The Wide Receiver's Baby (24 page)

***

This wasn’t the way that it was supposed to go. I thought that she would tell me that she made a mistake and beg for my forgiveness.  She got into Stanford for crying out loud.  One of the most prestigious colleges in the country. 
Yet, as she spoke it was as if I didn’t know her at all.  She spoke like a child.  Her actions were of a person that had no sense. 

I had heard the term, ‘Love makes you blind’ so many times, but then listening to her talk,  watching the shadow of her former self pace up and down the room, unsure what to do next.  I wondered as I went back into the room; I must have been blind, because the woman in front of me now was a complete stranger.  And that scared me the most.

She didn’t hesitate in starting to talk as I entered the room.  Kayla was in exactly the same spot, as if I had frozen her into a statue when I left.  The cold water running over my body had burned out the fire that was inside of me, and I was ready to listen.  And when she had finished, I would tell her how I felt.

She wouldn’t like it.

But, she needed to hear it.

“I was stuck on that damn Economics paper.  Then, I went to the bar, saw him, and just thought I needed to leave.  I couldn’t take a credit card in case he was tracking me.”

She waited for a response. I didn’t give her one.  Her words were racing out of her mind as I went to grab another soda.

“I was so fucking paranoid.  I didn’t know how he found me.  Maybe it was from when I was a kid talking about wanting to go to Stanford.  Maybe it was from one of those times when I missed my grandparents and I would call, hear their voices, and hang up.  Maybe it was from then.  So many fucking things were going through my mind.” 

She came up to me on bended knees.  “I never knew I was pregnant.  You’ve got to believe that. Never. I just took the money, ran, and then found myself on the streets of New York.  Not right away… I had money from doing cash jobs here and there.  In bars, diners, but they didn’t want to do it for too long.  They wanted to pay me a salary.  Make it permanent.  Whenever they did that, I knew that I couldn’t go back there.  That was, until I found out I was pregnant.”

The thought of her on the streets, with nowhere to run, made my stomach curl and my head hurt as I got all tied up in emotions.  I put the soda down, debating whether to lift her up and take her off her knees.

If I did then that would be a sign of forgiveness, and I couldn’t give her what she wanted.

If I left to sit down, she would know that I was mad and I didn't want her to beg. I needed to know why she did the things she did.

So, I stood, listening to her mouth racing on about what had happened in the past.  The part that affected me the most was not knowing my own daughter.

“I thought that Hannah would help me.  I was naive and stupid.”  She got up and walked to the other side of the room.

She opened the mini bar and took a small bottle of vodka and knocked it back as if it was soda. 

“She lied,” she choked, and started to shake as the vodka took effect. 

“Lied?”  I no longer felt the hate I had felt when we’d picked her up earlier.

“Coming back meant putting everyone at risk.  I thought maybe Dad wanted to hurt me, Mom too.  I couldn’t face you finding out the truth or him using you to get to me.  A man that beats up his own family is not a man to be trusted.  You’ve got to understand that.”

She was talking to the vodka bottle.  Probably too scared of my reaction to look at me.  I turned her head to face me again; I needed to know that she wasn’t lying.  But then again, if she was, this had to be the most fucked up story that I had ever heard.

I nodded in agreement.

“I was living on the streets in fear.”  She turned from side to side, maybe as she had done back then, searching desperately for an answer.  Feeling alone and suffocated and desperate to survive.  “I thought I had no option but to have an abortion.  There was just one problem.”

“Money?” I said as I held her in my arms.

She sobbed, “Money.”

“Hannah said she would help you.”

I could fill in the pieces.  Kayla wanted to an abortion.  The woman must have said she would help her, and Kayla must have fallen for it.

“She did, but it was all a lie.  There was no abortion pill.  The clinic she took me to…  The man she said was a doctor gave me fucking aspirin.  I was nearly too far gone by then.  By the time I did get to a real clinic…”

What a bitch!

“That makes no sense.  If she wanted you to fight, then why make you have a baby?”

