IMPACT: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

by Vivian Lux

  I kind of hated that he was wearing it with me again.

  "If it makes you feel any better," he finally said, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen over the table, "they didn't tell me you were coming either."

  "They didn't?" I glared at Candace and Ian in turn. "You guys suck."

  "The Hawks are only in town until Thursday," Candace complained. "We both wanted to see our best friends before then."

  "Ian and Brad see each other on the rink every night," I pointed out.

  "I mentioned that," Brad interjected. "Candace invited me to this dinner before we left for Arizona, and she said she wanted the three," he said pointedly, "of us to get together. Celebrate the start of the season."

  "Which is all we are doing," Candace said, plopping her menu on the table decisively.

  We all looked down and studied our hands.

  "Well," I said, taking a deep breath. "Since this is already awkward as fuck, why don't I just make it worse?" I looked right at Candace. "I was going to wait to tell you, but since I can't punch you in the face over this little stunt, I'm going to use words to hurt you."

  Candace just rolled her eyes and shared a private glance with Ian.

  "Anyway," I said, pretending I hadn't seen that, "Kyle Jarrett's leaving Cupid’s Arrow." The look of shock on Candace's face made me feel marginally better. "And he asked me to come with him." There. Take that.

  I sat back smugly.

  But the second the words left my mouth, I wanted to snatch them back in. Candace's eyes instantly filled with tears. "Oh my god, you're leaving?"

  Ian closed his hand over Candace's and glowered at me.

  "Well, I'm not sure yet, " I backpedaled. "I mean, after all, it's Jarrett. He's a strutting little megalomaniac and I'd probably murder him the first week working together."

  I stared down at my hands. I could feel Brad watching me. I darted a quick glance up at him. His face was unreadable, but for some reason I felt like he wanted me to keep going. "But he made an offer," I stammered, "and uh, it's good, Candy." I looked down at my hands again, cheeks flaming. "Really good. I'd be able to pay off the rest of my student loans like, within the year if I played my cards right. And, oh, the title, and the work from home ability and...."

  "That sounds awesome, Liv."

  I looked up from my hands to see Brad looking at me with a soft, proud smile on his face. "Yeah?" I answered dumbly.

  He picked up his menu. For a second I thought he wasn't going to say anything else. That he was done talking to me. That he regretted saying anything in the first place.

  Then, over the noise of the restaurant, the soft murmuring of Ian reassuring Candace, I heard him speak, barely audible. "You'll be great. I'm proud of you." His heavy-lidded eyes closed for a second and then he exhaled, "I'm really proud of you."

  Chapter 10

  Brad

  She looked at me, green eyes wide, and pressed her lips together. Then she looked back down and smiled a soft, secret smile behind her menu. I wasn't supposed to see that smile, I could tell that in an instant. But I saw it and now I knew....

  She wasn't done with me either.

  Candace said something in a hurt tone, and Olivia wheedled her, poking her and prodding her until Candace started smiling, then laughing. Five minutes was all it took for us all to forget her burst of temper and start loving Olivia again.

  Olivia is still Olivia. That was the thought that kept running nonsensically through my head. It made no sense because of course she wouldn't have changed that much since I last saw her. But some part of me kept checking and double-checking, looking for some kind of sign that she had missed me. Like I missed her. I kept glancing up from my menu, looking for the cracks in her facade, some inkling that she was falling apart the way I was.

  "What are you going to eat, Brad?" she asked me. The way her green eyes flashed playfully when she posed the question had me wondering if she was hitting me with one of her pick-up lines.

  I really fucking missed her dirty talk.

  I was ready to play again.

  "Honestly?" I considered the menu. "You're probably going to bust my balls...."

  "Probably," she grinned.

  I cleared my throat. "But I'm thinking salad."

  Olivia snorted.

  Ian rolled his eyes. "Salad, dude?"

  "Yeah, I don't have much of an appetite these days."

  "Really?" Olivia's eyes shone with relief.

  We were definitely not talking about food right now.

