“Hoping to run into someone tall, dark, and handsome,” Elvis said to him suggestively. Then he looked over at Carmina and winked. “But I see that you’re taken. You finally said yes, huh?” he asked Carmina.
“He never asked,” she said in surprise. “And when he did, I said yes.” She smiled at Elvis. He was hard to resist.
“He’s had a thing for you for ages,” Elvis said in a stage whisper.
“I’m sitting right here,” Tom said. He was making a face, but Carmina could tell he was blushing. Elvis reached over and brushed Tom’s short hair back.
“Ah, sweetie, you might as well be a million miles away,” he said wistfully. “But we had a good run, didn’t we?”
“We did,” Tom said. “Don’t be a stranger.”
“You owe me game tickets,” Elvis said over his shoulder as he walked away. “Don’t forget.” Carmina could see a good-looking Wall Street type in an expensive suit waiting for Elvis over by the stairs. They disappeared after Elvis gave them one last wave.
“That was a coincidence,” Carmina said, watching Tom to see if he was upset seeing Elvis with another guy.
“Not really,” Tom said. “This is where I met Elvis. It’s his favorite place. He didn’t make you uncomfortable, did he?”
“No,” she said honestly. “I’m just wondering how many of your ex-lovers we’re going to run into tonight.”
“I hope no more,” Tom said fervently. “Or if we do, I hope they’re like Elvis, cool about it.”
“Me, too,” Carmina agreed. “I don’t want to be on anyone’s hit list.”
“I don’t think anyone cares that much.” Carmina gave him a skeptical look. “Seriously,” Tom said. “I haven’t been serious with anyone down here. For most people, I’m an attraction, like the performing monkey at the zoo. Great to see him put on a show, but they don’t want to take him home.”
“Tom” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s right. Everyone wants to take you home. They’re standing in line.”
“Not for Tom,” he said. “For Tom Kelly, boy Rebel.” He laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not too upset about it. Like I said, I haven’t been serious about anyone, haven’t wanted to be.” He shook his finger at her. “Don’t think you’ve made me forget that we were talking about your problem. I think that I have a solution.”
Chapter 11
Tom was trying to ease into his plan for Carmina, because she looked pretty freaked out and he didn’t want her to run away. Seeing Elvis hadn’t helped. “I think you need to experiment.”
“Experiment?” she echoed. She looked confused and very alarmed. Shaking her head firmly, she said, “I like guys.”
“Good to know,” Tom said. “But that’s not what I meant. I was talking about just trying new things and seeing if they worked for you. To help you…you know.” He wasn’t sure how open she was to discussing it here. Sitting together in bed and talking about it after having sex was different. He’d considered ambushing her to put the plan in motion, just jump her and introduce some kinky shit without warning her. But somehow he didn’t think she’d appreciate that. She’d been ambushed enough for one lifetime, and she deserved the opportunity to make those decisions for herself, anyway. He didn’t have the right to do it for her.
“What kind of new things?” She was looking at him skeptically, but she didn’t shut him down, which he took as a good sign.
“Nothing crazy, unless you want to go there,” he said, watching her carefully. “Is there anything you’ve always wanted to try that’s, I don’t know, a little out of the ordinary?”
“Ordinary, like…” She held her palms together, laying them flat in the air.
“Missionary?” Tom guessed. She nodded and he resisted the urge to shake his head in disbelief. Had he really been this naïve less than a year ago? He supposed he had. “Yeah,” he said. “Like that. Ordinary positions, places, people.” As he listed the options, her eyes got wider and wider.
“When I was…trying to do it myself, I thought of some stuff,” she admitted, blushing and looking away from him.
“All right,” Tom said. “That’s what I’m talking about. Like what?” He leaned forward, eager to hear what she’d fantasized about.
“We should eat,” she said, picking up a wing. She bit into it, ignoring his question.
“You are not getting out of it that easily,” Tom told her, shaking a wing at her before he bit into it. She grinned while she chewed.
