Sweet and wild, prim and proper Kelsie had hidden an erotic streak that would challenge even a jaded man like him. He nibbled on her lower lip before plunging his tongue back into her mouth.
“Zach. Oh, Zach.” Her throaty whimper almost brought him to his knees, while her tongue tangled with his.
Something in her voice struck him as odd and penetrated into his fuzzy brain. She was using him for his money, for what he could do for her business. She didn’t care about him. Sex was just another way to control a man. She knew all the tricks and most likely had learned quite a few more since she’d been in high school.
Don’t trust her.
Once he slept with her, it’d be all over. He’d be her slave, do anything she wanted. Then she’d dump his ass for the next pretty boy who came along and offered more than Zach. She was the beauty to his beast. It’d never work. She never meant for it to. The sooner he got that in his thick skull, the better. He was a means to an end, not the final goal.
Calling on every ounce of willpower he possessed, Zach let go and jerked away from her. Rapidly backing up, he put several feet between them and extended his arms, palms out, to keep her away.
Kelsie looked up at him through heavy-lidded eyes and confusion flitted across her features. Worrying on her lower lip with her teeth, she smoothed her hair back from her face. Her breasts rose and fell, and her nipples poked against the cotton fabric. He couldn’t drag his gaze away from her chest until Kelsie wrapped her arms around herself as if protecting her body from his ogling. He really was an uncouth beast and an idiot to boot.
Unable to face her or himself, Zach fled the room like a cowardly kicker as the opposing team bore down on him.
* * * * *
Shivering in the cold room, Kelsie waited until minutes later when she heard Zach’s old truck rumble out of the driveway and down the street. She ran to her car and stuffed a bag with clean clothes, makeup, and shampoo.
Entering his bathroom, she touched a finger to her lips where Zach’s rough mouth teased hers only moments earlier. Dazed, she shook off the aftereffects of an erotic journey with an untamed man. If Zach hadn’t ended it, she’d be vertical on the couch right now with his big body on top of hers, moving over her, inside her.
Such thoughts should’ve horrified her. Instead, the wetness between her legs increased, and the rest of her body echoed a resounding “yes.”
The man exuded sex appeal albeit in a primitive way. Perhaps primitive appealed to her. Perhaps she’d had her fill of deceptively cultured men, men who knew how to dress and act while they lied and led double lives. Maybe she’d traded in that false dream for one of a man who said what he thought and didn’t fret the consequences. An honest man. A rare breed in her world. Or at least her former world.
Turning on the water for the jetted tub, Kelsie stripped off her clothes. Glancing around and not finding any bubble bath, she poured a generous amount of Zach’s cheap shampoo into the water and climbed into a warm, soapy heaven. She pressed the button for the jets, and sank down into the water. The pulsing jets didn’t cure what ailed her. She needed a man’s hands on her body, a man’s penis inside her, and a man’s lips on her breasts. But the man she wanted had just rejected her.
But she had the jets and her imagination.
As if she’d done this before—which she hadn’t—she spread her legs wide, bracing her feet against the side of the tub and positioned herself so one of the jets hit just the right spot. She pulled her nether lips apart and adjusted her hips until the needle-tight, pulsing spray of warm water caressed the folds of her sex. She turned up the jets and slipped a finger deep inside her. Letting the water stroke her aroused clit, she thrust her finger in and out. Her orgasm built inside her, compounded by the water assaulting her clit and her finger creating its own brand of sexual pleasure. She imagined Zach’s big hands on her body, running up her sides, cupping her breasts, tweaking the nipples, finally sliding between her legs. He’d part her thighs and plunge two fingers to the knuckles inside her, moving them in and out in a rhythm. Then he’d replace those fingers with his large body. His penis would slide inside her, filling her, his sweaty, hot body rubbing against hers.
Oh, mercy. Saints in heaven, save her from this man.
Kelsie pumped her fingers harder. Harder. Harder. She came in a rush, crying out into the large, empty bathroom. “Zach. Oh, Zach. Yes. Yes. Yes.”
