by Lexi Ward
Contents
Disclaimer
Title
M.V.B. - Most Valuable Baby
Sports Romance - The Quarterback's Secret Baby
Sports Romance - The Linebacker's Secret Baby
Sports Romance - Tackling Coach's Daughter
Sports Romance - Blitzed By the Baller
Sports Romance - Bad Rookie Habit
Sports Romance - Tackled by the Tight End
Sports Romance - Long Touchdown
Paranormal Romance - The Dragon Shifter's Wild Mate
Paranormal Romance - Stolen by the Billionaire Gorilla
Sci-Fi Romance - Abducted by the Alien Dragon
Western Romance - The Billionaire Cowboy's Baby
The Worst Romance
Copyright 2016 by Lexi Ward - All rights reserved.
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Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
M.V.B. - Most Valuable Baby
Lexi Ward
Siren Song Publications ©2016
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M.V.B. - Most Valuable Baby
CHAPTER ONE
So this is the NFL, Dylan thought as the Greyhound let him out in front of the state of the art training facility where he would be spending the next few months of his life. It was his first day as a pro athlete. Strangely enough, it didn’t feel any different from playing college football. He had grown accustomed to showing up early in the morning for practice while everyone else was asleep. After his freshman year in college, he had even shown up to start training before the rest of the student came in for the semester. For the players, the season never really ended.
“Dylan Green,” he told the staff member checking names off the roster at the entrance to the facility.
“Right. You’ll find your name on the door to your room.” He didn’t even look up to acknowledge the team’s new star player. He acted like Dylan was just another warm body here for the sole purpose of taking up space. Dylan couldn’t believe it, but he figured the kid had probably been working for the team for a while now. He was probably used to big names and star players like Dylan.
Make no mistake, kid, Dylan told the guy in his head, there hasn’t been anyone like me.
He walked down the long corridor and looked for his name on one of the doors. He noticed that each of the thin wooden doors had two names on it. It really was like being back in college. Surely, the team would have given him a single room. When he found the door to his room, he saw there was another name under his – Ty Johnson.
“Who is Ty Johnson?” he asked himself under his breath. He’d never heard of the guy, but when he opened the door to the room, he found the broad-shouldered athlete already unpacking his bag on one side of the room.
“I’m Ty Johnson,” his roommate answered him. He turned around and offered Dylan a welcoming smile as broad as his shoulders. He held out his hand, and Dylan shook it. Ty didn’t look old enough to even be in college, much less in the pros.
“It looks like we’re going to be roommates,” Ty told him as he turned back around and resumed unpacking his clothes into the drawers next to his bed.
“Yeah, about that. There must have been some kind of mix-up. I expected to have my own room.” Dylan couldn’t be thrown down into the ranks of guys like Ty Johnson. How could he be expected to lead the team to victory if he wasn’t above everyone else?
“You quarterbacks, man. It’s the same thing every year. Come on, man. This will be fun. It’ll be like being in college again.” Ty laughed and patted Dylan on the shoulder. Dylan realized Ty wasn’t a new guy like himself. Ty talked like he’d been around for a while.
“Yeah, I guess.” Dylan tossed his duffel bag on the full-size bed on his side of the room. He reminded himself that this was just a minor setback, and that everything would work itself out in the end.
A light knock came at the door, and both players turned from unpacking to see who it was. The same young staff member with the team roster introduced the young lady standing in the doorway. She had smooth, creamy chocolate skin with straight black hair that stopped just at her chin. Her beautiful hazel eyes stared directly at Dylan, and he wished he’d listened to the staff member’s introduction.
“Hey, I’m Dylan.” He took a step forward and held his hand out the beautiful young lady in front of him. As he stepped closer to her, he realized she was a little shorter than he was. Her beauty, however, filled the room.
“Sable Armstrong,” she said as she gently brushed her shiny black hair out of her face with her thin fingers and dark red nails. Her prominent, inviting lips parted in a genuinely amused smile, and Dylan realized they’d probably just been introduced when he wasn’t listening. She put her delicate little hand in his and gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. Before letting go, she rubbed her thumb over his fingers. Her skin was soft and warm, and her eyes never left his, not for an instant.
“Wait. As in Coach Armstrong? You’re his daughter.” He fought back the burning flush of embarrassment in his cheeks. He was supposed to be the new star quarterback, and this beautiful little thing had him falling all over himself.
“The one and only,” Sable answered in a flirty tone. Her voice was as smooth as silk.
