by Maren Smith
“I feel the same, Kitten. Like this is some beautiful dream. But it’s real. It’s you and me. And I meant what I said, that I want it to be forever.”
“Really and truly forever, Daddy?” I ask, my heart pounding, about to explode with joy.
“Really and truly. Do you want a ring, sweet girl? Because I’m ready to buy you the biggest diamond in town.”
I smile through my happy tears. “I don’t need anything but the collar you put on my neck tonight. It may not mean the same thing to other people, but we know what it means to us.”
“It does, baby. It means everything. You mean everything. And I’m never going to let you go.”
“You’d better not!”
He grabs me and pulls me into his lap, giving my ass a little spank or two. “Feeling a little bratty, baby?”
“Maybe. But only because I feel so safe with you, Daddy.”
“As long as you keep calling me that forever.”
I squirm until I can see his face, and press my lips to his.
“Forever, Daddy. I’ll always be your girl, your baby, your Kitten.”
“Forever, my Kitten, my baby girl, my love,” he tells me before he kisses me.
And it’s all there—everything we feel for each other, the commitment we’ve made. The rest of the world doesn’t have to understand. No one does but us. We know what we’ve got, what we mean to each other. And that’s more than enough—it’s the best thing in the whole world. Daddy and me. Forever.
The End
For more by Eden Bradley, please click here.
Surprise Play
Carly Marie
About the Author
Hi! I'm Carly Marie. For as long as I can remember, I've had story plots bouncing around my head, demanding to be written. After discovering m/m romance, I knew I found my home. My guys hate heart-break so you can always expect a lot of fun and a happily ever after!
When I'm not writing, I'm probably reading, and just as likely to be avoiding the mounting laundry and dishes that a family of six creates in the blink of an eye.
Connect with Carly via her newsletter, Facebook page, or website.
Copyright © 2020 by Carly Marie and Red Hot Romance, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including, but not limited to, photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, locales, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, and events are purely coincidental.
Chapter One
Malcolm
Over the last four years, I’d walked into Coach River’s office almost every single day I was at work. As the offensive line coach, my office was next to his. We were friends. We spent time together both at work and outside of work. I shouldn’t be nervous walking into his office. I knew I was being ridiculous, but I felt as jittery walking into the meeting with our new quarterback, Jax Joaquin, as I had when I’d been in Jax’s seat. Coming out in professional sports was never easy, it didn’t matter if you were a coach or a player.
I forced myself to take a deep breath and walk in. “Gentlemen,” I greeted the three men already seated. Coach River, Jax, and Jax’s agent-slash-boyfriend were seated around the room. Even Coach had foregone his normal seat behind his desk. This meeting was the first step before Jax went public with his relationship, coming out before the press found out.
If the team, fans, and media hadn’t exploded when my now husband, Ryder, and I came out as a couple when I was in my second year coaching and Ryder had only just signed with us, this wouldn’t ruffle many feathers.
Coach smiled at me as I closed the door behind me for privacy. “Coach Ward, thank you for joining us this afternoon.”
“Sorry I’m a few minutes late.” I’d needed to take my exhausted husband home after practice. One look into his eyes, and I knew he’d never make it through the meeting. As of now, it was classified, so it wasn’t like he’d be sitting in on it anyway. But the stubborn man collapsed onto the couch as soon as he made it into the house, and it took me ten minutes to convince him to go up to our room to sleep so he didn’t wake up stiff and sore. Those ten minutes had caused me to be a few minutes late to the meeting. But if I said I’d spent ten minutes coaxing my husband to bed, no one would believe that it was only to sleep.
Coach waved his hand in dismissal. “Not a problem. We appreciate you coming in this afternoon. It’s not easy to give up an afternoon off.”
We were two weeks from the start of the season; there were no afternoons off, but I didn’t need to say that, we all knew that already. “What have I missed?”
“Not a thing. We just sat down ourselves. Pull up a chair and let’s have a chat.”
From anyone else, in any other situation, those words would have sent fear through me, but we were just there to talk, nothing else. I pulled one of the leather desk chairs over to the group and took a seat. “From what I understand, I’m here to answer questions. So, ask away.”
Jax smiled nervously, and I saw how tightly his right hand gripped the arm of the couch while the fingers of his left hand twitched anxiously, like he wanted to reach out for his boyfriend’s hand. Shit, I didn’t know his boyfriend’s name.
“Before we start,” I stood up and extended a hand to the boyfriend who appeared to have just come from work in a nicely tailored suit. “I’m Malcolm Ward, offensive coach.”
He took my hand in a firm shake. “Terrance.” His dark skin and eyes couldn’t hide his embarrassment as the attention in the room shifted to him. I had to fight a smile thinking about the first time Ryder had been in this room with me. He’d looked just as nervous, and even though he knew his career wasn’t over, fear had radiated off him.
