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kind of punishment."
    "Aw, I'm sorry, sweets. Don't be mad." I couldn't see him, but I could tell by the way he talked that he was smiling.
    I shifted my body toward him, finding the side of his face with my hand. "Fine, I'm sorry too. I couldn't resist," I said, gently stroking him.
    "What if it wasn't a joke though?" he asked.
    "What?"
    "You tease, but one of these days I'm going to want to make you my wife, and I want to know you'll be on board with that."
    The last of my giggling became a large lump in my throat. Even lying in bed, my stomach nearly dropped to my knees. Alec, who barely six months ago had commitment issues to the point where we almost didn't happen, couldn't possibly be hinting at something as permanent as marriage.
    "I mean, I'd like to be further along in medical school, but one day the moment will come, and I want to make sure laughter will be the last response that comes to your mind."
    It took me a moment to gather my thoughts, which were running away in several different directions. "I thought you said marriage wasn't in the cards for you," I said, recalling a conversation we'd had months ago.
    His hand reached out in the dark to cup my face. "Marriage wasn't in the cards for me with Candace. That doesn't mean I never want to get married. I want a family for Lily, like you have, with lots of siblings," he said huskily, stroking a thumb across my cheekbone.
    One of the things I had learned about Alec since we'd been together was that he was an only child. His mother was no longer able to have children after he was born due to some kind of complications during his delivery. Alec's biggest wish growing up had been to have a brother or sister. I tried convincing him how good he had it as an only child. I had to fight for everything while growing up in a sports-crazed house with three brothers. I had to fight for my dinner before they ate everything in sight. I had to fight for the TV just to watch something other than ESPN. And don't get me started on sharing one bathroom with three disgusting slobs, none of which had any sense of aim near the toilet.
    In spite of my negative spin on siblings and the madness he had witnessed during dinner earlier, Alec still insisted that a big family would be his idea of heaven. The thought of carrying his baby created a warm feeling of joy that spread through my veins. I was far from ready to have children, but the promise of one day raising a houseful of kids was appealing. Snuggling closer to Alec's hard body, I suddenly felt more turned on than I probably should have been. The mere talk of babies should have had me scurrying away to double up on birth control with my knees sewn together.
    "You don't want a big family?" he asked, gliding his hand over my hip to cup my ass. He dragged the lower part of my body toward him so that I was pressed flush against him.
    "Yes," I whispered as his hands began tugging off my pajamas, distracting me from any further conversation.
    ***
     
    Before I could blink we were halfway into December. My mind was in a constant haze, trying to plan for Christmas and my upcoming trip. It was a stressful effort to organize and prepare for two and a half months away from home. I practically broke down in tears one afternoon over the idea of leaving Severus for that long. Alec eased my mind, if only slightly, by promising that he wouldn't let anything happen to him.
    My publisher was handling the bus tour side of the trip, which would be taking the other authors and me from one side of the country to the other, and that was after spending two weeks in New York first. Going over my itinerary with Olivia was as frightening as it was exciting. I had no idea how I would take to riding on the bus. Sometimes I was prone to motion sickness when I tried to look at my cell phone while riding in a car. We would be spending a lot of hours driving from one city to the next. What if I spent the entire time slumped over the toilet?
    The only thing keeping me