SPORTS BABY (A Secret Baby Romance)

by Mia Carson

  His boots crunched over the dead grass towards her. His name left her lips on a breath, and he backed her up until the tree was behind her, holding her steady.

  “You remember,” he whispered, grinding his hips into hers. “You remember how it felt that first time?”

  “I never forgot,” she replied, and he stared at her intently. “Jack, I never got over you. Not in eight years. How could I, after you stole my heart?”

  “I wasn’t the only thief that night,” he growled.

  Snowflakes fell around them, landing softly around the tree they spent most of that long ago summer beneath, and his lips caressed hers. It might’ve been freezing cold around them, but in Jack’s arms, Danny was on fire. The tree was hard behind her, but she hardly noticed it when his lips deepened the kiss and her hands pushed through his hair. She nipped at his lip, and he groaned, lifting her so her legs wrapped around his waist.

  Danny relearned why this place was magical, this place where their love had blossomed. Why she knew after that night, no matter what else happened, Jack was hers. Always.

  Then why the hell did you leave him?

  The words caught her off-guard, and she stopped the kiss. “Jack, wait, I… I think we should talk first.”

  “Talk? Right now?” His hands slipped beneath her wool coat, searching for bare skin.

  Danny struggled to stay focused. They needed to talk about what was going on, what these changes would mean for all of them. She wasn’t sure she could uproot her life in New Orleans and move to Texas. Or would they live here? What about his career, his team? There were too many questions, too many variables to keep track of. She wanted to ask him, to make him see they needed to figure it out before things went too far, but he captured her mouth again and Danny let the worries fade to the background.

  “Too cold to be here,” he muttered against her mouth.

  “The house,” she whispered. “We have the whole house, remember?”

  “Damn, we do, don’t we?” He grinned like a teenager again, let her feet hit the ground, and they took off for the truck. Snow fell harder around them, and by the time they reached the house, it was nearly white-out conditions.

  The house was warm, and Danny shook out her snow-filled hair, laughing as she brushed more from Jack’s head and shoulders.

  “I’ll get a fire going,” he said, his voice husky. He stalked through the house, leaving Danny to kick off her boots, remove her coat and hang it by the door. “You know, I think I have a stash of cocoa somewhere. I can make us a tray, if you want.”

  Danny nodded, grinning as she pulled her heavy sweater up over her head and let it fall to the floor. “If you want,” she said, fingers reaching up to unclasp her bra. “Up to you.”

  “Probably have a bottle of brandy left over, too.”

  “Sounds perfect.” She undid her jeans and slid them over her hips so she wore only her black lace thong. The house was chilly, but the heat of the fire drew her closer… That and Jack’s body standing tall in the flickering light. “What about quilts?”

  “Yeah,” he said, “there’s some… up… upstairs.” His eyes narrowed at her naked body, words getting stuck in his throat as she moved closer still. “Is that… a, uh, a yes to the brandy, then?”

  Danny’s hand moved up under his sweater. His eyes slid closed at her touch, and he cursed when her other hand followed. She let her body fall against his and nibbled his chin. A half-second later, his arms were around her naked waist, lifting her up so he could devour her mouth and let her know exactly what she’d done to him.

  A plush rug was in front of the hearth, and instead of picking her up and taking her away from the warmth of the fire, Jack lifted his sweater, revealing his chest for her eyes to take in. He knelt before her, their shadows dancing across the darkened living room, glowing in the orange light of the fire, and he kissed her stomach. His fingers looped through the sides of her thong and dragged it leisurely down her legs. His hand glided up between her thighs, parting them gently, his breath hot against her already burning folds.

  Having the house to themselves with no worry of Jenna running in gave them the freedom to let go, and Jack, Danny soon realized, was going to take full advantage of that fact. Danny’s body ached with need for his touch, but his unhurried pace told her they wouldn’t go fast. Her hands slid over his hard shoulders as his fingers caressed between her legs but didn’t enter her. His tongue swirled around her hip then back to the center before his head lowered between her legs.

