Cross-Checked (Boston Rebels, #3)

by Julia Connors

But from the moment I held Abby in my arms, there was no question that, for her, I’d be the best dad I could be.

Her lips are turned up at the corners, like she’s realized Daddy’s home and she can relax.

I wish I could say that I kept glancing over because I was worried about Abby, but the truth—a truth I will never reveal to a single living soul—is that I couldn’t stop looking at her holding my baby.

No one knows hockey better than Alessandra Jones.

“Nah, I think it fits. You don’t know what this organization was like before you became GM.” He tears off a piece of his bread and uses it to mop up some of the pasta sauce on his mostly empty plate. “It’s like you brought the light with you.”

She’s always beautiful. But a laughing Alessandra Jones? She’s unbelievably gorgeous.

“My plan is to ruin you for every other man, forever. You just have to ask.”

“Go ahead.” She nods and raises her eyebrows like she’s challenging me. “Ruin me.”

“Taking care of your needs feels like the bare fucking minimum, Alessandra. And if doing that ruins you, then prepare to be spoiled senseless.”

AJ I’m so turned on I can hardly move. I need to take care of myself before I come over there. McCabe Walk across the hall right now, or I’m going to come bang your fucking door down.

“So needy,” she teases, pulling back to smirk at me. “Yes, I’m quite needy. In fact, right now, I need you on your knees.”

I pull her back to me before she can get up from my bed. “Over my dead body.” She tilts her head to look at me, a wild glint in her now very awake eyes. “If you insist.” She’s so cute when she starts making threats. “Maybe you should climb up here and sit on my face . . . try to suffocate me while I give you yet another orgasm.” Even though she’s shaking her head, she

“Better sit on my face and teach me a lesson.”

“God, I just want to possess you. I want to worship you and own you at the same time. I want to respect you at work and disrespect your body at home. I want every last one of your orgasms, and I want your heart. But I want you to give it to me willingly, once I’ve shown you that you can trust me with it.”

Her first word is going to be AJ, and I’m as thrilled about it as if she’d just said Dada.

“Oh my god,” I say with a laugh. “The world’s grumpiest cat has found the world’s grumpiest man, and it’s a match made in heaven.”

I want to tattoo my name across her collarbones so that anyone looking at her knows she’s mine.

“Of course she can. AJ was born to be a mom. Just because she can’t carry a baby herself doesn’t mean she can’t have kids, and only a spineless asshole with serious inferiority issues would think otherwise.”