Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance (73 page)

I
t had been
months since I loathed the sound of someone knocking at my door.

Tonight, I regressed. I knew exactly who pounded on the frame. I just didn’t know why she was here.

Did Piper want to hurt me? Did she want me to hurt
her?

I couldn’t face her. Not now. Today was supposed to be a day off, a
gentle
day. I hadn’t played in a month, and Monday’s game tore me apart. For the first time in weeks, my body punished me more than my fucking regret.

But I couldn’t give her the answers she needed, and I couldn’t say the words she wanted.

Those feelings lodged in my chest like a sickness, one that left me feverish and confused and every bit as disoriented as the first time she touched me, kissed me, and refused to leave my door.

The apartment was furnished with items that weren’t mine and décor that didn’t suit me, but it was home enough. Again, she invaded my space. Not just my house, but my heart and soul.

Why did she come?

What had taken her so long?

How could I get her to leave?

Christ. I wasn’t afraid of seeing her, but I didn’t know what would happen when I got her back in my arms.

I closed my eyes and breathed deep. I’d hoped for a minute to compose myself. Instead, a cry in the hall echoed through the apartment.

The baby fussed. She had
Rose
with her?

I opened the door.

Piper was every bit as beautiful jet-lagged and pissed off as she was naked and rolling in my bed.

“Please don’t close the door!” She stuck her foot inside the jam, as if I could slam it after seeing her beautiful eyes for the first time in a month. “Cole,
please
listen to me. Just once, just now, before you do anything. I’m not going to leave until you listen to what I have to say.”

Where had I heard that before?

“You are the most frustrating, loathsome, infuriating man I’ve ever met.”

Those weren’t the sweet, honey-brushed words I’d expected. I frowned. Piper panted, forcing her insults through a bitter voice.

“And you are the most intimidating man I’ve ever met,” she said.

A knife through the heart might have been a better greeting. I tightened my hold on the door, but Piper spoke quickly. She stared into my eyes and whispered with absolute honesty.

“But you’re not intimidating because of the man you are. You’re frightening because of the way you make me
feel
.”

Christ, I couldn’t even
look
at this beautiful woman without bracing against the door. One wrong and right word, and I’d crumble to my knees.

“You don’t believe me, and that’s fine. The media and the league and your reputation would prove that you’re the wrong man for me, but I know we have something special.” Piper sucked in a deep breath. “You say you’re a beast, a monster, a slave to your rage. But do you know what else you are?”

A coward.

A man too weak to deny his feelings but strong enough to protect the one he loved.

“You’re gentle,” Piper whispered. “You’re caring. You’re loving and compassionate and tender. You have a capacity for such kindness. You’d did all you could to spoil Rose. You made love with me. Cole, you know those aren’t the makings of a beast.”

They weren’t the qualities of a prince either.

I averted my gaze only to trap myself in another beautiful face. Rose had fallen back to sleep in her stroller, tucked in with those chubby brown cheeks and tiny little hands. She snuggled with Mr. Bumpybottom. Quiet.

I’d have committed Piper’s first cardinal sin and woken her up just to see her smile.

Piper watched me, her voice softening. “You think you’re wrong for me. And maybe I’m wrong for you. But I’ve never felt this way before. I’ve never had anyone make me feel so beautiful and wanted. Every day with you was a risk—not because you were dangerous, but because I didn’t know how to protect my heart.”

I didn’t either.

Piper knew how to twist the knife into my heart. She’d make it beat once more, for her and her alone.

“It’s not that you don’t have the capacity to love, Cole,” she said. “It’s that you love
too much
. You love the baby and me so much you’re afraid you’ll hurt us. You love football so much you’re afraid you’ll lose it. It’s not a weakness to be afraid of your own strength, and it’s not dangerous to let me help you.”

Her honest admission ripped through me like silken daggers.

“I love you, Cole.”

I couldn’t speak. Hell, I couldn’t match anything as sweet and beautiful as her words.

I’d show her instead.

I opened the door wide and welcomed her inside. My apartment wasn’t much. The team said it was just something to “get me by” until I found a home.

