Author's Note: Full disclosure, there's a reason why I took sooo long to post. This chapter had me shook. I'm not good at these scenes. I must have rewritten it, added to it, subtracted from it, hell, started from scratch a million times. Even had to walk away from it. I'm still not sure that I've gotten it right. Le sigh…do be gentle. LOL.

No, for serious, lemme know if it go if I was doing too much.

~Alex.

Daddy Overnight

An OTH Fanfic

By AlexB

41

Ask?

He wanted her to ask?

He wanted her to form a coherent thought, speak clearly actual words, and act like she had some sense while his palms made slow soft drugging wipes down her legs; seriously, they were making love to her calves, while he looked at her the way that she was looking at her.

And he wanted her to ask?

Okay.

She was asking.

Haley slowly slid her legs from Nathan's slap, satisfaction spiking through her when he looked like he wanted to pull him back to her just so he could have his hands on her; so he could keep touching her.

Good.

She wasn't done yet.

Haley could feel Nathan's eyes on her while she slipped her shoes off. She glanced up at him and a shivered at the want that managed to cut through the arousal that dominated the deep blue of his eyes; tried to overpower the traces of need.

She turned to him, bracing her hand on the back of the couch where Nathan had been reclined for the better part of an hour, and put a leg over his lap, straddling him. His eyes dropped closed then opened slowly to half-mast, his hands moving to rest on her hips like the belonged there.

Haley trailed the fingers of her free hand across the bared skin at Nathan's throat, her gaze moving to his face as his hips moves restlessly beneath her. Pushing up on her knees, Haley pulled at Nathan's shirt untucking the garment from his pants then seating herself back on his lap. He couldn't pull his gaze away from her hands and they flipped open each button on his shirt. She couldn't help leaning forward and pressing her mouth to every inch of skin that revealed itself to her. Appreciation pearled softly in her throat as Haley felt Nathan's fingers pulling through her hair, having to stop when they met the twist was nothing because he just started all over again from the beginning. She kissed her way back up is chest and Haley could tell, she could feel it in Nathan's body that he wanted to forgo he story and show her his 100.

That wasn't happening.

She leaned back, her hands fisted in the side of the open shirt. The fabric would have ripped had Nathan not moved sitting up using just the muscles in his stomach, those hands still taking advantage of the position they had on Haley's hips.

She pushed the shirt over Nathan's shoulders and down the muscles of his arms as far as she could manage, the fabric caught in Nathan's elbows essentially trapping him, and Haley could care less because she had him where she wanted him.

Watching this woman's brain work was as sexy as her taking her clothes off for him. Nathan could only imagine what she was thinking, but he hoped that she would decide to shed some light.

You know…after.

Watching his chest rise and fall Haley considered Nathan's piercing. Now, there was no way in all fire hell that she would pierce her breasts. Hell no. That mess seemed like some torture and bothersome as she didn't know what. The piercing on Nathan though…

Deliriously hot.

That was the only way that she could describe it even though she couldn't articulate why that was, but it didn't matter.

"Nope." His voice growled out.

"What?" Her eyes flicked to his.

"Nope." Nathan said again with a shake of his head. "Whatever you're thinking it's not it; nowhere near close."

"I have yet to formulate a response, sir."

"Nnnope." He grinned cheekily arousal plain in his eyes.

"Couldn't have been something that you did in college." She thought aloud.

"Why?" He barely got out all his effort going to letting her be in control, fight with the blood that pooled in his groin sending messages to his brain telling him to take.

"You were too busy bar brawling and pretending to mate the mothers of random dudes who don't wash to piss off gullible dummies."

"That was a case of mistaken identity."

"But am I right?"

Nathan lifted his shoulder I yet another shrug then threw a smile her way refusing to answer. He wanted her right where she was, astride him while she kept on guessing.

"Not while you were in the pros, and this isn't recent or new, so it had to be in high school. You don't seem the backpacking through Europe type."

"Why not the pros?" Nathan ran his hands up Haley's sides and down her thighs to because he couldn't keep from touching her any longer.

"Please." Haley's brow rose. "Nathan, from what I know about you, you are determined and methodical. You take your responsibilities seriously. You were going to live up to every last penny of whatever contract that you signed. My guess is someone told you that you would wash out and instead of telling him to kiss your ass you decided to show them the cheeks they could kneel to kiss first. You wouldn't have given into something and minimal as this." She traced her finger over the adornment smiling at the shiver that worked its way through Nathan. "A drink to unwind during the season and sex here and there, and some partying in the offseason." She nodded. "I can see that."

