Chapter 21 Kelly Kaplan

A Perfect Day

Four Days Until Christmas

A shopping spree at my favorite store with this man who suddenly seems like he stepped right out of my dreams?

Yes please.

We strap Mia into the shopping cart and then proceed to fill the basket with ornaments and lights, bows and garland, frames to make wreaths, and evergreens to fill them in. The cart is brimming with Christmas goodies by the time we’re done twirling through the aisles, and even though it’s not a date but an adventure , it feels very much like a date, and I feel very much like kicking my feet into the air with excitement and giddiness.

This feels like exactly what I was looking for the night I met Austin. We’ve come a long way since then, and every moment we’re together feels more and more like we’re moving to the place I never thought we’d actually get to.

There’s a short line at the register as we wait to check out, and Austin’s phone starts to ring. He glances at the screen. “Oh, it’s my publicist. I need to take this.”

He answers, and I make faces at Mia while we wait.

“Oh, that’s great, thank you so much,” he says. “Sure, how does twenty minutes sound?”

I listen to his side of the conversation, and I feel a little jolt of sadness at his words. Of course our date has to come to an end sometime, and I need to get to packing since we leave tomorrow…but I don’t want it to come to an end. I’m having the sort of lighthearted fun I’ve been needing, and I’m not ready for our adventure to be over.

He ends the call just as we’re called up to the register, and he treats for everything in the cart—including the supplies to make wreaths.

It isn’t until we’re buckled into the car that smells like pine that he finally glances over at me.

He hasn’t backed out of the space yet when he says, “My publicist, Ellie, has a couple of kids, and then her brother-in-law, who happens to be my team owner, had a couple of kids, and her sister-in-law had twins, and, well, she basically is running a daycare out of her house for all these nieces and nephews and some other teammates’ kids. She has a lot of help, including a full-time nanny, and she said we could bring Mimi by anytime we want. I asked if we could do a trial run for a couple hours, and she told me to bring her by now. I figured we could…you know, have a little mommy and daddy time before you get to packing for your trip, and this way you could see the house and meet Ellie and the nanny to make sure you’re comfortable with everything.”

He wiggles his eyebrows at mommy and daddy time, and yeah, I just bet he wants some daddy time.

But I don’t laugh, even though the wiggling of the eyebrows is meant to be silly and light. Instead, I feel heat pinching behind my eyes.

He reaches over and grabs my hand. “It’s fine if you’re not ready. I just thought I would off—”

“No, it’s not that,” I say, interrupting him. “It’s just…you’re being so sweet, and you’re thinking of everything, and I think it’s just going to take me a little time to get used to it. That’s all.”

“So you’re okay with taking her over there?” he asks.

I nod. “Thank you,” I say softly.

His eyes soften as they meet mine, and he offers a small smile before he leans over to kiss me. “Thank you, Kel. For all you do. You deserve so much more than I can give you, but I’m working my hardest to try.”

“I know you are. I see it. I see you.”

He squeezes my hand, and then he pulls out of the space, and we head toward Ellie’s.

I’ve met her a few times, and I know she’s married to former pro football player Luke Dalton. She runs her publicity business out of her home.

She’s warm and friendly when she answers the door, and she leads us straight toward a family room where we find kids of all ages playing with a variety of different kids’ toys. To be honest, this place seems like an absolute dream for a kid, and it’s probably as good a time as any for Mia to start socializing with other kids.

A woman in her early twenties walks over toward us. “I’m Elizabeth, the nanny. Is this Mia?” She smiles warmly at the girl who’s currently clinging to me, and I nod.

“Yes, and I’m Kelly. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“And you,” she says. “Good to see you again, Austin. Mia, I heard you like Paw Patrol . Is that right?” She pulls a huge stuffed Skye dog from behind her back.

“Daw-daw!” Mia says proudly in her little way of saying dog , and I set her down on the ground as she takes Skye from Elizabeth’s hands. She sits down with the pup and plays with her, and Elizabeth turns to us.

“She’s in great hands if you want to take off, or you can stay a while and watch—whatever your comfort level is.” She smiles, and I see all the happy kids in the room. I can see how gentle and sweet Elizabeth appears to be, and if Austin trusts Ellie and the person she hired to care for her own kids, then I trust her, too.

I lean down and press a kiss to the top of Mia’s head, and Austin does the same. And then we leave.

It’s weird walking away. It’s not the first time I’ve left her with a babysitter, but it is the first time I’ve left her here at what feels like a daycare. It feels like I’ll do this again—like I’ll have to so I can focus on work instead of splitting my attention between two things when neither is getting all it deserves.

I hate the guilt that creeps in the second I walk away, but I know she’ll be fine. She’ll probably have more fun here playing with the other kids than she would at home, where I’m the main source of entertainment.

We’re quiet on the ride back to my place, and as Austin pulls into the driveway, he asks, “Are you okay?”

I nod. “It’s just weird without her.”

“But now we can put up the tree without worrying about where she is, and then…” He trails off and moves his lips to my neck, trailing them up toward my ear. “I can fuck you on the floor under it before we go pick her up.”

My breath hitches at his words, and when my voice comes out, it’s an octave higher than it should be. “Then we better get to decorating.”

He laughs, and I head inside to turn on the Netflix fireplace and some Christmas music as he hauls my tree out of the back of his Escalade and sets it up.

He strings lights around it while I make us more hot chocolate, and we hang the ornaments together, stopping for kisses in between, and when we’re all done, we wash our hands and meet back by the tree. I grab a fluffy blanket off the couch and lay it on the floor in front of the tree, and he sits down on it first.

