She felt like throwing up.

Her stomach was in knots and kept getting increasingly tighter with each passing moment, as if someone was squeezing the life out of her by some messed-up torture experiment they do to POWs at war camps. Every breath she took, hoping to calm the rapid beat of her heart down, only made it worse.

Sydney was about to see her man. And she was going to break up with him.

It had been almost a month and a long one. Video chatting, text messaging, and several creative Skype-sex sessions could only do so much before the feelings of warmth and angst reared their ugly heads.

Now there she was, walking down the seemingly long corridor from the plane to boarding area. Her nausea simply increased with each step.

The plane ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles was short and relatively uneventful. She could only get a small handful of days off and rather be the good daughter who spent every holiday with her family, while they politely (was it really?) remarked why she was still the single one of out her friends, she took Dean on his offer and flew down to L.A. He wanted to fly her first class but she wouldn't have it, shocking them both at the request. He did, however, buy her a business class ticket and well, it was too late to argue.

In less than five minutes, she was going to see him.

She swallowed the big lump in her throat and let out another deep breath as she breezily walked through the airport and to baggage claim. Sydney knew how important the trip was on many levels. One, it was testing the waters of how realistic they were being on a long-distance relationship. Two, it was seeing if what happened in Chicago actually stayed there or if they both were just in denial.

Most importantly, Sydney was scoping out her future in L.A. That is, if there was one.

She wasn't about to start picking out china patterns and going to the home improvement store to swipe color swatches for her potential bridesmaids dresses quite yet. She had visited L.A. before but only in passing, with her girlfriends in tow, and mainly to see the infamous Sunset Strip and the wild cast of characters that occupy the City of Angels.

She was now Dean's guest to his home.

She suggested a hotel and Dean shot that idea down before she had a chance to lay out her case. He mentioned he lived in a beach town, along with several other of his teammates, and she was going to stay there to get to know the city. You'll like it, she recalled his words to her, I wouldn't want you to stay here if there was going to be a problem.

Sydney briefly closed her eyes as the memory reverberated through her body, filling her with warmth and security. It was okay. It was going to be okay. They were going to have some fun. He was going to show her around his favorite spots. They were going to make love like it was about to go out of style. Finally, they were going to have a heartfelt, serious talk about their future plans with themselves and each other.

And maybe, just maybe, she was going to tell him that a long-distance relationship was not in the cards and they needed to go their separate ways and that they should…

"You look so sexy while you're in deep thought."

Sydney opened her eyes and saw a smiling Dean, holding one of the biggest teddy bears she'd seen in her life. "My friend here and I were just chatting about this really beautiful girl who was walking and all of a sudden closed her eyes. I thought you had an undiagnosed case of narcolepsy but my friend here said, 'Nah, nah, bro…she's thinking of something. Give her a few moments.' So I listened." Dean walked closer to Sydney and cupped her face with a hand. "But then I got impatient."

Sydney smiled before he planted a long kiss on her, crushing his lips against hers and sweeping his tongue inside. He pulled her body close to her and grabbed her ass, claiming her as she moaned in his mouth.

Heaven.

Her heart fluttered with desire while the tingling sensation between her thighs thumped with want. When he finally pulled away, his eyes twinkled at hers, knowing what he just did and what they were going to do soon.

He simply smiled. "How was your flight, baby?"

She really wanted to tell him that she was too caught in thinking about their future and how the fantasy of 2.5 kids and a white picket fence was slowly fading away. She wanted to tell him that they both weren't being realistic about their relationship and that Christmas would be the last time they should see each other. She wanted to tell him that despite the wild and passionate sex, the heart fluttering whenever she received a text from him, and the longing to be with him and be a dynamic duo that defied the odds, reality told her that they just wouldn't work. She didn't want to move to L.A. and just be a hockey girlfriend who will eventually become a wife but she didn't know what she wanted.

She was going to tell him all of that and she'd rehearsed it over and over during the plane ride. Then when Sydney saw Dean, the plan went to hell. All she wanted and craved was his touch, his love, and his embrace. She wanted to feel him on top of her, beneath her, and behind her. She couldn't wait for him to mount her as she spread wide to accommodate him and his size. She really looked forward to the aftermath, when he just held her and their hearts beat as one.

On second thought, breaking up with Dean could wait. "It was a good flight," she smiled.

"Mmm…I know that smile," he purred in her ear, "that smile means you're not being completely honest with me. Do you want to tell me what's really on your mind?"

Sydney grinned. She hated how well he could read her. It was like if he had a past life being a psychic and was reborn as maniac hockey player. Come to think of it, maybe the two weren't so far connected. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too." They walked over to baggage claim and he picked up her luggage. Just as he expected, Sydney definitely over packed. "So how many days are you staying again?"

Sydney playfully socked him in his arm. "Just three."

"Hmm…we gotta change that."

"Oh?" Sydney felt embarrassed. "Did I overdo it for three days?"

"Yeah, you did." He answered. "I don't want you here for three days."

"Oh." Sydney looked down at her feet. She guessed at that point, she didn't need the talk with Dean after all. He told her everything she wanted to know within the first few minutes of her trip. It was going to be a long and painfully drawn out visit. Oh well. She knew the truth and that was that. "I see."

"You should've packed like you're going to permanently stay here."

Sydney went from feeling like the lowest of the low to being confused about what everything. It was like if someone took her emotions, stuffed them in a tumbler, and jumbled them all up and handed them back to her as if nothing ever happened. "You have a wicked way of playing with a girl's emotions."

The two walked hand-in-hand to the parking lot. "Well, I have to keep you on your toes somehow."

Manhattan Beach was everything Dean promised it was going to be. Sunny, clean, friendly. Swaying palm trees to the slight breeze and the crisp scent of the ocean air. It was deathly quiet, which shocked Sydney. No frat parties. No paparazzi. The homes looked similar but not Stepford Wife-ish. Dean explained to her that most of the team were married and had families and that they were more of a community, than just teammates.

Sydney didn't know if Dean was selling her a fantasy or just merely explaining his quality of life. Either way, she brought it hook, line, and sinker.

Dean's home was very impressive. It had five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a two-car garage. The living room boasted of high-vaulted ceilings that led to an open kitchen with a corner wet bar. Dean's bedroom was located on the second floor and had a private balcony with French doors that opened out to a beach view. The master bathroom, Sydney correctly assumed, was bigger than her bedroom. In fact, it was twice as big.

"You have a very nice home, Dean." She looked around his bedroom. "I'm impressed."

"I would take credit for decorating but I really don't care about any of that. My mother couldn't stand coming over and saw nothing but white walls and bare floors so I just told her whatever she thought looked good, I'll just write a check." Dean looked around his bedroom as he sat on his California King size bed. His bedroom also boasted of high vaulted ceilings and had a fireplace. A large flat TV hung on the wall across from the bed. "She did pretty good."

"I'll say." Sydney casually folded her arms. "She did very well."

"Yeah, but you know what?"

"Hmm?"

He removed his shirt. "I have a beautiful and incredibly sexy girlfriend standing just a little too far from me, when she should be over here, taking full advantage of me being uninjured and maybe just slightly unhinged." Dean laid back on the bed and beckoned Sydney to come to him.

Sydney removed her shirt and climbed on top of Dean. "I guess I have to correct that, huh?"

"I guess so."