Bad Boy's Revenge: A Small-Town Romantic Suspense (40 page)

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Bryon Washington has
three
sexual harassment suits against him. His agent is about to drop him, and he wants
me
to smooth this over.” Jolene sipped her soup, burned her lip, and pitched the whole cup in the garbage. “This will be a long night.”

“Did Frank Bennett get involved?”

Jolene frowned. “Bennett’s crusade is with your Trouble-Maker, not Bryon.”

“But…Bryon’s actually been arrested.”

“Doesn’t matter. A quarterback is an easier target than a running back. Do me a favor. I need you to call the airlines and cancel my ticket.”

My heart broke for her. “But you’ve been planning the Hawaii trip all year.”

She stretched to reach a discarded highlighter. “Maybe Bryon will take me to the game if he makes the All-Star team this year. I might get a seat next to you.”

“What?”

Jolene smirked. “You and Jack. Jack will probably be voted as an MVP. It’d be good for the two of you to take that vacation when the season ends.”

The air got stuck somewhere between my mouth and lungs. I coughed it out. “Why?”

Jolene extended her arms over the mess that was her desk, her office, her undone braid, and the soup spilling in her garbage can.

“One day, all this will be yours. I haven’t had a vacation in five years, and it doesn’t look like I’ll get one this year either. You wanted to travel, right?”

“I…yes.”

“Do it while you’re young, Leah. Before you get too entrenched in this career and then the kids.”

“
Kids
?”

“Yes, kids. You said you wanted three. Leah, what’s wrong with you? You’re acting strange.”

“You haven’t had a vacation in
five
years?”

“I go for the occasional mani-pedi day, but running a business is 24/7.” She winked. “I take back everything I said about you and Jack. I’m glad you’re sowing some oats now. I haven’t been on a date since…” She grimaced. “Well, before that last vacation.”

Oh,
no no no
.

This wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

I knew Jolene was busy, but I thought she
liked
being that way. I had no idea she was this frazzled—canceling vacations that cost her thousands of dollars, losing her chance to date and see the world…

But it didn’t make sense to equate her life with mine. We were different people. We wanted different things.

Right?

I retreated to my office and called the airline for her. The ticket was un-refundable—as was the deposit on her hotel—and it wasn’t the news she wanted to hear.

“Let this be a lesson to you.” Jolene gathered two bags and a laptop. “This career is tough, but it’s good that you know exactly what you want. Hold onto that. As the years pass, you’ll lose that young, wide-eyed innocence about the world. Don’t let it turn you bitter.” She shoved most of her work into her bags to take home. “Hit the lights when you leave.”

I didn’t answer. I returned to my desk, staring at the papers and folders that cluttered the top corner. I should have filed them before I left for Jack’s, but I had been…

Too busy.

I opened the bottom drawer and pulled out the information from the fertility clinic—notes on the procedure, costs, and donors. My chest tightened, but I tossed it right in the garbage.

It wasn’t happening to me.

My life goal was already ruined because of Wyatt’s infidelity. I couldn’t waste another second hoping to get my ideal life without working for it. It was time to regain that stability I lost when I handed him my engagement ring.

But the only way I’d succeed was if I ended the charade with Jack so I could find that right man for a perfect life. 

Except, I had no idea where to find that man.

Worse, I feared my body wouldn’t warm for anyone like it did for Jack.

But that sort of physical, feral passion hadn’t mattered to me before. I couldn’t let it influence my relationships now. My decision was final. In the morning, I’d arrange news of an amiable breakup and we’d go our separate ways.

But I didn’t sleep well. I wished it was the humbling revelation about the job and its demands, but it wasn’t that. I woke, took a shower, and tried to ignore the parts of Jack’s plan that no longer sounded so crazy.

In fact…they sounded good.

My own company? A baby? These were the things I had
always
wanted. I never thought lust was important until I writhed in fierce desire. I couldn’t remember a time Wyatt ever gave me an orgasm with his mouth. Or even when he last tried.

