by Sosie Frost
I’d nearly burst into tears as the company unloaded furniture fit for a princess into Rose’s nursery. He wouldn’t even let me say thank you, just said that she deserved it.
“Mamamama.” Rose simultaneously cuddled and tried to escape. “Book!”
She was definitely my child—in love with any book she could chew on. Unfortunately, she loved them a little too much. One fairy tale became two. Two unsuccessful bedtimes in the crib became three.
And like that, my sixteen-month-old daughter held me hostage against my own hunger, exhaustion, and bladder.
A funny thing happened on the cusp of insanity—a person negotiated with a toddler for the chance to fulfill their basic emotional and physical needs.
“One more story and then momma really needs to go potty.”
Rose disagreed. “No!”
“Momma doesn’t get to wear a diaper like some lucky people.”
“No!” She slapped the book and kicked. Her heel dug into my side, striking dead-center on my bladder.
“Not cool,” I groaned.
Rose squirmed against me, nearly doing a somersault in my lap. We were both quickly approaching our limit. So I started the last story of the night, and I meant it. I opened the book.
“Rosie, once upon a time there was a princess…see the princess? And a lot of things happened to her…like she really had to go to the bathroom and it had been fourteen hours since her last meal. Yes! There’s a bunny! So a fairy godmother turned a pumpkin into a babysitter and brought the princess a sandwich. And it had ham and cheese and some potato chips on the side. Then the princess lived happily ever after because her thoracic cavity wasn’t filling with urine.” I kissed her forehead. “And look, there’s the picture of a frog. Wasn’t that a nice story?”
“I’ve heard better.”
Rose screeched in utter joy as Cole leaned against the doorway, binding his hair into a ponytail. A wise move when sharing a space with Rose.
“You think you could do better?” I asked.
“Hell no.”
“Ever try?”
“Try what? Telling a kid a bedtime story?” He laughed, hard. “Do you think I’ve ever uttered the words true love’s first kiss? Hell, when I was a kid I got a fist to the back of the head when my old man decided I should go to sleep, and it worked.”
I stopped rocking, and Cole’s smirk faded. He hadn’t meant to be quite so honest, and he changed the subject before I could ask any invasive questions.
“I, uh…” He picked up a present he had hidden outside the room. “I got something…for the baby.”
He didn’t open the box all the way, just flashed me the contents on the sly. I grinned.
“You bought another Mr. Bunny Bumpybottom?”
“Three of ‘em. A whole Rumpleass family in case she loses him again.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Really.”
Rose kicked again, grabbing for the book. I squirmed and hissed a harsh breath.
“You all right?” Cole asked. “You’re dancing.”
“If I ask you for a major favor—”
I came on too strong. He saw through it. “No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“I’m about to burst, Cole.”
“Whatever it is…no. I know that look. You want me to do something—”
“Watch the baby for a minute?”
“You should have told me you were out of your damn mind before we slept together.”
I stood, a risky endeavor. I regretted the skirt as I crossed my legs. “It’s really easy. You come here...”
“Nope.”
“And sit in the chair.”
“This has to be a breach of our contract.”
I pushed him to the rocker. “Please. I only need five minutes.”
He might have said no to me, but Rose looked up at him with big eyes and a bigger smile. She reached for him with grabby hands.
“Beautiful…” He swallowed. Was he that scared of a little baby? “I’m not good with kids.”
“That’s because you haven’t been around them much.”
“I tend to avoid breakables, and I could accidentally crush a kid.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“That makes one of us.”
“Babies are simple,” I said. “All you gotta do is hold ‘em close before they grow up—and that happens too quick.”
He was ready to fight me, but he sighed instead. “Are you going downstairs?”
“I could.”
“Bring me a soda and we got a deal.”
“You still can’t open the fridge?”
“Damn it, woman. Do you want me to watch your baby or not?”
“Soda it is.”
Cole didn’t fit in the rocking chair, but he tried. The old wooden frame creaked, and he squeezed as best he could into the seat. It couldn’t have been comfortable, but nothing collapsed.
“Hold her on your lap.” I set Rose against his leg. Cole froze, as if just breathing would somehow hurt the kid. She crawled against him and babbled. “See? Easy.”
“Whatever you say.”
I handed him a book. “Don’t tell me The Beast is afraid of a little baby?”
“You should be afraid because I’m holding your little baby.”
“Nothing scares me about you.”
It was the truth. The only thing I feared was my own pounding heart. This gorgeous, brooding, unbelievably powerful man held my baby so gently. And together they looked…perfect.
Rose gripped his hands as he opened the first page of the book. She settled in against him, pointing to a drawing of a little bunny.
“Bunny!” She squealed and pointed to the pictures. “One. Twoof!”
Cole stared in amazement at her, like she did calculus to add up the number of rabbits on the page.
“Damn. Those are two bunnies. Smart kid!”
I left them with the story, but five minutes of peace went quick. I used the bathroom, brushed my hair and teeth, and felt like a normal human again. I returned with a soda, but I waited outside the room as Cole read to Rose.
“Yeah…I don’t know why his fish is being such a little bitc—downer. This cat just wants to throw the kids a party.”
