by BJ Harvey
“If I play my cards right, fuck yeah.”
I huff out a breath, fanning myself as I do it. “It’s lucky I’m good at multitasking then, Lieutenant.”
“If you weren’t, I’m a really good instructor.”
“Oh, you are, are you?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The phone falls quiet except for the sound of his breathing.
“You said you had good news?” he asks, confusingly.
“I did? Oh wait, I did. You distracted me with all your non-dirty, dirty talk.”
“Non-dirty, dirty talk? You sure know how to wound a man’s ego.”
“I didn’t mean . . . What I meant was—”
“Princess?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m just messing with you.”
I sigh, resigned to the fact that for all Marco’s pros—and so far, there are a lot—his only con is his love of winding me up. “I’m getting used to that.”
“Aww, baby, if I promise to kiss it better will that make it up to you?”
My lips quirk up. “Depends what you’re kissing.”
His responding groan is music to my ears, and I’m the one snickering this time.
“So, yes. Good news. I sold the house we first met each other at.”
“That’s great. Congratulations.” His voice is full of warmth and pride. “We should celebrate.”
My breath catches. “What?” I whisper, my throat getting tight.
“You had a win; we should celebrate. Renee, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing it’s just . . . I didn’t even tell you that it’s my one hundred and fiftieth sale in Chicago.”
“Even more reason to celebrate, but now, we need to go big. I was going to let you off cooking tomorrow and whip something up myself, but instead, let’s go to Wrigley for the Cubs’ night game.”
“What?”
“That is, if you want to, I mean. I’m not exactly going to let you cook your celebration meal. My mama would never let me live that down if she found out.”
I open my mouth to say something but I’m still in shock.
“Do you not want to go to the game? We don’t have to.” The sound of fingers hitting computer keys fills the line.
“There are seats on the second level near the visitors’ dugout, but I promise I’ll buy you a Cubs shirt so no one mistakes you for a Brewers fan.”
That snaps me out of it and my forgotten sass returns. “I am not a Brewers fan.”
“Oh I know, princess. You seem a little shell-shocked so I had to pull out the big guns to snap you out of it.”
I narrow my eyes even though he can’t see me. “I’m seriously starting to think you get off on annoying me.”
“No. But I do like riling you up, because then you give me that smart mouth and that gives me a reason to shut you up.”
“You don’t need a reason. Feel free to shut me up whenever you like,” I retort.
He chuckles. “Good to know. I’ll remember that.”
“Are you seriously booking tickets right now for tomorrow night’s game?”
“Nope.”
“No?”
“Already booked. Just paid for them. You can still bring my jacket though—that deal definitely hasn’t changed. And pack an overnight bag. You’re staying the night.”
“Sleeping in your bed?”
“In my bed? Yes. Sleeping? Probably not.”
And with that, Marco has proven that yes, it is possible to have a spontaneous mini-orgasm from words alone.
“Marco . . .?”
“Yeah, princess?”
“You’re really good at this.”
“That’s funny. I was just thinking the same about you.”
“I’m going to go now because otherwise, I’ll start telling you about my inappropriate ideas again,” I say, my voice soft and husky.
“You can thank me by showing me all the best ones tomorrow after the game.”
“Now that I can do.”
“I think I’m looking forward to that more than the game now,” he says, just as the bells start ringing in the background. He groans in my ear. “Sorry, baby. I’ve gotta go.”
“I know, Marco. I know what that sound means.”
“And that’s something else we’ll be talking about tomorrow, along with why you’re so surprised whenever anyone wants to do something nice for you. Until then, drive safe and have a good night, princess.”
“Look after yourself, too.”
“Always, but especially when I have a night of no sleeping planned with a certain pretty lady coming up. I’ll text you tomorrow. Bye,” he says, before ending the call, leaving me sitting in the empty boardroom with a goofy grin on my face, my stomach full of butterflies for the first time in a long time.
Baseball and a sleepover with a man I can’t stop thinking about. I don’t even care that he wants to talk about my past. I can’t expect Marco to be completely open and honest with me if I’m not willing to be the same with him.
So far, everything Marco has done has me wanting to see where this might go. He’s the first man since my ex who’s had me feeling that way.
In other words, it’s about damn time.
10
Marco
“For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out . . .” we shout, singing loudly with the rest of the crowd in the seventh-inning stretch.
Our seats are amazing. I lucked out with the location—one level up and directly behind the Brewers’ dugout. Of course, the Cubs are up, but this rivalry is one for the ages.
Renee is as into the game as I am. She cheers when there’s a hit, and groans when there’s a strikeout.
We’ve eaten ballpark hotdogs and refillable pop. We’ve had a beer or two as well, and so far, it’s the best date I’ve ever had. Papa always used to joke that if you find a woman who understands baseball, you lock her down. Watching Renee with her new blue Cubs jersey, her favorite first baseman’s name on the back, I can imagine more games, more dates, more everything with her.
“Wanna make a bet?” I ask, nudging her with my elbow.
She turns suspicious eyes to me, her lips tipped up in a smile. ”What kind of bet?”
I lean in so she’s all I can see—even though that’s been the case all night so far anyway. “A dirty bet,” I whisper.
