SPORTS BABY (A Secret Baby Romance)

by Mia Carson

  “Mom definitely can’t cook like that,” Jenna said with a giggle.

  “Can’t do what, now?”

  “Apparently, you can’t make pancakes,” Jack replied chuckling.

  Danny plopped down at the counter, settling onto the barstool, and laughed at the flour not only covering Jenna’s face, but Jack’s as well. “Pancakes for dinner?”

  “It’s what you always ordered when we went out at the diner,” he mused, and one shoulder shrugged before he stepped back from the stove, skillet in hand, and flipped the pancake over. Jenna clapped her hands and asked him to do it again. “Don’t you remember?”

  Yeah, and that’s the problem, she thought, struggling to smile as her heart cracked. That damn diner where she’d worked. The only edible thing had been the pancakes, and she had eaten them nearly every time they’d gone out. Then one night, she went to his place for dinner, and he’d surprised her by doing just what he was now with Jenna—making pancakes from scratch, the best she had ever had.

  “Mom never makes pancakes,” Jenna said with a pout. “Says she can’t make them taste right.”

  “Well, I promise these will taste perfect for you and your mom.”

  A while later, they sat down at the wooden table together, a stack of pancakes piled high in the center of the table, with a bottle of syrup and butter nearby. Jenna’s onslaught of questions continued, and Danny gave the man credit: he never backed down. Throughout dinner, Danny got a glimpse of what her life might’ve been like if she had never left Jack. The cut their pancakes the same way—into three large bites—and though Jenna’s mouth was small, she managed to stuff the whole piece in there.

  “Jenna, really,” Danny said, trying not to laugh as her daughter refused to stop asking questions, even with a mouthful.

  “What? I just want to know if you guys dated. You never said.”

  The fork slipped from her hand, and she muttered a curse at the sticky syrup covering it. Jack reached over and took it, saying he’d get her a new one.

  “Well,” Jenna insisted. “Did you date? Aunt Hazel said you did, but you might not want me to know so I shouldn’t say anything about it.”

  “I think that ship just sailed, hon,” Danny said, hanging her head.

  “Since you asked, yes, your mom and I dated,” Jack said, and the fiery look he shot Danny on his way back to the table spread heat between her legs and higher. “Then things happened, and we lost touch.”

  “Mom said she always watched you, even in college,” Jenna said, stuffing another huge bite of pancake in her mouth.

  Danny wanted to duct tape her mouth shut, but she knew her daughter didn’t have a clue what she was digging into. Danny hadn’t told her about Jack or who her real dad was, or why she was so interested in watching Jack Pearson rise in his career as a pro athlete. She contented herself with listening to the two of them banter back and forth. How easy it was for them to talk to each other and laugh.

  When dinner ended and Jenna rubbed her eyes, Danny told her to get cleaned up and head to bed. “It’s early, Mom. I’m not… I’m not tired,” Jenna muttered through a yawn.

  “It was a long day. Don’t worry, tomorrow is the wild card game, and I have a feeling we’ll be watching it,” Danny said with a raised brow at Jack.

  “Course we will. I’ll have to know who I’m going to be smashing into the turf next weekend.”

  Danny frowned at him, but he simply laughed. “Jenna, go wash up and I’ll tuck you in.”

  Jenna plodded tiredly down the hall, and Jack’s hand slipped around Danny’s waist. It was comforting to have him hold her again, and so easy to be in his arms that she almost let it all spill out in that moment, but she bit her tongue and simply leaned into his side.

  “You make a great mom,” he said, his voice filled with pride, which caused her heart to swell. “She’s a good kid.”

  “I did what I could for her, but it wasn’t always easy. Things have gotten better,” she mused, thinking back on everything she gave up for Jenna, what she did to make sure they made it. In the end, it would always be worth it.

  “You know, Danny, I don’t want to bring up whatever got you into this situation, but where is her dad? Does she even know who he is?” he pushed quietly.

