Playing For Keeps Part 4

Laying the sandwich down, she lifted her eyes to his. "Yes," he murmured, brus.h.i.+ng her hair back from her face. "You are. And you're welcome." He dipped his head and kissed her softly. Then he pulled back and nodded to the sandwich. "Eat."

"Yes, Dr. McCoy." She stuck her tongue out at him before taking another bite.

It was quiet, peaceful-and of course, it didn't last.

Mason didn't even bother to knock, just used his key and came inside, coming to a halt as he saw Jake and her sitting at the island eating their meal. "You look like you're feeling better," he said, smiling.

His blue eyes roamed over her body, hot and full of promises.

But for some reason, she didn't feel any answering heat swell inside her. She was done, she realized. With Mason. How much of it had to do with the baby and how much of it was just her, she really didn't know, but she was done. She finished chewing the bite in her mouth as Mason crossed the floor. She didn't say anything right away. She took a drink of her sweet tea and tried to figure out just what she should say.

How did a woman go about telling one of her lovers that she wasn't all that interested in him anymore?

"Hi, Mason. I didn't know you were coming over tonight. I thought the fair a.s.signment was keeping you busy the next few days." She'd hoped it would, at least. She already knew that dealing with Mason when he wasn't happy was a pain in the a.s.s, and she had a feeling getting dumped wasn't going to make him any fun.

He shrugged. "Headed out early. Covered the horse show bit and I'll be back tomorrow, hitting the midway, but it's too d.a.m.n hot to spend the entire night out there. Went home, caught a shower..." He moved closer, coming to stand behind her. Covering her hips with his hands, he nudged her b.u.t.t with his c.o.c.k and whispered, "If I'm going to spend the night all hot and sweaty, I'd rather get that way by f.u.c.king your a.s.s than watching a bunch of teenagers on the midway."

She swallowed and lifted her eyes, staring at Jake across the table. He was quiet, waiting for her, but she knew if she wanted him to, he'd step in. There had been times when he had run interference between her and Mason, but this time, she couldn't make him do it. She wasn't just brus.h.i.+ng Mason off for the night. She was done.

"If hot and sweaty is what you want, you should probably head back to the fair then, Mason."

The sandwich she'd eaten lay in her stomach like a stone as she slid off the stool and turned to face him. She smoothed the oversized T-s.h.i.+rt down her thighs and wished she'd put on a pair of pants. It didn't matter that she'd spent hours naked in front of this man, or on top of him, or kneeling before him while he mounted her. It made it seem that much more awkward to do this while wearing next to nothing.

He blinked and then squinted at her, as though he hadn't quite understood her. "What, you still not feeling good?" He smirked and reached out, tugging on the hem of the T-s.h.i.+rt she wore. "Or has my good buddy Jake gone and wore you out already? He's getting bad about sharing his toys, Dana. Here I thought we'd gone and done a good job teaching him about sharing."

She stepped aside and he let go of her s.h.i.+rt. "I'm not a toy," she said, shaking her head. Yeah, she loved to play, loved the hot, wicked games she'd played with these two men, but games weren't going to keep her occupied forever.

Mason was quiet-too quiet.

Unable to remain still, she started to pace the open floor of the kitchen and dining area in aimless circles. Jake reached out as she pa.s.sed by him, caught her wrist. She smiled at him, leaned in and kissed him, then pulled away, resuming her pacing.

Mason watched, his eyes dark and unreadable. "So what's the deal, Dana?" he asked, circling around the kitchen island and dropping into a seat at the dining room table. A few feet away from the island, situated by the back doors that opened onto the patio, he slouched in the chair and stared at her.

Licking her lips, she glanced away from him. Something caught her eye and she found herself staring at the pregnancy test. Exactly where Jake had placed it a few hours earlier.

Mason followed her gaze.

A muscle jerked in his jaw as he picked it up and stared at it. His lashes s.h.i.+elded his gaze from her as he asked sharply, "What in the h.e.l.l is this?"

"It's a pregnancy test."

He dropped it as though it had scalded him. "You think you're pregnant?"

Dana shook her head. "No. I know I'm pregnant. But you-"

"You know-f.u.c.k. d.a.m.n it, Dana, I don't f.u.c.king want to be a father." His eyes narrowed, his gaze cutting towards Jake. "You got any idea which one of us is the father? h.e.l.l, it's probably him anyway. Be better for us all if it was-yeah, it's gotta be him. Can't knock a girl up with a.n.a.l."

"Mason-"

Shaking his head, he shoved back from the table, sending the chair flying to the floor with a clatter. He didn't seem to notice as he started to stalk across the floor, pacing just like she had done, but where her pacing came from nerves and restless energy, his seemed to come from anger. "I don't f.u.c.king believe this-look, I don't want to be a dad. I know this is bad timing and everything, and maybe we should have talked about this before. You're a f.u.c.king nurse, though. You know the risks..."