“Wow. It’s…um…it’s a pleasure to meet you, S-Sable,” he stammered. He took her hand, still in his, and pulled the soft, smooth skin up to his lips. She laughed as he kissed the back of her hand, but she didn’t pull it away.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, too, Dylan Green. You’re sweet. I can definitely see some of that Southern hospitality I hear so much about.” Her voice caressed him while they stood in the doorway.
Let me show you more of my hospitality, Dylan wanted to tell her. In Dylan’s small hometown in the Deep South, he would have been laughed out of town for falling all over this dark skinned beauty, but here, in what he considered the real world, he felt free to appreciate how delicious her skin looked against the white of his hand. He didn’t want to let go. He wanted to kick Ty out of their room and pull Sable in with him.
She pulled her hand away, and Dylan returned to the training facility from the place in his thoughts where he and Sable stood alone. He remembered there were people around. Ty stood behind him, and he could feel his roommate’s slack-jawed stare. The ever-present staff member stood behind Sable with his face buried in his clipboard.
“I’m just stopping by to see my father for a minute, but I’m sure I’ll run into you again soon,” she said as she stepped back from him and turned to walk back through the door.
“No way! The coach’s daughter never comes by, man. Never! And did you hear what she said? She was happy to finally meet you. She’s been thinking about you for a minute, man.” Ty jabbed Dylan in the shoulder while he teased him about Sable.
“Of course she wanted to meet me. Look at me.” Dylan held his toned, muscular arms up and tried to play it off like he wasn’t
thrilled to have met her. Now that he knew her, though, he knew he’d have to find a way to get her alone. That wasn’t going to be the easiest task with a roommate hovering over him, but he’d pulled off harder stunts in college.
CHAPTER TWO
Sable had grown up around football. As the daughter of an NFL head coach, the sport didn’t hold any sort of novelty for her. Big sweaty men who were willing to slam into each other and abuse their bodies day after day in training and week after week on the field were a dime a dozen to her. Just as with any profession, however, there were always a few who would stand out among their peers.
Dylan Green was one of those outstanding athletes in Sable’s opinion, though the reasons he stood out to her weren’t the reasons someone would consider him a star athlete. She didn’t care about how he played the game. She cared about his smile, his Southern drawl, and those steamy stories she’d heard about him when he was in college.
Dylan Green was a legend in his own right. He came from a small town down in South Georgia, where boys like him were bred for football. He played defense in high school, but when he landed on the field at UGA, they saw him throw the ball one good time. One good time was all it took for the school to put him in as their quarterback. The rest was sports history.
No matter how great he was on the field, it was his reputation off the field that brought Sable up to the training facility on the first day to catch an early glimpse of him. He was every bit as gorgeous in person as the stories she’d heard made him out to be.
He stood about six feet and three inches tall, and he was still pretty broad from his days as a defensive lineman. He had obviously focused on bulking up in those days. His toned muscular arms and chest bulged in his t-shirt, and she could just catch the tail end of a tattoo peeking out from underneath one of his short sleeves. He had long, wavy golden brown hair swept back from his face and the most arresting green eyes she had ever seen. His skin had a permanent golden tone from all the years he’d spent in the heat of summer in the South.
When he took her hand, she imagined those summers he spent building his muscular physique by working on the family farm. She felt the sensual heat the permeated every facet of life down there in Georgia. It was the kind of heat that drove people out to the lake on the backs of their pickup trucks, where they would spend the night staring up at the stars and sometimes working off the heat of the day with their bodies pressed together under the blanket of the night sky.
Sable made herself pull her hand away from Dylan’s. She made up some lie about coming up to see her father, which she was only doing so nobody would think she had only come up to the training facility to check out the hot country boy who had just rolled into town as the team’s new backup quarterback. She didn’t want to get lumped in with the other fans falling over themselves to catch a glimpse of their favorite players. Sable Armstrong was better than that. She was above the star struck masses.
“Daddy,” she said as she reached her father’s office, pushed open the door, and crept in to find him sitting behind his desk on the phone. He was arguing with someone over something sports related, and he held up a hand to let her know he’d be off the phone in a minute.
“Yes, dear.” He set his phone down on his cluttered desk and didn’t try to mask his impatience.
“I didn’t really want anything. I just wanted to stop by and wish you luck this year,” she said. She stood just inside the door to his office and still hadn’t made up a believable reason for coming down to the facility.
