Ranger's Baby Surprise: A Brother's Best Friend Romance

by Violet Paige

  I didn’t know what to say. His face was drawn in a frustrated expression. Whoever was on the end of that call had upset him.

  “You sure? I’m a really good listener,” I offered.

  He opened the door and stepped in next to me. His palms slid to the side of my face and he kissed me. “I’m sure. I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s pretend I never took that call.” He went back to kissing me.

  I could get lost in this. His kiss. His touch. The way he looked at me. It was everything out of a beautiful ballet. Although the leading men weren’t anything like Sam. I was used to lithe and limber. Not strong and powerful. He could encompass me and make me feel safe and secure. And I was sure if he gave it a try, he could lift me overhead easily and I could dive into a poisson, one of my favorite holds with a partner. I smiled thinking about it.

  “What’s that look?” he asked.

  “Just thinking about you dancing.”

  He chuckled. “My best dance is in the end zone.”

  “When should we order dinner?” I asked.

  The water skimmed over his shoulders and I watched the droplets roll over the muscles in his biceps.

  “After the shower sex.” He grinned. His mouth moved over mine as my back touched the cool tile.

  His erection pressed hard against my leg and I gasped. Was this really happening again? His hands lifted me up gently as I wrapped myself around his waist. The steam billowed around us and I felt the heat between us as he slid me over him until finally he pushed inside. I let out a moan as he filled me.

  He rested one hand over my shoulder on the tile while the other clutched my lower back. And when I least expected it, he started to sway. I smiled at him, feeling our bodies move in opposite directions.

  “I like that.” It was as if he was rotating inside me, touching everything within.

  “You feel fucking incredible. Every time.” He nipped at my neck.

  Part of me wondered if this was always what sex was like for him, and the other part knew it couldn’t be. It had never felt like this. Never felt like someone wanted me so desperately, or that I needed them just as much. I held on while he brought us to the brink of ecstasy. This time he pushed in and out with slow strokes. But strokes that tortured me with pleasure.

  “Sam, oh, Sam.” It was happening slower than it ever had. The coiling in my belly started to expand and float through my limbs, but not with the fire and intensity I was used to with him. It was exquisite how everything slowed to his rhythm.

  I kissed him as my body began to shake and jolt. My legs felt like jelly and my core was burning with the blistering orgasm.

  He pressed his forehead against mine. “I love it when you do that.”

  I licked my lips from the shower water. I touched the corners of his face as the trickles of water beaded over the sharp lines of his jaw.

  Then I saw the lust in his eyes. His speed picked up and a look of determination crossed his gorgeous face. I held up while he pumped in and out of me. His chest heaved rapidly and his hips thrust forward.

  “Fuck, Natalia.” He sank into me again and his body stiffened as he wrapped both arms around me, shaking as his came inside.

  Slowly, he lowered me to the ground. I looked into his eyes, already missing our bodies being connected.

  “You said something about dinner?” he joked.

  “Funny.” I grabbed a bottle of body wash for him.

  “I’m starving. The practice. The drive. The sex.”

  “Poor thing.” I lathered my hands and began rubbing them over his chest. His shoulders were wide and I needed two hands to wash one arm.

  He was a lot to handle.

  We decided on ordering Italian and sat in the living room once the driver dropped off our dinner. I lit a few candles and opened a bottle of wine. I poured a glass for each of us.

  “I think we should toast to something, don’t you?”

  Sam held the glass. “To more nights in your studio.” He winked.

  I tapped my glass to his.

  “I want to hear more about your audition. When is it?” he asked.

  “For the ballet?” I picked up my fork.

  “Yes. When do you start preparing? Are you ready?”

  “It’s not until March. And I hope that by January my leg will be strong enough that I can complete my routine.” I took a bite of salad.

  “What did you injure? Maybe I could help.” He waggled his eyebrows and I didn’t know whether to take him seriously or not.

