The Player's Game

by Alice Gaines

  “And stomped on your female pride.”

  “Squashed that sucker flat,” Katy said.

  Xandra laughed. “Don’t worry. He’s only playing hard to get.”

  “I didn’t think guys did that.”

  “The devious ones do.”

  “You could be right.” A peck on the forehead and a whistling retreat. Really? After all the passion they’d shared, what a letdown. They were going to have to spend the night together in Rochester. They might have two beds, but they definitely wouldn’t have two rooms.

  “Come on into my boudoir.” Xandra sounded like the spider issuing an invitation to the fly, but Katy had asked for her help, so she went with Xandra into the master bedroom.

  Executive assistant by day, Xandra switched to her side hustle as a lingerie model in her spare time, and she spent a lot of her earnings on the company’s product. She’d have the perfect outfit to help Katy get Grant’s attention.

  Xandra went to the double doors of her closet and flung them open to reveal a cascade of color brilliant enough to hurt her eyes.

  “We’re about the same size,” Xandra said. “We just have to find the best fit for what you’re trying to accomplish.”

  “Accomplish?” Katy repeated.

  Xandra began flipping through the contents of her closet. “You know. How long do you want him to stick around? One-night fling, jetting to Paris, or total slavish devotion?”

  “Not that last one.” Not that she could picture Grant groveling and slobbering all over her. Could you really do that with sex? Make a man your slave?

  “Come on, think. What do you want from him?” Xandra held one negligee up to Katy, still on its hanger. It was a beautiful off-white, but against her pale skin, the color wouldn’t stand out.

  “I guess I don’t want him to…” What had Grant just done? Walked out on the possibility of sex. Not cool. So really not cool… It caused her heart to sink when she thought of it. “…ignore me.”

  “We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” Xandra pulled out another outfit in sapphire blue. “This would look good on you.”

  Katy took the gown and held it up to her body. “I love it. Really nice.”

  Xandra crossed her arms over her chest. “It is nice. That’s a problem.”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “Maybe you’ve been so nice with Grant that he feels like he can walk away from you whenever he wants.”

  “I don’t know how I’d stop him.”

  “I do.” Xandra turned and flipped through some more gowns in her closet. Finally, she pulled out something that looked like a leather bustier with a tiny scrap of fabric looped over the hanger.

  She removed the thing from the hanger and handed it to Katy. “A little more dominant, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I guess.” The black leather would tug in her waist and push up her breasts. In fact, it wouldn’t even cover her breasts but would create a sort of shelf for them to sit on.

  “Put that on, and Grant won’t be going anywhere.”

  Not that he could because they’d be in a hotel room. But she wouldn’t let him yawn and retreat to the second bed, either. Xandra could be onto something here.

  “And there’s a trick with this,” Xandra said as she pulled the tiny bit of fabric from around the hook of the hanger. “Panties for underneath.”

  “What’s the trick with that?”

  Xandra laughed. “The most important part. It’s like your sex is covered, but in reality, it isn’t.”

  Xandra tossed the panties to Katy. They were made of black silk, with a slit up the middle that would expose her crotch. Grant would see the panties when she was standing, but when she laid down and parted her legs, nothing would keep his hands away from her sex. Definitely dirty.

  “Another idea,” Xandra said. “Are you going to be in a hotel?”

  “Somewhere in Rochester.”

  “I haven’t been in a hotel yet that didn’t have an adult channel on the television.”

  “That would show up on the team’s bill.” No way was she going to let any of them tease her about adult movies. Not after their snickering about the video.

  “So, you give the hotel your credit card and charge the room to you,” Xandra said. “Only you will see the bill that way.”

  “I could sneak down and do that, I guess.”

  “If you’re really lucky, they might have special adult rooms,” Xandra said. “You never know.”

  That was certainly a thought. She’d never done anything truly kinky with Grant. But since the divorce, he’d earned himself a reputation as a player—with a new woman every month or so. He’d been seen with several females at exclusive resorts, in grainy photographs taken with telephoto lenses. Half the time, she hadn’t even been sure the image had been him. But it didn’t really matter. His reputation as a ladies’ man was solid.

  Not that she’d been following his exploits or anything. But whenever his name popped up, she’d naturally check it out. On the other hand, she’d been so totally absorbed by her work, she’d hardly dated. Maybe she’d earned the right to try something more exotic.

  “You’re thinking it over, aren’t you?” Xandra asked.

  “More than thinking it over. I’m going to do it.”

  “Then let’s go all out.” Xandra reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out her phone. “I have just the app we need.”

  “And that would be…?”

  “SexIt.” Xandra tapped on an icon on her phone. “It shows all the erotic retreats in this country and abroad by zip code.”

  “I don’t know Rochester’s zip code.” Besides, other countries didn’t use zip codes, did they?

  “No matter. I’ll just put in Rochester, New York.”

  Katy hadn’t thought about the possibility of there being an erotic retreat in a place like upstate New York. But then, she didn’t often think about Rochester at all.

