Give Me You (35 page)

Mrs. Martin, who has insisted I call her Kathryn since I’m practically living in their house, has agreed to go on the road for most of the season as Skylar’s nanny. Katie is going to pick up the slack and use her vacation time until Skylar can hire someone he trusts.

Even though Christian is only three, Skylar has to have a contingency plan in place for schooling and medical care and all kinds of things that I’m pretty positive have never even crossed his mind before now.

“There are guys on the team with kids,” I remind him. “I’ve seen them making it work. Maybe reach out to your teammates and see how they handle these situations.”

“Those guys have kids and wives, though. And usually if the kids are traveling with us, there are moms and nannies and tutors as well.” Skylar looks dejected. “I’m a single guy as far as the court is concerned. A single guy with a career that isn’t conducive to child-rearing.” He’s been reading up on the cases similar to his and many don’t go his way.

Part of me wants to say let’s get married tomorrow and I’ll go on the road with you and help raise your son. A big part. But I know myself, and I know my dreams are important too. I wouldn’t ask Skylar to give up soccer for me and I know he wouldn’t let me give up law school for him.

I scribble a few words on my legal pad. “Let’s make a note to check with the team about how they can help. If they provide childcare, or any type of assistance. We probably need to contact your PR person anyway so they can spin this positively before we go to court.”

Skylar’s shoulder slump. “Is there a positive way to spin this? Because I can’t see one. ‘Pro soccer player has illegitimate child he didn’t know about with deceased model. Fights evil grandparents for custody.’”

“Like I’ve said before, it’s not the fairytale, Sky. You know that. But it’s not impossible either.”

He places his head in his hands before looking over at me. “It’s not fair to you. This situation is entirely my fault. And yet here you are night after night having to deal with it when you could be—”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” I tell him honestly. “Besides, I always thought fairytales were kind of boring anyways.” I nudge his shoulder with mine and realize it’s the first physical contact we’ve had in days.

No wonder we’re both on edge. Time to rectify this.

It’s late.

I need him. He needs me. We both need more than to just sit around and stress out day after day.

“It’s getting late. Let’s go to bed.” I take Skylar’s hand and lead him up the stairs. Once we reach the bedroom, I shed the frustration and stress and worry along with each layer of my clothing until I am naked before him.

“You’re like something out of dream,” he says with a voice full of reference. “I don’t deserve you.”

I push him backward until he’s against the wall and remove his clothes strategically, kissing each new part of him that’s revealed to me. “No more talking. No more thinking. No more worries. Not tonight. It will all be there tomorrow.”

He nods but his eyes are still clouded with concern.

“Just be with me tonight, soccer boy. Me and you. No one else. Be with me. Inside me. Make it all go away for tonight.”

I drop to my knees, taking Skylar’s thick length in my hands. He’s hard already, which makes it easier to lose myself in giving him what he needs.

I place gentle licks against the swollen head of him and am rewarded with the taste of his arousal. When I take him all the way to the back of my throat, he groans loudly and lets his head fall back against the wall.

“A fucking dream,” he murmurs when I hollow my cheeks and suck him harder. I add my right hand to the mix, stroking the path I’m taking into my warm wet mouth. My left hand grips his inner thigh and I let my nails scrape lightly against his skin.

His cock jerks in my mouth and just as I’m certain he’s about to come apart, I’m lifted abruptly off the ground and thrown roughly only the bed. He stalks toward me and there is nothing else in the world right now. Just us. Just this. What we both need so badly.

I lean back and spread my legs the way he likes and his eyes glitter with approval and appreciation. I’m ready to have him inside me, but he doesn’t climb on top and thrust inside. He bends down and licks straight up the center of me. Once. Twice. Before plunging his tongue inside of me. My entire body bows off the bed as the room spins around us.

“Oh my God. Right there,” I mumble through the foggy haze of ecstasy.

Skylar complies, tongue fucking me until I’m whimpering. With one hand he flips me over and rakes a hand down my back before slapping me hard on the ass. I lift on all fours and spread my knees apart.

“How hard can I fuck you, sweetheart? How much can you handle?” His questions are laced with desperation.

“As hard as you need to, baby,” I tell him. I’m ready. Skylar has always been careful with me, considerate of my past and my fragile relationship with intimacy. But we are so far beyond that now. I’ve just never known exactly how to tell him. So I decide to show him.

The bed dips beneath his weight. He goes in slow, but I thrust backward to force him in faster, harder. One hand grips my ass while the other grabs hold of my hair.

