by Tabatha Kiss
“Seriously?”
“Hurry! Before I change my mind.”
“Uh… I think the jealousy you have for your sister is petty and stupid. She’s not smarter than you are, you’re just lazier than she is.”
“Whoa…” Tears fall down her cheeks. “Okay. What else?”
“I think the real reason why you — yes, you — sabotage your relationships is because you don’t get enough attention when you’re happy.”
Her face falls and she lets out a loud, gut-wrenching sob.
I wince. “Ah, shit. Uh…”
“I’m fine!” She holds her face and cries.
I step forward and reach out to her but my hands just kind of linger in the space between us. “Yeah… you look just peachy there…”
She laughs and wipes her eyes. “No one’s ever talked to me like that before.”
“I’m sorry. I—” Her wet fingers grip my slacks and she pulls me in until our bodies touch. “Daisy, what are you doing?”
“Keep going,” she whispers.
Her fingertips strike fire on my skin as she rakes them down my abs. “Daisy—” She pushes up to kiss my neck and I pause. “Are you sure you wanna be—”
“Please, Hunter,” she says, her hot breath tickling at me. “Don’t stop.”
I rest my hands on her shoulders, ready to guide her back but that sweet tongue of hers laps at my earlobe and turns me stupid. “Okay… there’s definitely some kind of hormonal imbalance happening here…”
She sniffs. “It’s fine. I’m fine. This is fine.”
I try to speak but she kisses me, forcing her tongue deep into my mouth. I kiss her back, unable to help myself as she eases her hands into my pants, sliding around me to cup my ass in both palms.
“Whoa—” I say, breaking our lip lock. “You really want to do this again, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she moans, gripping my hard cock. “And you do, too.”
“Oh, I do…” I nod. “I’m just having a difficult time with the whole crying thing—”
“I’m fine.”
“I know, I know…” She gives me a master stroke and I grunt with pleasure. “But…”
“Hunter, please,” she says, staring up at me with those glistening eyes. “I understand your concerns… but I really, really need this. Right now.”
Fuck it.
I kiss her, hard and fast, as she presses her body even harder against mine until I fall backwards onto the bed.
She lowers her jeans and panties to the floor and kicks them away before mounting me and taking my cock in her capable fingers again.
“Wait—” I say, snatching her wrist. “I don’t have a condom.”
She raises her brow. “Seriously?”
My eyes fall to her stomach and I shake my head. “Oh, yeah. Never mind.” I pull her down to kiss her, falling even deeper in lust.
She guides my tip downward and rubs herself on it, sparking her own desires as I sit back and watch.
Her hips rock on me and she moans. I feel her wetness building between her lips and blood fills my dick even faster. I’m rock hard and throbbing, almost ready to explode, as she takes me inside of her.
I groan, feeling her tightness engulf me as she rounds her hips on me. She rides my bare cock and I feel everything; every twitch and squeeze deep inside of her. It melts me to the bone but I focus it all on her, determined to give her what she needs.
She moans for me as I thrust upward, meeting her perfect bounce.
“Harder.”
I take hold of her hips and she leans forward to rest her palms on my chest, holding herself up as I pound her even more. Her breasts heave beneath her shirt. Her thighs quiver. She grinds me and ecstasy flashes in my eyes.
“Holy shit…” I groan.
She laughs at me and bounces faster. Her expression shifts, sliding from blissful relaxation to an ecstatic frown as she approaches climax.
“I want you to come with me,” she moans. “I want you to come in me.”
I bite my cheek, floored by the obvious taboo and my balls clench. Any other time, any other woman, and I’d deny her, but I look up into the eyes of the mother of my child and I can’t stop. I fuck her faster, barreling towards home plate and I can tell by that crease in her brow that she’s about to let it all go.
Her pussy seizes around me, signaling her orgasm and she throws back her head. I do as she wants and I come hard, unloading inside of her. It feels just as good — make that better — than I thought it would. Feeling that warmth wrapped around me, pumping every unprotected drop of me. It fires stars through my vision and I lose all track of my senses while she writhes on me.
Daisy leans forward and balances on her arms. I look up at her, admiring the sweat on her brow and the subtle twitch of her whole body. I cup her face and she opens her eyes, still glistening from forgotten tears. I kiss her, ignoring the oxygen my body needs in favor of that little intimacy and she envelopes her sweet lips over mine.
Finally, she pulls away and slides off of me to catch her breath.
“Fine,” she snaps, walking towards the bathroom.
I look up, barely able to raise my head. “What?”
She disappears into the bathroom. “I’ll take the damn job.”
I collapse back down and smile, listening to the soothing sound of the shower head bursting on. “All right,” I mutter, resting my eyes.
“But…”
I flinch, sensing her voice right above me and my eyes shoot open.
She stands there, staring down at me with her hands on her naked hips. “But you and I have to try and make this work.”
“Okay…” I sit up on my elbows. “What—”
She spins around and retreats back into the bathroom, sliding her shirt up over her head as she goes.