Except nothing felt like home anymore.

Not without Piper. Not without Rose.

I led her to the spare bedroom and turned on the light.

The nursery was all white, accented with pink pillows and blankets, frilly little curtains and a fairy tale decoration. It was nothing fancy, just a crib, changing table, dresser, and rocking chair, but everything was ready for a baby.

For Rose.

“They asked me what I would need to furnish the apartment.” I couldn’t look at Piper, but seeing the baby was just as hard. “I told them I wanted a nursery. I don’t know why I said it. I don’t know what I thought would happen—”

Piper didn’t let me finish. She stood on her tip-toes, tugging me closer, wanting me to touch her.

I couldn’t leave a lady waiting.

I kissed her, and that gentle warmth coursed through me. Not fierce. Not raging. Just perfection.

We pulled away as Rose started to fuss. The kid was groggy and only half-awake, but her eyes widened when she saw me. She squealed, reaching for me.

“
Cole
!”

My heart stopped.

Holy shit.

Piper smiled as she handed Rose to me. I hoped to Christ I had the strength to hold her.

“She said my name.”

“Just learned it.” Piper rubbed Rose’s back as she nestled against my chest. “She’s been saying it all week. I didn’t realize that she was asking to see you.” She cleared her throat. “Really, this visit was all her idea.”

“Was it?”

“Well…she instigated.”

“And pounding on my door until I relented?”

“It’d worked before.”

“I don’t think I could keep you out even if I wanted to.”

She bit her lip. “Do you want to keep me out?”

“Not anymore.”

Rose was asleep. I laid her in the new crib, and Piper handed me her bunny from the stroller. I tucked Rumpleass by her hand and pulled the pink blanket over her.

And I just stared, watching her sleep.

Piper took my hand. How was it possible two minutes with both of them healed every wound, every pain, and every ache from the past month?

“We have to talk,” I said. “Will she be okay?”

“She’ll be better than ever…now that she’s back with you.”

These were promises I’d fight to believe and die to keep.

I left the door open a crack in case the baby woke up. I wasn’t sure why that part of my life felt so natural now—bed times and cuddles and sneaking away with a proud momma who stared at me like I was every reason for her and Rose’s happiness.

That was a blessing a man could get used to.

I pulled her to my bedroom, the only place where I could prove to her the honesty in my words. She sat on the bed, and I knelt at her feet.

I looked up at this woman—this beautiful, gentle woman—and had no idea how I had gone so long without touching her, kissing her, confessing to her.

“I can’t promise you a
happily ever after
,” I said. “Fuck, I’m still working on this
once upon a time
. Everything still feels like the beginning—something new. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”

Piper took my hand as I grazed her cheek. “For me too.”

“I want to take care of you. I want to be that man you can depend on. But I have no idea if it’s in me. I have no idea
what’s
inside me, but I know it’s changing for you. Because of you.”

I couldn’t resist her parted lips. I took her in my arms, gripping her hair and hips and tasting everything of her in a rough and possessed and
terrible
way.

I kissed her, swirled my tongue over hers, then pushed away.

I hated the growl in my words. “I can’t trust myself to be gentle with you.”

“Who says I want gentle?”

“You can’t like what I do to you.”

“I love
everything
you’ve done to me.” Piper pulled me close, taking her kiss. “I love it rough. I love it gentle. I love it fast and hard and so intense I cling to you to save me from the pleasure. I love it slow and tender, feeling
you
inside me, with me, over me. Cole, I just love
you
. Man and beast. Rough and soft. Raging and calm. I want
you
.”

And she could have me.

All of me. Any part of me. Always.

I pushed her onto the bed, nipping at her lips and loving every kiss. She groaned and tugged at my shirt. It was the first to go, but Piper hesitated as she touched the bruises I’d forgotten. Her fingertips warmed over the soreness, but it did more than harden my cock. It
eased
me. The aches and pains faded with her caress.

This beauty healed me with her kiss, made my body forget its ails.

And it was time to repay that kindness.

