The Daddy Series Books 1 - 4

by Hamel, B. B.

  I don’t know if he’s that kind of man. I know it definitely happens. And plus, it doesn’t have to mean anything. It can just be one date…

  “Perfect,” he says. “I’m very busy, but how does this Friday sound?”

  “Okay,” I say. “Uh, sounds good.”

  “Okay then. Here’s my card. I’ll be in touch.” He slips me a business card, turns, and leaves.

  I stare at the card. It’s plain, almost absurdly plain. It says his name at the top, and it has two phone numbers. That’s it.

  I shake my head and slip the card into my pocket.

  I have absolutely no interest in Atlas Gage. I don’t want to date him, don’t want to do anything with him. I have no clue why that just happened.

  But here I am, with a date for Friday…

  Tessa comes storming into the room, her eyes wide. “Was that just Atlas?” she asks me.

  “Uhm, yeah.”

  She hurries over to me. “Were you just talking to him?”

  “Yeah,” I say, before I can think up a plausible lie.

  “Holy crap. I knew it.”

  “Knew it?”

  She grins at me. “I’ve seen him looking at you.”

  “Looking at me? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I thought you knew, honestly.” She shrugs innocently. “So, what did he want?”

  “He asked me out.”

  She stares at me and bursts out laughing. “Oh, my god! He didn’t?”

  “He really did,” I say, laughing nervously.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said yes, but I don’t know…”

  “You don’t know?” She stares at me, eyes bugged. “Leah, he’s rich! You know that, right?”

  “I know, but so what? I’m not interested in him.”

  “What else do you need? He’s handsome, he’s rich… he’s perfect, basically.”

  “I need a connection,” I say.

  “Make a connection later!” She stares at me like I’m insane. “How are you not more excited?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just not.” I turn away from her.

  “Are you into someone else?”

  “No,” I say quickly, turning back.

  “Oh, my god, you are. Who is it? Someone on the team?”

  “No, Tessa. Seriously.”

  “Felix? Oh, no, Sean. Gotta be Sean.”

  “I’m not interested in any of the players.”

  She hesitates. “Coaching, then.”

  “Tessa,” I warn.

  “Okay, fine, whatever. Don’t tell me.”

  “There’s nothing to tell you.” Which isn’t true, of course, but I have to keep this secret.

  “Whatever. You’re still lucky. Rich and handsome!”

  “And weird.”

  “Weird, whatever.” She gazes longingly at the door. “I’d let him do some weird shit to me, girl.”

  I groan, shaking my head. “You’re awful.”

  She shrugs, walks over to the equipment table, and starts going through it. “I’m just saying, you don’t get a lot of chances in life. Why not take one on this guy?”

  “I told you. I’m just not into him.”

  “Fine, okay, whatever. You’re the type to do what makes you happy, I get that.” She stops and looks at me. “Personally, I do what’s going to get me ahead. Maybe that’s a little callous or whatever, but I figure I can learn to love anyone. Why not learn to love someone rich and handsome?”

  “He might not be very nice,” I point out. “What if he hits you? Yells at you?”

  She hesitates. “There are worse things.”

  “Oh, my god. Tessa, no.”

  “Okay, okay, I know.” She sighs. “I’d slap his abusive ass and call the fucking cops if he ever touched me. You know that.”

  “I know. But that’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “What, that he’s abusive?”

  “No,” I say, sighing. “That I’d give up my time and my life for a person that doesn’t really make me happy, just for some money.”

  She groans. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

  I grin at her. “I guess I’m a hopeless romantic.”

  “More like just hopeless.” She finishes straightening up. “Come on, let’s get back to the locker room. They’re almost done with the champagne. I think it’ll be safe.”

  “Okay,” I say, following her to the door.

  We head back down the hallway and I hesitate, looking back over my shoulder. I think I can see someone behind the shades of Cole’s office, but the shadow moves away. I sigh and keep going.

  I’m not going to throw myself at Atlas just because he’s rich. I don’t care how much money he has.

  He doesn’t have what I really need.

  He’s not Cole.

  10

  Cole

  I don’t know what Atlas wanted with Leah… but I can guess.

  The thought tortures me. Atlas is young, he’s rich, he’s everything I’m not. I don’t think she’d be interested in a man like him, but crazy things have happened.

  I hate feeling this way. I’ve never been a jealous man before. I’ve never had to be. I’ve always been too focused on winning.

  Now, though, I feel like I’m competing with Atlas, but I don’t want to compete. It’s a strange thought. Normally, I love being competitive.

  In this case, though, I’m not interested. I’d rather just have Leah, kiss her, make her happy. That’s what I really want.

  The next day, practice starts later than normal. I let the guys sleep in, since I know they’ll need the extra few hours of rest. In the afternoon, we get to work.

  You don’t become a dynasty by resting all fucking day.

  “Too slow!” I holler at the offense as they run a new passing play I drew up. “Do it again!” They run through drills, sweating and working. I even make them do some running and conditioning training, just because.

  It’s always good to remind them who’s boss. Although there may be some frustration that I’m working out.