"But not piercings?"

She shook her head. "No. You did this to rebel. This is high school 'I'm a man, son.' Don't laugh." She smiled when his brows rose at her imitation of a high school boy that he would never admit was him. "This is when you stopped 'blaming Dan for shit'."

His lips tilted. "I called out a senior for being chickenshit about an earring. His girlfriend told him that it would be hot; he countered with 'gay' because that's what you say when your balls are up for auction on eBay." God he loved that laugh especially when it got all breathless and her head tilted back. It was an undeniable pull; his lips to her neck changed that laugh to a sound so exquisite Nathan's own breath caught, his body tight with need.

"It was something outrageous that was mine and no one else's." His lips moved against her neck, her hand slid to the back of his neck, her nails sliding over the heated skin of his scalp, the soft ends tickling her heated palms. "It was the most out of the way thing my sophomore self could think of that wouldn't kill me."

"Mmm. It got you girls." Haley sighed with a smile.

"And it got me girls." Nathan admitted unrepentantly. It had gotten him that girl anytime she wanted him until the day that she left for college. Dan had been pissed, but he never came out and admitted it. No way would he give anyone the impression that they could get the "reaction that they wanted" out of him. When his mom had seen it Nathan caught a ghost of a smile. Pissed as he had been, Nathan would have welcomed his mom blowing up at him that would have given him the prefect opportunity to throw her bullshit back in her face, but she hadn't. Somehow, her quiet acceptance was better, did more, than here censure, and the blow up that would have most definitely followed it.

Haley drew her hands down the muscles of his chest. They jumped under her palms; his hips undulated under hers when her fingers played at the adornment.

"I like it." She murmured.

"I've noticed."

"So…" Haley brushed her mouth against his. "When you count to a hundred…"

"Yeah," Nathan barely got out before she stole a kiss from him, lapping at his top lip before they fell into another kiss that lasted longer, stealing breath from the both of them.

"When you count to 100," Haley asked again, those brown eyes ablaze with heat. "Do you count by fives…or tens?"

There wasn't one way to be intimate, to give yourself to someone. There wasn't a blue print; there wasn't a science.

Young, old, experienced, not so experienced, in love, in lust, hard and fast, slow and sweet, deep and teasing, against a wall, on a floor in a shower, in the kitchen, on a bed…

On a couch.

It didn't matter. None of that mattered. What did, what counted, especially to her, was what was felt; what she felt; what the person that she was with felt because of her.

On the couch in Nathan's living room, her body draped over his, Haley was lost in a state of complete pleasure. Their lips couldn't stop touching, kissing, mating; it was impossible. She loved his hands on her. The heat that radiated from his palms arched her body into his, ratcheting up the fire already burning inside her. His hands never stayed in one place. It was like Nathan didn't know where to start but he had to touch her everywhere.

It was intoxicating.

The coiled power of Nathan's body beneath her was like a shock to her already heated system. He was holding back, letting her take the lead, or he was taking his time; why? She didn't know. What Haley did know was that it was amazing.

He kept pulling his hands through her hair over and over; to the point where Haley wanted to pull back and erase the knot that was getting in the way. Then those hands would move down her back to her hips then back up her sides again. There was no better massage.

And then he stopped.

He looked at Haley, his gaze bemused, like he truly did not understand what was happening here. She was coming down, slowly but surely, only to be launched into space again by the look on Nathan's face, one that she had seen before.

A look that said "fuck it."

Whatever stopped him, whatever caught him up, Nathan said 'fuck it' and he focused on Haley with an intensity that should have scared her, but it didn't.

The first time that that she and Nathan had laid together Haley had taken the lead. She held the reigns because of his knee, and it had been an empowering, heady feeling. Nathan's taking control of tonight was like the throttle had been punched, amplifying every touch, every thought, every feeling, sight, and sound.

She felt like she couldn't catch her breath and she didn't care. Need pumped through her blood, her breaths becoming heated gasps in the room around them.

Nathan stood, picking up Haley as if she weighed nothing as she tore at his shirt, her thighs wrapping tightly around his waist.

She knew.

When Nathan had stopped, looking at Haley as if he didn't understand; she knew. Haley knew the moment that Nathan had first kissed her in the bar's bathroom.

This was a man who had the power to obliterate her. Friends between them was never going to work. They knew that and this was why. Their connection was so incendiary that anything less would burn up in its atmosphere.

When this ended, if this ended, it would be devastating, she knew now, for the both of them; and there was every possibility of that happening if that wasn't what they wanted.

