The Sport of Romance: A Multi-Author Box Set

by Cari Quinn

  If she could read his mind it’d probably scare her away. Billy wondered how she’d looked at three months, six months, and then at nine months pregnant. He imagined what it would have been like to put his hand on her belly and feel Gabby’s tiny feet kicking beneath it. Thanks to O’Malley that chance had been stolen from him.

  Honestly, Billy didn’t know how he would’ve reacted to being a father at the age of eighteen. But the thought of Angel growing large awakened a fierce possessiveness in him now. This was their second chance to be a family. He didn’t intend to walk out of her life again, no matter how much she tried to push him away.

  “Well, honey, by the look of things, I don’t think you’re going to have to wait long,” said Hannah.

  Score one for Billy. Not only did he have his daughter on his team but with Hannah and Samantha rooting for him then he was that much closer to winning Angel’s heart. And to think when he first walked into the room he was in a state of panic thinking the two women had tried to warn Angel off.

  “Well, we better leave you two lovebirds alone.” Hannah gently picked up Maxine from the pillow.

  “We’re not…not—”

  “Yet,” said Hannah and Samantha simultaneously.

  “Alone.” Angel interrupted as she cut her eyes toward Gabby. “I was going to remind you we’re not alone.”

  “So you ARE lovebirds?” Hannah grinned.

  “That’s not what I meant.” Angel sputtered as she received a hug goodbye from each of the women.

  “Quit while you’re ahead,” advised Billy. “Trust me, there’s no winning with these two. You and I know what’s going on. That’s all that is important.”

  But once he was out of earshot at the door with his teammate’s wives he whispered his thanks. “I appreciate the support ladies.” Billy shot a glance over his shoulder to confirm he wasn’t being overheard. “I’m trying not to scare Angel off.”

  Samantha turned and jabbed a finger onto his chest. “Don’t fuck this up.”

  “Whoa, you’ve been hanging with the boys too much,” responded Billy. She might have left reporting from the locker room behind, but she could still swear with the best of them.

  “I only use the word for shock value. It’s the only way to get you men to listen.”

  “I’m listening, I’m listening.”

  Hannah situated the baby into a contraption that looked like a backpack with a place for the baby’s head, arms and legs to stick out. It reminded Billy of a turtle.

  “You’re a lucky man, Billy.”

  “I know.” He imagined Angel holding Gabby at the same age as Maxine. He wondered if Angel packed the wall of photos or maybe there was a box of pictures he hadn’t seen. “Thanks for welcoming them both,” he repeated. Their doubtful looks made him add, “For real.”

  “Now go make a playmate for Gabby,” said Hannah.

  “I’m on it.”

  When he closed the door and turned to face Angel they traded heated glances. He looked away first and took a note of the time on the clock. Four long hours until Gabby’s bedtime stretched out before him.

  Deciding to make good use of the time he found reasons to touch her. His hand at the small of her back produced a startled gasp from her mouth. His fingertips generated goose bumps along her arm. She shivered as he breathed in her scent asking in a whisper what smelled so good. Each response from her amped him to the very edge of his control. At dinner she paid him back, torturing him by licking a knife with a seductive smile on her lips, while Gabby wasn’t looking. His cock throbbed to be unleashed. Any moment he’d need a straightjacket to keep him from Angel’s body.

  But his ardor cooled as they watched Cinderella together. Like the family he pictured them being. After the movie ended he entered Gabby’s bedroom as Angel grabbed a book. Spotting Billy, Gabby crossed her arms and said in a huffy voice. “No! I want Daddy to tell me a story.”

  Billy gently pulled the sheet over his daughter and tried not to smile at her pouty face. “I don’t know any stories.” He sat down next to her as Angel stretched out on the other side of the bed.

  “Tell me how you and Mommy met.”

  Angel fussed with the sheet. “Oh, it was a long time ago. Daddy doesn’t remember.”