  She ignored the last question and asked, “What would you do if I told you?”

  He ran a hand through his hair and backed away to lean on the counter across from her, those muscled arms over his chest. “I don’t know. I just need to know how this happened. If you fell in love with someone else.”

  Danny spent the whole week with Hazel coming up with a story believable enough to keep Jack’s curiosity at bay, though not something traumatic. She checked the hall to be sure Jenna hadn’t snuck back to the kitchen before she opened her mouth. “A few months after I moved in with Mom, I got pretty low. My stepsisters weren’t the greatest, I didn’t talk to dad much, and I was pissed about giving up school.”

  That part was true, but she wasn’t angry at Jenna or Jack for it. Just angry in general. Things happened so fast back then, she still wondered where the time disappeared to.

  “I… uh, went through a drinking phase, slept with one of Hazel’s friends at a party, and… well, Jenna happened. Big wake-up call,” she said with a quiet laugh. “You, at least, don’t actually live up to the rumors you spread about yourself, but I went and had a one-night stand with some asshole.”

  Jack’s jaw tightened and his lip curled as he thought. She saw it in his eyes and the way his muscles tensed.

  “Jack? It’s okay, really. I just made a stupid decision, and after that… I knew I couldn’t come home, couldn’t see you. I was too ashamed of what I’d done.”

  “Mom! I’m ready for bed!” Danny sighed. Her daughter really took after her when it came to impeccable timing.

  “Go ahead,” Jack said quietly. “I’ll get out a bottle of wine. Red?”

  Danny nodded and scurried to Jenna’s room to tuck into bed. She was swallowed by the size of it, burrowed down in the blankets, and her eyes were half closed. “Brush your teeth?”

  “Yeah, Mom. Jeez, you really don’t trust me with my teeth.”

  Danny kissed her forehead. “Can you blame me? Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Mom? I’m really glad we came here,” Jenna said, voice heavy with sleep. “Jack makes awesome pancakes.”

  “I know, kiddo. Don’t I know it.”

  She got up from the edge of the bed, flipped off the light, and closed the door. For a moment, she leaned her head against it, breathing deep as emotions roiled through her body. The urge to tell Jack the truth and the fear of what he would do when he did know warred with the desperate hunger simply to be in his arms again, to feel him inside her. That hunger won out because she knew exactly what those hands would feel like on her bare skin. When she returned to the living room, Jack was sprawled out on the couch with two wine glasses filled and on the coffee table. Danny was tempted to tackle him, strip off his clothes, and have her way with him.

  “She get settled okay?” he asked when she reached the couch and plopped down on the other end.

  “Yeah, she’s in heaven with that huge-ass bed,” she said with a laugh. “Anything good on?”

  He’d flipped the TV on, and Danny thought he’d find a football game to watch, but he chose a movie from his DVR. She smacked his arm with excitement.

  “Ow! What the hell was that for?”

  “I love this damn movie!”

  He rubbed his arm, laughing. “I know you do. That’s why I picked it. Just like why I made pancakes.”

  Danny wanted to kiss him until they were both too dizzy to move again, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Jack’s hand reached for hers, squeezing it as he shifted and pulled her onto his lap, ignoring her protests. He turned her chin gently so she had no choice but to face him.

  “You have nothing to feel ashamed about,” he told her quietly. “People make mistakes, but look wh
at yours gave you. Jenna is a great little girl. You can’t tell me you wish it never happened?”

  “No, but I wanted to tell you… To go back to you, but I didn’t know what you would do.”

  “Well, I’m here now and so are you. That’s all that matters,” he whispered and leaned in to capture her mouth with his. His hand started the movie, and as the lights dimmed and voices filled the living room, Danny became lost in Jack’s arms.

  They took making out during a movie to the next level, Danny laying on top of him with his hands under her shirt, unclasping her bra so they could get a firmer hold of her breasts. His erection pressed against her lower stomach. By the time the family hired the little southern lady to find their daughter, Danny couldn’t tell up from down, her breathing ragged in her ears, competing with Jack’s mutterings of how they’d ever managed to stray so far apart.

