Santa Baby: a Crescent Cove Romantic Comedy Collection

by Quinn, Taryn

  I slid my palm along the back of my neck. “We will.”

  Kelsey was grinning when I locked the door and turned back to her. “Afraid she was going to start the gossip chain in your neighborhood?”

  I hung my head. The wildfire would be starting soon no matter what I said. Especially since Michelle’s mother was the most notorious gossip hound on the street. “I don’t bring girls around. It’s going to happen regardless. Sorry.”

  “I’m not ashamed.” Kelsey pursed her lips. “Or are you ashamed because I’m the knocked up teacher everyone’s been talking about?”

  Seventeen

  Dare crossed to me with a quickness that made me stumble back a step. “No. Absolutely fucking not.” He cupped my face and drew me up until I was actually on my toes. My heart was racing and emotions were pinging all over the place. Fight, flight, lust, and love.

  God, so much love I couldn’t even comprehend it.

  I wanted to shout it at him, but we hadn’t gone there. In the foggy bit of romance we’d tripped through, we hadn’t said that one very specific word. It felt like more than duty. It felt like we were actually a team. Or at least going to try and be a team.

  And there was this. The kind of passion I only thought existed in books and movies. Would that burn out and then there would only be a child? Or just friendship. Maybe love that grew over the years?

  He traced his thumbs over my cheeks so gently, but his eyes were fierce. “I couldn’t give two fucks what others think. All that matters is I’m yours and you’re mine. And our family. The one we build.”

  I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Pregnancy hormones, or just too many emotions I couldn’t bottle up. I’d never been good at it. “Dare.”

  Instead of saying anything more, he swung me up into his arms.

  I wasn’t prepared for that kind of action. Namely because I was too tall for any guy to do that, but he didn’t even grunt. He stalked through the arch leading to his dining room, but went right for the stairs.

  “I’m too—”

  “Kel?”

  I blinked at him. “Yes?”

  “Shut up. I’m making a grand gesture here. How about you just enjoy it?”

  I pressed my lips together and hung on. When we got to the top, he stopped by a cracked open door. My heart melted when he peeked in to make sure Wes was settled.

  Maybe settled wasn’t exactly the right word. He was sprawled on his back, a league of stuffed dinosaurs lined up around the perimeter of his bed, with the T-Rex tucked under his arm. I brushed my fingers over the softness of Dare’s beard. There was love there. A softness around his eyes and mouth, but then his gaze returned to me.

  It was different. Maybe not as huge as I felt for him, but it wasn’t just lust. Someday, it could be more. I was selfish enough to want it, to reach for it because having this baby was terrifying and exciting and I didn’t want to do it alone.

  He leaned forward until our noses brushed. Then that purposeful stride was back as he traveled toward the back of the house where the master bedroom was. It was bigger than I expected in a townhouse. Huge and nearly empty save for a bed, dressers, and a chair. A small light was on in the corner of the room. The room was stark white except for one wall.

  Normally, I wouldn’t have noticed because of the intent firing in Dare’s eyes. But the wall was orange. “Wow.”

  “What?”

  “That’s very orange.”

  “Oh.” He laughed. It was a rusty sound. I rarely heard him actually laugh. A chuckle sometimes, but more often it was a grunt or a growl. “Wes picked it. Think you can handle it?”

  I swung my feet as I peered around his shoulders. “I think I can make it work.”

  “Is that so?” He placed me gently on the bed and peeled his sport jacket off.

  I struggled out of my jacket, pushing it to the floor.

  He tsked and bent to pick it up and folded it over the back of a rocking chair. “Is this something I need to get to know about you, Kel?”

  I propped myself up on my elbows. “That I’m impatient to get you naked? This isn’t news.”

  He slowly unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, then proceeded to make his way down the front placket. “No, that you’re a slob. I wouldn’t have thought so with you being a teacher and all.”

