Her eyes widened. They were the same shade of green I saw in my dreams.
“Oh wow. You must be—” the woman started.
“Nixon?” Her voice came from behind me, and my knees nearly gave out as I turned to face her. She looked tired and so fucking beautiful that my hands clenched to keep from touching her. Her eyes were luminous as she blinked up at me, her pink lips parted in shock, but there was joy there, too.
Thank you, God, she was happy to see me otherwise this would have gotten awkward really fucking fast.
“Hey, Liberty.” Lame, but it was the best I had at the moment.
“Why don’t I just…” The tent rustled behind us, and Liberty’s mom disappeared.
“What are you doing here?” Her gaze flew over me like she needed to check me for injuries.
“It’s Tuesday morning.” I shrugged.
She sputtered a laugh, then threw herself into my arms. “I’ve missed you,” she said against my neck.
“I’ve missed you more.” I held her tight and breathed her in as my heart finally settled into a predictable rhythm. This was my life, right here with her in my arms.
Liberty pulled away but took my hands in hers. “Seriously, what are you doing here?”
“I had to see you,” I admitted. “I couldn’t take it. Not for another day.”
Her hands slid over her growing belly. “Did you hear that, baby girl? Daddy came to visit.”
I hit my knees and framed her belly over the teal tank-top that stretched over our daughter. “Hey, whoosh. Miss me?” My heart flew as I received a kick. “She’s bigger,” I said, looking up at Liberty.
She batted away a tear and nodded. “We both are. It’s a thing.”
“Don’t cry.” I stood quickly and took her face in my hands, wiping away any straggler tears with my thumbs. “I’ve only got twenty-four hours, and I’ll stand here and wipe away every single tear if that’s what you want to do with them, but it’s killing me to see you cry.” The pieces of my heart that had lain in a shattered mess the last month began to take shape again.
Not healed, but at least aware. The numbness was gone.
“You came all the way here for twenty-four hours?” Liberty’s bottom lip shook.
“Thank God there was a helicopter available, otherwise it would have been a hug and back on the boat.” My smile was slow but genuine.
She scoffed, then stilled. “Oh my God. You won’t make it back for practice tomorrow!”
“Nope. I’ll miss Thursday, too, and yesterday is obviously a wash.” Even though her tears had stopped, I still stroked my thumbs over her cheeks, unable to stop the simple caress.
“You’ll get fined!” she shrieked, pulling back and swatting my shoulder.
“Yeah, but Coach knows I’m on the fence about the contract they just offered. Seven years. I’m just not sure anymore.”
“They gave you seven years?” Her lips lifted, then dropped. “But the fines!”
“Coach estimated about forty grand, and I won’t start against Dallas on Sunday.” I shrugged. “But what’s the point of banking millions if you can’t drop everything to see your girls?”
Her jaw dropped. “Are. You. Kidding. Me? You’re letting Castle start? He’s the turnover king! The man can’t complete a pass to save his—”
I kissed her, stopping her steady flow of words. I kept it soft, light, nothing more than a brush of our lips, but it was enough to bring my banked desire roaring back to life. She was here, and I needed her. That’s all my body cared about.
But I hadn’t spent thirty-two hours traveling to get laid.
“Nixon,” she sighed, swaying toward me.
My chest tightened as awareness rose between us.
“Twenty-four hours, Lib. Why don’t you show me around?” I took in the colorful carpet beneath our feet and caught a peek of Liberty’s pack just beneath the bed closest to us. “I mean, you know, outside this tent.”
“I would love to.”
We spent the day touring the site. The chow tent was always busy and had a line out the door as they served people every hour of the day. The school tent was filled with smiling children, and the medical services tent was overwhelmed. There was so much need here.
“They pick up new clothing over there,” Liberty pointed to a long, slender tent, “and we teach skills in that tent. We’re hoping to set the women up with a way to make their own incomes.”
“Amazing.” It was. All of it.