Her gaze drifts down to my mouth then slowly back up again, making my jeans tighten. “Bring it on.”
“If your beloved first baseman strikes out, I get to decide what we do the second I get you alone and behind closed doors.”
Her eyes flash with heat as she arches her brow. “And if he gets a hit?”
“If he gets a hit . . .” I murmur, moving my mouth to her ear. “You get free rein in my bed.” She bites her lip and there’s no mistaking the flash of heat in her gaze.
“Anything?”
I grin, loving the way she’s leaning into me. “Everything. . .then again I don’t really care if he gets a hit, cause even losing means I still win anyway.”
I straighten and rake my eyes over her, loving how expressive she is and how she’s not hiding a single reaction from me.
Her lips curl up into a salacious smile. “Okay then, Mr. Rossi. No bet, but my man will hit on the first ball. Guarantee it!”
Her expression goes from smug to hot as hell, her pupils blown, her cheeks flushed and her front teeth biting into her bottom lip. Fuck the game. I want her now.
She tilts her head and smooths her hand slowly over my jean-clad thigh. “Let’s just see who comes out on top then.”
My cock pulses at the promise in her eyes. Two and a half innings and a thirty-minute train ride until we’re alone. I’m sure I can make it . . . well, I fucking hope I do.
I may want to rush home but when I get Renee all to myself, we’ll be taking things slow. I’m going to take my time. Because when you’ve got a show stopper in your bed, you damn well make sure she wants to stay there.
“Hey,” Renee says as I open her door and hold
out my hand. We caught the train to downtown from Wrigley Field and then I drove us the rest of the way back in my truck.
But the entire trip home I’ve been tense with anticipation. This isn’t just a random once-and-done hook up. She isn’t someone I’ve just met and who I don’t have plans to see again. This is the start of something. And I can’t screw this up.
She hops down and I shut the door behind her, then turn to her and all but pull her toward my front porch.
Renee tugs on my arm to stop me. “Marco?” Her gentle giggle snaps my focus, and I spin back to face her.
“Yeah, princess?” Closing the distance between us, she presses her body against me and lifts up on her toes, cupping my face in her hands. With her eyes locked on mine, she places a barely there kiss on my lips. I grab hold of her hips to keep her in place and tilt my head, an invitation she does not miss. This time the kiss is slow, starting soft then turning harder, stronger, deeper. My flimsy hold on restraint snaps as my hand slips around to her gorgeous ass, my other sliding up between her shoulder blades, holding her body hostage as my tongue plunders her mouth. Groans and moans from both of us fill the air.
We pull apart, leaning our foreheads together. My chest heaves as I suck in a much-needed breath, trying to cool my jets just a little so that this night isn’t over before the real fun starts.
She glides one of her hands behind my neck, her grip gentle but firm. “You’re a total stress magnet, and as cute as it is to see you a little ruffled, I was worried you were having second thoughts. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want—”
I slam my mouth down on hers again, not wanting her to misconstrue my nerves as second thoughts. This time, though, I’m not standing by and just kissing her.
Without breaking our lips apart, I lift her up by the ass. Her legs wrap around me straight away as I kiss and walk, carrying her up to the porch. I gently lean her back against the side of my house while I find the house key, turn it in the lock, and make quick work of opening the door.
I walk us both through it and shut it again with a swift backwards kick of my foot. Renee buries her face in my neck as I carry her up the flight of stairs and down the small hallway to my bedroom. All the while her nails bite into my back through my shirt, the slight sting making me hard as a rock and even more desperate to get this woman naked.
I close my door, kissing Renee with renewed hunger. My heart threatens to beat right out of my chest as her grip on my shoulders tightens and I slowly lower her down to the ground so she stands right in front of me again.
Her half-open eyes are full of heat, her lips swollen and puffy, and I can’t help the satisfied growl rumbling in my throat knowing I’m the one turning her on like that.
Then it’s like something snaps and we’re all over each other like animals. We’re hands and fingers and lips and mouths, only pulling apart to tear my T-shirt over my head and for me to utter promises to buy her another Cubs jersey as buttons scatter across the room when I grab hers and jerk it off her. Then we’re kicking off our socks and sneakers and her hands are at my belt, snapping it out of my pants, slapping the buckle against my skin and making me grunt. That still doesn’t stop us. I kiss away Renee’s giggles and turn them into moans as I flick open her jeans and jerk them down her legs, not stopping until she’s gloriously naked before me.
Then I slowly step back and drag my hungry eyes down her body and back up again, my fist wrapping around my straining shaft out of instinct. I pull my hand back and forth at the very sight of her.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” I murmur, my voice rough and deep and laced with need.
She tips her chin, studying me the same way as I did. Her eyes unapologetically rake over my body, stopping at particular parts of interest and showing absolutely no shame in doing so. Her lips tip up in a half smirk as she moves closer, lifting one hand to cup my cheek and dropping the other to cover mine on my cock. Then she pulls my head down, touching her mouth to mine at the same time she takes over the long slow strokes along my cock from base to tip.
