The Playbook (a Secret Baby Sports Romance) (15 page)

S
he had duped me
. That sneaky little… I was impressed nonetheless. There was no one else that would have wanted me to come to the parking lot in such a hurry other than Lucia. After examining my car to ensure that nothing had happened to it, I’d gone over to the security office and found out after some prodding that the call had been anonymous. The security guy couldn’t remember what number or extension it had come in on, so there was no way to find out who’d actually called. But I was ninety-nine percent sure I knew who had done it. And the next time I saw her, I was determined to confront her for real this time. A door wouldn’t get in my way a second time.

A few days later I rounded the corner of the training building to see Lucia standing near the parking entrance by the gate. Her hands flew all about her, gesticulating wildly as she talked with someone in front of her.

God she was gorgeous, even hotter than I remembered, dressed in those prim white dress pants and a blue sleeveless shirt that showed off her toned arms. Despite my disappointment that she’d blabbed our business to her father, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of needing her. So she wanted to play games? Well I was about to ruin her conversation and have a little fun myself.

Walking toward her, my grin slipped as I recognized the man she was arguing with. A scumbag I knew all too well. My pace quickened.

“You are not welcome here,” Lucia was saying as I approached, her face red with anger. “I think you have done enough damage in his life, and he does not need someone like you harassing him.”

“I don’t know who you think you are, bitch,” Marshall replied, stepping closer to Lucia, a menacing look in his eye. I broke into a run; I’d seen that look too many times. I knew what came next. “But I don’t take too kindly to people telling me what to do, especially a woman.”

Before the worst could happen I was between them.

“I told you to leave me the hell alone,” I said and spotted the look of surprise on Lucia’s face. “Get out before I call security.”

My father edged closer to me. My words seemingly had no effect—but I knew that already. The only thing Marshall understood was violence. Lucia chose that moment to reinsert herself, angering him even further.

“Just leave! you’re not wanted here,” she said firmly. God, she had balls, and it made me love her even more.

But before I could stop him—too distracted admiring her strength—he pushed her away. She stumbled back, her heels giving way, and she fell over the curb, landing in the cut grass.

Immediately, I saw red and launched myself at him, knocking him to the ground hard, letting my fists do the talking. They planted themselves, blow after blow, into his leering face. His knee connected with my midsection, and the wind was momentarily knocked out of me, giving him the upper hand in the fight. I felt the sting of his punch as he connected with my cheek.

“You bastard,” he seethed, spit flying out of his mouth as I tried to block his punch. “You think you are the big man now? Huh? You’re not. You’ve never been nothing but a two-bit has-been and always will be.”

The long buried rage that I’d managed to keep under control throughout all the years of abuse, violence and name-calling finally erupted. It burst through the surface as if a pressure valve had been released, and I flipped him. My fists pummeled his head and face.

Flesh tore and bones crunched as my onslaught raged. I couldn’t make myself stop. “This is for all those times you said I wasn’t good enough! This is for every beating you gave me for dropping the ball, for losing a game! This is for the hell you put me through as a child, you worthless piece of shit!” I shouted, the words coming out alongside heavy breaths. “And this,” I said winding my arm back high, “is for daring to touch something that is mine!”

“Jacob! Stop it!” I felt the pull of someone on my shoulders and shrugged it off, wanting to kill the man under me. Another arm grabbed me, and I was dragged away from the bloodied man. My arms were pinned behind me, secured by faceless men I couldn’t see because my sights were set on my target a few yards away. Marshall scrambled away and I launched at him again, but it was no use. I was hauled back by men a lot stronger than me. Terrence’s worried face came into my view, trying to pull my focus to him. “Hey, dude, it’s me. You need to breathe. Calm down, okay?”

“I’m gonna kill him,” I forced out, spitting blood onto the pavement and struggling against the men holding me. “Let me go!”

“Dude, you ain’t going nowhere. Trey and Eddie won’t let that happen,” he said.

Behind me a voice added, “Too right I won’t. Keep still… don’t make me sit on you. You won’t like that one bit.” I recognized Trey’s deep baritone and did as he asked for fear he’d made good on his promise to squash me like a bug if I didn’t stop struggling.

Lucia hovered into view. “Please, Jacob,” she begged, “he’s not worth it.”

I drew in a painful breath, my eyes focusing on her gorgeous face. Just looking at her soothed me, but panic soon filtered through as I remembered Marshall pushing her to the ground. “Are you okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“I-I’m fine,” she said with a small smile. “I’m fine, and you will be, as well.”

