The Baby Mission

1. Jett

1

Jett

“I’m telling you, women are all the same,” I say. “They just want you to believe that some of them are different…”

Mason and Alex, my two best friends, don’t even look at me as we climb the stairs leading to the roof. They’ve heard it all before, but they are listening anyway. They’re good friends.

I huff a little as we hit the sixth flight of stairs. A small gaggle of women comes down the stairwell, their high heels making a sharp clomp-clomp-clomp sound on the concrete. I’m distracted for a second by the women, with their bright smiles and miles of long legs.

I like the look of the one in the front, leading the pack. She’s a blonde in a pink minidress. She makes eye contact with me for a second, then blushes and bites her lip.

She’s looking at me too, at me and Mason and Alex. Three tall, handsome men in plaid button downs and jeans. She’s probably trying to figure out which of us is the hottest.

Alex is easily the tallest. At 6’6, he’s got a few inches on me and Mason. It made the college football scouts come knocking when he was seventeen, too.

Mason has the whole dark and brooding thing going on, especially with that nose of his that’s been broken a half dozen times. He draws women who are attracted to his angsty don’t-f**k-with-me persona.

And me? I’m pretty f*****g tall, I’ve got a good body, and I’ve got a great face. I unleash one of my dangerous smiles on the woman making eye contact with me. She stumbles a little, reaching out to grab the wall to balance herself.

Bingo, I think. It feels pretty damn gratifying.

And then they’re out of sight. We come up to a plain metal door, and even though it’s closed, I can hear the party happening on the other side. The wub-dub-dub of the bass can be heard through the door.

I push the door open, and step outside into the cool late spring night air. The party is on a rooftop, with lights strung overhead and a hundred plus people chatting and dancing below. Immediately, I’m engulfed in loud, poppy music and the big, bright colored lights that flash across the whole event.

“Jett, come on,” Mason says, touching my arm and jerking his head towards a bar set up across the way from us.

I follow Mason, threading my way through the crowd. Here and there I get glances from women, which makes me feel perversely hopeful. I don’t necessarily want their attention right now, but I might want it later. Once I get a few beers inside me, I may be able to forget about Emily and focus on what my body needs.

At the thought of Emily, I frown. Emily is exactly my type: blonde hair, honey-brown eyes, and she has a dancer’s lithe frame. Emily is also the f*****g b***h that ripped out my heart and stomped on it.

So there’s that.

Mason spots an ice bucket filled to the brim with beer, and all three of us grab one. It’s a Miller High Life, nothing fancy. I twist off the top and take a sip, feel the cool slide of the beer in my throat.

Alex leads the way to an unoccupied spot along the wall, and we stand and look out at the party.

“What’s this party for, again?” Mason asks.

“It’s thrown by my manager,” Alex says with a shrug. “Something about the rites of spring.”

“You guys are still hunting for another NFL team?” I ask Alex.

“Yep. I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel.”

“You should be, after that nasty hit you took last year,” Mason says. “I was watching the game when those three guys took you down.”

Alex shifts, and it’s clear from his body language that he doesn’t want to talk about it. I used to be someone in baseball, so I get where he’s coming from.

“Hey, did I tell you that the guys from my office have made up these fake draft card things? Here, let me get one out…” I say, pulling a card from my wallet. “They’re supposed to look like baseball cards, but they’re for the sports agents at Sampson .”

“That’s not a bad picture of you,” Mason says. Plucking the card from my fingers, he holds it up beside my head and squints. “You could really get some good p***y with this, you know.”

“Not bad,” Alex says, sipping his beer.

“Emily says it’s a bad picture of me,” I say, grabbing the card from him and putting it back in my wallet.

“Oh my god. Well if Emily says it, then it must be true!” Mason says, rolling his eyes. “I am so sick of hearing her name. She dumped you for some stupid reasons, so let’s just move on.”

“It’s not that easy,” I protest, but even to me it sounds weak.

“It’s been a month, man,” Alex says, clapping me on the back. “She’s probably f*****g someone new. You should take your cue from her.”

“Whatever,” I say.

“Seriously, stop whining and get some action. Just look around this party. There are sexy women everywhere you look,” Mason says.

I take minute to assess, and find that Mason isn’t wrong. There are tons of girls at this party, dancing together or standing close to talk to one another.

“I think I see who I’m going to hit on,” Alex says. “If you’ll excuse me…”

He heads to the other side of the party, his sheer size forcing people to move out of his way as he shoulders his way through the crowd.

