Chapter 1

I locked the door behind the last patient of the day and leaned my back against it, my eyes closed for a moment.

"It was a long day."

My eyes snapped open and I startled, bumping my hip on the door handle.

Doctor Oliver Ryan looked at me with a combination of amusement and concern. "Didn"t mean to scare you."

"You didn"t, I just—" I pushed my glasses back up my nose and cleared my throat. "I didn"t see you there." I stepped past him, back to my desk.

I switched off the computer and turned around to find him standing right behind me.

I let out a soft breath of surprise, but didn"t move. I couldn"t. We stood almost chest to chest, my ass pressed against the edge of the desk. Heat radiated off his body like a wave of lava, threatening to pour down over me.

"If I didn"t know better, I"d think you were avoiding me." He spoke in a low, rumbly tone that got me going from head to toe.

"Of course I"m not," I protested. "How could I? This practice isn"t that big." It was nothing more than a reception desk and three treatment rooms. The other general practitioners only worked a couple of days a week, leaving us alone more often than not.

"That"s true. There"s nowhere to hide here." He leaned in, until his lips were no more than a centimetre or two away from mine.

"I don"t want to hide, but we need to?—"

A loud tapping on the door made me jump for the second time in a handful of minutes. We sprang apart so fast, I bumped my ass on the back of the desk.

"I"ll see who that is." With a regretful sigh, Oliver walked over to unlock and open the door. "Cat! You"re looking radiant."

"Hey, Dad." Catalina Ryan stepped into the surgery and kissed her father on the cheek. "Did you forget we have a date for dinner?"

She walked past him to give me an awkward hug, her pregnant belly getting between us somewhat. "Is my father keeping you here too late again?" She turned her teasing smile on Oliver.

"Um, no." If she"d arrived a few minutes later, she might have found me bent over the desk, her beloved father pounding into me. The thought made my face hot. We had to be more careful.

"I was just leaving." I stepped around to the other side of my desk and grabbed my bag and phone.

"You should join us," Cat said. "I don"t see enough of you or Eden."

"We had dinner together…" I had to stop and think. "Yeah, it has been a while." The three of us were close friends, but the last year had been hectic. Cat was often busy with her three boyfriends, Shaw, Easton and Cruz. Now with a baby on the way, she"d be busier than ever.

"Then you should come," Cat said. "Right, Dad? You don"t mind, do you?"

Oliver arched an eyebrow slightly. "Yes, Marley should come." He put the slightest emphasis on the last word, subtle enough for his daughter to miss, but making my face heat further. "I don"t mind at all."

"Great." Cat hooked her arm through mine and pulled me towards the door. "It"s not often I get a night away from the guys with two of my favourite people."

I glanced over my shoulder to Oliver, but he smiled and grabbed up his phone and bag, and locked the door behind us.

"The guys must be excited," I said. "The season is about to start and they get to use their own, brand-new stadium."

The Opal Springs Ghouls were one of the newest teams to join the AIHL, something they"d worked toward for a long time. If anyone in town wasn"t a fan of ice hockey before, they were converted by now. The construction of the arena generated so many jobs and was a huge boost to the whole town.

"I don"t think the arena is big enough," Cat said dryly. "The whole team has been treated like rock stars for the last few months. Their heads are getting enormous."

In spite of her words, she smiled, if a little wryly. All three of her boyfriends were on the team and she loved them, egos and all. Even after they hell they"d put her through when they first met.

"Just when I thought they couldn"t get bigger egos," I said with a smile.

We walked across the road to one of the newer restaurants in town, Sticks. They served everything from steak to grilled fish. All fancier than we were used to in Opal Springs. The boom brought in a bunch of new businesses. This was one of my favourites.

The other being a place that sold adult toys. A girl could never have too many vibrators.

"Nothing you can"t handle." Oliver didn"t attempt to hide his scrutiny of Cat"s leg.

Badly broken last year, she sometimes struggled with it, especially when she didn"t rest when she should. If she was good at anything, it was pushing herself too hard. As her father and her doctor, he was always watching out for her.

She gave him a look, clearly neither missing what he was doing, nor impressed with it. "Stop fussing," she told him.

He raised his hands to either side. "I didn"t say a thing."

"But you were thinking it." She slipped into a seat at the round table, leaving Oliver and I to sit beside each other.

"Would you prefer I stop giving a shit?" he asked.

"No, but I"m a grown woman. I can take care of myself." She picked up her menu and started to read.

"Yes, you can. We"re all adults here." Oliver squeezed my knee under the table. "Capable of making our own choices."

I thought for a moment he was going to tell her about us, but instead he picked up his menu and scanned it.

My heart racing, I did the same.

"It"s so nice of you to join Dad and I," Cat said to me. "I keep telling him he should get out more, but you know what he"s like. It"s time he met someone, don"t you think?"

"Um, sure." I adjusted my glasses and cleared my throat. Oliver"s hand on my knee was distracting. I was sure Cat must be able to see right through us.

On the other hand, I wished she would. We"d been sneaking around behind her back for long enough.

