Dangerously Yours (Titans of Chicago #3)

LULU

Summer in Chicago was the perfect time to visit the city. Besides its natural beauty in full display, there was so much for the kids to see and do. Each of my children loved something different, and it often made keeping them happy an unenviable task at times. Leslie loved being at the Navy Pier. Taking cruises on the lake... riding the Centennial Wheel... watching fireworks light up the night sky... Her sister was a true animal lover, and her go-to destinations often included one of the area zoos such as the ones in Lincoln Park and Brookfield. She also loved the aquarium, and had done more than one of the animal encounters offered. Zachary was much more outdoorsy. He loved sports, and I often found myself bringing him to games and events held by the various professional teams, and there seemed to be one for almost every sport imaginable.

It was often difficult to find a happy medium when I had all three kids with me, but one of the places they all loved was Maggie Daley Park where they would spend hours with the various activities offered. The other was shoreside at one of Lake Michigan’s many beaches. Today, Noah and his teammates were at Foster Beach, and it had been all I had heard about from Zachary.

“Can we go, Mom. Please?” He had pleaded with me until I finally said that we could. The girls were not as excited about that, but Amanda had bought a new bikini when at the mall with friends the weekend before, and Leslie loved any place where she could swim. It truly was the best of all worlds, except for mine.

Noah and I had been talking a lot over the last few weeks since the Carter’s retirement party. We had made some time for one another, and I had to admit, if only to myself, but I had fallen hard for him. It was hard not to when he was so attentive, even across the phone line, not counting in person. I normally flushed crimson and would become aroused as I thought about the sex between us both. The man had stamina for days, and I was often left sore afterward.

It was hard to have a relationship though when you had to keep it secret as if it was something bad. Cade was constantly photographed with various women, yet I was the one walking around with a scarlet letter across my chest, and for something I hadn’t even done. Yes, I was with Noah now, but that had happened after my divorce from Cade was finalized. The very thing ostracizing me now were fictitious lies spread by my ex to discredit me in the community.

He had, after all, called me a whore at that retirement party. I was sure I would never get another gig, but I did. One of Noah’s teammates was getting married next summer, and I had already started working with the bride. Their wedding wasn’t the only one, either. Gabriel Blake had proposed to Harper Grimes, and the two were getting married next March. Their wedding was already being dubbed ‘the social event of the season’ and it wasn’t for several months. It was proof that good news not only traveled fast, but that it lingered, too.

Bad news, and bad feelings, did as well. Cade and I were living proof of that.

“Are you going to stop by Foster’s Beach tomorrow? Zach’s excited about hanging out with some of the football players, and ? —”

“That quarterback of theirs broke my fucking nose. He better hope that I never see him out in public. I’ll ? —”

“If you’re just going to make a scene like you always do, then do us all a favor and stay away,” I had said before disconnecting the call. I had heard nothing else from him since.

Our children still adored their father, and it was a shame that he was so spiteful as to deny them time with him just to try to stick it to me. None of that mattered to me personally, but it did to them. As a mother, the last thing I ever wanted to see would be any of them hurting, but Cade didn’t buy into the same philosophy. I had been managing well enough on my own so far, and I would continue to do so. Nothing mattered more to me than their wellbeing, and it was something I had even discussed with my new lover.

While I had known that Noah was an only child, I had never known how badly he had wanted other siblings. I’d had a sister, so it never occurred to me that those without one often felt like their childhoods were lacking. He also loved kids, and after seeing how good he had been with Zachary that one day, I could already picture him as a father. And that was another thing. He eventually wanted to settle down and have a family, but I was already pushing forty, and I did not want to have any more children. I loved the ones I had, but after Leslie, I had sworn to stop there. What would happen when he wanted kids of his own?

“I don’t know why we’re even worrying about that now,” he had told me when the subject came up a few nights earlier.

“It has to be somewhere in the back of your mind. I could get serious about you, and if I did, a sudden need for children would end things between us.”

“You’re worrying about things that do not matter right now. I don’t have time for kids of my own at the moment. You know how busy I am with football. You’re buying trouble that’s not needed.”

And maybe he was right. I was just so fearful that if I truly allowed myself to fall for him, then I would be handing him the power to hurt me much like Cade had done. The two were completely different men, but my ex-husband had been every bit as charming when we had first started dating. He had said and done the right things, and I remember wondering what good I had done in my life to have found my prince so early on. Friends of mine would date many men over the years, but I had batted a home run on my very first try at bat.

Everything that glitters isn’t gold.

My mother used to tell me that whenever I would sit in our mountain cabin and dream of the big city with all of its glitz and glamor. My daydreams included places like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, where I had eventually decided on for college. The gallant knight had shown his true colors and that armor was tinfoil more than anything else. I had wasted so much time with him.

Could I do that with someone else?

“Look Mom. It’s Noah, Romeo, and Sammy. Can I go over and say hello?” Zachary asked me.

I looked at my son, and his excitement would’ve been contagious had I not been so distracted. “Sure.”

“I’m going to take Leslie to swim,” Amanda told me, and I smiled at her.

“Thank you, baby. I’m going to set up our things. Just please keep an eye on her.”

“I will. Stop worrying so much, Mom.” Typical teenagers.

Amanda then left with Leslie and I looked down at the small cabana. The heat in Chicago this time of year was no joke, and I tended to spend much of my beach time under the large, covered space. Since I was no stranger to this task, it took very little time to erect it. I spread two large blankets underneath, then put our belongings on the corners of each one, using them to keep the blanket from blowing away. We also had a cooler of drinks and a bag of snacks, but I didn’t want any of those right now.

