Hot Puck (Rough Riders Hockey 2)

“Okay, okay. I won’t steal them, baby. Just fix them before you fall asleep. Otherwise, you’re going to wake up with your hair in knots around the rubber bands. Remember the last time that happened?”

Lily whimpered, and her hands slid from her head and dropped to her lap in an exhausted gesture.

Beckett grinned at Eden, and the pure, raw joy shining through hit hard enough to topple her. “Sixty to zero in three-point-two seconds.”

Despite the dual fists gripping Eden’s gut and heart, she laughed.

“Grandma, can I have pie? Please?” Lily asked, half plea, half whine, making everyone in the room smile.

“One piece of turkey?” Tina asked sweetly.

Lily huffed, and her face fell into a pout. “Fine.”

Laughter Eden didn’t know was coming rolled out of her, drawing everyone’s gaze. She covered her mouth. “Sorry. That was all Beckett right there.”

Which made the rest of his family laugh. And when she glanced at Beckett, the look on his face, one of raw affection and open joy, flipped Eden’s stomach inside out.

They stayed there in the kitchen, chatting about Eden’s future plans, Sarah’s teaching, Jake’s coaching, and all the kids until the glasses were empty, the pie was long gone, and Lily was asleep in Beckett’s arms.

Eden had fallen far too comfortably into a little fantasy of what it would be like to belong to a family like this when Beckett said, “It’s getting late. I’d better get Eden home and this little one into bed.”

Hello, reality. Hello, dingy basement, gunfire alarm at two a.m., invisible personal walls at school and work, and long hours alone, cramming information into her brain.

This wasn’t her family. She didn’t belong. The clock was about to strike midnight, and Eden’s Porsche was about to turn back into the subway.

At the front door, his family surprised Eden yet again by not just saying good-bye but hugging her. Even Beckett’s father tossed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a quick squeeze and a quiet “Keep him in line, now.”

They bundled up, and Eden followed Beckett to his car. He opened the back hatch and dragged out a booster seat with one hand, Lily securely tucked close to his body with the other. While he positioned the chair in the backseat on the passenger’s side. Beckett belted Lily in, tucking her blanket beside her. Eden crossed her arms against the cold and watched him, admiring how careful and gentle and sweet he was with her.

When he closed the door and turned to Eden, she said, “Can you drop me off at the Foggy Bottom Metro? I can’t stand the idea of you having Lily in the car when you’re driving through my neighborhood. I know I joke about how bad it is, but I’m very aware of the crime, and you are a prime carjacking target. Even the thought of—”

He cupped her face in both hands and kissed her. Eden suddenly couldn’t focus on anything but the warmth of his lips. The feel of his fingers stroking her cheeks.

“Mmm.” She curled her fingers in the front of his jacket and leaned into him. God, this was so dangerous. He was so dangerous.

He pulled out of the kiss slowly and just enough to whisper, “I want you so bad, I haven’t been able to think about anything else for the last half hour.”

Then he kissed her again, hungrily, stroking his tongue into her mouth. She opened to take him, to give back, instantly flooded with need. He tilted his head and took the kiss deeper while covering one of her hands with his and guiding it to his erection. The feel of him, hot and hard beneath his slacks, made Eden ache to feel him filling her, and she automatically tightened her fingers around him. Beckett moaned into her mouth.

Fuck, this man was such a rush.

He pulled out of the kiss and looked down at her with that lusty sparkle in his eyes. “I don’t plan on driving through your neighborhood. The talk about taking you home was for my parents. I plan on taking you straight to my bed after Lily’s all tucked into hers.”

After the painful, tumultuous day, Eden melted at the thought of being wrapped in Beckett’s arms, warmed by his body, and driven to levels of pleasure that made her mind stop—stop thinking, stop worrying, stop seco

nd-guessing.

But by the time he’d helped her into the passenger’s seat, her brain had cleared, and before she could say anything, he closed her door and walked around to the driver’s side. She waited until he’d started the car before she said, “Honestly, there is nowhere I’d rather spend the night than in your bed, but I’m not sleeping with you while Lily’s home.”

He glanced over his shoulder to back from the drive and lifted one brow at her. “And why not?”

“What do you mean why not? Do you always have sex in your house when your daughter’s in the next room?”

“She’s not in the next room, she’s all the way across the apartment in her own suite. And you’re the first woman I’ve brought home since I took full custody of Lily. Besides, couples have sex with children in the house all the time. How do you think siblings are made?”

She opened her mouth but came up short on an argument. He had a point.

“You haven’t had much kid experience,” he said, his tone both sweet and amused. He reached across the console and squeezed her thigh. “She’s been playing with her cousins all day. She’s not going to wake again until I prod her for school in the morning. Not when I carry her from the car. Not when I change her into pajamas. Not when I tuck her in. She’s out for the night. When she stays with my sister or my mom, she’s sometimes restless, but when she’s home with me, she never wakes at night. Believe me, I’ve done this a hundred times over the last year. I know.”