by Ann Jacobs
Nothing. No suitcases. Just that damn smell of home-cooked food.
“Tina?” Bobby sounded too damn pleased at the prospect of seeing his guest, at least it sounded that way to Marly.
“Bobby? I was hoping you’d be home in time for lunch.” Tina stepped out from the guest bedroom and ran toward the sound of Bobby’s voice.
“It sure smells good.” Bobby stepped forward to hug a slender—almost skinny, Marly thought uncharitably—blonde who looked like Texas cowgirls she’d seen on TV in her tight jeans and a leather vest over a nondescript long-sleeved shirt.
Cowboy boots? Yeah, Tina had those on, too. Marly tried to hold onto her temper when the hug went on much longer than she thought it should. Damn it, Tina was nuzzling at his neck. Friend, hell.
Focusing on Bobby’s declaration of love a few minutes earlier, and the warm feel of his ring on her left ring finger, Marly managed to stay quiet, let the disturbing scene play out.
“Tina, this is Marly. My fiancée.” Bobby finally stepped away and pulled Marly to his side. “Marly, Tina.”
Tina gave Marly the once-over, at least that’s the way Marly considered the long, hard look. “Hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be impolite. It just surprises me that you’re…”
“Marly’s Italian-American, not Mexican like your stepfather,” Bobby interjected, drawing her closer. “You two are gonna get along just fine. Is whatever you’ve been cooking ready to eat, Tina?”
Tina’s face brightened. Marly conceded that she was pretty when she smiled. “Yes, it’s ready. I thought we’d just eat at the kitchen table.”
Cozy. Real cozy. It pissed Marly off that this woman had cooked a meal in Bobby’s kitchen before she’d had a chance to show off her own cooking. The only eating she’d done here was carry-out from her dad’s restaurant—and they’d nibbled it at the bar while looking down at the river and counting the boats. “Whatever you’re cooking smells awfully good,” she said, remembering her manners even as she watched Tina set an extra plate and silverware on the table.
She hadn’t planned on me coming with Bobby. Marly bit her tongue to keep from laying into the cowgirl. She just hoped the woman hadn’t stashed her belongings in Bobby’s bedroom.
By the time they finished off dessert, Bobby felt like a bone being fought over by two pit bulls. Marly was barely being civil, and Tina? Tina seemed determined in her quiet way to repeatedly point out their shared past to Marly. “This was good,” he told Tina. “I’m tired, though. Make yourself at home. Marly and I are going to go over to her parents’ and get some of her things. Tomorrow we’ll try to figure out what kind of work you’d like to do.” And get you set up somewhere else before the tension here drives me crazy.
Why had his mom done this to him? Hell, he knew. He’d have to have been an ogre to resent Tina being here when he knew what had been going on with her stepdad back in Hedgecock. “Come on, baby, let’s grab your things.”
Tension reverberated through the truck cab. This wasn’t the way a girl should feel when taking her brand-new fiancé home to show her ring off to her parents. Marly took in the tight set of Bobby’s jaw, the way his knuckles turned white when he gripped the steering wheel. Even the usually seductive purr of the Escalade’s powerful engine took on an eerie tone.
Why wouldn’t he say something?
Why wouldn’t she say something? Anything, even getting his ass chewed out, would have been better than the heavy silence that had set in the minute they got in the truck. Bobby’s knee throbbed, but it was the pregnant silence ringing in his ears that really bothered him. “Marly?”
“Yes.”
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“Nothing.” He watched Marly toss an unruly curl behind her left ear. “Oh, fuck it. Everything’s wrong. Maybe I’m dead wrong, but I feel like Tina’s out to get you. Not like an old high school girlfriend turned buddy, but like a woman who wants to get back with a guy she never got over.”
Bobby swore as he got in the left turn lane and pulled in at a scenic overlook above the river. “You hit it on the head, baby. You are dead wrong.” He got out of the car and limped around to her side. “We’re going to have a nice, long talk, and we’re not going anywhere until you believe I meant it when I said ‘I love you’. Come on, there’s a bench over by the river.”