  "Nope," I said, shaking my head. "I've barely eaten a thing."

  "Barely?" she teased.

  "How about you?" I asked, keeping my tone light and innocent. "Have you been eating well these days?"

  Olivia darted a look across the table to her friend. Candace was watching the two of us with a perfectly delighted look on her face. She shook her head minutely at Olivia.

  Olivia stuck out her tongue in return and looked back at me. There was a mischievous look in her eye. "I've been having way too much junk food," she sighed. "Haven't had a good meal in weeks."

  I leaned back and folded my arms. "Me either. Too much road food. I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds."

  "You don't look like you do." Olivia dragged her eyes up from where she was blatantly staring at my bicep and regarded my face critically. "You actually look like you've dropped a few pounds." She patted her face. "Right here in particular."

  "Around where, exactly?" I asked.

  She cocked her head at me, pausing for a moment. I waited, leaning slightly forward.

  She reached out and pressed her fingers to the place just below my cheekbone, and brushed them down to the corner of my mouth. I felt a jolt of electricity squeeze down my spine, settling into a dull throb in my groin. "Here," she indicated. There was no mistaking the way her breath quickened, or the flush that heated her cheeks. "You're looking a little hollow."

  Her fingers were on my skin again... her touch so familiar and yet somehow so much softer. So much more searching.

  Without thinking, I darted my hand out and closed my fingers around her wrist. Her eyes widened when I pressed her fingers to my lips. "I'm feeling a little hollow," I said, low so that only she could here.

  Was that guilt I saw flicker across her face?

  Or was it hunger?

  The way she held my gaze looked exactly like hunger.

  We both froze. Her finger twitched next to my mouth and I nipped it - just a little - at the tip.

  She hissed.

  I was hard as hell for her.

  Ian cleared his throat. "Guys? Waitress is here."

  I released Olivia and leaned back in my chair. "I'll have the steak special," I said, not taking my eyes off of Olivia. "And an extra order of potatoes, please. I've got quite an appetite."

  She shook her head as if to clear it and the smiled winningly at the waitress. "I'm really hungry too," she said. "But I'm going to help myself to whatever is on his plate."

  "You want to eat off my plate?" I asked. "I wouldn't mind sharing."

  "Jesus, guys, just get a goddamned room and get this over with already," Ian growled. He looked up at the clearly mortified waitress. "I've completely lost my damn appetite over here, so I'm going to hand over my man card and actually order a salad."

  Candace couldn't seem to stop giggling.

  But I didn't give a fuck about their discomfort. I was too busy drinking in the sight of Olivia looking strangely shy and very, very happy. Her dark hair fell in a shiny ribbon down her back - except for one strand that had gotten caught when she turned her head to the waitress. It pooled in the hollow of her clavicle, twisting and dancing each time she moved her head. It had me transfixed. She was staring down at her hands like she was afraid to meet my eyes.

  Then I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

  Texting me under the table? Oh, you dirty little girl.

  Olivia: You need to eat up. Your face is definitely looking a little thin.

  I cle
ared my throat and typed quickly.

  Me: It would probably look better if you sat on it.

  I looked up, but she was talking with Candace. Her phone buzzed on the table. I waited, staring at her hand as if I could will it to move. Pick up your damn phone, Olivia. Why are you such a stubborn, infuriating woman? Why am I so hard for you right now?

  The waitress brought out our drinks and appetizers at the same time, apparently trying to rush us along. I was ready to get the fuck out of here myself. I smiled at her and mentally resolved to leave her a big tip for acting as an unofficial wingman.

  Olivia's hand wandered over to her phone, as casually as could be. I leaned over and tore a hunk of bread out of the basket in the center of the table and started gnawing on it.

  She glanced up at me, her face a perfectly composed mask.

  Then she slowly stood up. "I'm heading to the ladies," she announced. She stepped around the table, deliberately taking the long way around. She brushed past me, dragging her fingertips along my shoulders as she did.