Kayla sighed.  “She wanted control.  Having a baby would mean that I was indebted to her.  Less likely to run away.  She was seeing me as a long-term investment.  She figured that the problem with the other girls, was the fact that she had only seen them as a short term thing.  This is what Willy told me.”

“Who the fuck was Willy?”

Visions of her being with someone else – someone who wasn’t me - flashed through my mind.

“You know the old man, who gave Sydney to Reg.” 

Sure, I just got lost in the story.  Hannah had known that Kayla was desperate and wanted help, and she took advantage of her like that.  Kayla must have turned to her and thought she was a friend. 

“She used me to make sure I won the big match.  I won it in return for my freedom.  I had to get out of there.  I didn’t trust her, and besides, girls were going missing.  There was a rumor that Hannah had killed them.  Girls that had fought and tried to run away.  We had a deal: win the big one and that was payback.  But, what I don’t get,” she stopped as I stroked her hair, and she looked up at me, “Willy didn’t keep his promise.  He promised me money and a getaway ticket to Mexico, so that I could start a new life with Sydney. ”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Shit, Kayla.  What is up with you?  You’re here, safe with me, and you want your getaway ticket?!”

She shook her head.  “Chase, you have to believe me when I said.  I kept away from you, because my dad is a powerful man. I just didn’t want anything…  anything to happen to you.”

She started to sob as I held her in my arms. 

“I thought I had no other way.  Hannah must have found out somehow.  That was what Reg had said.  So, Willy couldn’t fulfill his promise.  Thank God you were there.”

She lifted her head up.  For once she had said the right thing.

“I’m thinking about what to do.  I’m thinking about how to keep you and Sydney safe, not about what the old man should have done, and what he did do.  Because one thing is for sure…”

She looked confused as she said, “What?”

“You should be thanking the old man right now.  He did you a favor, something that he maybe couldn’t do until last night.”

She repeated her question because she didn’t understand what I meant by my statement. 

“He put you in the right hands.  Going to Mexico was never a solution; it was just the same thing you had been doing ever since you were sixteen.”

I pressed my lips gently to hers.  She closed her eyes with no hesitation as if I had given her the breath of life. 

“Running on the road to nowhere,” I said as I kissed her once again.  She had to see that the running had to stop.  Things had changed and she had someone by her side, who was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that she stayed the one thing she was right now, and that was safe.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Kayla

I couldn’t believe that after all I’d just said and all I had done to him, that Chase still loved me.  I pressed my lips against his.  The dark blue room seemed to turn into a white heaven.  Everything felt clear and light.  It was almost as if it was a dream.  I had to keep reassuring myself that it wasn’t a fantasy.  That I was really being rescued by my hero, Chase.  The one man that I’d loved for years.

I’d never been out of Hannah’s sight; she had made sure that I was her prized toy, one that she could use in any which way she wanted, whether it was to win the fight or to sleep with one of her associates to get more money.  Being on the streets after giving birth to Sydney felt like the best thing to do.

Where I was, risking Hannah’s wrath, made me feel like I was constantly living in hell.  But, after I gave birth, after looking into Sydney’s eyes, I felt as if I had a purpose.

“Don’t get cute and think that you and the baby can now run off into the sunset,”  Hannah had warned me when she came to take us from the hospital. 

My number one priority was to keep Sydney safe and protect her from Hannah, that was the only reason that all the nights I felt like running away, I stayed in Hannah’s apartment.  I knew that I couldn’t get away with it.  None of the other girls who had lost a fight or tried to run away had been able to escape her.  There was no way I would make it.  I was never worried about my own life, just about what she would do with Sydney.

I was running away from not just one demon, my dad, but Hannah too.

I felt as if I was some sort of curse.  The type of person that only attracts people who want to hurt her.

Being in Chase’s arms right now, feeling his lips against mine, made me feel safe.

Something that I used to feel before I ran away.