  “Like it was yesterday,” he said. Over the head of his daughter he gazed into Angel’s shocked green eyes. “Let’s see now. I lived eight hours away but that summer I attended the football camp right outside of your town. The heat wave that hit that summer was one for the record books. One humid night me and some of the guys decided to take a swim to cool off so we headed to the lake.” He left out the part about sneaking out of the cabin. “A full moon shone on the lake and I saw a beautiful creature gliding through the water. I thought, could it be a mermaid?”

  “That’s silly. Everyone knows mermaids live in the ocean.”

  Billy’s heart warmed, glad his daughter believed in mermaids. “True, but I thought she might be lost.” Perhaps it was a trick of the light but the green eyes he stared into as he told the story looked misty and a little sad. Maybe, she’d been a lost soul. Maybe that’s why they connected the way they did. Both were motherless teens, one with a father who didn’t care and one with a father who cared to the point of suffocation. “As she swam away from us, I decided to catch the mermaid to prove she was real.” He paused, reliving the moment in Angel’s gaze.

  “Then what happened?” asked Gabby.

  “The mermaid was fast but I was faster. I caught the creature, kissed her, and then the water churned and bubbled as her tail turned into legs.” He left out the fact that they were both skinny-dipping. “I asked the beauty on a date, and she told me to meet her at the town fair the following night.”

  “Where you won Ellie for her.” Gabby hugged the pink elephant tightly to her chest.

  So Gabby did know. Angel’s dreamy smile told him she was reliving it in her mind.

  Gabby yawned. “Did you love Mommy?”

  “Yes,” he said simply without adding that he never stopped loving her.

  “Then why didn’t you come back?”

  “Gabby, it’s time to go to sleep,” whispered Angel.

  Thinking Angel had left for Vegas he had no reason to come back. “I thought the mermaid swam back to the sea.”

  “But Mommy is a human.”

  Angel mesmerized him like no other girl had in the past or since. Did she cast a spell on him that night? “Hmmm, I don’t know.” No girl back home would swim naked in a lake like she belonged there, that was for sure.

  “That means I’m a mermaid too! Like Ariel!”

  “Billy, you’ve wound her all up. Bedtime stories are supposed to lull her to sleep.” Angel stroked Gabby’s forehead, which produced another wide yawn.

  But she didn’t sound mad, in fact she smiled at him. Not just any smile but one that made him think he was dreaming with his eyes wide opened. Or perhaps he was simply hallucinating.

  He realized his mistake so long ago. Inexperienced, he took instead of gave. No wonder he hadn’t satisfied her. Since then, he learned the sex playbook from cover to cover and he had a hell of a lot of practice.

  Angel held his stare as Gabby fell asleep. After they quietly exited the room, Angel turned to him, mischief lit up her green eyes. “You know I let you catch me that night.”

  “I know.” Billy didn’t waste any time. Swooping his head down, he captured her lips with his. Instead of finesse he released his pent up passion to overwhelm her, stealing her breath before she could utter another protest. But she wasn’t protesting. Changing the kiss to a slow and seductive one, it took every ounce of his will not to plunder and take. Her room, just steps away, beckoned but he wanted her in his bed where she belonged. Besides he planned to make her scream. Loud.

  Chapter Twelve

  Billy’s kiss ignited the embers in Angel’s heart into a flame that roared through her blood until her body burned from within. His hands ran down along her curves then back up, one fi
nding its way beneath her shirt, closing around her breast. The other wound its way through her hair. Responding with a moan, she pressed against him.

  “Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me now if you don’t, because your body is talking to me in a whole other language,” he said, his voice husky with need.

  She couldn’t even claim that her body was betraying her. Mind, body, and soul all demanded a release only Billy could provide. Her heart wanted more. It yearned for something greater. But for now she would take what she could get. “I do. I mean, I do. Want this,” she said, stumbling over the words.

  He smiled as he picked her up then carried her like a groom on their wedding night. When he stepped over the threshold of his room, sadness caromed inside her heart. All those wasted years. Could they recapture the pureness of the love they once shared?