  After practice, the guys hit the locker room. My leg’s aching more than usual. As I head back to my office, I stop in the training room. “Leah,” I snap. “With me.”

  She turns and hesitates. I catch her glance at another one of the trainers, a girl named Tessa. I narrow my eyes, but I don’t think the look meant anything as Leah follows me back to my office.

  I shut the door behind her. “You doing okay?” she asks.

  “Leg hurts,” I admit, sitting down.

  “How bad?” She kneels in front of me, looking concerned.

  “Worse than normal,” I admit.

  She sighs. “You’re working too hard.”

  “No such thing.”

  “Seriously, Cole. You have to rest it.”

  “I can’t rest, you know that. After the season.”

  She sighs. “Fine, okay. Pants off. Let’s rub you down.”

  I grin at her and do what she asks. I take off my pants and she gets to work, rubbing my aching leg, working the painful muscle there until it slowly starts to feel a little bit better.

  I watch her working, her face concentrating on her task. I want to know about what happened with Atlas, but I also know it’s none of my business.

  She doesn’t owe me anything. We’re not together, not technically or officially. Maybe we’re sleeping together, maybe we have this attraction, but beyond that? It can’t happen.

  I have to keep my image. And plus, now that Atlas is making his intentions clear, I should stay away. I should stay far away.

  And yet there she is, on her knees in front of me.

  Fucking hell. My body pulses with desire. She looks up at me, eyes hard to read.

  “You’re really tense,” she says.

  “Guess it’s been a tough day.”

  “Why? We won.”

  “True. One win doesn’t mean anything, though.”

  “That’s one more win than a lot of people thought
we’d get.”

  I wince. I don’t need to be reminded what the talking heads say. “Yeah, well, they’re assholes.”

  “True. Still, you can take some of the pressure off.”

  “When I do that, I get complacent. If I get complacent, I lose. I don’t like to lose.”

  “Winning isn’t everything.”

  I laugh at that. “It is when you’re a football coach.”

  She frowns a little. I grimace as her fingers do something painful to my leg, and I almost pull back, but I don’t. I lean into the pain. I can handle a little pain.

  “I just think you should cut yourself some slack,” she says finally.

  “Maybe you can do that for me.”

  “I’m trying,” she says, laughing softly. “You’re just a tough man to help, you know.”

  “I know,” I say softly. “I’m sorry about that.”

  She looks up, a little sparkle in her eyes, but quickly looks away.

  I lean forward and tilt her face back up toward me. I want to ask about Atlas so badly. I want to tell her how I feel about all this, explain why it’s complicated…

  But above all, I just want to kiss her.

  The moment passes. I let go of her chin.

  She clears her throat and stands up. “I know what you need.”

  “Yeah?” I grunt, feeling like hell.

  “A bath. A nice, warm bath.”

  I laugh. “I don’t take baths.”

  “I know. Come on. We’ll do it together.”

  I start to decline, but I stop myself. “What’s that?”

  “We’ll do it together,” she repeats, like it’s a normal thing to say.

  I take a breath and let it out. My pulse gets quicker. “You and me. In the bath.”

  She nods. “One of the big Jacuzzi tubs. We can grab a private room, lock the door. I can sit and keep you company, if you want.”

  I slowly stand, pull up my pants, and buckle my belt. “That sounds good.”

  She smiles nice and big. “Okay then. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  I’m sitting in the Jacuzzi alone, arms on either side of the tile, leaning back against the jets.

  It does feel good. She wasn’t wrong about that. It’s relaxing in a way I haven’t bothered to feel in a long time.

  But my heart’s beating fast, just waiting for her. I’ve been in here for nearly five minutes now, all alone, waiting. I should be doing a million different things right now, from studying tape to drawing up strategy, and instead I’m sitting in this tub.

  All because she’s going to join me.

  I take a breath and let it out. Relax, Cole. I need to get it together.

  The door to the private room opens and I nearly jump. I look up, half-expecting Atlas to come barging in, demanding to know what I’m doing. Instead, Leah comes in, a towel wrapped around her body.

  She shuts the door behind her. We’re alone in the room, with only a foggy window overlooking the outside. The door locks as she walks over toward me.

  “Thought you got lost,” I say, feeling nervous. It’s a strange feeling. I haven’t gotten nervous outside of a football game in a while.

  “Sorry. I had to run to my car to get this.” She lets the towel slip off her body.

  I stare at her for a second, eyes wide. She’s wearing a bathing suit, a little black bikini top and matching bottoms. She looks so fucking sexy it’s almost impossible.

  The top barely covers her full, creamy breasts. The black contrasts perfectly with her skin, and looks amazing with her hair. She sinks back down into the water across from me and smiles.

  “What?” she asks. “You’re staring.”

  “Your bathing suit,” I manage to say.

  “What?”

  “You look good.”

  She smiles a little. “Thanks.”

  “Seriously.” I take a breath. “I’m supposed to be relaxing.”

  She laughs a little. “Sorry. If I’m distracting you, I can leave.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t care about relaxing all that much.”