“Guys, you can let go now, I’m okay. I promise I won’t do anything.”

After a moment, Terrence nodded to Trey and Eddie behind me, and their hands finally fell away, releasing me. I looked around. Half the team had spilled out of the locker room, all of them giving me wary looks. The press, along with their cameras—ready for an open practice day—were also there, still on the other side of the gate but close enough to have witnessed at least some of the fight.

“Maddox!” Coach barked as he came over. I was expecting to see anger evident on his face, but there was only concern. “Showers. Now. Go cool off!” I started to open my mouth, but he shook his head and looked at Lucia. “Get him the hell out of here, Lucia. This is going to be a shit-storm like no other.”

“Come on, Jacob,” she whispered, laying her hand on my arm. I looked down, seeing the reddened scratches from where she had fallen on her forearm, and I growled, wanting to start round two with the person who called himself my father. He had hurt her, and it was my fault.

She sensed my anger building, and for a second she squeezed my arm, forcing me to look into her eyes. “Please, let’s go. Don’t let him get the best of you, Jacob.”

I took in another breath and nodded. The rush of adrenaline was starting to fade away, only to be replaced with the small beginnings of pain from where he’d hit me. It was a familiar pain, one that I hadn’t felt in a long time. It was different to the hits I’d experienced on the field; these were full of malice and hatred. And it felt like they hit me harder, like they didn’t just wound me physically.

Lucia gave me a small smile, and together we walked into the locker room. She steered me toward the showers and entered the room, pushing the door closed behind her. “Come on,” she said as she locked the door and stepped forward. “Let’s get you cleaned up first.”

“I’m so damn sorry, Lucia, for everything,” I forced out as she reached for the hem of my jersey. She bit her lip, her fingers mere inches away from the skin on my hip. “Shh, let’s talk about it in a little while, okay?”

I surrendered to her, allowing her to pull the shirt over my head. “You are going to be so sore tomorrow,” she said absently, touching the middle of my abdomen with her gentle fingers. I grimaced as she touched the tender spot, feeling my own desire rise at her soft touch. God, I needed her so badly it hurt. I was in pain in more ways than one.

She stepped aside and turned on the water. The steady stream of the hot spray splashed on the tiles, and she looked back at me. I couldn’t stand the look of pity in her eyes and forced my shorts down over my hips, stepping angrily out of my shoes. I had done it again. I had allowed my personal business to interfere with my profession. I would be lucky to still have a spot on the team after all this went down! When was my life ever going to be damn normal?

Stepping under the water, I was fully aware of Lucia watching my every move, as if I might to lose it at any moment, but having her there kept me on a relative even keel. The hot water scalded my scrapes and the bruises that had begun to form, and I welcomed the dull, throbbing pain. I deserved to hurt after what I’d done. Embarrassing myself in front of her and practically the entire team. Not to mention the rest of the world, if the press had their way.

When her hands touched my back, I shivered. I felt dirty, worthless—I wasn’t the man for her. She was a therapist, successful and gorgeous, for Christ’s sake, and I was, well, I was a fucking screw-up. Always had been, always will be, just like the man had said. He’d said it all my life; it was a wonder I was only realizing it now. Her arms encircled my waist, and I held my breath, the steam of the water starting to fog up around us.

“It’s not your fault,” she said softly, kissing the middle of my back. “Everything will be okay, Jacob.”

I turned around quickly and pulled her against me, feeling her wet, naked body against mine. My cock jumped to attention. I hadn’t heard or noticed her getting undressed, but here she was, bare before me again. Wanting me. Perhaps I wasn’t so worthless after all.

“Can we save the therapy session for later?” I asked, bending my head. “I need something else.”

She nodded and I captured her lips with mine, taking no prisoners as I plundered her mouth with my tongue. Her hands gripped my back tightly as I cupped her bare ass and walked us both back to the half wall that separated the stalls, forcing her to sit on it. I tore myself from the kiss and rested my forehead against hers. Our breathing was harsh and echoed all around us. “You’re everything that’s good in my life, you know that?” I said, gripping her hips. “I need you like I need the air I breathe, and I am going to have you. Hard and without any regret. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes, I need you, too,” she panted, wrapping her long legs around my waist. She was taking a huge risk being in here, let alone being naked in here and wanting me to fuck her, but I wasn’t going to think about that now. I growled and pulled her to me, pushing into her wet entrance with one deep thrust. She gasped, and I held still, allowing her to adjust to my length before I started to move rapidly within her.

