by Vivian Lux
"Good," I grinned. "And I'll tell you why I'm staying."
"Yeah?"
"Because on the scale of one to ten, you're a nine and I'm the one you need."
She looked up at me sharply. "That's awful." But her smile told me otherwise.
"I'm hurt. I thought it was completely appropriate for the situation."
"The whole point is to be inappropriate," she laughed, nibbling at my ear. "I mean, here we are in a hospital waiting room and I'm going to tell you that your ass is so fine it's a shame you have to sit on it."
"Feel this shirt?" I asked
"Yeah?"
"Guess what it's made of?"
She wrinkled her nose. "If you say boyfriend material, I'm leaving."
I was laughing into that perfect place on her neck when a nurse cleared her throat. "Excuse me? Hate to interrupt but...your friends wanted me to tell you that you can come in."
Olivia popped up so fast she nearly clocked me in the jaw. "She had the baby?" she gasped.
The nurse nodded. "Follow me."
Chapter 33
Olivia
"I'm going to drop it," I said, completely panicked."
Candace sighed tiredly and reached for the alien – potato that was making strange little mewling sounds in my arms. "Give her back, then," she said, reaching for her daughter.
I made to hand the baby back with an audible sigh of relief, but then Brad reached out his arms. "Can...can I hold her?" he ventured. He was looking right at me.
The way he was looking at me, it was like he already knew. He was just waiting for me to get the courage to tell him.
He slid his arms under mine, and the baby into them. "Yeah, here we go," he whispered to her. "I've got you little girl." She made a little yawping sound and he started swaying as if on instinct. She immediately closed her eyes.
"Aw, that looks good on you," Candace cheered, clearly whacked out of her mind on painkillers. "Liv you guys should totally...."
"And that's enough of that!" I chirped, elbowing her in the ribs.
But when I looked to where she was looking, my breath caught in a gasp.
Brad's huge body was hunched protectively over the tiny, fragile baby in his arms. He widened his eyes and then smiled, making dorky faces at the little doughy bundle, and his eyes shone happily.
He almost looked like he could cry.
I walked over and put my hand on his arm. "Hey," I whispered. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I just wanted to stand there with him and share this moment. Because it was the moment that everything slid into place and I knew he'd be just as great of a dad as he was a great man.
He looked up at me. "Hey," he said softly.
The little girl opened her mouth in a tiny, perfect yawn.
Then she screwed up her face and Brad looked startled.
"Guys? I think she just pooped on me."
"Give her back," Candace demanded. Brad handed her over and Candace fell back against the pillow, looking completely wrecked. "On second thought, call the nurse. I'll deal with enough poopy diapers soon enough."
"Yeah you will," Ian agreed.
She looked at him with a new, fierce glare. "Oh you're going to be getting to deal with your share too, don't you be thinking any differently."
Big bad Ian Carter looked completely cowed. "Of course, honey," he murmured, kissing her forehead and gently nudging her hair back from her face.
But Candace didn't see how Ian was looking at her. She was too busy staring down at the baby in her arms. "Now that I'm looking at her," she said softly, gazing into her newborn daughter's face, "I can see why she was so desperate to get out. How did you fit in there, little Princess?" she cooed.
In response, her daughter reached out with her flailing purple hand and closed her chubby fingers around her mother's index finger.
We all caught our breath, Ian included.
"Now ain't that some shit," Brad murmured.
I turned and looked at him. "You always do know how to commemorate a moment," I sighed.
"One of the things you love about me," Brad murmured into my ear, stepping us gracefully back so that Ian and Candace could have their moment. "One of the many, many things."
We said our goodbyes and walked out of the hospital room hand in hand. "What the heck do we do now?" I wondered. "There's no way I'm going back to work after this.
Brad looked down at me with a mischievous glint in his eye. "There's something I've wanted to do with you for a while now."
"You already tied me up," I pointed out.
"Right. Something else. Come with me."
"Uh..."
"Don't you trust me?"
"Are you going to be using that line against me from now on?"
"Yup. Forevermore."
He clasped my hand in his and led me away from the hospital room and I I tried and failed to keep the stupid grin off my face. "Forever?" I repeated.
He didn't look back at me. "Don't pretend you don't know where this thing is headed, Liv," he grumbled.
"So romantic."
"Yup."
"So was that like a low-key marriage proposal or something?"
"Sure. Why not?"
I flushed from head to toe. My insides felt like they were gleaming. "My caveman," I choked, touching his face.
"Damn straight. And I always will be."
Chapter 34
Brad
There was something so peaceful about being alone in the practice rink. I laced up my skates and hit the ice with a sigh of contentment. The hyper-chilled air hit my face and I inhaled deeply.