  He placed her on his unmade king-sized bed. With her attention focused on Billy stripping off his shirt and pants, she couldn’t say what his room looked like. But his ripped abs she could describe in great detail. The skin stretched across his muscles so tightly she feared her nails might tear it. So when she reached out, she did so gently, using the pads of her fingers to trail a path along the labyrinth of ridges. His skin warmed under her light touch and she could feel the raw power rippling beneath. The fabric on his form fitting boxer briefs tented impressively with proof of his arousal. She attempted to delve down lower, but he gripped her hand tightly.

  “Patience,” he said in a teasing tone.

  Patience? She didn’t know how to be with this older, more controlled version of Billy. They’d always been so eager, so desperate to be together.

  Stretching out over her, he kissed her long and deep. Old feelings resurfaced whirling with new complex emotions that she didn’t understand. Was he kissing the girl she once was or the woman she was now? Did he even see a difference? Was there a difference?

  His lips left hers to take off her shirt and bra. Goosebumps skittered along her skin as he placed tender kisses along her collarbone. His mouth closed over her breast, she bucked beneath him. Billy growled his approval. Hands she remembered as unsure now masterfully played along her body. He continued down and she self-consciously tried to cover the silvery lines marring her skin, but he brushed her hands away.

  “You are beautiful, Angel. All of you.” He licked the lines proving his words. “I wish I was there for you.” Then he gently kissed her stomach before trailing more kisses downward.

  She stilled when he reached the apex of her thighs and breathed in her scent. That was new. He took a taste and she stopped comparing notes of the past and present.

  “Ah, Angel. I didn’t know what I was doing back then.”

  He stroked his thumb up along her clit and she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Neither of us did,” she squeaked. God, she still didn’t.

  “You always knew how to make me crazy with want.” He gazed into her eyes before looking down at her pussy and said, “I swear I’m about to make it up to you.”

  The pace of his tongue was tortuously slow. She relaxed, opening up to him, urging for more. Was this some sort of Kama Sutra thing? If so she didn’t like it and she cried out in frustration. He laughed against her and the vibration of his mouth nearly made her come. In slight increments he increased the pressure of his tongue until she was grabbing fistful of sheets and gulping for air. Only then did he step up the speed.

  Two of his fingers slid inside, but as magical as they were, were not enough, she needed all of him. Every. Last. Inch.

  She needed his body on top of hers. In her. To feel that connection between them again.

  Every fiber of her being pooled to her pussy and she came in a glorious release as she shouted his name into the silent room. Minutes later she opened her eyes to find him memorizing her face as if he expected her to disappear at any moment. The only way she’d be motivated to move is if Gabby had awakened from the shouts of her mother. Angel’s mommy senses perked up and she listened for a disturbance in the night.

  “She’s still asleep,” Billy whispered.

  She almost laughed. They used to have to worry about her father bursting into her room and now they skipped right to the worrying about their daughter ruining the moment. “Then let’s finish up before she wakes.”

  “Finish?” Billy arched an eyebrow. “Angel, we’re just getting started.”

  She smiled at the implications but tried to scoot away from him and reached for the nightstand drawer.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, amusement in his voice.

  “Getting a condom.” Gabby could ask for a baby sister, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

  “I don’t keep them there.” Billy got up and walked to his dresser, opening the top drawer. Striding back he tossed three condoms onto the bed. Now it was her turn to arch an eyebrow.

  “Like I said, we’re just getting started.”

  Moving to her knees she grabbed one of the foil packets as he peeled off his boxer briefs. Dear God, did that get bigger too? Maybe, it had just been too long since she’d seen one.

  “Stop staring at it like it’s got three heads.”

  Angel’s grin turned saucy. “Kinky.”

  He pushed her onto her back. “You won’t need kink after I’m done with you.” He spread her legs wide. He entered her slowly and her eyes fluttered shut in the sweet relief of it.