Shit, why didn’t I talk to him?  It hadn’t felt possible at the time.  Right now, it felt like it was the right thing to do.

I started to purr as his hands wrapped around my body like new silk sheets.

I stopped him for a moment, wanting to make sure that what he was feeling wasn’t lust, but love, the same love that I felt for him.

“Chase, I’m sorry.  I never meant to hurt you.  You’ve got to believe me when I say that…”

He didn’t want us to talk, he wanted us to make love.  His desire for me became urgent, and he started to take off my top.  No longer was he being slow and gentle.  His kisses were deeper, his eyes were longing, and his hands were taking what he wanted.

“I want you so bad right now.”

I couldn’t believe that he still felt that way after the lies that I had told.

Not telling him until now that my name was never Kayla.

That my dad wasn’t dead, but alive and ready to kill me.

After my lies and, after keeping the worst secret of them all - having his daughter and not telling him about her - he still loved me.

I loved the way he used to look at me, as if I was the only woman in the world that could satisfy him.  The one that he needed to be with so he could breathe.  I was his air, and he needed me close, yet I had run away from him.

Left him without a word.

I needed to think about the future, which was bright.  Which was with Chase.  I felt the bulge in his pants fighting to get out, so I unzipped his pants and gently put my hands down his boxers.

“Ahh,” he sighed as I stroked his cock.  Then, he lifted up his legs and his pants dropped to the floor.  He curled me into his arms.

The misery that I felt as I told him the truth was a distant memory as he carried me to the bed and gently laid me down.  He pressed his lips against mine and then he backed away from the bed.

“All those bruises.  All those punches inflicted on you in the fights,” he sighed as he gazed at my half-naked body with sadness.  He slowly peeled my jeans off my legs.  “You should have come to me.”  He shook his head.

He was right.  I should have, but by the time I thought about doing it, it was too late.  I was under Hannah’s control.  He needed to understand that.  I opened my mouth to explain to him, to beg him to understand.

He sighed as he gently caressed my feet.  “I understand why you didn’t.”

I started to cry.  It was a crazy, emotional rollercoaster ride that I wanted to get off, but it was going to take more than a day.  Compared to the hell that I had lived as a teen and the pain that I had experienced living with Hannah for the last three years, I felt alive.  Until this moment I had felt like a shadow, spending each day wondering if it was my last.  He crawled over me slowly.  My hands were covering my face, trying to hide my tears.

I was overcome by joy, but a part of me wondered if he was like this with me out of pity.

“Do you pity me?”  I gazed into his sea-blue eyes as we laid face-to-face.

He chuckled a bit as he kissed my tears.  “How could I pity someone so beautiful as you?”

He moved my hands to the sides of my face.  “I can’t pity someone that I’ve wanted for so long. That I want right now.”

Chapter Thirty

Chase

I didn’t care if she had been with anyone else.  I wanted her, but I was worried because she was still vulnerable.  Not only physically, but mentally too.  There was no denying that I was still in love with Kayla.  I didn’t care what her real name was, or where she came from. 

The main thing for me was being with her. 

I stroked her as if she was a delicate flower.  I didn’t want to ruin the beauty that I saw in front of me.  Everyone she had ever crossed paths with had already tried to do that.  Her father, and some part of me suspected her mom as well, was no better than the manager who had wanted to trade her life for a quick bet at the casino.

I tried to contain my anger when I imagined what life would have been like if I hadn’t gone to that fight.  I never would have found Kayla. 

Who knows what would have happened to her?

Even worse, what would have happened to our daughter?

I should have gone for my wallet and gotten a condom, but I wanted to feel her skin against mine.  Every part of it.  The nights I had longed for her were finally a reality, and I wanted to savor every moment.

“I love you,” I purred over and over again, kissing her neck and down her body.  Every inch of her was loved by me.  Loving someone was not about only taking the good parts, but the bad parts too.

I was starting to see that.

Dad loved my mom.

