Protected_A Second Chance Baby Daddy Romance

by Kelli Walker

  “Good,” she said. “Now eat.”

  Alicia

  I sighed and closed my eyes as I settled in for bed. I’d been with Ryder for three weeks at his home and things were going well. He was still stubborn about doing a lot for himself, but he was at least allowing me to cook. I stuck to the few recipes I knew and varied them with spices and other flavorings. His stitches were healing nicely and the frequency of his headaches were subsiding. He was even joking around and finding the energy to go for swims in the pool out back. It was hard for me not to look at him. At the droplets of water rushing down the divots of his muscles. I’d sit at the window and watch him, making sure he didn’t hurt himself or collapse and suck in too much water.

  With every passing day, he got better. His vision cleared up a little bit and he could move his neck around a little more. His hair was growing back at a rapid paced. I was actually impressed with it. It was so long I could grip it again. If I wanted to. I watched him stroke his fingers through it every now and again, making his way back to the scar. To the plate and screws that lined his skull as he relived that day. I could see it in his eyes. The unfocused stare and the way he would jolt whenever his mind pulled him from the memory.

  I wanted to be able to say something to comfort him, but I knew it was useless.

  I was battling my own nightmares. Sometimes I would wake up in cold sweats and have to splash water in my face. Sometimes I would hear Ryder walking out of his room in the morning and just for a second, I’d think he was Langley. I still had some of my old habits. Refusing to let Ryder make me coffee and having food prepared ahead of time in case he wanted to heat something up. There were times where I still caught myself trying to ask him if an outfit looked good on me.

  If he approved of it.

  But just like Ryder was healing, so was I. Those habits were slowly dying and my nightmares weren’t as frequent. But there were other habits that took their places. I slept light, in case Ryder needed me. I kept washing myself at the sink like I had for the month I was in the hospital with him. It almost felt foreign, stepping back into a shower. Or taking a bath in some jetted tub. I’d had everything ripped away from me. My freedom. My security. My safety.

  Ryder.

  The habits Langley had conditioned into me were replaced with habits that felt a little less… wasteful.

  The only bad thing was watching Ryder throughout the day. Not that I didn’t want to be there, but I was getting a taste of what he had endured while protecting me. The feeling of constant worry and dread that something would happen? I felt it every time I heard him walking around. Or turning on water to shower. Or getting out of bed and coming down the stairs. I saw the danger in everything. Every little action and everything he picked up within his hands. He would come down the stairs and I’d see him falling and busting his plate loose from his skull. I’d hear him getting into the shower and I envisioned him stumbling and hitting his ribs against the railing. I’d watch him open the fridge to grab something and I’d imagine the food he grabbed igniting the swelling in his brain and me not catching it.

  I’d see him reach for a fork and I’d imagine him passing out and falling onto it.

  I had a newfound respect for what Ryder had gone through with me. For the worry he stomached and the sleepless nights he probably had to make sure he could hear me if I cried out. It was the few moments in the day where Ryder was completely silent that panicked me the most. That flooded my veins with adrenaline that blurred my vision. If I heard him, I knew he was okay. Conscious. Healing.

  But if he was silent, there was always that lingering fear that I would find him on the floor. Passed out.

  In a coma again and slipping away from me.

  I drew in a deep breath and allowed the silent sounds of the nighttime to overcome me. It was bedtime, and I was having a tough time shutting off again. For being just outside New York City’s limits, it really was quiet. Peaceful. Tranquil. It was still hard to process that Ryder lived out here. Thrived out here. Owned the space he lived on and the massive house that surrounded us both. He really had changed. Grown up into a wonderful man.

  I was lucky to be able to be around him.

  A small sound wafting down the hallway caught my ear. At first, I figured it was Ryder snoring. But then it happened again. I sat up in bed and felt the silk sheets gliding across my skin, my ears trained on the sound.

  But when it happened again, the sound was unmistakable.

  Ryder was grunting.

  Ripping the covers off my body, I went dashing down the hallway. I had no idea where the sound was coming from, but panic was flooding my veins. The grunt came again and it sounded like he was in pain. Every single scenario rushed through my mind. His head was splayed open. A rib had punctured his lung. Langley was back.

  Holy shit, was Langley back?

  My hands were trembling as I ran down the stairs. I stuck my head into every crevice of the downstairs until my ears locked onto another sound.

  Running water.

  Ryder was in the shower.

  I sprinted back up the steps, gasping for air as I threw myself around the banister. How I didn’t hear the damn water in the first place was fucking beyond me. My legs were carrying me as fast as I could go as I strode down the hallway, then I rounded into his bedroom and saw his bed was empty.

  Water was pouring from the shower head, and I heard the sound again.

  A long, drawn out grunt.

  Ryder was in trouble. I knew it. I walked over to the door and prepared myself to rip it open, but the sound that hit my ears next wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t a grunt or a whimper. A call for help or a choking sound.

  It was…

  “Alicia.”

  My name?

  I heard him panting. I heard the sounds of skin slapping skin. I furrowed my brow and planted my hand against the cracked bathroom door, and the sounds of him gasping were unmistakable.

  “Shit. Alicia.”