  Danny waited for his touch, but he chuckled and kissed her thigh. When his thumb barely brushed her clit, she lost control of her legs and his grip on her body tightened.

  “If you keep this up, I’m going to be a damn puddle of goo,” she muttered.

  “Who said that wasn’t the point? I missed eight years of nights like this,” he growled against her skin. “We have a lot of making up to do, Sparky.”

  During their time together over the last two weeks, she had experienced the loss of what they could’ve had all those years. The need in him was just as strong as it was in her. So many missed mornings of waking up with him buried deep inside her, or falling sleep tucked in his arms, his kisses lingering on her neck and breasts. They had missed so much, and she wanted it back just as desperately as he did.

  As Jack’s thumb pressed into her clit, his fingers spread her folds and moved inside her. They barely entered, teasing her, pulling out and gently pushing back inside. She squirmed in his grasp, wanting more, but he didn’t give in to her body’s demands. He teased relentlessly, driving her to whisper his name, begging him to fill her, to caress her more. When he finally filled her with his fingers, she gasped at the sharp sensation. The languid pace disappeared, and Danny gripped his shoulders, crying out when he moved fast against her, his mouth sucking and pulling her clit until it swelled and her body cried around his touch.

  Danny’s head fell back as the intense, sudden orgasm wracked her body. As her body continued to tremble, Jack laid her down gently on the rug, grabbed a pillow from the couch for her head, and positioned himself between her legs.

  She lifted her head, unable to look away as his fingers stretched her inner walls, seeking that one spot as her body tried to recover. The heat from the fire washed over her body, her skin flushing even more. Jack’s eyes locked onto hers as he kissed her sides, his tongue licking up to her ribs until his body covered hers and his lips pulled a pert nipple into his mouth. She moaned while his other hand tugged and pinched the other. As pleasure rippled through her body, so close to release again, her back arched into his body and Danny couldn’t wait any longer. He still had pants on, but she wanted him naked. Right now.

  Catching him off-guard, she rolled them to the side, away from the hearth, and slithered down his body.

  “I wasn’t finished yet,” he growled as she grinned wickedly at him.

  Her hands made quick work of the button and zipper, but she wasn’t as patient as he was to see him laid out before her in the glow of the fire. His jeans were tossed aside, along with his boxers, and Danny’s body tightened as she looked at him in all his erect glory. His hands stretched down for her, his eyes begging to hold her again, but she had other ideas.

  First, her hand closed tightly around his length, and he muttered, his eyes closing as he bit his lip. Danny grinned, and the next second, she took him in her mouth.

  “Damn,” he gasped, his eyes shooting open. She sucked hard on his length, and his hips bucked. “Danny… You’re going to kill me.”

  When a drop of pre-cum appeared on his tip, she licked it off, her loins clenching when his hands reached for her again, but she stayed out of his reach. He grew more with each hard suck, and she pictured what that erection of his would be doing once it was deep inside her.

  She meant to keep going, her hand squeezing the base of him as her mouth moved, but Jack’s body shifted and Danny was lifted. She was straddling him as he sat up to meet her, chest to chest. The second her le
gs straightened behind him, he impaled her and she gasped, sliding down his length until she rested against him.

  Jack’s hands cupped her face as she raised up and penetrated herself with him again. Her hand covered his and moved it towards her mouth, sucking hard on his finger, nibbling it. His eyes darkened, and he thrust up to meet her hips. Danny moaned louder each time, sucking his finger as his mouth lowered to her nipple. Their bodies clung to each other, their hands roaming as their mouths caressed shoulders, lips, and necks until Danny didn’t know where she stopped and Jack started.

  When her hips stopped listening to her body, overwhelmed with the building orgasm, Jack repositioned them and lay over her. Her body missed his touch until he drove hard inside her. Her legs wrapped around his body as she cried out, his name on her lips, her eyes scrunched shut as Jack finished in another few hard pushes inside of her.