A little over two years ago, there were no out players in the NFL. The only ones who had come out had retired or hadn’t been signed to another team after their initial contracts.
I settled my large frame back into my seat, my knee popping audibly in the quiet room—a constant reminder about why I was a coach and not a player—then gestured to the other three in the room. “So, how can I be of assistance?”
My eyes fell on Jax. We’d picked him up a few months ago to fill our vacant quarterback position when we lost our starter to retirement. The sports media had been abuzz with the news over the summer. In the few preseason games we’d had, Jax had been steady and confident, and he seemed to fit in with the team. But I knew all too well how hiding your sexuality from a group of men you spent days on end with could eat at a person.
Jax finally spoke. “Is it worth it?”
What a loaded question. Was it worth it? The fear, the anxiety, the unknown—they’d weighed on me for years. “Absolutely.”
My answer seemed to stun Jax and Terrance because their mouths dropped open in surprise. I took the opportunity to expound on my statement. “Ryder and I met when I was a senior and he was a freshman in college. I was the graduating starting wide receiver. Ryder was the freshman, coming in with a ton of skill but not much polish. Our coach decided to have us room together that year so he could learn from me. We started out as roommates, but we were friends before the first practice and were inseparable by the first game of the season. By the time the draft rolled around, we’d been seeing each other for a few months.
“Even then, before either of us had signed NFL contracts, the stress of keeping our relationship under the radar was damn near suffocating. At that point, we’d assumed our relationship would be a one-year thing. How could we make it work if I got drafted? He still had years left in college. Long distance relationships are hell.”
Terrance scoffed at that. “Tell me about it.”
“One year turned into two, two turned into three, turned into me standing along the far wall at Ryder’s draft day, wat
ching him get a first-round draft pick.” That day was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. I got to watch as the man I knew was the love of my life saw his dreams come to fruition. The pride I felt for him was only dampened by the fact that I couldn’t publicly show him how happy I was for him. We’d had to wait until almost two in the morning to fall into bed in a hotel room before I could hold him, touch him, tell him how proud I was of him.
“If I thought being an NFL player dating an NCAA player was hard, it was nothing compared to being an NFL player dating a fellow NFL player. When our teams met, it was so goddamn hard to not show him how much I loved him or react when I watched him on the field. I thanked every deity known to man for never having to be on the field with him at the same time… and for the cups that hid how much I liked seeing his ass on the field.”
Jax and Terrance chuckled at my joke, but I feared I might have overshared a bit too much with Coach River in the room. I pressed on before things could get uncomfortable. “Then I got injured. It was midseason, and I knew Ryder was on the other side of the country playing in California. When I woke up, he was the first person I saw. To this day, I don’t know how he got there so fast without anyone else knowing. He’s never told me what strings he had to pull to get to New York.”
That injury had started the wheels in motion for where we were today. I’d worked for damn near a year to get my knee to the point that I could at least walk without a limp and run short distances on it. I’d known before going into surgery that my career as a player was over, but I was a stubborn ass and was determined to not give up what I loved. The only way that was possible was to get myself into good enough shape that I could coach. So that was what I’d done.
Countless video chats with Ryder followed. He was by my side for every single break that year. There were times when he flew in for twelve hours before he’d fly back out for the next game. I’d been a surly bastard when I’d been in pain, and yet, Ryder had doubled down on his love and encouragement throughout that time.
“It got a little better when I got my position here. I’d decided to come out to Coach and the team as soon as I took the job. The team took it in stride and nothing negative was ever said about it. I never told them who I was dating, but for the first time in my adult life, I’d been able to be out. At first, it was actually easier than any other point in our relationship. Seven years of long distance meant we were well acquainted with the frustrations, but for the first time, we weren’t both playing the game. I had a fairly set schedule, and I didn’t have to spend hours after practice recovering. It was easier for me to duck away for a few days to see him. Hell, even only having to worry about one of us being photographed somewhere was less stressful than worrying about two of us,” I teased. I’d never reached the status of legend during my tenure as a player, so by the time I’d recovered enough to coach, I was pretty much off the radar.
Terrance shook his head. When he’d walked into the room, his long dreads had been pulled back in a loose pony-tail holder. He’d nervously fiddled with his hair enough that the ponytail holder had fallen out and his hair cascaded around his head with the movement. “I get that. I’m sure Jax does too.”
Jax nodded for emphasis, but Terrance continued. “It’s hard to look for cameras being pointed at Jax when we go out. We’ve gotten good at hiding his face. You know, sitting at restaurants so I’m facing the room and he’s hidden. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like for both of you to be photograph material.”
My mind went back to the countless dates we’d had that consisted of pizza and a movie in a hotel room. “The first time we went out after we came out, all the negative publicity in the world wouldn’t have deterred me from finally being able to be seen with Ryder as my boyfriend.”
