“On all fours.”

“Rhys, are you okay?”

He raises a brow. “I’m fine. I’ve had a lot on my mind today.”

Okay.

“What do you need?”

“I need you to turn over, please.”

I’m watching him, his deep green eyes, his face. He’s still tense, but he’s also watching me with the love-filled eyes I just can’t get enough of.

So, I turn over onto my hands and knees, already wondering what he has planned.

“Do you trust me?” he asks. I can hear him shucking his clothing, and then the bed dips when he joins me, kneeling at my side.

“Of course.”

“Grab onto the headboard,” he whispers into my ear, sending shivers all over my body.

Oh, this is going to be so damn fun.

I grin and stretch out, the way I did when we were still learning each other, and grip onto the headboard. His hands are everywhere, rubbing down my back, my hips, my thighs, then up between them so he can tickle my folds with his fingertips.

“I have something I need to get off of my chest, baby.” His palm is circling over my ass. Gently, lazily, in big wide circles around the cheeks, up my center and crack, then around the opposite one.

It’s freaking amazing.

“What is it?”

SMACK.

I gasp and look back at him, my mouth gaping and eyes wide. “You just spanked me!”

“You let go of the headboard.”

His face is sober, but his eyes look…hurt.

I lean back down and grip the bed and Rhys resumes caressing my body, turning me on, making me sweat.

“You say you trust me, but you didn’t trust me before, Gabby. You immediately assumed the worst about me, believing that I’d left you for good.”

SMACK.

I bite my lip, caught between the sting of the slap and the pure pleasure of his hands and mouth all over me. I’m sopping wet. My hips are rotating, begging for more.

“You say you trust me, but you didn’t tell me that Colby had been harassing you the entire time I was with you.”

SMACK.

Oh my God.

I thought I liked being spanked before, and that was nothing compared to this.

“My actions speak for me, Gabby. I did nothing but support you. Care for both you and Sam. And you devastated me by jumping to the most horrible conclusion there was.”

SMACK.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper and bite my lip. He’s right. I told him I trusted him, but I didn’t. Not when it counted.

Not when he needed me to the most.

“Is it going to happen again?” His voice is raw now, full of what sounds like unshed tears, but I can’t move my hands from the headboard long enough to look at him.

I need to look at him.

“Rhys—”

“Not yet. Is it going to happen again, Gabby? What if there’s a misunderstanding again? What if I can’t communicate with you as often as you’d like when I’m on the road? Are you going to automatically assume that I don’t want you? Or that I don’t love you?”

SMACK.

“No, never.”

I can’t stand it now. I move my hands and flip around so I can take his face in my hands and look him in the eyes.

“You moved.”

“I don’t care. You can spank me again later. Rhys, I’m so sorry. Why did you wait all of these weeks to tell me how hurt you were?”

“I don’t think it hit me until we were here in Chicago and Susan was telling you about the number of marriages that don’t work, for all of the ridiculous reasons that they fall apart. And Gabby, jumping to conclusions is a big one. There will be times that I have to travel without you. I couldn’t handle it if I didn’t think you trusted me. And based on what happened before, you said you trusted me, but obviously that’s not true.”

“So you spanked me?”

His eyes flash. “Yes.”

He pushes me back on the bed and covers me gently, wraps my legs around his waist and slowly slips inside me.

“I thought you’d want to fuck me hard to go along with that spanking.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he replies and kisses me softly.

“You didn’t hurt me. Even the smacks didn’t hurt.”

“You’re pregnant,” he reminds me, as if I’m likely to forget. “And you like spankings, so it really wasn’t much of a punishment.”

“I love you so big,” I whisper against his lips. “I trust you with everything I am, Rhys. I will never, ever doubt you again.”

“It almost killed me, Gabrielle. I’m your constant. I’m what you can depend on. And you’re that for me. You can trust that, I promise you.”

I smile and wrap my arms around this amazing man. “I love you.”

He grins and moves so slowly that I have to bite my lip. “I love you too. Let me show you how much.”

***

Ten Months Later

“Look, Mom! There’s Daddy!” Sam points at Rhys, who has just taken to the pitcher’s mound in Wrigley Field. The crowd is going wild, as they always do when their pitcher enters the game.

God, my husband is fucking sexy in that uniform. And he loves it when I wear his jersey and nothing else to bed.

In fact, I think I’ll do that later tonight.

Ailish, our two-month-old daughter, squirms in the baby carrier I have strapped around me and lets out a little squeak, then settles down again, sleeping peacefully.

This baby girl has red hair, just like her aunt Kate, and I hope it stays that way.

“What is she doing?” Sam asks and peeks in on his sister.

“She’s just getting comfortable.”

He smiles up at me. “She’s cute.”

“You didn’t say that the other day when I suggested you change her dirty diaper,” I remind him with a chuckle, then lean down and kiss his head. “I think you said she was gross.”

“Well, yuck,” he says, sticking his tongue out. “For such a little thing, she sure makes a big mess.”

“True.”

Very true. This little bundle of joy runs on her own timeline. Where Sam was super early being born, Ailish was two weeks late. Rhys almost didn’t arrive in time to see her be born because he had to be in Philly for games that week. But as soon as I called him, letting him know that I was in labor, he jumped on a chartered plane, and walked in the hospital room just in time to hold my hand while I pushed and cursed him for doing this to me, and then he held both me and Ailish while all three of us cried.

He’s an awesome dad to both of our kids. The same day we married, Rhys adopted Sam, and thanks to the iron-clad contract my father made Colby sign before Sam was born, Colby had no case, and is officially out of the picture, again.

Sam couldn’t be more proud to call Rhys his dad.

“Mom! Look!” Sam is jumping and pointing at us on the big screen, and I’m suddenly shy.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer bellows, “we are excited to introduce you to our Cubs pitcher’s family! This is Gabby, Sam and Ailish O’Shaughnessy!”

Sam and I wave at the board, and when I glance down at Rhys, he blows me a kiss, then waves.

I’m a lucky woman. Actually, no, luck has nothing to do with it. I deserve this life. I deserve this man and these amazing children.

I deserve this happiness.

“Let’s play ball!”

Epilogue

~Declan Boudreaux~

I don’t know why I’m still here. My set ended a half an hour ago, and I passed up a sweet piece of ass to stay.

I wasn’t even interested in the petite brunette that made it very clear that she’d be happy to share her bed with me tonight.

Instead, I can’t take my eyes off the owner of this club, Odyssey, as she bustles about, giving orders to the wait-staff and bartenders, getting the place closed up for the night.

“You’re still here,” Callie says as she approaches the bar. Her platinum blonde hair is up in some sort of complicated-yet-messy-looking knot on her head, showing off her slender neck and shoulders. Her lips are red, and her eyes are ice blue as they look me up and down.