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Life was good.

No, life was fantastic.

Dax couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so carefree and happy.

Shit, maybe he had never felt like this. He and Jack had negotiated something akin to a silent truce. They weren’t exactly friends, but they were definitely no longer enemies, either, so on the ice they shamelessly exploited the time they had already played together.

Dax hadn’t forgotten anything—none of the maneuvers he had practiced with Jack or the drills they had performed together over the years. They were no longer teenagers—they were better. Much better. So damn good that one afternoon after practice, the coach asked him if they were practicing on the ice together without his knowledge. There was no need for that. Their muscle memory was good enough.

The L.A. Hawks were on course for the playoffs; they’d successfully overcome their dry spell. As had Dax.

Two weeks after that evening when they had decided to channel their anger at each other into numerous orgasms, Dax had a huge epiphany. He suddenly knew why he was in such a damn good mood; He had been approaching relaxation completely wrong for the last few years. He realized that relaxation had been a foreign concept to him before Lucy. His premise had been that a lot of meaningless sex equaled peace of mind.

But he was learning the hard way—sometimes gently and tenderly—that not all sex was the same. Yes, picking up women might be fun and end in an orgasm, but it was also a lot of work. There was the small talk, the aggressive flirting. There was the awkward morning after, the stupid ritual of washing coffee cups for her. Then there was his standard speech about how he wouldn’t call his conquests back and that the night had been a one-time thing. It was nice, but in the end, it wasn’t truly relaxing. It was just a means to an end.

Sex with Lucy, on the other hand, was pure pleasure.

He didn’t have to give any speeches. She washed her own coffee cup because she usually stayed until after breakfast. The morning after was never awkward. He flirted naturally with her and their nights weren’t a one-time thing. Thank God.

He hadn’t realized it before, but sex could be fun on more levels than just physical. He had never laughed so much between the sheets in his entire life. Many men were convinced that laughing in bed turned them off, but Dax had to disagree, because, fuck, there was nothing better than making Lucy laugh. Except maybe making her come.

No, maybe the two things were on the same level.

Another plus point was that he no longer had the PR team breathing down his neck. He was always on time—because Lucy reminded him. He no longer attracted negative press attention—because he spent his evenings in bed with Lucy instead of in bars. It was the best damn deal he’d ever made—and nobody had a clue.

“Dude, I can’t believe it. Why? You can have any woman, but you can’t have Lucy .”

Matt punched him in the shoulder so hard that Dax’s upper body was thrown sideways into the airplane aisle.

“Ouch,” he hissed, rubbing the spot and turning angrily to his friend. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, sure.” Matt looked at him darkly, his fist raised again. “I’ll give you a tip, Dax, if you don’t want people to know you’re fucking, don’t stare and smile at each other like that.” His gaze slid to Lucy, who had glanced over but now turned her head away in shock. Matt gritted his teeth. “Because everyone here knows that Lucy doesn’t just give her smile away. Especially not to you! So stop looking at her like she’s a particularly tasty treat or…whatever!”

Dax’s neck stiffened. Shit. He’d believed they were being discreet.

“God, that’s why I couldn’t get hold of you in your hotel room last night, right?” Matt continued undeterred. “You weren’t in your room at all.” Matt frowned. “Yep. Your expression confirms it. Oh God, I wanted to be wrong. I almost hoped you were simply mad at me for eating your scrambled eggs at the buffet, since I know how serious you are about scrambled eggs…but you and Lucy…”

“Hell, Matt, keep your voice down!” Dax growled. “It’s nobody’s business.”

“But everyone wants to know! Fuck, Dax, things like that always come out, because you can always tell when two people have seen each other naked.”

Dax snorted. “I saw you and the rest of the team naked and no one suspected I was sleeping with you.”

“Because everyone knows I’m out of your league. Besides, you know what I mean,” Matt replied, annoyed, throwing his head back and groaning. “I was afraid this would happen. You know, I always thought you couldn’t stand each other, but then Jack thought you were a couple, and it suddenly dawned on me. What you two can’t stand is the power the other has over you. You’ve wanted to fuck each other for a damn year. But I thought, no, Dax is smarter than that. He learned from the incident with the intern three years ago. He knows to keep sex as far away from the organization as possible. We talked about it for hours back then. It seems you have forgotten that, because now you’ve gone and done it: crossed the line. You’re going to drag Lucy into the abyss.”

“Shut up, Matt,” he said quietly, his shoulders suddenly tense. “I’m not going to hurt Lucy.”

