Small Town Daddy: A Dark Romance

by B. B. Hamel

  “You don’t bore me.” He grinned. “I could teach you a few things about the human body.”

  “I bet you could.”

  We moved down the path and reached the stadium. Across a small grass field with walking paths along either side was a reflecting pool and the library.

  “I’m this way,” he said, nodding to the left and away from the library.

  “Okay. I’ll see you later?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, you will.”

  I watched as he turned and left. I wanted to say something else, but I couldn’t think of exactly what it was. I stood there for a second, thinking about the way his skin felt, the way he looked at me.

  A thrill ran through my body. It was a dangerous feeling, the sort of feeling that could make me do something stupid.

  He made me feel that way when he looked at me with those intense eyes. He made me feel like stupid things were possible.

  I shook my head and went off to the library. Maybe I could distract myself with work, but I doubted it. I was going to have to do this twice a day for the rest of the semester.

  Gibson and his body were going to become a serious part of my semester, if not my life.

  13

  Gibson

  I kept thinking about the way Avery’s hands felt on my skin. I wanted to grab her hair and pull her against me, take that little pussy the way I wanted it. But I knew she was tentative, worried about complicating our already complicated relationship.

  I wasn’t fucking worried about it. All I knew was that I had to take care of her and that I wanted her. I wasn’t worried about anything else.

  The day flew by. Class was always a drag, but it was even worse because all I could think about was Avery. All I wanted to do was get out of the classroom and let Avery take every single measurement she could imagine.

  But eventually class was over. I had a short break before practice, just enough time to hustle back to the apartment, grab something to eat, and then run over to the practice fields.

  As I made my way back, I felt the phone in my pocket vibrating. I smirked to myself, assuming it was going to be Avery. Instead, it was a number I didn’t recognize.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Gibson, kid, how are you?”

  I slowed my walking pace. It was Vin, the mafia guy from the other day. “I’m good. How are you?”

  “Fine, kid, fine. Listen, I just wanted to talk to you about our deal.”

  “I’m glad you called.”

  “Are you? Good, good. Listen, I just want to make sure we’re good for this weekend.”

  “We’re good, just like you requested.”

  “Wonderful.”

  “How will you give me what I need when we’re done?”

  “I’ll send a guy over to campus. Don’t you worry about that. We don’t fuck around with that sort of thing.”

  “You can’t send him to my place.”

  “Don’t worry, kid. We’re very discreet. I appreciate the position you’re in.”

  “But listen, what happens if I don’t deliver?”

  There was a pause. “That would be bad, kid.”

  “You know I don’t have control over the whole game, right?”

  “Of course not.”

  “I’m going to make it happen on my end, but what if something unforeseen occurs?”

  “Listen, kid, nothing unforeseen will occur. Got it? You just do your thing and don’t worry about anything else.”

  I clenched my jaw. “Fine,” I said.

  “Good on you, kid. We’ll be rooting for you, for half the game at least.” He laughed and then hung up the phone.

  I slipped my phone back into my pocket. I hated that he kept calling me a kid, hated his cocky fucking laugh. But I needed them. It had been my choice to reach out to the mafia; they hadn’t come to me.

  On a whim, I pulled my phone out and dialed Avery’s number. It rang twice, and she answered just as I decided what I was going to say to her.

  “Gibson?” she answered. “Hey.”

  “Want to get one of those extra sessions in?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You mentioned wanting to study me more seriously. Meet me tonight at the health center at ten.”

  “Doesn’t it close at nine thirty?”

  “I have a key. Meet me there. We can do your study.”

  She paused. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll be there. I can do my measurements then.”

  “Perfect. See you later.” I hung up and put my phone away.

  I didn’t exactly know what I was doing, but it didn’t matter. I was sure that I wanted this girl, and if doing this would help her, well, fuck, I might as well.

  I hurried home, running a little behind. I was going to have to bust my ass to get to practice on time.

  Hours later, the night was cool and campus was mostly empty as I headed over toward the health center.

  The place closed at nine thirty, but a friend of mine worked there and had given me a key to the back door. Back when I was a freshman, I used to sneak into the center and get extra workouts in. Back then I had to work pretty damn hard to win my starting position.

  I still had to work hard. I couldn’t just coast through this stuff. But I didn’t have to bust my ass on after-hours workouts anymore, fortunately.

  Standing near the front door was Avery. She was wearing a gray sweatshirt and her tight black jeans, her bag slung over her back. I smirked as I came over to her.

  “Hey,” I said. “You’re early.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” She frowned, looking around. “Are we supposed to be going in here?”

  “Nope,” I said. “Follow me.”

  “Hey, wait a second.” I didn’t listen, though. I just walked off, skirting along the path until I got to an unmarked door on the side of the building. I slipped the key from my pocket and unlocked the door, opening it up.

  She frowned as I held it open for her.

  “We can get in trouble, Gibson.”

  I laughed. “Grow a spine and get in there.”

  She sighed. “I’m not a big football star like you. The university will kick me out.”