Even until her dying day, he was in love with her.  Death took her away from us, and I didn’t want that to happen with Kayla.  I needed her to be a part of my life.

The issues she had could be fixed.

There was a way out; we just needed to find it together.

That didn’t mean that Kayla should run off and start fighting again or move from place to place.  Tonight I would show her that she was mine.

Tomorrow we would call Dad, meet up with him, and sit down and figure this shit out like a family, the way Dad and I used to be, before Mary came along.

“Don’t stop, please don’t stop,” Kayla whispered as I got to the part of her that I had been longing for: her pussy.  It was wet and moist from my touch.  I stroked the inside of her legs as she started to scream. 

“Chase!”

My tongue enfolded her folds, making sure not to miss a piece.  My dick was so fucking hard, wanting to exchange places with my tongue, but I had to hold off.  I wanted to pleasure her.  Not me.

Right now, it was all about letting Kayla know that she was the one for me.

Letting her know that I would do anything for her, so I wouldn’t get up in the middle of the night and find out that she was gone.  That was not her choice to make, ever again.

Kayla was mine.  As I bit down slowly on her clit, she whimpered.  I held on to her legs, which had started to move.  Every delicate touch had to be precise.  I wanted to hear her scream and call out my name as if there was no tomorrow. 

Her legs started to jilt up and down, and I knew I had brought her to the edge when she started to laugh.  I didn't stop, because my dick had held off long enough.

It was dying to go where my tongue had just been. 

I guided my body up to meet her face.  No longer were there tears of sadness, but only of joy.

I had reached my goal, and as she kissed me delicately she said, “I hope I didn’t taste bad.”

She still didn’t understand what she meant to me.

“Kayla, you tasted like you always do,” I sighed as I stroked her face. “You’re broken. Let me fix you?”

Kayla smiled at my words.  I grabbed the back of her head and fucked her mouth with my tongue as she guided my dick inside of her.  She jerked at first.  Maybe it had been a while since she’d had sex.  I had a suspicion that the last time was probably with me, and that was nearly three years ago.

My cock wanted one thing: Kayla under me.

I was on top and slowly moving up and down, not letting my tongue stop devouring her and not wanting to let go.  Her legs wrapped around me as she held on to my butt.

My cock rubbed in and out of her cunt, and I had to go in deeper.  The moment I had wanted for the last three years was here. 

Right now.

It was so hard to resist not coming.  Letting my sperm shoot into her pussy, but I couldn’t.  The first night I’d told her that I loved her, I’d got too emotional.  Everything was too fast and, like a greedy child in a candy store, I wanted it all. 

Today was different.  I was going to take my time. 

Let her know that I was there for her and hold on to her tightly, surround her with kisses and make her know that she’s mine.

“Am I hurting you?” I asked as I felt her whimpering underneath me.  I thought she was enjoying it, but right then I started to question it.

“No,” she said as she reached out for my hand. She held on to it so tightly, “Just don't stop.”

Kayla didn’t need to ask me twice.

Her soft skin was rubbing against mine.  Her pebbled nipples were calling out my name as I ducked my head to suck them.  I released my cock for a little bit, to stop myself from coming and losing myself in her so quickly.

She groaned, “Hmm.” 

I rubbed my hand up and down them as I swirled my tongue against them, tracing over them as if they for the first time.  Her skin next to mine was no longer a distant memory. 

My dick was hurting as it wanted to enter once again into her pussy.  I just didn’t want to hurt her with my weight on top of her, but she held on to my head and said, “Make love to me.”

She didn’t need to ask me twice.

That was what I wanted to do from the moment, I knew she was back in my life.  Anger and fear stopped me from touching her.

Holding her in my arms, I rocked on top of her.  Our skin rubbed against each other as we moaned into each other’s mouth.  Our passion and denial couldn’t be held back any longer as she held on to my back, then my head then finally she held on to one hand and then our tongues were darting in and out of each other’s mouths.