“And this is where I work.” Liberty laced her fingers with mine and led me down the path to a separate tent. We pushed past the heavy mosquito netting, and the room opened up to include several private bays. Liberty excused herself for a second to check in with her supervisor, and I took in the details of the facility.
There was a line…and I had stolen one of their providers.
“Do you need to work?” I asked as she came back over, noting the people who filled the open area. “I can wait.”
“Not today.” She took my hand. “If I only get twenty-four hours with you, then I’m taking them. Besides, I can only see patients supervised, so I’m not really putting anyone out by taking the day off.”
She fed me lunch, and I made a mental note to donate money immediately.
By the time the afternoon came around, so did the clouds, so I checked in with my pilot, who gave me a heads-up that we might have to leave sooner than planned if the rest of the front moved in.
“Anything else you’d like to show me?” I asked Liberty as we strolled past the living quarters.
“Yes.” She grinned, then yanked me inside a tent I recognized because my pack was in the corner.
“I’ve already seen this one,” I smirked.
She pushed my chest, and I fell backward, landing on the incredibly hard surface of her cot.
“Holy shit, this must be like sleeping on stone,” I cursed.
“Shut up.” She slid over my lap, straddling me, and I forgot all about the cot, the tent, the whole damned world. None of it mattered when she was in my arms.
“We should talk.” My hands slid to her ass, and I groaned at the feel of the curves under her shorts.
“That didn’t go too well last time.” She gripped the back of my neck as her eyes dropped to my lips.
“Yeah, I know.” My chest lit off with an excruciating ache, just thinking about how we’d left things back in North Carolina. But I was here now, and even if it was just for the next few hours, we could push the hurt away. We could grab the moments where they counted. “But there are things we need to say.”
“Later,” she said against my lips. “I swear I’m going to die if you don’t kiss me right now, Nixon Noble.”
We needed to talk. I needed to tell her the decision I’d made regarding that contract. We needed to sort out what was going on between us.
She kissed the shit out of me, and I forgot all about using my mouth to talk. I cupped the back of her head and took her deep, sinking into her mouth with an urgency that roared through my blood.
Fuck, yes. There was no gentle ease about this. No romantic, lingering sigh. This was hunger, pure and simple. She tugged at my hair. I threaded my fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck, spearing into the little bun she’d woven it into. Then I pulled, breaking the kiss and exposing her neck.
I licked down the line of her throat, tasting salt and that sweet, heady taste that was Liberty.
“Nixon,” she groaned, rocking her hips against me, but not quite reaching my cock with her belly between us.
I grabbed a handful of her ass and sucked at the swell of her breast. “You are so fucking sexy,” I said against her damp skin.
She pivoted, swinging her leg over so she sat in my lap, then didn’t pause a heartbeat before reaching past my waistband and gripping my cock with her fingers.
“Fuck,” I moaned. She was going to have me mindless in the next thirty seconds if I wasn’t careful. I wanted her too badly, and she tasted too good.
/>
I reached between her thighs, then dipped beneath her hemline—oh hell yes. She was dripping wet and so slippery that my fingers parted her folds and thrust inside her with one smooth motion.
“Nixon!” she cried out, then buried her face in my neck to muffle her next groan as I started to fuck her with sure, deep thrusts of my fingers. She shifted, and I had enough room to bring my thumb in on the action, strumming across her clit as I took her mercilessly. I didn’t draw it out, didn’t make her beg.
No, I brought her to orgasm hard and fast, then nearly lost it myself as her fist squeezed my cock. She tensed all around me, moaning into my neck as she came with near-violent rocks of her hips. I stroked her through those aftershocks, then when she was good and hazy-eyed, I kissed her deep, swirling my tongue around hers with decadent licks before pulling back.
If I waited one more second to speak, I was going to be inside her with way more than my fingers, and then there would be no words besides yes, more, and harder.