  I nearly leaped to my feet. Ian and Candace both shot me startled looks. My explanation tangled itself up in my tongue.

  I shook my head. "Fuck it. I'm not going to lie."

  Candace clapped her hands. "Yes! It worked!"

  "Go get her," Ian nodded.

  Chapter 11

  Olivia

  The closer I got to the back of the restaurant the more I slowed down. My legs were quickly going to jelly.

  I turned the corner and ducked behind the dark-wood partition that hid the restrooms from view. Then I stopped and leaned my back against the wall and closed my eyes.

  My pulse was thudding in the strangest places. My fingertips, my neck... the inside of my thigh. I could hear it sounding in my ears, like the tide rushing in, whoosh whoosh whoosh.

  I stood there just long enough for the doubts to start creeping in. Brad was just playing, right? He was just flirting, old time's sake and all. We were being friendly, acting our parts as the secondary characters to Candace and Ian's love story. Just getting along the way men and women always get along - by pretending they want to fuck each other and not following through.

  I touched him, but he wasn't going to see it as the invitation it was, right? Invitation to what, exactly, I wasn't sure. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing back here right now and this was the first fucking time in my life I had ever actually felt this way. This was spinning wildly out of my control and I hated not being in control.

  There was a noise, slightly louder than the thudding of my heart. I opened my eyes...

  "Brad, I...."

  But he was already there, having received my invitation loud and fucking clear by the size of the bulge he was already sporting in his jeans.

  He tilted my chin upward, eyes darting back and forth across my face, reading me. I threw my arms around his neck, finding that place where it met his shoulders, that perfectly shaped hollow in the muscle where my forearms could rest so comfortably.

  Fuck, he was made for me.

  "Are you going to kiss me?" I asked. There was a note of begging in my voice. I hoped like hell he didn't hear it.

  "Do you want me to kiss you?" he shot back.

  I shifted from one foot to another. This kind of power play was unlike Brad. He usually knew exactly what I wanted and did it without hesitating. I arched towards him, letting the swell of my breasts brush against his shirt. "I came back here to go to the bathroom," I reminded him.

  His eyes flashed. "So go."

  I swallowed and turned, still holding my head high, still not breaking out into a run, still not letting my legs give out on me yet. I felt like I had quicksilver running through my veins and bees humming in my chest. I was so turned on I was practically vibrating.

  I pushed open the door to the ladies room.

  Brad shoved me inside, then turned around and locked the door behind him.

  "Do you want me to kiss you?" he demanded. He looked fucking immense in this tiny place. There was no way for me to avoid looking at him because he was fucking everywhere. And there was no way for me to lie to him because I could see myself in the mirror over the sink and the need was written over every inch of my face.

  I was losing control again.

  "Kiss me," I said. I didn't ask him, though. I ordered him.

  He hesitated, and I almost said please. I almost started begging him to kiss me. When he finally did what I wanted, I sagged in relief.

  The heat of his mouth on mine was exactly as sweet as I remembered; the rough, innate skill at which he played his tongue against mine. I don't know if you could train to kiss like this, or if it's something that he just was born knowing how to do, but in that moment - as his tongue slid against mine, his hands roaming across my breasts and down to cup my ass, lifting me just an inch closer so that he could kiss me just a fraction deeper - I didn't give a shit.

  Because all at once my brain just... stopped. The incessant whir of thoughts and schemes died away, and with it those worries about whether I looked sexy or pretty, or whether I was coming across too strong, whether people liked me or were afraid of me, whether he liked me as much as I really fucking liked him, whether I could ever allow him to know the truth of how much I liked him....

  All those thoughts just went...quiet.

  And in the quiet was peace I had never known. I wasn't worrying about whether I had the upper hand. It was just my body against his body, a woman against a man, kissing him like her life depended on it and it probably fucking did.

