The Quarterback’s Secret Baby (Football's Bad Boys Book 3)

by Ava Walsh

  My sadness and misery had now turned to boiling rage. I suddenly felt like I hated him. That I should have never crossed the boundary, that he had seduced me with his charm.

  I was stupid to think that I could use Oscar Connell, that I could hold him up as some kind of example to all men who mistreat women. I was stupid to think that I could prove some kind of point.

  The truth was that I wasn’t a hero. I was like every other girl who fell for a man she could never have.

  I had made my decision now, I wasn’t going to fall for another of his cheap tricks. That text message meant nothing to me. He could send as many of them as he wanted, but there was no honor left in upholding that contract.

  I boiled a kettle of water and poured it into a mug with a tea bag. I needed to cut back on costs, it would have to be tea and crackers for dinner for me. If I could just save enough money to pay this month’s hospital bills for mama, then it would see us through for a few more weeks.

  I thought about Oscar in his penthouse, enjoying caviar and champagne for dinner and I couldn’t imagine hating anybody more. He was a spoilt rich boy, that’s all he was. Just like my father had been. How dare he assume that he could entice me into visiting him again, after all that happened today, by reminding me that this was a contract?

  I sipped my tea gingerly and felt another tear roll down my cheeks. Mama was right, I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried so much. Yes, I was in love with Oscar Connell, but that didn’t mean he deserved my love. I was angry with myself for falling in love with a man I didn’t even like. Someone who tried to bait me into sleeping with him again, only hours after his brother made a joke out of me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Oscar

  Just like the first time she came over, this time too I didn’t expect her to turn up. But she did. It was eight in the evening by the time I heard the door bell ring. I opened the door, swung it wide but she remained standing before me. I could see that she had been crying. I wanted to hold her, to stroke her hair, to make her feel safe and to trust me. But she was holding her head high and glaring into my eyes.

  This wasn’t the Kayla Edwards whose body I wanted to ravish when I first met her. This Kayla was different. She was in a pair of jeans and an old oversized t-shirt that nearly reached her knees. Her hair was left loose, but un-styled. She had no makeup on.

  This was the Kayla I wanted to hold in my arms. This was the woman who I wanted to go to sleep with.

  “I didn’t expect you to come,” I said, breaking the silence.

  “I shouldn’t have,” she said, pushing her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

  “I’m glad you did. You should come in,” I said and I saw her eyes fall on my bruised knuckles. A look of concern washed over her face but she was quick to hide it.

  “What happened to your hand?” she asked, making her voice sound as casual as possible. I could see she didn’t want to cross the line. How could I tell her that I wanted to cross it? How could I tell her how happy I was to see her?

  “Jonathan’s nose,” I said, holding it up for her to see. She didn’t come closer to me or look particularly interested.

  “You punched your brother?” she asked and I nodded.

  “It felt good. He deserved it, after what he said to you,” I said and she looked at me in silence. Then she brushed past me and walked into the house. I closed the door and followed her to the living room.

  “Drink?” I asked as she walked over to the window. It made me happy to realize that she really did like the view.

  “I’m not here for refreshments, Oscar. I’m here to put a stop to this,” she said, turning to me, and looking at me from under her heavy long lashes. I licked my lips and nodded. I’d prepared a speech for her, I had it in my head, what I wanted to say, but it was all lost on me. I couldn’t remember what those words were, I was drawing a blank.

  “I understand and I agree,” I said quietly and noticed the look of slight surprise on her face. She wasn’t expecting me to agree to this so easily. Did she think she would have to put up a fight?

  “Good,” she said and leaned with her back against the wall.

  “I’m sorry for all the embarrassment that you’ve had to go through. I wish you didn’t. I wish it was as smooth sailing as I imagined it would be,” I said, maintaining a few feet of distance between us. I didn’t want her to get the wrong impression of my intentions.

  “It’s not your fault. It was a contract, after all, it was good while it lasted,” she said, tucking in loose strands of her hair behind her ears. She had never looked more beautiful, of that I was sure.

  “It was good while it lasted indeed,” I said and she looked away from me and there was silence in the room again.

  “I’m quitting my job,” I said and she jerked her head to look at me.

  “You don’t have to do that. It’s your family business. I’ve decided to quit anyway,” she said. I smiled and shook my head.

  “Remember the rule you came up with? That you’d maintain your position after this ends,” I said and a soft smile graced Kayla’s lips at the memory. So much had changed since then.

  “I was being stupidly naive,” she said and I shook my head again.

  “You can stay, Kayla. I’m holding on to my end of the contract, you get to keep your position,” I said and she stared at me in silence.

  “I can’t work there anymore,” she replied.

  “I can talk to father and make sure you’re transferred to our California offices if you don’t mind moving. You don’t have to work with these people anymore.” I could see that she was thinking as she stared at me with her large chocolate colored eyes.