“What about public sex?” Tom asked a few minutes later. He’d waited until Carmina’s mouth wasn’t full because he didn’t want her to choke again.
“What?” she practically squealed. She looked around to make sure no one was listening.
“You may have noticed at my place a few weeks ago that I sort of get off on other people watching,” Tom admitted. “But that can lead to trouble if you’re not careful.”
“I know,” she said, rolling her eyes. She took another bite of chicken, watching him the whole time, as if she were assessing him. “So you do that a lot?” she finally asked, wiping barbeque sauce off her fingers.
“Not all the time. But a few times. The thing is, people know me. They know who I am and they expect stuff like that. So I guess for me it’s NBD. No big deal, right?” Saying it out loud made him a little uncomfortable. For months he hadn’t worried about what people thought of him. But he worried what Carmina would think.
“Doesn’t that bother you?” she asked, frowning. “The expectations of bad behavior?”
“I don’t really think of it as bad behavior. I mean, sure, not everybody does it, but it isn’t behavior that hurts anyone else, right? It’s more like breaking the rules, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah,” Carmina said. “I guess. But still. Would you do it if people didn’t expect it?”
“I did it the first time,” he said. “They didn’t expect that.” That wasn’t exactly true. The first time he’d done it had been with Danny, Tyler, Cass, and Beau, with Marian. And they had expected it because he was a good friend, and that’s why they asked him to do it. But he couldn’t tell Carmina that, because it wasn’t totally his secret to tell. And if it was only with friends, did that make it public? “We could just pick one person to watch, a friend. Like Danny,” he suggested. “He watches me all the time.” He paused. “Which sounds way weirder than it is, I swear.” Or maybe not. Great impression you’re making, he thought to himself.
“Oh my God, no,” Carmina said firmly. “Strangers.”
“You’d rather have sex in front of strangers?” Tom clarified.
“Yes,” Carmina said. “Absolutely.”
“Then finish your wings,” he told her. “We’re going downstairs.”
—
Carmina was practically hyperventilating as Tom took her in his arms on the dance floor. The music was fast—a hard-driving techno beat, the lights flashing, the crowd crushing them. But when he wrapped one arm around her waist and tucked her in against his body and began grinding against her she lost that suffocated feeling. He smelled like he had last night. It was familiar now, but still sexy and arousing. Tentatively, she placed her hands on his hips and moved with him.
“I know you’ve got more rhythm than that,” he told her, his lips pressed against her ear to be heard over the music. “Just let the music take you there. Forget everything else.”
Carmina closed her eyes, determined to make this work. But telling her to forget everything else and basically stop thinking was like telling the grass to stop being green. Her eyes flew open when she felt Tom’s hand slide into her hair. He tugged on it, pulling her head back so that she was looking up at him.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he said. He pressed his mouth to hers. “I want you to watch me, to see me, to see where we are.” He didn’t move back as he spoke, and his lips moving against hers like that made her heart pound and her palms sweat. “Kiss me. Hard. Show me how much you want to come. Right here. Now.”
&n
bsp; At that moment he didn’t look like sweet Tom who wanted to mow your lawn. He looked like a bad boy who wanted to rip her panties off and fuck her on the dance floor, and she could feel her body reacting to him. Her nipples pebbled and the soft material of her bra rubbed against them, making her shiver. Her pussy was throbbing in time to the music and the lights, and she let herself free-fall into the moment and into the heat and intensity of his gaze. She licked his lower lip and then she bit it, and Tom growled into her mouth. As the sound rumbled off her lips she sealed them over his, locking the vibrations inside. She slid her tongue into his mouth, slanted her head, and kissed him with abandon, watching him as he’d demanded. His eyes were so intense and hot that she felt a shiver of thrilling apprehension course through her. She was hyperaware of the crowd around them; could feel strangers watching them, strangers who knew what they were going to do, knew that she and Tom were going to fuck, that he wanted her. He was right. It turned her on. She slid her arms up and around his broad shoulders and he insinuated his knee between her legs so that she was grinding her pussy on his hard thigh. She moaned, and for a moment she tried to stifle it. Then she remembered what they were doing and she moaned again, louder this time.