Instinct takes over and soon we are one being, joined inextricably and fucking harder than I would’ve thought possible. He removes the hand from my ass and uses it stroke my clit. I come fast around his expert fingers and follows close behind me, pulling out at the last minute since we didn’t stop for a condom.

I drop onto my stomach as he searches for a towel to clean me off with. My breath heaves in and out of my lungs. I feel better. I hope he does too. But I’m too far gone into blissful oblivion to ask.

Moments later, I’m all taken care of and his naked body is nestled in close beside mine. “Sleep well, sweetheart,” I hear him mumble before he drifts off beside me.

M
y phone rings entirely too early. I rub my eyes and extract myself reluctantly from Corin’s naked body.

Dodd & Assoc. the screen of my phone says. I answer it and sit up.

“Skylar, is this a bad time?”

I clear my throat. “No, sir. Is everything okay?”

He pauses a beat then says, “I guess that depends on what outcome you’re hoping for.”

“I’m ready. Whatever the results of my paternity test are, I’m ready.”

“Christian Kensington is your son,” he tells me. “It was a positive match and a solid one. One the Kensingtons won’t be able to fight. You are officially his next of kin, before them.”

I already knew, for the most part, anyway. There was no denying the resemblance. But hearing it, and hearing it as one hundred percent undeniable fact is both exhilarating and terrifying. I have a son. One I’ve missed three years with already. One I don’t want to wait another second to meet.

“So does this mean I can see him? Soon?”

Mr. Dodd’s voice is cautious. “It does. We’ll file an emergency order to establish regular visitation parameters and request a guardian ad litem hearing to grant you custody during the trial. But listen, even if they don’t grant you temporary custody for now, that doesn’t mean you won’t get it in the actual trial.”

I feel like I’m scaling up an enormous mountain and the top is nowhere in sight.

“Okay,” I tell him. “Whatever we need to do, let’s do it.”

“That’s all I needed to hear. I’ll file most of the documents electronically. Come by the office and sign the hard copies as soon as you can.”

After I disconnect the call, I see Corin sitting up behind me.

“The test was positive. He’s my son.” I watch her eyes register the news to see if there are any signs of pain or if she’s thinking of bailing.

All I see is acceptance and understanding. Who is this angel and who sent her to me?

“So what happens now?”

I tell her what Mr. Dodd said and she tells me she’s going to grab a quick shower and then we’ll head to the office to sign the papers. If we were at her place, I’d join her, but my parents’ house has become the hub during all the chaos.

Once she’s out of the room, I pick up my phone. He answers on the second ring.

“It’s early, man,” he says. “For you anyways.”

I laugh. “I know. You busy? Feel like going for a run?”

Landen mumbles something, probably to Layla, before returning to me. “Yeah. Meet me at the park near my place in a few.”

I tell Corin where I’m going, though I’m tempted to make Landen wait so I can lose myself inside her one more time. She waves me on and tells me to tell him she said hi and that he’d better be behaving.

I give my girl a kiss, thanking the Powers that Be once more that she is in fact my girl, and jump in the car.

“You really want to run? We both know you can’t keep up with me,” is how Landen O’Brien greets me forty-minutes later when I arrive at the park.

I snort at his remark. “Maybe back then. But you’re soft now. I think I could take you.”

He laughs and we fall into a sort of jog along the path into the woods.

“So…how are things?” I ask, unsure as to how to broach the subject I came here to discuss.

“Things are good,” Landen says, tossing me a sideways glance. “How are things with you?”

“I have a son,” I blurt out, because I’m about to explode and tact never was my thing.

Landen nods and slows his pace. “Corin might’ve mentioned something along those lines to Layla. I would’ve called with congratulations—or condolences—since I don’t really know where you stand on the topic of offspring, but I wasn’t sure if it had been confirmed yet or not. Layla said something about a paternity test.”

I stretch my arms over my head and two female joggers pass us. Once upon time, I would’ve made a comment to my buddy about hitting on them, but now I barely notice that they’re female. “It was confirmed this morning,” I tell him. “And I don’t know where I stand on the topic either. I guess that’s why I was hoping you could shed some light on the whole parenting thing for me.”

A broad grin stretches across Landen’s face. “You know what we went through when Hope was born. That was some terrifying shit, to be honest. But from the minute I first saw her and every day since it’s like…” He shakes his head but I need dude to articulate here because I have no fucking clue what it’s like.

“Like what exactly? Seriously. Spell it out for me please, because I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Landen laughs at me and I stop walking. “Get ready to feel that way pretty much every day. Like you’re making it up as you go—because parenting is pretty much a constant improve skit where you hope like hell you’re not screwing up.”