"Mason, you're not-"

He cut her off again. "Look, I know it takes-"

Jake slid from his chair and moved to stand in front of Mason. "If you'd shut your d.a.m.n mouth for a minute, you could probably save all of us the headache of your whining."

Mason snarled at him. "Whining? I get this dumped on me and because I'm not dancing, I'm whining? I'm not father material."

Dana snorted. "That much is obvious, and thank G.o.d, you are not the father." She glared at him, trying to decide if she was relieved or p.i.s.sed off. Giving him the brush-off wasn't going to be necessary, that much was clear.

Mason gaped. "I'm not? You're sure? Wait, how can you..."

Rolling her eyes, Dana said, "A couple of reasons-namely, you're right, you can't get pregnant with a.n.a.l s.e.x and you're usually more interested in me giving you a blow or in b.u.t.t-f.u.c.king than regular old intercourse. And because last month, the condom Jake used broke." Her voice broke off and she stopped, glanced at Jake standing next to her. Unbidden, a smile came to her lips and she leaned into him. "And I just know."

Mason's gaze slid back and forth between them. "The rubber broke? s.h.i.+t, lousy luck for you."

Dana flinched, those words slicing at something deep inside her.

Jake reached up, cupped his hand over the back of her neck. He stood there, a silent, strong source of comfort. He kissed her temple and then looked at Mason. "Lousy? Not so much. You know what, it doesn't matter if you whine or not, you're giving me a headache. Why don't you just get the h.e.l.l out of here?"

Glancing between the two of them, Mason scowled. "Look, I'm sorry, Dana. I get you're probably happy about...it, and all, being a woman and all. It's just daddy-hood isn't for me."

Her voice brittle, she snapped, "So being a woman automatically means I want a baby, but being male automatically means you can't want a child? Mason, your head is permanently stuck in your a.s.s, isn't it?"

"Look, don't go turning this around on me, like I'm some kind of b.a.s.t.a.r.d for not being thrilled that you're pregnant."

Dana narrowed her eyes. "I don't give a d.a.m.n if you're thrilled or not. It isn't your baby...now why don't you get the h.e.l.l out? And leave my key-I don't want you here again."

Mason did just that, hurling her key onto the table with a force that sent it skidding across the glossy oak surface. Without another word, he stormed outside, shutting the door behind him so hard some of the pictures on the wall rattled.

Dana huffed out a sigh. "Well. That was fun."

Jake was quiet for a minute and then he pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged jerkily. "I don't know. I didn't exactly expect him to jump for joy." She sighed, deflating. Letting her body sink back against Jake's, she added, "I just...I don't know, I didn't expect him to act like I did this just inconvenience him or cause him problems."

Jake was quiet. Quiet so long that the air in the room seemed to chill and weigh down on her. "If I ask you something, will you give me an honest answer? I need the answer, no matter what it is."

"I wouldn't lie to you, Jake."

"I never thought you would-but you have been known to hedge a time or two. I need an answer."

Licking her lips, Dana stared at him and tried to read something in his inscrutable eyes. "Why don't you just ask the question?"

"Do you love him?"

She blinked. Then squinted. "Mason?"

"Unless there's some third guy around here that you haven't introduced me to."

"No." She shook her head. "I don't love Mason. h.e.l.l, if I ever did, that lovely display he showed just now would have been enough to cure me." She shrugged, feeling awkward standing there in his arms and trying to explain her feelings for the man she'd spent the past year with.

"Mason's fun. He made me laugh. He's all about fun, living and doing everything to the fullest. But somebody who lives for the moment isn't exactly the ideal man to plan your life around. I don't want to fall in love with somebody who has no worries beyond the minute, who's likely to spend half his paycheck on a new suit. I knew from the get-go that Mason wasn't the kind of man I wanted to fall in love with. I like him-although that might be past tense. But I'm torn up about this."

"What if he was the dad?"

Snorting, she muttered, "Then I'd have a h.e.l.l of a hard road in front of me." She remembered what Mason had said just a few minutes earlier. s.h.i.+t, lousy luck for you.

Biting her lower lip, she shot him a nervous look from under her lashes. "Are you... Look, I don't want to do this alone, not if I don't have to. I want this baby to have a mother and a father-but I don't want you doing it unless it's what you want."

Jake didn't say a word. He just cupped her chin in his hand and lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was soft, gentle...as much a promise as anything else. It ended too soon, Jake lifting his head to stare into her eyes. Gazes locked, he sank to his knees in front of her and caught her s.h.i.+rt, pus.h.i.+ng it upward and baring her belly. Then, again, he kissed her, soft and slow, his lips skimming across the flat planes, his tongue circling her navel.

With a shaky sigh, she brought her hands up and laced her fingers behind his neck.

"You'd have to chase me away, Dana. I'm exactly where I want to be."

Chapter Four.

She came awake slowly. Sluggishly. Her back was killing her, thanks to the hour she'd spent chasing after a five-year-old at the office the previous day. An expectant mom had come in early for her weekly check up thanks to some strong back pains-ended up being labor pains, but it had taken them nearly an hour to talk the mom into going to the hospital.

