Chapter 55 Desiree Dixon

Exactly How Drunk is He?

The Vegas Aces win their last home game, and I notice that Asher doesn’t get as much playing time as usual.

It’s common for teams to rest their starters a bit during games that really don’t affect the outcome of the season, but in the back of my mind, I wonder whether my dad is playing Austin Graham over Asher out of anger.

Logically. I know that’s not why, but it still eats at me.

After the game, I don’t hang around the family waiting area for my dad or for Asher. I don’t want to make things weird when players need to focus on what comes next, and that’s the playoff game in two weeks—not on what may or may not be going on between a player, a coach, and the coach’s daughter.

Instead, my mom and I wait in the car for my dad. Asher calls me as I’m on my way home with my parents.

“Are you coming out tonight?” he asks.

Oh…I guess before players focus, they celebrate.

I’m trying to be discreet in the backseat as my dad navigates toward home, but it’s hard to be quiet when his background is a bar blaring with sound.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” I admit.

“What?”

“No!” I yell.

My mom turns around, startled at my yelling, and I yell into the phone, “I’ll text you!” I hang up and draft the message.

Me: I wasn’t planning to go out. I’m heading home.

Asher: Why?

Me: I figured we don’t need the rumor mill working overtime.

I watch as he drafts a slightly longer message, and when it comes through, I can’t help but think he’s making a solid point.

Asher: We don’t, but I want to celebrate with you. Do we really have anything to hide now that your parents know?

Me: I guess I can be your designated driver since I can’t drink. Give me a half hour. Are you at the Gridiron?

Asher: I am. See you then.

Me: Can’t wait to make our debut.

I’m nervous as we pull into the driveway, and I bid my parents goodnight and mention that I might go out with some friends. I head up to my room to freshen up. I’m wearing a Vegas Aces tee paired with a sequined skirt, and while my outfit isn’t really what I’d typically wear to a bar, it’s comfortable with my changing body.

My heart pounds as I navigate over toward the Gridiron, not sure what I’m walking into yet knowing that Asher will be there with me every step of the way. Except, you know, the part where I have to walk in by myself and hunt him down in the crowd.

With that in mind, I shoot him a text.

Me: I’m here.

He’s waiting in front of the bar for me as I walk up, and relief filters through me. He grabs me into his arms and leans his forehead to mine, and I smell whiskey on his breath. A thrill races through me as it reminds me of the night we met.

“You ready for this?” he asks.

“Nope,” I admit, and he chuckles then lowers his lips to mine.

A voice interrupts our kiss. “Whoa! Nash and the OC’s daughter?”

We jump apart as if we’ve been caught, which we have…but we’re not hiding anymore.

This is weird.

We both turn to face Travis Woods as he walks out with his arm around Victoria, whose eyes are wide.

“Ooh, the coach’s daughter in a secret romance with the star tight end. I swear we just got a new release like this in the store,” Victoria says. “We should totally read it for our first book club!”

Asher clears his throat as I blush wildly.

“It’s not a secret…anymore.” He glances at me, and I think we’re at the point where I can read his silent question. I nod at him, and he tosses his arm around me. “We’re having a baby.”

Oh, shit. My nod was to encourage him to tell them about us. I didn’t realize he was going to tell them, well, everything. Maybe we’re not at the reading each other’s silent questions stage quite yet, but word is out now.

“Oh my God!” Victoria squeals. “Congratulations!” She rushes toward me for a hug, and while we’ve hung out a few times, I didn’t realize we were that close.

But I guess we are.

I was quickly accepted into this group as the coach’s daughter, and then as a contracted employee with the charities division. But it looks like my role here is about to shift to a WAG—which means wives and girlfriends of players—and Victoria is the first to welcome me into that inner circle.

Victoria and I squeal for a bit, and she offers me a shoulder to cry on for everything pregnancy-related—something I could really use from a friend since none of my close friends have been through it yet.

I thought I was too different from a lot of these women when I first met them to become friends with them. I think there’s some things that might bond us together yet.

“Congrats, you two. Come on, Hartley,” Travis says as he grabs his wife's ass.

She rolls her eyes playfully, and they say a hurried goodbye as they take off.

I move to start heading inside, but Asher stops me with his hand on my arm. “Where do you think you're going?”

“Inside?” I say as more of a question than an answer.

“I want to take you somewhere. Or, rather, I guess I want you to take me somewhere since you drove.”

“Where are you taking me?” I ask.

“You'll see.” He shoots me a sly look, and while I've never really been one for surprises, I have to admit, he's got me curious.

He tells me where to turn, navigating me to whatever destination he has in mind through the dark streets of Vegas at night. We pull into a neighborhood, and he directs me to pull into a driveway.

The house is dark, so it’s not like he’s taking me here for some party or something. “Where are we?” I ask. “Is this some secret sex club?”

He laughs. “No.” He gets out of the car and starts walking toward the front door, where he types in a code and opens the door.

“Asher, what the hell are you doing? Are we allowed to be in here?” There’s a slight hint of panic in my voice. Why is he taking me to some deserted house at night?

“It’s fine,” he says gently, and he walks inside and holds his hand out to me.

I wonder exactly how drunk he is as he walks into someone else's house. He flips on some lights, and I find that the house is totally empty. No furniture in the rooms, no pictures on the walls. It looks like a brand-new home that no one's ever lived in.

He holds up both hands to indicate the house around us. “Well, what do you think?”

I twist my lips and shrug. “I think maybe you've lost your mind or had too much whiskey.”