  Arms trembling, he stayed over her, stayed deep inside her. “God, I never want to stop this,” he whispered, lowering his lips against hers.

  “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to,” she said.

  He kissed her again, and in moments, Danny felt him hardening against her thigh. “You see what you do to me?”

  Danny laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck so she could have his mouth again. Their tongues danced together, each desperate to feel the other, know they belonged to the other. His fingers pressed into her thigh, moving her leg, and when he sucked hard on her tongue, he thrust home inside of her, tickling her cervix and rubbing against her g-spot until she cried out against his lips.

  He unmade her that night. Breaking her to pieces as he had done so long ago in the bed of his pickup truck. Each drive of his hips grinding against hers broke off a new piece, scattering everything that made Danny who she was with Jack. And when the climax had built too much, when she couldn’t hold out any longer, his name left her lips in a cry, his groan joining hers as he put the pieces back together. But this time, it wasn’t just her.

  A bit of Jack joined every piece, filling the corners of her heart and touching her soul. They clung to each other in the light of the fire, and deep down, Danny was faced with the truth of all she had done to them by leaving.

  ***

  Sometime in the middle of the night, when the fire died down to burning embers and took the heat with it, Jack picked a sound asleep Danny up in his arms and carried her to his bedroom. She snuggled against his chest, muttering in her sleep. With one hand, he pulled back the heavy quilts and laid her down, climbing right in behind her, one arm wrapped around her body and drew her in close to his body heat.

  Tomorrow, they would talk about where their lives were headed next. Moving home might be hard for her. Maybe even going to Texas. He worried Jenna would miss New Orleans and her friends, and he doubted his great plan to have them all live together as one happy family.

  But that was a worry for tomorrow. With Danny sated and sound asleep in his arms for another night, Jack dismissed those doubts and closed his eyes. His Danny. This was all he wanted in life, and there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d let her slip away from him without a fight.

  CHAPTER 12

  Danny woke up alone in the bed, but the smell of coffee and pancakes forced her to find something to throw on and rush downstairs. She found one of Jack’s large sweaters, just long enough to cover all the pertinent parts, and followed the aroma to the kitchen. He had his back to her, working at the stove, a cup of coffee in his left hand and wearing only fleece pajama pants.

  “Morning,” he said, grinning over his shoulder when he heard her sit down at the counter.

  “What time did you get up?”

  “An hour ago. Snow’s about two feet deep out there,” he said.

  Danny peered out the back door to look at the pure white field behind the house. “It’s still coming down, too. Were we supposed to get this much snow?”

  “Dunno, but I’m sure Jenna is loving it,” he said with a smirk.

  “She always loves the snow,” Danny agreed and tried to hide the sadness in her voice. She had always promised her daughter they’d move home, but there had never been an opportunity to actually do it. She needed a job before she could uproot them to go across country again. “I forgot how pretty it is up here in winter.”

  “Well, you know, you could stay here with me until the season starts again,” he suggested casually.

  He said it so simply that for a moment, Danny wanted just to say yes and deal with whatever fallout there might be from dropping the truth on him. At the mention of his career, though, she bit her lip and stopped the words from falling out of her mouth. Her being around had nearly cost him everything. The fear that drove her away in the first place still lingered, along with the worse fear of him being so upset he would push her and Jenna away for good.

  She settled on, “I’ll think it over.”

  His face fell, but he recovered quickly. “I’m supposed to go to my parents’ house for dinner tonight. Mom would be happy to see you, and she’d love to meet Jenna.”

  Red flags sprang up in Danny’s mind, but saying no would make him suspicious. “Sure, that’d be great. I’ll call Dad and let him know we’re picking Jenna up for dinner this evening.”

  He said he’d call his mom and kissed the top of her head before he left the kitchen. Danny groaned, resting her head on the counter, calling herself an idiot. Somehow, this was going to end badly. Jack’s mom was great, but she had eyes like a hawk. Anything Jenna did, she would recognize as something Jack did.

