FOOTBALL ROMANCE: SECRET BABY ROMANCE: Going Pro (Bad Boy Alpha Male Pregnancy Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Sports Romance) (5 page)

I pulled up in a vacant parking space and turned off the spluttering, idling engine of my Honda and drawing decidedly unwanted attention as the engine died. Sighing, I unbuckled my seatbelt and rolled down the window to open my car door from the outside, as the inside handle was broken.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have worn blush’
I thought to myself as I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment. I stepped out of my car, winding the window back up and locking the door before I shut it. The window rattled and then slid down into the door. I sighed, patted the roof of my trusty, rusty car, lovingly. It was another thing on the ever-growing list of things to save up to fix on the Honda-that-never-died.

With my heart beating rapidly, and my flushed cheeks hidden by the artful application of make-up, I entered the nest of vipers.

Teenage-esque squeals of delight erupted from a group of women who were certainly not dressed like women, but more likened horny teenage sluts. They embraced the newcomer who almost wobbled dangerously on the six-inch high stilettoes that were obviously too small for her feet.
Ronnie Brighton, girl who cheated on her math finals by looking at your answers.
I recalled. I also recalled that I had gotten into trouble for that, the male teacher was more interested in the low-cut top that Ronnie had worn, that showed to good effect, if the bulge in Mr. Tanner’s pants was any indication, her ample barely-legal bosom.

I looked around and sure enough, the old bastard was there, leering over another woman with big tits. She flicked her hair in a certain way and giggled coyly and I knew it was
her.

Steph Rosling.

I needed a drink. I headed over to the trestle table and grabbed a cup before ladling some punch into it. I sure as hell hoped someone like Ricky Connors had the foresight to spike the hell out of it. I grimaced as the taste of overly sweet fruit juice and lemonade trickled down my throat. Nope, Ricky hadn’t gotten to the punch yet. I saw him, red hair and freckles all over the bridge of his nose, making him hard to miss him. He was standing next to a petite Asian woman who was obviously nearing the end of her pregnancy, his arm tight around her shoulders.

I walked up to him.

“Ricky… wow, looking great.” I said, smiling.

“Oh, Carly, wow, I almost didn’t recognize you!” he said, looking me up and down. Beside him the little Asian woman spoke sharply in her native language. The woman had a tongue like split bamboo as she was obviously admonishing him in Thai, Chinese or whatever language was native to her.

He replied sullenly. “Sorry, we uh… have to go. My wife isn’t feeling well.” The man was obviously cowed by his little wife with the samurai-sword for a tongue. Apparently she had a problem with him talking to his former classmates.

“Oh… My … God! Is that… no it can’t be, Carly Wilcox?!” inwardly I cringed at the voice. That one voice that had taunted me for my weight, my hair both color and length as I changed it, trying to find who I was during my teenage years, my teeth, taste in music, my clothes, even my single mom. I forced a polite smile on my face before I turned around.

I was in the drama club in high school and once had won an award for my acting skills, it was ‘Most improved actor/actress’ but still, I won it. So I put my mad acting skills to work as I plastered a smile on my face that I knew wasn’t sparkling in my eyes.

“Steph!” I said, my voice high pitched with a falsetto joy. “Oh wow, you look, fabulous.” I said. Her lips were full, her waist tiny, cheekbones had been raised and her boobs, well, I’ve seen large round buoys that were smaller. I swear she probably even had full buoyancy with those bad boys. If she went swimming, she’d have no fear of drowning, or being hit by a ship.

Steph preened and primped herself, loving the attention that she was getting like a damned peacock.

“Oh you look… nice as well, lost a lot of that fat I see.” She said, her lips pursed like a fish. “But you still could stand to lose a little more, let me give you the card of my surgeon, he works wonders as you can see!” she reached into the abyss that was her cleavage, I wondered how many men had gotten lost in the dangerous valley, never to be found again. From the depths, she pulled out a white business card and handed it to me with some seriously red and seriously fake nails. I took it almost gingerly, the slight dampness of her sweat transferring from the card to me.

“If you recommend someone to him, he gives you a discount.” She said with a conspiratorial wink. “You so totally should go and see him!” she grinned with teeth so white that they were almost blinding in their brilliance.