He thought she moved too slowly, as if she were less than anxious to sit with him and watch leaves fall from the big water oak next to the bench where they were headed. Maybe it wasn’t the leaves, but him that she didn’t want coming so close. “Slowpoke.” He made sure his tone was light, hoping she’d respond to the gentle tease.
“Don’t patronize me. I’m coming with you. I’m probably going to let you persuade me my instincts are off-base.” Marly paused then let Bobby take her hand and bring her close enough that she couldn’t help smelling his cologne, noticing the dark shadow of a beard on his chin. “Why don’t you shave every day like most guys do?”
“Scruff makes me look a little older. And a little meaner, for the benefit of the defenses we play against. I would have shaved after lunch, though, if you hadn’t dragged me out as soon as we polished off that peach cobbler Tina made... Because I don’t want to tear apart your pretty skin.”
“I don’t mind. It feels pretty good. I just wondered. Thought maybe you were imitating another number four.” Brushing off leaves from the bench, she sat down.
“Nope. I’m not trying to be a Brett Favre clone, even though I idolized him for the way he played, like he thoroughly loved what he was doing on the field.” Bobby figured Marly was trying to avoid talking about what had made her draw a curtain of silence around her.
That wasn’t going to work. But what could he say? He’d already told her he loved her, wanted to marry her and have his kids someday. Bobby had trouble understanding that his gorgeous Marly might be jealous of a woman he hadn’t fucked for more than five years. “Got a mirror in your purse?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Because I want you to take it out and look at yourself. Tell me honestly, why in hell would you think I want Tina when I can wake up looking at you?” What he felt for Marly wasn’t just because of her looks, but that was a start.
“Looks aren’t everything.” Marly put the mirror back in her purse and zipped it up. “Is that the only reason you noticed me?”
Oh, shit. What had he done now? “Of course not. Not that I mind that you’re the most beautiful woman I ever saw, or that you’re fun to be with, in bed and out of it.”
“Tell me about you and Tina. And don’t leave out anything.” She stared down at the river, at a paddle wheeler that was making its way from St. Louis to New Orleans.
Bobby was getting madder by the minute. “I already told you, baby, Tina and I fucked under the high school bleachers after some of the football games my junior year. We went to the local movies together maybe half a dozen times, and we occasionally had a hamburger and fries at the restaurant across from the school.” He took in a deep breath. “I had more intimate relationships with a dozen or more girls at college, but they don’t mean anything to me now, either, at least not in a sexual way.”
“That’s what Wes said, before he went home on spring break and married his pregnant high school girlfriend.”
A green monster he just realized he had bubbled up inside him, made him want to kill someone. “Who the fuck is Wes?”
Marly had her head bowed, and Bobby suspected she was hiding tears. “Someone I dated in college. Ancient history.”
“Ancient history be damned. This bastard had to have hurt you bad, to have made you feel you can’t trust me now. Have I given you reason to believe I’d cheat on you with anybody, old high school girlfriend or not?”
When she looked up at him, tears floated in her eyes, as if they were insisting on escape. “No. You haven’t given me reason to think you would go out of your way to…”
“…fuck everything in skirts that sends out signals she’s available?�
�� Bobby was furious. Unlike a lot of athletes he knew, he’d always been pretty careful. Sure, he’d had sex for sex’s sake. Who hadn’t? But he’d had no desire to touch anybody but Marly since they’d started dating—even since they first met in the parking lot during rookie camp. “But you apparently believe I’ll stray first time my eyes start to wander. I won’t.” He took her hand, held it on his thigh.
“How do you know that?”
Marly didn’t protest when Bobby slid her hand higher, close enough that her fingers came in contact with his half-hard sex. “Because I’ve never been in love with a woman before. Never cared about anybody the way I care for you. And I’ve never before lived with a constant hard-on because I was constantly thinking about having sex with anybody else.”
“I know. I just—“
“Put a little faith in me, baby. I won’t let you down. Ever. Not even if there is a prettier woman on this earth and someday I find her, which I don’t believe will ever happen. We’re gonna be good together. Really good. I’m gonna be there when our babies are born and when they need a dad to cheer for them in high school and college. I know what it’s like to grow up without my father, even though Mom did her best to make up for him not being there.”
