Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance

by Sosie Frost

  “You feeling okay now?” I pulled her closer. She tensed in front of the others but nodded. “Want to dance?”

  “Aww.” Piper gave Cole a fierce glance. “How sweet.”

  Elle didn’t find it as charming. She arched an eyebrow and patted the camera in her hands.

  “Oh, come on,” I said. “You’re working?”

  She waved to me, Cole, and Jack, then aimed a finger across the room at Coach Thompson and a few members of the defense. Point taken. Team events plus Leah’s PR spin machine meant this would be one well-documented party.

  “Well, here.” I handed her my champagne. “At least have a drink.”

  She backed away from the glass like it was filled with acid. This time she tapped the camera harder.

  “Really?”

  She shrugged, stroked her wrist where a watch would go, and pretended to aim the camera. I had no idea what it meant, but whatever. I downed the champagne instead. It definitely wasn’t strong enough to mask the aches and pains from practice, but it was a start.

  Another flash captured us. This time, Elle’s boss, Peter, held the camera.

  “Don’t you all look fantastic?” He greeted us with a smile. “And Elle. You’re absolutely lovely.”

  She gave a knowing shrug and motioned to return to the party. Peter stopped her.

  “Elle, why don’t you enjoy yourself tonight?” He took her camera. “Go on. Spend some time with your husband.”

  The group laughed. Elle didn’t.

  “You’ll have plenty of overtime during these next few weeks,” he said.

  “Oh? The exhibition games?” I asked. “You’re covering those?”

  She nodded, quickly.

  Peter patted her arm. “It’d do you some good to have a night off. Give me one picture of the happy couple, and you can have all the fun you want.”

  Perfect.

  I seized the opportunity while Elle couldn’t yell at me. I twirled her in my arms, dipped her, and took my kiss.

  The camera flashed, and Elle’s heel jammed into my shoe.

  “Yeah, I deserved that.” I grinned. “Totally worth it.”

  “You two probably know it…” Leah said. “But you make the cutest couple.”

  “That’s what I keep telling her.” I kissed Elle’s hand this time. She pulled her wrist back, thwapping my nose with a chastising finger. “She doesn’t know how good she’s got it.”

  Her hands poised over her hips, but that insulted back arch pushed up those tits even more.

  “First she doesn’t remember our wedding.” I baited her with a smile. “Then she refuses my advances. Teases me. Uses me. And yet, here I am…asking for more trouble.”

  “Yeah.” Jack nodded. “That’s marriage.”

  Leah flicked his ear. “And you love it.”

  “Was never planning on it.”

  “You got it anyway, Play-Maker.”

  A waiter passed by, and I plucked a champagne glass from his tray. I handed it to Elle.

  “Now that you’re off the clock...”

  She set the glass on the table with a shrug. Her hand patted her throat once more, but Piper’s startled gasp shocked the group.

  Leah pointed too, her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Elle—?”

  Elle grabbed my hand and yanked. I tripped over the damn dress shoes—shiny and black, but without any cleats for traction. Elle waved a rushed goodbye to the women and hauled me from the table.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked.

  Elle led me to a darkened corner of the dance floor and placed my hands on her hips.

  Her soft, full, sexy hips.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “This…this is good.”

  My cock swelled as she pulled close to me. Her arms looped behind my neck as she swayed to the music’s sensual beat. Every movement this woman made was pure magic.

  Her chest bumped against mine, and I lost myself in her wide-eyed, almost curious gaze.

  “You look fucking amazing, Red.”

  And I didn’t just mean the ample, caramel skin that plumped from her corset. A lock of hair, streaked with that punk red, fell over her breasts. I followed the ringlet to the gentle curve of her cheek, the delicate tease of her eyebrow, and into the dark curls of her hair.

  “You have no idea how…delicious you look right now.” I could hardly speak. “Something’s changed.”

  She shook her head no.

  “Nope. Something is definitely different with you.”

