damn that all this outside shit will ruin everything. You’re both assuming it can’t fall apart, everything we’ve worked our asses off to do, every sacrifice, everything we’ve achieved. All the stuff we were hoping to achieve. Don’t get so complacent that you assume it can’t all crumble to dust.”

“Why?” I asked bluntly. “Because I’m going to visit Angels parents and figure out who they are? Because I want to hope that this baby will have a chance at…oh, I don’t know, a normal life? Something like LeVan had, nothing anywhere close to the two fucking shit storms you and I survived growing up, dumbass.”

Sly opened his mouth but I cut him off.

“I’m sick of listening to you bitch and whine and groan and think you can lay down the law. Nagging like an old woman about how all of this is affecting you. You think LeVan and I aren’t aware that things are changing?” I squinted as I looked at him, still stewing silently. “We know. I’m sorry you feel like we’re screwing you over. I can assure you that no matter what happens, you won’t ever have to worry about money. Homelessness, poverty, hunger, victimization…they’re all off the table. Just don’t go on like you didn’t know about Thea all along. We both did. As for Angel...”

I shook my head. This shit got old so fast. It was a wonder I’d spent this much time and so much of my patience on him this evening. Lifting one shoulder, I debated on how to address our situation.

“I wasn’t planning on her. I wasn’t planning on a baby. I took every precaution against that because the last thing I wanted was to pass on the screwed up genetic material that created me. But it happened. And now that it did, I’m kind of glad it did. Because I wouldn’t have chosen it, but maybe it’s exactly what I need, you know? It chose me.”

Something about Sly’s features shifted, then softened. “It’s not you that’s screwed up, you know. It’s not your fault that your father…” he stopped and looked away. “Look, it was them, all along. You have to know that.”

I didn’t address the comment, mostly because I didn’t want to think about that crap from my past. His face folded back into blank lines as I continued.

“Things are already changing, Sly. Whether or not you choose to accept them…that’s what’ll determine how things are for all of us in the future.”

I turned back to my closet and forced myself to focus on the task of packing. Behind me, Sly was silent. It seemed to stretch out forever, but finally, he thought of a comeback and cleared his throat.

“You’re right, I knew about Thea, but I didn’t think she’d actually come looking for him. I mean, they were kids. I was used to LeVan pining for her all this time, but then she did the same thing that Angel’s doing now. She showed up out of the blue and shocked the fuck out of what you, me and LeVan have going on.”

He laughed then, the sound dry and humorless.

“No. I gotta correct that. The big shock was you going and falling for some chick you’ve known less than a full day. I can’t even begin to comprehend that. The fact that you want to support the baby, well, that doesn’t surprise me. Your wanting to be involved in the baby’s life, that doesn’t really surprise me either. But it seems like you don’t just want to be involved in the baby’s life—you’re getting all into this daddy thing, and you’re getting all into Angel, too. Jesus, Mac. You’re going to meet her parents. Her fucking parents!”

Fuck, this man was an expert at grinding on my last nerve. I turned back to him. “I get the point. It’s out of character. I’m the loner. Beyond the stage, I don’t do people. I get that, okay? This is different.”

“It’s not just out of character,” he shouted. “This isn’t you! It’s like…shit, it’s like fucking watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers!”

“I get it.” Glaring at him, I clenched my jaw. “I’m not acting like me, I’m not responding like me. You know what? I know that. Chances are, I’ll fuck it up too, and all this energy you’ve been wasting on lecturing me will turn into a total waste of your fucking time. I know that.”

“Hell, Mac…I didn’t say that,” Sly said, looking away. “It’s not about whether you fuck up or not. I don’t think you’re going to do that. That’s not what I’m getting at. The point I’m trying to make is that you went and fell for some chick you don’t even know. Or you think you did. But what about when you wake up and realize you’ve been fooling yourself. Do you know how she’ll react? Hell, do you even know how she feels about you?”

“The fuck? How she feels? What the fuck is this? Some Hallmark movie?”

Shit, why would I know how Angel feels? That required talking to her, and all that relationship stuff was more than I was ready to tackle.

“You haven’t even talked to her, have you?” Sly ran his hand through his mass of red hair, but he didn’t look surprised. “What are you going to do when she up and walks away. And takes that baby with her because you fooled the fuck out of yourself and her. Then you’re stuck with a couple of weekends a year with how our schedules work? It happens, man. It happens all the time.”

“You’re thinking light years into a future you have no business worrying about. I’m thinking about right now.”

He left then, shoulders rigid, head held stiff. I didn’t ask him to stay. Thank fuck he was finally leaving so I could get some peace and quiet.

Except the bastard did leave something behind.

Every detail of my worst nightmare.

* * *

Hours later, I got to the airport with Angel and kept working hard at not letting Sly’s warnings get to me. I was brooding and I knew it. I was also in denial. Despite my best efforts, his words had already gotten to me.