I smiled. Great. He was teaching my baby it was okay to trash the house with wayward cats in various forms of apparel.
Rose cooed at him, babbling something cute and indecipherable. Cole went along with it.
“Yeah, I didn’t like that book either. Uh…you want another story?” He couldn’t reach the bookshelf, and I doubted he trusted himself to walk with her in his arms. He sighed. “Let’s make one up, okay?”
“Kay.”
“All right. Um, once upon a time there was a prince. Or a linebacker. Whatever.”
“Back-per!”
“Close enough. So this guy did good. He was all-pro. Used to chase all the evil dragons all over the field to protect his castle. He was the strongest and best linebacker prince guy ever. Just ever.”
Rose agreed, but her words were quieter now.
“But some of the peasants didn’t like him much. They said he was too good at defending his castle. They wanted to kick him out of the kingdom. So this prince—uh, linebacker, whatever—paid some gold to the kingdom every time he chased the dragons out. But they still wanted him gone.”
“Bunny.”
“Okay. He’s got a bunny too. But the linebacker prince said he didn’t want to leave the kingdom. Not if there was a little princess around who needed a better bedtime story than some prick cat making a mess in a stranger’s house. Bet your momma likes that story though, huh?”
I watched from the entry, my heart melting. Rose didn’t answer. She was out, cuddled against his arms, blissfully asleep.
“Good job,” I said.
Cole didn’t move. He stared at the baby, asleep in his arms. “I didn’t know my story was that boring.”
“She likes your voice.”
> His eyes shifted from her to the crib. “How do I…?”
“Pick her up.”
“I don’t think—”
“You won’t wake her up.”
“I’m not worried about waking her. Worried about…” He shrugged. “She’s a tiny thing.”
“You really should trust yourself.”
“And maybe you shouldn’t.”
Cole hesitated, but he wrapped his arms over Rose, nearly losing her in the mountain of muscles that were his biceps and chest.
He moved slow, one shuffled, non-jarring step at a time until he reached the crib. He lowered Rose onto the mattress. He didn’t breathe, but he silently swore as his hands were trapped under her. He held his breath, rocked his palms, then freed himself.
He retreated as sweat beaded his brow.
“There. She’s sleeping.”
I tucked a blanket over her. “She likes you, Cole.”
“Yeah.”
“How’s the story end?”
“Does it matter?”
“I’m invested.”
He exhaled. “How else? The princess and her bunny live happily ever after.”
“And the linebacker prince guy? Does he get a happy ending?”
Cole didn’t answer. He avoided my question and left the room. I grabbed Rose’s baby monitor and followed.
He wasn’t in any mood to talk. Neither was I. But I grabbed his hand before he escaped and tugged him into my bedroom. I shut the door behind us.
“What are you doing, beautiful?” His voice lowered into a warning. “Don’t tempt me.”
“I’m not tempting. I’m offering.”
He tensed, staring at me, my curves my lips. “We never talked about the other night.”
“What’s to talk about? You did everything I asked.”
“And now?”
“I’m asking again.”
“Why?”
Because he put my daughter to bed.
Because my child felt safe and comforted in his arms.
Because when she fell asleep against his chest she proved what I had denied since the first moment I met Cole.
He wasn’t all beast. Something better was hidden deep inside him. Something gentle, compassionate, and kind. And I just had to find it.
I damned the consequences. My body superheated in an instant, shivering under his stare.
“Fuck me,” I whispered. “Here. Now. I want you to take me.”
Cole hardened. His jeans tightened around a growing bulge, but he didn’t try to free it. His words rasped hard, and every sound sizzled through my core.
“Are you sure?” he whispered.
“Are you interested?”
His smile was the warning of a prowling wolf. “You want to get fucked?”
“Yes.”
“How do you want me?”
“You don’t want me to make that choice.”
“Yes, I do.” His expression twisted. “No. I don’t. Fuck, beautiful, I want to destroy you as much as I want to worship you. You have no idea what you do to me.”
He gripped my arms, striking me against the wall. I gasped as he hauled me up and coiled my legs around his waist. I should have taken the panty hose off, but he ripped them apart anyway with a harsh profanity.
A delicious shudder tore through me. God, he was strong. He held me steady, pinned, waiting for his desire.
Cole freed his monster cock and teased me with the thick, pulsing head over my slick folds. His words bound me in place. The dark and secret fantasies twisted in my core.
“I want to make you come…and I want to make you scream.”
His thickness pushed against me, pressing hard and slipping into my pussy. My eyes widened, but he didn’t let me make a sound. His kiss silenced me as he forced another inch within me.
“I want you bent over and rutted…and I want to worship you from my knees.”
Deeper. I stretched over his cock. My head fell back, delirious with the throbbing heat.
“I want to fuck you until you beg for mercy…and I want to pleasure you until you beg for more.”
He sunk into me, claiming the entirety of my body with a single, punishing thrust. I gasped as our bodies met. So big. Too big. I groaned through parted lips and ached in shock.
“But more than anything, beautiful?” Cole whispered his delicious threat. “I want to make you mine.”
