ROMANCE: BAD BOY ROMANCE: Basketball Daddy (BWWM Alpha Male Billionaire Pregnancy Romance) (African American Unexpected Pregnant Contemporary Romance) (142 page)

Clayton gripped the steering wheel of his Aston Martin so hard that his fingers were starting to go numb. He couldn’t understand what was happening. It was too early for him to start transitioning. He ran through the entire night in his head, searching for the warning signs that he may have missed. There was nothing. No reason for the change to have started so soon.

But there was that kiss.
He shook his head.
No, it couldn’t have been the kiss. I’ve been with girls right up to the day of transition and this has never happened.

His heart ached in his chest. He wanted so badly to go back and get Melissa. To wrap his arms around her and tell her he was sorry and that he was willing to spend the rest of his life trying to make it up to her. But it was too late.

There is no way she will take me back now. The day in the restaurant was bad enough but this was top-notch asshole.
He slammed his hand hard against the dash. He needed to get home. Now.

His whole body had started to ache and burn. His gums were on fire and his breaths were borderline hyperventilating. He had to make it home. Even through all the pain of his transition, all he could think about was Melissa standing alone in the woods. He had tried to get her back to the car but, even if he had, it wouldn’t have been safe for her.

She is safer where I left her. Away from me.
He racked his brain trying to figure out why her kiss had triggered the change, but he couldn’t understand it. He let out a blood-curdling scream as his ribs snapped under the pressure to expand with his growing organs. Then it hit him.

I’m in love with her. That’s why she triggered the curse.
At this realization his transformation went into overdrive, forcing him to pull his car to the side of the road.

Clayton ran at full speed toward the bush line in the distance. It was only two hundred yards away, but he wasn’t sure if he could make it. He hadn’t taken the proper steps to prepare for his transformation. For all he knew the pain of the transformation could drive him mad. Like it did his father. He forced the thoughts from his mind and focused on reaching the bush. He was nearly there when his knees buckled under him, propelling him into the dirt. He tried to get up but the bones in his legs had already started to shift. His eyes burned a bright yellow as he stared toward the trees. He started to crawl on his stomach toward them. The sharp stones and gravel scraped his forearms. His eyes had settled into their new form, allowing him to see through the dark ahead of him. He finally reached the bush and crawled a few yards deeper, just to make sure he was out of sight. Then he collapsed, letting the pain consume him. His last thought before everything went black had surprised him.

I love her.
Then his world went black.

When Clayton awoke he had completed his transformation. He was hungry. He looked around him, sniffing the air. He should be able to make it home through these woods but he would have to find something to eat on the way. He could feel his human mind starting to fade. It wouldn’t take long before the animal instincts would consume him completely and he wouldn’t be able to control what he did. Luckily he was only in the first stage of his shift, which meant that he would be back to his own self at dawn. Then he would have to get ready for the winter. Normally he would have had at least one more month to get everything ready. But his body had reacted to Melissa in the worst way.

***

Clayton woke up the next morning naked in the woods outside his house. He slowly stood up and brushed the dirt from his body before heading inside to take a shower. He stood under the stream of hot water, letting the water soak into his sore muscles, washing away the remnants of the woods from his skin. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. He needed to talk to Melissa. He needed to tell her what was going on. He just hoped that she would actually talk to him although he wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to speak to him again. The thought of not being able to talk to her, to be with her, made his heart ache.

Maybe it was for the best that she hated him. She didn’t deserve to deal with his baggage. No one deserved it. After what his father had done to his mother, how could he have even allowed himself to fall for anyone? He rinsed the soap from his hair and body and shut off the water. But he had fallen for her and he needed to make this right.

He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked into his bedroom. He yanked open his drawer and pulled out a spare phone. He always lost at least five of them during the early transition stages, so he always kept a couple of spares. While he waited for the phone to power up he searched for some clothes and got dressed. He winced at the stiffness in his muscles and joints as he pulled his shirt over his head. He made his way over to the dresser and picked up the phone. A wave of relief swept over him as he read that Melissa had tried calling seven times. Even if it was only to yell at him, at least she was willing to talk. He got his limo driver on the phone to take him to his car and then he would go straight to see Melissa.

Clayton sat in the back seat of the limo, vibrating with anticipation. He gripped his phone in his hand. He needed to plan out exactly what he was going to say. If by some miracle she actually answered the phone, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to say something stupid and have her hang up on him.