Angel and I didn’t talk at all about the future. She was with me in Las Vegas for nearly a week. Christmas loomed on the horizon, only a week away. A week after that was New Year’s and she’d have to head back to Mexico for her job soon afterward.

And save for those few words we’d exchanged when she first got here, we didn’t talk much at all—at least not in any way that could be considered relevant. Or crucial.

I hadn’t gone and fallen for her.

Not like that.

I liked her. A lot.

But I didn’t know her.

And she sure as hell didn’t know me.

I wasn’t falling in love with her. I loved the idea of seeing her hair on my pillow like it had been that morning, but that wasn’t the same as being in love. I loved it when she sat there murmuring softly under her breath and when I asked her what she said, she’d blush and bashfully tell me she was talking to Bump.

Bump.

Okay, I flat out adored the fact that she was already talking to our baby, that she’d nicknamed the little thing, and that she rubbed her belly like she couldn’t wait to hold the tiny new life growing inside.

There were a lot of things about Angel that I liked. But I wasn’t in love with her and I wasn’t falling for her. Sly needed to get his head on straight.

Love required something that had been destroyed in me a long time ago.

There was no getting it back.

Ever.

I cared for my friends too, but that was a far cry from that four-letter word. It made me uncomfortable to even think about it with Angel sitting so close. She glanced at me from time to time, a faint smile on her lips. From time to time, she’d stroke her hand in a circle over the mound of her tummy which made me think of the baby every single time.

I was thinking about her because of the baby.

It was just because of the baby.

Deep in my psyche, the possessive part that didn’t want to live without Angel answered back, “And that’s why you were staying up late at night, waking up with a hard-on for months after she left, all because of a baby you didn’t know existed. Like you’re really going to buy into that bullshit you’re trying to sell.”

My conscience was a pain in the ass. My id, or ego, or superego. Whatever the fuck Freud had dished out in some book I’d read eons ago. Telling it to shut the hell up would be more effective if I could put something physical behind it. A fist, for example. Besides, even my conscience knew what a fucked-up mess I was. I didn’t know how to love, and any chance I might have had at it had been ripped out of me long before Angel came into the picture.

Shit.

What kind of father would I turn out to be? What kind of father could I be when I couldn’t love anyone or anything since I put my childhood behind me?

Magic was the closest I came to loving anything after that, which is why I’d gone into it as a career. I didn’t have to be myself when I was up on that stage. I became somebody else. The broken, scared boy I was would just disappear and make room for Devin X. The helpless, angry teenager I used to be didn’t exist. Not when I was up on that stage.

Up there, I didn’t lack control.

I wasn’t weak.

On stage, control was my bitch.

I held all the power.

I had complete authority over everything and everyone. People believed the truth I gave them, no matter what their eyes saw, or what reality might show them. A big contrast to the world I’d grown up in, where I could tell the truth until I was blue in the face and no one would believe me. Truth was one thing, and perception of reality was what they valued more.

By now, Sly’s words brought out a shit ton of uncertainty in me. I sat there beside Angel, waiting for whatever remaining checks the airport authority needed to do with the private plane. I was silently wishing that Sly had just kept his mouth shut. But now, as I sat there with the visions of his future turning over in my mind again and again, I could feel myself growing colder and quieter with every passing moment.

Angel felt the change in my mood. A few minutes before we were cleared to board the plane, she reached over and touched my arm. “You know, meeting parents can be downright terrifying, but my parents aren’t all that bad.”

I tried to smile. It didn’t work too well.

“It’s not about your parents,” I told her. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

“I noticed.” Angel covered my hand with hers. Instinctively, I turned mine over and twined our fingers together. She squeezed back and continued. “You’ve been staring out at absolutely nothing for almost the entire time we’ve been here. You want to talk?”

Talk. That was something we hadn’t done enough of. I thought about what Sly had said about the possibility that Angel could change her mind about this whole deal and just leave me in her rearview mirror. That’d relegate me to a couple of weeks a year with my kid, if I was lucky. And who knew what the laws were, with her being Canadian. Did that change shit?

I had no idea and I needed to know. A few weeks a year, hell, a weekend every other month? Restrictions and rules weren’t gonna cut it with my baby. This was another chance for me to get it right. And seriously, the thought of her up and leaving and me… not being able to see her? I didn’t like that one bit. It was bad enough the first and second time around. I didn’t plan on losing anyone again.

We hadn’t talked about any sort of arrangement at all, hadn’t talked about…shit, we hadn’t talked about anything. Not about her staying in Vegas. Not about a relationship. I wasn’t saying that I could ever make one of those things work, but I realized now that we could’ve talked about it.

We needed to.

But not now.

Going to meet her parents was more than enough to deal with. They still didn’t know about the baby. I wasn’t going to toss this other crap on top of it. But we did need to talk. I shouldn’t have avoided it like the plague for the entire week she’d been with me.

Somebody called my name from across the hanger, and I looked up to see the private plane’s co-pilot approaching. Saved by the plane.

“We’re just about ready, Mac.” He smiled at me and then nodded at Angel. “You can start boarding now.”

