Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,236

tame the beast between my legs.

I hadn’t even touched Piper last night, but she still invaded my mind. I wasn’t sure what I liked more—the teasing little camisole she wore as pajamas…or the memory of her bare skin in the hot tub.

I never wanted a woman as badly as I wanted her. I had to take her. Hold her. Show her just how I liked to recover after a hard game.

If only she’d let me close.

If only she realized how badly I needed her. How beautiful she was. I wished I could tell her that every time she argued with me or teased me or challenged me, it was…life-altering. I didn’t understand it, but, for the first time in my life, I connected with someone. I’d never let anyone close before, and now I couldn’t get rid of her. But was it a curse…or luck?

For too long, I believed what people whispered when they thought I couldn’t hear. They called me ferocious. Dangerous. A monster.

Piper was the one person who made me feel like a man.

I showered and ignored my throbbing erection. I wasn’t animal enough to jerk off thinking about her. Yet. I dressed, stretched, and took the stairs one hobble at a time.

I tensed as a playful shriek echoed through the house.

The baby.

The noise shocked me. I wasn’t used to sound in my halls. I tolerated the hum of an air-conditioner, the trickle of a shower, and the clank of the machines in my weight room. Otherwise, I preferred silence. No voices or distractions.

And no one ever giggled.

The bottom of the stairs was baby-gated. Of course. But even in the light I didn’t understand the mechanism. I stepped over the damn thing. My hamstrings ached, but at least I didn’t fall on my face.

Especially since my landing was the most popular damn spot in the house.

Rose toddled to the stairs, screeching like a drunk banshee haunting a sorority house. She pointed at me. I didn’t know what to do, so I pointed back. It was an acceptable greeting. Rose proceeded to tell me the story of her life in a rush of noises that contained no coherent sentence structure, diction, punctuation, or recognizable words.

“Ba da pop ricky bunny bam mamamama!”

“Uh.” I froze. “Good?”

It appeased her. Rose held her arms up and sighed.

“What?” I asked.

“Up up up.”

“Oh no.” I retreated backwards and smacked the baby gate. It jiggled, but it wouldn’t open. I was trapped. “I don’t do up.”

“Up!”

“No…that’s okay.”

Her smile faded. Her pout chubbed her cheeks and puffed her lip. Now she asked slower. Maybe thinking I didn’t understand her? Why else would someone ignore her request and be so cruel?

“Up?”

“Really…it’s not a good idea.”

Rose disagreed. She stretched her arms high and whined. My heart crashed against my ribs like it was a goal line struggle in the middle of a playoff game.

Nope.

I couldn’t hold a baby.

A single squeeze, and I’d pop her head clean off. She was so little. Too tiny, too dangerous, for someone like me to lift, hug, carry.

The shame rushed over me in a cold, humbling sweat. I didn’t trust myself with the baby.

I wanted to protect her from me, but the only way to do it was to break her heart and deny her only babbling desire.

“She’s saying up.” Piper appeared from the hall and slung the kid into her arms. “She wants you to hold her.”

I might have nodded, but I couldn’t speak.

Piper wore a soft sundress, a pastel yellow that contrasted with the hazelnut perfection of her skin. Her hair rested low in a thick ponytail, and she smiled with the baby on her hip.

Feminine and perfect.

My veins pumped with grit and mud and sweat. Nothing sweet. Nothing gentle. Nothing as pretty as a lovely woman bouncing her smiling baby.

My chest tightened. Panic? No. Something worse.

It was only day one of our living arrangement, and I already felt claustrophobic in a fucking mansion. I wouldn’t let it get to me. I needed to eat, drink, and do a couple laps in my pool until my lungs mercifully filled with water.

Piper followed me to the kitchen. I didn’t know why. Was this something people…did? Or was it just Piper’s prerogative to pester the hell out of me?

“Glad you’re finally up, sleepyhead.” Her eyes drifted to my bare chest, the ink on my arms. “I was starting to get worried.”

No one ever worried about me. I tensed, but I didn’t think she patronized me. She waited for my response.

I didn’t know how to