  I melted into that blankness. There was a sound, and it might have been me moaning, but I didn't fucking care. I took a breath and opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of myself, possessed and ragged and completely fucking falling apart and I didn't fucking care. I took his face in my hands, clutching it because I needed him. I needed to inhale the smell of him, and feel the weight of him and I needed to lose myself in this bliss because I wasn't sure if I could ever allow myself to be lost like this again.

  Brad kissed me like he wanted to take all of my problems and make them his own. Brad kissed me like he was certain that I was the best thing in his life. Brad kissed me like the next thing he wanted to do was lift me high up above everything that churned around me.

  Brad kissed me like I was his.

  A single thought swam up from the blankness, shattering the bliss of quiet in my mind. How the fuck did I think I could end this?

  Brad spun me around so that my back was flat against the door. He pulled back, but kept his hand on my chin, holding my face immobile so that I had to look him right in the eye.

  "Liv," he exhaled in a ragged gasp. He was breathing hard...and so was I. But with each breath, my thoughts came rushing back in again, that sweet, blissful oblivion already receding. A wave of pleasure crashed over into a wave of panic. My mind scrambled for something to hold onto in the deluge. I found one scrap and I held on tight.

  He wants me.

  If he wanted me...

  Then I had the upper hand.

  I took a deep breath. I was in control here. That blankness was just the relief at ending my dry spell. This wasn't anything bigger than pure, animal lust.

  I grinned, running my tongue along my teeth. "Let's just get a few things straight," I purred, ready to state my conditions. "This is still just fucking."

  His face flickered. But I was on a roll, clawing my way back up out of the terror of oblivion. "We're using each other for sex." His eyes narrowed. "This is just going to be for when you're not on the road. We're not going to start...."

  "Olivia shut the fuck up," he growled.

  "Hey now, don't get all growly on me."

  "For fuck's sake, Olivia."

  "What? I'm offering a new plan, here. Clearly, we can't stop messing around. We're like a broken record over here, so why try to fight the groove?" I smoothed my hands down my skirt. Then I sank my fingers into the flesh of my thighs to stop them from shaking. "I'm proposing a new agreement, here." I held
out my hand. "Shall we discuss terms?"

  Chapter 12

  Brad

  She was shutting down before my eyes. I balled up my fists until I could be absolutely sure I wasn't going to grab her, shake her, yank her back to me and slam my lips down on hers. I took a deep, shaky breath.

  I had her, I fucking had her. I felt the way she was melting into me as I kissed her. She wasn't fighting us anymore. She was caving. Surrendering. I felt it.

  And then, just like that, she was back to dicking me over again.

  "Terms?" I repeated. My voice was a lot calmer than I felt. "You want to discuss, terms?"

  Fucking Olivia. She was so fucking beautiful it made me angry.

  Her eyes twinkled. I saw the playfulness gather there, the same old "let's-just-have-fun!" gleam that she always adopted when she was getting ready to pretend there was nothing between us. "Are you gonna get all caveman-mad on me, Brad? You know I love it when you start grunting."

  She was toying with me.

  I wanted to be livid, to lash out. Fucking set off a nuclear bomb on this situation and sow the ashes with salt. I wasn't going to be her fuck toy anymore.

  But...

  But.

  I had her. I felt how she was trembling in my arms, reveled in the way she fell to pieces. Even now there was a smudge of eyeliner under her eye that she didn't know about. She was trying to gloss over how much she'd lost control just now, but that eyeliner told another story.

  If I did it just now, I could do it again.

  Okay, Olivia. Let's hear these "terms" of yours. "Okay," I said, leaning against the tile. "Go ahead."

  Olivia chewed on her lip for a moment and I ignored the impulse to bite it. "I'll be your home team advantage."

  "Care to elaborate?"

  She leaned against the sink and twined that wayward lock of hair of hers around her finger. "When you're on the road, we do our own thing with no strings attached." She brushed that lock of hair into her mouth, then seemed to realize she was chewing on it and dropped it hastily. "But when you come back?" She smiled up at me, eyes glittering. "Then you're contractually obligated to come over and fuck me like it's summer time."