  “I know you’ve worked hard at your job Kayla, and you’re a prized possession at the company. You don’t deserve to leave all this behind. Especially since it’ll suit me better to quit anyway,” I said and she licked her lips and sighed.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said, holding her head high. That was the Kayla who was so good at her job: confident, professional and never backing away from a good deal. I smiled at her, but she only tried. I could see she was still hurting, but she was too proud to say it. As was I. I didn’t know if I was prepared to lay my heart out in the open like that, for another woman to come and trample all over.

  We were quiet for a few minutes.

  “So aren’t you going to ask me for a last time?” she asked, her voice dropping and growing softer.

  “Ask you for what?” I asked, and I saw her jaws clenching.

  “Sex,” she replied.

  “No. I won’t,” I said and her eyes widened. “It’s over. That is over. I would rather have you first, as someone real, to talk to, and then your body.” For the first time she really looked at me, straight into my eyes and my arms shook in fear of what she was going to say.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kayla

  I couldn’t decide if this was a part of some kind of trick that he was playing on me. I wasn’t even sure if I had heard him correctly. He wanted me as a person? He said that when I had practically just offered him my body?

  I stared at him, while he looked back at me, his eyes boring into me intensely. He wasn’t smiling, he was serious.

  “I don’t know if I understand what you mean,” I managed to say after several seconds of silence.

  “I mean Kayla, that I want you. Of course I want you. But not just as a part of a contract,” he said. I could see his lips moving, his blue eyes sparkling in the dim light of his living room. His strong shoulders squared and tight. He was as defensive as I was. I didn’t know what to say to him, this wasn’t what I expected. I prided myself in being able to judge people accurately. In Oscar’s case, I had missed the mark by miles.

  “Kayla, I know you don’t trust me…I know you’re scared,” he began and something in me made me interrupt him.

  “It’s not you, Oscar. It’s my own family, or rather the lack thereof,” I blurted out and I saw his face change. His d
efenses came down a little.

  “You don’t trust me because of your family?” he asked, confused.

  “Because of my father.”

  “What did he do to you?” There was a glint of rage in his eyes as he said it. I could see now how the punch on Jonathan’s face came about.

  “Nothing. He was my mother’s boss. He left her when she got pregnant with me. I’ve never met him, I don’t even know who he is,” I blurted it all out, and only at the end of it did I realize that I was crying.

  Oscar lunged towards me, enveloping me in his arms as he held me to his chest.

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Kayla,” he said as he stroked my hair. I held on to his chest for dear life. I felt safe in his arms. Besides mama, nobody had ever made me feel like they genuinely cared. This man, who I thought I had all figured out, did.

  “Is that why you pushed me away? Because you thought I would do the same to you?” he asked and I nodded.

  “I kept pushing you away because of an ex-girlfriend who cheated on me,” he said and I pulled away from him to look into his eyes.

  “That bad huh?” I asked and he raised his eyebrows.

  “She slept with Jonathan,” he said and I nearly broke into a laugh. Who would ever choose Jonathan over Oscar?

  “So that punch was a long time coming then,” I said and he squeezed his arms around me a little more.

  “Kayla, can we start over?” he asked and I nodded. There was nothing more that I wanted. I hadn’t even realized that this was what I wanted. I had been so angry with myself for falling in love that I had refused to acknowledge that falling in love could also be beautiful and mean happiness.

  And the last person I had expected to feel happy about was Oscar Connell.

  “I have never been this excited to have a contract of sexual favors ending,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “How many have you had?” I asked him, lightly punching his arm. He laughed and then held me even tighter in his grip.

  “I’m not going to lie, a few of them,” he said. It didn’t surprise me. His proposal had been too casual, too easy. He had done it a few times before.

  “But never before did I end the contract so I could date the girl, Kayla. This is a first,” he said, softly kissing my forehead. I licked my lips and accepted the kiss. I could live with that. As long as what he was offering now was real, it was a good deal.

  “Is this the part where you rip my clothes apart and take me here on the carpet?” I asked him, but he pulled away from me and shook his head.

  “I could if you really want to. But I was thinking that the best way to start over would be to get Maria to set us a candlelit dinner, where I ask you about where you grew up and what kind of ice cream you like. You can maybe ask me what colors don’t suit me and who my best friends are. You know, like normal people,” he said, drawing away from me as I laughed.

  “You may be right, but normal is boring,” I said and he was laughing too. Then I felt his hands on the buttons of my jeans. The next thing I knew was that his hands were on my bra under my t-shirt. He was making me moan already, his hands finding their way into my pants. I was on the carpet, tugging at his clothes and he was smiling, watching me as he kept me pinned to the floor.

  I was not tired of him yet, he had got it wrong. I would never be tired of him. Oscar Connell was one of a kind, and I was wrong to assume that all men were like my father.

  No, Oscar Connell was the love of my life and I could see it in his eyes as he entered me, that he loved me back.

  *****

  THE END

  Hungry Boss

  Description

  What do you do when the hottest, most annoying billionaire on the planet wants a fake marriage... with you?

  I’m a twenty-eight-year-old gal, saving myself for the one.

  The perfect one. So definitely not for him.