I straddle his lap, taking his face between my palms, and his hands come around me and settle on my ass. “Thank you for a perfect day,” I say.

“It’s about to get even better,” he groans, thrusting his hips upward to let me know he’s ready to go.

I am, too. This entire day has been filled with all these sweet details that tell me he’s been watching, listening, and caring this entire time. And now we’re at the moment when we have time to express our feelings for each other.

He reaches down to pull my sweater off, and I pull his off, too. He takes off my bra next, and then he pulls me close, our chests smashing together, and his mouth finds mine as his hand moves to the back of my head. His fingers tangle in my hair as his lips open to mine, and his tongue brushes mine with a fire that tells me this is going to be hot, steamy, and intense.

Just like it always is with him.

I’m addicted to this, to him, to the feelings he leaves me with, and I think that’s why this has been so scary from the start. He has the power to really hurt me, but he’s building the sort of trust in me to show me that he’s never going to do that.

We kiss like that for a while before he shifts to pull me off of him, and then he sets me down on the blanket. He moves over me, pulling my jeans down my legs with my panties, and then he knees in between my thighs, pushing them open wide as he leans down to kiss me again. He breaks his mouth from mine and trails his lips down my neck to my collarbone, where he leaves little kisses that make me shiver. His mouth moves down to my breast, and he stops to suck my nipples. My hips arch up off the ground as the feeling of his mouth on my body sends searing signals to my pussy that I need him inside me.

But it’s not time for that yet. He continues to tease me, his lips trailing down my stomach to my hip, and then he kisses the inside of my thigh, the scruff on his chin leaving a tickling burn in its wake as his mouth moves closer and closer toward my pussy. He kisses the outside of it before he slides a finger through me, stopping to focus on my clit, and I very nearly fall apart at his touch. It’s a wickedly delicious sensation right where I need it, and then he lowers his mouth to my clit, moving his finger out of the way as he sucks it between his lips. I feel his tongue swirling around it as he continues to suck on it, and my God, the feeling is out of this world. I never want him to stop.

But he does, only to dip his tongue down into my pussy. He licks me there a while before he slides a finger into me, and then he sucks on my clit some more. I hear his gentle hum against my body, the vibrations sending me into another orbit, before he moves his fingers and dips his tongue inside me again. He fucks me with his mouth before he replaces his mouth with his finger again.

“Fuck, Kaplan. Your pussy is fucking addicting.” He licks through me again, and he uses his mouth to deliver the sort of pleasure only he knows how to give me.

I’m about to fall apart when he stops. He pulls his cock out of his jeans and slides into me without warning, and it’s everything I need.

“Fuck yes, baby, come for me,” he growls, and my pussy clings onto him as he moves in and out of me. His erotic words tip me over the edge of pleasure into the abyss below, and I’m lost to everything as I writhe and thrash under him, my nails clawing his skin as I moan his name through a brutal release.

He continues to pump into me as I start to come down from the high, and he leans down so his lips are near my ear. “Watching you come is my favorite thing in the world,” he says quietly, and a thrill zips up my spine at his words and the sexy, sweet sentiment behind them.

Once my body has come down from the quaking he just delivered, he pulls out of me and grabs me into his arms. He stands as if he needs no effort to pick up a woman when he's kneeling on the ground, and he carries me through the house to my bedroom.

“On your hands and knees,” he demands, and I scramble to get into position. He slides into me from behind and reaches around to thumb my clit, and I feel the start of another brutal release coming for me.

He thrusts into me, grabbing onto my hips to angle himself as deeply as he can, and then he reaches around me to grab my tits. I cry out at the feel of his hands on my body as he pummels into me from behind.

“Oh fuck,” he yells, and his thrusts slow and deepen as he starts to come. He drives me into another brutal release as if he’s some expert in the science of what it takes to pleasure my body.

He collapses beside me, and we both hear the buzzing of his phone at the same time. He glances at his watch rather than looking at his phone, and a soft curse falls from his lips.

“Who is it?” I ask, worried that it's Ellie or Elizabeth and something happened with our little girl while we're here having sex.

“It's the team owner’s secretary. There's only one reason she ever calls players, and it's not a reason I can ignore.” He reaches into his pocket for his phone.

“Hello?”

I can hear the other end of the conversation through the line since he's three inches from my head.

“Austin Graham?” the voice says.

“That’s me.”

“This is Lily, Jack Dalton's secretary. You've been selected for a random drug test, and we need you to get to the lab within the next two hours.”

He sighs heavily, but he doesn't dare defy his team owner. “I'll be there.” He cuts the call and glances over at me.

“Is that normal? I ask.

“Yeah, it's standard practice, and we're all called on at least once annually. I guess this is my time, but it's not a big deal since I've never done anything that would get me into trouble. It’s not worth the risk, and I realize now that none of what I did in the past was. Not when I have you and Mia in my life.”

Tears heat my eyes at his words. “Oh, Austin. We are so, so proud of you. You're really turning around from where you were a year ago, and I'm finally in a spot where I can see the future and you and me and Mia, and it's so beautiful.”

He leans over and presses his lips to mine. “I see it too. Are you okay picking up Mia on your own while I go do this?”

“Of course, unless you want me to come with you.”

He shakes his head. “I'll be fine. Like I said, nothing to worry about.”

How I wish that were as true as he convinces me to believe in that moment.