by Stacey Lynn
Well, if I hadn’t been nervous before I certainly was now.
“That okay with you?”
“Ummm.” It sounded fantastic. It also terrified me and had me shaking in my heels. I mean…the whole building? It was pretty big.
He kissed my lips and pulled back, slipping the key easily into the lock. With his hand on my lower back, he guided me inside my own apartment.
I flipped on lights, kicked off my heels and then we stood there. Gage’s gaze surveying my apartment like whatever I had and however, I decorated was important to him.
Me wondering if regardless of what he’d said, which had meant a lot, did he find it lacking.
“You’ve made a home.”
I tried to envision what he was seeing as if it was the first time. Forty-inch TV on a simple TV stand. Barn doors that that slid closed to hide my cable streaming box. Two tan couches that didn’t look special, but were good quality, large and comfortable. A dark purple chair angled in the small space with an ottoman so you could put your feet up and relax. Bookshelves on the other side of the TV stand, mostly stacking with picture frames and the few books I owned and loved.
The kitchen table was round and had four chairs. I’d actually bought it at a garage sale and refinished it, stained and painted it to match the TV stand. There wasn’t artwork on the wall, but a few signs with inspirational quotes.
It looked sparse but clean, not overly decorated but said I tried.
But was it a home? I loved it.
“Thanks.” I headed toward the kitchen and pulled out the filtered water pitcher I kept filled. “Would you like some water? Or something else to drink? I don’t have much but white wine.”
“Water’s good.”
I grabbed an extra glass for him, not surprised he made himself at home by dropping his own keys on my kitchen counter, kicked off his shoes and slid into one of two stools at the small bar.
“You mentioned your parents outside. Are y’all close?”
He grinned as I asked the question and took his glass from me. “Yeah. Love ‘em to death. They’re good people.”
“Seemed they raised a good son, too. I know we’ve really only been around each other for work, but you have to know I really admire you for what you’ve done with the hospital.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, a slight pink hue stained his cheeks before he scrubbed his hand down his face and sighed. “Life isn’t always easy, you know? And I have more money than I know what to do with even being smart with it. I figure it’s my job to give back to more than just people who like football.”
“Like I said.” I tipped the glass in his direction. “A good guy.”
“And your brothers? The idiots? Your parents? Are you close with them?”
“Yeah. Just saw them for dinner tonight. My ma still makes us all gather once a month for a family meal. One of my brother’s and his wife announced tonight they’re pregnant so that was exciting.”
“What are they like? Your brothers?” As he asked, he stood from the stool and nodded toward the couch.
It took me a minute to follow him. With the way he was acting earlier, I figured we’d show up and go straight to the bedroom.
Guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to know me, and if he wanted to know me, he’d learn about me through my family.
So I told him all I could about Blake and Tanner, mentioning Jaxon in passing. His current job and past in the military made it difficult to discuss him in depth. I told him about Heather and Hayley and my mom’s bossy disposition and my dad’s lovingly grumpy one. We ended up talking for hours, well after midnight, and when I finally yawned, he took me to bed.
And when I screamed, hours later, I didn’t care if the entire complex did hear me.
Twenty-Three
Gage
She was so damn pretty. Her hair, wild and tangled covered most of her bare back. She’d fallen asleep last night almost as soon as I climbed into her small bed and wrapped her in my arms after cleaning us both up. I’d laid there and slid my fingers through her hair long after she was sleeping.
This woman. She undid me in ways I didn’t expect and it wasn’t solely the sex, although knowing she liked what I craved was a definite necessity.
She laid on her side, still facing the side where I’d slept. One hand under her cheek, the other pressed to the pillow I’d used like she was searching for me even though I wasn’t on it anymore. A sweet pink coated her fingernails. Brighter than the dress she wore last night. It still didn’t eclipse the look of ecstasy when I made her come. At Velvet, on her home turf, both were places she was comfortable which was why I wanted our first time out of the club to be here.
But as soon as I could get my hands on her again, it was my room that would be shaking from her cries.
I had an hour to get to practice. The sun was barely up, pink lighting up the edges of the treetops, and for the first time in my career, crawling into bed and fucking off a day had never been so appealing. If there was any chance I could talk her into doing the same, I might have tried.
Too bad I knew exactly what she had on her plate for the day. This week was chockful of events. Kicking off today with an evening of bowling at a local bowling alley. The team would be there, fans who paid way too damn much for a ticket just to bowl with the team, and tonight, the parents of current patients were our special guests.
I still had to check in with Penny to see if she was coming. I hadn’t heard how Brandon was doing over the weekend and when it came to him, no news was better-than-expected news.
I tapped out a reminder on my phone to give Penny a call later.
Sliding the phone into my pocket, I sat down on the bed and kissed the back of Elizabeth’s hand. I grinned as I kept kissing her. She smelled like me and sex and still that sweet hint of flowery perfume I now knew was body lotion based on her bathroom counter. Her arm flinched when I kissed her elbow and by the time I was at her shoulder, lazy blue eyes, still glassy from sleep and lack of sleep peered at me.