“So here’s the thing.” My voice dropped as I slipped my fingers from her core. “I can’t live without you. I tried. I can’t. It’s not possible. So, we’re going to need another tent, because I’m not into the mom-can-hear-us kink, and I guess I’m just going to have to get used to checking my shoes for spiders if this is going to be our home.” I grinned.
Her eyes flew impossibly wide.
20
Liberty
“Say that one more time?” I said, my head clearing of the blissful, hungry fog that had filled it. I drew my hands back from his zipper like I’d touched a hot iron.
Nixon shrugged. “I’m telling the Raptors when I get back.”
“Telling them what?”
“That I’m not signing the contract they offered,” he said and reached for my hands. “I’d rather live with your love than the love of a hundred million fans. So I’m done.” He shook his head. “I’d rather be with you and support your dream.”
The wind picked up outside, and my entire body felt the tremor as Nixon’s words sunk in. He kissed me, and in my shock, I let him. I lost myself in that kiss, his warm lips, that tongue that knew all the right places to tease me. Lost myself in the taste of him, the feel of his body against mine.
“No,” I said, carefully climbing off of him and taking a few steps away. My heart was on a roller coaster of pure adrenaline and terrifying drops of fear.
“Lib?” He tilted his head.
“No,” I said. “You can’t do that.”
He sighed. “I have to,” he said. “I can’t lose you.”
“Nixon, you love football. It’s a part of your soul. It’s your personal way of honoring Nick—”
“I love you more,” he cut me off.
A rock lodged itself in my throat, tears coating my eyes. “And you have no idea how much that means to me.” I shook my head. “How much it means to me that you’d even contemplate it, but I love you enough to not let you do it.”
“You don’t get a say in it.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s my future,” he said, and his eyes fell to my swollen tummy. “And all I want is you and that little whoosh. Us. Sure, I love my job. Love the field and the guys and the snap. But it’s nothing compared to family. To my need for you.”
I swallowed hard, raking my fingers through my hair. “Nixon,” I said. “I love what I’m doing here. But I love you too much to let you give up your career.”
“And I can’t ask you to give up yours. I’ve seen it first-hand now, the good you’re doing here. The real impact on the world you’re having.” He sighed. “So we’re right back to where we started. See?” he asked, stepping closer to cup my cheek. “This is the only answer. Me leaving the NFL.”
“Nixon, that’s not a solution. It’s killing off your dream—”
“So yours can thrive,” he cut me off, grazing his thumb over my lip. “And if that is what it takes then it’s worth it. You’re worth it.” He smoothed his other hand over my belly. “We’re worth it, don’t you think?”
“I want to be with you,” I said, my head spinning. “Nixon, God, I love you. I’m just torn. There has to be a better way—”
“Mr. Noble?” a man called from just outside.
“What?” Nixon snapped.
“This storm is shifting,” the man said. Nixon’s helicopter pilot. “We have to leave now if we’re going to get ahead of it. Otherwise you’ll be grounded here for the next forty-eight hours.
Nixon tensed against me.
“Go,” I said, damn near shoving him away from me.
“Lib, no, we have to figure this out.”
“You already broke contract coming here!” I snapped. “If you’re gone more than a day…” I shook my head. “Go, Nixon. Please? And don’t tell them anything definitive regarding that contract.”
Nixon furrowed his brow as he didn’t move against my attempts to push him out the door. Instead, he wrapped his arms around me, slanting his mouth over mine in a frantic kiss.
“Go,” I said again, breaking the kiss. “I need you safe.”
“I need you safe,” he argued.
“I’m fine here on the ground.”
Nixon backed up one step, then two. “Liberty…” He let my name hang there, a question and a plea.
“I love you.” It’s all I could say.
And something clicked in those eyes—some flicker of pain that crushed my entire heart as he spun and rushed through the tent’s flap.
I stood there for over an hour, listening as the storm gathered steam and thrashed in the sky. The roaring thunder matching the slew of emotions thrashing in my soul.
I didn’t sleep that night.