The muscles tensed and flexed in Nathan's torso and arms as he lowered them back down the couch, Haley beneath him. Her ears rang, Nathan's weight atop her shorting out all of her circuits as his lips trailed down her neck, his kiss marking he collar, her eyes fluttering shut when Nathan's lips brushed the pulse in her neck.

They could annihilate each other, but none of that; none of it, mattered.

Not this second.

He'd been bullshitting about 'his 100'. There was no move, no act, or so Nathan had thought. After taking Haley on the couch he should have been drained, but he wasn't. It was like he was on an endless charge.

He hadn't had to take a breath or wonder if he was scaring her because Haley was right there with him. They hadn't even gotten their clothes all the way off; that charge, that need would allow for it. It got in the way, threatened to take away from what they needed; each other. Haley hadn't been put upon, or pissed about hastily moved clothing and ripped garments; she reveled in it, used it, and did whatever she could to drive him absolutely crazy.

It was all he could do no to take them to the floor in his room as they took off the clothing they hadn't bothered with earlier. She had been with him, yeah, but he wanted to take care of her properly. Nathan didn't want Haley feeling like she was just her for sex, that he was hiding from her inside the sweetness of her body.

He didn't' feel the cold tile under his feet when he carried Haley to the shower. He didn't feel it come off the tile; Nathan could have cared less about how the steam heated the space around them.

All he could concentrate on was her; the way that she felt, the way that her hands caressed him one second the held on for dear life the next. All Nathan could hear was her breaths in his ear, feel her skin slick on his, telling Nathan without words that she was with him.

Neither one of them noticed the coolness of the water as it fell on them. They continued to touch, mouths melding as they stood in the bathroom, in the aftermath, drying the water from their bodies. He smiled at her soft laughter as he carried her to the bed that he hadn't made that morning.

He'd wanted so badly to take that damned knot out of her hair when they'd been in the living room. Little strands of her hair still stuck to Haley's cheeks and neck, still damp from the shower water. She sat in the middle of his bed now. Nathan wondered if she knew that she was blushing. She had the bed sheets pulled up to cover her; her mouth opened did a small yawn as she sleepily tried to take her hair down.

Haley's eyes came open when Nathan kneeled his good knee on the mattress, one hand on the bed next to her hip, the other he sent into her hair taking out each pin one by one. He could feel her eyes on him, taking in his naked body. Swear to heaven Nathan felt Haley's start to heat. He wanted her again. Nathan wanted her until he had nothing left to give. The body was willing but the flesh was weak. When Nathan finally got his head under control and could look Haley in the eye, he saw that that need was still there, fighting the want for dominance, but tired beat the hell out of them both.

When he pulled that last pin out and all that honey dark hair fell past her shoulders in curly temptation, Nathan couldn't help letting the silky thick strands slide through his fingers when he pulled Haley's mouth back to his.

He didn't know how long he laid in bed, his hands in Haley's hair, her head on his chest, her own fingers absently running along his chest slower and slower as she neared sleep.

It pulled at him, that unconsciousness, but Nathan fought it until the very end. He didn't want to stop looking at her, feeling her, knowing that they were here, that he was here, but finally those lids slid closed.

Nathan didn't know what it was that woke him up later, hell, maybe he did, but it didn't matter. What did matter was that Haley was there, her back to him in sleep. His arm was under her body, one of his hands entwined in hers. He reached for her and Haley turned into his arms, welcoming him, as they set toward making love again.

He couldn't sleep afterward, not this time.

He should have been dead to the world, but he wasn't.

The house was too quiet and his brain wouldn't shut up.

Nathan tried to close his eyes and allow sleep to come but nothing doing. He got out of bed and found himself moving toward his boy's room. He missed his kid.

Right now Nic's room looked like a baby store threw up in it. It would change, and one day Nathan wouldn't even be allowed in here. Not that that wouldn't stop him from taking the door off the hinges the way his mother had when he had told her to stay the hell out of his space.

"When you pay for privacy," She'd told him. "I'll gladly give you your door back."

"Mom, I change in here!"

"Well, I suggest you start changing in the bathroom a keep your hands above the covers."

"I'm sorry."

"No you're not, but you will be."

Nathan sat in the rocking chair picturing the changes that awaited him. Baby shit would turn into kid stuff that would turn into sports figures, music icons and teenaged rebellion. He sat rocking when his gaze caught on the box that sat in the corner. His gaze narrowed and he glanced at the closet next to him swearing that he had put that box deep into its depths never to be seen again.