“I gotta get going.” I brushed my hand through her hair. Damn. It was so fucking soft. Felt so good and by the way she always closed her eyes and gave me a sleepy smile when I did, she liked it too. “I’ll see you later, though, right?”
She rolled to her back. The sheet was down by her waist. There wasn’t a hint of nerves as she sprawled out naked, almost completely exposed to me. I inspected her body with meticulous fashion, memorizing every dip, every little freckle. Two small ones were right at the edge of her breast and I kissed her there, then her nipple.
“You’re a horrible tease,” she whispered, voice husky and sleepy.
I couldn’t stop touching her.
“You’re tempting. What do you expect me to do when you’re showing off your hot little body?”
She laughed softly and she pressed her hand to the back of my head. Her slim fingers brushed over my scalp to the back of my neck and as I continued kissing her breast, her hips started rolling.
I grinned at her, tongue sliding around her nipple. “Need something else?”
“Always when you’re around.”
Her hand moved in that direction and holy shit that was hot. I batted away the sheet, watched her slide two fingers through her slit.
Which just gave me a great idea for what we’d do next time. She’d get me off. Then I’d watch her get herself off.
But this morning, pleasuring her was my job, one I took seriously. I brushed my hand down her stomach, readjusted my position on the bed so I had a better view.
Her knees bent and thighs opened wide. Her fingers glistened with her juices and as she rolled them around her clit, showing me exactly how she liked to take care of herself, I grabbed her fingers in my hand.
Sucking them into my mouth, my eyes closed. A rumble grew in my chest. Heaven. She tasted like heaven and still a hint of me. Which was fucking hotter than I would have thought.
“Gage,” she gasped. “I was really close.”
I sucked her fingers again and replaced hers with mine. “This is mine,” I said, running my fingers around her swollen and throbbing clit like she’d done. “You get to use it when I say.”
“And when you’re not around?”
“You wait for me.”
“And if you’re out of town?” Her face scrunched with displeasure.
Little minx. I slapped her clit and she gasped. Eyes closed from the sting of it but by the quivering breath, she also really liked it.
“Then I’ll FaceTime you and you can show me. In fact,” I bent down and kissed her as her movements went jerky. It took nothing to get this girl off, or I just knew exactly what she wanted. “I think we’ll do that next time. I’ll sit there, stroking my dick, and you’ll spread your legs. You’ll want my dick in you. You’ll ache for it, Beth. And even then, all you’ll have are your tiny fingers.”
“It’s not the same,” she gasped. Her head thrashed side to side. Hips arched and pressed against me. I shoved two fingers into her, found that perfect rigid area inside, and rolled her clit with my thumb.
She went off like a rocket and I kissed her through it and when she was done trembling and I pulled back, kissing her nose one time and then her cheek.
“I really have to get going, but I’m really pissed about it.”
She laughed softly, rolled and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I pulled her so she was sitting next to me, leaning against me. “Thanks for trusting me.”
She meant at Velvet and me allowing the blindfold to come off.
“Thank you for earning that. Not many do.”
“I’ll make sure it’s worth it.”
Cheeky thing. “You already have. Later? You’ll be at the bowling alley.”
She pulled back and scooped her hair into her hand, holding it in one fist at her shoulder. Grinning and no longer looking sleepy but well-fucked, she grinned. “I’ll be the girl in the ugly shoes with her very own pink glitter ball.”
“You have your own ball? You didn’t mention this last night.”
We’d talked about her brothers. Sports. What she did outside high school or after work for fun. Bowling hadn’t been brought up.
She slid her feet to the floor and put her hands on her hips. With a jaunty wink and zero embarrassment as she stood naked and exposed in front of me, she said, “I can’t have you learning all my secrets quite yet. Where’s the fun in that?”
Little did she know, I was looking forward to the journey of delving into all of them.
She wasn’t fucking kidding about the bowling ball. Or the shoes.
I was throwing a fifteen-pound bowling ball down the wood lane for the hundredth time of the night barely managing to conceal my hard dick and swollen balls.
Good God. This woman knew exactly what she was doing when she showed up at the bowling alley earlier. Her shoes, black and bright pink, striped with white were the most ridiculous shoes I’d ever seen. But she had her own bowling shoes.
Her shirt was a classic bowling shirt with a black collar and hot pink fitted tight to her body. I swore the thing was two sizes too small for her. It made her look tinier than she already was but at the same time, somehow did amazing things to her breasts.
Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that swished and swayed to the rhythm of her hips.
When she entered the alley, she’d flashed me a wink and a low wave, immediately moving over to the other reporters.
We hadn’t talked about Connor last night. Hell, I hadn’t even brought up what she’d been doing at Velvet. Why he approached her there. His motivation was obvious. I’d heard enough at the gala, but it went against my instinct to keep my eyes off her too long. Especially when it became obvious every time Connor moved closer, she moved away.