I didn’t rip her shirt, and I didn’t tear through her jeans, but Christ, she never needed to wear clothes around me again. I undressed her, teasing her every exposed curve with a flick of my tongue.

Her back arched, offering me a delightful path between the hollow of her neck and shoulder. She shivered with each touch.

Good.

I wanted her shivering.

For too long I’d imagined her writhing, wanting, waiting for me. I feared it’d forever be a fantasy, my own fairy tale unanswered and lost in foolish dreams.

Not now.

Her skin was scented with citrus, caressed soft like velvet, and contrasted the white of my comforter with dark temptation.

Her curves enthralled me, and she encouraged my every ravenous nip with fingers tangling in my hair. I took her nipple into my mouth, and the beast bit. She gasped, but the princely swirl of my tongue banished the sting. She liked that. I liked that.

A blending. A pairing of rough and gentle, animal and gentleman.

Well, mostly animal.

I doubted most refined men would ever lose themselves within their woman’s pussy like a starving beast.

I spread her legs wide. Something about exposing this beautiful woman excited me. She rested on the bed, torn between cupping her breasts or hiding her nudity from me in that delicious bashfulness.

It was probably a little of both. Wanton and shy. Desperate and timid.

Not for much longer. Piper said she wanted me? That she wanted to be a part of my life? That she
loved
me?

Then hesitance had no place in our bed.

I sunk upon her, feasting on her silken, heated pussy. I had almost forgotten how hot she could get, how wet and delicious and
sweet
.

Piper arched, gripping the sheets with both hands and muffling her cry with a bit lip. A special kind of torture. I licked her again, dipping my tongue inside her tightness. She whimpered.

I needed to taste her desire. Sloppy. Wild. I dove upon her and licked, ate, and feasted like a rabid, lust-crazed monster. Piper twisted under me, eager to escape and desperate to push harder against my lips.

My beauty was even more lovely when in complete agony, but I wasn’t a total animal anymore. All because of her. I knew the easiest way to prove how generous and caring of a man I’d become.

I sucked on her swollen nub until her body convulsed, shook, wetted. She cried my name in shocked bliss. Her legs pressed hard against my ears, muffling what little whimpers she gave. The sweetness of her excitement coated my lips in a delicious gratitude.

I wasn’t a good man, but at least I could be a tamed beast.

Except I wasn’t done with my hunt yet.

I stood, unbuckling my pants and stroking a hardness that only thickened when presented with a stunned beauty shivering in desire before me.

I didn’t let her speak. Didn’t let her move. Didn’t let her touch me or kiss me.

I wanted only her unconditional surrender before I gave her mine.

Piper arched as my cock slid into her, forced into that blinding tightness. She stretched, and her excited gasp gave me the opportunity to grip her hips, shove in as deeply as I could, and slam into her soul.

I kissed her, nibbling on her lip, struggling to hold myself up and not give in to the urge to fuck her and fuck her hard.

Not yet.

First she had to know. Had to feel. Had to
understand
.

“I love you.” I rasped a growl, but it wasn’t meant to frighten her. My words were a vow of protection and promise. “I’ve never loved anyone before, beautiful. You’re the only one in the world who understands me and what I need and what I’d give to just…”

I folded my hand in hers, resisting my instinct to mindlessly rut in passionate bliss.

Piper groaned, and every shiver of her body clenched me tight. “Take me, Cole.”

“You’re too beautiful.”

“Take me.”

“I want to treat you right.”

Her voice cracked. “Then
take
me.”

I wasn’t leaving a damsel in distress.

I thrust, hard. Her breasts bounced, a beautiful sight. I gripped them, holding tight and squeezing as my hips slammed into hers.

Piper loved it. She arched, begged, and bumped her own hips so she could meet me in furious rhythm.

It wasn’t dominance or ugliness, nor was it gentle and timid. I pierced her, and Piper met every punishing thrust with a gasp of pleasure. She stared at me, eyes heavy-lidded, lips parted and breathing the sweetest words.

She submitted to me and dominated me in the same breath.

I grabbed her, rutted her like and animal. I bit her neck.

And she caressed my arms. Murmured my name.