Page 30 of Irresistibly Risky

“I hope so,” I tell the person before I mumble out, “Excuse me.”

I turn away from them and walk with determined strides toward Wynter, who has stalled on the edge of the playground without entering it. She’s wearing her hair up in a high ponytail, a simple white T-shirt, jean shorts that show off the smooth, pale skin of her legs, and a frown.

“What is it?” I ask as I draw closer.

“Everyone is taking pictures and videos of you. This wasn’t the best idea.” She turns and starts to walk away.

Panic surges within me. “Wynter?”

“Lose the audience and come find me down by the bench under the huge oak tree.” With that, she quickens her stride, and shit, I didn’t think about that. About being recognized and what that would mean for her and for me meeting Mason.

I turn back to the playground and give anyone who is still watching me a wave, and then I leave, walking on the opposite path from the one she took before I double back, cutting along the grass and taking off into a sprint, desperate to find them.

I spot them tucked beneath the tree, and a pulse of relief thrums through my veins. Wynter is sitting with her back against the thick base of the tree, shaded by the large branches and heavy mantle of leaves. Her long legs are outstretched as Mason climbs all over her. Urgency moves me in their direction, and a moment later she notices me coming and glances up. Our eyes meet, and I have the biggest urge to kiss her.

The way I wanted to last night.

She doesn’t feel new. She feels like months and months of yearning, of fantasizing, of not being able to get her out of my mind.

Then there’s Mason.

My feet move, and then my knees give out, weakened by the sight before me. I’m crouching beside them, staring into his green eyes that match hers. “Hi.”

He blinks at me, turns to Wynter as if he’s checking to make sure it’s okay, and then treats me to a wet smile complete with a smattering of tiny teeth. Without warning, he crawls off her lap and straight onto my thighs. My hands latch around his ribs, and then I shift so that I’m sitting with my legs folded. Only he’s not content with sitting. He uses me as leverage to help him stand, bouncing his little butt and making a contented noise when I finally do.

“I take it that means he’s happy?”

Wynter is quiet, but I catch her nod out of the corner of my eye.

“I’m sorry about the crowd. I didn’t think it through.”

“We’ll have to figure it out as we go. I’d like to keep this a secret for as long as possible if you’re okay with that.”

I cock an eyebrow. “Ashamed I’m your baby daddy?”

She rolls her eyes at me even as she fights her smile. “I’m not calling you daddy.”

“Not even when I spank you?”

She pulls a few blades of grass out of the ground and tosses them at me.

“Fine, I’ll settle for you just saying my name when that happens.”

“Asher!”

I grin. “Yes. Just like that. Maybe with a little moan to it.”

“Oh, my God. Stop!” More grass flies my way, but her smile is something else. She’s something else. So beautiful and yet so serious now. I wonder if becoming a mother did this to her or if that night in the bathroom was an anomaly. She said it was. That the riskiest thing she’d ever done was sneak up to the VIP floor.

But oh, how I want to peel back her petals and coax her into blooming just for me.

Mason jumps on my thighs, calling me back to the situation at hand, and I grow serious too. “I get it about the public. I don’t want him in the spotlight either, and me having a kid out of nowhere will do just that. There will be a lot of questions for both of us that I don’t think either of us is ready to answer. I’ll do everything I can to keep this quiet for as long as I can, but eventually, it’ll get out.”

“I know that,” she says, watching as Mason crawls all over me, standing on my thighs, pulling on my hair, and yanking on my T-shirt.

I lift him up in the air, holding him over my head. “Wow. You’re a bruiser, big man.”

“He’s in the ninety-ninth percentile for weight and height.”

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