They were on their deep blue velvet couch in front of the fireplace, Bradley balancing both his coffee and a squirmy Isaac.
“Present time?” Heidi asked eagerly.
Bradley looked at her, giddily bouncing on her toes in a silk robe, her hair tied up in an effortless bun. She looked as if she belonged on a balcony in France, with a croissant in hand and a view of the Eiffel Tour behind her.
Perhaps I should take her there, he thought absently.
Instead, he replied, “Present time!”
‘Present time’ promised to be good this year; they’d received gifts from around the world. Fans, friends, interested business partners—all had sent Heidi and Bradley some Christmas token.
Heidi pranced over to the enormous tree (it topped out at least nine feet high) and Bradley chuckled, following behind, baby in his arms.
“I’m glad you’re so excited,” he said to her.
She looked at him and admitted, “I love presents.”
He snickered, and then unable to resist, let loose a booming laugh.
“What?” she asked bashfully.
“No, nothing, it’s just—you don’t usually seem to care about, like, worldly goods.”
“I don’t. I, um…” she trailed off, blushing. “I really like surprises. I know it’s a little childish.”
He grinned and pulled her in for a light peck on the cheek.
“I think it’s adorable,” he said.
“Good, because I’m about to tear into these presents.”
And so she did. With the three of them, one happy little family, sitting around the tree, they began to dig through piles of gifts, and unwrapped an impossibly large assortment of treasures.
Isaac looked on, cooing happily, but was too young to comprehend the celebration. Nevertheless, Bradley knew both he and Heidi felt the milestone of their first Christmas together, even if the baby didn’t.
From out of the gift bags and wrapped boxes came champagne, gift cards, silver serving dishes, hand-knit sweaters, candles, lotions, jewels—on and on and on. Heidi grinned at each and every one, her face lighting up.
Bradley noted that, out of all the lavish items, the ones she seemed to like most were the handmade things or gag gifts. She fell to pieces laughing over a pair of slippers in the shape of s’mores, and was ecstatic to find in one box an inflatable pool toy in the shape of Bradley’s face.
Is that a thing for sale now? Bradley wondered with some incredulity. I hope not.
At last, Heidi collapsed to the floor, exhausted from her fits of merriment. Bradley lifted Isaac from his own arms onto Heidi’s chest, and watched as mother and son cuddled in a pile of presents. Was it possible to be this happy?
“Dear,” he said lightly, “would you like your present from me?”
“Can I have it while lying on the floor? I am…very comfortable.”
He snorted. “It fits in my back pocket. Sort of.”
At that, he reached into his pants and pulled a few folded pieces of paper out. He lifted Isaac off of Heidi’s chest, and filled the new blank space with the papers.
“Merry Christmas, my love,” he said softly.
She read the pages, still a little worn out from the excitement of all the presents. Suddenly, she sat straight up, like a mummy emerging from a tomb in old horror flicks.
“Bradley,” she asked shakily, “what is this?”
“That, is the deed to your new building.”
She searched his eyes, trying to discern if he was kidding. He was not.
“Why did you by me an entire freaking building?”
He smiled. “If you read closer, you’ll see it’s actually an office building. For when you get your PR firm up and running, full time.”
“But it’s huge!”
“Yeah,” he replied, “because I know you’re gonna be a big deal. I figured the company will grow into it.”
“Oh my God,” she stammered. “I love you. Thank you, darling. This is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received. I hope I’m worth it.”
She crawled over to him and smacked a big kiss on his lips. A naughty grin crossed her face.
“Let me put Isaac down,” she said, “and then I can give you your gift. I’ll be back in five.”
She hoisted the baby out of Bradley’s arms and skipped out of the room. Bradley looked on, confused.
Where is this going? he wondered.
While Heidi was gone, he sifted through the pile of gifts, amazed at the sheer quantity. After all that playboy bullshit, people the world over still liked him. That was a really, really good feeling—to know that he hadn’t screwed everything up.