I left them where they were, then spent the next couple of minutes getting my spot all set up. I had brought a romance book with me, and it would hopefully keep my mind occupied and off of the man who would put those fictional heroes to shame. I removed my sunglasses, as well as my tank top and cut-off denim shorts. I had just grabbed the sunscreen when a shadow made me jump. Turning to see who it was, I smiled.

“Hey,” I greeted Noah as he stood there grinning at me.

“Damn, seeing you in that bikini has me wishing we were alone.”

I blushed slightly. “What are you doing here?”

“I have a team thing?—”

“I know that. I just meant here with me?”

He arched a brow. “Do I need to have a reason to stop by and help a beautiful woman put on sunscreen?”

“Put on what?” I asked, then looked down to see what was in my hand. “Oh.”

He held his empty hand out, and while I had reservations about letting him help me, I still handed the bottle to him. “Hold your hair up,” he instructed. “Then turn around.”

I did as he asked, and I jumped at the coolness of the lotion. His large hands quickly warmed up the lotion though, and I nearly moaned at the feel of them on my skin. It had been a few nights since we had last had sex, and my body was greedily soaking up any attention he gave me right now. His hands weren’t the only things warm, because when he leaned in close, his heated breath swept over my skin like a caress, making me shiver.

“One of these days, I’m going to take you somewhere and not have to worry about who is around. When I do, I need it to be a warm weather place where you can tease me with a bikini like this one. Fuck, I love seeing you in red,” he told me as his breath continued to arouse me. To an innocent bystander, he simply was helping me with my sunscreen, but the way his hands would linger in certain spots, and the visions he was invoking nearly made me moan.

“Noah,” I warned, more for my benefit than his. At night when we would talk, I would often touch myself, and I was in the privacy of my own home and able to do so. At the moment, I was on one of the city’s most crowded beaches, and especially when so many star athletes were here for a community event.

“I want to take you out and show you off,” he said, causing me to turn.

“You know why we can’t do that.” Panic set in, especially since I thought we were both in agreement over this.

“There’s no reason why you can’t move on with your life, Lulu. We like and care about each other, and we should be able to tell the whole world about it like normal couples, if we so choose.”

“But we’re not a normal couple. You’re one of the most recognizable faces in sports, and a Titan. I’m?—”

“You’re scared, and I understand that. Eventually, we’re going to run out of ways to hide our affection for one another. Aren’t you tired of date nights at your place when the children are with Cade? Tired of me not being able to fuck you to sleep every night, and wake you up every morning with my tongue between your legs?”

I could vividly see that, and I squeezed my thighs together. This man and his wicked words. “Noah, we can’t?—”

“We can do anything you want us to do, but this has to be your decision. I’m willing to wait no matter how long it takes you to?—”

“Noah!” He turned and I looked past him at my son and his best friend. “This is Connor, and he doesn’t believe you were in my house that one day.”

Noah chuckled. “I gave Zachary here a few autographs. Would you like one or two of them, too? I’ll autograph the ball after throwing you a few passes.”

The ginger-haired boy nodded enthusiastically. Noah handed me back the sunscreen, winked, then trotted off with his two adoring fans. I watched the trio, and I realized how natural Noah was with kids. I continued to watch them for a few more minutes before deciding to start reading. I sat down, got settled in, and read about a dozen chapters before looking up at the sound of Leslie and Amanda’s voice.

They wanted money for the concession stand, so I dug into my purse and handed my eldest daughter my credit card. “Make sure to bring this back before you get back in the water.”

After she agreed, they disappeared, and I sighed. I looked back over to where Noah was, and him and his teammates were demonstrating different moves with the kids. They drew quite a crowd, and Zachary was very attentive to whatever it was Noah was trying to demonstrate. All of the children were excited, and I couldn’t blame them.

Growing up, I had loved eighties hair bands. I had gone with a friend to a Poison concert, and meeting the band backstage had been the highlight of that year for me. It was my sophomore year of high school, and it was when I had finally lost my braces, and my tall, lanky frame had started to fill out. It was the first time in all of my life that I had felt beautiful, but that feeling had faded away again over the last decade or so. It wasn’t until Noah took an interest in me that I felt any of that rekindled.

He was right. The more I thought about it, the sillier I felt. Cade and I were officially divorced. It wasn’t a separation, but a binding dissolution. He was out here with woman after woman, night after night, while I stayed to myself. Granted I was older now, I wasn’t dead, and I supposed that was what Noah had been trying to show me all of this time. He wanted to take me out for a night on the town, and as I stared at him, I realized that I wanted that, too.

I pulled out my cell phone, and I decided to send him a message before I lost my nerve. He would likely not see it until later, but I smiled as I pictured his reaction. There was excitement within me to finally have a real date for the first time in years.

Now, I only needed to think about what I was going to wear. I supposed that would depend on where he planned to take me. Just like that, I was acting like a nervous schoolgirl once more. It wasn’t a bad thing, and as I picked back up with my book, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome now had a face, and a name, despite what the author had written for him. The heroine did, too. The story seemed to jump off the pages as I imagined myself and Noah as the characters. I flew through the pages, and even blushed at the spicier chapters. After a while, the girls returned as did Zachary. I finally ventured out from under the canopy, and joined them in the water before leaving for the afternoon. Later, I needed to find something suitable for a date night, and it would be found on a rack at Mitchells.