“The only thing that’s important is that I’m all yours, princess,” he says evenly, his eyes burning right into mine. “Of course I came back for this,” he says, bringing a palm down to lay across my belly. “But I came back for you.”
He pulls me closer against him, and it’s almost on instinct that my hands slide up to his chest.
Suddenly, Austin’s face goes tight as he starts to breath quickly. He starts to drop to his knees, and all of a sudden the panic comes rushing back into me.
Oh God, the tackle in the church.
I’m suddenly realizing that in my whole ridiculous fainting spell, I’ve never asked him if he’s hurt from slamming Vince to the ground.
“Oh God, Austin!” I drop to my knees, my hands going to his face as my eyes go wide. “Shit, are you okay?!”
He stares at me. “What?” he shakes his head as his brow furrows. “Nat I’m-”
“Is it your head?” I’m gasping, feeling the the panic spiraling through me as I cup his face in my hands. “Sit down! I’m going to grab one of the med-”
“Natalie.”
The firmness of his voice stops me, and as I turn back I suddenly realize he’s grinning at me. “No, you stand; I kneel.”
“I-”
Oh.
OH.
He rolls his eyes as I slowly stand, feeling my heart hammering in my chest as my chest rises and falls.
“So, you left this at my place-”
Austin holds his hand up, and there in his fingers, glittering gaudily in the sunlight, is the ring.
My ring, from Vegas.
“And I was sort of hoping you might want it back.”
Oh my God.
My lips are opening and closing, but no words come out as I blink and just stare at the man on one knee before me.
“Natalie Ames-”
Austin looks up at me, that same cowboy grin on his face and that dangerous glimmer in his eyes that swept me away by the elevators of the Chateau Marmont. Before the fake marriage, before Vegas, before all the ups and down and turmoil.
Before I realized I fell in love with him with that first look.
My heart stops for one single beat as the whole world goes still around us and Austin looks right into my eyes and takes a deep breath.
“I fucked this up the first time around. But this time, I want to do this right.”
He looks me right in the eye, and I’m almost saying yes before he even says the words.
“Will you marry me? For real this time, and for always.”
I’m screaming and throwing my arms around him as he stands. And then his lips are on mine, kissing me fiercely - a kiss that fills in all the gaps and lets everything else in the world just fall away.
“I love you,” he murmurs into my lips, and I can feel the tears start to pour down my cheeks.
Happy ones this time.
“I love you too,” I whisper back, feeling him grin as he picks me up and spins me around, kissing me all over again.
“Natalie!”
I turn from Austin just as Vivian all but tackles me, throwing her arms around me and hugging me tight. “You scared the shit out of me!” She pulls back, grinning at me. “I can’t believe you fainted.”
My jaw drops. “Well I can’t believe you left me here!”
She laughs. “Please! I was getting your man here and his smooth spy of a friend to come break this whole thing up.” She nods behind her to a sheepishly grinning Kyle.
I furrow my brow at him over her shoulder. “Yeah, Kyle, you carry a gun now?”
He frowns, stooping to pick Vince’s glittering silver ring off the grass. “Why is this so hard for everyone to comprehend?”
Austin laughs and shakes head. “Because you’re a big sweetheart, buddy.”
“I am not,” he mutters.
Vivian grins. “Oh, I think it was very sweet of you to come help rescue my sister, you know.”
Kyle looks up, flashing a charming grin as he pushes a hand through his hair. “Hey, you know, just doing my job.”
I glance at Austin in time to see him roll his eyes.
“So, listen,” Kyle turns towards my sister with a shrug. “I was thinking maybe you and I-”
“Oooh my God,” Vivian’s face goes white as her eyes drop to his hand. “I, uh, look, I don’t even know you-”
Kyle’s face falls before he follows her eyes to the ring in his hand. “Oh shit!” His face goes red as he quickly jerks the ring behind his back. “No! No-no, I was going to say ‘get some coffee sometime’, not-” He swallows quickly. “You know, not that.”
Vivian blushes. “Coffee I could probably commit to.”
Austin pulls me aside.
“You know, you, uh-” He clears his throat and arches a brow at me.
“You never actually said yes, you know.”
The corners of my mouth curl. “Oh, I didn’t?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm…” I bring my hand up to tap my chin, pantomiming a long thinking face. “I mean, I’m going to need some sort of prenup - you know, to protect myself.”
Austin rolls his eyes.
“And of course we’re going to have to sign a legally binding napkin of some-”
“Hey princess.” He yanks me tight against him, his hand coming up to cup my chin.
“Will you just shut up and say yes?”
I barely have time to get the word out before my mouth goes crashing into his.
“Yes,” I whisper out into his lips. “A thousand times yes.”
“You know-” Austin shoots a look back towards his friend and my sister. Vivian’s making gooey eyes at Kyle, who seems to have the world’s biggest grin on his face as he shrugs casually and says something that makes my sister laugh.
I turn back to see Austin flashing me a smile as he dangles a set of keys in the air between us.
I raise a brow at him. “And what might those be?”
He grins. “These are the keys to that lovely new yacht tied to the pier over there.” He nods towards a sleek looking boat down on the water before turning back to me and winking.