Bradley was opening a box of French truffles when he heard footsteps. Looking up, his mouth dropped wide open.
Heidi was wearing wildly sexy lingerie—all black, satin, and lace. The sheer bra cupped her breasts, which had swelled in size since having Isaac, and almost revealed the pink nipples he liked so much. There was an inch of fabric covering her crotch, and what a tantalizing inch it was. She had even put on five-inch leather heels.
She turned around and revealed her pert ass, which had a thin thong strip running between its cheeks.
“Oh, damn,” he whispered.
He wanted to grab that ass, run his hands over those thighs, and press his face to the prize between them. Bradley stood up and moved towards the woman he loved, wanting to kiss every inch of her perfect body.
“Uh-uh,” she said, holding out a finger and waggling it in his face. “Not yet.” She pivoted quickly on her heels, and over her shoulder, called back, “Follow me.”
He did as he was told because, uh, duh, look at this woman—he’d follow her instructions to the end of the Earth. She guided him through the house, that ass bouncing up and down the whole time.
Once, he reached out, just to grab a little piece of it, and she swatted him away. Looked like he was going to have to follow her achingly slow lead, no matter how hard he’d become with the teasing.
Heidi strode up the stairs and Bradley gulped, worrying he wouldn’t make it all the way to the bedroom. At the top of the stairs, she stopped and wiggled her hips.
“Now can I touch?” he managed. “Please?”
“Not yet,” she said with a smirk. She turned around to face him and sat down on the top of the stairs, arching her back. “I’m gonna make you beg.”
She slipped two fingers into her mouth, then traced them down her collarbone, over her satin-sheathed nipples, did a loop around her belly button, and finally plunged them into her underwear, beginning to touch herself.
Heidi set to work, thighs straining, making herself moan. Bradley panted; he wanted to do that, all that and more, until every piece of her body heaved with desire. She took her fingers out of her panties, and while licking them clean, stood up, and continued walking.
He followed her, obedient like a dog, until they arrived in their master suite. Bradley looked around the room, dazed, and noticed rose petals and candles. At some point—who knew when—she’d transformed their room into a romantic oasis. In the middle of the hardwood floor stood a single chair.
“Sit,” she commanded, indicating the chair. He did so, unquestioning.
She moved to the wall, fiddled with a few buttons, until suddenly a sexy R&B song came through the sound system.
“I wanted to show you,” she said, slinking around his chair, “just how much I love you.”
From behind the seat, she leaned close to his ear, and whispered, “Remember—no touching.”
She came around to face Bradley, and he could feel himself flushing to the top of his forehead. His cock strained inside his pants.
With painstaking slowness, Heidi reached behind her and unclasped her bra, releasing her perfect, bouncing breasts. She took her nipples in her fingers and squeezed them, even lifting one to her tongue and letting her mouth dance around it.
Before he knew it, she was on her hands and knees, crawling towards him. She raised herself u
p until her breasts were at the height of his knees and spread his legs open, pressing herself between them. She brushed her tits over the insides of his thighs, and he wriggled, wanting desperately to touch her.
Heidi shook her head; still no touching allowed. Deliberately, she tilted forward, until her mouth was positioned right over his hardened cock. She let her lips dangle open, so close that he could feel her hot breath through his pants.
“Please,” he said simply.
“Not yet,” she replied once more, and stood up.
She turned around once more and hooked her fingers into the sides of her panties, then gradually tugged them down, past her ass and onto the floor.
Now, wearing just high heels, she slunk back towards him, face flushed. She settled herself onto his lap, legs around the chair.
Once more, she whispered into his ear, “No touching.”
She began to slowly grind on him, letting his cock harden more and more, occasionally gyrating upward so that her nipple would graze his mouth.
“Heidi,” he said huskily. “Please.”
She looked him in the eyes, and at last relented. “Fuck me.”