  “Bingo,” Xandra said as she handed Katy the phone. There were three locations right off the top. One looked as if it had been constructed in a restored Victorian house. At least, that one might have a modicum of taste. “Send me the link to the first one.”

  Xandra tapped a few keys. “Done.”

  The message tone sounded on Katy’s phone. When she opened it, she found the link. “I’m going to see if they have a reservation for tomorrow.”

  “Then my work here is done,” Xandra said. “No, wait…you need pheromones.”

  “I do?”

  “Everyone can use a little insurance.” Xandra went to her dresser and pulled open the top drawer. “Once he gets a sniff of this on you, he’ll be up for hours of fun.”

  “I don’t want to have to take him to the emergency room.”

  “Hey, one more idea.” Xandra pulled out a few bottles and set them on the dresser. “You can have my latest shipment of sex toys. I haven’t even opened it.”

  With that, Xandra left the room, leaving Katy to study the website of Hansen House on her phone. If things went well, she’d be spending the next night there with Grant. And pheromones and Xandra’s latest shipment of sex toys.

  Xandra returned with a small box wrapped in plain brown paper. “Here you go. My gift to the two of you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Get plenty of sleep tonight because tomorrow you’ll be up until dawn with a man who can’t get enough of you.”

  She and Grant had never gone all night, and maybe it wasn’t physically possible. But they’d had plenty of times when one of them would wake the other for seconds. She’d wear the bustier along with its crotchless panties and douse herself in the pheromones. Anything to make sure Grant had the most erotic night of his life.

  …

  Grant looked out the cab’s window as it drove into a quiet part of town, away from the hotel
where the other players on the tour were staying. It was a neighborhood Katy would normally call “nice.” Older homes on large lots. Occasionally, they’d pass a B&B or a small shopping enclave.

  Katy smiled the whole time and gave him useless answers to his questions—responses like, “You’ll see,” and, “It’ll be nicer this way.” Without explaining what “way” this “way” was, exactly.

  Then there had been, “I thought we could spend at least one night alone together.” The thing was…they were going to do that at the team hotel. They only had one room, so they would have had to deal with the question of who would sleep where.

  Hey, wait a minute. Had she planned this so they could have separate rooms? Yeah, he’d bailed on her the night before, refusing to see if her invitation for a drink had included something more. Could she have thought he hadn’t wanted her? Maybe his little attempt at teasing her had backfired.

  “You didn’t go through all this so we don’t have to share a room, did you?” he asked.

  She laughed, tipping back her head and letting loose the sort of throaty sound that usually meant mischief. Katy didn’t play around much, but when she did…watch out. She threw all her boundless energy and intellect into the mix.

  The cab turned onto a long driveway that led to a house set far off the road behind a tall hedge. Some of the other structures had been large, but this one had a huge footprint and was three stories tall. Grant had to crane his neck to check it out, and even when the cab stopped and he climbed out, he still almost fell over backward taking it all in.

  After she paid the cab and it left, she sidled up to him. “What do you think?”

  “Are we buying it or something?”

  More of that laughter. “By the time we leave, you’ll wish we could.”

  What in hell was that supposed to mean?

  She grabbed her overnight bag and headed up the path toward the porch that circled the first floor.

  He was totally off his game. Normally, he’d call the cab and pay for it. He’d carry the luggage. But from the moment she’d announced they were sneaking out of the room the team had reserved for him for their one night here, she’d made him promise to trust her. So, here he was, bounding up the stairs of a strange house, after her. So they could spend some time alone together, according to Katy.

  Inside, they entered a small reception area, empty except for a young man behind the desk.

  “Good evening,” the man said. “Mr. Howard and Ms. McCord, correct?”

  “He knows who we are already?” Grant asked.

  “We timed our arrival for now,” she answered.

  “So everything remains private,” the young man explained. “We wouldn’t want our guests bumping into each other.”

  “Especially the celebrities whose pictures could end up in unsavory places,” Katy answered.

  “Exactly,” the man said.

  All right. Weird to weirder. Why would any unsavory place want to know if he was standing in the reception area of a B&B with his ex-wife?

  The man handed Katy an old-fashioned key that would fit in an actual lock. “Number 4 at the top of the stairs.”

  Grant let her go first. This was her idea. He was just along for the ride. There wasn’t a sound as they walked down a hallway filled with Victorian flourishes and polished dark wood wainscoting. He watched her hips swing as she climbed the stairs. She might have been accentuating the movement for his benefit, but who cared? He got a great view of a world-class butt by standing back a bit.

  Maybe she had plans for the evening and “spending time together” would turn out the way her birthday had. He could perform in a stultifying old place with a portrait of someone’s granny looking down on him. In fact, she’d taken charge of the situation so neither of them would have to feel awkward. He could kiss her for it, and he would. In multiple places on her body.

  When they got to Door #4, she put the key into the lock and let them in. The sounds hit him first. In contrast to the silence outside, the room was filled with heavy breathing and moaning. The sweet sounds of people having really good sex.