“See? It’s that easy,” Mason says.

“I can pick up any girl I want,” I say, raising a brow. “I’m Jett James.”

“I don’t know about any girl.”

“Seriously?” I ask, c*****g a brow. “How about this? You pick the girl. And I’m willing to bet you Hawks floor seats.”

Mason side-eyes me. “Alright, but you can’t just go home with whomever I pick. You have to go on a date.”

“A date? Really?” I say.

“It’s too easy to just go home with a girl and never see her again. Come on, it’ll be good for you.”

“f**k, all right,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “Just promise that you’ll pick someone good.”

His brows rise. “I’m offended that you think I wouldn’t.”

I just grunt and sip my beer. Mason is busy looking around.

“What about her, the blonde in the red miniskirt? She’s my type,” I say.

Mason looks at me, slightly exasperated.

“You said that I got to pick. Besides, I am so bored of the blondes that you bring around. They are, as you say, all exactly the same. Short, skinny, and blonde.” He makes a face. “You need someone a little different. Consider this your palate cleanser.”

“Psshhh,” I say, waving my hand at him. “You complain too much.”

“Shh, let me look.” His brows pull down in concentration. “Ah. How about there? The brunette with the red sweater and the skirt.”

I look where he is looking, and after a second, I spot her. She’s downright academic looking, in an attractive way. She has long hair, just the color of a raven’s wing, and olive-toned skin. A pair of black-rimmed sunglasses rests on her head. She is wearing an oversized red sweater, a black pencil skirt, and a pair of cherry red high heels.

She’s also holding a big black purse and fiddling with her iPhone. She made a sour face suddenly, and started typing something into her phone. The way her thumbs were flying, I could imagine that someone was in trouble.

She looks like she’s smart, but she wouldn’t be into the whole former-jock thing that I have going on. Which is just as well, because she looks like someone who is about to teach me English, not like someone who I’d go on a date with.

“She’s pretty,” I admit. “But she looks boring. Look, her friends are trying to get her to dance. I bet she’ll say no.”

A few seconds later, she politely rebuffed her friends’ entreaties, and she was left alone once more.

“I have a good feeling about her,” Mason says. “She’s definitely the one.”

“Come on, you have to pick someone more interesting,” I say. “Like… anyone else at this party.”

“I thought Jett James could pick up anyone?” he says, a s**t-eating grin on his face.

“She looks like she just swallowed a whole lemon.”

“And?” he said. “You said that you were betting court side Hawks tickets on it.”

Fuck. “Alright, alright. I’m going.”

I gave him the stink eye as I push my way through the crowd, heading over to the spot where she leans against the wall. I notice that she taps her foot along with the music, despite looking downright annoyed.

“Excuse me,” I say, stopping in front of her.

She looks up at me, her gray eyes uncertain. “Yes?”

I like her voice, a throaty, velvet purr.

“I just came over here to say that you’re stunning,” I say. I wince a little, as the music suddenly got louder about halfway through my sentence. My words were lost.

She scrunches up her face, which is sort of comical. “What?”

I lean closer to her, and catch a faint whiff of her perfume. “I said, you’re stunning.”

Her expression turns disapproving in a heartbeat. There is a second where I can feel her eyes on me, feel her assessing my clothes and my height, feel her calculating something. She takes in the tattoos that are visible, too. And then I see dismissal in her expression, without knowing me at all.

She’s essentially decided that I’m not worthwhile, based on some kind of metrics that I’m not privy to.

It doesn’t feel good.

“Oh, uhh— thanks?” she says. I can tell that she’s about to end the conversation.

Where’s that famous Jett James charm? I wonder.

“Hey, would you do me a favor?” I say, without really thinking about it. “My ex Emily is here, and she’s sort of slyly watching me. Is it cool if I just pretend that you and I are hitting it off?”

Her eyes have wandered down to her phone screen, but they snap back up to mine. She examines me for another second, her dark grey eyes like watching a gathering storm.

“Ummm…” she says, obviously torn between me and whatever is on her phone.

Damn, am I that uninteresting?

“Sure,” she finally says, but it feels like I’ve only just got her to look at me. Time to be dazzling, I guess.

I grin at her, moving a little closer. “You’d tell me if this fake relationship was inconveniencing you, right?”

I see her worry her lip a little and furrow her brow. She doesn’t mean to, but she shifts towards me very slightly. I take that to mean that my smile worked.

I’m in, I think.