  He’s one of the world’s most famous playboys and not interested in relationships.

  Did I mention he’s my boss? He is.

  But he’s in trouble.

  His old man has given him an ultimatum: he has to settle down in three months or he won’t be president of the family’s multi-billion company.

  One mistake, one night with too much liquor, and I wake up married to the guy in Vegas the next day.

  So we just get an annulment, right?

  Right. Until he makes me an offer I can’t refuse.

  He’ll give me the thing I want most if I continue with our legal but unconsummated marriage.

  What’s a girl to do?

  Chapter One

  Matt Cross made the trip to his father’s office feeling like he had as a small child when he’d been called into the old man’s study. Somehow, in some way, he had disappointed his father yet again. The elevator dinged and he got off on the old man’s floor.

  Bypassing his father’s assistant, who just waved at him with a smile, Matt knocked on the door and let himself in. His father, Richard, was on the telephone when Matt entered, so he made his way to the small bar and poured himself a bourbon. It was too early, but if he were going to get lectured, he needed the drink.

  He settled on the leather couch as his father finished up his phone call. Running a multi-billion dollar luxury hotel chain was hard work—and it was work that Matt looked forward to undertaking. His sister was a stay-at-home mom with four kids. She didn’t come anywhere near the business.

  Their parents were well into their late-thirties before they had married, and forty before Matt was born. Matt was thirty—young to take on such a role—but his father was seventy now and ready to retire.

  Matt had worked for the company since graduating college at twenty-one. He’d worked his way up to a vice-president position. It didn’t take a lot of thinking to conclude that he would become CEO and president when his father retired in just three months.

  Finally, his father hung up the conference call and gave Matt an assessing look. “It’s a little early for alcohol, isn’t it?”

  “I’m still on London time. It’s past five there.”

  Richard shrugged. “Well, thankfully, I’m not here to talk about your drinking. That’s one problem you don’t have.”

  Matt leaned forward on the couch. “Exactly what problem do I have?”

  “Flitting around the world, for starters.”

  “I don’t flit, father. I travel for work.”

  “Meh, there’s no point in it, son.” Richard waved a hand in dismissal and sat back in his buttery cream leather executive chair. He left one hand to rest on the steel and glass modern desk.

  “I fix the problems no one else can handle. Those hotels, every one, are either in crisis or running at a loss. Without my intervention, those locations would have been shut down within the year.”

  “You’re putting out fires. When you’re this high in the company, you don’t put out fires. You hire good managers who can do it for you.”

  Matt stood up to pace his father’s large office. “Why hire someone to do something I can do better?”

  “You’ve got to learn to look at the big picture. You’ll never become CEO at this rate.”

  Frozen, Matt stared at his father. His blood turned to ice water in his veins. “What the hell does that mean?”

  With a sigh, his father leaned his head back against the headrest on his seat. “It means that I’m considering making Gary interim CEO and president until you get your life together.”

  “My life is together. What is this about? And don’t tell me it’s just about how I do my job because I can tell that it’s not.”

  “I’m talking about marriage and children. Things you’ll be—you are, the way you work—too busy for if I make you president. Without an heir, who will this company be passed down to?”

  Matt threw himself into a soft armchair in front of the desk and ran a hand through his perfectly trimmed hair. He’d tried marriage once already, when he was younger. He’d wed his college sweethea
rt. Matt had insisted they didn’t need a prenup because they were so in love. Months before he turned twenty-five and came into his trust fund worth billions, he caught her cheating on him. They’d divorced and she’d taken half of what he had at the time.

  Now, he knew women were only interested in him for his money. He dated the most beautiful actresses and models. He bought them jewelry, paid for expensive trips, took them shopping. It satisfied both their desires. He had no intention of ever marrying again. “Diane has four children, in case you’ve forgotten. Your legacy is already assured.”

  “She’s not raising them to be in the business. You knew how to balance a ledger at twelve. How to—”

  “Yes, yes. You did a good job, father. What’s your point, is what I’m wondering.” Matt picked up his forgotten bourbon and took a sip. It burned going down his throat, but it was a welcome heat.

  “I need to see some maturity from you, son. Prove your worth to this company, learn to see the big picture, and, damn it, date someone for more than a month. Settle down.”

  “You’re retiring in three months. You expect me to do all this before then?”

  “If you can somehow swing a miracle, that’d be nice. Otherwise, Gary will take your place, until you’re ready to head this company.”

  The unfairness of it all threatened to erupt from him, but his father would see that as no more than a petty, and childish tantrum. Matt did, indeed, need a miracle. He needed some way he could convince his father he was ready to take the company into the future, without becoming tied down with an unappreciative wife and a few kids he’d never have time for.

  ***

  Brooke Monroe was already late for work, but Matt would understand. He knew she had obligations to help her father care for himself. She’d made him breakfast and he was trying the new weighted fork she’d purchased from a website for people with Parkinson’s. Her dad had been diagnosed seven years ago, before her mother’s death. He’d went downhill quite a bit since becoming a widower.