  He took her arm and pulled her close to him. “Are we in the right room?”

  “You betcha, big guy.”

  She only called him that when she was really happy with him. They were alone, and the sounds were coming out of speakers situated around the room.

  “Recorded sex?” he asked.

  “It’s supposed to set the mood.”

  It could do that, all right. It sounded real, and whoever had recorded it had done a fine job. The woman was nearing orgasm.

  Katy went to the dresser and set a box from her overnight bag on top. She named each item as she removed it. “Vibrator, liquid pheromones, peppermint oil.”

  “What’s that last one for?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him. “It makes erogenous zones supersensitive.”

  “I guess this place isn’t as stodgy at it looks.”

  She went to a bookshelf and turned it around to reveal a case full of riding crops, knives, and other items he’d never set eyes on before. “Welcome to Hansen House, Rochester’s finest erotic B&B.”

  “You did all this for me?”

  “I don’t see anyone else here.” She pushed a button, and several of the wooden panels in the walls moved to expose mirrors positioned exactly where you’d want them, if you planned to watch yourself having sex.

  Just then, the woman in the recording climaxed with a shout. Her partner followed soon after with an even louder expression of his pleasure. The room fell into silence.

  “It’ll start up again in a bit,” she said. “Or we can watch it on TV.”

  “Anything else I should know about?”

  “There’s a sunken tub in the bathroom. Big enough for two. With jets.”

  “Katy, Katy, Katy, you’re something else.”

  She went to him, ran her arms around his waist, and looked up at him. “You left me last night.”

  “I wasn’t sure of my invitation. Plus, the condo has too many memories in it.” Many of Grant and Katy screaming at each other. But maybe facing the good ones would hurt more. They’d had Christmases there and birthdays. Katy and his mom, who’d bonded with his new wife immediately, cooking together.

  “I thought maybe I’d lost my touch with you completely,” she said.

  “Never. No matter what, I’ll always want you.” Which would make leaving her again as hard as hell. But if this little interlude managed to fix things up between her and her boss, he’d have done the right thing. Otherwise, how would he look at himself in the mirror? And in this case, being the good guy had its definite benefits.

  “You’ve been living a wild ride since the divorce,” she said.

  “It’s exaggerated.”

  “All of it?”

  He never blushed, but his cheeks got warm. “Not all.”

  “I want to know everything you’ve done with other women, so I can do it for you here. Tonight.”

  “We don’t have that kind of time.”

  She jabbed at his ribs with her fingers.

  “Hey!” he said. “What was that for?”

  “Being a wise-ass.”

  “Katy, I’m not going to tell you what I did with other women. That’s confidential.” Besides, it might only make her jealous, and ticking her off could ruin what promised to be a fantastic night. On top of that, he’d done a few things he didn’t care to repeat with anyone, not even Katy.

  “Then tell me what your hottest fantasy is,” she said.

  He could answer “sex with you,” but that wouldn’t supply much information. The realization rocked him to his socks, though. When he boiled his every desire since the divorce down to its core, the answer was…“making love with Katy.” Where could he go with that?

  His friend, Adam, c
ame back to mind. After years apart from his first love, Adam had discovered sex with other women could be good or damned good, but it couldn’t compare to being with the woman he loved, the woman he married. Trouble was, Grant had married Katy, and that had turned out to be a disaster.

  “Let’s work through a couple of things,” he said. “I want to see what that peppermint oil does to you.”

  “Oooh, I like the sound of that.”

  “And using the vibrator to get you really hot.”

  “This is supposed to be your fantasy,” she said.

  “What makes you think that isn’t?” He pulled her against him. “We’d better get down to business if we’re going to make full use of this wonderful room you got us.”

  She gazed up at him with a wicked smile on her face, the kind that promised fun and games. “Think you can keep up with me, or are you going to need some little blue pills?”

  “I can never keep up with you. I like to give you three orgasms to my one.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “And you’re the only blue pill I need.”

  “Alrighty, then.” She molded her body to his as she kissed him. They always fit together so perfectly, her soft breasts pressed into his chest while his growing erection found a home against her belly. From the beginning, she’d driven his libido into fifth gear. He could go from mildly interested to fully aroused in seconds. Back in the day, he’d thought he could get that excited that fast because of his age—not far from his sexual peak. But Katie’s effect on him had never worn off. Even now, after all the anger and sadness of the divorce, he still craved her. Like a drug.

  So, as he moved his lips over hers, his brain shifted into sex-with-Katy mode. He was ready for her, and he would give her a mind-blowing orgasm, then do it all again as soon as he’d rested a bit. Even if his erection wouldn’t come back for seconds, he still had his fingers and his tongue. And the vibrator and the other toys she’d brought.

  She parted her lips under his and moaned into his mouth. Katy never faked anything, and the sound meant she felt the same driving need he did. He’d take care of her. He’d take her to heaven and bring her back to him.