Tom cupped her ass in his big hands and pulled her hard against his leg as he took over the kiss. The gentle lover from last night was gone, replaced by a man who let desire rule him. Somehow he knew what she needed. She thrust against him in time to the music, the beat throbbing in her veins, the music and heat making her dizzy. She was holding him so tightly now, her hands cupping the back of his head, her fingers pressed to his skull as their kiss turned ferocious and even more carnal. She’d never done this before, never misbehaved so badly in a public place. She’d been taught only bad girls did things like this, women who let themselves be used. But she was driving this encounter, no matter how forceful Tom was. She knew it instinctively. He was taking his cues from her, letting her set the pace, and it was empowering. At that moment she knew he’d do anything she wanted.
Tom picked her up then, his hands on her ass, and carried her off the dance floor. She wasn’t sure where they were going, but when he slammed her back against a wall she moaned and wrapped her legs around his waist.
“Carmina,” he said, panting in her ear. “Let me touch you. Let me touch your pussy right here where everyone can see what I’m doing. I want to shove my hand down your pants and fuck you with my fingers. Say yes.” He sucked on her neck, squeezing one of her breasts. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw that they were in a secluded corner of the club, where it was dark, but there were several tall tables around them. The table nearest them was surrounded by a large group of people about their age. They watched her and Tom, a couple of them laughing, but most of them getting turned on. She could see it in the way they watched, the look in their eyes, the way they leaned into and touched each other. They were getting off on her and Tom making out in front of them.
“Yes,” she said. She pressed her breast into his palm and he shoved her blouse out of the way, then reached into her bra to caress her. It felt so good that she moaned, running one hand up into his hair while she held on to his shoulder with the other, trying to support herself. As he reached down and undid the button on her jeans she used her legs to push up and give him room.
“You’re hot for it,” Tom said roughly. “You want it.”
“Yes,” she admitted without shame. “Please.” When he roughly shoved his hand down her pants, she moaned and thrust against it, seeking the fingers he’d promised her. When he slid them into her she cried out, not caring who heard her.
“So wet,” Tom said, kissing her jaw, then biting it. “Look down at my hand,” he whispered harshly. “Watch yourself.”
Using the hand on the back of Tom’s head to steady herself, she looked down as she rode his fingers. She could see the muscles in his forearm flexing as he moved his hand. He was holding her up with just one hand on her ass as he finger-fucked her. That was so hot, that he was strong enough to do that.
Suddenly she remembered Richie doing something similar. He’d surprised her and pulled her behind a Humvee in the hot desert sun, lifted her up and pinned her just like this and kissed the living daylights out of her for just a few seconds. Then he’d let her go and walked off as if nothing had happened, leaving her breathless and laughing. That was the first time he’d kissed her. She’d been amazed that no one had seen them. Later that night she’d told him not to do anything like that again, that she was too worried about getting caught.
The mood was broken. She pulled away from Tom’s kiss abruptly. “Stop,” she said, resting her forehead on his shoulder. “Stop.”
Tom stopped his movements, his breathing hard and fast, but he didn’t remove his hand. “Are you okay?” he asked. She shook her head.
“I can’t.” It was all she could say, but it was enough. Tom immediately pulled his hand out of her pants and cupped both hands under her ass again.
“Okay,” he said. No questions. “Want me to put you down?”
She nodded, but she really wanted to say no. She wanted to wrap her arms and legs around him and just let him hold her for a while. But she didn’t tell him that. That’s not what guys wanted to hear when you were doing something like this. “I’m sorry.”
He kissed her temple as he gently lowered her until her feet were on the ground. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. He grinned. “I think you’re making progress.”