Now I could tick ‘Saw a real-life Barbie Doll’ off my things of ‘shit that might freak me out’ list. Thankfully I didn’t freak out, but it was unsettling that a woman who was already so perfect in high school could do this to her body. I almost worried about her melting in summer… almost.

“Uh, thanks… I’m sure I will.” I said. Thankfully, Steph saw another of her ‘Plastic fantastic.” Girlfriends. Her ear-splitting squeal and the clatter of high heels made me want to shove the cream-cheese and chive covered canapes into my ears and damned the cleanout cost. It would be worth it to save my poor ear drums another high-decibel assault.

I walked to the girl’s bathroom and tossed the card into the trash. I so did not want to be here, I looked at myself in the mirror and wondered why I had convinced myself it would be a good idea as I washed the sweat from my hands.

I headed out of the girls bathroom and, not concentrating on where I was going, slammed into the broad chest of a well-dressed man. One of my heels turned beneath my foot and I fell backwards onto my butt with a
thud!

Pain shot through my ankle as conversation stopped and everyone turned to see who had embarrassed themselves.

“Oh, my god.” I mumbled as I looked up into the green eyes of a man who had haunted my dreams and nightmares for ten years.

“Carly…” Jason breathed my name like it was a blessing. His voice rolled over me and ignited a fire that had been smoldering for years. My body went rigid as he reached out a hand to help me to my feet.

“I’m fine, I can get up by myself, thank-you.” I said a little snootily as I scrambled to my feet. I winced and cried out as my tender ankle couldn’t take my weight and I started to descend dramatically to the floor again.

Strong arms caught me in their swift and firm embrace. The scent of his cologne, spicy, masculine and expensive caught my nose and made my body tremble with excitement.

“So I see, let me help you to a seat.” He said. He put his shoulder under my arm and helped me to hobble to a nearby chair, the folding kind that were incredibly uncomfortable.

“This is so embarrassing.” I muttered.

“Not for me.” Jason smiled a panty-melting smile. My heart fluttered in my chest at the closeness of him, the sensuality of his movements, even if they were simply awkward in helping me to get to the steel-and-vinyl chair. I plonked down and sighed, the pain in my foot had lessened and the angry throbbing had made its dastardly appearance.

Jason sat down and nodded to a well-dressed mountain of muscle. I realized then that he was one of Jason’s hired goons, manservant, bodyguard or whatever the rich did with guys like that. It must have been nice to be that rich.

He pulled a chair close to me and sat down on it, reaching down he picked up my injured foot, making me wince and hiss air through my teeth in pain while he gently removed the broken shoe from my foot.

“I’m sorry, I should have caught you the first time.” He said soothingly rubbing the injured ankle. It had already begun to swell up, and I knew it wouldn’t be easy to walk on tomorrow, at least it was Sunday and I had the day off work, but it still put a dampener on my plans of running around the house with the vacuum cleaner and scrubbing the hell out of everything.

His hands were warm against my skin, sending tingles through my body and my pussy began to purr in desire. I swallowed thickly, the man of my dreams, the love of my life, my high-school sweetheart who broke my heart into little pieces with one kiss, now sat before me, rubbing my injured ankle.

I just stared at him, mouth slightly agape. If a fly flew into my mouth at that precise moment, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. The man-mountain returned with an ice-pack wrapped in a tea towel and handed it to Jason.

“This might sting a little.” He said softly, rubbing his fingers along my ankle. I winced again as he put the icepack on my ankle. The chill of the chemically produced ice through the tea towel soothed the ache and helped to gradually reduce the swelling. Jason continued to gently rub my leg, shifting forward to put my injured ankle in his lap with a smile.

“I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for some time now, but you seemed to drop off the face of the planet.” He said as he rubbed a little higher up my leg.

That surprised me, as I knew a guy with his money could probably find a needle in a haystack if he wanted to.

“Oh?” I said, sounding as surprised as I felt. “Why?” I dared hope against hope that he still held some sort of feelings for me, as I, no matter how stubbornly I told myself I didn’t, still did.

“I want to reconnect with you, I’ve missed you Carly.” He paused in his solicitous rubbing to look at me. The voice of the she-devil interrupted my jumbled thoughts.