“Daisy?” I ask the empty room.
I stand, pulling my slacks up as I move into the bathroom. Warm steam hits my face and I see her form moving behind the shower curtain.
“Make what work, Daisy?” I ask her.
“This,” she says, shouting over the gushing water. “You and me.”
I blink. “You’re saying that you want us to… get married?”
The shower shuts off and I grab the nearest towel from the shelf as she pushes the curtain aside. She takes it from me and holds it in front of her face.
“I’m saying that I want us to start from the beginning,” she says, patting her cheeks dry.
“You want us to start from the beginning?”
She steps out of the shower. “You’d rather get married?”
I back up to give her room to dry off. “Uhh…”
“Because I think this is the more rational idea. There’s no sense in tying knots to one another. We’re total strangers.”
“I agree.”
“You do?”
“… I think?”
Daisy hands the towels back to me and grabs her clothes off the toilet seat. “Look, I just know that this kid deserves a family and we owe it to — at least — try and be one. Getting to know each other seems like the best place to start. If it doesn’t work out, then…” She pauses to pull her jeans up. “Then, I’m sure it’ll make some other family very happy.”
I nod. There’s no better logic in the world but it still terrifies me. “You’re right,” I say.
She throws her shirt on and steps around me. “So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then.”
“Wait…” I follow her from the bathroom. “How did the ultrasound go?”
“Oh…” She reaches into her pocket for her phone. “I actually almost sent this to you before…”
My phone chimes on the bedside table. I grab it and swipe open the attached photo to see an ultrasound with a circular shape at its center.
My baby.
Daisy moves in next to me and points at it. “It’s that thing there.”
“Yeah, I figured…”
“Took me a while to actually see it,” she chuckles. �
��And then the doc pointed out the heartbeat.”
I inhale deep. “It has a heartbeat.”
“Yep,” she nods. “Anyway, it went well. It’s due in February.” I stare at my phone as she moves towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Hunter.”
“Wait, Daisy.” My feet carry me closer to her. “I, um…”
She pauses in the open doorway. “What?”
“I’m in,” I say. “If I didn’t make that clear before. I want to start from the beginning… with you.”
“Okay,” she says, smiling softly. “Goodnight, Hunter.”
“Goodnight, Daisy.”
She closes the door behind her, leaving me to stare at the ultrasound on my phone a little longer.
Start from the beginning. How is that even possible now that a tiny heartbeat is involved?
Chapter 11
Daisy
“Okay, now I’m officially freaking out.”
I stare at my open suitcase and the stacks of clothes piled up around the room.
Rose sits beside it on the bed. “Just take what you think you’ll need,” she says, grabbing a pink top off a pile and holding it against her chest.
“That’s the problem…” I yank it away from her. “What do you need to bring on a three-month bus ride with you new boss, a baseball team, and your baby daddy?”
She frowns. “I understand your plight.” She slides off the bed and wraps an arm around my shoulders. “First and foremost, you are pregnant, so I would recommend dressing for comfort above all else. Nothing too snug because it’s just going to be useless in a few weeks once you start getting huge.”
“But I’m working with Trisha Wells,” I point out. “The woman is a walking fashion show. I don’t want to look horrible beside her.”
“Okay. Professional first, then comfort.”
“But…” I continue, “Hunter and I are trying the relationship thing and you want to look as sexy as possible at first, right?”
“Okay, then,” she says. “Hot first, then professional, then comfort.”
“Wow,” I sigh. “And they say women can’t have it all.” I take a deep breath but it instantly escapes. “Okay, freak out increasing.”
Rose guides me to the bed. “Sit down, Daisy.”
“I need a drink.”
“You can’t have a drink. You’re pregnant.”
“I guess I can’t have it all, then.” I grab a pillow and hug it against my chest. “What do I do?”
She reaches for a cup on the bedside table. “You drink this.”
“What’s in it?”
“Water,” she answers. “It’s three in the morning, you don’t need anything else. Then, we talk priorities. If you ask me, you already have Hunter’s attention — and his seed — so you don’t have to worry about looking hot all the time.”
“Sounds logical,” I say into the cup as I choke down a large gulp.
“Next…” She leans over and ruffles through a stack of clothes, “we can be professional and comfortable. Luckily, you’re a photographer, meaning you can get away with comfy clothes you can move around in. It’s expected. Lots of bending and twisting. Flats only. Save your feet.”
I smile. “You’re really good at this.”
“Strangely, I learned it from watching you.”
I reach for her hand. “Rose, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that. I really am happy for you and John.”
She squeezes my palm. “I know. Besides, I knew something had to be wrong with you. Can’t say I expected a baby, though…”
“Me neither.”
“But hey, now you get to play the hormone card to get away with saying something snarky. That should be fun for you.”
“You’re right,” I chuckle. “It’ll certainly come in handy in the morning when I call Malcolm to let him know I’m quitting the photo studio job without notice.”
“How do you think that’ll go down?”
“I’m thinking I might fake an emotional breakdown and just start bawling until he hangs up on me.”