She closed her eyes and let her orgasm carry her away until her slamming heart slowed in her chest and the blood stopped pounding in her ears. Far off in the distance, she heard a noise, like heavy footsteps. She blinked several times, trying to process her thoughts. A sound much like a man’s gasp penetrated the haze. She craned her neck toward the door.
“I forgot my wallet.” Zach stood a few feet away, staring down at her. His brown eyes dilated and his nostrils flared, he looked every bit the wild, untamed male ready to claim his mate.
And she felt every bit like the female wanting to be claimed.
* * * * *
Zach couldn’t move, not even to blink.
Kelsie started to scramble out of the tub, must have realized he’d see her in all her naked glory, then sank back into the water. Oh, God, he should’ve kept walking when he’d peeked in the bathroom to see what all the groaning and splashing was about.
He’d almost expected to see her getting it on with one of his teammates, maybe a rookie with a big contract. Instead, he’d caught her getting it on with his jetted tub.
He couldn’t leave. Not now. He’d die first, and his randy body would never forgive him. Despite every warning bell jangling in his head, his body ruled this moment. She looked so hot and sexy in his tub, her eyes half-lidded from coming. Soap subs concealed part of her body but not those perfect nipples he’d dreamed about from adolescence to adulthood. He had to sample her. Just this once. He had to know if the fantasy came anywhere close to the reality, had to touch the creamy skin, had to sink his hands under the water and find her sweet spots.
She started to lift her body out of the tub. He put a restraining hand on her shoulder. The hot, wet contact traveled through his fingers, up his arm, and straight into his bloodstream, immediately disengaging his brain and engaging other parts. “Don’t move. You look like a woman who could use a man’s touch instead of her own.” His voice sounded foreign to his own ears, deep and gravelly and barely in control.
Zach hesitated briefly, giving her a moment to protest. She didn’t. He shucked out of his jeans, briefs, and T-shirt in record time. Kelsie swallowed and licked her lips, her eyes on his erection.
Oh, God, thank you for this gift from heaven.
He sank to his knees next to the tub. She met him halfway. Her warm, plump lips welcomed his. The next thing he knew, she thrust her tongue into his mouth, taking the lead. He let her have it. Gladly. She sucked his tongue into her mouth, circled it with her own tongue, breathed life into him like no woman ever had. Her soapy breasts rubbed against his hairy chest. A groan was ripped from his throat, as she kissed him with reckless enthusiasm.
Out of breath, she pulled back, a smile on her face, and a wicked twinkle in those blue eyes. “There’s room for two in here.”
“Oh, yeah.” He grinned and started to get into the tub. She splayed a hand across his chest to halt him.
“Condom?”
“Oh. Yeah. Condom.” She wanted him to get a condom? That meant they were doing it. Really doing it. He scrambled to his feet and ripped open drawers in the bathroom vanity. Stuff went flying as he frantically look for a condom. Oh, crap. Where the hell was one? It wasn’t like he brought women here or even had women during the season.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
Faster than he hustled onto a football field, he hustled into the bedroom and rummaged through drawers, desperate to find one condom. Nothing. He ran down the stairs, taking them three at a time, out to his truck. Checked the glove box. There had to be a condom somewhere.
Only there wasn’t. Not one.
Not a damn one.
His dick shriveled in disappointment.
He trudged back upstairs, back to the bathroom. Kelsie was out of the tub and in his bathrobe, staring at him with shuttered eyes. He’d taken too long. His shoulders slumped, and he leaned against the door jamb, attempting to look casual.
“I thought you’d changed your mind.” She shot him a tentative smile as she pulled on a pair of very small panties. Her gaze flicked to his dick, and it immediately rose to attention.
“I couldn’t find a damn condom.” Frustration seeped into his voice, he couldn’t help it.
She shrugged and stared at the floor. “Call it divine intervention. So not a good idea. You and me, that is.”
Hell, he’d known that, but he hadn’t cared when he’d seen her masturbating in his tub. The blood returned to his brain as it escaped his penis, like troops retreating from a losing battle.