And Jack dove at me twice.
Wanted
to pleasure me. To watch me come. To have me.

All the more reason to get away from him before the rest of my structured, orderly life tumbled down.

I pulled into the facility before the Rivets’ scheduled practice began. A school bus parked out front, and a news crew broadcasted for the league sponsored charity event.

I didn’t know what I planned to say to Jack, or if he would even listen. Fortunately, I had time to think before I could flag him down.

Two dozen kids screamed, laughed, and bolted around the field, dodging players and smuggling footballs and generally tumbling all over themselves. Their excitement was too cute, especially as they bumbled the instructions given from players tasked with trying to teach them the game. Coach Thompson struggled to keep their attention. Even my teddy-bear, Caleb, lost his cool and sought refuge with the linebackers laughing at their plight.

Only one player successfully wrangled the kids. He tussled with them on the field and pretended to fall in a crazed tackle as a pile of little boys leapt over him.

Jack
.

His laugh carried over the field, and he took turns tossing ball after ball to the kids he’d send running long. The balls were thrown gently, but, after over a dozen passes, only one kid managed to catch it.

And Jack shouted as if it were the winning touchdown of the championship game.

“Run!” He sprinted down the field, cheering the boy as he ran at his side to the endzone. “Keep going! He’s at the
twenty
! The
ten
…still at the ten, don’t tie your shoe! Run!”

The little boy crossed the plain. Jack lost it. He hauled the kid onto his shoulders and did an endzone dance with him. I hoped he didn’t plan to spike the boy in excitement, but Jack was too thrilled to do anything but celebrate.

The other kids went insane—like they never had so much fun in their lives. When their camp director blew his whistle and ordered them to the bus, most of the kids stayed at Jack’s side, begging for another few minutes.

I grinned as Jack begged too.

He was a natural with them. He said he liked kids, but I hadn’t believed it until I saw it. I snapped a few pictures of him playing with the children and posted to his social media. Within seconds, dozens of comments popped up. After five minutes, he was in the hundreds.

The public liked this version of Jack Carson. The gentle giant. The wholesome man. It was the side of him the media never showed.

He was right.

A baby
would
save his reputation.

He caught me watching and waved.

“Stay there!” He shouted. He turned to the kids. “Ready?”

They screamed in unison and scared half of the team. Jack punted the ball forty yards down the field to get rid of them. They sprinted away, and he jogged to meet me.

“Hey.” He didn’t try to kiss me, even though he loved making me squirm in front of his teammates. “I tried to call you last night—”

“You were right.”

I didn’t apologize for interrupting him. Instead I took his hand.

“I think we should do it.”

“Do what?” His eyes widened. The blue almost looked innocent despite the intent of our proposal. His words hushed. “You…
want
to do it?”

“Yes.”

“…Are you sure?”

“No, but I think it’s exactly what I
need
to do.”

His hand slipped to my cheek, entirely close and intimate. This touch was genuine, and his excitement pounded his heart so hard I could feel it in his palm.

 “You’re on board?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His smile grew. “Do you want to do it now?”

I laughed, glancing over the field. “You’re at practice.”

“I’ll leave.”

“Jack.”

“Okay.” That smirk might have charmed my pants off right then and there. “You’re serious though. This isn’t a joke?”

I held his hand against my cheek. “Jack…let’s have a baby.”

Chapter Eight – Jack

For the first time in my life, I wanted something more than a championship.

I wanted Leah.

I wanted her on the bed. Legs spread. Fingers digging into my body. I imagined her panting, moaning, offering that wet little slit for me to pound and seize.

I’d fill her. Completely. As soon as I got her alone, I’d take her as a man was meant to have a woman.

And I’d fuck a baby into her.

I couldn’t concentrate at practice, and I nearly got myself killed in the weight room. My head wasn’t on the game. I already celebrated what I’d do to Leah. She’d love every fucking second I ruined her with pleasure and stuffed her with my cum.

Seed
?