  I knew that tone of voice, and the pieces slowly started falling into place. The grunting. The panting. The slapping skin I could hear. The growling of my name and the way his voice made me shiver. I stood there, unable to move as I listened to the sounds speed up. My hand was shaking against the door and I felt heat rising up my body.

  I’d caught Ryder in a very intimate moment, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

  If I moved, I could risk being heard. Then he would know I was here and creepily listening to him beat off in the shower. But if I stayed and waited him out, I risked looking like an even bigger creep by electing to stay there and listen. I slid my hand from the door and straightened my back, but his voice was pulling me in. Luring me into the forbidden territory during a moment that wasn’t meant for an audience.

  But the words dropping from his lips made me quake.

  “Alicia. Fuck. So tight for me. Your body. So beautiful.”

  I smiled lightly at his words as I reached for the door.

  I was going to pull it closed and go back to bed, but my hand came up and hit the doorknob. The sound ricocheted throughout the damn bathroom and I grimaced at the pain. It was blinding. It brought tears to my eyes. I bit down onto my lower lip to keep from crying out, but a whimper still escaped. There was no hiding it now. Ryder knew I was there. I gripped my hand against my chest and massaged the ache, watching as the door swung open.

  The bathroom was filled with steam and the water was running on hot. The mist felt good against my skin, and I closed my eyes and inhaled. It had been weeks since I’d taken a decent hot shower, and suddenly my body was gravitating towards the feeling of it. Like I had lost control of my body, I stepped into the bathroom and allowed myself to be covered in the hot steam.

  I opened my eyes and looked into the mirror, seeing the frosted glass of the shower reflected in it. I could see the outline of Ryder’s naked body, and it was clear enough for me to see him turned towards the mirror himself. I felt my blood run cold as I cradled my hand against my ches
t, and my eyes dropped to the bottom of the mirror.

  It was clear Ryder was still holding onto his cock, and heat flooded between my legs.

  He was still panting. Trying to catch his breath. My cheeks blushed furiously and I had no idea how the hell I was going to talk myself out of this. My hand was aching and my body was relaxing with the hot steam from the shower. Ryder’s naked body was poised towards me and I knew he was watching me the way I was watching him. Two passing people in the night who came together by unsuspecting circumstances, and now neither of them had the gall to make the first move.

  I knew where I wanted to be.

  The question was, did he want me there too?

  “Are you okay?” Ryder asked.

  I let out the breath I was holding and dropped my hand to my side.

  “Yeah,” I said breathlessly.

  “You hit your hand pretty good.”

  “I um… I was trying to close your bathroom door? The steam was seeping into your room.”

  “Was it?”

  I shivered at the rumble of his voice.

  “No, it wasn’t,” I said.

  Ryder chuckled, and I swore the sound alone blinded me with white hot passion. My eyes fluttered closed and I imagined his lips against my neck. His naked body pressed against mine. I imagined those same water droplets trickling down his chest. His abs. His cock. Falling off its leaking tip as it rose for my body.

  I needed to get out of there.

  I needed to leave.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said breathlessly. “I heard you grunting and thought you were in pain and by the time I realized what was going on I’d hit my hand and the door flew open.”

  I closed my eyes and gathered myself before I turned on my heels.

  “Let me get out of here,” I said. “A hot shower actually sounds nice.”

  “Have you not taken one today?”

  “I haven’t taken one since we got back from the hospital.”

  I heard his feet pad along the shower before the glass shook. I looked up and saw his hands planted firmly into the frosted glass. He smoothed the steam away and I could see his eyes. His beautiful brown eyes and his thick dark hair dripping with streams of water.

  I felt my nipples puckering at his sight.

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Just got used to washing in the sink.”

  A heavy silence hung between both of us as I watched him nod his head.

  “Maybe you should change that. You know, since we’re home.”

  Home.

  What I wouldn’t give to call a place like what he had ‘home’.

  “Then I’ll go do that,” I said breathlessly.

  “I didn’t say you had to do it alone.”

  I froze in my spot as I heard him inch the door open. My chest was flushing with heat and a rush of steam beat down upon my back. My hands were trembling at my sides as the sound of the water called to me. I could hear it beating down on Ryder’s skin. Coating him in a beautiful sheen my eyes had beheld multiple times over the course of the past three weeks. I closed my eyes and swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the scratching of my own selfish wants at the back of my head.

  “Get in with me, Alicia.”

  I whimpered at the sound of his voice.

  I slowly turned around and his body came into view. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever laid my eyes on. Steam was rising from his shoulders and his eyes were locked onto mine. I could see the water trickling down his shoulders and dropping down his chest. My eyes followed them down to his chiseled abs, taking in their washboard physique before following the deadly trail. The pads of muscles at his hips were dented with lines that led straight to a stiff cock I could see begging for release.

  I felt myself slipping. Giving into the primal urges rising up within my body.

  This was it.

  The moment of no return.

  And if I had it my way, I was never coming back.

  Ryder

  I didn’t think I was being that loud, but looking at Alicia standing there in nothing but her nightgown was proof I had been. The look in her eyes was dark. I knew what she wanted. I knew what I wanted. My balls were hanging low and the tip of my cock was leaking with need. And with her standing there as she devoured me with her stare, my mind fled back to that day.