It wasn’t long before the limo arrived at his car, which was still parked on the side of the highway. It wasn’t until now that he realized how far from home he actually was. It was a good thing that his animal instincts knew where to take him. Otherwise, who knows where he would have ended up.

He jumped into his car and pulled up his phone on the Bluetooth. He started up the car and gave the car a voice command to call Melissa as he pulled onto the highway. The line rang and rang until her voicemail picked up the call. He left a message that he wanted to talk to her, that he had something he needed to explain about what happened last night. He had called back another four times before he had reached the city.

He stopped at a store on his way to Melissa’s home. He hoped that a present might ease his way into her home or at the very least give her something to take her frustrations out on. He let out a small chuckle as he stared at the small stuffed bear in his hands. Somehow he could picture her tearing the bear limb from limb but then his laughter faded when he realized the irony of that scenario. He took the small bear to the counter and pulled out his wallet. Time to face the fury of an angry Irish woman, he smiled at his coy joke as he slid into his car.

She is going to kill me.

Melissa stood in the living room of her home and stared out into the street. She sipped on her glass of wine and snuggled deeper into her fleece housecoat. Normally she would have just brushed something like this of. They hadn’t even slept together yet and they had only had that one kiss.

Oh, that kiss.
Melissa closed her eyes and took another sip of wine, hoping that it would soothe the fire that still stained her lips where his had touched. It was just one kiss but in all the other men she had been with, she had never felt so much in one kiss.

“Taesha, I’m going to go soak in the bath,” Melissa called down the hall, then gulped back the rest of the wine in her glass as she headed to the kitchen to put her glass in the sink. She had never been much of a day drinker but today she was going to make an exception.

Melissa slipped into the washroom and started running the bath, pouring in bath salts and spa bubbles. Once she was satisfied with the temperature she went back into the kitchen to pour herself another glass.

“Hey did I hear you say you were going to have a bath?” Taesha was in the kitchen starting to whip up something to eat. She watched as Melissa downed the glass of wine she had just poured and then poured herself another.

“What?” Melissa shot Taesha a warning glare. Taesha chortled, shrugged her shoulders and pulled Melissa in for a quick hug.

“Nothing, hon. I was just going to ask if you wanted a bell to ring while you’re in the tub? You ring the bell and I show up with the wine to refill your glass.” Taesha put on a sympathetic smile and tilted her head to the side.

“Although, I gotta say, this is a little out of the ordinary for you. Usually, this is the way I handle breakups,” Taesha licked the cream cheese off her thumb and leaned against the counter. “What’s going on in your head?”

Melissa shrugged and took another sip of wine.“I don’t understand it either, to be honest. It’s not like I’ve known him long. I feel like I’ve lost something, but I don’t know what it is.” Melissa set the wine glass down. She could feel her eyes start to tear up.

“How did I get so attached so quickly? I told myself I wasn’t going to do this to myself anymore, and I was so careful,” Melissa's voice cracked and a sob erupted from her throat.

“How did this happen?” Melissa pleaded and wrapped her robe tighter around her body, hoping that it would swallow her up. Taesha sighed and pulled Melissa into a hug.

“It will be fine, you’ll see.” Taesha held her at arm’s length.

“You have to remember that it's been awhile since you dated anyone. You’re not as strong as you used to be. It will take some time but you’ll get over it, you always do.” Taesha pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and hugged her again.

“But he listened to Metallica,” Melissa whimpered into Taesha’s hair. Taesha laughed and gave her a slap on the arm.

“See, you’re healing already.” Melissa wiped the tears from her eyes and let out a small laugh before grabbing her wine glass and heading to the washroom to check on the water in the tub.

Melissa lowered herself into the water, letting it envelop her and all her agony. As she started to relax she realized that it was too quiet. Her mind had started wandering back to Clayton and last night. She quickly grabbed her phone and turned on some music. She set the phone down on the floor and waited for her playlist to load. Just as she was about to plunge herself into the sound of the music, Enter Sandman was the first song up on the playlist. Instead of turning it off she just listened. It was always going to be one of her favorite songs, no man was ever going to change that.