  Her shoulders shrugged high. I didn’t buy the coy act, especially as she tightened her hold on me. Even mid-song, with our bodies touching and the music coursing through us, Elle tensed.

  Something bothered her, and it wasn’t just that she had gone mute during the afternoon.

  “Maybe I can guess what’s changed,” I said.

  Her eyebrow arched.

  “Have some faith in me. You’re my wife. I can read you like a book.”

  She cracked a smile. A challenge?

  “I bet I know what’s happened to you.”

  Her eyes widened, and she held her breath.

  “It’s obvious, Elle. Has been for a while. Everyone’s already noticed.”

  She stopped dancing, glancing over herself, her dress.

  “I’ve known since the river.”

  Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

  “You’re absolutely crazy about me. Got the love-bug for me so bad you can’t function.”

  Elle dropped her hands, but I didn’t let her keep the indignant pout.

  “You know it’s true. You’ve suddenly realized you can’t imagine life without me.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Every night, you go to sleep and think…” I spun her, surprising her as the music switched to something more upbeat. “Oh, that Lachlan Reed. He’s so dreamy. I hope he’s thinking about me.”

  Elle shrugged, mocking a nighttime prayer with folded hands.

  “Yep. That’s it. You’re smitten. Can’t help it. All day, every day, you’re trapped in your own lust. Thinking…I hope he likes me. I can’t wait to see him again. Maybe he’ll ask me to marry him…oh, wait!” I spun her to my chest for a kiss. My lips stayed close to hers. “It’s burning you alive, isn’t it? You want me so bad you can’t even think straight.”

  She feigned helplessness, pressing the back of her wrist to her forehead.

  “Can’t hide this stuff from me, Red.”

  Her kiss was a quick peck.

  “You’ve missed me. Been thinking about the last time we were together.”

  The music shifted again, something deeper, darker, and thrumming a vibration through both of us. Elle settled into my arms—soft, but still playful.

  Watching me. Waiting.

  She rubbed against me, sensing my hardness through the tux.

  “I know you love what I do to you.” I lowered my voice, just for her, so she could hear the edge of a growl that teased us both. “You got the sweetest fucking pussy in the world. And when you come…”

  She poked at me, but no one could hear. I liked making her eyes widen in that sheltered shock.

  “You have this honey cream, Red. I can’t get enough of it. I’ll eat for hours if it means getting a taste of that creamy treat.” I licked my lips. “I’ve been craving it all week.”

  Her fingers tightened on me. The song swayed, deep and rhythmic. Perfect for a sultry dance that let us get a little too close, touch a little too low.

  “You wouldn’t want a man to starve, would you, Red?”

  She exhaled with a trembling breath.

  “Why don’t you give me another chance at that slit? Let me spread those legs, kiss that pussy, tongue that cute little clit?”

  She looked to her sides. No one was watching. No one could hear. It was just me and her.

  “Or do you want a fuck?” I let the word linger. “I’ll push you against a wall, wrap those legs around me, and fill you up tight with my cock?”

 
; Her lips parted, but she didn’t try to speak. She puffed a heated breath and swallowed.

  I did the same.

  “Know what I want?” I leaned close. She smelled of coconut and paradise and complete and total mystery. “I want to show you around this party, all prim and proper and classy in that dress.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “But we’ll have a secret.” I nibbled her ear. “They won’t know that you’ve just been fucked and filled with load after load of cum.”

  It was a great party, but I knew how to make it more fun.

  I tugged her hand. A question. One that didn’t need words.

  She followed, staring at me and breathless. Her head just barely nodded.

  I’d reward that bravery.

  Inside, the gala was too crowded for anything more than a sensual dance, but Jack and Leah had picked the perfect location for their event—a country club and botanical garden. A romantic place. Beautiful. Quiet.

  I led her across the dance floor and to a side exit, sneaking through a secondary area by the stage. The songs were ending, and the lights brightened to welcome the party-goers.

  Jack waited to be introduced as Leah fixed his bow tie. I winked as I passed him.