Technically. Who cared what it was called as long as it pumped into her.

I headed to her apartment at her request, but we wouldn’t be staying. No way was I keeping her in a one bedroom box with a bigger radiator than stove. She’d stay with me.

In my bed.

In my arms.

Full of my heat.

She opened the door, but I hadn’t expected the cute little tank and sweatpants. I read the lettering over her tight little ass as she waved me inside. She was as
Sweet
as her pants declared, but not now. Leah was all business, brandishing a variety of papers, folders, and brochures.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “I pulled some information off the internet. I think I found a way to do this right.”

She left me in the doorway. Not what I expected. I watched her bite the end of a pencil before furiously scribbling over her notes.

Why was she taking notes?

“You…uh, gotta research it?” I closed the door behind me. “I mean, if you need me to explain how this is done, we might have a bit of a problem…”

“Be realistic, Jack.”

Leah snuggled onto the couch, clipboard in hand. She waved over the coffee table, meticulously organized with too many shiny papers and brochures. She color-coded something.

What the hell needed to be
color-coded
?

From my experience, most of the important pieces fit together and…locked. I didn’t pay attention in health class, but did we really need note cards for this?

“This procedure isn’t always foolproof,” she explained. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Yeah, something hard to drink sounded good. At least until I could figure out what the hell went wrong from this morning until now? She handed me a bottle of water from her fridge, but hadn’t taken her eyes from the papers in her hand.

“What
procedure
?” I asked.

“It’s complicated. And there’s not always a great chance to conceive.”

“So?” I thought that part was supposed to be fun. “You just do it again until it sticks.”

Leah laughed. “It costs tens of thousands of dollars each attempt.”

Did she charge by the hour? “I already offered to pay you.”

And now I insulted her. She scowled, tucking in deeper to the sofa. “I’m not taking your money.”

“Well, who the hell is getting the thousands of dollars?”

“The fertility doctors.”

“You’re gonna fuck a doctor too?”

The clipboard dropped to the floor. “
Excuse
me?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“What the hell are
you
talking about?”

Fuck if I knew anymore. “You wanted to make a
baby
.”

“So did you,” she said.

“So what’s with all the paperwork?”

“I got information…In-Vitro Fertilization is a difficult procedure.”

Just the word shriveled my balls. I swore.

“Oh, Christ, Kiss. Only
you
could take all the fun out of making a baby.”

Leah’s expression twisted. She batted a wayward curl from her eyes, but her fingers tangled in her hair. She froze.

“Did you think we would…?” She stood, ducking from me and brandishing the paperwork like it’d save her from my intentions. “You’re kidding.”

And here I thought she didn’t let me in on her joke. “I figured we’d do it the old-fashioned way. Tried and true.”

“You wanted…to have
sex
.”

“You
didn’t
?”

Her mouth dropped open. “That wasn’t my plan at all.”

“What? Were you just sitting here, fingers crossed, waiting for a damn
stork
?”

“I didn’t think…”

“That I’d
fuck
you?”

Leah exhaled, gathering her papers and reorganizing them all neat and tidy into a folder. “I…don’t you think it’ll complicate everything?”

“More than having a
baby
?”

“You’re right.” She lowered her head. I recognized that defeated sigh, the hesitation in her voice. She had the same reaction every time she pushed me away. “Jack, maybe we shouldn’t—”

“Get changed.”

Her brow furrowed. “What?”

“Get changed. I’m taking you out.”

“Where?”

“To
Diva
.”

Leah cracked a smile so sexy I thought I’d only earn it with my head buried between her legs. “You’re taking me to a nightclub?”

“We need…a new perspective.” I flashed a grin. “Let me take you out. Have some fun. Get
seen
in the hottest club in the city. It’ll convince people we’re an item quicker than me kissing your cheek at an afternoon baseball game.”

“Diva’s the most exclusive club in Ironfield.” She scoffed. “Hell, they won’t even let Jolene and me inside. We get our clients on the list and they go alone.”