Jax finally smiled as he looked over at Terrance. The love that shone in his eyes for his boyfriend was impossible to miss. Jax had never spoken about their relationship, and I knew very little about them. “How long have you two been together?”
Jax squirmed in his seat as I turned the conversation to them. “Almost two years.”
“Back when I was still playing, people would ask me who I was dating. I changed Ryder’s name to Riley and referred to him with female pronouns. God, it sucked, and I felt like shit every single time. But there was a part of me that hated pretending he didn’t exist and he wasn’t part of my life. Telling people I was single and ignoring the man I loved felt wrong—so did pretending he was a she—yet coming out and potentially ruining not just my career but also his would have been worse.”
Terrance winced at my honesty. “You really were between a rock and a hard place.” He chuckled, but it was humorless. “I know exactly what you mean.”
All I could do was nod. “It was really difficult. Then, I came into work one day and Coach tells me he’s looking at offering Ryder a position and asked how I felt about it.”
Coach River finally spoke up. “First time I ever had a coach pass out on me.”
My cheeks flushed bright red, but I remembered the conversation like it had happened yesterday. “After he’d brought up Ryder’s name, I’d panicked. I only saw three options.” I lifted my fingers and started ticking them off. “One, quit. Two, come out about Ry. Or three, break up. I wouldn’t have been able to hide my attraction to Ryder for five minutes at his first practice.”
Coach shook his head in amusement. “I can laugh about it now, but at the time, Malcolm gave me the shock of my life. I’d never said a name and had someone turn ghost white.”
“And when I came to, I already knew there was a good chance I was going to end up outing us both. I excused myself, called Ry, and came back to talk to Coach.” That was the condensed version. Ryder hadn’t been happy with his current team, and I knew we were both exhausted with the long-distance relationship thing. I knew I was going to be breaking enough rules about player acquisition that I could easily lose my job and cost Ryder his job by telling him about the potential trade, but I had to tell Coach, and I couldn’t do it without Ryder’s permission.
“So I called him, told him to get to some place private, and I told him what was about to happen. If he hadn’t wanted the position, I would have gone back into the office and told Coach I had played with him in college and we were friends, and it had just surprised me. But Ryder told me he wanted the job, and he wanted me to be honest with Coach.”
Coach picked up from there. “And thirty minutes after he passed out in my office and then left in the blink of an eye, he walked back through the door, sat down in the same damn chair, and said six words I never thought I’d hear. ‘Coach, I’m planning to marry Ryder.’ It took a while to process that one, I’ll be honest. And probably not for the reasons he expected either. I don’t even know if I’ve ever told you this, Malcolm.”
He twisted in his seat and looked me in the eyes. “I sat there for a long time that night and worried like hell about how fans would take it. Not extending the offer to Ryder had never crossed my mind. The idea that the team would be anything more than surprised wasn’t even a blip on my radar. You left my office, and I called the commissioner and told him exactly what happened, and we had a long conversation about it. There was some legal red tape we had to work through. A coach being in a relationship with a player hadn’t happened before. Or since.”
Then Coach turned back to Jax and Terrance and gave them a fond smile. “But we worked it out. Sending that offer to Ryder was the best decision I’ve ever made as a head coach. Not just because Ryder is an outstanding player, but because I learned that day what an amazing organization I coach for. Every day I go out on that field, and every night when I head home, all I can think about is how I can be the best coach for this team and my players, because this team—from head office to ushers—deserves it.”
I was pretty sure Jax and Terrance both had tears in their eyes, but it was hard to tell through my own misty eyes. It took a few hard swallows before I thought I could speak without my voice cracki
ng. “If you guys choose to come out, we’ll support you.”
Jax blinked, and a lone tear slipped down his cheek. “I’m so exhausted from hiding. I feel like now is the time. I don’t want to start another season living a lie.”
I knew the feeling well. It had haunted me my entire professional career. It had haunted Ryder too. If the two of us could survive being the first gay couple in the NFL, and Ryder could still be one of the top-paid wide receivers in the league, then I knew Jax and Terrance would come out stronger on the other side.
We finished the meeting in less time than I thought it would take, and I headed home a full hour before I’d told Ryder I’d be back. I had a sexy man to snuggle up with for the rest of the day and couldn’t think of a better place to be.
It didn’t surprise me that Ryder was still asleep when I got home. He’d been drained when I’d practically had to drag him to the bed. He’d kicked the blankets down so his brief-covered bubble butt was clearly visible. His floppy brown hair had fallen into his face while he slept and obscured most of his features from his eyes to his nose. His mouth was hidden from view as well, but not by his hair.
Logically, I knew what I was seeing, but my brain couldn’t seem to process it. There was a blue, hard plastic mouth guard covering his beautiful pink lips. On the button was the wolf head I knew so well. It was scratched up, but still visible. I’d know the logo, no matter how beat up, anywhere. It would have been impossible not to recognize the logo of the team who had drafted me almost a decade earlier.