Her husband was out of town and she had her hands full dealing with her five-year-old. If determination alone could stop labor, it would have happened then. While the doctors talked to the mom, Dana had been dealing with the deceptively cherubic-looking child. The excitement was probably partly to blame-all big blue eyes and blonde curls and rosy cheeks, the girl would go from sweetness and suns.h.i.+ne to pure mischief and mayhem in the blink of an eye.

Normally chasing after a kid wasn't going to affect Dana one way or the other, but as tired as she was, her body adjusting to its second month of pregnancy, watching over the little girl had almost done her in.

A hand came up, rubbed the tight muscles at the base of her neck. "Rough night?" Jake asked, his voice soft and drowsy.

"Back's bothering me." She turned her face into the pillow and sighed with pleasure as his fingers dug into the tense muscles. Like he had magic in his hands, the pain faded away, as if it had never existed. "Is it Friday yet?"

Jake chucked. "Two more days." The bed s.h.i.+fted under his weight as he came to his knees and then straddled her hips, careful to keep his weight off her body. "You're a mess of knots back here."

"Had to help corral a five-year-old girl yesterday. Dad's out of town, mom went into early labor and the girl was a bit excited. While the doctor was convincing mom she needed to go to the hospital, I was busy convincing the little girl she couldn't swing from the rafters, chasing her around and letting her use me as a jungle gym."

"You don't need to be doing that. You..."

She craned her neck around and grinned at him as his voice faded away.

He laughed. "You already know what you're supposed and not supposed to do."

She shrugged and then groaned as his thumbs dug into a knot of muscle just to the right, half-way down her back. "Don't worry. I wasn't spinning her around, jumping on trampolines to keep her occupied. Man, she was a handful. Cute little thing, though. Had these blue eyes and these blonde curls like you wouldn't believe."

"Come on...you can do it! One more rep!"

Under her breath, Dana muttered, "If that woman says it one more time, I'm gonna strangle her." But dutifully, she curled her biceps and sweated through another rep-then another as the perky instructor told them to give it all you got.

"Don't you just hate her?" Cissy asked, keeping her voice low as they s.h.i.+fted position and went to work on the triceps.

"Fervently. Blindly." Sweat dripped into her eyes, trickled down her neck, dampening her flesh enough so that when the fan rotated her way, it was a sweet, cool relief-just too d.a.m.n temporary. She lived for those five seconds and wondered if she'd be allowed to tote her own fan in. She just might be able to make through these d.a.m.n cla.s.ses without developing a heavy hate-on for the instructor.

"Okay, guys...take two minutes. Keep moving!"

With a huge sigh, Dana dropped to the floor and drew her legs to her chest.

Cissy laughed and poked Dana in the hip with her foot. "Hey, didn't you hear her? Keep moving!"

"I am moving. I'm breathing, which is making my chest rise and fall. That's movement." Groaning, she flopped back onto the hardwood floor and stared up at the mirrored ceiling. "d.a.m.n it, I hate this cla.s.s...why do I keep coming with you?"

Cissy shrugged. "I dunno. You've been asking me that since we started and it's been...how long?"

"Three miserable years." She sighed and made herself sit, then stand.

Twenty more minutes. She could do twenty minutes.

She rotated her neck and shoulders as she headed for her gear stowed in a cubby by the door. Her water bottle was still cold and she guzzled down half of it without pause. Better...another drink. She pressed the bottle to her forehead.

"Okay, guys...let's go!"

b.i.t.c.h, Dana thought. Bending over, she stowed the bottle. But as she straightened, something caught her eye. A familiar form- Mason.

Standing on the other side of the gla.s.s wall, staring at her. He lifted a hand, gave her a hesitant smile.

Turning away, she fell back into line.

The rest of the cla.s.s pa.s.sed quicker than she would have liked. She was acutely aware of her ex-lover, standing only yards away and staring at her with a serious intensity that was completely out of character for him.

Mason didn't do intense.

Jake did intense.

Mason was all about fun, games and keeping it light and loose-too light and loose for him to even listen as she tried to explain about the baby. She didn't regret his absence in her life. But she couldn't help but wonder how things would have turned out if the situation hadn't been as clear cut-or if he'd been the one she was with that one time the condom broke. He would have walked, she knew it, and she would have had to face the fact that she wasn't just going to be having a baby, but she'd be having the baby alone.

Looking back now, Dana wondered how she could have spent nearly a year with him.

Cla.s.s ended and Dana dreaded gathering up her gear and heading out of the cla.s.sroom. Mason was still out there loitering and she had no doubt in her mind why. He was there looking for her.

"You okay?"

Distracted, Dana looked at Cissy. "Huh?"

Cissy c.o.c.ked a brow. "I asked if you were okay. You haven't once threatened to strangle or smack Aerobics Cla.s.s Barbie."