Then I turned back to look at Olivia. "Are you going to stop making fun of me for 'twirling around on the ice' now?" I called.
Olivia's cute little face was scrunched up in this murderous scowl that made me want to burst out laughing. So I did, because she was hampered by the ice skates and couldn't reach out and kill me without falling on her face.
"I'm, ugh, never going to, goddammit all to hell, stop making fun of you," she threatened, inching her way onto the ice. She was bent nearly double, arms flailing out in front of her like a windmill.
"You look like you're trying to fly instead of skate. You know that flapping your arms won't work, right?"
"Fuck right off, Bradley," she cursed.
I took a deep breath. "I'm only doing this so you stop embarrassing yourself," I said, skating over to her side. "Here, as nice as your ass it, you can stand without sticking it up in the air."
I took her arm and tried not to grin like an idiot when she clung to my arm like a drowning man grabs a life preserver. There were definite perks to letting her into my life like this. More opportunities to grab her ass. "Here Just push off with your back foot. Glide. I’ve got you."
"Fuck!" she yelled as we started to move. "Slow down!"
"We're going about two miles an hour," I pointed out.
"Too fast," she panted. "Way too fast."
I slowed to a granny pace "Is this better?"
"No!"
I laughed. "You're just mad because you're not immediately good at it."
"No! I'm mad because that's my default reaction when things are trying to kill me. You should see me behind the wheel of a car."
"I have. You're terrifying."
"Well now I'm walking around with fucking knives strapped to my feet, and you're telling me I have no reason to be afraid?"
"No, you don't have to be afraid. But you do have to trust yourself." I placed a tentative kiss on her forehead. "And trust me, too. Don't be scared, I've got you, baby."
"Baby?" she asked. "Are we going to talk about how you just called me baby?"
"Nope!" I grinned, and pushed off hard on the ice, making her yelp and cling to me.
Chapter 35
Olivia
We flew across the ice as one, the wind in my face. I heard a wild, manic sound and realized it was coming from my own mouth. I sounded like a crazy person, but I didn't care, because this was crazy. Every inst
inct in my body said to stop, to dig in my toes and clomp my way back to the solid ground where I wasn't certain to fall and smash my face in, but I didn't because of the way Brad was holding me.
He was holding me so close, so confident. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen to me. He was protecting me, and he looked like he was really enjoying it too. He wanted me to share in this thing that he loved, which gave him so much joy. The biggest part of his life was right here on this ice and he wanted me here with him, to know what it was like to feel what he felt and if I wasn't going to do it on my own, well then he was just going to haul my stubborn ass out and force me to try something that I was certain I was going to fail at and then just go ahead and not let me fail at all.
He wasn't going to let me fail. He wasn't going to leave. And he wasn't going to let me go.
Breathless, we slid to a stop, Brad braking for both of us. Momentum whirled me around in a circle until Brad caught me up in his arms. I looked up at him, this man who held me and kept me from falling down. I trusted him.
"I'm pregnant," I told him.
I will always swear that his face shimmered. Disbelief dissolved into wild happiness and he made a choking sound. No words came out, and now I knew why, and I just hugged him back as hard as he was now hugging me.
"Really?" he finally managed. "We're having a baby?"
"Do you want to have a baby with me, Brad?" I twisted my fingers up in my hands. "I'll tell you, I can't imagine myself as a mom" I looked up and traced the line of his jaw, my fingers scratching through his beard. His face looked like it might break he was smiling so hard. "But I saw you just now, with Candace's kid? And it kind of made me realize something I knew already. But I think you'd be a fucking incredible Dad.” "A total DILF, honestly," I smiled. "And our kid is going to be awesome."
"The coolest," Brad echoed. "And he definitely will be getting that from me."
"He?" I demanded. "We're totally having a girl."
"Want to bet?"
"Yeah, what are you wagering?"
"If it's a boy, you owe me a month of blow-jobs," Brad smiled wickedly. "And if it's a girl, I'll owe you a month of oral."
"Make it foot rubs instead of oral," I complained. "I'm already swelling, I swear. I'm going to need surgery to get these skates off."
"You're choosing foot rubs over oral? Man motherhood is changing you already."
"I know. I'm going soft." I reached up and kissed him. "Just make sure you never do."
He burst out laughing and pulled me close. Pretty soon I was just going to be just like Candace, all moony and romantic, blissed out on love and endorphins. I was changing. And that was fine.
No regrets.
Epilogue
Olivia
I heaved myself out of my desk chair. "All right gentlemen, I'm done for the day," I called. "Don't blow the place up while I'm gone."
Kyle merely snorted at his desk, but Marcus actually had the good grace to poke his head out from his office. "Good luck today, Liv!" he called. "Say hi to my nephew for me!"
