Page 43 of Sweet Thing

Her smile was thin. “No problem. She almost slept the whole night through.”

“Except I just woke her—and you. Go back to sleep.”

She passed over that. “You won your game. Congrats.”

“Yep. It was a good one. How were things here?”

The duvet cover had slipped enough to reveal the swell of her breasts hugged by a camisole. I receded further into the shadows where this inappropriate leap in sexual awareness belonged.

Adeline chuckled, completely unaware of my discomfort, but it was better than the frightened deer look. “I probably overshared about Mabel’s bodily functions.”

“No, it was good to hear. Normal stuff.” And it put this, whateverthiswas, on a clearer footing. Baby poop, erection killer. “So, how come you’re in here?”

In my bed.

“She doesn’t like the crib, but she loves the bassinet. I wanted to have her at eye level or close enough, but the guest room bed is a little small for both of us and this California King is the bomb. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Mabel let out a little cry and Adeline reached over to soothe her, though not before she paused a moment, perhaps waiting for me to step in. When I didn’t make a move—an unfeeling monster, here—she took over with the surety I’d come to expect. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Just hungry.”

“I’ll feed her.”

She looked up. “You sure?”

“I’m up and you should get back to sleep.” I moved forward and leaned over my daughter.Mine.I still couldn’t believe it.

Rather than scoop her out, I picked up the handles of the bassinet, a move that made Mabel expel a strange noise.

“Was that …” I checked in with Adeline. “A giggle?”

“It was!” Adeline’s mouth stretched wide. Damn, that was a pretty smile and?—

Keep your happy for your own daughter, not someone else’s.

I turned back to Mabel, anything to avoid Adeline’s smile and how it made me feel. “You liked when I swayed this bucket thing, huh?” I did it again, giving it a swoosh back and forth. The motion yielded more gorgeous giggles.

From both of them.

I fed Mabel,burped her like a pro, and returned her to her crib in the empty guest room. Adeline had said she didn’t like it, so I left her inside the bassinet, cradled by the crib. She’d also told me that on the baby’s back was the best position, at least until she was twelve months or could roll over on her own. So much to learn, and I didn’t know how I could keep all this information in my head. Mabel seemed happy right now and soon enough her translucent eyelids shuttered closed.

I felt grimy after traveling back on the plane. Usually, I’d take a shower before hitting the sack, only Adeline was asleep in my bed, so the master bath was out. That left the guest one. Luckily, I had spare underwear in my holdall, so I slipped into the shower and turned it on.

This bathroom didn’t have my soap or shampoo, but what must have been Adeline’s sat in the caddy. I uncapped the shampoo bottle and took a sniff.

Instant hard-on. Fuck.

That’s what her hair smelled like. I’d noticed it when she handed off the baby last week, when we stood so close her scent had lodged in my brain and stayed there, waiting to be reactivated like a sleeper spy. I checked the label. Orange blossom and jasmine. I didn’t think I’d smelled that before, or if I had, I had no idea what to call it. But now, all I could think was this scent was Adeline.

Adeline in my nostrils, curling into my lungs, giving my cock a burst of life it hadn’t had in months. Years. Apparently, there were hard-ons and there were Adeline hard-ons.

Christ, I needed to ignore that and wash my damn hair. I lathered up, and of course that only made my cock harder. That sleepy smile of hers snuck into my brain and made itself at home. Her shapely leg, the curve of her ass, peeking out of the duvet cover in my bed.

Mybed.

Harder again. Hard enough to slam through the shower tile.

I refused to touch my dick. That was a first, unable to stroke myself because the fantasy that inspired it was so taboo. My teammate’s daughter. The man’s child.

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