“Dax, you’re a good guy. I’d trust you with my laundry and my life anytime—but unfortunately, not with any of my sisters,” his friend replied soberly. “You don’t want to hurt women, but you do anyway. Not on purpose, but…it happens.” Matt feverishly rubbed his forehead. “I’m friends not only with you but with Lucy, too. Lucy, who cares so much about her job. She’s planned a brilliant career, and if it comes out you’re fucking each other, half of management will label her a slut who can’t be trusted! There are so many damn women in the world, you could have any of them to release your pent-up anger. Why are you using…”

"Matt,” he growled, starting to get seriously angry. “Shut up.” He didn’t like anything his friend said. He wasn’t using Lucy. If anything, they were using each other. But that wasn’t true either!

“I’m not going to shut up until you explain to me why it has to be Lucy!”

“It’s not what you think, okay?” he said aggressively.

“Why not?”

“Because…I like her.”

For a few endless seconds, Matt stared at him with his mouth gaping. Then his friend sucked in a shocked breath, as if Dax had announced that sex sucked.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, annoyed. “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Dude, Dax, do you hear yourself? When did you ever tell me you liked a woman you slept with? That’s a big deal.”

No, it wasn’t. He simply liked her, right? He liked peanut butter too, but Matt never bothered him about that.

“So you’re in a…relationship?” Matt concluded, surprised. “That would change things, of course.”

He snorted loudly. “God, no.”

Matt’s brow furrowed.

“We’re not dating. We are merely sleeping together.”

“I see. You’re sleeping together and have feelings for each other.”

“Well…” He couldn’t say for certain. He had feelings. Lots of them. As for Lucy… “Maybe,” he finally replied vaguely.

“Okay, wait.” Matt raised his hands and spoke even more softly. “I don’t understand. You like her. You sleep with her and you see her, what? Twice a week?”

Dax scratched his chin. “Five times. So far,” he noted. “But it’s only been two weeks.”

Matt started laughing. Boisterously. Half of their teammates sitting nearby turned to look at them.

“What’s so funny?” Leon asked.

“Oh, Dax said something stupid,” Matt said lightly and waved it off.

“Oh, I see. Nothing new then,” the defender replied disinterestedly and left them in peace again.

“I don’t say stupid things,” Dax informed his friend, annoyed.

“Yes, you do. You spend most of your nights together, you like each other, yet you claim you’re not in a relationship. That’s ridiculous. Next, you’ll tell me you send a goodnight message every night.”

Dax remained silent.

“Oh shit, you do!” Matt grinned broadly. “Dax, why didn’t you just say so? Then I could have saved the friendly warning speech. You’re not fucking—you’re a couple.”

He opened his mouth in disbelief. “We’re not! We’re not dating. We’re only having sex!”

“So you don’t talk to each other? Don’t eat breakfast together? Don’t tell each other about your day?”

Perplexed, Dax opened his mouth. Of course they did. It would be strange to be silent when you spent so much time together. Besides, what else was there to talk about if not your day? But that didn’t mean that they were…did it?

“You should see your face,” Matt said, shaking his head. “You look like you did when you found out wombats pooped cubes. You’re also the only idiots who have never spent more than a few nights with the same person and so don’t know what a relationship is.”

“Wombats are just completely absurd—and I don’t understand. Is that what you do when you’re in a relationship?” he asked, confused.

Matt snorted. “Dude, it’s like you don’t know the meaning of the word.”

Well…no! He had a relationship with his sister that didn’t really count and relationships with his hockey buddies, but…no, they didn’t count either.

“Shit,” he blurted out, rubbing his hand over his face.

“Yup,” Matt confirmed. “Welcome to the adult world.”

“But Lucy doesn’t think we’re in a relationship!”

“Well, she’s wrong.”

“But…” His throat went oddly dry. “But, I told her I didn’t want to date her. That I just want to sleep with her.”

“Well, you lied,” Matt said in his best professorial voice.

“Fuck.” Yes, he had.

He wanted to date her.

He wanted everything from her.

He wanted to go to the movies with her. He wanted to go to a restaurant with her. He wanted to tell all the players that she was his so Leon would finally stop making lousy comments about sweet Lucy. Because she was sweet—but only Dax should know that.

Oh God… He wanted to introduce her to his sister!

“Fuck,” he repeated.

Matt sighed heavily. “Yep. Oh man, this is going to end in drama, isn’t it?”

“No. Drama isn’t my thing. Nor Lucy’s.”

“Sure. Just look at your relationship with Jack and your idea of sleeping with Lucy.”

Dax ignored him and narrowed his eyes. “What do I do now?” he hissed. “About Lucy?”

“Tell her you like her? That you want to date her, after all?” Matt suggested, speaking so slowly he might as well have been talking to a kindergartener.

“But she doesn’t date hockey players.”

“Oh, I see. She just sleeps with them,” Matt replied dryly.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” he replied sharply.

Matt rolled his eyes. “You’re in a bad place. Tell her soon, okay? Before you explode. Or she’ll find someone else.”

He frowned and glanced across the aisle at Lucy. She wouldn’t do that, would she? Sleep with other guys while she was sleeping with him?

Right?