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fifty-five

Cole

“Harder, Daddy!” Rory screams, pinned between me and the wall.

“Anything you want, baby girl,” I coo as I thrust into her again. “My wife always gets whatever she wants.”

She digs her heels deeper into my backside to give herself some support.

Rory decided to taunt me when we woke up this morning, saying that she didn’t think I’d be able to take her against the wall like this with her legs wrapped around my hips.

She knew I could; she just wanted me to fuck her.

But I’m nothing if not prideful, so I felt the need to show her what I’m capable of.

“You’re so deep,” she moans. “Are you going to come deep inside me, too?”

I take her bottom lip between my teeth, pulling a soft sigh out of her. “I’m going to come so deep inside you, baby girl. Because I know what you want. You want me to fill this pussy up with my seed, give you my child. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Yes!” Rory cries, head thrown back in pure pleasure. “Fill me up, Daddy. I want it all. I want your baby.”

Rory has really been leaning into this whole fantasy of me getting her pregnant, and I have no complaints. Just the idea of her carrying my child lights me up, and I’m needier for her than ever before. Right now, it’s all just practice until we’re actually ready, and I can’t fucking wait for the day that we get to do this intentionally.

“Daddy will give you a baby. You’ll look so pretty carrying my child, and everyone will see that your husband knows exactly how to take care of this needy cunt. You want everyone to see that, don’t you, baby girl?”

“Yes,” she murmurs against my lips. “Let them see who fucks me. Let them see who I belong to .”

I groan as I start thrusting quicker. “And you belong to Daddy.”

“Mhmm,” she says frantically. “Please fill me with your cum, Daddy.”

I hit her in her favorite spot, and Rory’s pussy squeezes me tight. I hardly last a moment longer before I’m spilling everything I have inside her, my cum dripping out of her as I pull out and set her on the ground.

“Are you satisfied now that I can fuck you against the wall?” I smirk.

Rory bites her lip in response. “Very, very satisfied.” She gasps when she feels me slip my hand between her thighs and press two fingers inside. “Oh!”

“Putting my cum back where it belongs,” I mutter, lips brushing over hers. “If you want a baby, you need to keep it inside you.”

She lets out a soft moan before kissing me hard, her tongue swiping against mine before we separate and catch our breath.

Rory leads me into the shower, where I help her clean up before we finally get dressed. She throws on her favorite shirt to steal from me and a pair of leggings, and I pull on a T-shirt and joggers—gray since she loves that so much.

We lean back against the headboard of the bed now, just spending time together before I have practice and then the press conference with her dad.

“Are you excited to get back on the field today?” she asks, gazing up at me from my shoulder as her fingers trace up my chest.

“Can’t fucking wait,” I smile. “I have my girl, and I get to keep the career I love so much. Everything is pretty much perfect right now.”

She smiles sweetly, and I just bask in the moment.

Until my phone starts ringing.

I sigh, reaching to the nightstand to grab it before saying, “Oh shit…”

“Is everything okay?” she asks, worry lacing her tone.

“Yeah,” I reply. “But my parents are FaceTiming me right now. I never told them what happened, so they’re definitely calling to ask about the whole restricted list thing.”

“I’ll scoot over then so they can’t see me.”

I kiss her quickly before she moves over, and I answer my parent’s call.

The faces of my worried parents fill the screen. “Cole!” my mom shrieks. “What’s going on? Why are you on the restricted list?!”

My dad pipes in now. “What your mother meant to say was, ‘Hi, Cole. How are you? Also, why are you on the restricted list?’”

I give a hearty chuckle. “It’s a really long story, honestly…”

“We have time.” My mom crosses her arms.

“Well,” I sigh, “it starts with me admitting that I’ve been seeing someone since right before Christmas…”

“What?!” my mom yells as my dad winces from her volume.

“Vivian,” he says. “He can hear you just fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were seeing someone?!”

“It was a… secret thing. We kept it secret from most people, but Skip found out about it Friday night.”

“Why does he care about your dating life?” my dad questions.

“Oh, you’ll see,” I laugh lightly. “But before I tell you who she is, I should probably also tell you that we got… married.”

“What?!” my mom shrieks even louder as I show off my wedding band. “I’m not happy to find out that not only has my son been seeing someone without telling us, but he’s apparently also married now. But before we get into that further, this doesn’t make sense.”

“She’s right,” my dad agrees. “None of this explains why you ended up on the restricted list.”