  “It’s my hamstring. It’s not bad enough that I can’t jump around for a few hours cheering. It’s actually gotten much stronger since last year. But I’m worried it won’t support me on my pointe shoes.”

  “And those are?”

  “You know the shoes ballerinas wear? The ones with the flat toes so we can stand up on our feet. It’s a lot of pressure on the foot, but it takes a tremendous amount of strength in the supporting leg. I’m afraid to try.” I couldn’t believe I had told him that. I hadn’t shared it with anyone.

  “I think I know what shoes you’re talking about. Why haven’t you tried it yet if you’re out dancing for the Warriors every week? Your legs seem in good shape to me.”

  I was tempted to poke him with my fork. “Because if I put on those shoes and I’m not ready then what was all this for?” I took a deep breath. “Why have I joined a dance squad? Why did I try to get my strength back if it was all going to be for nothing?”

  “Hey, you don’t know that.” He put his plate on the coffee table. “You need to put the shoes on and see where you are. That’s the only way you can plan the rest of your rehab.”

  I blinked. “You’re talking like you know how I’m going to get back on stage.”

  “I don’t know shit about ballet, but I know injuries and I know hamstrings. Do you have a trainer? Are you working with a therapist to get you where you need to be?”

  “I can’t afford it right now.” I didn’t want to admit how broke I was. The Warriors didn’t exactly pay a lot and Austin was expensive.

  “Then let me help you. I can do that. I know the best physical therapists in the country. I can find someone to get you ready.”

  “That’s football. This is ballet,” I stated.

  “Hamstrings are hamstrings.” He picked up his wine glass and took a big gulp. “If you need help, let me help you.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s not like we’re a…”

  “A couple?”

  “What is this? What are we?” The questions popped out before I could pull them back in.

  “Do we have to label it?”

  “No, I guess not.” I reached for my glass.

  “I’m not saying it’s not something. It’s just… Damn it,” he huffed. “Why can’t we see what happens?”

  “We can. We definitely can.”

  “This is everything I said I wouldn’t do. And I’m everything you said you can’t do. But I’m here in Austin and I’m thinking that it’s going to suck when I have to drive back to San Antonio tomorrow.”

  “You are?” I felt little slivers of happiness dancing in my stomach.

  “God, yes. I don’t want to leave you. I want to take you with me. Can’t you quit the Goddesses?”

  “I need the paycheck, Sam. I make money doing what I’m doing. And I can’t take charity from you. I wouldn’t feel good about that. It would feel like I belonged to you or something.” I scrunched my nose.

  His eyes locked on mine. “Don’t you feel like you belong to me?”

  And it hit me—I did. I did every time I went to bed with him. Every time he kissed me. When I saw our reflection in the mirror, and saw my handprint on the shower wall. He owned me with his body and I gave it to him freely, willingly.

  “That’s not the same.” I tried to back out of his argument.

  “I haven’t thought this through, but I want you. I want you with me in San Antonio. I sure as hell don’t want you around the Warriors.”
/>   “Because they’re your rival?”

  “Yes, because they are the rival. I make more than enough to pay for a trainer and a coach and a therapist. Come to San Antonio and train.”

  I couldn’t believe he was offering me this opportunity, and at the same time, I was stunned how it made me feel.

  “It’s too soon. We don’t know each other well enough. I don’t want to owe you something like that, Sam.”

  His gray eyes pierced through the walls I was putting up. “Come with me. Be with me. Let me do this for you.”

  He took the glass from my hand and rested it on the coffee table. My heart beat wildly. His eyes dipped to my breasts. He pushed my shirt up, exposing my nipple. He bent his head to take it in his mouth.

  He sucked it between his teeth and I whimpered.

  “Is this mine?” he asked.

  “Yes.” My head leaned back on the cushions.

  He rolled the other nipple between his fingers before sucking it into his mouth. “And this, is it mine, Natalia?”