“So I just say the word, and you back off?” she asks, keeping things light.

“Sure. I’m hoping you won’t, though. Only to spare me the embarrassment.” I put my hand over my heart, but stop shy of giving her a pleading face.

She seems to take that at face value, nodding.

“Alright. Which one is she?” she asks, looking around the party.

Shit. I should’ve been prepared for this. I scan the crowd, looking for someone who looks vaguely like Emily.

“Uhhh… she’s over there,” I say, nodding to a pretty, skinny blonde by the exit door. “In the black romper thing.”

“Ah,” she says, nodding. “She’s pretty.”

I pull a face, and she goes pink.

“Sorry,” she says. “I would ask why you guys aren’t an item anymore, but I don’t want to pour salt on the wounds.”

“You can make it up to me, I’m sure,” I say with a smile.

Her eye roll is particularly epic. My smile turns into a grin. I take a sip of my beer, which is pretty stale and warm by now.

I look over my shoulder to see what Mason is doing, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Fucker.

When I look back, she is frowning at her phone screen again, her brow puckered. s**t, she is losing interest again. Why the f**k did Mason have to pick her?

I need a new approach.

“Hey, what’s so interesting on your phone?” I ask.

She looks up at me. “An email from my boss. I’m a lawyer, and my boss is a little verbose. Try as I might, I can’t make heads or tails of this email.”

I c**k my head. How should I tackle this? I guess I haven’t tried being blunt yet…

“Can I ask you a question?” I say.

“Sure. Ask away,” she says, turning the screen of her phone off. She looks at me.

I lean in, dropping my voice low, using the full force of my dark blue eyes. “Do you have a boyfriend, or a husband?”

She blushes, the pale pink tinging her high cheekbones. “No.”

“Okay. How about this, then? You put your phone away for twenty minutes, and let me be entertaining.”

The pale pink spreads out to her cheeks. “Alright…” she says hesitantly.

She drops her phone into her handbag with a satisfying thunk. I grin and stick out my hand.

“Jett James.”

“Cady Ellis,” she says. Her handshake is firm, domineering even.

I get a mental image of me dominating her in bed, and her fighting it for every second until she’s screaming my name. A lick of heat stirs my c**k.

It’s in that moment that I decide that I like her.

“A pleasure,” I assure her. “It looks like you’re done with your drink. How about we go over to the bar and get another one?”

“Oh, I don’t know… I have to work tomorrow…” she says. But I can tell that she wants another drink, wants the excuse to flirt.

“Come on. One more drink,” I say, offering her my hand. I wink at her. “Our relationship needs some spice.”

She rolls her eyes, but allows me to guide her to the bar. I order a whiskey neat for myself, and she orders a vodka with a little soda and extra lime slices.

“And two shots of tequila,” I say. “Don’t even pretend that you don’t want it. You’re getting the shot.”

Her brow arches, but she doesn’t disagree. “Fine.”

The bartender pours the two shots, and hands me the limes. I slide the shot glass over to her, and raise mine.

“What should we toast to?” she asks.

“To having a good night,” I say, clicking my glass to hers. I shoot the liquor, which burns, but tastes so good. The lime takes the edge off, tasting sweetly sour after the tequila.

“Jesus,” she says, shuttering as she bites down on her slice of lime. “I haven’t shot tequila since college.”

I wink at her, tucking the used lime wedge in my shot glass. “Come on, let’s go over to the edge of the roof. I like to get a different perspective whenever I can.”

I lead the way, and she follows me to the edge, which has been roped off with metal bars. I look over, and I’m treated to a view of a busy downtown Atlanta street corner from eight stories up. Although it’s late at night, there’s still a good amount of traffic, giving me the impression of a sea of red tail lights.

Cady stops beside me, leaning over to peer down. I glance at her ass, which happens to look pretty damned fantastic right now, encased in the sheath of her pencil skirt.

“Everything is so small when I’m up here,” she sighs.

“I think that’s the tequila talking,” I say, wiggling my eyebrows.

She glances at me. “Yeah right.”

She turns away from the view, leaning her elbows over the topmost metal bar. I mimic her position, and notice that I’m half a foot taller than her. It’s a lot less than the height difference on the girls I’m used to dating, but still pleasing.

She sneaks a glance at me, then sips her drink.

“What do you do?” she asks.

“I’m a sports agent,” I say. “But I used to be a professional baseball player.”

Her eyebrows fly skyward. “Really?”

“Yep. I was a center fielder for the Atlanta Braves for three years.”