  “Open your eyes,” he demanded.

  She did as she was told. In his gaze she recognized her Billy. The one who wrote her a poem, the one who saw beyond the tough girl façade, the one who was her first and only one.

  “There you are, Angel,” he whispered, brushing away a strand of her hair. “I missed you.”

  “Oh, Billy, I…” I love you. “…I missed you too.” She tightened around him in a bid for him to move. He complied, his body, a mass of strewn muscle, moved with the sleek grace of a panther.

  Could thrusts be tender? His were. Each one hit something deep inside her, something more powerful than the physical. Her body hummed with bliss. Her hands explored his back before settling on his butt. Angel could feel the strength he held in check behind each stroke. She thought she might die if he didn’t go faster, she might die if he did. Digging her nails into his flesh, she urged him to go faster as the pressure surged to a breaking point. Angel reached the highest of high then went into a freefall of intense pleasure.

  She came apart in his arms and she knew she’d never be whole again. Knew she wanted the fairy tale even if it meant risking a tragic Shakespearean end.

  Chapter Thirteen

  How had he lived without her? How had he breathed?

  Desperate gasps of pleasure escaped her mouth. Her need fueled his, but he was determined to give and not to take. She tightened around him and he knew she was close. Lifting her hips, he held them in place as he drove in harder, deeper, barely able to hold on to the edge of control. The cry of her release echoed in the room signaled his victory. The rush of her liquid heat surrounded his cock as he pumped in and out, riding out her orgasm with his own.

  Unable to hold himself up, Billy rolled off before he crushed her under his full weight. There was no way she wasn’t sexually satisfied. “There’s no faking that,” he said without thinking.

  “Is that what this was about?”

  Before she could scoot off the bed Billy grabbed her wrist. This time he used his power not to seduce but to control. He pulled her back underneath him. His cock responded with interest, but he ignored it. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them. Something wasn’t right about the way things ended, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “Can you blame me? That’s why you broke up with me.”

  “That’s not the reason,” she said as she struggled to get away.

  Stunned by her answer, he almost let her, but then he pressed his weight against her body. “Then why?”

  “It was so long ago.” Defeated, her body fell limp beneath him. “Does it matter?”r />
  “It damn well matters,” he admitted. In the cocoon of his room, lying skin to skin, he risked his soul by being raw and balls to the walls honest. He hoped Angel would be too. “You broke my heart. I deserve to know why.”

  Tear sprung in Angel’s eyes. “I thought you’d be better off without me.”

  More confused than ever he asked, “What?”

  “O’Malley told me you’d gotten into a fight with your father over me and you threatened to drop out of school. He said if I really loved you, I’d let you go.”

  Holy Hell. How had O’Malley known about the argument? Billy’s coach had caught him breaking curfew to meet up with Angel and the infraction was reported to his father who then must have conspired with Angel’s father to end it. It made perfect sense. Why hadn’t Billy realized this before? But once O’Malley knew about Angel’s pregnancy why had he kept it from Billy? Again his search for answers led only to more questions. A conversation with his father was long overdue.

  “Say something.”

  He looked back into Angel’s pleading eyes. “Ah Angel, how could I be better off without my heart.”

  Her tears spilled over. “Billy, I’m so sorry.”

  “For what Angel? For loving me?”

  Angel placed her hand on his cheek. “I did, Billy.”

  He rolled off of her for a second time. Drawing up his legs, he rested his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands. “But not any more?”

  Angel sat up beside him, pulling the sheet around her. “We were kids. Hell, in a lot of ways we still are.”

  He agreed with the first part of her statement but not the second. Billy just made love to her with all the feelings of a man in love. At age twenty-two Angel was more woman than he could probably handle. She raised a child on her own while earning a nursing degree and coddling a gambling addicted father. The woman deserved a break. And Gabby deserved a family. “What we had together was real. We owe it to ourselves to give it a shot.”