“Neither of those.” He walks further into the house as he waits for me to figure out what the hell he's doing. “Follow me.” He starts on a path to another room. I find myself in the kitchen that looks like it stepped right out of a gourmet magazine. He flips on the outdoor lights, and we peek into a beautiful desert oasis complete with a pool and plenty of shade structures around a built-in barbecue.

We look into the family room and a guest bedroom on the first floor along with two office spaces before he starts climbing the stairs.

“Asher, what are we doing here?”

“You'll see,” he says.

We walk into a primary suite that's three times the size of my rather luxurious bedroom back in San Diego, and I think I’m starting to figure out what we’re doing here, but I don’t want to make any assumptions.

He leads me through the bedroom and out onto a balcony. The view is absolutely breathtaking as I see the Complex and the entirety of the Vegas Strip from here. It's distant enough that we can't hear the sounds but close enough that we can see the lights that indicate the excitement and action in the distance.

I set my hands on the railing as I look out over the view, and I feel him as he moves in behind me. He sets his hands on the railing on either side of mine, and his lips move to my neck. Thrill races down my spine at his proximity, and I feel his hard cock as he settles in behind me.

His lips move to my ear. “Hell of a view, isn’t it?”

“It’s lovely, but you still haven’t told me why we’re here.”

His hands move from the railing, and he wraps his arms around me, his hands moving to my stomach. “When I first walked into this house, I thought it was way too big. It is. It’s ridiculous. But I kept thinking about this place. It’s so close to the Complex. It’s close to your parents. It’s close to the airport. It’s big enough to grow. It has a pool where I can watch you skinny dip, and it’s got this balcony where I can bend you over the railing and fuck you until you can’t see straight.”

His words pulse a needy ache squarely between my legs. I push my hips back toward him, and he groans a little as he thrusts back toward me.

“I never knew what I wanted out of my future. I wasn’t sure if I should try to be like my brothers, or if I should just focus on football, or if I should keep being wild, adventurous Asher. And then I met you, and it was like my entire existence clicked into place. I fell for you hard and fast, and every second of that time pushed me closer and closer to knowing what I want. And now that we’re having a baby together, it feels like the future I was never sure about is crystal clear.”

He spins me around, and his lips move to mine for a soft kiss. “I love you, Des, and I want you to move in here with me. I want to raise our baby together, and I want to build our future together. No more secrets. No more lies. No more sneaking around. Just you and me and this baby, and whatever other babies we’re blessed enough to have. I don’t want to be the wild, eccentric one anymore. I want to be the best husband, the best dad, the best version of myself I can be, and the only way I can do that is with you by my side. Will you move in here with me?”

Tears pinch behind my eyes at his words. I feel the genuine, heartfelt emotions behind his words, and it’s suddenly everything I want, too. It feels like he’s committed to making sure this will work between us, and suddenly that fear that he’s going to run again is wiped away.

And that’s why I’m finally ready to say the words I’ve felt for a very long time. “I love you, Asher, and nothing would make me happier than to start building our life together right here.”

“Good. Because I put in an offer.” His lips collide with mine, and I wonder how many times we’ll stand out on this balcony kissing like this. I wonder how many times in our future we’ll talk out here, or fight out here, or laugh out here.

I wonder how many times we’ll have sex out here.

As his fingertips inch down and grasp the hem of my skirt, I can’t help but think this will count as the first time.

He slowly pulls my skirt up, and it feels so much like our first night together at that hotel room after the charity ball. Those feelings of lust and attraction are still there as strong as ever, but now we have emotions and feelings behind them to back them up. There’s a future ahead of us that we’re galloping toward together, and it’s so, so beautiful.

He breaks our kiss and spins me back around, and he slips my panties to the side and pushes a finger into me. I tighten my grip on the railing as I grind my hips over his hand and at the same time against his cock pressing into my backside.

He moans quietly next to my ear as his lips drop to my shoulder. “Fuck, that’s a wet pussy,” he groans softly, and I grind down harder onto his hand.

“Fuck me, Asher,” I moan, and he fingers me another few seconds before he pulls his fingers out. He reaches up for the top of my underwear and drags them down my legs, and as I step out of them, I hear the hiss of his zipper.

A moment later, I feel the cool breeze of night on my ass as he lifts my skirt, and I bend slightly over the railing to give him access. I feel him as he moves in behind me, and when he thrusts into me, I see literal stars as I look out over the Strip.

“Oh, fuck, Des,” he mutters as he starts to move. “This sweet pussy was made for me.”

I couldn’t agree more.

He slows down as if he wants to prolong the moment, but I need friction.

“Faster,” I cry out, my voice begging, and he gives me what I want like he always does.

I push back against him, thrust for thrust, and it’s pure heaven as he fucks me on what will be our balcony soon enough.

He reaches around me to thumb my clit, and I’m gripping the railing so tightly my knuckles must be white. It feels so good—too good—but I’m not ready for it to be over. Not yet.

“Tell me how much you love it when I fuck you,” he hisses near my ear, and I nearly pass out from how hot he sounds.

“I love it,” I pant. “I love it so much. I love you so much.”

My words seem to trip him into his own release. “Fuck!” he groans as he pushes in as hard and fast as he can, which drives me straight into my climax.

He continues to rub my clit as we come together in the peace of night here on the balcony of our new house, and once our bodies both start to come down from the thrill and transition into the warmth of the afterglow, he presses his lips to the curve between my neck and my shoulder.

He slips out of me and pulls my skirt back into place, and I turn around and reach for his neck to pull his lips down to mine as the future feels like it’s just within our grasp.