  “Oh, yes.” I was already wet and the fire was burning in my core.

  He let go and I felt the cool air brush over my wet skin. He left my shirt dangling around my shoulders. His lips moved over mine.

  “And these lips.” He kissed me. “Are these mine or not?”

  I nodded as he bit my bottom lip. All at once his hand was snaking up the back of my running shorts, squeezing my ass. I squealed. But his grip was firm and his voice was serious.

  “I love your ass. Tell me it isn’t mine,” he commanded.

  “It’s yours,” I whispered.

  One finger and then another slid between my legs, over my slit, and tugged on my throbbing clit.

  “Oh,” I moaned. “God, Sam.”

  He twisted it slightly and I felt the need building. He was making his point clear.

  He pushed his fingers inside me while his thumb rubbed over my swollen nub. “All of this is mine, isn’t it?”

  I bit my lip. I was clenching around his fingers while they pushed inside me, curling against my walls.

  “It is,” I whispered, clawing at his back.

  He pulled his hands away and sat forward to pick up his wine glass. I wiggled upward and watched him.

  He looked at me over his shoulder, grinning.

  “I want you with me, Natalia.”

  I closed my eyes. I wanted it too. He was giving me a chance to pack up and leave the Goddesses for good. But at what cost? Was I his plaything? Some dance girl he bought to get him through the season?

  “Are you mine?” I asked the question bluntly.

  “What?”

  I could play the same games he could. I maneuvered so I was straddling him on the couch.

  “You know you own me. But do I own you?” I ran a finger along his jaw and to his bare chest. I didn’t stop there. My nails scraped his sides and I dropped to the floor between his knees. He leaned back while I pulled his warm up shorts from his legs. His cock sprung free and I smiled.

  I licked the tip, tasting the freshness of the shower on him. I kissed the silky skin before gliding my tongue over the sensitive spot between his balls.

  “Natalia.” He shoved his cock closer to me.

  I positioned my mouth over it and sucked him in as he groaned loudly.

  I sat back. “Is it mine?”

  “Keep going and I’ll tell you.” He reached for the back of my head, but I jerked to the side. My hand latched around his thick shaft.

  “No, tell me you’re mine too, Sam. Tell me we own each other.”

  I took another lick over the top of his cock, resisting the urge to suck him again. I needed an answer that would satisfy me. I would belong to him. I could admit that my body was his, but only if it was reciprocated. I needed to know he was just as much mine as I was his.

  He tilted my chin upward, and pulled me into his lap. I knew from the look in his eye that he was going crazy with want. I had started and stopped something he loved.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “What?”

  “This is yours,” he growled. He pried my shorts out of the way and pushed inside me. I rocked back into his arms. “I’m yours, Natalia.”

  My shirt flew over my head and I gave him my breasts to suck. I pressed his head to my chest, feeling the pulse run through my body. I didn’t know what answer I was going to give him. I didn’t know if I could uproot everything I had done here, but what I did know was I was his and he was mine and it didn’t matter what teams we were on. Nothing would change that.

  23

  Sam

  I didn’t think I’d ever say words like that again. I didn’t want to belong to someone. I didn’t want to love someone, but Natalia had upended all my plans this season, and why would this be any different? If the only way I could have her was to give her me, then that was the deal. Every part of her was mine. I made sure of that.

  I didn’t drive to Austin planning on having a heavy relationship talk. I planned on spending the night fucking the most beautiful woman I’d ever met. But I ended up asking her to move in with me and offering to help her rehab. She was in my head. She was under my skin. I was drowning in her.

  I watched her sleep next to me and traced a line between her shoulder blades. Her hair had fallen over her shoulder.

  She told me she had to leave by seven to make it to early morning practice, but we still had a lot to discuss. I wanted her with me in San Antonio this week. One week of long-distance phone calls and a drive to see her wasn’t going to be enough.

