Quarterback's Secret Baby (Bad Boy Ballers) (28 page)

CeeCee looked at me, and then at Kaden and shook her head. "No."

"That's right," I joined in. "I'm not leaving you guys. I'll probably be moving out soon but I'll never go far. I'm sure there's going to be more trips away while Kaden is still in Dallas but he knows how important my family is to me - his parents live here in Little Falls, too."

I watched as my little sister teared up and was going to continue when my mother piped up.

"CeeCee," she said, turning to her youngest child. "One of these days, you're going to meet a man you want to build a family with. We are always going to be family, and just because we don't all live under the same roof doesn't mean we won't be as close. Change is natural, not something to be afraid of. Tash has a baby now, and soon she'll have a husband. We're already packed in here like sardines!"

"I know," CeeCee sniffled, "I just - I'm happy for you, Tash. I really am. It's all just a little scary."

Later that night, as I sat outside Kaden's parents' house in the Audi I asked if he meant it, about the transfer to Kansas City.

"I meant it," he told me. "Are you nuts? Do you think I believed I would ever get Tasha Greeley away from her family? No, I meant it. I'm calling Barry tomorrow. He's going to fight, but he can do it until he's blue in the face. It's not just about you - or me - anyway, is it? I want Henry to grow up around his family - yours and mine. I already have enough money for the rest of our lives and I don't intend to spend it being lonely just so I can get a little more. I've thought about it a lot, actually, this wasn't something I just decided yesterday. Money matters, I'm not going to deny that, but only to a certain point. And family matters more. Much more."

It was at that moment I remembered I had forgotten to tell Kaden something important. I took his hand and told him I agreed with everything he was saying, that I was happier than I had ever been and that there was something I needed to tell him.

"What's that?" He asked, lifting my fingers to his mouth and kissing the tips, one by one.

"I forgot to tell you Henry's full name. You know he's Henry after Henrietta for my mother, but his second name is Kaden. I put it on the birth certificate."

Kaden leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes and it took me a few moments to see that he was trying not to cry.

"Don't mind me," he said, his voice thick. "I'm not crying, I think I'm just overflowing a little. Really, Tasha? His second name is Kaden?"

I nodded. "Yes, really. He looks exactly like you. You're his dad. It was the only thing to do."

Six months later, I married Natasha Greeley at the church in Little Falls where her mother had been attending services since she was a little girl. We managed to keep it almost entirely under wraps, even after the story of our son, and our engagement, had broken in the media.

I was nervous that day, more nervous than I expected to be. The church was packed - with our family and all our friends and I remember standing at the altar, looking out over all the faces and feeling - knowing - that I was the luckiest man on earth. My parents had come around to the idea surprisingly quickly, especially after they met Tasha's family and got to know them. Tasha's mother and my mother got along like a house on fire, always chatting away about this or that handsome doctor at the local hospital. It was important, I think, for both of them to finally have a friend who truly understood living with disabilities. Henrietta Greeley even taught my mother the family cornbread recipe. If ever there was a sign of a true merger between the Barlows and the Greeleys, it was that.

Henry helped, too. Both my parents fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the little blue-eyed, caramel-skinned boy with the dimples in his chunky cheeks. I can still remember my father's face when he met Henry for the first time - shock, at first, as he stared from me, to Henry, to Tasha and back again, and pronounced his grandson a perfect blend of his proud parents - and then tears, for the second time ever, when he held him for the first time.

Henry, being the stubborn, charming boy he was, took it all in stride. More fans? More people to dote on him and hang on his every gesture? He would take them.

And then there was Tasha. I was determined not to cry at my own wedding - and I managed to succeed - but the sight of her as she appeared at the church doors in the white silk gown I'd flown her to Paris to have fitted, was almost too much. Her brother Ray walked her down the aisle as Roberta Flack's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' played and I swallowed, hard, even as half the people in attendance started reaching for their tissues. Our eyes met and we held each other's gaze the entire way, all the way through our vows and then afterward as the church filled with clapping and cheers and we made our way out to the town car waiting to take us to the reception.

She was beautiful. Tasha was always beautiful, even if she was in sweatpants and a t-shirt and functioning on less than five hours of sleep. But that day she was radiant, and it didn't have anything to do with the makeup artist. She lit up the entire church, the whole town of Little Falls and it all came from within. When we were sitting in the car sipping champagne as we were being driven to the reception she caught me looking at her with awe.

"What?" She giggled, giddy after the formality of the ceremony. "Why are you looking at me like I'm from Mars?"