I clung to him as his cock pierced me. Nothing compared to his touch, his taking, his claiming. He fucked me as hard and furious as he’d promised.
This wouldn’t be gentle, but I wasn’t looking for anything sensual. I needed him. I wanted him. Nothing would stop us from tangling in mistake and lust.
Cole slammed into me, and I was sure I would bruise by morning. Nothing in this world would make me regret it.
I tightened over him. His uncompromising thrust ground him harder against my folds. The rough denim of his jeans rubbed my sensitive slickness. Too rough. It should have hurt, but I loved the wild, uncompromising intensity.
I surrendered to his strength and welcomed his cock deep. The mounting, furious tension bound me to his arms. The pleasure silenced my moans, choking me in shivered agony.
I clutched him as he grunted and sweated. A dark desire filled us both, and I submitted in his kiss. He bottomed out in me, forcing me to take the entirety of his cock if I wanted to come.
And I did.
Hard.
The primal instinct surged through me, and I arched as the shock ripped through my core. This wasn’t a gentle, patient tingle of excitement. The crest pushed me to the edge, kicked me over, mowed me down, and crashed through me with wave after wave of crippling desire. I panted and wept and came again and again with him, on him, because of him.
He came inside me, filling me with his heat. I lost myself in his crazed kiss.
Something perfect existed in his touch. Rough and gentle. Fierce and consuming. Even his kiss was a contradiction. Just as passionate as any fairy tale declaration, but every bit the devouring bite of a monster.
It didn’t matter. As long as I kissed him, as long as I touched him, I existed in a moment of perfection.
After a minute, he lowered me to the floor, but my legs couldn’t support my weight. I leaned against the wall, amazed and ashamed and absolutely satisfied.
Cole tucked himself into his pants. He didn’t look at me. “That what you wanted?”
I nodded, breathless, but he didn’t stay. He said nothing else, only turned and stalked from the room, silent and…
Angry?
“Wait.” I smoothed my dress over my legs. “I mean…thank you.”
His voice chilled. “Glad I could be of service.”
I stiffened. “That’s not—”
“If you want a nightcap before bed, you know where to look.”
I didn’t like his tone. “No, thanks. I think you served me enough.”
“Get your fill now. I have another away game this week. Won’t be around after Friday to fuck the shit out of you.”
What was wrong with him? “You know, Cole, you’re not very good with this afterglow part.”
“Never needed to be.” He shrugged. “You wanted to be fucked, you got it. Nothing else I can offer you.”
“Cole—”
“Night, Piper.”
The door slammed behind him.
What the hell just happened?
My orgasm had shattered me, and I was too shaky to pick up the pieces without getting cut.
The gentle Cole was gone, shoved back into the hole where his heart should have been.
What had happened to our moment? I knew something good had happened, some breakthrough into his mind and soul.
But I should have known better. Why was I trusting a man who deliberately hid the best parts of himself?
It was a mistake to sleep with him. Both times.
If Cole wanted to be a beast forever, fine.
I wasn’t going to save him from himself.
Cole
“How’s the MILF, Cole?”
Tim Morgan was a dead man. His laugh cackled over the locker room.
How hard was it to shower off the sweat and dirt in silence? Some men didn’t know when to shut their mouths. Others waited for me to do it for them.
Tim buttoned up his suit and admired himself in the mirror. He paused only to wink at his offensive linemen. He spoke loud, for the benefit of the team. Real courteous.
“I hope she’s treating her new sugar-daddy good,” Tim said. “But hell. I’d buy all the diapers and Legos in the world if it meant I got to fuck that sweet little cunt.”
The locker room quieted. Surprised. The team didn’t know anything about me, let alone my taste in women. I intended to keep it that way.
The anger management bullshit never worked before, but I had to try something. Counting to ten. Focusing on my breaths. Whispering a relaxing word that could calm me down.
Piper. Rose. Piper. Rose.
It wasn’t working. Not while Tim cackled, imagining all the filthy things he’d do to a woman he never should have imagined.
I kept my voice low. “Shut your mouth. I hear you talking shit about Piper, I’m gonna put you through the damn wall. You get me?”
“It was a compliment.”
“She doesn’t need your approval.”
Tim knotted his tie. He made a habit of looking nice and respectable, in case the media remembered what a shithead he was. The asshole had the nerve to hang a picture of his daughter in his locker, right next to the panties he swiped from the cluster of women watching the practice.
“You know…” He shrugged. “I’m glad you got yourself a woman. Hope she loosens you up.”
I buckled my jeans and shoved my feet into my shoes before I stuffed a football down his throat.
“Is she hot?” Deion, our center, took one too many blows to the head and forgot his manners.
“Yeah.” Tim grinned. “Piper Madison. Paul Madison’s daughter.”
“Oh shit. That little piece of dark chocolate?” Deion hooted. “You hitting that, Cole? Didn’t take you for the romantic type.”
Tim laughed. “Cole’s not winning any bitch over with that charming personality. He’s paying her to stay around—she’s his agent.”
Deion chuckled. “Christ, my agent won’t even take my calls, let alone my dick.”