As I rose, I offered a hand to Angel.

She accepted. Rising gracefully to her feet, we started for the plane.

“You know…” I cleared my throat. She glanced over at me. “We haven’t done much talking yet. Don’t think now’s the time. I’m sure you’re nervous about telling your parents. But…well, we should talk. About this. Us. The baby.”

I didn’t know what else to say. There was something more I needed to add, but I doubted she wanted to hear, I’m going to be in your life, Angel…but I’m not going to fall in love with you. I’m sorry.

Yeah, that’d go over really well.

Angel squeezed my hand. “I know. I want to get this thing with my parents taken care of first. They’re great people, but I’m not sure how my parents will handle the fact that they’ve never met you, and that I took this long to tell them about the baby.” She looked down. “I look like a blimp and they don’t even know.”

“You’re not a blimp.” The narrow staircase to board was lowered, but before she could start the climb up, I stopped her. “You barely look pregnant right now.”

I placed a hand on her belly and was rewarded with a hello kick from Bump.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes, but the flush on her face told me she was pleased.

“Anyway…” Angel cleared her throat and covered my hand with hers for a moment. “I need to figure out this whole ‘telling them’ part, then see where to go from there.”

Tension gathered in me because I expected another question from her. One about my parents, like when I planned on telling them. I’d dodged the bullet, but when she finally asked, I told her ‘the day after never’. The vehemence in my voice was a lot stronger than I’d planned and I wished I’d held back a little, but Angel wasn’t put off or even concerned.

She’d just nodded. “Okay. I’m sure my folks won’t mind having one less pair of grandparents to compete with.”

Now, as I waited for another question, she eyed me, but all she did was crook a finger at me. I didn’t think twice about bending down. She pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. “Let’s go. I’m anxious to get home. Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas when it’s seventy degrees out.”

* * *

Canada was fucking cold.

Logically I knew that before. However, knowing it and experiencing real winter weather were two different things. I wasn’t used to it at all. The coldest place I’d ever spent much time in winter was Louisville, Kentucky, while I was honing my craft. But that was nothing like this biting cold that ate past all your layers of clothing, past your skin, and went straight to the bone. The one time I was in Canada before this was during the late spring one year, and then again in the fall a few years after that. I never had to deal with anything like this.

My breath turned to vapor the moment it left my body.

I was ready to wimp out and get myself those thick mittens that kids wore, and a toque, as Angel called winter hats. Hell, I’d break out long fucking underwear or a full onesie if it’d help. My eyelids were freezing. And my eyeballs. I had the vague idea that if I cried, the tears themselves would freeze. Not that I planned on crying, although if it got much colder, my balls were going to freeze, and that could make men tougher than me cry for sure.

The only place that was actually a little warm was my junk area. Angel was close, so a hot, stiff boner was always lurking on the horizon.

Shoving my hands deeper into my pockets for some of that warmth, I followed Angel down the sidewalk to a black car parked up ahead. She had arranged to have a car waiting, and I’d left her to it since she knew where we were going and I didn’t. Once I’d provided her with the flight plan information back in Vegas, she took over, handling the arrangements from touchdown on, not asking me a thing. Of course, she might have done what I did—passed everything off to an assistant.

I didn’t know if she had one, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“This must be such a shock to you,” she said, grinning at me over her shoulder. Her cheeks had roses in them, and her eyes were sparkling from the cold. Everything about her was so fucking beautiful.

“What are you talking about?”

“It was seventy degrees when we left Las Vegas. Now it’s seventeen. That’s minus eight degrees in Celsius. It’s a shock to me. And I’m used to it. I grew up here. But looking at you, I’m going to guess you haven’t spent a lot of time in cold climates.”

“What makes you think that?” I tried not to let my teeth chatter. Nothing would ruin the image of past acclimatization like that.

“The fact that you look like you’re clenching your jaw so your teeth don’t chatter.”

Humor danced in her eyes, and once we reached the car, I stopped fighting the urge to put my hands on her. I hauled her up against me, I placed my mouth down over hers and kissed her.

Her lips were cold.

Inside her mouth wasn’t.

After five seconds, neither was I—and my balls were no longer in danger of freezing.

“I’m not cold anymore,” I murmured against her mouth.

“Hmmm.” She moaned against my lips. “Me neither.”

Her tongue slid out to meet mine, a happy sigh escaping her.

When I pulled back, she smiled up at me. “I’ve been waiting for you to do that all day.”

“Next time, don’t wait for me.” I traced the sensual line of her swollen lips. “Take the bull by the horns, Miss Angel.”

“Maybe I would’ve tried,” she murmured. Then she reached up and rubbed me between my brows.

I didn’t realize I was frowning until that moment. Consciously, I relaxed my features.

“But you see, you’ve been doing this brooding thing all day. I figured you needed some space, so I gave you some.” She rose up onto her toes and rubbed her lips against my mouth. “Now…let’s go meet my folks.”