She did it smoothly and impressively. She’d catch him in her peripheral vision, say something with a laugh to whoever she was talking to, and then she’d skirt right on to the next person. And most of those people she spoke to were parents.
Cameramen were there, following the actions on the sidelines along with photographers for all the local stations. It wasn’t the time to cause a scene even though every time she caught my eyes on her and her head dipped, acknowledging me, the urge to say fuck it and cause a scene screamed at me.
More than once she offered a comforting squeeze to a parent’s arm. A light and quick hug to a mom on the verge of tears. There were well over a hundred people there tonight. Fans, parents, and players.
We’d been put on teams, intermixed with all and while we did this event every year, this year was my favorite one yet.
Not only because it was packed, but finally, I had a woman with me who I’d be fucking honored to have on my arm in public. She was younger than me, so young I hadn’t even bothered to ask her age but I knew she’d only been working at KSTP (station name?) for five years. If she started working there right out of college that was at max twenty-six.
At thirty-two, we weren’t so far apart our ages would raise eyebrows, but she was still young enough where her grace impressed me.
A slap on the back jolted me. Oliver’s grin told me he’d totally caught me checking her out.
“Shannon likes her,” he said.
“What?” She hadn’t mentioned meeting Shannon at all. And it was just like Powell to not even mention her name. Clearly, I wasn’t hiding my fascination. “What are you talking about?”
“The reporter you’re looking at like you want to throw her into the storage closet and stay there for hours.”
Whatever. Powell was a cocky prick. He was still one of the best tight ends in the league, but we all knew he’d be retiring soon. I wasn’t that many years behind him either which meant the rush and love of the game would soon be in our rearview.
And I hated thinking about the fact there were rumblings this year of it being Powell’s last season.
I grabbed my bottled water from the table and took a hefty gulp. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Powell.”
“Play it that way, but I’m just sayin’ Shannon likes her. Thinks she’s good people and even when you were talking about Miss Hayes the other day something clicked I thought you should know.”
I was still stuck on the fact his wife had met Elizabeth enough times to know anything about her, but the depth of his tone made me pay attention. “What is it?”
“You know her brother. And I’m saying, tread carefully with her. You fuck with her, screw her over in any way and he can ruin you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I caught Elizabeth’s gaze and her eyes widened. Damn. I scrubbed my hand down my face. I was strung tight and glaring at her. I shook my head once and dragged it back to Powell.
“Jaxon Hayes?” Powell’s brows rose. “He’s the dude who helped out Beaux and Paige when he had that stalker fan. Guy’s dark as shit. Runs his own security firm. Any of that ring a bell?”
Last night she spent most of the night talking about Blake and Tanner. She’d mentioned Jaxon in passing, said he worked a lot but the conversation had turned to her sister-in-law’s and it hadn’t registered.
“No shit?”
“Pretty sure. Don’t even know if Paige put it together when they all had dinner the other night.”
Dinner? Elizabeth had dinner with Shannon and Paige, wives of two of my closest friends on the team and hadn’t thought to mention that to me?
“Gage! Your turn!” The shout came at me through a tunnel.
“We’ll talk later,” Powell said. From the scoring table, Kolby Jones was giving me an expectant look. Powell lowered his voice to a low rumble. “Don’t know your gig. Not with women and it ain’t my business but I know you don’t play the field and I know you haven’t had a public girlfriend in all your time in the league. I’m just warning you to tread carefully. Jaxon isn’t someone you want to mess with.”
“Right,” I gritted out my response.
Then I went to the ball return, grabbed mine and slammed it down the l
ane. The smack of the ball hitting all ten pins didn’t calm me down.
As soon as I was done with my turn, not registering the slaps to my shoulders, the one parent who squeezed my arm a little too playfully, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and typed out a quick text.
We need to talk.
She’d mentioned me not learning all her secrets yet, but just how many was she hiding?
Twenty-Four
Elizabeth
Something shifted. I felt it in the air and the heat of Gage’s glare as soon as Oliver started talking to him. It sent me reeling, him staring at me like he suddenly wanted to rip my head off.
It threw me off my game and on my next turn I didn’t even manage to pull off a spare. Normally I would have been disappointed. Not quite the showing I wanted to put on, not only to show off for Gage but because I’d been reigning Amateur Bowling Champion three years in a row in my teens. It’d all started as fun family trips to the bowling alley when we were kids and turned out, I had a knack for throwing the ball straight down the lane. I was twelve in my first local competition and ended up coming in third place, beating out teenagers who’d been competing for years. I had never been particularly good at sports. Not team ones anyway. I didn’t have the coordination or size for volleyball or basketball. And even with soccer, my legs were shorter than most. I got tossed around the field and outrun in sprints regardless of how quick my legs carried me. But bowling had clicked somehow and I’d always enjoyed it.
I’d been having fun all night, despite Connor’s attempt to get my attention. If he thought I owed him anything after his attempts at Velvet last night, he was dead wrong. I’d said all I needed to say to him and now I wanted him to stay exactly where he belonged.
