Be sure to read chapter 7 first.

                       Five months ago. June.

It'd been two months since I met Kinsley and I couldn't get enough. Whatever time she had for me, I wanted it. We still hadn't taken the risk of getting dinner or seeing a movie or doing anything that might garner public attention because Kinsley didn't want that, and to be fair, I enjoyed not having to read about my own dating life in a tabloid.

Tonight we were having a get together at my apartment. A belated birthday celebration since my birthday was back in February and we didn't have the time to get fucked up and hungover during the season. Most of the team were already on vacation or back in Alberta. But a few of the guys made the trip into Vancouver for me.

Kinsley would be there and she'd met most of the team at this point. There'd be no issue of our privacy being invaded because we all had mutual respect for the private lives of our teammates.

We were at her place, I came to pick her up for the night.

"You sure you don't want to come?" I asked Sadie while she stood at the dining table and folded washing.

"No no," she said. "It's my weekend with Lottie and I like to make the most of those."

"Sorry, I'd have planned it for an off weekend if I'd realized."

"It's all good," she said at the same time as Kinsley walked out of the corridor with Lottie on her back, giggling.

"Lottie," Kinsley said over her shoulder. "What did we talk about? What does mom have to do tonight?"

"Give me three ice creams!"

"And?"

"Lots of popcorn!"

"And?"

"We have to watch Spirit!"

Sadie sighed at the night she'd had planned for her, but there was no hiding the smile curling the corner of her mouth. I liked that about Sadie, she loved being a mom and all the parts that came with it.

Kins said that her divorce had been hard, but the hardest part was losing those moments she spent as a family. From the lavish vacations right down to the quiet nights in. Sadie lived for providing Lottie with those memories and Lottie's dad not being on the sofa with them during a movie, was brutal.

"Good girl," Kinsley laughed and leaned down, helping Lottie off her back. Their relationship was beautiful. It was pretty difficult to convince Kinsley to come out with me during the weekends that Sadie had Lottie. But she agreed to spend the night seeing as it was a birthday celebration.

It meant the fucking world to me that she wanted to be apart of that.

"Do the shake," Kinsley knelt in front of Lottie, did their little secret hand shake and Kins gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, behave for momma tonight."

Lottie leaped into Kinsley's arms, her black hair wisping across her shoulders. "I love you, Aunt Kinsley."

"I love you more, squish."

After we'd said our good nights, I carried Kinsley's bag to the truck, threw it in the back seat and then we left. The evening was warm enough to have the window down, the smell of crisp air and the sound of birds humming floated in off the breeze.

"Ooh that dog," Kinsley cried, her head half way out the window as we passed an old man walking his Staffordshire. It was short with a brindle coat and a bright pink harness.

"I want a dog," she said, absentmindedly twisting the ring in her nose. "But when I get a dog, it has to have its best life. All the space. Like, I want a whole bedroom just for the dog."

"That's not a bad business venture," I gave her a quick glance and felt my breath hitch at her long lashes and freckled cheeks. She had the most beautiful side profile. "You could be like, an interior designer for dog rooms."

Her face lit up. "That would be a dream job."

"Perfect time for it. Everyone's into raising dogs like children now."

"They are that important for most people."

"I get that," I said. "But I can't get behind people walking around the park with their dogs in a stroller. It's fucking weird. Let the dog walk. Dogs like walking."

"You have a point."

"So how much space are we talking?" I asked. "Suburbs with a back lawn? Or a farm with acres of land. Some sheep and cows, the occasional coyote after the chickens?"

She lightly laughed that rasp sound I loved so much. "Neither. I want to live in the forest with a lot of trees and snow and a big raised wooden deck that wraps around the house and I can lean out and touch the tree branches from it. Oh and it would be all windows so it felt like I was outside all the time. Oh and I'd hang lanterns in the surrounding trees."

She was quiet for about a second and then she gasped. "Oh and I'd build a little bridge path between the trees. Like one of those elevated nature walks."

"What about a pond that freezes over for skating?"

She looked over at me, her cheeks turning a beautiful pink. "Whose dream house is this?"

I shrugged. "Guess that depends. I like how it sounds though."

She faced forward, her teeth sinking into her smiling lips. Great, now I was imagining us in this fucking forest house, privatized by nature, a fire place going, a dog curled up beside my girl.

I am so fucked.