Without a word, he quickly pulled on his clothes and left the house for the second time this morning, before they both changed their minds and decided to go with unprotected sex.
Someone up there was looking out for him.
Damn it.
CHAPTER 10
Blitzed
A few nights later, Zach cradled the urn he’d carried around with him for sixteen years. He ran a hand across his eyes to wipe off a combination of rain and tears. He swallowed around the big lump in his throat, then he carefully placed his baby brother’s ashes in the small hole he’d dug in his backyard.
Wade, his younger brother by two years, stood next to him and hiccupped, drawing his sleeve across his face. Zach bowed his head and slid a glance at Wade. His brother’s brows scrunched together then he bent his own dark head.
Clasping his hands in front of him, Zach pushed the words past the boulder-sized lump in his throat. “I don’t know if you’re really out there, God, but I hope you are. I hope life doesn’t end after we die because our little brother deserves a better life than the short one he got on earth.”
“Amen.” Wade’s voice cracked from the pain of their shared loss.
“Amen.” Zach raised his head and picked up the shovel. Grief shot sharp arrows of agony through his heart. He tossed the first shovel full of dirt into the hole. Wade took the shovel from him and followed his lead. The only sound was the thud, thud, thud of the dirt landing in the hole and the patter of raindrops on the ground.
Dropping the shovel, Zach raised his face to the skies. Big drops of rain pelted his forehead, ran down his cheeks, into his eyes, plastering his hair to his head. He didn’t care. Not one bit. Neither did Wade. Their clothes stuck to them like they’d fallen overboard on stormy seas. In some ways they had.
Zach picked up a cool marble slab the size of a coffee-table book. Kneeling down, he placed it on top of the exposed earth. He ran a finger over the indentations on the marble, squinting in the light of dusk to read aloud the words he’d committed to heart.
Gary Joseph Murphy
Beloved brother and best friend
Finally home at last
Rest in peace
Looking skyward again, the rain mixed with his tears. “I promised you a big Victorian home with a view one day, little brother. I hope you like it.” His last couple of words hung in the air with no other sound than the patter of a steady rainfall.
Finally, Wade cleared his throat. “He loves it.” His brother pushed at loose dirt with his toe and shoved his hands in the pockets of his raincoat.
The rain stopped as if the hand of God moved across the skies. A few rays of the setting sun poked through the clouds, spreading diamonds of light across the waters of Puget Sound below. A ferry chugged toward Elliot Bay, delivering residents to downtown Seattle. Large fir trees stood on guard around the yard as a slight breeze rustled their limbs. The stately old mansion embraced them like a grandmother welcoming her grandchild home from war.
It was the type of view he and Gary dreamed of having one day.
Zach’s mind transported him back to the trailers he’d lived in, the cars, the back alleys. His family never lived anywhere more than a few months before their dad started drinking again and lost whatever current job he’d managed to finagle. Then they’d be booted out on their asses and sent on their way. Each place was worse than the one before it or not a place at all but a car or a tent.
Until that night.
That fateful night exactly seventeen years to the day was burned into Zach’s memory like a wildfire ravaging the landscape of the forest, leaving ugly black scars. Wade and Zach were big enough their father couldn’t overpower them anymore. Not so Gary, who’d always been more sickly and slight then his older brothers, and they’d become his protector.
That weekend their father had been languishing in jail again. Zach didn’t even remember for what. Their mother was having an affair with a bottle and had passed out on the living room couch. Life as normal in the Murphy household. Wade slipped out for a hot date.
Despite the possibility that the asshole who fathered them could be released at any time, Zach couldn’t resist attending a local beauty pageant to lust over the unattainable Kelsie. She’d actually mentioned the pageant to him that morning in biology class, which was as good as an invitation in Zach’s book. He’d snuck into the back row of the auditorium, clutching pink grocery-store roses in his big hand.
Kelsie had strutted her stuff in a skimpy evening gown, while he’d fantasized about touching her creamy skin and kissing those plump, pink lips. Afterward, he’d paced back and forth at the backstage door, rehearsing his words, and working himself into a lather.