“So is this the line-up for foot rubs provided by a sexy billionaire?” Steph giggled, her silicone implants jiggling with each bimbo-style titter from her Botox-stiff face. Jason grinned up at her, genuinely happy to see her.

“Steph!” he smiled, standing up, letting my injured foot fall to the floor. How easily I was forgotten when two of the contenders for the Great Hot Air Balloon Race were shoved in his face.

 I frowned as the world’s biggest bimbo wrapped her arms around Jason and pressed her lips to his. This wasn’t what I was expecting the night would go like at all. I got up from the chair, grabbed my shoe out of his hand and hobbled out of the gymnasium.

“Carly?” he called after me, seemingly confused at my behavior, but unwilling, or unable to escape the harpy’s embrace.

“Oh don’t worry about her sweetie, she’s just a receptionist after all, I hear she lives in a squalid little shack, but my house, oh honey, I have the perfect Jacuzzi tub for two… want to go check it out?” I felt sick to my stomach as the door slammed shut behind me, cutting off the rest of the overly loud conversation.

I had to get out of there. I was so done with the simpering idiots from my old senior year. Bitter tears stung my eyes as I left the raucous party behind. I went to my car and tried to start it, but my poor little Honda for whatever reason decided it wasn’t ready to start and I accidentally flooded the carburetor. With the tell-tale smell of gas floating around the hood I got out and headed to the bleachers where my run of bad luck seemed to begin.

It seemed a fitting place to cry my eyes out.

I heard the soft creak of a foot on the weathered wooden stairs as I sat quietly sobbing, tears trailing down my face on the green painted bench. It had gotten cold in the night and I hadn’t thought to bring a jacket with me. I ignored the person or people on the bleachers with me as I sat in the shadows in abject misery.

I jumped in fright as I felt the warmth of a silk-lined jacket surround my bare shoulders. The warmth and the spicy, masculine scent was
his
. I couldn’t look at him, so ashamed that he must still hold some feeling for Steph.

“Carly, look at me.” He said, his voice rough and begging. I turned my head away, letting the tears trickle down my face.

“Carly…” Jason reached over and placed two fingers under my chin, turning my face to his. I couldn’t help myself, I looked into those eyes and was lost in their depths.

“I’m sorry for everything, for losing you when I did. Steph tricked me that day. Her friend, Molly, told me that you were waiting for me behind the bleachers and that you wanted to break up with me.” Jason sat down beside me, his body heavy with heartbreak. ”I found Steph there instead. She said that you had told her that we were through, I didn’t understand why. Steph saw how upset I was, and she took me in her arms, told me everything would be all right and that she would be here for me, in any way I needed, then she kissed me and that’s when you found us.”

I sniffled, not saying a word, trying to process this information. I realized I had been stupid, and had let my torn and broken heart lead me away from him with anger.

“Steph’s friend told me that you and she were making out behind these very bleachers. I said, pulling the edges of his jacket tighter around my shoulders.

“NO, I never wanted her, she’s so… “

“Fake? Plastic? A bitch?” I offered.

“I’ll take D: All of the above.” He grinned

“Shouldn’t that be Double-D?” I asked.

“If I wanted a pair of tits shoved in my face, I could have found a much nicer pair to enjoy…” he said, his eyes flicking down to my chest with a cheeky smile.

“What is it you want, Jason?” I asked with a sigh.

“You.” He said, taking my face in his hands and drawing my mouth to his.

I felt the lightning zap of passion zip through my body as our lips touched. My nipples tightened and my body ached for him, I felt my panties becoming damp with my arousal as his mouth and tongue worked mine in a passionate kiss that wasn’t as sloppy as our first. Jason was an amazing kisser, and it made me wonder what kind of lover he was, after all he had plenty of practice.

I pulled away at that thought. “Jason…,” I said as he leaned forward and pressed seductive kisses along my neck and jawline.

“Mmm?” he asked, his voice muffled against my skin. His hands began to slip between the lapels of his jacket to caress my breasts through the soft material of my cocktail dress.

“I’m not one of your flavors of the month. I’ve gone through too much to be used once and left like a crumpled up Kleenex on your bedroom floor after you’ve finished with me for the night.” I said, trying not to let my voice tremble with the desire I was feeling. Hot like a lancing iron he made my skin tingle with each touch of his lips and talented hands.