Marly sniffed. “I’ll try. Shall we go to my house now so I can grab some things? Mom’s dying to see this.” She held up her left hand then reached around to give Bobby a quick kiss. “You know, I do love you. Really. I’m just so afraid of losing you.”
Bobby knew that. He didn’t care much for the unexpected lack of self-confidence he’d discovered in Marly, but he figured he could be careful, protect her from the mere idea that he might be on the prowl, even when he wasn’t. “You won’t, baby. I love you. Now let’s go show off this rock to your folks, pick up your clothes and hurry back to our bedroom. It’s been too damn long since I’ve been able to make love with you.”
Chapter 7
Except for the shadow of her insecurity, it was the announcement Marly had always dreamed of making to her delighted parents. They’d loved Bobby from the first day they’d met, anyhow. Her mom’s eyes widened when she first saw the ring. “Oh, my.”
“You got her ring at Tiffany’s, right?” Her dad lifted her hand so he could examine it more closely. “You got good taste, son. Welcome to the family.”
Bobby grinned. “Yes, sir. I bought it Saturday at the store on Rodeo Drive. Thanks for the welcome.”
Marly hadn’t realized Dad knew so much about jewelry. All she knew was that the ring Bobby gave her was magnificent, much more than she’d ever imagined the man she loved would choose.
Yes, Bobby fit in with her family. In some ways he reminded Marly of her dad, who hadn’t let success go to his head, either. They still lived in this old-fashioned brick house in a neighborhood that had gone way down before new owners started buying and fixing up the run-down properties. While Bobby lived in a posh condo, she sensed he’d pick comfort over chic when they bought a place of their own.
“That big old brownstone on the corner us is up for sale. You might want to take a look. It should be a steal right now, the economy being as it is. Needs some renovation, but you might get a tax break because it probably qualifies as a historic preservation project. The man who built it back in the 1890s later became a congressman.”
Oh, no, Mom. “Bobby will probably be traded soon after Keith gets over his shoulder injury. Besides, we’re not getting married right away.”
“Of course not! It will take a year to plan your wedding.” Mom turned to Bobby. “Are you Catholic?”
“Yes.” Marly could tell Bobby was uncomfortable. As he’d told her after the first time he’d picked her up here, there are Catholics…and then there are Catholics. I’m more of the Christmas and Easter sort of a Catholic.
That was just one good reason she didn’t think it would have been a good idea for them to buy a place within walking distance of her childhood home. Not that there weren’t others. “Mom, we just got engaged. There’s no reason to start planning our wedding. If you want the truth, we may just take a notion and do it one weekend, with you and Dad and Bobby’s mom as witnesses.”
“Dad and I will give you the kind of wedding you’ll always remember,” Mom said, apparently not willing to give up the idea of a huge blowout with half of Memphis in attendance.
“We’ll see. Honestly, we haven’t thought about weddings yet. We just got engaged yesterday.” Bobby held Marly’s hand, and its warmth snaked through her veins. “We’d better grab some of her stuff and get on back to my place. After all, we have a guest to entertain.”
Obviously, he wanted to go as much as she did, but he was being diplomatic about it. Marly guessed it was better to use Tina as an excuse than to tell the parents to back off or that what they’re looking for right now is a bed—any bed—as long as they both were in it.
“It’s okay, kids. I’ve got to get to the restaurant before the chef decides to try another new entrée like the one that bombed last week.” Dom stood, held out his hand to Bobby. “Congratulations. And welcome to the family.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Mama, why don’t you come on down to work with me. I’m sure the kids can handle packing without our help. Marly, be sure to lock the door when you leave.” With that, Dad got up and smiled at her and Bobby. “You know, I’ve never trusted anybody else my daughter was dating with the keys to our house. But I like you, Bobby. And I trust you to take care of Marly.”
“I’ll take good care of her. We won’t be here long, just enough to get Marly some clothes. We really do need to head on home.”