The screen on the dashboard lit up with an incoming call from Rebecca. I wasn't dealing with that right now. Ending the call from my steering wheel, I looked over and saw Kins glaring at the DECLINED notification.

"Who's Rebecca?" She asked through a tight jaw.

"Leighton's mom."

"Oh," she said, less accusation in her tone, her entire body seemed to relax. "Why is his mom calling you?"

"It's one of two reasons," I said. "She's in town at the moment and she's either drunk at the bar and needs a ride home. She's drunk at home and needs a ride to the bar."

"She calls you for that?"

"Only if she can't get hold of Lei first," I explained, taking a left. It fell quiet for a few moments and I almost considered biting my tongue over her question, but it proved too tempting. "Was that a bit of jealousy before?"

Kinsley recoiled. "When?"

"Who's Rebecca?" I reminded her.

"Ew. No."

"You were jealous."

She pursed her lips and stared straight out ahead. To be fair, I don't think she was jealous, more worried that she was potentially getting fucked over again. She had her walls up and I couldn't blame her for that. Not after what she'd been through.

"You can admit it," I taunted. "We're not dating though, be weird if you were jealous."

Her brows shot up, but she continued to stare straight ahead.

"I mean, we're not dating, right? Your words."

"I would say we're dating," she finally snapped. "Like, we're dating. Yeah. I would be— disappointed if you were seeing someone else."

"I would love to be your boyfriend," I reached across and slipped my fingers under her hand, squeezing her thigh. "That was a cute way of asking."

"I didn't ask."

"The answer is yes, babe."

She started laughing and it soon turned into a loud exasperated sigh. "Fine. Whatever. But I swear, Maverick. I swear on everything I love, if you hurt me, that'll be it. That'll be too much. You'll end up—" she made a slicing motion across her throat.

"I've been committed to you this entire time," I said, picking up her hand and kissing the back of it. "I meant it when I said I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

It broke my heart whenever she made it obvious that her trust in love was scarce.

Love?

Fucking hell, I wasn't sure if that was the right word. We'd been dating for two months. Well, I'd been dating her for two months, she was just getting on board.

However I felt, however it could be described, I knew I'd rather cut off my own dick than do something that would break her heart.

When we got to the apartment, I took Kinsley's bag and then her hand. It was only three in the afternoon but I could hear music and talking behind the door as soon as we reached the hallway.

Lei had been here since this morning, Matthew's arrived just before I left to get Kins. I wondered how many more people had shown up while I'd been gone.

"Hang on," I said, pulling her to a stop.

As soon as she faced me, I leaned down, gripped her thighs, picked her up and pushed her against the wall.

Her little gasp made me hold her tighter.

I kissed her. Hard. Her fingers raked into my hair and she held me tight. Every little roll of her hips and clench of her legs made it impossible to want to stop. My mouth moved onto her neck and I kissed her there until she whimpered.

"Why would you start this right now?" She asked, breathless as I brought a hand up to her breast and cupped it, rubbing a thumb along her taut nipple. "Phoenix."

"Mhmm," I mumbled into her neck, my tongue trailed up the side of her throat and along her jaw. "I couldn't fucking wait another second. Look at you."

Our mouths met again and we were so frantic at this point that I was about to take her against the wall. She pulled my hair, moaned, ground herself against me.

From the end of the hall, I heard the elevator bell and it gave me just enough time to rationalize and remember that I couldn't be pissed off with someone for interrupting me in a public place.

Still, when I saw Frey come around the corner, his long hair down and his beard trimmed, I felt pissed off.

"Why are you here so early?"

He'd had his head down and startled when he realized I had my girl up against the wall in the middle of the hall.

"Lei said it was a good time to rock around?"

"Hi, Frey," Kinsley wiggled her way down my body and lightly pushed my chest so I had to step back.

Frey made a fucking show of looking at my crotch and laughed. "Hey Kinny, how are you, sweetheart?"

"Piss off inside," I grumbled.

"You first," Frey slapped me on the shoulder as he passed, dragging me along with him.

"Did you bring Gracie?" Kinsley asked, walking beside us to the door. She quickly handed me her back pack and I put it in front of my stiff cock.

"No she had a girls night with her sister's and a couple of the other wives back at home," Frey explained the absence of his wife.

Kins met Gracie over a dinner we went to at Gerald's a couple of weeks ago in Alberta. She liked her and most of the other wives or girlfriends.

