Tomcat

by Samantha Westlake

  It wasn't anything more, of course. Definitely not. He just enjoyed being in motion, holding a pretty girl in his arms. That was all.

  They danced together for several more songs, and soon Katy wasn't just following his movements passively. It didn't take long before she picked up the general motions of the dance, moving along with him, anticipating his moves. She grinned, her white teeth flashing as he let go of her, letting her spin on her own before returning to his hold.

  "I think I'm getting it!" she shouted when they next came together.

  Chase nodded, slipping his arm around her waist and guiding her into the next steps. "I think so, too!" he called back. "Mr. Henderson would be proud of you!"

  "Now I just have to master catching a ball, and I'll be ready for the NFL!" she shouted gaily as she let him sweep her up against him.

  The song came to an end, and several people around the edges of the dance floor applauded! It wasn't until the music had faded and the lights came back up a little brighter that Chase and Katy looked around and realized that, despite what Chase had said earlier, they'd managed to attract an audience.

  "Nice dancing!" one guy in a cowboy hat called out from his spot leaning on the bar.

  Still flushed and breathing quickly, Chase and Katy smiled at each other. "Another drink?" the football player asked.

  "Yes, please!" the short, curvy young woman in his arms responded, letting him keep hold of her arm as they headed off of the dance floor, towards the bar.

  "We'll be back in five minutes," the singer of the band called out into the microphone. "Grab some water, and then we'll have some more great songs ready to go!"

  Chapter Fourteen

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  This next time, as Chase swept me back out onto the dance floor, I didn't hesitate. This was fun, I told myself! I was really getting into this! Why had I always thought that dancing was so hard, that I couldn't keep a rhythm?

  Despite those fears, keeping up with Chase, when he had his arms out and around me, seemed easy, almost effortless. I loved when he spun me out, trusting that he wouldn't let me fall, that the tug would come at the right time to switch my direction and send me flying back into his arms where he could catch me.

  Even knowing that the other people standing around the edges of the dance floor were watching didn't bother me, much to my own surprise. For once, I was the center of attention, and I didn't mind it at all!

  By the time the band took its next break, I felt hot and flushed - the shots that we'd tossed back had definitely taken effect by this point. "Hey, maybe we could sit the next one out?" I asked Chase as we ducked over to the bar to get another gulp of liquid.

  "Sounds good. I think they have tables further back."

  As I followed Chase back deeper into the bar, I felt a sudden sense of deja vu. "Hey, does this feel familiar at all?" I asked him.

  He looked back at me, unsure of what I meant at first - and then his face cleared. "You think that I'm luring you back here to kiss you again?" he asked, grinning at me before taking a gulp on his beer.

  "I wouldn't put it past you," I shot back.

  He put on a hurt expression. "Oh, you think so little of me? You don't trust me to not kiss you?"

  "I don't trust you as far as I throw you," I told him. "That's why I'm out with you - to keep you from doing something stupid."

  "Right. And you definitely aren't enjoying yourself at all. This is all suffering for you."

  "Hey, I'm allowed to enjoy myself and chaperone you at the same time!" I defended. "Here's a booth, back over here. Now let's sit down, back in this place where we can't get into any trouble!"

  We slid into the booth; it was a corner booth, so we sat next to each other, our butts bumping against each other. I leaned back against Chase, propping my legs up on the leather of the booth's bench.

  "No trouble at all back here?" Chase commented, his arm snaking around me. "I'm sure we can manage something."

  I frowned, but I didn't want to move his arm off of my chest. He felt warm, but in a different way from the flushed heat running through my veins. Now that we weren't moving any longer, I suddenly felt a chill sweep through me, and the warmth of his arm helped to block some of my shivers.

  For a minute or two, we just sat there, both us getting our breath back. "Hey, Chase?" I finally spoke up, after another minute.

  "Yeah?"

  "Why did you kiss me that first night, anyway?"

  I felt him stiffen slightly. He didn't speak for a minute, waiting so long that I started to draw breath to repeat my question.

  "I don't know," he finally said, looking over at me. I could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. "I'm used to that always being, well, the next step, you know?"

  I shook my head. "The next step? What does that mean?"

  He slumped down a little further in the booth. "I don't know, not really. Most of my interactions with people are either in professional relationships, like my agent, or when they want to fuck me. I guess that I'm not good at the part in between, whatever that is."

  "You mean, being friends?"

  "Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a lot worse," Chase said, and I laughed. "But yeah, I guess I don't have much experience with making female friends."

  I twisted around a little as I leaned against him, turning so that I could look up at him as I leaned against him in the secluded booth. "Why can't you just treat me like a dude, then?"

  "I don't want to see most of my dude friends naked," he answered immediately, smirking down at me.

  "Really? I want to see most of your dude friends naked." The words slipped out before I could consider whether they were smart or not, but Chase laughed again.

  "But still, I don't think that I can just treat you like I would another man," he said after he finished laughing, returning back to the previous topic. "I can manage it for a couple minutes, but then I see or hear something that distracts me, and I slip back into my old method of seeing you."

  "What sort of thing do you see or hear?"