  “No, they won’t. Don’t you want your data?”

  She nodded, took a deep breath, and then walked inside. I followed her, smirking the whole time. I loved that I was pushing her boundaries, making her do something she wouldn’t normally do. There was no way she was going to get in trouble for this anyway. I’d done this a thousand times without ever being caught.

  “So, what do you want to see? Want me to lift some weights, get nice and ripped?”

  “Just a treadmill,” she said.

  “Come on, nothing more fun? Medicine balls? Kettle bells?”

  “Treadmill.”

  “Fine.” I turned right down a hall and headed into a large, dark room. I hit a power switch and the place lit up. There was row after row of treadmills and televisions in both corners.

  “Welcome,” I said, “to running nirvana.”

  “Great. Get your ass up there.”

  I laughed. “Getting pushy? I like it.”

  “I just don’t want to get caught.”

  I walked over to the closest treadmill and turned it on. I took off my top layer so that I was in only a white T-shirt and my gym shorts. Avery dropped her bag next to me and began to root through it.

  “Okay,” she said, taking a little device out. “I got this beauty from the lab I used to work in.”

  “What is it? It looks like an octopus.”

  “It’s a Holter monitor, basically. It’ll monitor your heart and all that good stuff. Take your shirt off.”

  “You’re always asking me to strip. I like it, but it’d be nice if you would return the favor.”

  She did not look amused. I pulled my shirt off and tossed it aside.

  “Stay still.” She began to attach the device to my chest, putting little sticky electrodes on my skin, and then finally clipped a battery pack thing to my short
s.

  “Oh good. This feels really natural,” I joked.

  “Get to running.” She grinned at me.

  “Okay then.” I turned the treadmill on. “How fast?”

  “Not too fast. Just enough to get your breath going.”

  I started to jog. I didn’t push it and went at a medium pace, just enough to get my heart pumping and my breath coming in faster.

  Meanwhile, Avery pulled her laptop out. She turned it on and started clicking and typing as I ran. I eyed her, curious about what she was doing, but I didn’t push. I figured this was her shit and I was just her lab rat.

  “Okay, you’re looking good,” she said.

  “No kidding.”

  “Are you going to make jokes about everything I say?”

  “Yes,” I answered seriously.

  “Fine. Go faster.”

  “You just want to see me sweat.”

  “Yeah, I do, but not for the reason you want.”

  I laughed and turned the machine up, going faster. I could feel it now, and I felt good. I loved pushing my body to its limit, loved exerting myself and seeing how hard I could push. I loved that feeling of going beyond what I had thought was possible before.

  Avery alternated between watching me and watching her laptop screen. She wasn’t taking any other measurements, but she would click and type something periodically. I was on the treadmill for about twenty minutes before she finally told me to cut it off.

  I slowed it down to a walk as I cooled off. I was sweating, my white T-shirt clinging to my body. I grinned at her.

  “Did I pass the test?” I asked her.

  “With flying colors.” She smiled at me. “Some really cool data on here.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Heart rate, beats per minute, that sort of stuff. Next time we do this, I want to try making you run inclines, mix it up, see how your body reacts.”

  “If you want to see my body react, all you need to do is come over here and take those clothes off.”

  Finally, she smiled and laughed a little bit at one of my jokes. Apparently all it took was a twenty-minute jog and a bunch of science data to make her happy.

  She was totally unlike any other girl I’d ever experienced. I was used to cheerleaders and pep squad girls, the type of girl that knew my stats but only because my popularity got her off. Avery was not that girl at all. In fact, she was the total opposite.

  Maybe that was what drew me toward her. She was completely unlike any girl I’d been with. Maybe that was what I’d been looking for. All it took was getting her pregnant to really start to figure that out.

  I got off the treadmill finally and grabbed a towel from my bag, wiping off as Avery continued to type away. I walked around behind her and looked over her shoulder.

  It was all numbers in a spreadsheet. I didn’t understand a bit of it, but she was typing and clicking away like it all made sense.

  “You’re such a nerd,” I said finally.

  She looked up at me. “Sorry. I got a little lost in this.”

  “Those are just numbers, you know.”

  “But they’re numbers that mean something. They’re important numbers.”

  I shrugged. “I guess so.”

  She typed something and then shut her laptop lid. “I guess we should get going.”

  “Did you get what you wanted?”

  She nodded and put her laptop away in her bag. “Yeah, I did.”

  “I’m not sure I got what I wanted.”

  She stood up and looked at me. “What do you want, Gibson?”

  “You know what I want. I keep telling you.”

  “I’m not going to strip for you.”

  I smirked and stepped closer to her. I could see her eyes run down my body, glancing at the places where my shirt clung to my muscles. “That’s not what I mean.”

  “You want to make this more complicated than it needs to be.”

  “Maybe, but you’re the one who wants to study me. That’s not exactly simple.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I know.” She looked away.

  I stepped forward and took her hair gently, turning her face toward me. Her lips parted and she put her hands on my arms, feeling my hard biceps.