  When the credits popped on, Danny sat up and laughed quietly. “Well, that was a… uh, great movie.”

  Jack twisted his neck to look at the TV and flashed a wicked grin. “Loved every minute of it.”

  They disentangled themselves from each other and the couch, Jack turning off the TV as Danny straightened her shirt and redid her bra. “Guess I’ll turn in for the night, too.”

  His face fell, but he didn’t protest. “If you want. I have some fun shopping planned before the game starts at noon.”

  “Great, that sounds good,” she replied quickly and with too much excitement, and she clamped her mouth shut quickly.

  “You can stay up if you want,” he said. “We still have some wine left.”

  She forced a yawn and stretched her arms over her head. “It’ll just put me to sleep faster. I’ll see you in the morning. ‘Night, Jack.” Before he could call her back again, she hurried down the hall, being careful as she passed Jenna’s room, and didn’t even bother flipping the light on in her room. The door shut quietly at her touch, and she went straight to the windows to stare out over the bright lights of the city.

  A whole week with Jack just down the hall would be too much. What had she been thinking? They weren’t teenagers anymore. One wrong move would destroy both their lives.

  Steps sounded in the hall, and the doorknob rattled. “Jenna, you all right?”

  When she turned, Jenna wasn’t looming in her doorway, but Jack, his face set as he stalked her. “What are you doing, Danny?”

  “I’m going to bed,” she reiterated even as an ache filled her, thinking of him not touching her that night. “What else?”

  “You’re hiding, just like you used to do—minus the camera,” he muttered. “In the hotel room, you were open to this—to being here with me—and now, all of sudden, you’re running. Why? What are you so afraid of?” he demanded, a predatory gleam in his eyes driving her body to move closer.

  “Nothing. I just… I’m tired, that’s all,” she said, shaking her head for focus.

  “Bullshit,” he snapped, and her eyes narrowed. “I already told you I’m not going to hold your past against you. What happened, happened. This is here and now,” he said and moved towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist. When her body pressed against his, she sighed, immediately relaxing against him as she always had. “I’m not going to let you hide from this second chance.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but he swallowed it with a kiss so fierce that it lifted her off her feet. Jack picked her up until her legs wrapped around his waist, settling into the warmth of his arms. One hand snaked into her hair, and any more thoughts of trying to ignore what they still shared after all these years faded with his tongue dancing across her lips. He walked into the hall, holding her and not letting his lips leave hers, and hurried toward the room at the end, which was much larger than hers with a bed that had to be bigger than a king-sized.

  He only set her down long enough to close the bedroom door. His arms immediately closed around her as his hands fumbled for her shirt. Danny reached for the hem of his, too, yanking it up over his head in a desperate need to see his bare skin and touch it with her hands.

  “Jack, I don’t know if we should do this. We should talk more about it,” she suggested as the voice in her head said to drop it and let him keep going. “Jack?”

  His hands cupped her face, and he kissed her, his lips burning with a hunger matching her own. “Danny, shut up and let me love you, damn it.”

  He ripped her shirt up over her head and removed her bra in seconds. His lips closed around one pert nipple, sucking hard enough to make Danny curse and see double. Her hands roamed through his hair, demanding even more from him than just his touch. Danny wanted—no, needed—all of him, every bit of his being. She wanted it all.

  Her fingers traced the tattoos on his arms as her head fell back on a sharp cry. Jack’s lips and tongue worked one nipple and then the other, his fingers digging into her muscles in such a penetrating way it could only be taken as a promise of what was to come next.

  Her hands fumbled for his jeans, but he grunted and batted them away. “No, not yet.”

  “I’m allowed to play, too,” she muttered and managed to undo his jeans. Her hands only faltered for a moment, and she cried out, “Jesus!”