  I swallowed, trying to follow the conversation. But there was a lot of flesh being shown. The rippling kind that revealed muscles in places that had definitely not been in my purview. I’d caught pieces of him, but I’d never really been able to take in the full effect the couple of times we’d been together. In fact, he’d seen more of me than I had of him.

  He left the shirt on, the tails floating around his hips as he dug his wallet out of his pants, setting it on the bedside table with his keys. There was a ritual to each motion. Like this was his nightly occurrence. Why that ratcheted up the tension in my belly, I had no idea.

  Then he slowly unbuckled his belt, dragging the leather through the loops before tossing it on the chair with my jacket. He backed up to the door, snicking it shut softly. He dragged a laundry basket full of Legos in front of the door.

  I nibbled on my lower lip. Had he done this before? A warning signal if there was a sudden disruption from a certain little boy?

  Who was I to say anything about it considering my current situation, but the fact that he worried left me warm and slightly uneasy at the same time. These were things I’d have to get used to now.

  My future included a new family, and a pre-existing one at the same time.

  He thumbed open the button of his jeans and all thoughts of Wes, other women, and Tommy floated away. This was about us right now. And the bulge behind his zipper told me his focus was on me. That was what mattered.

  I hissed out a breath when he lifted my foot to his chest. He dragged his fingers up over the soft leather to behind my knee to the zipper of my boot. His gaze never left mine as he slid one, then the other boot off. Then those strong fingers slipped under my skirt for my tights.

  Not exactly the sexiest outfit in the history of man, but I hadn’t realized my world would be spinning quite this way tonight. From the proposal to the unerringly slow way he was undressing me.

  It didn’t feel clinical in any way. But the way he opened me up, divesting me of every piece of clothing, made my skin buzz in reaction. Tights, then shirt, then bra.

  All the while, his cock grew harder and more insistent behind his rapidly dropping zipper. As if he was bursting to get to me.

  And damn if I wasn’t ready for all of it. To touch all of him from chest, to thighs, to that surprisingly luscious butt he hid under baggy jeans. I wanted all of it.

  But he was determined to go slow, no matter how I sighed or tried to help speed up the process. He simply pushed my hands out of the way when I tried to help. His heavy-lidded gaze made everything inside of me slow down as if my blood was made from molasses on a cold night.

  Finally, he pressed my bare foot against his hot belly and kissed his way up my calf to my knee and then my thigh. He reached for the little snap on my skirt. It wasn’t quite as easy to remove as the rest of my clothes.

  My body was already changing a little. My belly was still flat, but my narrow waist was widening just enough that my clothes were starting to feel different. He reached behind my waist as I lifted to help him. He slowly dragged the material over my ass and slid it down my thighs to join the rapidly growing pile of clothes on the chair.

  I toed open his shirt. “Off.”

  A slow smirk tugged at his lips. He shrugged it off his shoulders and placed it with the rest of my clothes. A few freckles marched across the center of his smooth chest. A single tattoo bloomed across his shoulder. A checkered flag rippled as if snapping in the wind. The number 44 filled the bigger flag, then a smaller 42 seemed almost hidden in the folds.

  So many questions tugged at me, but he dragged me down the bed, opening my legs enough for him to resume his path.

  I reached o
ver my head for the headboard and he smiled from in between my legs. “Think you need to hold onto something, darlin’?”

  “I think so.”

  He slowly licked my slit. “Good plan.”

  The Dare I’d been with before tonight had always been thorough, but in the past, there had seemed to be a timer in the back of his brain. As if he was rushing to be in too many places at once.

  Not tonight.

  Not now.

  He was unhurried as he knelt on the bed and widened me with his shoulders. He slid his arms under me and laced his fingers over my belly, holding me down on the bed.

  “Oh, God.”

  The smirk was back. The one I remembered from our first night. But then a serious look came over him and he bent to me. I arched off the bed as he slowly, methodically learned every inch of me.

  I didn’t have time to be embarrassed by the fact that he seemed to be mapping out every square corner of my lady garden. I was too busy trying to breathe through the slow building pleasure.