"Am I going to be the only girlfriend here?" Kinsley asked inside, Frey split off and started making the rounds. The house was noisier than I would've expected for having a dozen team mates in here.

"Uh, I don't know," I said, looking around and noting the lack of women.

"Tell me you didn't," Lei shouted from the dining table where he was pouring shots. "You brought a girl? Bro."

Kinsley immediately became tomato red. "Nice to see you too, Leighton."

"Aw come on," he tousled his locs. "You know I adore you but this is—"

"You," I pointed, cutting him off. "Shut the fuck up and come and talk to me."

"Look, I get it," Lei ran across the room and started huddling me toward the corridor. "You're into Kinny. I get it. She's hot and funny, all of that. But you can't be this bitch that ruins dude night and invites his girl. It's embarrassing."

"I didn't even fucking know this was strictly dicks, Leighton. What the hell? You didn't tell me. And this is my birthday. Get fucked."

"Pretty self explanatory," he shrugged.

"The girls came last season."

He narrowed his stare in thought. "Hmm. True."

"Go fuck your self. You didn't have to embarrass her like that."

At the mention of Kinsley, I turned around, realizing I'd left her alone while I considered knocking Leighton the fuck out. Instead of finding her standing in a corner by herself, she was over at the air hockey table, which had been dragged out of the spare room, and she was in a match with Matthew's of all people.

"Ha!" Kinsley threw her arms up when she scored a goal. "Ooh whatcha gonna do without a stick to snap across your knee, Matthew's?"

He burst into laughter. "Fuck off, you."

"Still not one of the boys," Leighton said. "Her tits are too good for that."

"I will straight up break your fucking nose," I said, getting in his face. "Call my sister and tell her to come over."

"You call her."

"No," I walked to my bedroom to put Kinsley's bag down. "She won't listen to me and even if she does, it'll come with some sort of bribery. So just, invite her over. And call your fucking mom, she won't stop blowing up my phone."

When I walked back into the living room, half the team was congregated behind Matthew's while he faced off against Kins. She was up one point. For a second, I couldn't understand how a game of air hockey could be so captivating.

And then I realized that my girl was leaned over the table and her t-shirt was low cut. Whenever she pushed the puck, she moved.

While I was tempted to stand there and stare like the rest of these idiots, I wasn't letting her become the entertainment tonight. I walked over and stood next to her, making eye contact with every single mother fucker that could drag their attention off her.

"I will put my balls on the edge of this table," I said and Kinsley looked up at me, bewildered.

"You what?" She sputtered.

"They know what I'm talking about," I said, slipping my hands into my pants. "Fuck off or my dick becomes the game mascot."

The audience thinned out after that. Matthew's was way too competitive to be thinking about anything other than winning.

Half way into the night, a few of the casual hook ups that the guys had in the area had shown up. Ashley was here too. Her and Kins were in the kitchen making espresso martini's for whoever wanted some alcohol with their coffee. Fucking gross. But they were having a good time.

I'd barely talked to her all night. I'd been watching though, I couldn't help it. I loved how she made herself at home, she walked around the kitchen in her big fluffy socks like she'd lived here forever.

My sister loved her too, I could see that much.

Excusing myself from a conversation with Addams and Frey, I wandered over to the kitchen island, put my drink down and stood behind Kins, wrapping my arms around her middle and kissing her soft hair.

Ashley thought she was being discreet when she took a photo. I didn't mind though, I knew how important photos were to her. Her bedroom was basically a shrine to every significant, and insignificant moment in her life. I liked that.

"Having a good night?" I murmured beside Kinsley's ear.

"Hmmm," she ran her hand along my arm secured around her middle. "You?"

"I am."

We swayed a little, side to side, I peppered her head with kisses and wished we were alone.

"Come on the road with me next season?"

"In October?"

"Yeah."

She turned around and leaned against the island, my hands secured at her back. She stole my fucking breath whenever I looked at her.

"You really want me to come?"

"I'd fucking miss you if you didn't."

"I have work," she looked disappointed at the realization. "I suppose I could do most of it on the road. I'd just have to come home for big exec meetings."

"Sounds good to me."

She peered up. "We've only been datin—"

"Sssh," I kissed her mouth. "Doesn't matter how long we've been together. I want you to come with me."

Her dazed smile grew and I kissed her again. And again and then Ashley cleared her throat.

"Can I please have the girl back? We have martini's to drink."