I hadn’t been bluffing. I took her like the world was ending and we had only seconds to live. Our bodies crashed together, each taking what we needed from each other without mercy.

Her fingernails raked my back, pleasurably digging into my skin. The tang of her natural scent rising from her sex made my head dizzy as I dipped my head lower, down to her breasts. She tasted sweet, better than I remembered. A vague hint of vanilla and salt coated my tongue as I licked and nibbled my way around the swollen nub. Her legs clamped around me harder, and she threw her head back. Seeing her exposed like that, her torso stretched out and her tits circling upon her chest, made me pound into her harder.

She let out a cry that mingled with the word
yes
, which only made me go faster.

As the first orgasm overcame her, her throaty moans bounced and clashed off the tiles of the room so that it almost sounded like there was a whole orgy going on in there. Thrusting faster, I took all of her weight, held onto the cheeks of her bum, swung her body away and then back towards me over and over again, my cock sliding roughly in and out of her delicious, tight cunt. All the frustration of the days and weeks without her melted away with every passing second that I was buried within her. But it would be over too soon.

As she bit her lip, the walls of her pussy clenching furiously around my shaft, a sign that she was on the brink of another orgasm, I slipped the tip of my finger slowly into her virgin ass. Her eyes grew wide, momentarily shocked, but then her mouth dropped open and out came a euphoric moan. The sound of her enjoying herself was the biggest turn on ever. I felt the hot rush of her juices coating the head of my cock, and I came hard and fast, shouting as I poured into her, unleashing everything I had.

I
’d just had
sex in the team shower. That had to be a first for a lot of people, though I was sure many cheerleaders had seen the inside of the room. It had also been the first time anyone had ever done
that
to me, too. I blushed as I remembered, but God, did it feel good. I was experiencing a lot of firsts today, I thought.

Jacob was still gripping my hips tightly, as I too was still clinging to him, my arms around his neck. The intensity of his stare as we recovered in each other’s embrace was like nothing I’d experienced before. I wanted to tell him everything that I was feeling right then but was too scared to even form the words, too scared to break the perfect moment.

My legs started to ache, and I thought I would no doubt be feeling the burn of our workout for some days to come. But for some reason, I couldn’t find the bad in it. The look on Jacob’s face as he had stood under the shower had almost broken my heart, and before my conscience could kick in, I had stripped off my clothes (again—seriously, what was it about Jacob Maddox that made me want to get naked all the time?) and gone in to comfort him.

Cramp started to set in, and I began shivering—the aftershocks of what seemed like an endurance session taking its toll on my barely used muscles. I forced my legs to lose their grip on Jacob’s waist, and he stepped away. The smell of sex mingled in the air with the steam, even though the water was still running. I stood, a bit wobbly, and reached for one of the towels on the cart just outside the shower. We didn’t say a word as we went through the motions of getting dry. I toweled off briskly, needing to get back into my clothes before anyone decided to come find us. I heard him cut off the shower and grab a towel himself, the silence deafening now. I didn’t know what to say, and my heart thudded in my chest. What did this mean for us now? Could I forgive him for what he’d done? Were the three little words he’d said, oh what seemed so long ago now, true?

“Lucia.”

I looked up to find him studying me. There was a towel clinging low on his hips. I had forgotten how well-formed his body was, and my mouth went dry at the sight, my hands wanting to touch him again. My body wanted to shed my clothes again. I couldn’t deny it any longer—I was head over heels for him. It didn’t matter what career he had, he was the object of my affections, the father of my child, and that wasn’t going to change. Of course the anger and hurt he’d caused me still lingered, but I knew I could give him a second chance. He deserved at least that. I could see he was hurting, too. His own buried troubles were coming to the surface. I had to be careful if I broached the subject; there was something nasty between him and his father, an unresolved and unhealed wound that had been niggling at him all these years, like a splinter that had dug itself a cozy home, festering beneath the surface. We would talk about it, if he wanted to, but not yet. Now he needed hope, needed to see there was a future for him.

“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out, keeping my fingers crossed that this was the right time to tell him.

His eyes widened, and he stumbled back as if an invisible hand had slapped him. He said nothing, and I fumbled with the still-open buttons on my shirt, looking down and away from him. If he wasn’t going to be happy, I didn’t think I’d be able to look at him again.

All of a sudden his hands covered my own, stopping me from completing my task and forcing me to look up at him. His eyes were blazing, full of questions, and his throat was working hard. “You’re pregnant?”