  “I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but the worst has already happened.”

  “No,” she whispered, “it hasn’t.”

  I moved closer to her, my cock hard as hell in my shorts. I needed her, wanted her so badly. Her smell filled my nostrils as my lips moved toward hers.

  Just then, the door to the room opened. I stopped, frozen, as a janitor stepped into the room.

  He froze when he saw us. “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing in here?”

  I let go of Avery and stepped away. “Sorry,” I said. “We were just doing a study. University cleared this.”

  “Nobody told me.”

  I shrugged. “It was a last-minute thing.”

  “Didn’t look like you two were doing a study.”

  I lifted up my shirt to show him the heart rate monitor still stuck to my chest. “We were practicing something else,” I said, giving him a grin.

  He nodded. “Fine. Just be out of here soon. I have to clean in here before I go.”

  “All right. We’re finishing up.”

  He gave us one more look before disappearing.

  “Shit,” Avery said, letting out a long breath. “Holy shit. I thought we were screwed.”

  I laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Give me that thing back. I completely forgot about it.”

  I nodded and stripped off the monitor. She stuffed it back into her bag.

  “Come on,” she said. “We should go.”

  “Yeah. I guess so.”

  I gathered my stuff and then followed her to the door. I turned off the equipment and then the lights, and we headed back down the hallway. We pushed through the back door and were outside again, free and clear.

  “Guess we’ll have to pick a different time next time,” I said to her.

  “There’s a next time? That scared the hell out of me.”

  “Don’t worry. There’s always a next time.”

  She glanced up at the sky and then sighed. “Good night, Gibson.”

  “At least let me walk you back home.”

  She shook her head and walked over to a nearby light pole. Her bike was locked to the pole, and she slowly unlocked it. “I have my bike,” she said.

  “Still.” I shrugged. “Dangerous neighborhood.”

  “Good night, Gibson.”

  I grinned at her. “Good night.”

  She got on her bike and rode off. I watched her go, and then cursed.

  My dick was still fucking hard from that almost-kiss.

  That asshole janitor had really cock blocked me in the worst way.

  14

  Avery

  All through Thursday I kept thinking about my time with Gibson. I kept seeing him on that treadmill, the sweat slowly beginning to drip down his chest, his white shirt clinging to his ripped frame. I was so nervous, and that nervous excitement made the whole thing that much more intense.

  Plus, I was getting some really good data. I was lucky that the principle investigator at the lab I worked in was such a nice guy. He let me borrow all that equipment, which made it much easier to get some data. I was going to have a killer final project. I had no doubt about that.

  Assuming I could keep going through with it. Every time I got close to Gibson, touched his body, listened to his cocky jokes, I had a hard time not throwing myself at him. I was already pregnant with his baby; I just couldn’t imagine that getting more involved with him was a good idea.

  But I had almost kissed him anyway. If that janitor hadn’t caught us, I didn’t know what I would have done.

  Gibson had thought quick on his feet. I couldn’t believe we didn’t get in trouble for that, but somehow we made it out. Gibson was probably used to getting away with everything, but not me. I sh
ouldn’t be taking such stupid risks, but Gibson seemed to bring out that side of me. It was hard not to want to do something stupid and crazy with him, especially while he was grinning at me and talking dirty the whole time.

  I didn’t see him Thursday morning or Thursday after practice. He said he had to cancel the next two days because he was busy preparing for Saturday’s game. I didn’t know what that meant, and I couldn’t help but read too deeply into it. Maybe I was coming on too hard with this whole project thing and he had changed his mind. Maybe he didn’t want the crazy chick he got pregnant coming around to his apartment all the time anymore.

  Thursday rolled past, nothing new, nothing special. I got up, went to class, did some studying, and went to bed again. I woke up Friday feeling tired and nervous.

  I had Fridays off from class. Still, I got up early anyway and went to the library to get some studying in.

  I could barely sit still. I had made a decision to do something really unpleasant, something I really didn’t want to do. If I could have it my way, I’d never go through with it.

  But I had to tell my parents what was going on. I had to tell them that I was pregnant, because sooner or later they were going to find out anyway. I might as well get ahead of it and maybe give them enough time to come to grips with the truth before I actually gave birth.

  I was nervous all day long. I didn’t know how they’d react. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe they wouldn’t totally freak out. Sure, they wouldn’t be happy, but maybe they wouldn’t try to disown me completely.

  Friday afternoon rolled past and I walked home from campus, deciding it was too nice to waste it riding my bike. Truthfully, I was just putting off my unpleasant task.

  I got back to my apartment at around five o’clock. My dad would be getting home from work in a half hour.

  Harper was sitting on the couch when I got inside.

  “Hey,” she said, looking up. “Where have you been?”

  “Library,” I answered, dropping my bag on the kitchen table.

  “Nerd,” she said, grinning. The Real Housewives of something or other was on TV.

  “Rotting your brain?” I sat down next to her.