Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance (38 page)

All the more reason to get away from him before the rest of my structured, orderly life tumbled down.

I pulled into the facility before the Rivets’ scheduled practice began. A school bus parked out front, and a news crew broadcasted for the league sponsored charity event.

I didn’t know what I planned to say to Jack, or if he would even listen. Fortunately, I had time to think before I could flag him down.

Two dozen kids screamed, laughed, and bolted around the field, dodging players and smuggling footballs and generally tumbling all over themselves. Their excitement was too cute, especially as they bumbled the instructions given from players tasked with trying to teach them the game. Coach Thompson struggled to keep their attention. Even my teddy-bear, Caleb, lost his cool and sought refuge with the linebackers laughing at their plight.

Only one player successfully wrangled the kids. He tussled with them on the field and pretended to fall in a crazed tackle as a pile of little boys leapt over him.

Jack
.

His laugh carried over the field, and he took turns tossing ball after ball to the kids he’d send running long. The balls were thrown gently, but, after over a dozen passes, only one kid managed to catch it.

And Jack shouted as if it were the winning touchdown of the championship game.

“Run!” He sprinted down the field, cheering the boy as he ran at his side to the endzone. “Keep going! He’s at the
twenty
! The
ten
…still at the ten, don’t tie your shoe! Run!”

The little boy crossed the plain. Jack lost it. He hauled the kid onto his shoulders and did an endzone dance with him. I hoped he didn’t plan to spike the boy in excitement, but Jack was too thrilled to do anything but celebrate.

The other kids went insane—like they never had so much fun in their lives. When their camp director blew his whistle and ordered them to the bus, most of the kids stayed at Jack’s side, begging for another few minutes.

I grinned as Jack begged too.

He was a natural with them. He said he liked kids, but I hadn’t believed it until I saw it. I snapped a few pictures of him playing with the children and posted to his social media. Within seconds, dozens of comments popped up. After five minutes, he was in the hundreds.

The public liked this version of Jack Carson. The gentle giant. The wholesome man. It was the side of him the media never showed.

He was right.

A baby
would
save his reputation.

He caught me watching and waved.

“Stay there!” He shouted. He turned to the kids. “Ready?”

They screamed in unison and scared half of the team. Jack punted the ball forty yards down the field to get rid of them. They sprinted away, and he jogged to meet me.

“Hey.” He didn’t try to kiss me, even though he loved making me squirm in front of his teammates. “I tried to call you last night—”

“You were right.”

I didn’t apologize for interrupting him. Instead I took his hand.

“I think we should do it.”

“Do what?” His eyes widened. The blue almost looked innocent despite the intent of our proposal. His words hushed. “You…
want
to do it?”

“Yes.”

“…Are you sure?”

“No, but I think it’s exactly what I
need
to do.”

His hand slipped to my cheek, entirely close and intimate. This touch was genuine, and his excitement pounded his heart so hard I could feel it in his palm.

“You’re on board?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His smile grew. “Do you want to do it now?”

I laughed, glancing over the field. “You’re at practice.”

“I’ll leave.”

“Jack.”

“Okay.” That smirk might have charmed my pants off right then and there. “You’re serious though. This isn’t a joke?”

I held his hand against my cheek. “Jack…let’s have a baby.”

F
or the first
time in my life, I wanted something more than a championship.

I wanted Leah.

I wanted her on the bed. Legs spread. Fingers digging into my body. I imagined her panting, moaning, offering that wet little slit for me to pound and seize.

I’d fill her. Completely. As soon as I got her alone, I’d take her as a man was meant to have a woman.

And I’d fuck a baby into her.

I couldn’t concentrate at practice, and I nearly got myself killed in the weight room. My head wasn’t on the game. I already celebrated what I’d do to Leah. She’d love every fucking second I ruined her with pleasure and stuffed her with my cum.

Seed
?

Technically. Who cared what it was called as long as it pumped into her.

