Page 26 of Enticing

And that right there might be the biggest bitch of all.

This man has taken up residence in my mind over the past few weeks, and he’s done so without my permission. Not only do I not need him or want him there, but I don’t want to like him there. Yet he’s still there. Looking hot. Sounding hotter. And looking at my daughter like she matters. Which she does, but she’s never had a man in her life look at her that way. Certainly not her father. And unfortunately, not mine either.

This man is dangerous, whether he knows it or not.

Dangerous to the careful balance I’ve been holding like my very last lifeline for long months because he threatens to destroy it all just by being himself. But when Izzy manages to slap thepuck down the ice and get it absolutely nowhere near the goal, he celebrates with her like she just won the Stanley Cup.

He lifts her up in celebration, and Izzy’s face soars, while my heart sinks.

Leo

Adelaide’s presence hits me like a Mac truck before I even look back, and once I do, there’s no keeping my eyes off her. She stands, swaying back and forth with Lennox tucked against her chest. Black leggings mold shapely legs, and a chunky off-white sweater hits at mid-thigh. Her blonde hair is down in wild waves, framing a face free of makeup.

She’s the most effortlessly beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“Might want to make it a little less obvious, Sinclair.” Ares cracks a grin and shakes his head. “Who’s the hot mom?”

“Watch it, Wilder. You’re married to my sister,” I warn him as I turn my attention back to the girls in front of us.

“Listen, nobody in this world can hold a candle to my wife, but I can appreciate a beautiful woman the way I’d appreciate a beautiful goal. Now you, on the other hand... You’re staring,”—his smile grows—“and maybe drooling.”

I’m about to tell him to fuck off when Izzy turns around and sees her mom. “Leo, are you coming to dinner at my house again tonight?”

Ares’s eyes grow as wide as his stupid smile.

“Ummm...” I have no idea how I’m supposed to answer her.

“Again, huh?” Ares asks just before Molly pulls her stick back to swing and hits him in the shin.

“I’m going to ask my mom,” Izzy tells us before taking off at a pretty fast pace for a five-year-old.

“She’s asking her mom,” my brother-in-law taunts, and I fight the urge to smack his other shin with my stick, only harder than my niece just did.

Mouthingfuck yousilently so no tiny tots hear me, I glare back at him.

“You got something going on with a single mom, Leo?” Ares pushes harder, and hitting him with a stick sounds better by the minute.

“There’s nothing going on,” I admit. “Not saying there won’t be, but there’s not yet.”

Something I’m going to go work on rectifying now.

I clap his shoulder. “Thanks for finishing up here, brother.”

He’s definitely giving me a death stare as I skate away from him and over to Izzy and Addie. “Hey, short stack, you’ve got to take your skates off if you’re all done. Do you want help?”

She shakes her head and sits down on the bench where she starts meticulously untying her laces. “Mom said we’re just having chicken nuggets for dinner.”

I chance a look at Addie.

Fucking beautiful.

“Oh yeah?” I wink and take the opening my new best friend just teed up for me. “Any chance you’ll let me bring some takeout over as a thank-you for cooking me dinner last time?”

“That was supposed to bemethanking you, Leo. It kind of defeats the purpose if you bring us dinner now.” She adjusts Lennox in her arms, and I reach out.

“Can I hold her?”

Addie blinks up at me, her lashes fluttering like I’ve just shocked her before she decides I won’t bite, then carefully transfers the unhappy baby over to me.

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