  I hated that Maddie called. I hated that she had my number. That she tried to throw me off my game for my night with Natalia. The moment I was finally happy again, she blindsided me with a desperate plea for help. Damn it.

  I didn’t give a shit if she needed anything. I wasn’t her ATM, and I wasn’t her friend. It was enough to scare the hell out of me about getting involved with Natalia. But they were nothing alike. Nothing.

  Natalia could never treat me the way Maddie did.

  I had to fight the fear creeping under my ribs. I had to fight the thoughts to run and get out before she annihilated me. I was a different man now.

  I turned off the lamp next to the bed and stretched my legs out beside her. She sighed softly and I pulled her against my chest. She fit there perfectly. This graceful, beautiful woman fit. Only I had to convince her of that tomorrow before I left. After that phone call, it seemed more important than ever. I needed her commitment. I needed her loyalty. I needed to know she was mine.

  Natalia had been gone for two hours. I was working on making breakfast in the kitchen when my phone rang. It was Cavan.

  “Hey, what’s up, man?”

  “Sam, I was wondering if I could stop by and pick up one of the playbooks for tomorrow’s game. I never got one and the coordinators said you have those things memorized.”

  “Yeah, but I’m out right now. It’ll have to be later.”

  “Out? It’s nine o’clock in the morning.”

  “Working out, man. Have to get ready for the game.” I was staring at the playbook on Natalia’s kitchen table.

  “Just tell me where your spare key is and I’ll stop by.”

  “Can’t. It’s in my car. I’ll call you when I’m back and you can run over.”

  “This is serious. I haven’t seen any of the plays.”

  I flipped the bacon over in the frying pan. “Sorry, man. Call one of the other guys or wait until I’m home.”

  I was about to hang up on him.

  “Fine. Just call me.”

  “You got it.”

  I shoved the phone into my pocket and continued to work on breakfast. I had muffins in the oven and was ready to whip eggs into omelets, but I wasn’t sure when she’d be home. I didn’t want them to be cold.

  I heard her key in the door and smiled when she walked through.

  “Hey.” She grinned.

  “How was practice?” I asked.

  “Dreadful as usua
l.” She hung her bag next to the door and looped her keys on a hook. “It smells wonderful in here.”

  “Bacon always smells good. I was getting ready to make an omelet for you.”

  She laughed. “So if I took pictures of you right now making breakfast for me I couldn’t use these as blackmail.” She leaned up to kiss me on the cheek.

  “First of all, you wouldn’t do that. And second, yes, the guys don’t know about my culinary skills. So don’t blow my badass cover.”

  “Oh, that’s what you call yourself?” She sat at the table to watch me with the whisk.

  “You’re looking at the tight end with the most yards, most catches, most touchdowns, and most blocks in his rookie season and I’m on schedule to beat that this year.”

  “Wow. I had no idea.”

  I stared at her. “Really? No idea?”

  She shook her head. “It was never a line. I seriously know nothing about your career or much about football, but I have picked up a lot as a Goddess. We have to go to football class during our summer training camp.”

  “So if I quiz you, you think you’d pass?” I added cream to the eggs and whipped furiously. How could she not have heard of my record?

  “I think I would. I can hold my own in a conversation with the girls.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, but those girls aren’t professional football players.”

  “True, but I’d bet I could pass.”

  “Want to make a bet?”

  She twisted her pouty lips together. “What kind of bet?”

  “If you win.” I stopped. “What do you want if you win?”

  She pressed her finger to her chin. “I want a full-body massage. Naked.”

  “That sounds like a win for me, but okay. If you win, you get a massage.”

  “And if I don’t?” she asked.

  “If I win, you try on those pointe shoes for me and let me watch you spin around the studio.”

  The smile fell from her face. “Sam, I was trying to be funny.”

  “I’m being serious. Take the bet. Prove to me you can pass a football quiz.”

  “Fine. I’ll do it. And you’ll be thanking me, because your hands will be all over this body you own.” She eyed me.