Melissa racked her brain for the answers to why she was thrown off by Clayton. She had no idea what she had done but this guy was beyond bipolar. One minute he was all sweet and romantic and just like that, like a flipped switch, he was angry and infuriating. She shook her head. She had to stop thinking about him. It was obvious that he wasn’t into her. She just had to let it go.

She closed her eyes and hummed along with the rest of Enter Sandman until she thought she heard Taesha yelling. She reached to the floor and pressed pause on her phone.

“You are not welcome here, you need to leave!” Taesha was definitely yelling at someone.

Melissa shrugged it off as one of her latest conquests and sunk back down into the tub.

“You made her cry. She never cries,” Taesha was saying. It was him. Melissa’s eyebrows knit together. She sat up in the water and closed her eyes, trying to listen in.

“I don’t care what excuses you could have possibly come up with. I’m not letting you talk to her. You’ve done enough.”

Melissa pulled herself out of the tub and grabbed her housecoat.

“I said you can’t go in there, what’s wrong with you?” Melissa barely got the robe wrapped around her waist when the bathroom door flew open.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Melissa fumbled with the robe tie.

“I need to talk to you.” Clayton shot Taesha a furious glare. Melissa pushed past them both.

“Well, I don’t want to talk to you.” She started walking toward her bedroom.

“Even if I did want to talk to you, I’m sure you could have waited until I had some clothes on.” Melissa tried to shut the door behind her but Clayton blocked it and walked in after her. He rushed to her and grabbed her hand.

“Please.” He stared into her eyes. Melissa looked up at Taesha and gave her a nod. Taesha gave Clayton the I’m-watching-you signal and backed out of the room, closing the door.

“What do you want?” Melissa crossed her arms and pulled every ounce of strength she had out of her body just to keep from falling to the floor and crying like a tantric toddler.

“I need to explain what is going on with me.” Clayton took her hands and sat her down on the edge of her bed, kneeling in front of her.

“I just have one question first, before I start telling you things that I’ve never told anyone else.” Clayton gently caressed her knuckles with his thumbs.

“How do you feel about me? Am I worth listening to after everything that I’ve done to hurt you?”

Melissa sighed and pulled her hands from his.“That’s two questions. And can I please go put some clothes on for this conversation?

Clayton gave her an odd look before moving out of her way. She disappeared into her closet and reappeared wearing a tank top and a pair of sweats. Clayton was getting up.

“No stay sitting. Please. If I am going to answer your questions, I can’t have you anywhere near me.” Melissa cleared her throat and turned her back to him.

“I am also going to turn around so that I’m not distracted.” She could almost hear his smile from behind her back, but she continued anyway.

“There are so many things that I feel about you, things that I just can’t explain. I have no idea how these feelings developed so quickly or why. Yes, I do have feelings for you but you broke my heart.” Melissa took a deep breath, trying to keep from crying.

“I spent all night and most of today thinking about why I felt so empty. I didn’t want to admit the obvious, mostly because I didn’t believe it could have happened in such a short period of time.” Melissa started to pace the room as Clayton sat quietly on her bed, watching her as if at any moment she could jump from the window and escape.

“I finally convinced myself that the reason I felt so empty was your fault. You made me feel like I was a piece of trash that you throw out on garbage day, like a used napkin at a restaurant.” Clayton opened his mouth to speak but Melissa brought up her hand and his mouth snapped shut.

“I felt empty because I started thinking that I wasn’t good enough. That someone as amazing as you couldn’t possibly love someone like me.” She stopped pacing the room and turned to face him.

“But then I realized that wasn’t it at all. I was empty and hurting because I’m in love with you.” She stopped and sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. She could feel her cheeks turning red as he stared at her.

“I love you too,” Clayton whispered as he stroked her hair. Melissa looked up at him, tears had started to form in her eyes once again but they never had a chance to fall. Clayton softly kissed the tears from her eyes and moved down to her mouth.

Carefully he took her bottom lip into his mouth and gave a short suck on it. He moved his large hand to the nape of her neck, pulling her upward. His kisses grew hot and passionate. Melissa gripped his shirt with both hands as she matched the heat in his kiss. In one swift movement, Clayton lifted her onto his lap so she was straddling him. Melissa could feel the massive bulge in his pants. She slowly started moving her hips in slow tantalizing circles against it. She only grew wetter as he growled into her mouth. She reached down to the bottom of his shirt, placing her hands on his skin, where she tormented him as she moved her hands upward, taking his shirt with them. She pulled the shirt over his head and hungrily took his mouth again. Melissa let out a lamented sigh as he massaged her neck with his tongue and lips. She arched her back as he made his way down her collarbone and to her chest. Next thing she knew, he had taken her tank top and tore it in half, pulling it from her over sensitive skin. She let out a small whimper as she looked at the pieces.

