Page 63 of Sweet Thing

I did everything I could to push thoughts of her away. Treadmill, elliptical, weights, all of it helped keep images of her sweet mouth on the down low for a few peaceful moments. Until Theo arrived and my efforts dissolved in the face of that all-too-familiar smile.

Was I forever doomed to this hell? One look at my captain and I think of his gorgeous daughter and all the wicked things I want to do to her? The sooner I could hire an official nanny, the better. Adeline would be gone, back to living with her parents. I would probably have to stop going to the Kershaws for dinner because there was no way I could avoid looking at her and keep my dirty thoughts to myself. Not after that kiss. Not after the feel of her in my arms.

Not after she put me in my place.

She had me dead to rights. I couldn’t joke around with her, talking about my dick and her impact on it. Ownership of my shit was all well and good, but honesty wasn’t always the best policy, not when I could never follow through.

I flexed my hands, trying to stretch and eliminate the muscle memory that had developed since holding her. Since touching myself with Adeline as the fuel to my fantasy. My cock twitched and I thanked the gods for my loose sweatpants.

“You okay?” Theo asked from the treadmill beside me.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Your life’s upside down and you probably haven’t been laid in a while because you’re busy with a baby and worried about what’ll happen the next time you ejaculate. Will it result in a baby brother or sister for little Mabel?” Theo shook his head, grinning like a total dick. “I get it. With Olympic swimmers like that, you start second-guessing yourself.”

Kershaw wasn’t far off the mark. I was cock shy, but that was the least of my problems.

Right now, the thought of sex with anyone other than Adeline repulsed me. I wanted her and for now, I was going to keep it in my pants, at least until she was out of my house, and my life took on more semblance of normal. If anything, her presence was a good way to prevent more mistakes of the conception variety.

“Sex is the last thing on my mind.”

“Already putting your dick in cryofreeze, NyQuil?”

That delightful query came courtesy of Peyton Bell.

Before I could respond, Boden weighed in. “Cryofreeze implies he’s going to be ready for action at some unspecified time in the distant future.”

“True. Once you have kids, your dick never getsanyaction again,” Bell said with the authority of a guy who had experienced nothing in his short twenty-three years on this earth.

Jacobs put down one of the 5k hand weights and picked up an 8k. “Until your wife says she wants another kid, which I blame on Nyquist and his cute baby. Then suddenly she’s all over you.”

“So what I’m hearing is that my cute kid is actually responsible for you finally getting some. You’re welcome.”

Theo pointed at Jacobs. “You need to send him flowers, Jakey.”

“Dear NyQuil, thanks for jumpstarting my sex life,” Bell said, like he was writing in his tween journal. “Love, my Dick.”

Everyone cracked up, even Jacobs.

“I think you’re all forgetting something.” I jerked a thumb at our captain. “This guy thought his child-rearing days were over and look what happened. Another surprise in his stocking.” Theo and Elle had found out they were pregnant with Tilly around the time of a Rebels holiday party. “There’s hope for us all.”

Theo chuckled. “Yep. My sex life is stellar, even after five kids. So let’s not give up on NyQuil just yet, even if he is a little worried about getting ambushed in the Empty Net with another of my niblings.”

“The trainer is ready for you, Theo,” someone called out from the gym entrance.

He turned off the machine. “Time to have them duct tape it altogether.”

“You’re going to outplay us all, old man.”

I couldn’t imagine playing at his age, but then I didn’t have much to play for. Kershaw had his family, his son on the team, this entire world he’d built with him at the center of it. He could happily retire and enjoy the fruits of that, but he always had one more goal. One more reason to strive. As role models went, he was A-plus.

Would Mabel ever see me as a role model? Look at her genetics. I tried to go against the grain of mine, but I’d yet to be tested as a father. Would I be a dick when she started talking back? Would I lose my temper and take it out on her? Would I turn into Sven?

As much as I hated the idea of Vicki having custody, I still felt it would be better for Mabel. Growing up Nyquist was no picnic and no daughter of mine deserved the legacy of my family.

I was so consumed by all this negativity that I didn’t notice Kershaw’s replacement on the treadmill: MacFarlane.

“How’s it going, Narquist?”

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