  I could actually see the word recalculating flicker in his eyes as he watched me and listened for every reaction. And gosh, did he learn everything. I was a panting mess when he finally stopped teasing and went in for the kill shot. Fingers, tongue, and a sucking bite tossed me over the tumultuous ledge that only Dare seemed capable of throwing me over so easily.

  When he finally covered me, I was writhing on the bed. His jeans hit the floor and his mouth crashed onto mine. Probably to try to quiet me down, but I couldn’t seem to work my brain around stopping the sounds. Instead, he silenced me with his lips, his tongue, and his wonderfully solid body.

  He rolled his hips against me and slid inside.

  Dear God.

  I hissed out a breath as he stretched me wide. His hips pressed me deeper into the mattress as he slowly glided in and out of me. He gripped my hair, turning my head where he wanted me as he kissed me with his usual intensity. The kind I was used to from the rest of him. Hungry and quieting at the same time.

  I grabbed onto his amazing butt, trying to get him to go faster. To pump into me like he’d done before. Harder and rougher. The tempo had been just exactly what I’d needed that afternoon when he put my bed together.

  But no, he was determined to go slow. To drill into me until his body literally seemed to be becoming part of me. I raked my nails down his back as I lifted my hips up for more.

  He pinned me and stared down at me with such naked intensity I could do nothing but take what he was giving. A gentleness trapped under coiled aggression.

  “Dare,” I whispered.

  He buried his mouth against my neck and sucked, then did this thing with his hips that gave me the friction I needed. I curled around him as the slow rolling orgasm finally unfurled like the flag on his arm.

  Soft and lovely.

  So different than any other time we’d been together. He shuddered in my embrace and dragged in a harsh breath before warmth filled me. I’d never been with anyone without a condom.

  Hard to believe since I was currently pregnant, but it was the truth. It felt intimate and overwhelming in a way I couldn’t describe. Like a piece of him was finally inside me and couldn’t be taken back.

  Even if, God forbid, the baby wasn’t his—this was. Right now, us together was as all-encompassing as anything had ever been in my life.

  He drew out of me, but instead of flopping onto the bed next to me like I was used to with any other man I’d ever slept with, he curled behind me. His strong, ropey arms held me close and he buried his beardy chin into my neck.

  The low, slow groan reverberated through his chest and into my back and I folded my arms over his to hold it inside me. I felt cherished for the first time in my life and I never wanted to let that sensation go.

  We must have fallen asleep because suddenly a crash and a bang jerked me into consciousness.

  “Shit.”

  “Dad?” A pair of eyes peeked in from a crack in the door.

  “Just a second, buddy.”

  “Why are the Legos in front of your door?” Wes put his shoulder into the door to get it to open.

  I squeaked and dragged the sheet up to hide my absolute nakedness.

  Dare jerked the blankets up and over my shoulder. “Hey, buddy. You’re supposed to knock when you come in.”

  “You never close your door.”

  I buried my face in the covers and couldn’t stop the smile. Maybe he didn’t bring women home after all.

  “Why don’t you go back to your room and get dressed? We’re, uh, going to make pancakes today.”

  “Pancakes?” Wes’s voice was still timid, but there was an uptick. “Can we have bacon?”

  “Is there any other way to have breakfast?”

  “Do you have someone in there with you?” Wes’s voice got closer. “Did you have a sleepover?”

  I winced. Was I supposed to hide? I mean, we were going to get married, but how did that go with talking to Wes?

  Oh, hey there, I’m your teacher and your new stepmom! Won’t that be cool?

  Good God, I was going to be a stepmom and a brand new mom all at once.

  I flipped the sheet over my head. Why did I think this was a good idea? I couldn’t cook brownies without burning them more than half the time.

  Dare cleared his throat. “Yeah. We’re going to talk about that at breakfast, okay?”

  “You don’t let me have sleepovers.”

  I snorted and Dare pinched my butt.

  “You’re too young for sleepovers.”