“A few weeks, yes,” I answered as he gripped my wrists gently. “Seven positive home tests, all the signs, and one doctor’s confirmation.”

“Seven tests?” he asked, arching a brow. “What were you trying to prove?”

“It’s not every day that you need to prove something so important,” I said, dying to know what he was thinking. He grinned then, and I felt some of the worry of how he might react to the news slip away. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t going to be a bad thing after all. “A baby?”

“As far as I can tell,” I joked as he brought one of my wrists up and kissed it softly, sending a spiral of heat down to the center of my body. “Unless you are half alien or something?”

“Wow,” he answered as his arm slipped around my waist. I felt my own body react to being pressed up against his naked one and tried without success to dampen down my hormones. Wasn’t there something about craving sex while pregnant? If so, I was in for some fun over the next few months or so. “I’m going to be a father? Oh wow, I’m going to be a dad,” he said, the happy realization of what it all entailed finally hitting him.

His words nearly caused me to burst into tears, the wonderment of the way he spoke them so reverently erased any doubt in my mind that Jacob wanted to be involved in this child’s life. “Yes,” I said softly, winding my arms around his neck. “You are going to be a daddy.”

He brushed a kiss over my lips before stepping back and grabbing his clothes off of the floor, looking a bit confused. “I… we need to go somewhere and talk, Lucia. About everything.”

“Okay,” I said, the moment gone for now. The wonder on his face was replaced with a serious expression, set and determined. “We can go to my office. We’ll have privacy there.”

“No,” Jacob said sharply. “I-I need to get away from here. Somewhere with alcohol. We can talk and celebrate at the same time.”

I couldn’t help but smirk and slid my feet into my heels, looking down at his state of clothing. “Well, hurry up and get dressed then.”

“Oh right, yes, that would help wouldn’t it?” he said with a sweet laugh. It was good to hear him like that, a little more relaxed even with the bombshell I’d just drop on him.

Jacob dressed quickly, and I flipped the lock on the shower before leading him out a back entrance used for laundry deliveries, where no one would be expecting us to be. Instead of trying to find my car, I hailed a cab and we climbed in. I gave the cab driver my address. It was risky to go home, but it was far too early to go to a bar. And given the nature of what had just transpired at the stadium, my father would be tied up with the press for hours. Merry would also be out of the picture. She was away visiting a friend for a few days, helping her to redecorate, too, so the guest house would be safe for the moment.

Jacob’s hand found its way onto my thigh. He caressed it absently while he stared out the window during the drive. I let him be with his own thoughts, knowing he needed time to process everything. We arrived about ten minutes later, and I reached into my purse for my key card.

“This is your father’s house?” Jacob said as the gate opened and I started to walk up the drive. The huge mansion loomed in the distance. “I can’t be here, Lucia.”

“It’s a good thing that we aren’t planning on going there then,” I remarked and took his hand, leading him along the well-worn path to the guest house. I pushed open the door and stepped into the cool interior, waiting on Jacob to follow me. Finally he took a brave step inside. “Welcome to my little domain.”

He looked around as I went to grab a beer and one bottle of water from the fridge. I never did have much food, but I always made sure that I was stocked up on beer at least. He accepted it gratefully, and I took a seat in my favorite overstuffed chair, watching as Jacob sat on the couch and popped open the beer. “Ah,” he said after his first sip, “that’s better. Tastes good.”

“More in the fridge if you want,” I said with a shrug. “’Cause I won’t be drinking for a while.”

He looked at me, a grin spreading across his face. “Oh, right, yeah. So are we really doing this?”

“Yes,” I answered, my hand straying protectively to my stomach. “Not that I had planned on having a child now, but I’ve gone over it every which way from Sunday, and this is the right way for me. Don’t ask me to—”

“That’s not what I meant,” he replied hastily, his eyes widening. “I mean, you are going to let me do this with you, right? You aren’t going to tell me to take a hike because of what happened before, ’cause I really, really want to be part of this, Lucia. You and the baby.”

I caught his drift, flushed, and skirted past it. “I would never deny you your right to be a father.”

He nodded and sat back on the couch, taking another long sip of his beer. “I guess you are wondering what happened between me and my own father?”

I sat forward, hoping he’d see the sincerity in my eyes. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. But I’m here to listen… not as a therapist, either, as a friend,” I said.

“Just a friend?” he questioned.

“Well, no,” I said with a smile, “as someone who cares for you a whole lot.”