“That’s obviously the most mature option,” she quips.
I set the empty cup down. “Sorry your summer vacation is getting cut short.”
“No problem,” she says, tossing a few shirts away as she picks through them. “Tomorrow, I’ll book the next flight back. I can go home, relax for a bit… maybe go visit Mom for a while before school starts again.”
I wince. “Please don’t tell her about this.”
“The new, fancy job or your baby daddy?”
“The baby daddy. I will tell her about that.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
She raises a brow. “Daisy…”
“Soon, Rose. I promise.”
“Good. Preferably sometime before it’s crowning.”
I cringe. “Well, there’s a mental image I’ve been trying to avoid.”
“Just don’t look up what an episiotomy is,” she chuckles.
“Oh, keep laughing, Rose,” I whisper. “Just remember that anything that happens to me will happen to you when you bear halfback’s gigantic, roided-out offspring.”
She pauses. “Yikes.”
“Uh-huh.” I gesture down my body. “Behold, your future.”
“I will no longer tease you about gross baby stuff,” she says, holding up a scout’s honor with her fingers.
“Thank you,” I nod.
She lays a few tops into my suitcase. “So, you and Hunter are going for it for real, then?”
“It would appear so,” I answer. “And if I were being super honest with myself, that’s the part of this whole thing that freaks me out the most.”
“But you’re the queen of relationships,” she argues.
“I’m the queen of ending them, maybe,” I say, “but we’re having a baby. There’s way more pressure to get this one right.”
“Don’t worry about getting it right. Just worry about the basics. Take it slow. You already know there’s chemistry, right? There were some sparks during conception, yes?”
I nod. “Yeah, and… earlier tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah.”
She raises a brow. “You slept with him again tonight?”
I wince. “Yeah.”
“Wow…” she chuckles. “Maybe I spoke too soon on the whole taking it slow part.”
“It just happened,” I say. “Maybe I’ll get to play the hormone card every time I do something slutty, too.”
“Man, getting knocked up is the perfect scapegoat for you.”
“It really is,” I nod. “Maybe I should have done this sooner…”
She plops down beside me on the bed. “Daisy, don’t think too hard about it. If he’s the guy for you, then you’ll know it.”
“And if he’s not?”
“Then…” She throws her arm around my shoulder, “we’ll deal with that if we need to. Until then, just follow your gut. So far, he’s got top marks from me.”
“Yeah?”
“Hey, the guy hit three home runs, visited you in the hospital, found out you were pregnant, got you your dream job — all in one day — and still had the energy to bang you. I’d say he’s worth a second look.”
“You’re probably right.” My smile fades as I stare into my open suitcase. “Pack heavy but travel light. What the fuck does that even mean?”
Rose shrugs.
Chapter 12
Hunter
“So… let me get this straight…” Devin throws the baseball back to me and I jerk my gloved hand towards my face to keep the fastball from colliding with my nose. “The girl you knocked out with your home run is pregnant…”
I toss the ball back to him. “Right.”
“And the kid is yours?”
“Yes.”
“Because you two had a one-night stand six weeks ago?”
“That about covers it.”
He shakes his head. “That’s some magic voodoo
shit, man. Either you two won the messed-up coincidence lottery or the universe is trying to tell you something.”
He fires another fastball at me and the impact sends ripples up my arm. I wince and pull my hand free from my glove. “Take it down a notch, Devin,” I laugh, shaking it out. “Jeez.”
“Sorry,” he says. “I just get a little excited when my friend pulls me out of bed at three in the morning to play catch and dumps his problems on me.”
I slide my hand back into my glove and throw the ball back down the parking lot. “Well, I had to tell somebody. I was losing my mind up there.”
“You know me, man. I’m from Jersey, I live for gossip,” he says. “I just wasn’t expecting the lost episodes of The Twilight Zone to come out of your mouth.”
“Oh, it gets weirder,” I say. “Guess who’s going on the road with us starting tomorrow.”
“Ooo!” He winks. “That sexy Sports Illuminated reporter!”
“Her,” I nod, “and…”
“And…?”
“And.”
He tilts his head. “Your baby mama?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“She’s the photographer on the project.”
“Okay, that’s way too much to be coincidence,” he laughs, throwing another hard pitch my way.
I catch it in my glove and hold it there as I walk to the bench by the motel. “That part isn’t coincidence. I got her the job myself.”
He meets me by the bench. “Why?”
I reach down and grab my water bottle off the ground. “Because she’s having my baby.”
“And?”
“And I’m trying to secure a good future for it.”
“And…?”
“And what?”
He sits beside me. “And you’re securing a nice, warm bed buddy for the long road trip full of dudes.”
“It’s not like that. I mean, yeah, it’ll be nice to spend some time with a woman after being packed into a bus with you assholes all day.”
“Hell yeah, it would…”
“But it’s a little different. We agreed to start from the beginning but how do I get to know her without constantly thinking about that baby inside of her, you know?”
“Well…” Devin pauses. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Only child.”