Clayton laughed into her neck, then whispered in her ear, “I’ll buy you a new one.”

Then he stood up from the bed and flipped her on her back. She watched him look down at her topless body, biting his lip as he struggled to pull his jeans over the anxious swell in his briefs. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of her sweatpants and pulled them slowly down her thick thighs. She watched his eyes relish her skin as he revealed it. She peeled herself from the bed, sitting eye level with his pulsating shaft and kept her eyes on him as she greedily took him into her mouth. She watched his eyes darken as he mimicked the shape of her mouth, letting the ecstasy escape from his lips.

When Melissa backed up for some air, he grabbed her and flipped her around on the bed so her head was still toward him, giving her access to his ready cock. She took him back into her mouth and as she did, he lowered himself over her, supporting his weight with his arms. He spread her thighs as wide as they would go and he ran his tongue over her lush center. Melissa trembled beneath the expertise of his tongue. The way he moved at her velvety center was making it very difficult for her to concentrate on pleasing him. As if taking the hint, he moved off of her, spinning her lower half to the edge of the bed. Kneeling down in front of her, he took her back into his mouth. He gently sucked on her bud as he swirled his tongue between her folds.

He jolted upward as if consumed by insanity. He hovered over the center of her arousal before slamming into her. Melissa writhed with pleasure beneath his rhythmic movements. He clenched at the bed sheets, letting out small moans each time he rammed himself into her. He grabbed the backs of her knees, forcing them backward, opening her up to him, before letting out a guttural growl, as his unrelenting thrusts grew more intense. He pummeled into her mercilessly, then with lightning speed pulled out of her, leaving her feeling empty. He flipped her over on the bed and lifted her to her knees, pushing her bottom high into the air. Melissa’s face was forced down onto the bed and she could hear his heavy breathing as he tightly gripped her plump ass. She waited for him to bury himself into her core but nothing happened. She slowly raised herself from the bed and turned to look at him. His eyes were closed and he was breathing rapidly.

Melissa positioned herself on the edge of the bed and rose up on her knees so she could reach his face. She took his chiseled jaw into her hands, coaxing him to open her eyes and look at her. His breathing started to slow but she could feel his pulse in her fingertips.

“What’s wrong? You’re not going to freak out and walk away again are you?” Melissa was teasing him but he winced as if she had struck him.

“Look at me.” She jerked his head toward her and he slowly opened his eyes. They were glowing yellow. She let out a sharp scream, then she heard a rush of footsteps and a knock on her door.

“Is everything ok in there?” Taesha’s voice pierced through her shock. Melissa looked toward the door, hesitating a moment before answering.

“Yes, everything is fine.” She looked back at Clayton’s agonized face.

“Okay, I’m heading out. I’ll make sure my ringer is on if you need me call.” She heard Taesha’s footsteps recede down the hall, then the slamming of the front door. Melissa let out a shaky breath. She took Clayton’s clenched fists and pulled him onto the bed.

“What’s going on?” Her voice was barely audible. Clayton took a deep breath, closing his eyes. When he opened them they were back to their deep chestnut brown.

“It’s what I needed to talk to you about.” He swallowed and looked up at her, taking her face in his hands.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you. It’s just not a good time of the year for me. Normally I’m fine but you trigger something in me and it dissolves my control over it.” Clayton dropped his hands from her face and took her hands into his.

“There is this curse. It runs in my father’s side of the family. I am a Shifter.” He trailed off a little.

“A wh-what?” Melissa stumbled.

“Every fall I enter transition. It’s the worst time of the year for me. I’m overly aggressive, I’m constantly hungry. Over the years, I’ve learned the warning signs that I am entering into the first stage of my transition. The first two symptoms are the aggressiveness and unquenchable hunger. But they are just the mild signs. When those surface I usually have a few weeks before the rest of the changes occur. Once the next set of symptoms come in, I usually start my preparations. I get all the supplies I need for the next few months and barricade myself in my home until Winter.”