The first thing Bobby noticed when they went into Marly’s bedroom was a four-poster bed with sheer curtains and a ruffled floral canopy that matched the coverlet. Curtains that hung over the sheers over wide windows that overlooked a huge pine tree in the backyard. It was definitely a girly room, yet irresistible. He wanted to stake his claim, realize the midnight fantasies he enjoyed while on the road. “Come here, baby. The clothes can wait. I want to make love to you.”
She turned away from the closet and shot him a knowing grin. “Here? Mom will have a fit.” Then she laughed. “This is the first time any men besides my dad and brothers have set foot in here.”
“I’m glad. Now take off your clothes and crawl in bed.” His heart pounded in his chest as he watched her peel off her sweater, and his hands trembled when he worked the buckle loose on his belt. “God, but you’re hot.” And mine. All mine. When his jeans hit the floor with a sharp sound of his keys on hardwood, he stepped out of them. His cock throbbed when she started to shimmy out of those tight jeans.
“So are you.” The hungry look on her face sent blood rushing to his sex, made his pulse race. “We’d better turn back the covers or you’ll be in a heap of trouble.”
“Honey, it’s you that Daddy would skin alive. But that’s okay. I have the feeling he gave his blessing by leaving us all alone today.” After Marly laid back the covers, she stretched out across the bed Bobby imagined she’d slept in ever since she graduated from her crib. “Come on, you talk a good act. Now it’s time to deliver.”
Bobby’s cock told him it was past time. Being careful not to put pressure on his sore knee, he crawled into her cozy cocoon and gathered her in his arms. “You’re gonna have to help me here. The knee feels even worse today than it did last night.”
“Oh. Maybe we should pretend we’re kids, experimenting with sex for the first time. Worried that my folks are going to barge in, or worse, one of my brothers. They put the fear of God into some of my boyfriends when I was in high school.”
“Did they?” The prospect made Bobby hornier than ever. Taking risks did that to him, had since he was a high school stud gettin’ it on under the bleachers after the lights went off. “I’m pretty sure I can handle an irate brother or two.”
Marly leaned back, shot him a questioning look. “You don’t know my brothers, honey. You haven’t seen them mad.”
�
�I have seen them, though, and I’m pretty sure I outweigh either of them by at least seventy-five pounds Don’t worry about my hide, it’s tough. Remember I play football for a living.”
“Braggart. Come on, show me how you’re going to take care of me.”
She ran a finger down his chest, circled his navel then closed a fist around his raging hard-on. He imitated her motion, ending up with two fingers in her wet, warm flesh and his thumb moving in circles around her swollen clit. “Like this?”
“God, yes.”
Bobby liked the way she purred when he touched her, felt more a hero when they made love than he did after a perfect touchdown pass. Hating that she wasn’t quite sure of him, he stroked every inch of her soft, smooth skin, inhaled her aura of hot woman and some sort of heady cologne that smelled a lot like the Confederate jasmine that grew up the Tulane dorm where he’d stayed until this spring. Tempted by her hardened pink nipples, he propped himself on an elbow and flailed first one and then the other with his tongue.
“I wonder what it would feel like to play with these if you had pierced nipples.”
Marly drew his head down to her other breast, ran her fingers through his hair. “I imagine it would hurt, at least until they heal. Do you have a thing for body piercings?”
“Not really. I just wondered.” Teasing now, he drew a nipple into his mouth and suckled until she squirmed and tried to pull him on top of her.
“Let’s fuck now.”
This place, where she’d grown up among her loving family members, seemed more a sanctuary than Bobby would have liked, a place where fucking wasn’t appropriate but gentle lovemaking was. “We’re not fucking, baby, we’re making love.” He straddled her, cradling her head between his hands before swooping down and claiming her full, pink lips.
She tasted like the apple pie they’d eaten with her folks, as if being home had made her shelve the sassy cheerleader who had a thing for jocks. He imagined it was the room and all the memories she must have of it that lent an air of innocence, as if she were a teenage virgin eager to taste the pleasures a man could offer. Slowly, he slid his legs between hers, balancing himself as their kiss went on forever.