"Niece," I corrected tiredly. "The bet is still on."
Marcus chuckled. "I hope you're right, actually. You should have made it two months of foot rubs."
"There's still time," I said packing my bags. "Speaking of time, don't forget to put me in for a half day today."
"I got you," Marc agreed at the same time that Kyle spoke up, "don't worry about it."
"I'm not gonna dock you for getting an ultrasound, Bryant," Kyle sighed. "What kind of asshole do you think I am?"
"You're my asshole," I chirped, blowing him a kiss. "Now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to start waddling now in order to make it there in time."
As fast as I waddled, Brad still beat me to the OB's office. He was already in the waiting room, slumped into one of the chairs that were way too small for his frame. His long legs stretched out practically into the next county.
"Hey Daddy," I sang out.
He jumped to his feet and rushed to my side. "How are you?" he asked, a worried crease in his brow.
"I'm the same as when I saw you this morning," I chided him. "Still knocked up, still kind of grumpy about it."
"Ah," he chuckled, kissing my forehead. "I wouldn't have you any other way."
The technician called us in. I lifted my shirt and let her spread the warm goo all over my stomach. Then she slid her wand across it and dug in.
The static on the screen formed into a perfect little face.
"Oh!" I gasped.
"Hey there little one!" Brad said softly. "So good to see you!" Then he smiled. "Watch out for your mom." He reached out and took my hand.
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but I couldn't find the words. I could only stare at the little scrunched up face on the screen.
"He's got your chin," Brad murmured.
"She," I corrected.
"Everything looks great," the technician said. "Are we finding out the sex today?"
I looked at Brad who raised an eyebrow. "The bet?" he wondered.
I exhaled. "Does it matter?"
"Not really, no," he said. "I was going to rub your feet anyway."
"And you know I'm always down for going down."
He smiled and squeezed my hand. "I think we'll wait," he told the tech.
I nodded. "Okay little one, don't go anywhere. Mommy and Daddy will see you soon."
THE END
THE END
Thank you so much for reading IMPACT! As a special bonus, I've included FORCE, Ian and Candace's story, and my rockstar book RANE. And all you have to do to read them is keep turning the pages!
BOOKS BY VIVIAN LUX:
Sons of Steel Motorcycle Club:
Steel My Heart
Steel Me Away
Steel My Love
Steel My Soul
Rockstar Romance
JAX: A Rockstar Stepbrother Romance
RANE: A Rockstar Stepbrother Romance
WILDER: A Rockstar Romance
Sports Romance
FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vivian Lux loves bad boys who are good men. She lives in Upstate New York with her model-hot husband and adorable twin boys. When she's not writing, she's reading. When she's not reading, she'd really love to be hiking, but is more likely dealing with the mountain of laundry that piled up while she was writing and reading.
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I love to hear from my readers.
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FORCE:
A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Vivian Lux
Copyright 2016
All Rights Reserved
FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
About this book:
I'm not a nice guy.
And so far, that's working out really well for me.
In hockey, the enforcer is a not an officially sanctioned position. But everyone knows what he does. And everyone knows what I do. I'm Ian Carter after all. I'm a big, bad bully both on and off the rink. My fans know it, and I know it too.
Until I meet her.
Candace Hunter. My sweet piece of Candy. She's the got the face of an angel and a body made for sin, but more than that, she sees something in me. Something that makes me wonder if I'm more than my reputation. She forces me to be a
better man.
But there are other forces out there too. People who want to hurt us, people who want to drive us apart.
I'm not going to let them win.
Nice guys finish last. Ian Carter comes in first.
Chapter One
Candace
The text message alert on my phone went off the second the waitress brought out our appetizers. I smiled apologetically across the table.
But my date was too occupied with his onion rings to notice.
I slid my phone under the table and glanced at notification on the screen.
Olivia: How’s it going?
I pressed my lips together and snuck a glance at the man across the table from me. Dennis hadn’t noticed I was looking at my phone. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure he really noticed I was even in the same room as him. His eyes were fixed over my shoulder, keeping a close watch on the hockey game that blared on the screen behind us.
Yes, we were in a sports bar. A loud, boisterous sports bar. For our first date.
And they say romance is dead.
Feeling guilty, even though I had no reason to, I covertly typed my reply.
Me: Okay, I guess…
Then I slid my phone behind my back and smiled winningly across the table. “So—Olivia tells me your parents are veterinarians. How wonderful to grow up with animals like that!”
He nodded, chomping loudly on his onion rings. I could smell them from across the table, and involuntarily wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, it was cool, I suppose…” The momentary eye contact he made with me drifted away, and his attention was once again rooted on the game behind me.
I felt my phone vibrate against my back.