  It’s a sign, that’s all. You make it through dinner with his parents, and you tell him everything after. Come clean. Get it over with.

  Really, it was the best scenario. She could hide out at her dad’s if need be with Jenna, then find a way to fly back to New Orleans, maybe move again if it was that bad. She prayed it wouldn’t be. For once in her life, she wanted something to go right and stay that way. A few more hours, that was all she had to prepare herself for revealing the greatest secret of her life to the man she loved.

  It wasn’t nearly enough time, but it was all she had.

  ***

  Jack watched Danny and Jenna stomp through the snow as they picked her up from Rick’s house. The streets had been plowed, and the snow had finally stopped falling, but a snowman was in the front yard of Danny’s childhood home. Jenna’s cheeks were flushed when she clambered into the back, surprising him by giving him a hug.

  “Jack! Did you see our snowman?”

  “I did, kiddo, pretty good,” he chuckled.

  “It’s a football player!”

  Jack leaned across the passenger seat, purposely brushing against Danny as he did so, and marveled at the snow helmet and the shoulder pads it wore. “I’m impressed,” he said proudly and laughed when she clapped her hands.

  Jenna beamed from the back and put her seatbelt on when Danny told her to. Jack shot her a glance, but her gaze remained focused on the road ahead. Since that morning, she’d been acting strangely. Quiet all day, not looking at him, and though they’d kissed often, the heat had dimmed.

  The short drive to his parents’ home was filled with Jenna telling them about her time with her grandpa. They had gone ice-skating early that morning, built the snowman, and drank hot chocolate most of the night before as they watched the snow fall.

  “What did you do?” she asked them with a piercing gaze that should not have been on a child’s face.

  Danny’s cheeks instantly reddened. “We… uh, watched movies. Scary ones.”

  “Sounds fun,” Jenna said, but her tone said she didn’t believe them.

  Jack smirked, eyeing her in the backseat, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel when he saw the exact same smirk staring back at him. She has to be mine, he thought again. But why would Danny lie?

  He turned into the driveway, and his mom, Penny, threw the door open before they even stepped out of the truck. “Danny! Oh, it’s so good to see you,” she called, bustling out to give Danny a hug.


  “Hi, Mrs. Pearson,” Danny said. “Good to see you doing so well.”

  “Of course, and please, dear, call me Penny like you used to.”

  Jack caught the flash of regret in Danny’s eyes, but she nodded and stepped to the side. “This is Jenna, my daughter.”

  “Hi,” Jenna said and held out her hand. “I’m six.”

  Penny grinned and took her little hand. “I’m Penny, Jenna. Very nice to meet you. She looks just like you, Danny.”

  “Thanks,” Danny said, and Jack frowned at the sadness in the word.

  Penny told them to go ahead inside, eyes following Jenna closely. When they were through the door, she hugged her son. “Glad you made it home,” she told him. “And with Danny, nonetheless. You’ll have to tell me how that happened.”

  “Purely by accident, actually,” he said. “It’s been great, though.”

  “With her daughter, too? You know,” Penny mused, “Jack… That girl, there’s something about her.”

  “She’s only six, Mom,” he said quickly. “Come on, get inside before you freeze.”

  She shot him a mom look but hurried back into the warmth of the house with him behind her. His dad, David, was talking to Danny in the kitchen, and the strong smell of his mom’s chili met his nose. At least that would be a good part about tonight. His mom’s words stuck with him, though, and after he’d hung up his coat and joined them in the back of the house, his gaze drifted again and again to Jenna.

  When he’d first met the girl, he saw Danny and someone else. Now, after spending time with her, he picked out bits and pieces of the man who had to be her dad. This was not the place to say it out loud, but even her laugh reminded him not of Danny, but himself. Jenna was his. She had to be.

  “Now then, I’d love to hear all about this adventure you’ve been having,” Penny said. “Everyone get their chili and head to the table. Wine, Danny?”