She traces the seam of my lips with her tongue, making me growl and driving me right to the limit of my self-control. Then I snap, attacking her mouth with renewed hunger, swallowing her whimpers, and relishing in her moans. Her body trembles against mine and her hand speeds up. My breaths come hard and fast when her grip tightens around my shaft.
I cradle her close and put a knee in the bed, gently lowering her down onto the mattress. Lying on my side next to her, I tangle my fingers in her hair and hold her in place before plundering her mouth.
I glide my hand down her body, watching her closely when I rub the heel of my palm against her clit. Her eyelids flutter closed and her head presses into the pillow as my fingers toy between her legs, a rough moan escaping her lips. My hips rock against her, my cock desperate for friction of any kind. I watch her face as I slowly inch a finger inside her slick heat, her body sucking me in, wanting to keep me there. There’s no other place I want to be.
Renee grabs my face and crushes her lips to mine, my head spinning at the intoxicating lust I’m feeling and how crazy she’s making me feel.
Tearing my mouth from hers, I pepper her neck with open-mouthed kisses, nipping gently, then soothing the sting away with a swirl of my tongue as I taste every inch of her sweet, smooth skin. I drag my lips down between her breasts, cupping them in my hands, loving the weight of them against my palm before taking one pert nipple into my mouth.
I alternate between sucking soft then harder, studying her body as her moans get louder, her grip on my hair tightening when I draw out one finger from inside her and push in two.
Her back arches. Her husky whimper fills my ears, her hips thrusting into my hand as if begging for more. My mouth waters as I lick and nip my way down her stomach until my shoulders are between her thighs, keeping her open to me. I glance up her body and lock eyes with hers as I take a long, languid lick along the full length of her wet seam before burying my face and pumping my fingers in and out of her pussy, my tongue circling and sucking and twitching against her clit. My hand grips her waist and fights her bucking hips as she rolls up against my mouth, unintelligible words spilling from her mouth in between her cries and whimpers and low, breathy moans.
Her legs hook over my shoulders and her feet digging into my back, holding me hostage—if a willing servant could ever be held—and her entire body tenses tight like a coiled spring. I slowly push a third finger inside of her just as I wrap my lips around her clit and lightly scrape my teeth over the swollen bud and she screams. “Marco. Shit. Fuck. Oh, God.”
She clings to me, continuing to cry out my name as her body convulses with her climax. I ease back and slow it down, my tongue languidly swirling and rolling around to draw out her orgasm. I’m more desperate than ever to bury myself deep inside this woman.
Rising up and over her, I cover her body with mine, her thighs staying wide as I nestle my throbbing hard-on against her.
I kiss her hard and fast again, my tongue exploring her mouth with a hunger born from weeks of wanting her to be exactly where she is now—fed by days of anticipation and fantasies of exactly how she’ll feel when I sink my cock inside of her for that first time.
I slowly pull my head back and look straight in her lust-filled gaze. “I’ve gotta get a condom, baby, then I’m going to give us both what we want.”
She arches her hips against mine, making my cock glide along her wet seam.
She arches her neck, running her tongue against my lips from corner to corner. “Hurry, Marco.”
The fact she’s using my name instead of her typical ‘lieutenant’ isn’t lost on me. It spurs me on to hurry up. So I do, leaning over and jerking open my nightstand drawer and blindly rummaging around until I find purchase and pull out a gold foil packet.
Sitting back on my heels, I make quick work of the condom, rolling it from tip to base, my eyes catching Renee spreading wide for me, her hand slipping between her legs right whe
re I’m about to be.
Renee bends at the waist and reaches out for me, pulling me back down over her. Her eyes search mine, roaming my face with a soft sincerity. The enormity of the moment cuts through my fervent lust-fueled haze. I pause to look at the woman beneath me who takes my breath away without even trying.
She holds her palm to my cheek and stares deep into my eyes. “I need you to make me a promise, Marco Rossi,” she whispers.
“Anything, princess.”
“This means something. I know that. But I also need you to not let me lose myself in you.”
My heart is pounding in my chest, all I see is absolute honesty in Renee’s eyes. She needs this. Whatever has happened in her past had her scared to give herself to someone again, but now she’s here, showing me that soft, vulnerable side of her that makes me want to build a wall around the two of us and slay dragons and monsters for her.
I’ll protect this woman with everything I am and everything I have, and now, she’s asking me to protect her from herself. That is a whole new level of trust I’ve never been given the privilege of having before and it strikes right to the core of me.
Touching my forehead to hers, I lock eyes with hers so she gets just how much I mean the words as I press my lips to her mouth. “I’ll never let you because I’m falling for the woman you are now and I don’t ever want that to change,” I say. I draw my hips back, crushing my mouth down on hers and burying myself deep inside my woman. And that’s where I plan on staying for a good long while.
11
Renee
I slowly open my eyes, reaching my arms up above my head and groaning as I stretch my spent and well-used muscles. I’m in Marco’s bed after a night of very little sleep and a lot of orgasms—his and mine. I should be exhausted after managing only a few hours rest but my entire body, mind, and soul feel alive.
Speaking of that man . . . I roll over to find his big bed surprisingly empty. I pat my hand on top of the sheet, finding it lukewarm, which means he can’t be far.