  “You two behave…” He shrugged his own warning away. “Never mind. Go for it. If there’s a scandal tonight, better you than me.”

  Elle hid her face, but she chased after me, sneaking from the party into a beautifully landscaped garden and patio. Twinkling, white LEDs glittered through the wrought-iron fences, separating a dining patio from the garden. I found our perfect hideaway.

  A hedge maze, even taller than me, snaked through a fabulous courtyard. It twisted far from the club and into the dark silence of the humid night and all its promises.

  I should have declared this our third date, but that was fine. I’d take any extra time I could get with Elle. Maybe we were stretching our agreed-upon rules, but she hadn’t argued on technicalities yet.

  And she wouldn’t after tonight.

  Our shoes crunched over the gravel, and we entered the maze. I let Elle lead me, first left, then right, until the darkness swirled around us deep within the maze. We were tangled and twisted as we came to the same stone bench marking the path we’d crossed three times in a row.

  Maybe we were lost.

  But hell, I was already lost in her.

  I had been, ever since the minute I met Elle. The hours we passed talking, the weekend we hid within each other’s arms, and the days we’d spent together at training camp had transformed our drunken, mistaken marriage into…

  Something more.

  Something that might have been more.

  I could make it happen.

  I reached for her, but she was already there, pressed against me. Her arms circled my neck, and her lips parted for my kiss, my tongue, my nibble.

  Everything.

  Like she knew exactly what I needed. Elle wasn’t just a tease anymore. She dragged me to that damning edge quicker than any woman ever could.

  “I always want to take my time with you…” I mumbled against her lips. She let me guide her to the stone bench, a flat little altar just for me. “When we’re apart, I imagine all these fun things I could do to you. Roses. Chocolate. Little feather toys…”

  She smiled gripping the bench as I tucked her skirt over her waist. A wicked black thong separated me from her. I pulled it aside, staring at that puffy little slit.

  “But then I see you…” My voice dropped low. “And it takes every ounce of my strength not to mount you like a damned animal.”

  I recognized her tell—a dead giveaway that she was hot and waiting. The quiver of her lip always peaked into a smirk when a thought sounded wicked to her.

  “But you like getting fucked that way, don’t you?” I let the word hiss, watching as she shuddered in a silken delight. I raced my own desire to unbutton my pants. Last thing either of us needed was for me to bust a seam in the middle of the party. “You love it when I lose all control with you.”

  She leaned forward, gripping my cock and tugging the length with gentle fingers and a dirty mind.

  My heart crashed against my chest. Every muscle in my body readied, pumped full of adrenaline for a chase, an attack, a flight, fight, or fuck.

  “You have no idea what you do to me…” I pushed her legs apart and aimed for her slick pussy. “So I’ll prove it to you, Elle. Again and again, until you finally start believing it.”

  She didn’t need to speak.

  Elle arched as I slipped inside her pussy and bottomed out in the quivering softness that was as much velvet as it was vice.

  Heaven.

  She arched against the stone, gripping it, holding me, bucking her hips as my mind melted into thoughts of rapturous nothing and animalistic instinct. I thrust deep, and the shiver that strained her body shuddered through me.

  I’d never felt anything like her before. Nothing as soft. Nothing as hot. Nothing as…complete.

  The aches in my body disappeared. The rage of the practice and the creeping fear that shadowed my every step, catch, and block on the field were gone. Melted into the promised seduction of her slick and clenching pussy.

  I needed this. Her. All the time.

  She would hide me from the world in a moment of utter exhilaration. Her body offered a rush so intense and wicked and mind-blowing that this fall was my last one. I’d never recover. Never find anything more exciting than her again.

  Elle gripped my hand, holding onto me, bracing against me as I fucked her the way she deserved.

  Hard. Without restraint. Filling her. Pumping inside her.

  Proving that her body and touch and heat were enough to rip me apart and weld me together again. Hell, I’d let her keep a piece of me for her damn collection if she wanted.