  The way she tasted.

  The way she felt against my body.

  The way she sounded as my cock filled her pussy.

  It was her choice. If she wanted to get in the shower with me, I knew exactly what I would do with her. All the positions I would put her in and all the ways I would torture her as she squirmed. But if she wanted to leave, she had the right to. I didn’t want to make her do something she didn’t want to indulge. I would finish myself off like the plan had been, I’d crawl in bed, and I would wake up refreshed and act as if the rejection had never occurred.

  But then I watched her hands trail up to her straps.

  She slid her nightgown from her body and it went pooling to her feet. Her luscious curves were in full view, draped with the thick steam surrounding us. Her tits fell against her body luxuriously and her thighs were trembling with weakness. I licked my lips and grinned as she walked towards me, her leg stepping into the shower.

  The hiss of the water against her skin was pure bliss as she closed her eyes and stepped in with me.

  For three weeks, she had been taking care of me. For three weeks, she had done nothing but cater to me. Check on my every need and indulge my every request of her. But this moment was for her. To help her unwind. To help her decompress.

  To show her what she really meant to me after all these years.

  I grabbed her arms and ushered her underneath the stream of water. It fell all around her beautiful red hair and cascaded down the smooth curves of her form. I grabbed my soap bar and rubbed it along her body, soaping up her delicate skin.

  Then, I began to wash her.

  I smoothed over her breasts and soaped up her stomach. I ran my fingers around her face and massaged her neck. I held her close to my as my hand slipped between her thighs, cupping her pussy and feeling her rock her ass into my cock. I rubbed her thighs and massaged her shoulders. Her delicate shoulders that had carried the weight of me for far too long.

  She sighed at every stroke of my thumb against her sore and aching muscles, and it sent a shockwave of fire through my body.

  I grabbed my shampoo and began to lather up her hair. I massaged her scalp and ran my fingers through her hair, untangling the knots I knew I was minutes from replacing. She closed her eyes and allowed my hands to drift along her body. To swirl around her nipples and grin as they puckered at my touch.

  “Ryder,” she said, whispering.

  “Relax,” I said. “Let me do this.”

  I backed her slowly into the spouting water and watched as the bubbles raced down her body. I watched every single one of them meet their death at her feet before my hands fell to her waist. I squeezed her. Felt her jump as my hands caressed all the way down to her hips. I pulled her back towards me, ignoring the ache in my cock.

  This was for her.

  I’d get mine when it was time.

  I grabbed the last of my conditioner and ran it through her hair. I smoothed it from her scalp to the tips of her tendrils, watching as it glistened against her skin. The hot water beat down upon us body and encased her body in a red glow that called to my lips. And when the tangles were gone and every strand of her beautiful hair was coated with conditioner, I leaned forward and placed my lips against her shoulder.

  Then the animal inside of me took control.

  I reached for the shower head and removed it from its holster. I wrapped my arm around Alicia’s waist and kicked her legs open with my knee. She gasped, sliding against the soapy shower floor as I held her closely to me.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. “You can’t-”

  But I silenced her words as I
dipped the spout of water between her legs.

  She jiggled against me. Quaking with pleasure as the thin water spouts tickled her clit. I knelt down and kept my leg out, my hand massaging her tit as she sat straddling my thigh. I clicked the shower head and compressed the spout, then ran it up the inside of her leg.

  “Shit! Ryder. Holy fuck.”

  Then I parted her pussy folds with my hands and found that beautiful spot of hers.

  She rocked against the water as moans dripped from her lips. She reached for anything she could to grab onto. My hair. My thigh. My arm. I held her close to me. I tweaked her perfectly-engorged nipples until she was grunting in non-syllabic sounds. Her legs were visibly jumping up and down and her skin was prickling, and as her head fell back to my shoulder I could hear how quickly she was breathing.

  “Ryder. It’s too much. I can’t. Stop. Please. No, wait. Right there. Right there. Right there, Ryder. Ryder! Don’t move! Right there!”

  Her body contracted over and over again as her pussy pressed right up against the damn shower head. I held her tightly to my body as she rocked against my thigh. I could feel her juices dripping down my leg. Her pooling arousal streaking down my skin. I held the shower head up to her clit until she collapsed against me, then I tossed it to the floor and watched it sputter against the wall.

  It was spraying us in every direction as I picked Alicia up in my arms.

  I planted her back against the wall and wrapped her legs around my waist. I crashed our lips together, my tongue sliding through effortlessly. She was limp. Spent. Her legs were still shaking and I could feel her struggling to cling to me. I sucked on her lower lip and nipped down her neck. I pulled her beautiful tits between my lips and sucked until I left marks behind upon her skin. I couldn't get enough of her. Couldn't get her close enough.

  Then, I felt her legs strengthen around me.

  I rocked my thickening cock between her pussy lips as she coated me in her juices. Then I arched my hips and slid easily into her wet heat. I groaned as I entered her, watching as each inch of me disappeared inside. My hips bottomed out against hers and I groaned, my eyes panning back up to Alicia’s.