He needed no further encouragement. His hands locked around her thighs and pulled her closer to him as she swiftly pulled off his pants.
Seconds later, he was inside of her, thrusting deeply, her inner walls clenching around him, wanting all of him.
Bradley gasped, overwhelmed with sensation and the intensity of his love for the woman in his arms. Brimming with desire, he slapped her ass, and raked his fingernails across her back—he knew how much she liked that.
Sensing that Heidi was approaching her peak, Bradley increased the speed of his thrusts, stroking her clit with his free hand. A minute later, Heidi cried out, and he kissed her fervently as they climaxed together, plunging over the edge into breathless, delirious ecstasy.
He held her close, enjoying the aftershocks of Heidi’s orgasm as she pulsed around him.
After a long moment, he broke the silence.
“That was—”
“Fucking hot,” she interrupted with a grin. “Let’s do it again.”
He hefted her into the air and threw her on the bed, prepared to revel in a day of Christmas miracles.
Epilogue
The big debate had been whether or not to get Isaac a babysitter. Heidi had desperately wanted him to see his dad play, but Bradley had insisted that it would just be too loud on the sidelines.
“Can’t we just get him baby ear mufflers? He’ll look so cute,” Heidi had pleaded with a cute grin.
At last, Bradley had relented; she was just too convincing when she put on that smile.
So, that morning, the family got ready together. Bradley mentally prepped and did some light stretching, while Heidi handled the fussing baby. Ordinarily, Bradley was the one who would’ve intervened when Isaac started gurgling with frustration, but today wasn’t an ordinary day. Today was Bradley’s second Super Bowl.
His last season had been good. No, better than good. It had been great. The media had praised him every which way they knew how, and teams had wooed him with dozens of gifts and invitations to exclusive events. And he was proud of that, sure, but he felt even then like he could too better. Or, more accurately, like all that he’d accomplished hadn’t really happened to him, as if he’d just been the conduit for athletic prowess.
Now, though, with Heidi and Isaac at his side, he finally got it, that feeling of absolute invincibility. What was a team of 250-pound linebackers compared to a screaming baby? Having found value for himself in a place besides football, he was able to actually appreciate the game. By taking the pressure off the sport—of having to win to validate his own self-worth—he had improved by light-years. Nobody had thought it possible, himself included.
But there he was, breaking every record in the book, and doing it with style.
Heidi had watched him soar to new heights with a ferocious pride. Of course she was happy that her boyfriend was the most famous football player in the world, no point denying it. But what really made her ego burst was seeing with what diligence he trained, how he never took any shortcuts. Heidi was thrilled their son would have such a good example of what it meant to work honestly.
The family piled into their SUV and set off toward the stadium. Luckily, the Bowl was a home game, which meant it wouldn’t interrupt baby Isaac’s routine too much—no plane flights or anything like that. When they arrived, Heidi and Bradley shared a quick kiss goodbye, and he rubbed their child’s head for good luck before walking off to the locker rooms.
The next time she saw him, he was emerging onto the field, to a crowd who chanted his name.
She leaned in towards Isaac and whispered, “They’re cheering for Daddy.”
The baby gurgled; had he understood? Heidi hoped so. By the time he was old enough to understand the gravity of the game, Bradley would probably have retired.
She straightened Isaac’s baby Eels jersey, a miniature copy of the same one she wore; the paparazzi had started flashing lights in their direction.
Those flashes, which once would’ve scared her, were now welcomed. After all, the more pictures of her family taken, the better. She would scrapbook them one day.
The game started, and Heidi’s heart began pounding simultaneously. She’d never watched any sport so close to the field of play, let alone one where her boyfriend was the leading man. Nerve-wracking would be an understatement.
But on the field, Bradley wasn’t experiencing those same nerves. No, he was in the damn zone. It was like Heidi and Isaac were his talisman, protecting him from distraction. He executed every play to the letter, and at halftime, inspired the team with a fierce pep talk which made his coach proud.