Her smile was feeble and she knew it. Her body was still throbbing with need, but she knew she’d ruined the moment with her thinking again. “Thanks.”
He buttoned her jeans for her, their foreheads touching. “Come on,” he told her. “I’ll take you to the grocery store. Maybe we can make out in the produce aisle. Vegetables are sexy.”
She laughed, but she wasn’t too sure he was kidding.
Chapter 12
The ring of his phone woke him and he grabbed it and hit Answer automatically.
“Tom?”
“Yeah?” he said, clearing his throat. He rolled over and checked the clock. Seven a.m. Who was calling him this early? He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked down at the screen. Carmina. That woke him up. “Is something wrong?” When he’d left her at her place with her groceries last night, she’d been fine. He’d been the one with a case of blue balls and severe depression when she didn’t ask him to stay. He still wasn’t sure what had gone wrong last night.
“No, nothing wrong,” she said. “I’m sorry. My hot water won’t work. I called. But they can’t fix it until later. I have an appointment. Sam isn’t home. No one is.” She sounded a little panicked. Her sentences were kind of choppy.
“You want me to call a plumber?” he asked, not sure what she wanted him to do. “I can’t fix that.”
“No. I need a shower.”
“Oh, shit. Okay. Yeah, you can use mine. Come on over.”
“Thanks,” she said, relief in her voice. “Five minutes.” She hung up without saying goodbye. She hadn’t said hello either. Talking to her on the phone was like talking to his dad.
Tom climbed out of bed and pulled on some shorts. When he went out in the hallway he noticed Danny’s door was still closed. They’d been up late playing videogames and watching game film from last week. They didn’t need to be at the arena until ten for conditioning, and then they were going to run some new plays. He got a glass of water and was heading toward the door when he heard a light knock. He pulled it open to see Carmina standing there with a full tote bag, wearing sweats and a T-shirt with some Nike slides. She looked like she just got out of bed, too. But her morning look was sexy. His morning look was more like a train wreck.
“I woke you,” she said, frowning as she stepped inside. “Sorry.”
“No, that’s okay,” he told her. “But I am going to catch another couple hours of sleep. You can use my bathroom. It won’t keep me awake.”
“No,” she protested. “I can just go take a cold shower.
” She turned back to the door. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Stop,” he said, grabbing her arm. “It’s fine. Seriously.” He tugged her down the hallway. “I’m a good sleeper. A sound sleeper. Sorry, I’m not a morning person. You must be, because it’s early. Anyway, I’ll sleep.” They were passing the hall bathroom and she stopped, jerking him to a stop as well. She pointed to the bathroom.
“I can use this one?” she asked. “Okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a laugh. “I forgot. Two bathrooms. Yeah. Danny uses that one but he’s still asleep. I know he won’t mind.” He leaned past her and turned on the light. “He’s got towels in the closet over there.”
She stepped in and looked around nervously.
“Really, he won’t mind.” Tom reached down and took her hand and she gave him her attention. “Hey, are you sure you’re all right? I mean, after last night?” She nodded.
“I’m good,” she said. “Maybe no more public sex.” She wrinkled her nose. “Didn’t work.”
“Got it,” Tom said. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll think of something else. As soon as I wake up.” He turned and headed back to his bedroom. “See you, sexy Carmina.” Her laughter followed him into bed and he went back to sleep with a smile.
—
Danny heard hushed voices in the hallway as he lay there, half-asleep and half-awake. Tom must have had a booty call after they went to bed last night. He smiled, his eyes still closed. That guy had more stamina than anyone he knew. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head. Another day, another opportunity to play football. Some feel-good doctor-guru one of his former teams had hired to help him with his anger issues had taught him that daily affirmation. Said it would help him start the day on a positive note. Danny would never admit it, but the guy had been right. Football was everything to him. He’d sacrificed just about everything to play, and he didn’t take it for granted.
Misconduct Page 8
