by Ann Jacobs
His cock ached. Her lubrication made it easy for him to find and fill her swollen sex. He broke the kiss, met her heated gaze. “You’re my woman. My only woman. Know that. Know I never felt about any woman the way I feel about you.”
Tears came to her eyes, and she lifted her hands to his shoulders. “You’re just so damn hot, I’m afraid I’ll have to fight off a slew of panting women.”
Slowly, he pulled almost out of her tight, hot sex and slid back in, loving the heat and wetness and the way she wrapped her legs around his hips to take him deeper. “I’ll help you beat them away, I promise.”
“We’ll see. Meanwhile make love to me, fulfill the fantasies I spun, alone in this bed before I met you.”
“I will. I do.” The tacit admission that he was the first man she’d brought to her bedroom pleased Bobby immeasurably. He didn’t know why, but he knew it made him want to cherish her, protect her…love her even more than he had before. He started to move, slow and deep, holding back the urge to let himself go until he’d felt her contract around him and heard her little scream. “God, baby, I’m coming.” Pressure built in his balls. His cock stiffened painfully then exploded, the bursts of his seed bathing her channel. He choked back his cry of release, as if it might be heard by anybody that happened to be downstairs.
They snuggled for a few minutes before Bobby got up. Usually he liked to cuddle after they made love, but not today. He felt a need to put on his clothes, grab Marly’s clothes and leave. He was washing up at the vanity sink when Marly joined him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “You’re awfully quiet.”
He laughed. “This is the first time I’ve ever made love in somebody’s parents’ place. I know they’re not here, but…”
“Shy, are you?”
He’d never thought so. He’d fucked Tina and a couple of other high school buddies under the bleachers at the football field, had a few encounters in strange places when he was at Tulane. Like most athletes, he wasn’t shy about wandering around locker rooms buck naked, even if there were female reporters trying to get interviews. But now—
Now he didn’t want his future in-laws aware he was in Marly’s bedroom, making love instead of grabbing an armload of her clothes. Because she wasn’t just any woman. But he’d be damned if he’d swell her pretty head by telling her that.
“Just be careful. The picture of your dad pointing a shotgun at me isn’t something I’d like to see in real time. And I’d hate for us to shock your mom. Come on, let’s get the clothes you want for the next few days and get out of here.”
“Okay.” She followed him back to her room and began laying clothes out on the bed. “These ought to be enough for now, unless you see something else you particularly like,” she told him as he was slipping his T-shirt over his head.
“I’ve never not liked anything you put on your hot little body. Do you have something to put this stuff in?”
“A suitcase. There are two or three in the closet.”
They packed quickly and took the luggage to his car. As he opened the door for her, he thought about that sex toy store a few blocks away and wondered how she’d feel about experimenting a little. “You know that toy store we drive by on the way here?”
“Uh-huh. Mom had a fit when it moved in where her favorite bakery used to be. Have you tried any of the stuff they sell?”
“Nope. But I’ve always thought it might be fun to play.”
She grinned as she shimmied into her jeans. “It might be fun, at that. Are you offering to take me there?”
“I guess I am. Maybe we can kick our sex lives up a notch or two. We’ll stop by there, then head on to Keith Connors’ place. I need to talk to him in person.”
Marly thought she’d gotten over blushing a long time ago, but she was wrong. When the adult store clerk recognized Bobby, he insisted on giving them a complete tour of the store—even the BDSM room with its scary looking torture devices and all sorts of black leather. There were chaps that left the dummy’s sex hanging out, women’s bodysuits with holes cut so all the erogenous parts were readily touchable. When Bobby shook his head and told the clerk that wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, she let out a sigh of relief. She thought. But she couldn’t help imagining Bobby wearing those chaps and one of the full-face leather masks.
Laughing nervously, she helped select some milder toys, a big dildo and a set of butt plugs. “No, honey, you don’t need that,” she said when the clerk showed Bobby how a device called a penis enlarger would make him grow bigger and harder. When they left, they had a big bag of flavored oils, some battery-operated vibrators and the silicone plugs and dildo they’d selected first. And a blown glass dildo Bobby threatened to fill with ice water to cool her off. “We should stop over at Keith’s and get on home to entertain Tina.”