I sheepishly rub the back of my neck. “You’ll understand as soon as you meet my wife.” I take a deep breath and look over at Rory. “Ready to talk to your in-laws?”

She just smiles before slowly sliding in next to me, joining me on the phone screen. “Hey, Viv. Hey, James.”

“Rory!” they both shout in unison.

I throw my arm around her shoulder and look into her eyes. “Yeah… Rory is my wife.”

“That explains why Paul lost his mind then,” my dad says.

“Yeah,” Rory sighs. “Friday night was bad, but my dad talked to us last night. He knows he overreacted, and we’ve cleared all the air between us. He’s actually pretty excited to have Cole as his son-in-law.”

“I can’t believe Rory is my daughter-in-law,” my mom says happily. “We’ve always loved Rory.”

“I love her, too,” I smile before kissing her temple. “I’ll be back on the field tonight, though. Paul and I are going to do a press conference before the game to address everything.”

“What is it with my kids not telling me about their relationships?” My mom shakes her head. “We had to find out about Harlow and Knox from the tabloids. And now you’re married when we didn’t even know you had a girlfriend!”

“Sorry,” I admit. “I didn’t really want to keep it from you. We just couldn’t have too many people know because we were afraid of what would happen if it got back to her dad. Skip was always very clear that none of us were to go near his daughter.”

“Yes, but I’m irresistible,” Rory teases, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

That pulls a genuine laugh from me, and I give her a soft kiss as I hear my mom aww from the other end of the video call. “Very irresistible, even if I did resist you for almost four years.”

“Well,” my dad says, pulling our attention back to the screen. “It seems to me like congratulations are in order.”

“Yes!” my mom agrees. “We’re so happy to see you two together. How does Harlow feel?”

“She’s been our biggest supporter,” my wife says, laying her head on my shoulder.

“Plus,” I smirk, “she’s dating my best friend. She can’t really say anything about me marrying hers.”

“Oh, I just love this! Tell us everything! I want to hear all about the night you got married.”

“Is everything ready to go?” Tim asks.

Tim Bartosz is my agent, and he was none too pleased when he heard what happened. He flew out to Vegas this morning, and Paul and I smoothed everything over with him. He’s calmer now, but I’ve got a feeling he’ll be using this as fodder to get me a better contract extension in the offseason.

Paul peers out into the media room of the Raptors’ stadium to confirm that everything is set up. “Yeah, everything looks good.” He takes a deep breath. “Ready, Pierce?”

“Ready,” I say nervously.

I’m not nervous about being out in the open with Rory. I am worried about how all of this is going to reflect on my father-in-law. It was far from his finest moment, but I don’t want to see his legacy ruined over this.

I’m also nervous because I like my privacy. Sure, I haven’t had as much of that as I used to since Knox and my sister announced their relationship last spring, but I still had some. Now, I’m married to the daughter of a hall-of-fame player and one of the best managers in the league. Any shred of privacy I still had left is now completely gone.

But Rory is worth every bit of increased fame that will come from this.

I spread my palms out over my jersey, ensuring any wrinkles are gone from my uniform, and then Paul and I walk out toward the waiting audience.

We take our seats at the front of the room, sitting at a table with two microphones. I scan the crowd and find my wife hanging out on the back wall, and my breathing steadies. I can’t help but be calm when I see the woman I love smiling at me.

I do keep my left hand under the table for the moment, though, so we don’t create speculation before we can even announce it.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming today,” Paul says, starting us off. “I know you all have a lot of questions, but Cole and I would like to give the full story before we answer any of those.”

Since Paul and I went over everything earlier this afternoon, I know it’s my time to keep the conversation moving. “We want to start by saying that, as you can see, I’m in my uniform right now, so yes, I will be back on the field today. I’m no longer on the restricted list.”

“Placing Cole on the restricted list was a mistake,” Paul sighs. “I don’t mean that he was placed there in error—it was intentional. But it’s something I never should have done. I’m a stubborn old man, though, and a bit overprotective when it comes to my family. See, I have a daughter, Rory—many of you probably know who she is. She’s hanging out on the back wall right now, but she might have my head if I point her out.” The audience laughs lightly, and some of the tension is removed. “One thing I always stressed to my players was to stay away from Rory. I didn’t want her tangled up with a baseball player, but I also didn’t want to mix my personal and professional lives. But life doesn’t always work out how you want.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I chuckle. “But in my defense, I did try.”

Paul sighs and shakes his head. “I’m sure you can guess where this is heading at this point. Friday night, I found out that Cole had been seeing my daughter, and I had an awful reaction. I’ll take the fine for swearing here, but I was a jackass, and I treated him terribly.”