“And whether she knows it or not, your sister is running some seriously great interference on a certain owner of that boat.”
The smile creeps across my face as I shake my head at him.
“You are terrible!”
“Terrible enough that you don’t want me to take you out on that boat and tear this terrible wedding dress off of you?”
My jaw drops. “Terrible, huh?”
Austin makes an exaggerated grimace face as he scratches his head. “Awful, honestly, I’d be doing you a favor by literally ripping it off of you.”
My cheeks flush as I step into him, dragging a finger up his hard chest through his t-shirt. “Is that a threat, or a promise,” I husk against his lips.
“Both,” he growls, his eyes flashing hungrily at me.
I shrug as casually as I can with the raw need for him coursing through my body like hot fire.
“Well, I suppose it is a pretty terrible dress.”
“The worst.”
“Tear it off me you say?”
“There won’t be a stitch of it left on you.”
“Why Mr. Taylor, are you saying you want me naked?”
“Nothing but a smile and that ring, princess,” he growls.
I shiver as the heat pools between my legs, pulling his lips to mine by the collar of his t-shirt.
“I think we need to get to that boat,” I moan into his lips as he kisses me. “Right now.”
I muffle my shriek into his shoulder as he scoops me up and makes a dash for the dock.
Ten minutes and half a mile out to sea later, he makes good on that promise.
The End
Epilogue Chapter 1
Natalie
“I look huge.”
Vivian shakes her head at me from over my shoulder in the full-length mirror. “You look stunning.”
We’re back in the
dress shop - my old dress shop, where I’d been shopping all those months before with Bernadette. Of course, I’m sure as hell not going to fit into the dress I was looking at back then, what with being seven months pregnant, but there’s something about this shop that makes me smile.
Yeah, it’s been seven months since the debacle of wedding number one. Wait, no, make that wedding number two. But legally, I never married Vince, thank God, so the one in a few days is actually going to be my second marriage.
To the same man I married the first time.
It’s a situation that hasn’t stopped amusing me and flustering my mother. But all things considered, she now official “approves” of Austin.
Or at least, doesn’t outright disapprove.
“Natalie Elizabeth Ames!”
We’ve just come back to the church after stealing Kyle’s boat and disappearing for over two hours. Me in the bottom part of my now thoroughly ripped wedding dress wearing one of Austin’s old t-shirts from Kyle’s boat on top.
My mother is storming towards us with a look of outright shock on her face, running across the church lawn pushing past FBI agents as she stomps towards us.
“Natalie, I-”
“Mother!” I turn and snap, shaking my head and sighing. “I’m making myself happy and I don’t need you to-”
“No, dear.” She shakes her head, pushing my hand away.
“I was going to tell you how proud I am of you, honey.” Her arms go around me as she hugs me close. “I always will be and I always have been.”
She glances up at Austin as she pulls away from me. Her eyes roam over his tussled hair, his t-shirt, and his boots and she wrinkles her nose slightly. “So, football, hmm?”
“Mother-“
“Yes ma’am.” Austin flashes his biggest, most charming smile at my mother as he takes her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Royce.”
She nods stiffly as he shakes her head, but raises a brow my way. “Well, polite young man at least.”
“You seriously look great, Mama,” Vivian says with an exasperated roll of the eyes, which is warranted considering this is maybe the twelfth time this fitting that I’ve complained about my size.
It’s crazy how much a body can change when you’ve got a bit of you and the man you love growing inside. My breasts are larger and swollen, my belly is full and round, and I’m craving my fiancé all the damn time.
Like, seriously all the time.
Luckily for me, he’s been more than happy to satiate that insatiable urge. Unlucky for me, it’s playoff season, and shockingly to absolutely no one who follows football, rookie QB Austin Taylor is leading the team to a flawless season.
He’s also taken a shine to making jokes about having a Super Bowl baby, which is at least a football reference I kind of get now.
“I look like a white whale.”
“Okay, Natalie,” Viv gives me a sharp look. “I know you’re about to get married and all and you’re pregnant, and it’s all very special and adorable, but I can seriously only tell you so many times how good you look. Okay?”
I grin at her in the mirror. “Thank you.”
“Any time.”
She looks away suddenly and frowns. “You, uh-” she clears her throat, and I already know what she’s going to say because I’m sure I got the same call from my mother minutes before walking in here.
“Dad’s final appeals sentencing.”
She nods. “He’s only going to do three years?”
I roll my eyes. “The beauty of being rich and connected I guess.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not going to be rich. You know, legally it comes to us.” Vivian makes a face, and I nod as I shiver uncomfortably.
And it’s true, it is all coming to us. Somehow, through a combination of not being able to quite follow the paper trails in Dad’s offshore accounts, as well as some sort of broken loophole in the justice system, the courts have decided that our father’s frozen banks accounts now come under the direct control of my sister and I.
And I already know neither of us wants that.
Vivian frowns. “I seriously don’t even get how that whole thing works. I mean, I don’t want money Dad stole from people, that doesn’t seem fair at all.”