"Maybe I have met someone and I haven"t told you," Oliver said. His fingers tightened around my thigh before sneaking up slowly and slipping between my legs. "I"m also an adult, believe it or not." His thumb stroked over the front of my pants, brushing past my clit.

"If you"ve met someone, I"m happy for you," Cat said easily. "When do we get to meet her? Or him. We won"t judge, will we, Marley? We want you to be happy."

"Of course we do." My voice was higher as he swiped his thumb back across the front of my pants. "Have you decided what you're having for dinner?"

"No, but I know what I want for dessert," Oliver said. He smiled at me as if he was completely innocent, and looked back at his menu.

"Typical Dad, always wanting to go straight to dessert," Cat teased. "He's always had a sweet tooth."

"Always," Oliver agreed. He pressed his thumb against my clit and rubbed it firmly.

I swallowed. If he kept doing that, I was going to come right here, in front of his daughter. "I think I"ll have the vegetarian lasagne."

"Not in the mood for meat tonight?" Oliver asked.

Before I could respond, Cat grimaced and pushed herself to her feet. "Sorry, I need to pee. This baby is sitting right on my bladder. I"ll be right back."

"Take your time," Oliver said.

I waited until she was safely away to look at him square on, my eyes wide. "We can"t keep lying to her." I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from my pussy. "Or doing things like this. Someone might see. She might see."

He rested his forearm against the edge of the table. "Do you want to end it?"

"No," I said quickly. I closed my eyes and sighed out my nose. "Unless you won"t tell her. I"m not sneaking around behind her back anymore. I want to be with you, but she"s my best friend. If she knew we were lying to her, she"d be angry at both of us. After everything she"s been through, she deserves to be happy. She needs to know she can trust the people around her."

"Then we tell her," he said. "We pick the right time and place and sit her down to explain everything."

"Do you think she"ll understand?" I said. "She"s made it clear she doesn"t like the idea you and I could even be attracted to each other, much less…anything else. I don"t want to come between you and her. I also don"t want to put her under stress while she"s pregnant."

"Is everything okay?" Cat slipped back into her chair. "You two look intense."

"We were discussing a new patient," Oliver said. "We"re both concerned her physical health might be negatively impacted by her mental health."

That wasn"t wrong. Including the part about her being his patient. She had her own OB/GYN, but her father was involved with her care as much as he could be. And we were talking about her mental health. Specifically, the result of her potential anger when she found out we were fucking.

"Oh. If anyone can help her, it will be both of you," Cat said. She rested her hands on her belly.

"I haven"t asked how you"re feeling," I said. "You look amazing. Pregnancy agrees with you. Are the guys looking after you?"

She snorted softly. "I"m surprised they let me out tonight. They"ve been fussing over me like three mother hens. Or father cocks." She exchanged a glance and a smile with Oliver.

A private joke, I presumed.

"They"re all going to take care of the baby?" I asked.

"Absolutely," she agreed. "They"re going to make amazing fathers. They don"t even care if we never do a paternity test. As far as they"re concerned, they"re all the father."

She may never know which of her three boyfriends was the biological father of her baby. It didn"t surprise me that none of them cared. That was just biology. What happened after the baby was born was what mattered.

"That"s wonderful." I couldn"t contain a slight jab of envy. Cat was the ambitious one, almost making the Winter Olympic team at speed skating, and now she was qualified veterinarian. That pregnant glow made the gorgeous redhead even more beautiful.

I"d always seen myself settling down and focusing on a family, not a career. If I was pregnant, I"d probably look like a blonde sausage trying to escape its skin. I couldn"t help yearning anyway.

"It"s wonderful," Oliver agreed.

He reminded me if I was pregnant, it would be with Cat"s sibling. The baby growing in her belly was his grandchild. He was still only forty-eight, but it felt as though the situation got more complicated the bigger her bump got.

I glanced over to see him give me a long look. I couldn"t tell what he was thinking. I didn"t think he was planning on telling her about us tonight, but what else was going through his head, I didn"t know. He was complicated at best. An excellent doctor and a wonderful father. Not to mention an incredible lover. No one ever made me feel the way he did, physically or emotionally.

I knew he cared about me. I cared about him too. This whole thing would be a lot easier if we didn"t both also care about Cat. Neither of us wanted to hurt her, or get hurt ourselves.

"You"re both coming to the game on Saturday night, aren"t you?" Cat asked. "The Ghouls are playing the Dusk Bay Demons in the first round. We need all the help we can get to cheer the team on."

"I wouldn"t miss it," Oliver said.

"Eden and I will be there," I said. "It"s not every day you get to sit in the team"s box and watch them kick Demons" asses." I didn"t say so, but I wasn"t sure if that would happen.

The Demons won the cup last season. They"d be hard to beat, but the Ghouls were hungry. They"d give it a red hot go.

"I"ll introduce you to the new goalie," Cat said to me. "I think you"ll like him."

I resisted the urge to glance at Oliver and simply smiled. "I look forward to it." Why did I feel as though I"d just tangled myself deeper in a spiderweb?