Kelsie waltzed out the door on the arm of Mark Richmond, the team’s star quarterback. She glanced Zach’s way. Her blue eyes flicked to the flowers in his hand, and so did her date’s.
“Give it up, Murphy. She’s too good for you.” Richmond laughed and ushered Kelsie toward his car. She glanced over her shoulder, her expression full of pity, shame, or disgust. He’d never been sure which.
Defeated, Zach walked the three miles home, head down, tail between his legs. A block from his house, flashing lights had illuminated the usually dreary neighborhood. A crowd gathered on the pot-hole filled street to gape at the house with yellow, crime scene tape wrapped around it.
The very shack his dysfunctional family called home.
Wade stood alone near the crime scene tape. When he caught sight of his big brother, he threw his arms around Zach and sobbed a few coherent words. “He did it.”
“Did what?” Even then he knew the worst had happened.
“Shot Mom and beat Gary with a baseball bat. They don’t think Gary will make it through the night.” The anguish in Wade’s voice almost destroyed Zach, but he had to be strong for Wade and Gary.
The Cactus Prairie police had already hauled their father off to jail. Zach swore if he ever set eyes on that man again, he’d kill him. At fifteen Wade got sent to a great-aunt’s in Ontario. Zach’s coach took him in, not out of any burning desire to help him, but because his senior year of football was underway and the team needed him.
Gary hung on surrounded by tubes and machines. Zach spent every spare second holding vigil over his brother’s hospital bed.
Zach turned away from the view of Pudget Sound and glanced up at the bathroom window, recalling Kelsie’s soapy wet skin in his bathtub. She’d been his weakness then, and she still was. Several months later Gary succumbed to his injuries. That very night Zach went to the country club dance still reeling from Gary’s death hours earlier and hoping a night with Kelsie would help ease his pain. It hadn’t. She’d ripped his heart out that night in more ways than one. He’d never forgiven her. How did a person forgive that depth of cruelty?
Some of the most traumatic events in his teenage life were linked to Kelsie, as if she were his bad luck charm or something.
Damn, he’d almost slept with her a few mornings ago. He’d known from the moment he’d first spotted her in his freshman home room class that if he ever did it with he
r, there’d be no turning back. His heart would be lost to her forever.
All these years later, that bald fact still echoed the raw truth. He could not sleep with Kelsie. He’d never recover. She’d use him and leave him and his irreparably broken heart in her wake as she jetted off after a better catch.
Kelsie had to be down on her luck, living in some dump that she didn’t want to go home to at night. Why else was she in his bathtub? Why did she avoid telling him where she lived? Maybe she was living in a homeless shelter. Zach shook his head, finding it hard to believe her life had sunk that low. Not Kelsie. She’d find some way to manipulate some poor fool into parting with his money just for pleasure of gazing on her beauty every day.
Some poor fool like him.
“Hey,” Wade spoke softly.
Zach gave a guilt start and blinked rapidly. He’d forgotten his brother was even there. “I have to be getting back to the airport. I’ve got a game tomorrow.” Wade played damn good hockey on an NHL team that was currently a Stanley Cup contender.
“I’ll drive you.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll get a taxi.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.” To prove his point, Wade used his fancy smartphone to call for a ride. Sticking it back in his pocket, he turned to Zach. “How about a quick beer before I go?”
“Yeah, sure.” They walked inside. Zach snagged a couple brews from the fridge, popped the tops, and handed one to his brother, the only person left on this earth that he cared about other than his teammates.
Wade’s eagle eyes dissected him like they’d dissect an opposing team’s goalie. “How’s everything going?”
“We’re two and two, but we’ll get it together. Lots of young players on this team.”
“You and I’ve been stuck on some shitty teams over the years.” Wade held up his bottle. “Here’s to winning the Cup and a ring before we retire.”
Zach clinked his bottle against his brother’s. “We will.”
“Yeah, we will. I hear rumors Seattle might be getting an NHL team.”
Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance Page 11
