Dirty Play:Sports Romance(25)

"It's done. My hand is healed. I deserve to play in the Super Bowl. If I  confess, it will ruin every man's life on the Wranglers. Their kids'  lives. Their wives' lives. I'm not going to do that to them just because  you think it would make me an instantly morally acceptable man."

I closed my eyes. This wasn't the way I thought it would go. I thought  the plan would be to hold a press conference and explain the medical  transformation that had taken place. I thought he would want honesty and  forgiveness.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected you to change. You warned me, didn't you?"

My hand gently tapped my stomach. What if I was pregnant? Could I have a  baby with a man who lied to the world? A man who would cheat just to  win? What kind of mother would I be if I let a liar raise my child?

I stood and walked into the bedroom. I couldn't look at his beautiful  green eyes another second. He wanted acceptance from me. He needed it.  And I couldn't give it.

Wes followed me, and I felt the nausea rising higher in my throat.

"Lennon, I need you. Baby, you're the best thing in my life. I see it. I know it. But you have to realize … "

He was going on about how I had to buy in to his gray world of winning  and losing, cheating and lying, when I rushed to the toilet, lifted the  lid, and threw up.

"Shit, are you okay?" He stood behind me.

I wiped my mouth and looked up at him. "I think I'm pregnant."





Twenty-Seven





Wes





"Pregnant?" I dropped to the tile floor next to her. "Holy shit."

"Yeah, holy shit." She heaved into the toilet bowl a second time, and I held her hair.

When she was finished, she stood and walked to the sink. I stared at her while she brushed her teeth.

"I haven't taken a test yet, but I'm late. I'm never late. And I've been nauseated. And then there's the vomiting."

I nodded as if I knew the pregnancy symptoms. What I knew was pregnancy  threats. Women who showed up at my door, wanting money. But there were  never any babies. Just money-hungry whores.

"So what do we do?" I crossed my arms.

"I don't know. I wasn't going to tell you like this. Not until after the  game. But it feels like everything is so screwed up already, so why  not? Right?"

God, I looked at her. Her cute nose, and those hips that had me on my  knees. The woman who had taken the control from my grasp. And she was  carrying my child. My baby. Our baby.

I walked toward her. "You're so beautiful to me. Sexy and smart. And to  know that we made a baby together … " I felt a lump in my chest. An  overwhelming need to protect her and our new family. "You're fucking  incredible, you know that, Doc?"         

     



 

"You're not mad?"

"Mad? Hell no. You know how hot you'll be when your tits swell up. And when your belly grows with my baby."

"Our baby," she corrected me.

"Right. Our baby." I pulled her against my chest. "Everything is working  out. This day started out like shit and now it's perfect. All I need  now is that Super Bowl ring, and I'll have everything."

She looked up at me. "How exactly are you getting out of the investigation?"

I scooped her up in my arms and carried her toward the bedroom. "Let's talk about that over breakfast."

"Wes, tell me." She whacked me on the chest, but I wasn't letting her  go, and I wasn't going to ruin the night with a bunch of legal jargon  about the players' union     and lawsuits.

"I promised you one hell of a night when you got here, Doc. So shut up  and let me give it to you." I positioned her on the bed and started  undressing her.

"You still want me? Like this?" she asked, with hurt in her voice.

I lowered to kiss her. "I've never wanted you more." I dropped her  clothes on the floor. I thought she was sexy before. But nothing was  hotter than fucking the woman I had given a baby. We weren't careful. I  knew that, but it didn't seem to matter. I wanted to be buried in her. I  wanted my seed in her, and this was why. She was carrying my child now.

Her legs wrapped around me as I pushed inside her.

"Fuck me, Wes," she moaned. "Like the first night."

I slid into her. "Oh, this'll be better than that." I sucked hard on her  nipple. "Because now I don't just love fucking you. I love you."







We both paced in front of the bathroom counter. Lennon sat on the edge  of the tub and then was up again. We couldn't be still. She walked over  to the stick lying next to the sink.

"This is the longest three minutes of my life," she sighed.

"No shit." I was horrified and excited.

I had a messenger deliver a pregnancy test to the suite first thing this  morning. Neither one of us needed the press spotting us in a drug store  with one of these things.

"I think it's time," she announced.

I held my breath while she read the test. In an instant, I was terrified  it would be negative. Getting her pregnant wasn't the plan, but with  the possibility this was a false alarm, I realized how much I wanted her  to have my baby. How much I wanted this together.

I tried to read her expression. "God, you're killing me, Doc. What does it say?"

She lowered the stick. Her blue eyes were clear and certain. "I'm pregnant."

I grinned. "I knew it."

She laughed. "I knew it too."

I wrapped her in my arms and kissed her on the forehead.

She looked up at me. "Can we go back to bed now just for a little nap? It's not even 6am."

I nodded. "Yeah, let's get some more sleep."







With enough money, anyone can be bought off. I learned that when I made  my first million. My agent had learned it too. Jenny Nichols took her  money and changed her story before the next morning's headlines. She  reported that her source was a phony and she had x-rays to prove that  Wes Blakefield's injury had in fact been a sprain all along.

Lennon and I read the headlines in bed.

"I can't believe this." She scrolled through her tablet. "There's not a  single mention of an AFA investigation. Why aren't they looking into  it?"

I smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "I told you we had nothing to worry about."

"Not really the point."

"Can't you be happy we're not being interrogated? It's going to be old news."

I knew she was still mad I hadn't done the honorable thing. And now that  I was going to be a father, that would have to change. I wasn't going  to let my son or daughter grow up the way I did.

I wouldn't be the kind of father who pushed them regardless of the  rules. That meant I was going to have to start following them.

My hand snaked under the covers to Lennon's flat belly. In a few months,  her body would be different. I was going to love every second of it.  The ice cream runs. The trips to the doctor. All of it. Normal dad stuff  that other guys did.

"You know you could still come forward. You don't have to wait to get caught."

"I know that's what you want me to do, but I'm not putting you through  that stress. And before you say anything, that's not just an excuse." I  stared at her hard. "You'd be interviewed. They'll check all your  previous prescriptions. Investigate your case histories. It could go on  for months. You don't deserve that. You did everything right, Doc.         

     



 

And you're carrying our baby. So I need to know …  can you live with this lie? Can you be with me, knowing what I did?"

She closed her eyes. "I don't want to say yes, but I can't say no to you. But I have a condition."

"Name it."

"If you ever get hurt again. Ever. You heal like a man. You let your  body work and heal for you. No substances. No broken rules. No lies to  me or the AFA."

"See, this is why I need you." I cupped my palm over her navel, feeling her quickly inhale at my touch.

"What do you mean?"

"To help me be a better man. To be a good father."

I saw the softness sweep over her. "Wes, you're going to be an amazing father. I know it."

"You know, this baby is going to be here at the beginning of the season." I eyed her.

"Don't look at me. You're the one who knocked me up."

"True." I rolled her on top of me and she giggled. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Not sick yet." She smiled.

"Don't move," I ordered. I scooted to the end of the bed until I was  between her legs. My favorite place to be. She spread her thighs for me  and tilted so my tongue could slide inside her.

"Oh God, Wes." She buried her face in the pillow while I sucked and  lapped at her. I could make her come all day. As the vibrations slowed, I  rolled out from under her, tilted her hips up, and eased myself into  her wet heat. I loved taking her like this. Looking down at the  roundness of her ass, while her tits rubbed against the sheets.

"Tell me," I commanded.

"Fuck me until I'm yours," she whimpered.

"You are mine, Lennon. God, you're mine."