  She gives me a look, but she’s smiling. I lean back as she gets comfortable, sitting directly across the tub. Our feet touch under the water, but I don’t pull them away.

  “I’m glad I got you in here,” she says. “This is going to be good for you.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I don’t know the last time I gave up time just to sit around doing nothing.”

  “You’re not doing nothing. You’re recovering.”

  “That’s overrated.” I sigh and stretch my legs out again. “How’d you get into all this, anyway?”

  She shrugs a little. “I didn’t want to be a doctor, but I wanted to help people. So I got into sports medicine.”

  “You don’t strike me as the typical trainer.”

  “What’s the typical trainer?”

  “Ex-athlete that couldn’t hack it at the pro level, basically.”

  She shrugs. “That’s not really me. I mean, I played sports and stuff, but I never pretended like I’d make it.”

  “It’s good, that attitude.”

  “Is it? I’m just realistic with myself.”

  “Not many people are.”

  She puts her hands on either side of the ledge, getting comfortable. “People just want the dream, you know?”

  “Even if the dream only happens for a few people.”

  “Did it happen for you?” She raises an eyebrow.

  I hesitate. That’s a good question. I always thought my dream was to play in the pros for a long time, but that didn’t happen. I got hurt and now here I am, an old man, my playing days long gone.

  But this career I fell into, it’s arguably better.

  “I think so,” I admit finally. “I just don’t think I had the right dream when I was younger.”

  She grins. “When you were my age.”

  I groan. “You going to start with the old jokes now?”

  “No, I promise.” Her grin turns bigger. “Although you are an old man.”

  “Older and wiser.”

  “More like older and way more stressed out.”

  “Worry more about yourself there, little Leah.”

  “It’s my job to worry, you know.”

  “Have you always been the type to care about other people?”

  She shrugs, looking thoughtful. “No, not really,” she admits. “Not at first, anyway. Then I got into my first practical classes and it just all clicked.”

  I nod. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  “After I graduated, I had trouble finding a solid job. I mean, I was at the hospital for a while, but there’s not a lot of opportunity out here in Fargo.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “But then this team came along, and it just… worked.” She shrugs again. “I don’t know.”

  “It was fate.”

  “Maybe. I think I just got hired because I’m like one of five other sports medicine people in the whole town.”

  “That’s partially true,” I admit. “But that’s not the only reason.”

  She hesitates. “You know why they hired me?”

  “Of course. I looked at your file.” I grin innocently. “You can ask, if you want.”

  She sucks in a breath. “Don’t be an asshole. Just tell me.”

  “Fine. You answered a question right.”

  I watch as she thinks back over the interview. I’m sure she doesn’t remember what it was, but I know. The answer was recorded in her file.

  “Okay, I don’t know,” she says finally. “Tell me what I said.”

  “You said that you’d try your best to keep the players healthy, but at the end of the day, it’s more about what they do than what you do.”

  She makes a face. “Really? That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” I confirm. “The thing is, good trainers can only do so much, and the best trainers admit it. We don’t want trainers that think they can heal the sick and bring back the dead. We need reasonab
le, smart people. Like you.”

  She bites her lip. “Well, thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me. I wasn’t the one that hired you.”

  She grins at me, but doesn’t say anything. We pass a couple minutes in silence, and I can actually feel myself slowly starting to relax.

  I look over at her and she cocks her head. “What?” she asks.

  I shrug. “I was just thinking. How soundproof are these rooms?”

  “I have no clue,” she says, biting her lip. “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, you seem so worried about how stressed I am.” I move across the Jacuzzi, coming closer to her.

  “I am very concerned,” she says, watching me as I get closer.

  “Gravely concerned?”

  “Gravely,” she confirms.

  “Good.” I stop next to her, lean closer. I tilt her chin toward me.

  “You should know something,” she blurts out suddenly.

  I pause. “Are you sure?” I whisper. I know what she wants to say, and I don’t think I want to hear it.

  She hesitates, and I kiss her. I don’t want to give her a chance to say something that’ll ruin this moment.

  Because despite everything else, no matter what, I want this. I want her. It feels good, makes me feel good. And I know she wants it just as much.

  She kisses me back, confirming every pent-up desire inside of her.

  I want to unleash it all, taste it all, feel it all on my tongue.

  11

  Leah

  He pulls me across the Jacuzzi and I straddle him, grinding my hips down over his hard cock.

  I want to say that this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I brought him in here, but I’d be lying.

  I knew he needed this. I think he needs it as much as I do. I kiss him full and deep as he grinds his cock against me, making me moan. I’m just happy I stashed a bathing suit in the back for using these tubs after hours. So far, nobody’s seen me wearing this thing but the night janitor, and now Cole.

  He seems to like it. I mean, his eyes went right to my body when I took my towel off. I can tell he wants to touch me, just based on the way he’s kissing me. He could barely keep his hands off my skin.

  I didn’t want him to. I’ve been so pent up, confused, angry, excited. I keep thinking about the way he can make me feel good, and this was just one way to get what I really want.