“It’s not.” I turn and look my sister in the eye. “Look, I was thinking. We’ve already got the trust fund which they unfroze. That’s all yours, by the way.”
My sister gives me a look. “Nat-”
“Viv, my husband just shot a Volvo commercial, and the jeans ad is-”
“Uh, yeah, my friends will not stop asking me about that one.”
I grin, feeling the glow spread across my cheeks. I don’t blame them. I have to agree that my soon-to-be husband looks downright delicious in well-fit denim and nothing else on the pages of a magazine.
“Look, I’m just saying we’re good. And you should take the trust.”
“And everything else? All those offshore accounts?”
I look up and meet her eye. “I say we give all back.”
Her eyes go wide.
“I mean, take what you need, but I say we set up a trust to make sure it gets back to the hardest hit of Dad’s investment victims.”
“Nat, the trust fund is more than enough. Fuck it, put all of those offshore funds into something where we can do that.”
I suddenly pause. “Mom?”
Vivian laughs. “Mom is fine with Monty. Hell, he’s as big a crook as Dad was.”
I grin as I finish changing out of my dress, pulling on my maternity tank-top and yoga pants. “We’ll call the lawyers tomorrow and set it up?”
“How about you worry about getting married in two days, and we’ll figure it out after that, okay?”
I fling my arms around my sister and hug her. “I love you, and thanks for helping with everything.”
She gives me a squeeze back. “I love you too, dork.”
“So are we still on for dinner later?”
She pulls away suddenly and makes a wincing face. “I- shit.”
“What?”
She scrunches her face up. “I maybe forgot and made plans.”
“Oh did you now?”
She bites her lip and says nothing, but I already know who these plans involve.
I grin at her. “With a certain adorable FBI agent?”
Vivian blushes. “Maybe.”
I raise a brow at her and she finally caves. “Okay, and with Stella and Carter, too.”
“Pretty cozy, huh?”
She grins. “It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
Viv laughs. “Fair enough.”
My sister’s coffee date with Kyle seven months ago turned into her extending her stay in LA a week, and then another.
A month later, she finally just sublet her place in New York and found a spot here.
“Look, you should come out with us!”
I shake my head. “Nah, go have fun with those guys. It’s an off-night for practice, so I’ve got Austin at home anyways.”
I reach out and squeeze her hand. “I’m happy for you, you know.”
* * *
My mouth waters as I stare mournfully over at the tray of takeout sushi in Austin’s hands.
We’re out sitting by the pool in the backyard, tiki torches flickering in the California dusk on our second to last night before the wedding.
“Aww, c’mon!” Austin pauses with the last bite of maki poised by his lips as he shakes his head at me.
“What?” I quickly look away.
“That face!”
I pout. “It just looks so good.”
As do most things I can’t eat or drink while pregnant.
He laughs. “You made a big stink about me getting it. You demanded it!”
“I know,” I sigh, pouting. “I just wanted to look at it.”
He grins. “How was your pad thai?”
“Oh, with the side of huge, gross-tasting pre-natal vitamins? Great.”
He c
huckles as he pushes his takeout away. “Get over here.”
I grin, feeling the heat creep through me as I recognize that look in his eye.
“No, I’m huge.”
“With our baby, yes. Now get over here.”
I stand, slowly moving towards his chair. “I feel like a land whale.”
“You look fucking gorgeous,” he says darkly, his eyes flickering in the torch-light.
I slowly rake my teeth over my lip as those eyes pierce right into me, feeling the tingle creep up my back.
“Actually,” he growls. “I think I might be ready for dessert.”
I giggle as he pulls me into his lap, but the laughter quickly turns to moans as his hands slide over my body. He cups my full breasts and then slowly starts to pop the buttons on my loose, oversized button-up.
“God your tits have gotten big.”
I bite my lip. “I told you I was getting huge- oh.”
I moan quietly as Austin peels my bra down and lets his tongue swirl across one full, sensitive nipple. His lips fasten around it as his hands push my shirt off, followed quickly by the clasp of my bra. I moan, running my fingers through his hair as his hands cup my breasts, squeezing them gently and running his tongue and his thumb across my nipples in ways that have me panting.
He lets one hand trail down over my soft belly, teasing the navel before pushing it down under the waist of my stretchy yoga pants.
Oh yes…
He groans into my breasts. “I’m assuming you’d have told me if your water broke.”
I grin, blushing. “I think I’d have mentioned that, yes.”
“So this just means you’re soaking wet for me then?”
I whimper as his fingers push my panties to the side and sink easily inside my dripping wet slit. “Something like that,” I murmur.
I gasp as he suddenly lifts me up and spins me around. His fingers hook into my waist and yank the yoga pants and panties down to my knees, making me moan as he pushes me onto my knees on the patio chair in front of him.
“Austin- oh, yes!”
I feel his hot breath teasing across my lips just before he drags his tongue wetly through my seam. I cry out, grabbing ahold of the chair as I arch my back and push back into him. His talented tongue pushes deep, swirling at my opening and lapping at my honey before he moves his mouth to my clit, gently batting it with that tongue as his lips fasten around it.
Jock: A Secret Baby Sports Romance Page 77