Nathan moved to sit on the floor in front of Nic's crib. He'd been through all of this; Nic's things, his records. Rachel even had a small estate that would be there, an inheritance that Nic would come into when he became of age.

He pulled the box beside him. Flipping off the top, Nathan lifted Nic's baby book from the top. He had some pictures on a camera. Peyton's phone was loaded with them and his mom could be classified as a stalker if they didn't know that Nic was her grandson.

Maybe he should use the book.

There were plenty of empty pages. It made no sense to just put it somewhere. Nathan started to put the book back so he could get back to Haley when an envelope fell out. He'd thought it was the paper work for Nic's inheritance but it wasn't. It was addressed to Nathan.

Okay, not addressed. It had his name on it.

In Rachel's hand writing.

He looked around the room like some idiot expecting Rachel to pop out of the shadows.

A letter.

Right because she wasn't one to pick up the damn phone, but she could take all the damn time in the world to sit her ass down and put a pen to some damn paper; writing a letter that he knew that she probably never intended to send in the first damned place.

Sonofabitch, he didn't need this shit.

He didn't need Nic's mother sending up excuses from beyond the grave that he couldn't even call her ass out on as to why she hadn't told Nathan that he had helped to create a life.

He should rip the letter to shreds without reading it much less taking the seconds to open it.

No. No. He was going to set fire to this shit he was that damn mad at the woman still.

Nathan did none of those things. Instead he stayed where he was, Rachel's letter clenched in his hand. His name scrawled across the envelope began to blur before him as Nathan stared at it not blinking.

Dammit…

He ripped the side of the envelope open and shook the letter out. He held the folded paper in his hands turning in his palms over and over.

He was a damned masochist.

'Nathan', the letter began:

'I've picked up the phone so many times to let you know what's happened, and every time I hang up. I know why that is. You aren't ready for this. Hell, I'm not ready for this. The difference between you and I is that one day I will be. You won't.

Ever.

It is what it is, I guess.

I'm pregnant.

I'm pregnant and this baby is yours. There. I said it. I got the words out even if they are on paper. I'm six months along and there hasn't been anyone else; not because I'm hung up on you, we know what we were, but because I didn't care. I don't care. I was prepared to live my life the way that I have been but lately I've begun to see otherwise.

I wasn't going to keep this baby, Nathan. You should know that. I didn't walk away from you because you got injured. I walked away from you because I knew that if I terminated this pregnancy I could never let you touch me again, and if I didn't, I couldn't lie to your face.

We were careful, but some things don't work.

I won't force you to be a part of this baby's life. Maybe it's best that you aren't. A child is something that you never wanted for yourself in the first place and I won't force this baby, my child, to be somewhere that he's not wanted, not loved, or seen as a mistake.

I'm not asking for anything from you, nor do I need it. Anna and I will manage just fine. This letter is just to let you know that we've made someone. I know how this sounds and I wish that I could apologize but I can't.

I won't.

This baby needs stability and you cannot give it no matter how much money you have. Your career won't allow for it. Your outlook on life will not provide or for it, and there's nothing, and no one, more important than this baby, it's safety and it's well-being.

Your being a part of its life would jeopardize all of that, and I just…

I just can't let that happen.

Well.

He didn't have to wonder anymore.

Rachel never intended to tell him about his child. Had she lived, Nathan never would have known about Nicolas. Anna Delgado never would have had to make the decision in the end to tell him. As much as he loved his son Nathan felt no guilt in wishing, at the moment, that he had never met Rachel Gattina.

Even if she hadn't been wrong.

It was a catch 22. Without Nic, Nathan would have been the person that Rachel had known, the person that he had been, the person that Rachel had intended to protect their son from.

There was nothing that he could do about any of this now. Rachel was gone and Nic was with him. He would never deprive his son of his mother. So if he had to choose between Rachel being alive and her death he'd bring her back. Kids should now what it was like to be loved by their mother.

He loved his kid more than his happiness.

More than his life.

He didn't want his son thinking badly about the woman who had given him life, no matter how he felt about her at the moment, which was why Nathan would never show his son the letter that his mother had written. He should throw it away, burn it, something but Nathan couldn't make himself do so. Instead he put the letter back where he had gotten it from the box.

This was done. They couldn't go back. Despite all the drama and the bullshit, his life was good, and he wasn't about to trade a single bit of it.

Nathan left the nursery clicking off the light behind him. A quick stop at the kitchen and he was back in his room watching Haley sleep. He slid back in bed beside her, pleasure and a feeling of content moving through him when she rolled toward him laying her body half atop him. Yeah, Nathan thought, life was good.

He was glad that he would never have to choose.