I sat back, taking it all in - taking
her
in. "Because it's not enough for me to say you're beautiful right now," I replied. "It's not just the surface, it's the inside, too. You're glowing."

"Am I? Glowing?" She smiled. "Good. I feel like I'm glowing."

We were almost there. I took Tasha's hand and looked her in the eyes, suddenly serious. "I am never going to forget this," I told her. "I mean that - just you, sitting there in your wedding gown full of light and love - until the day I die I will not forget this image of you, right now."

The reception was raucous, to say the least. Raucous in a good, warm way. Henry - who was toddling by then - and Rosa ran around with the other children and the older folks sat back chatting, sipping champagne and generally looking on as the generations below them reached for the reigns. Tasha danced all night, most of the time with me but with everyone else, too. The next morning, after having not slept a wink, we made our way straight from the reception to the airport to catch our flight to a private island in the South Pacific. She'd mentioned it a long time ago when we were in high school, that she'd seen a photo of the night sky taken on one of the South Pacific islands and how she had, ever since then, had this image in her mind of standing on a tropical beach at night, with an ocean breeze on her face and all the bright southern stars over her head. Even at the time, I had known from the wistful tone in her voice that she didn't think she would ever get to see it for herself.

There was something else, too. Tasha had insisted on a sex ban for the four weeks leading up to the wedding, saying that it would make our honeymoon even more special. I tried to argue, but she was firm - and she clearly enjoyed my increasing frustration. So although we spent most of the thirty-eight hours it took us to get to our destination asleep, we were already barely able to keep our hands off each other as soon as we left the reception.

The lodge where we were staying was like something out of a fantasy, all shiny dark teak and white linen blowing in the wind. When the driver dropped us off and a member of the staff had finished ferrying our bags inside, I pulled him aside and asked that we be given total privacy unless we specifically called for someone.

Tasha ran into the bedroom and immediately threw herself onto the enormous bed. "Look," she said, picking up one of the pink flowers scattered on the cover. "These are real! Here, smell them." She held a flower up to my nose and I sniffed.

"Vanilla?" I asked, lying down beside her and running my hand down her luscious thigh. "Something sweet, anyway."

She rolled over and looked at me, grinning. "It's been a long four weeks hasn't it, sailor?"

"Damn right it has. Long enough that if you keep looking at me like that, I'm probably going to come in my pants."

Tasha giggled and reached down between us. I watched her expression change when she felt what she was doing to me.

"Oh my God," she breathed. "Kaden..."

I rolled over on top of her, settling myself between her legs, exactly where I wanted to be and kissed her neck.

Within seconds we were ripping our clothes off, suddenly and intensely needy for each other. She made a little sound when I pushed my cock into her, a breathy, feminine little snarl that jolted its way down from my brain to my loins and made all thought impossible. She felt so good. So wet and open and desperate for me.

"I love it when you're like this," I whispered in her ear as she squirmed underneath me, rocking her hips up against me in an ever-increasing speed. "I love how much you need this."

It didn't take long. Not for me and not for her. I can feel it when Tasha is going to come, the tension building in her body, the sweet little contractions of her pussy around me, the way her breathing starts to get slow and then very, very fast.

She dug her fingers into my back as I watched her head loll back on the pillow and moaned my name over and over. And as soon as I felt her falling off the cliff I followed, burying myself all the way inside her as ecstasy spilled out of me until I felt like it would never end.

When it was over and we were lying next to each other, panting, she looked at me and laughed. "I was planning on tormenting you, you know. I wanted to go swimming first."

"Were you?" I asked cocking an eyebrow at my wife. "I guess that didn't work out too well, huh?"

"Mmm...apparently not."

We fell asleep like that, curled up next to each other, and didn't wake up until the sun was starting to set. The villa's bedroom was open to the beach and Tasha sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh my God, look at the sunset," she whispered sleepily, nudging me. "We should go for a swim and watch it."

So that's what we did. Tasha walked ahead of me down the sandy path to the beach, clad only in panties and a t-shirt and I watched as she pulled the latter up over her head and tossed it aside. The panties went next and she turned around with a little grin on her face.

"We've got the whole island to ourselves, right?"

But I couldn't answer because all the blood in my body was rushing away from my head. I just stood and gawked as she delicately picked her way through the rocks at the top of the beach and skipped to the water's edge, her dark, perfectly curved figure silhouetted against the sun. I'd seen a few stories online about the 'regular girl' who managed to 'land' Kaden Barlow and marveled at how very wrong they were. She wasn't the lucky one. I was.