Didn’t relax for a minute.
Because the love of my life was willing to risk his dream to be with me, and I loved him enough to stop him.
And I had a pretty damn good idea on how to do that.
21
Nixon
The holiday party was in full swing, but I wasn’t exactly in a festive mood. I twisted the glass in my hand as bubbles frothed to the surface. The trick to getting everyone to leave you alone when you weren’t drinking was to fill a highball glass with ginger ale. The color let people assume, and people—as always—assumed.
“Ah, the broody Nixon we all know and love has returned,” Hendrix remarked as he leaned against the bar next to me.
“Thought you’d have left with one of the cheerleaders by now.” They were all here. Players, cheerleaders, staff, wives and girlfriends…just not mine.
Not that I even knew if I had one.
Liberty and I loved each other. That much was certain. The rest…well, we seemed to be at an impasse—or so she thought. I loved her even more for telling me that I couldn’t give up my career for the sake of hers, but in this one regard, I held the power. And from the few hours I’d spent with her in Brazil, and the few minutes it had taken for us to get tangled up in each other again, I knew she wasn’t exactly going to throw me out when I showed up there at the end of the season.
“I try to make it a policy not to fuck the cheerleaders.” Hendrix took a sip of his beer. “They get all clingy, and I don’t have time for that bullshit. It’s not like I can revoke their field pass or anything.”
“Right. And how exactly did that policy apply with Vanessa Patterson?” I nodded toward the gaggle of women holding drinks instead of their usual poms.
Hendrix cringed. “She’s why the policy exists. Shit, don’t make eye contact.” He looked away, but it was already too late. They were headed this way.
“Hey, guys.” Jackie got a little too close for comfort, and I turned sideways so it was my arm she brushed up against, not my chest. “You feeling in the holiday spirit?” Her fingers trailed down my arm.
Bile rose in my throat.
“Not particularly.” I glanced from her fingers to her face, and she got the message, dropping her hand.
“I could change that, you know.” Her voice lowere
d, and she bit her lower lip expertly. It had the opposite effect that Liberty’s unconscious lip-biting had on me.
Liberty did it every time she wanted to get her mouth on me like she couldn’t stop her lips from moving on their own.
Jackie did it so I’d notice her surgically plumped lips.
Fuck, how fake was she? How fake was all of this? The only women I recognized as genuine were Teagan and Savannah, both of whom were across a very crowded ballroom.
“What do you say, Nixon? Wanna give the whole quarterback and head cheerleader cliché a go?” she whispered
“Not sure if you’ve noticed, Jackie, but I’m taken.” Because she wouldn’t step back, I did, bumping into the barstool directly behind me. It didn’t matter if Liberty wasn’t here, or if we were really even together, she owned every piece of me.
“Oh!” Jackie’s mouth formed a perfect, practiced O. “Gosh, I’m sorry, Nixon. I didn’t realize you were still together with Liza. I haven’t seen her around in ages, so I figured you two were splitsville.”
Hendrix’s eyes widened as he threw back his beer.
“Liberty,” I corrected Jackie. “Her name is Liberty. And you haven’t seen her because she’s in Brazil, working with an underprivileged population in a remote village as she gets her doctorate.” Well, damn, when I put it that way, my woman was a total and complete badass.
Jackie blinked, and two of the cheerleaders edged toward Hendrix, accurately reading my mood. “That’s…cool.”
“It’s better than cool.” My posture relaxed as I leaned against the bar. “It’s hot as hell. Not just temperature, either. She’s got the sexiest brain and the most seductive moral code I’ve ever come across. Then you add in that gorgeous face, and tantalizing body, and I’d have to say she’s the complete package. Cool doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Jackie’s face fell. “Oh. Right.”
“Look!” One of the new blondes pointed toward the dais across the room. “Weston Rutherford is here!”
“Come on, ladies,” Jackie said. “I’ll introduce you.”
Nixon: A Raleigh Raptors Novel Page 21