I started to increase my rhythm as the emotions started to take over me.  I couldn’t hold back any longer as I tried to not be so rough, “I’m coming,” I mumbled into her mouth as I started to think about Kayla being mine., Kayla not leaving me again, but as us working things out as a couple.  Not only lovers, but friends too.

I felt a rush of sperm shoot from my dick and she smiled, “We did that together.”

I nodded, “We did.”

Then I rolled to the side and held her in my arms.  “From now on we’ll do everything together. Do you understand?”

She said, “I do.”

Kayla lifted up her head and kissed me gently.  Then, she wrapped the cover over us and whispered, “Just know one thing.  I never stopped loving you.  And I’m so sorry…”

She wanted to apologize.  When I felt that I was the one that should be doing that to her.  She had been through so much shit.  I had thought about all the different types of things she should have done and came up blank.

“That was in the past.” I lifted my finger to her lips.

“Let’s focus on the future. Together.” 

She never said a word, but I knew she understood what I meant.  Tiredness took over both of us.  Before I knew it I could hear her heavily breathing on my chest. I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep with her in my arms.

***

Kayla and I had fallen asleep. I wasn't sure if it was a few minutes or even hours.  I could hear the sound of my phone ringing.  That was when I got off the bed and rushed for it in the living room.  I knew who was ringing.  It could only be Reg.

“Hey man, you okay?”

That was his secret code for, is Kayla alive? Did you kill her? Should I come back?

I was out of breath, and he heard it in my voice. “Well, I can see you’re busy and there was me worried and shit.”

I laughed.  “No, it’s not what you’re thinking.  I rushed to get my phone.”

“Ah-ha.  I know exactly what you’re doing.  Just take care and don’t worry about Sydney.  We’re having a blast.  I’m thinking that we’ll catch up tomorrow morning.  You know we have class.  Don’t forget we’re nearly done, just a couple more classes and it is all over.”

I nodded.  “Course we still have class.”  I wiped my forehead.  I was sweating a bit, and I had been so caught up in Kayla’s life that I’d forgotten I had one of my own.

She came into the living room with a look of concern on her face.

“Tomorrow morning at eight thirty I’ll come to the dorm, Okay?  With Kayla.”

“Sure, take your time tonight, but tomorrow don’t!”

I sighed.  “Sure thing, Reg, and thanks, you’re a real pal.”

“Chase, you would do the same for me.  Night.”

I should have asked to speak to Sydney or at least let Kayla speak to her to see if she was alright, but Reg seemed pretty keen on playing the uncle part, so I thought it was best to speak to her tomorrow.  Besides, both her mom and dad were naked, and I didn’t think it was the best way to speak to her. 

“Hey, they okay?” she questioned as she stood in front of me, waiting for me to say something.

I nodded as I wrapped my arms around her. 

“We’re meeting up tomorrow before class.  That way you can take Sydney and we can finish up.”

She sighed.  “Chase, you’ve been too good to me.  I don’t know what to say.”

I smirked.  “How about you love me?  I love it when you tell me that.”

“Come on, big boy, let me say it over and over again,” Kayla purred as she took my hand and led me back to the room.  It was going to be a long night.  But I’d finally gotten the wish I’d been praying for.  I knew it was going to be worth it.

I had Kayla by my side.  She hadn't run away because of me.  But, in her mind she thought that she was protecting me by staying away.

“Just promise me one thing,” I had to make sure that she understood she was safe. “Don’t ever leave again.”

I pointed my finger and may have come on a bit too strong, but I needed to set rules and that was one of them. She couldn't do that again, I had already missed two years of Sydney’s life.

If Kayla and I didn't work out then, I would just have to deal with it, but I couldn’t deal with being away from my daughter. Not again.

“Okay.” She whispered and I led her into the room this time. 

“Remember the first night we spent together?”

She smiled, “How could I forget?”

“Well,” I purred, “This night is going to be even better.”

She kissed my lips and said, “I could tell from your earlier performance.”

That was just a warm-up, this time we were going to be making love all night long.