“Why don’t you still play for them?” she asks, c*****g her head to one side.

I make a face. “I tore my rotator cuff. The team doctor took one look at my shoulder and said I needed surgery. That was pretty much it, as far as my career went.”

“Jesus. I’m sorry,” she says, eyeing my shoulders. I can feel that calculation again, her steely grey eyes scanning me as they try to do some kind of math.

“It’s fine. I get to do something I love, so I can’t really be upset about it.” I take a sip of my whiskey, and enjoy the burn as I swallow. “What do you do again?”

“I’m a lawyer. A civil litigator, to be exact. I work for Hansen & Felder.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about the law.”

“We’re one of the top firms in the city,” she says primly.

“That sounds fancy,” I tease. She looks at me and chuckles.

“Yeah. It’s not very romantic,” she admits. Her phone starts buzzing in her purse, very insistent. “Ugh, like this. It’s ten-thirty on a Friday night, and I’m still getting phone calls.”

“Tell them you went to bed early. You were feeling a little ill, and wanted to head it off.” I raise my brows. “That way you’re covered tomorrow, too.”

Again, I can tell that she wants to take my advice, but a part of her hesitates.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Cady says, wrinkling her nose.

“You know what you need?” I ask.

“Ummm, to actually go to bed early?”

“No, I think you need to dance.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Jett—” she says. Her body language is all kinds of reticent.

“This doesn’t bode well for our relationship, Cady,” I tease. “Come on, just one dance.”

She makes a face at me, but allows me to take her glass from her and put it down. I take her hand in mine, noticing how dainty it seems, and lead her to an area where there are a number of people dancing.

Cady is stiff at first, her face saying “I can think of ten things I’d rather be doing than this.” She moves as if she’s carved from wood, and barely touches me.

That won’t do at all.

I gently turn her around, bring her body against mine. The music pulses, and we move with it. Slowly at first, then more frenetic, until she’s all but grinding on me.

Fuck yes, I think. God, she feels good.

Cady surprises me by turning around, slipping her arms around my neck, and kissing me. I’m a little caught off guard at first, but her lips are soft and sweet. Inviting.

The sensation goes straight to my c**k, and I am f*****g rock hard in an instant.

I take over the kiss, dominating her lips, snaking my tongue against hers. She tastes f*****g amazing, like fresh mint and vodka. I could drink from her lips all night long.

She pulls back, practically panting. “Do you want to go back to my place? I don’t live far.”

Oh, f**k yes. I really, really do.

Only Mason is suddenly in my head, ruining everything. It’s too easy to just go home with a girl and never see her again.

I stare down at her, still tasting her on my lips. It would be great to take her up on her offer, to just go to her place and f**k her until the sun rose. But something about her won’t let me do that.

Is this what being a gentleman is like? I wonder.

“You know, there is nothing I would like better than to take you home, make you scream my name over and over till you’re hoarse,” I whisper, leaning in close. “I don’t think that would be good for our relationship, though. I can’t take you home, we haven’t even had our first date.”

She immediately turns red as a beet. “I… I… I should go…”

Cady takes her phone out of her purse, turning away. My arm shoots out and I grab her, pulling her back.

“You’re not leaving without my number,” I say. “Don’t even try.”

I pluck her phone from her hand, ignoring the open-mouthed look she’s directing at me. It’s the work of a few seconds to put my name and number in, and then I call myself. My phone starts blaring “Swimming Pools” by Kendrick Lamar, and I wink at her.

“I have your number now,” I taunt her. I hand her phone back.

“Ugh, goodbye,” she says, turning away again.

I can’t resist the chance to grab her and spin her back against me, to press my hips against her and claim her mouth once more. Her fingernails dig into my chest, but I can tell she likes a little dominance.

I release her, my fingers itching to slap her on the ass. That pencil skirt is practically begging for it, honestly.

“Now you can leave,” I say with a grin.

I wish I had a photo of her expression, of the outrage mixed with carnal interest. Outrage won, and she sneered, turning on her heel. I watched her flee, as fast as she could on those tall high heels.

I crack my knuckles, thinking that I should’ve just taken her home, Mason be damned.

I move towards the exit, adjusting my bulge in my pants, and look around. Mason and Alex are nowhere to be found. How typical.

I take the stairs slowly, and think of Cady. Her red sweater, her pencil skirt, her high heels.

Yeah, women are pretty much all the same… But at least someone has caught my interest.

I smile as I head downstairs.