I headed to her apartment at her request, but we wouldn’t be staying. No way was I keeping her in a one bedroom box with a bigger radiator than stove. She’d stay with me.

In my bed.

In my arms.

Full of my heat.

She opened the door, but I hadn’t expected the cute little tank and sweatpants. I read the lettering over her tight little ass as she waved me inside. She was as
Sweet
as her pants declared, but not now. Leah was all business, brandishing a variety of papers, folders, and brochures.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “I pulled some information off the internet. I think I found a way to do this right.”

She left me in the doorway. Not what I expected. I watched her bite the end of a pencil before furiously scribbling over her notes.

Why was she taking notes?

“You…uh, gotta research it?” I closed the door behind me. “I mean, if you need me to explain how this is done, we might have a bit of a problem…”

“Be realistic, Jack.”

Leah snuggled onto the couch, clipboard in hand. She waved over the coffee table, meticulously organized with too many shiny papers and brochures. She color-coded something.

What the hell needed to be
color-coded
?

From my experience, most of the important pieces fit together and…locked. I didn’t pay attention in health class, but did we really need note cards for this?

“This procedure isn’t always foolproof,” she explained. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Yeah, something hard to drink sounded good. At least until I could figure out what the hell went wrong from this morning until now? She handed me a bottle of water from her fridge, but hadn’t taken her eyes from the papers in her hand.

“What
procedure
?” I asked.

“It’s complicated. And there’s not always a great chance to conceive.”

“So?” I thought that part was supposed to be fun. “You just do it again until it sticks.”

Leah laughed. “It costs tens of thousands of dollars each attempt.”

Did she charge by the hour? “I already offered to pay you.”

And now I insulted her. She scowled, tucking in deeper to the sofa. “I’m not taking your money.”

“Well, who the hell is getting the thousands of dollars?”

“The fertility doctors.”

“You’re gonna fuck a doctor too?”

The clipboard dropped to the floor. “
Excuse
me?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“What the hell are
you
talking about?”

Fuck if I knew anymore. “You wanted to make a
baby
.”

“So did you,” she said.

“So what’s with all the paperwork?”

“I got information…In-Vitro Fertilization is a difficult procedure.”

Just the word shriveled my balls. I swore.

“Oh, Christ, Kiss. Only
you
could take all the fun out of making a baby.”

Leah’s expression twisted. She batted a wayward curl from her eyes, but her fingers tangled in her hair. She froze.

“Did you think we would…?” She stood, ducking from me and brandishing the paperwork like it’d save her from my intentions. “You’re kidding.”

And here I thought she didn’t let me in on her joke. “I figured we’d do it the old-fashioned way. Tried and true.”

“You wanted…to have
sex
.”

“You
didn’t
?”

Her mouth dropped open. “That wasn’t my plan at all.”

“What? Were you just sitting here, fingers crossed, waiting for a damn
stork
?”

“I didn’t think…”

“That I’d
fuck
you?”

Leah exhaled, gathering her papers and reorganizing them all neat and tidy into a folder. “I…don’t you think it’ll complicate everything?”

“More than having a
baby
?”

“You’re right.” She lowered her head. I recognized that defeated sigh, the hesitation in her voice. She had the same reaction every time she pushed me away. “Jack, maybe we shouldn’t—”

“Get changed.”

Her brow furrowed. “What?”

“Get changed. I’m taking you out.”

“Where?”

“To
Diva
.”

Leah cracked a smile so sexy I thought I’d only earn it with my head buried between her legs. “You’re taking me to a nightclub?”

“We need…a new perspective.” I flashed a grin. “Let me take you out. Have some fun. Get
seen
in the hottest club in the city. It’ll convince people we’re an item quicker than me kissing your cheek at an afternoon baseball game.”

“Diva’s the most exclusive club in Ironfield.” She scoffed. “Hell, they won’t even let Jolene and me inside. We get our clients on the list and they go alone.”

“I can get you in.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?”