“Thank you, dear. That’s quite thoughtful of you. I hope this means you’re starting to take some interest in the game. If you have a minute, I’d like to show you around the facility and maybe introduce you to some of the players.” Normally, he seemed excited and hopeful when talking to her about the game, but this time he narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. He wasn’t buying her story. He must have known there was another reason for her visit.
“That would be great, but maybe when I have more time. I’ve got to get to work now.” Sable was a PR Specialist for a Marketing Firm downtown. She wasn’t really interested in the team, just in Dylan Green. If anyone knew how strange her sudden interest in football was, though, it was her father, and it seemed to her that he’d already picked up on the scent. He was getting up from his desk to walk over to her. She knew she’d been busted.
“Well, when you have time, dear, I’d love to show you around. Thanks for taking the time to stop by this morning.” He stood right in front of her. She couldn’t lie to her father. He always seemed to be able to pull the truth out of her effortlessly.
“Sure thing, Daddy.” She gave her father a hug. He stood a little taller than Sable. He was still wide from the days when he packed on size and muscle as a pro, but he’d put on some weight since he left the field and turned to coaching. She couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t a coach, but there were photos of him in uniform on the field all over their house. They were hung side by side with photos of him as a coach and family pictures where he stood with Sable, her two older pro brothers, and their mom.
Sable wasn’t interested in the game the way her brothers were, but she couldn’t help feeling bad every time she saw the disappointment in her father’s eyes when she turned down his offers to take part in his passion.
CHAPTER THREE
“Again,” Coach Armstrong called.
Dylan didn’t know what he was doing wrong. He’d run the drill countless times. He knew the steps. He knew where the ones were. He could run it with his eyes closed. He felt he was even doing better than on his best days in college. For quarterbacks, everyone ran the same drills. It was all about how the quarterback put himself in the right place at the right time to launch the ball.
“Again. This isn’t college, son.” Coach Armstrong stood with his arms crossed and his clipboard held against his chest. He had stopped watching the other players on the field several drills ago, and he was focusing all of his attention on Dylan.
He missed a step and tripped over one of the little orange cones they used for markers during drills. He went down on his side suddenly, as if he’d been sacked. No one laughed. No one reacted at all, other than the coach.
“Alright, kid. That’s what I wanted to see.” He looked back down at his clipboard and started to walk off.
“Hold up, Coach! What did you want to see?” Dylan hopped up and tested his weight on his ankle to make sure he hadn’t injured himself in the fall. He jogged over to Coach Armstrong.
“I just wanted to see how many times you could do the drills under pressure without screwing up.” He cracked a rusty old smile at Dylan and patted him on the back.
“So, how’d I do?” Dylan asked hesitantly.
“About like I expected.” Coach Armstrong winked at him and turned his attention to the other players on the field.
Dylan let out a rough, exasperated breath and kicked at the grass on the field. It had been like this all week. They were busting his chops just to see if he could take it. He could, of course, but it didn’t make it any easier. He stretched his back and turned to watch the starting quarterback run a handful of drills with effortless grace.
“No one’s giving him a hard time,” Dylan muttered to himself.
“You’ve got some smooth moves out there,” a voice startled him from behind.
He turned around, and it was her, Sable Armstrong, the coach’s daughter. She looked up at him with a smile spread nicely across her face.
“Thanks, I guess. It’s Sable, right?” He didn’t want to seem too eager. He had to save face a little from the last time they had met, when she had him stumbling over himself. Pretending he wasn’t sure of the girl’s name was one of his go-to moves. It was intended to keep her from thinking he was too into her. This was the coach’s daughter, after all, and he wasn’t supposed to be into her at all.
“That’s right. I’m glad you remembered.” Her smile grew a little brighter, and her eyes sparkled. She playfully ran
a hand down his arm. Her touch was so soft and smooth. He could have used her touch all over his tired body.
Oh yeah, it’s working, he told himself.
“So, how’s practice going?” She talked like they were friends. She sounded like a salesperson trying to sound like a client’s best friend to get him to buy something.
“It’s practice,” Dylan answered with a sigh, “but it’s not like the practices I’m used to.”
“Well, it is the pros. Hey, have you had a chance to get out and enjoy the city any?” She touched him again. He knew she was trying to make a connection, and he was okay with that. He was sure she had her reasons for reaching out to him over everyone else, but he had his reasons for going along with it. Those reasons stood in front of him underneath her clothes.
“Not really. We’re stuck here all day, and no one really wants to get out of here when we’re done with practice,” Dylan told her. He wasn’t really sure if they were even allowed to leave the facility after practice. It seemed like they weren’t, judging by the way everyone acted about it.