Tasha giggled when she turned around and saw me, rock-hard, coming to join her.

"Again?" She asked playfully, diving away from me and into the clear, absurdly turquoise water. I tried to grab her ankle but it slipped out of my grasp. "You should get out of those shorts," she called back over her shoulder, "the water feels amazing."

So I took off my shorts and threw them back onto the sand. Tasha swam under the water and popped up right in front of me, her hair slicked back from her face. And again when I tried to wrap my arms around her she darted away.

"You're just making it worse for yourself," I warned, "teasing a man whose gone without for a month is a dangerous game."

"Is it?" She teased, standing up so the seawater flowed in rivulets down her breasts and over the curve of her belly. My cock was throbbing by that point. I lunged towards her but she just dove into the sea again and escaped. When she re-appeared she caught my eye and slid one hand down over her body, curling her fingers between her legs.

"Don't do that," I breathed, almost begging. "Please, Tasha...you're killing me."

"Don't do what?" She asked innocently, pushing her finger down between her lips and closing her eyes a little as the sensation hit her.

That was it. I lunged towards her again and pulled her into my arms, carrying her onto the beach and laying her down at the water's edge where the sand was wet and firm. Before she even had time to protest I was kissing her neck, ducking my head down to her breasts so I could flick my tongue over her hard little nipples, one after the other.

"Kaden," she gasped, digging her fingers into my scalp as I went a little further and sucked one nipple into my mouth, running my tongue over it until she squirmed.

"See?" I told her, kissing my way over to the other breast. "This is what happens when you torment a man. You get eaten." I kept going, trailing my lips down her belly, lower, to the little strip of closely trimmed hair just above her clit.

"Are you," she started, pausing to inhale sharply as I got closer to where I knew she wanted me, "going to eat me, Kaden?"

"Mm-hm," I replied, spreading her sex with my fingers and shifting my hips against the sand as my cock twitched. "I'm going to eat you alive, Tasha. There's not going to be anything left of you when I'm finished."

I pushed the very tip of my tongue against her clit at the exact moment she was going to answer and her reply - "Good." - came out as a gasp more than a word.

I knew Tasha's body by then, how she liked to be touched, gently at first, slowly, and then steadily harder and quicker. I swirled my tongue around her little nub over and over, refusing to intensify it until she was pushing her hips up to me, arching her back and begging me for more.

"Please, Kaden..." she whispered as I used my shoulders to push her legs open ever wider.

"Please what?" I replied, giving her a taste of her own medicine.

But there was no saying no, no holding back when Tasha was laid out in front of me like that, needing only me. I sucked her clit into my mouth gently and started to move my tongue a little faster, little up-and-down flicks. Her thighs were slippery by then, wet against my face and her breathing was getting uneven. She was close.

When I heard that series of sharp little gasps that always signaled the imminent arrival of her orgasm I pushed two fingers into her, clenching my jaw at the feeling of her muscles starting to contract around them.

She's quiet sometimes, my beautiful girl. Not always, but we didn't often have complete privacy before the wedding and we'd both nearly mastered the art of the muffled groan. Not that time. She threw her head back and screamed as the climax shook her body and I kept up the pace, pulling her along the edge and then sending her over it.

I waited until every last little twitch had melted away and then looked up at my wife from between her legs. She was panting, holding the back of her hand to her forehead, unable to speak. I was in a different state, given the hardness of my cock, but when I tried to move up, aching to be inside her, she rolled over.

"No," she said, still breathless. "Not yet. Not that. Here, stand up, Kaden."

I stood up and she was right there on her knees in front of me right away, looking up at me like my cock was the greatest thing she'd ever seen. And before I even had time to reach down and brush the dark curls off her cheek she slid her tongue underneath the head - just the head - of me until my breath came out in a heavy moan.

I looked down and watched Tasha at work as the warm smoothness of her mouth enveloped me, drawing the cum in my balls closer and closer to the release point. Jesus, it didn't feel like it was going to be long. She knew it, too, because she put her hands on the front of my thighs and held me back when I couldn't help starting to thrust a little.

"Slow down," she smiled, pausing for a second, "I want to get you so close you can't breathe, Kaden."

Saying things like that didn't do anything to help Tasha's cause. She lowered her lips a little more, taking some of my shaft in and I felt my hands clenching into fists as the pleasure thrummed its way down my cock.