“No tricks. I think you need a little more fun tonight, Kiss, and a lot less…” I waved to the brochures. “
Planning
. Get changed. We’ll have some fun.”

She glanced over her tank and tight sweats. I loved the look, but Diva was damn fancy. She scolded me when I tried to follow into her bedroom. “Wait right here, Mr. Carson.”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” My voice lowered. “I’d like to see it again.”

“Wait. Here.” She hid her excitement as she closed the door. “I can’t believe I’m going to a club with
you
.”

“I’ll prove to you that my nights aren’t that scandalous.”

“By whose definition, Casanova?” The dresser drawer slammed shut. “Make no mistake. I’m holding your leash tight tonight.”

“If you only knew how sexy that sounds.”

Leah stepped out of her room, dressed in a tiny red scrap of sin that clung to her curves and would split my cock if I didn’t get my hands on her.

“This good?” She spun. “I’ve never been to
Diva
before.”

Could a man talk with no blood in his head? “We shouldn’t go.”

“But…you said you wanted to take me somewhere fun?”

“Yeah…we could have plenty of fun right here.” I surveyed those hips again. “Without anyone seeing you in that dress.”

“Are you jealous?”

Never thought I would be. “I don’t like to share.”

“I bought this dress a few months ago.” She twirled for me, baiting me to toss her down before I let her get out of my reach. “I worried it was a little too slinky.”

“You look perfect.”

“If
you
think I look good, then it is too slutty.”

“Good then. Just wear it for me.”

Leah sighed. “Well, if we’re serious about having a baby…it might be the last time I’ll fit into the dress. I should wear it while I can.”

Images flashed into my head. Leah with a little bump, her body soft and changing, swelling with my baby. My dick couldn’t punish me anymore, but I never had it get so hard before.

I spent my life trying not to knock up women, but now I was supposed to do it. It should have terrified me, but the only thing greater than that sexy dress was the thought that I’d be the one to claim her. All I wanted to do was throw her down and fill her womb with my seed.

Holy shit, was that even a
normal
reaction for a man to have?

Every muscle in my body tensed, tightened, and
demanded
that I keep her there, under me, with me, on me. I had to get inside her.

Leah winked. “Are we going? You don’t look so sure anymore, Jack.”

Fuck me. I’d never survive. And she
knew
it. She played me.

Too bad I hated to lose.

By the end of the night, she’d be asking for it, Pleading with me to grant her a release. To touch her. To hold her. To fuck her until we collapsed in the ultimate pleasure a man and woman were meant to experience.

She’d beg me for a baby.

And I’d give it to her.

“Yeah…” I glanced over her body again and imagined the dark curves that would be mine. “You’re gonna have a night you never forget.”

“Promise?”

I held the door open for her. “I guarantee it.”

Her shy smile twisted my boxers. I led her to my car, helping her into the passenger seat like a perfect gentleman.

Of course, as she slid inside she accidently offered me a view of her soft thigh. Cocoa trouble, that’s what she was. If looking at her rendered me into a slobbering moron, catching the brush of her perfume would flatline me. She smelled of violets and sweetness, just how she had tasted on my tongue.

I drove to the nightclub, leaving my car with the valet and offering my elbow for the most beautiful woman at the venue. Diva wasn’t a five-dollar-cover close to the colleges. It was class. Velvet ropes and dropped names. It thrummed sensual music and pushed forty dollar drinks.

Leah had never been inside before, but I wasn’t leaving her to the rabble below. A man of my status earned the VIP section even before I invested in the club. I let her walk before me, admiring how her ass shimmied up the stairs. She knew it too, and each step was taken slow, deliberately, until she tucked behind the beaded curtain and overlooked the dancing below.

She leaned over a gold railing and watched the show. Couples grinded on the dance floor while those yet unattached claimed tables in the darkness. The VIP section passed around champagne. She declined, eyes lowered.