  He grinned again. "Well, right now with you leaning against me, I can totally see down your dress. That's a pretty distracting view."

  Gasping, I slapped a hand to my chest, trying to block him. "Oh my god, how long have you been looking at that for?"

  "Not long enough to get my fill of the view."

  I couldn't help smiling at his open flattery, but I still shook my head. "But this isn't going to work between the two of us. We can't just hook up, even if we both want to-"

  I bit my lip at that little slip, hoping that Chase didn't catch it. He didn't say anything, letting me continue, but the slight widening of his smirk told me that I hadn't been fortunate enough for him to overlook my accidental reveal.

  "-and anyway, what are we going to do when we have to interact in public? Pretend that we didn't get together that one time, that we can act professional around each other?"

  Chase just smiled at me for another minute, but I knew he was planning out a reply. "What if we tried something else?" he suggested.

  "Like what?"

  He shook his head, and I could see that he wasn't even totally sold on his own plan. "What if we started dating?"

  My mouth dropped open. "You're not serious." Was sexy football quarterback and superstar Seth Chase suggesting that we should go out and date, just because he wanted to fuck me?

  "I'm not totally convinced yet, but I'm serious about considering it," he answered. "Why not? That way, you wouldn't have to worry about things being awkward-"

  "But it doesn't solve the problem of us crossing professional lines!" I insisted.

  "Professional lines? Katy, you're supposed to promote the team, not deliver unbiased and balanced journalism here. As long as you don't start posting about how massive my dick is, I think we'll be fine with not crossing professional lines."

  On one hand, I thought to myself, he wasn't getting the entire story, and I felt like he was really pushing hard to con
vince me. Despite what he said, thinking of dating a player on the team I worked for felt like crossing far too many ethical lines. Besides, I knew Chase's past - and the thought of him dating seemed like an exercise in contradictions, destined to fail.

  But on the other hand, he was really close, really attractive, and he felt so good as I leaned against him, his arm still draped around me and holding me closely to him.

  "Do you need an answer right now?" I finally asked.

  I didn't miss him rolling his eyes. "What, you want to sleep on it?" he asked. For a moment, the smirk returned. "If that's the case, I can offer up my hotel room - and I could be very helpful in making sure you make the right decision."

  "I'm sure," I retorted, as my stomach did a little loop-the-loop at the thought of what we were discussing so casually. Was I really joking about sleeping with this man?

  My vagina, apparently tired of being left out of the discussion, chose this moment to pipe up. It's been forever since you had a man down here! it pointed out. I'm going to close up entirely from disuse at some point soon, if you don't break this dry spell!

  I squashed that thought. Sure, it had been a long time since my last time with a guy, but that didn't mean that I needed to desperately throw myself at the first guy to come along and offer!

  Even if that guy happened to be an incredible football player, one of the sexiest men in sports and known for his skilled ways with women...

  My brain kept on chasing itself around in circles! With a groan, I pulled myself up a little, shaking my head as I glared into Chase's eyes.

  "Damn you!" I cursed him. "I can't make up my mind, and it's all your fault!"

  His eyebrows climbed. "My fault? Why is that?"

  "Because you're too damn sexy for me to say no to, even though I know that it's the right move!" Sure, I was spilling the beans here, but I didn't even care any longer. Surely, he had to be guessing my internal thoughts by now.

  He opened his mouth, but I cut him off before he could talk. "And yes, I know that you're going to suggest going back to your hotel and burning off all the sexual frustration built up in my head so that I can make a clearer decision, but that's not going to help! I'll just end up riding you raw, and still be even more frustrated than before!"

  "You're really hung up on this, aren't you?" Chase laughed, grinning down at my frustrated expression.

  "Yes!" I buried my head in his chest. "You're like a donut - terrible for me, but I just can't resist!"

  "I've been compared to many things, but never a pastry," Chase commented, but he didn't say more, and let me keep on pressing my face down against his shirt.

  "You smell nice," I commented after a minute.

  He didn't reply for a moment, but then I felt a finger snake in beneath my chin, lifting my face up to look at him. "Why don't we try something," he suggested.

  "What's that?"

  "Tell me if you like this."

  I opened my mouth slightly to ask him what he was talking about - and he leaned in and kissed me.

  Again. For the second time, I was in the back of a club with Seth Chase, getting kissed by him!

  This time, however, I didn't pull away. Instead, I leaned in a little, lifting myself up on his chest, kissing him back. Just as I remembered, he didn't kiss nearly as aggressively as I would have expected. His lips felt gentle, softly exploring me. His hands slid around me, holding me closely against him as he sat up a little, tugging me closer, into the shadow of his body.

  We ended the kiss, and he leaned back a couple of inches, his eyes still bright as they gazed down at me. "How did that feel?" he asked.

  My brain felt filled with cotton balls and fuzz, but my mouth opened up. "It felt really good," I heard myself respond.

  "Want to do it again?"

  The response came immediately. "Yes. Most definitely."

  Chase grinned that smirk of his again as I climbed further into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck, but I knew how to get it off his face. I kissed him back as we sank together back into the booth.