“I want to make it clear, though,” I say, taking the attention off him, “that Paul came to talk to us last night, and he apologized.”

“I’m still Skip when you’re in uniform, Cole,” he laughs.

“Anyway,” I smile, “he gave us his reasoning and gave a better explanation for why he reacted the way he did. We had a long discussion, and I don’t hold anything against him. It obviously isn’t how Rory and I wanted everything to happen, but we’ve accepted it, and we’re ready to move forward without hiding.”

“I do want to make sure I apologize,” Paul says now. “Not just to Rory and Cole but to the team, the Stars organization, and all of our fans. I let my anger get the better of me and let everyone down in the process. I’m ashamed of acting the way I did, but I can promise all of you that it won’t happen again going forward. My emotions are mine alone, and I won’t let them impact any part of the team again.”

“Which is great,” I say lightly, “because things really have changed, haven’t they?”

Paul rolls his eyes and huffs out a laugh. “I guess that’s one way to say it. Cole isn’t just one of my players now.”

I finally bring my left hand up from under the table, letting the gold of my wedding ring catch the fluorescent lights overhead. “Nope, I’m his son-in-law, too.” I see Rory biting down the biggest smile, and my heart swells. “Rory and I actually got married over the weekend, so Paul here will be seeing a lot of me going forward.”

“Skip,” he says, leveling me with a look before he shakes his head and laughs. “I know my reaction would tell you differently, but Cole is a great guy, and he makes my daughter happy. That’s all a father could ever really want. I’m proud to be able to call him my son-in-law.”

“Aww, Paul…” I say, holding my hand to my heart.

“Skip.” His voice is more stern this time, but there’s no actual bite to his tone. “Let’s open this up to questions now.”

I know I only missed one game, but it feels so great to be back on the field tonight.

“You ready, Pierce?” Ari asks, slapping a hand to my back as we head out for warmups.

“Yeah. This is going to be a great fucking game.”

Knox pops up in front of us, jogging backward as he faces us. “You’ve got me on the mound again. Of course, it’s going to be a great game.”

“Where the fuck did this ego come from?” Josh asks, joining us, and Lane follows behind.

“I’m pretty sure it was always there,” Lane says. “He was just too grumpy to show it before.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he mutters, shaking his head. “I’ll never shake that goddamn reputation.”

“Nope,” I say, playfully shoving his shoulder. “Fort Knox is forever, man. You’re stuck with it.”

Ari scans the crowd before leaning closer to me. “I just found Mrs. Pierce,” he says, pointing to where my wife sits on the third baseline with Sage, my sister, and Ella.

I don’t even hesitate before I jog across the field, heading right to her.

“Aww, look!” Harlow says happily. “My brother is coming over to say hi to me before his game.”

I can’t help but laugh at her sarcasm. “Love you, Lo, but I’m here for my wife right now.”

Ella grabs Sage so Rory can meet me at the railing.

“Good to see you back on the field, Sparrow,” she smiles.

“Good to be back on the field. Ready to show off for you tonight.”

Rory laughs and drapes her arms around my shoulders. “You don’t need to show off, Cole. You’ve already got me.” She holds up her hand, showing off the gold on her finger. “Forever.”

“Forever, baby,” I smile before bringing her in for a kiss. “But I still think I can hit a home run for you tonight.”

“If you hit one for me,” she says, bringing her lips to my ear and speaking softly. “I’ll make sure you’re rewarded well when we get back to the hotel.”

I groan and try to subtly adjust myself. “Rory,” I say sternly. “You can not say shit like that to me when I’m in my uniform. I can’t hide my dick in baseball pants.”

“You don’t want everyone to see how hard you get for your wife?”

“I’d rather my wife be the only one who knows how hard I get for her.”

Rory breathes out a laugh, and I think back to the first time I heard that sound. Back to that first day we met after I got traded to New York, and she laughed at what I said as she led me to her dad’s office.

The sound has just gotten more enchanting over time.

“Get back to your team, Cole. You need to get ready for the game, and I want to watch those baseball pants hug your ass as you walk away.”

I can’t hold back my laughter as I wrap my arms around her and kiss her sweetly. “God, I love you, Mrs. Pierce.”

“I love you, too, Mr. Pierce.”

For a moment, I just look at her, so caught up in this moment.

She is everything, and I can’t believe how lucky I am that she said yes to being mine.

Forever.