“I shouldn’t, in case I decide to…” She smiled. “You know. Have a procedure.”

God, that tease. Leah stared at the club with wide eyes and peeked over the gold railing. Her hips wiggled in time to the music, subtle. Like how she’d dance in her office when she thought nobody was looking.

But I watched. I saw. I wondered how that delicate ass would feel pressed against me.

I stretched my arms over her, covering her hands on the railing and edging close. She tensed, but she didn’t push me away, even when I kissed the vulnerable, pulsing spot between her neck and collarbone.

If she meant to arch into my lips, she hid it well. Her eyes closed.

“I want you.” I didn’t have to say it. My pants trapped my cock, and I ground the hardness against her ass to the rhythm of the music. “I’d give you the best night of your life.”

Leah didn’t push me away, but her voice challenged me just the same. “You don’t know that. Maybe I’ve had many good nights.”

“Ever have a great one?”

“It’s subjective.”

“Not with me. Spend a night with me, and nothing will ever feel the same.”

Leah smirked, enjoying the music, ignoring how my body enveloped hers. “You’re so full of yourself.”

“Do you want to be full of me?”

“Are you ever serious?”

I pulled away from the railing, letting my fingers tickle her arms, her sides, her waist. “I’m always serious about good sex.”

“Wouldn’t this be a little more than sex?”

“Yes.”

“Then shouldn’t we talk about this?” she asked. “Take it seriously?”

I hadn’t lured her to the sexiest club in the city to make a damn pro/con list. I led her away from the crowd and into a secluded, shadowy part of the VIP room. We had a private dance floor, a sanctuary within the pulsing music and loose morals. Leah tangled in pink and purple shadows, drifting lights in a smoke filled and exciting club. Her red dress was not nearly as beautiful as the darkness of her skin. She was sultry and seductive, innocent and wide-eyed.

She had to be mine.

I held her tight. “What do you consider good sex?”

“Doesn’t everyone have the same definition?”

“I’m starting to think you’re more complicated.” I wrapped her tighter, encouraging her to dance. Her hips shimmied, and my cock hardened as her body moved in a perfect, sensual poetry. Never understood it before, but I gained an appreciation for it now. “What does it mean to you?”

She bit her lip. “It’s gotta be something…more than just pleasure.”

Her fingers tickled behind my neck. She played with my hair. Gently. Our chests bumped, and every heated touch tightened my cock.

“Of course sex is about more than pleasure,” I said.

“Even to you?”

“Especially to me.” I leaned in, letting my lips graze her ear. “It’s an experience. It’s excitement. Passion. There’s no better way to demonstrate a man’s strength or skill or aggression.”

“
Aggression
?”

“Sex is all aggression. It’s a release for that suppressed wild, instinct we possess.” I nibbled her ear. “It’s animalistic.”

She shuddered. “It’s not supposed to be.”

“Says who?”

Leah didn’t have an answer. She glanced up at me, her mocha eyes heavy-lidded and dark with forbidden curiosity. “What about romance?”

“What about it?”

“You’re describing something…feral and impersonal.”

I leaned down, bumping my forehead with hers. “If taking my cock is
impersonal
, then I’ve done something wrong.”

She looked away. I didn’t let her. The music faded to something slower, melodic, and pulsing with base. A perfect song to promise a night of pleasure.

“Did it feel impersonal when I devoured your pussy?”

Leah shifted, embarrassed, and she tried to pull back. She wasn’t moving that easily, not unless she was falling backward onto a bed. I kept my voice low, a secret just for her, a truth she already figured out.

That’s what scared her the most.

“I licked you.” My words rumbled. “Tasted you. Made you come. That wasn’t impersonal, Kiss. I got deeper inside you than anyone ever had, even that prick who left you.”

“We shouldn’t talk about this now.” Her eyes darted across the floor, studying the few dancers in slutty dresses that might’ve caught my attention if I hadn’t been holding the most beautiful woman in the world. “Anyone can hear.”