  His mouth nipped at her breast as his fingers pulled at the other nipple, already hardened to a near painful point. He chuckled, the sound vibrating through their bodies so close together. Jack moved them backwards until the bed was behind her, but tonight, she wanted him first. She spun him around and shoved him backwards until he fell on the bed. His hands reached for her, but she stayed out of his grasp, tugging off his jeans and boxers until his full glory came into view.

  “Danny,” he growled, watching her with hooded eyes. She chuckled mischievously and leaned forward over him. “Christ, Danny,” he groaned the second her mouth closed around the tip of his length.

  His hips shifted forward, and she obliged, taking in more of him and sucking hard with each gentle shift of his body. Danny’s loins tightened when that first sweet taste of him met her tongue, and she licked it up, her fingers pressing the vein throbbing on the one part of him she wanted buried deep inside her. But the night was young, and she wanted to hear his groans fill the darkness.

  “Keep this up, and we’re going to have issues,” he muttered and bit back a grunt. “Danny.”

  She sucked even harder, her nipples hardening to have him at her mercy. She wanted to see him come this way—lost in a moment of pure pleasure—but he wasn’t having it. He grabbed for her, but she slipped away.

  “At least let me touch you,” he begged.

  “I’m still dressed,” she replied with a laugh when his heated gaze caused a hotter fire to burn inside her.

  “Then strip,” he commanded. “I need to touch you, Danny, feel you while you do this to me.”

  Her body shuddered at the hunger in those words, and she stepped back from the bed long enough to remove her jeans and panties. That heated look took in every inch of her body. Her clit throbbed hard without him even touching it, and she knew she was crying for his touch, desperate to be filled by the only man who had ever touched her and the only man she had ever loved.

  “Jack,” she whispered, the word weighted with everything she couldn’t begin to put into speech. She crawled onto the bed, and as he shifted her so he could reach those soft folds, she closed her mouth around him again.

  His hand moved between her legs and rubbed her folds, slick with her desire. She sucked him hard into her mouth as his hand cupped her against his palm and his thumb pressed against that delicious bundle of nerves. A jolt of heat coursed through her body, and Danny shivered, moaning around his swollen length between her lips.

  Their first night together had been a rekindling of their love, but tonight… Tonight would be about how far they could push each other. Her eyes met his while his hand moved against her and a groan vibrated through his chest. His intense stare locked onto her gaze as his fingers parted those folds and moved within her, in time with her mouth over him. Dan
ny’s inner muscles clenched against the invited intrusion, pulling him in deeper as he chuckled and withdrew, sliding in and finding a steady rhythm that made Danny forget what she was doing.

  “Supposed to be your turn,” she gasped, unable to focus at all on her current task, too absorbed with his fingers and what they were doing. “Damn it, Jack… I can’t… I can’t take this.”

  “Not yet, Sparky,” he whispered as his thumb increased the pressure on her clit.

  Danny wanted to keep her lips around him, but he moved from under her and flipped her onto her back. His hand went right back to work, and her heart raced as the spring inside of her tightened even more.

  “God, I missed how your eyes change to that dark blue when you’re about to finish,” he whispered harshly.

  She groaned when his fingers found that sweet spot and rubbed mercilessly against it. Barely a moment later, she was ready to let go when Jack pulled out. She whimpered in protest at losing his touch, but he released her hands. She stretched towards him until his tongue replaced his fingers.

  Her cries echoed around the room. She was unable to hold back as his tongue assaulted her sweetly, pushing deep as his fingers tugged her clit. Everything inside of her twisted and fell apart, only to be put back together again as the orgasm tore through her body in fierce shudders that left her gasping for air. Her hands dug into the bed while the rest of her limbs tried to deal with the aftermath of the rush of heat and ecstasy falling over her. She heard Jack mutter something and glanced down so she could watch him move between her legs, resting his body against hers as he captured her mouth, sweet from kissing her warmth.

  “One night, I might let you finish me with your mouth,” he growled, “but right now, I need to have you.”