  Chapter Fifteen

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  Chase slid his hands over the body of the woman in his arms as she kissed him, feeling her up. His thoughts felt a little more scrambled, and he tried to work out why he felt off balance by her.

  He'd kissed more girls than he could count, and he knew how to handle it. His first kiss with Katy had been textbook, gentle at first, but then opening up as their bodies came together. She eagerly responded, just as he'd expected.

  Whenever a girl gave in to his advances, he always felt a little rush of conquest, of victory. But for some reason, with Katy, he felt even more of a rush, a thrill of happiness. Why?

  He didn't have an answer, and a little part of Chase's mind worried over that lack of an explanation.

  For right now, however, he did his best to ignore that empty slot. Instead, he focused on kissing Katy back, on running his hands over her body, feeling her curves in the little dress she wore. His fingers found the zipper on her back, started to tease it down...

  Katy pulled back from him, making him pause. "Hey, now," she spoke up, still sounding a little breathless.

  "Hey what?"

  "Remember, no acting out in public! And that includes getting a girl naked in a club."

  "Never thought that you might be that very girl, did you?" he grinned.

  She opened her mouth, paused for a moment, and then closed it again. "Never mind that," she finally said, shaking her head. "Look, if we want to do anything like this, we should leave, find someplace a bit more private."

  Chase thought about pointing out all of the women he'd fucked out in public before, but he suspected that this wouldn't do much to advance his position. "Okay," he said. "We can head out the front entrance, back to the hotel-"

  "Not the front entrance," Katy cut him off, climbing out of the booth. Chase couldn't help noticing that she looked a little unsteady on her feet, and he happily took credit for her distraction. "Back way. We'll dodge the paparazzi around the front, make sure that they don't start commenting on the fact that we both get into the same cab. Maybe we should even take separate cabs, or double back to confuse them-"

  "I think we'll be fine," Chase told her, standing up and following her deeper into the back of the club.

  Katy found the back door and they ducked out, popping into the night air. They crept down the alley, moving a couple of blocks away from the front entrance to the bar before catching a cab back to Chase's hotel.

  They kept their hands off of each other for the cab ride, although Chase found himself itching to just sweep the woman out of her seatbelt and into his lap. He kept feeling that something about this seemed off, however, although he couldn't quite put his finger on what might be wrong.

  He made the connection when he opened his wallet to select a bill to pay the cabbie. Normally, his vision was so blurry by this point that he would just grab a handful and thrust them at the driver. Tonight, however, his head felt mostly clear, and he had no problem reading the denominations on the bills.

  Had he never hooked up with a girl while still this sober?

  They headed into the hotel, and stepped into the elevator. Katy moved closer to him as they rose up, and a moment later, Chase nearly jumped as he felt her fingers slide into his own. She held his hand silently, but squeezing it tightly - and after a moment, he squeezed back.

  When had he last held hands with a girl? Fucked them, sure, seen plenty of them naked in just about every position, touched every inch of them - but had he held any of their hands? He couldn't recall a time when he had done so.

  The elevator dinged at his room's floor, and they stepped out. "Can I invite you in for a nightcap?" Chase asked, as he slid the key card into the slot and unlocked the door, pushing it open and catching it before it could close again.

  Katy gazed past him into the room for a moment, and then stepped up to him. She rose up on her tiptoes, and Chase bent down a little so that her
lips could reach his.

  She kissed him fully, even lifting one leg up behind her! Chase caught the motion out of the corner of his eye, but instead of seeming corny, it only drew him more into the kiss. He slid his own arms around her, holding her closely and even lifting her up onto her tiptoes as he met her lips, explored her tongue with his own.

  "I think that we should end the night here," she murmured to him, after the kiss ended.

  Chase blinked. That was definitely not the response he'd been expecting. "What? Why?"

  Katy shrugged, but he saw a cunning little smile darting around her lips. "Well, as I see it, we both got what we wanted out of this night, didn't we?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I got to keep an eye on you, keep you out of trouble and out of the papers," she explained. "And you got to actually talk with a girl for probably the first time in years, open up about your past and some of your insecurities."

  "I don't have any insecurities-"

  "And if I was to come into your room tonight, who knows what might happen?" Katy finished, still smiling as she raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

  Chase frowned down at her. He could guess exactly what might happen if she stepped into his room, and he couldn't think of anything more appealing at the moment. "I could always head out to the clubs and get up to all sorts of trouble after you leave," he challenged her. "Maybe you ought to stay here to keep an eye on me so that I don't try and go out for a rally. The night's still young."

  Katy shook her head. "You're not luring me in that easily. Besides, I think you had more fun talking to me tonight than you're willing to admit. If you go out again, you'll destroy my trust in you, and you'll lose me as a friend."

  "I didn't realize that friends kissed each other goodbye at each other's hotel room door."

  She shrugged. "Maybe we're friends with benefits, then." She paused for a moment. "You know what I mean."

  She turned and glanced back at the elevators, but Chase held her hand, keeping her from leaving yet. "So when do I get to see you again, then?"

  "How about tomorrow?" Katy winked. "You can take me out to dinner again, and pick up the tab."