Bradley, already a legend by this point, was reminding the general public that not only had he been this good, he would stay this good. He scored two touchdowns, and was the major assist on another. They made every kick they were granted. Their colors, blue and gold, waved madly in the stands, like a wave at sunset.
By the fourth quarter, Bradley had led the team to a guaranteed win. Sportscasters had been predicting a wipeout since the matching was announced a few weeks back, but this—this was a massacre.
There were only seconds left on the clock, and the opponents had been thrashed, to the point where one or two were throwing a fit on the field, demanding they just admit defeat already, rather than suffer any more humiliation. Bradley knew the Eels didn’t need another point, but he wanted to get it for them, anyway.
The team gathered round, and he whispered the plan. There were a few raised eyebrows, but ultimately, all acquiesced quickly—their confidence in him was total. Why shouldn’t it be? He’d already given them the game of a lifetime. Now they just needed to close it out with one more final kick in their opponents’ asses.
And that’s how Bradley helped his team score six more points, a cherry on top of their Super Bowl cake, in the closing moments of the game. The clock began, ten seconds left on its digital face, and his teammate snapped him a massive pass, which he caught. Bradley began running and running, starting at the 40th and not slowing down until he hit the other team’s end zone.
He’d done it: Bradley Fox had led his team to a Super Bowl win, and not only that, but he’d scored the winning touchdown. The crowd went wild with screams of delight that seemed to shake the very ground he stood on.
Heidi joined them in screaming with joy, and hugged their son close to her chest. They had done it; the Eels had won. Her boyfriend—and the team that she represented—had won. The next year was going to be awesome, surely filled with sponsorships, trips to exotic countries, you name it. The world opened up wide when you’d just won the Super Bowl.
What couldn’t she and Bradley do together, as a team? Nothing, that’s what.
Bradley was swarmed by a flock of journalists, anxious to query him about the win.
“How’d ya do it again, Fox? What’s the big secret?” one sho
uted over the din.
Bradley, the trophy in his hand, used the large, golden cup to part the sea of reporters, and called out, “Heidi! Come here!”
Somehow, even over the cacophony, she heard him, and she trotted out with the baby onto center field. The reporters, in a rare show of decency, were careful not to jostle Isaac. At last, she reached Bradley, and leaned in close.
“I love you,” she said in a voice too low for the media to catch. She’d needed to congratulate him privately for just a moment, to make something that could be theirs alone.
“I love you, too,” he replied, then pulled back and turned to face the reporters.
“These,” he said, indicating Heidi and Isaac, “are my lucky charms. They’re the ones who clinched our victory, not me.”
He nuzzled the top of Isaac’s head, and the cameras flashed again and again.
Suddenly, Bradley was looking deep into Heidi’s eyes, and sliding to one knee. A wall of silence seemed to coalesce around them, so that she was able to hear him and him alone.
“Heidi,” he began, “I can’t live without you. I don’t want us to be apart ever again. I think I knew that from the moment I met you, though it took me a while to realize that.”
She laughed, knowing that was too true.
He continued, “You and Isaac are the most important people in my life. Winning a Super Bowl is cool and all, but the family we’ve created puts this whole game to shame. Together, the three of us, we’re pure magic.”
At that, he reached into the pocket of the jacket his coach had flung round his shoulders (the whole team knew about his big plan), and pulled out a tiny black velvet box.
Heidi gasped. Logically, she’d understood what the “one knee” had meant, but seeing that tiny box in those huge hands suddenly made it all real. Unable to help herself, she began to cry tears of pure happiness and joyous surprise.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
“Shut up and keep going!” she replied giddily.
He chuckled boisterously, and popped open the lid of the box, revealing a ring big enough to be a Crown Jewel. Heidi’s eyes went wide.
The Baby Blindside (Baby Surprise Romance) Page 15