  No. She could have all of me. I’d give myself to her, just as I’d promised every day since the first moment we met.

  Call it fate. Call it instinct. Call it a goddamned fairy-tale.

  This woman belonged to me.

  And every piercing thrust inside her wetting slit would forever promise that devotion.

  I wouldn’t last, and neither could she. Not in the rush that was sneaking around, fucking in public, stealing into the shadows because we didn’t have the strength to wait until we hid within the privacy of our homes.

  Elle couldn’t speak, but I read everything in her expression. Her lips parted, swollen from the frantic kisses. She angled herself so I could fuck her deeper than before.

  Not harder, but to fill her, to complete her. Us.

  Together.

  She stared at me, her eyes intense, wide. It was like she saw me for the first time, that stolen glance across the combine when my heart had stopped and I tripped over my own feet to fly head-first into a blocking sled.

  Finally, she could see all of me. Every part. The player. The friend. The lover. The man.

  And the parts of me I hadn’t shown her yet.

  But she’d have to know. She deserved to know.

  Would she still want me after learning about my past?

  She tried so hard to speak, but the words were lost in panted breaths. It didn’t matter. Her eyes pinched shut just as the shocking, shooting pleasure burst within me. It started as a delirious tingle before erupting into the white-hot searing agony that teetered between pleasure and pain.

  Her pussy squeezed me. Milked me.

  Every fucking drop.

  Every damned jet.

  I filled her with my desire, my energy, my last goddamned ounce of willpower.

  And the quiver of her endless orgasm rewarded me in a moment of silent intimacy.

  She jerked, breathing quick and hard and biting her lip as though she’d cry out, even without a voice.

  Beautiful.

  Perfect.

  Elle sighed as I pulled from her. She took my hand, pulling me close, staring at me with such intensity and honesty and…

  Fear?

&n
bsp; Well, I felt it too. That amazement and uncertainty and raw passion.

  I loved it.

  But it wasn’t time for her to admit it. I’d made her a promise. I’d get those three words exactly when I’d swore she’d say them—not a moment before.

  Even if she would prove me right.

  I pressed my finger against her lips.

  “Don’t say it.” I kissed her, savoring her surrendered shrug. “We still have one date to go.”

  15

  Elle

  “So, Mrs. Reed…”

  Freddie dropped his recording equipment in a heap on our office floor. He grinned at me, knowing full-well I didn’t have a voice to chastise him.

  “You do realize there’s fifty-two other men on the team?”

  I tilted my head.

  He scooted behind me, pointing to my laptop. He scrolled through the hundreds of photos I had taken for the day.

  “There’s one of Lachlan,” he said. “And there’s one of Lachlan. And another of Lachlan. And a fourth, fifth, sixth...” He stole my mouse. “And whadda know? Another of Lachlan. Lachlan. Lachlan…”

  I pointed to the picture of the quarterbacks, centering on the play-maker in his red jersey.

  “Oh, sure. That’s Jack. And right there behind him…” Freddie tapped the screen. “Lachlan.”

  Damn it.

  My groan was silent. That was getting annoying.

  Day three of muteness, and the laryngitis had no intention of fading. But I wasn’t sick. I’d lost my voice after a very unfortunate hiccup that was not a hiccup. I’d learned a wise lesson that day. Never trust a bodily function while pregnant. My stomach was a swirl of nitroglycerin, and any little bump, quiver, shake, smell, taste, or internet video of the birthing process was like swallowing a lit fuse.

  One unfortunately timed heave had occurred at the same time as a cough, and I’d accidentally doused my larynx with a healthy portion of everything unhealthy from my stomach.

  The doctor said it was a recipe for a persistently sore throat and a complete loss of my voice.

  Freddie laughed as I shut the lid to the laptop and packed my equipment with a huff.

  “I’m just saying, Elle. You’re allowed to have a crush on your husband.”

  I tried to speak, but I could only wag a finger. Fortunately, it was my index instead of one far more expressive. I stormed from the room.