  “Who is it? Is it Uncle Auggie?”

  I burst out laughing when Dare choked. “No, you know Aug sleeps on the couch when he stays over.”

  “Yeah, like after the Supahbowls.”

  “Right. Go on. If you get a move on, I’ll make trucks.”

  “Yes!”

  When I heard feet stomping down the hall, I flipped the covers back. “Should I sneak out?”

  “What? No. We’re going to go down and talk to him like adults. Besides, you’ll be moving in here soon, right?”

  “Who says? I have my own place.”

  “We’re getting married.”

  “Yes. Not like tomorrow or anything.”

  “Maybe we should.”

  My heart stuttered to a halt. “What?”

  “Should do it as soon as possible. Like right after we get a license.”

  I blinked at him. Mostly because that was all I could seem to do.

  He rolled onto his side and loomed over me. “I mean, you were worried about school stuff, right? And getting you settled here would make things easier for everyone.”

  “Easier. Right.” Easier was the most logical step.

  I cupped his face, my thumbs stroking down his tightly groomed beard. He’d even done that for me last night. The last time I’d seen him, he was definitely more on the woolly side.

  “The longer we have with Wes, the more he can get comfortable with the changes before…” His hand drifted down my breast to my middle. “Until there’s questions about here.” He lowered his mouth to mine then coasted down to my middle. “So I can make sure both of you are taken care of. The whole family.” He glanced up at me as his mouth brushed over my belly button. “My whole family.”

  He was being smart and sweet. And that was what I needed to be doing. Not just hiding my head about this whole thing. It didn’t matter that I’d always wanted a winter wonderland of a wedding. Right now, I had to think about the little girl or guy growing inside me. It wasn’t about me anymore.

  “We’ll start moving you in today if you want.”

  Even though I hadn’t been thrilled with my new apartment, a pang of sadness moved through me at the thought of leaving so soon. So much for my fresh start.

  Well, I was getting one, all right, just not like I’d anticipated.

  I cleared my throat. “I have to talk to my landlord.”

  “I’m sure Forrester will understand under the circumstances.”

/>   Because everyone knew I was the knocked up teacher of Main Street. “You’re moving things really fast.”

  “I know, but the sooner we’re married, the sooner we can get everyone settled.”

  Settled. Settling? Again, I couldn’t stop focusing on the duty part of this whole thing. I should be happy he was stepping up, being the best man in every possible way.

  He rolled off me and quickly pulled on sweatpants and a T-shirt. “You can take a shower before you come down if you want. I can’t guarantee bacon will still be available.”

  I flipped the covers back. Nope, I could do this. “Do you have something I could borrow?”

  He opened his drawer again. “They’ll be big on you, but here you go.” His eyes went dark as I stood up.

  I took the shirt from him. “What?”

  “Damn, I wish I had time to appreciate all of that more.” His eyes trailed over me. I wanted to cover up, especially since I seemed to be losing my waist with the whole pregnancy thing already. And yet his eyes were as hot as they were that first night. As any time we’d been together. “Last night wasn’t enough.”

  I blushed and quickly tugged the T-shirt over my head.

  He dragged me against him before I even got my arms through the huge holes. “But now I can have you whenever I want you.”

  “Is that so?” The little niggle of doubt started to fade. This part worked. He wanted me. I didn’t have to wonder about that. Even if he was a little less intense about it last night.

  Except the look on his face when he was right on the edge of orgasm. Then I’d seen the Dare who had come into my life like a tornado those two times. Destructive and fast, leaving me disoriented and wrecked.

  But then again, he’d also treated me with such softness. So much more than anyone ever had before.

  After he helped me get the shirt all the way on, he curled his fingers under the T-shirt and gripped my ass. But then his face gentled again and he touched his forehead to mine. The crumpled sweats were crushed between us, our fingers touching. “We’ll make this work, Kel. I swear it.”

  I swallowed. “I know.” I didn’t know, but I had to believe it. Fake it ‘til you make it was definitely my motto lately.