“Yeah,” Bobby said as he helped her climb into his truck. “Baby, I’m sorry she’s here, I was looking for a lot of one-on-one time with my brand-new fiancée. You do know Keith, don’t you?”
“I know who he is. I’ve never actually met him. Why are we stopping by there now?” At one time Marly would have drooled to actually get the chance to see the all-pro’s home, but now that she had her own quarterback, meeting Connors didn’t seem all that exciting.
“I’m going to try to sell him on Tina as a live-in babysitter. Coach said the other day that if he couldn’t find one, he might have to sit out the rest of the season. Apparently his mom had to go back home.”
That would be good—that is, it would solve the Tina problem for Bobby. Marly wondered, though, why he was willing to move back to the bench just so he could get Tina out of his place. “Are you doing this for me?” She didn’t want that.
“No. I’m doing it for me. And for Tina. She has no education past high school, and she needs a job and a safe place to live, far away from her bastard of a stepfather and with somebody strong enough to protect her from him if he should be so stupid as to follow her here. Besides, she’s always liked little kids. She’ll make a good nanny or whatever you call the people who take care of other people’s babies.”
Marly couldn’t imagine anybody really wanting to take on the responsibility for somebody else’s children, but then Bobby had a point when he said Tina wasn’t prepared for a job that required a lot of training. “Have you talked to her yet?”
“I thought I’d run it by Keith first. He may already have somebody lined up.” He turned into a gated community north of the stadium and showed his ID to the guard. “Keith said he’d called down so we could go on in.”
“Yes sir, he did that. You’ve been filling in for Mr. Connors real well so far. Would you mind signing this for me?” The guard held out a marker pen and a football that already had a lot of Gamblers’ signatures, and Bobby signed it, chatting easily with the stranger. Marly guessed his six weeks of filling in for Keith had lent a bit of polish she hadn’t noticed when they first met.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks, sir. Take the first right and drive around until you get to the first big white two-story house. That’s where Mr. Connors lives.”
The house was magnificent, almost like an ante bellum plantation house with its carriage lights and a porch with white columns. Bobby whistled. “Well, Keith certainly didn’t model this house by any back in Hedgecock. This must have been his late wife’s choice.”
“You’re probably right. It’s usually women who get the say about what style of home they want. After all, they spend more time in it than their husbands—especially if their husbands are star athletes.”
“I guess so. Do you want to pick out our house when we settle down?”
“Probably. I guess we should go on in.” She’d grown up comfortably well-off, but this place intimidated her. The idea that she might be expected to pick and live in a showplace like this one didn’t set too well. “I hope you don’t want a place this elegant.”
Bobby got out of the car and opened her door to help her out. “I’m just a west Texas cou
ntry boy at heart.”
Marly grinned. “So is Keith.”
“Yeah, but from all I’ve heard, he grew up wanting all the trappings of success, more than I did. His mom remarried and moved out of Hedgecock as soon as she found a rich oil man to latch onto, or so Mom always said.”
When they rang the doorbell, the door opened right away. An infant’s cry resounded from the back of the house, and Keith Connors greeted them with a frustrated look on his face. “Sorry about my son. He doesn’t seem to like me nearly as much as he does the women who work in the Gamblers’ front office. But he doesn’t like the housekeeper at all, so he’s all mine when I get him home. Come on in.”
The room reminded Marly of the parlors in a downtown men’s club, all dark wood paneling and burgundy leather upholstery on a huge sectional sofa. Barrel chairs surrounded a game table, and an ornate pool table with carved mahogany legs and a navy-blue felt top dominated one side of the room. As feet sank into plush navy carpeting, a plaintive cry drew her to the playpen that looked incongruous in such a men-only setting. “May I see if I can calm him down?” she asked Keith who apparently was planning to ignore the baby and sprawl on one end of the sofa.
“Be my guest. I’ve fed him and played with him and even tried to walk him around the house, hoping something would put him to sleep. Nothing worked. Would you all like soda or beer?”
“Not me. I have a feeling this little bruiser will be a handful.” Not having handled a lot of babies since she’d baby-sat for neighbors during high school, Marly bent and gingerly picked up the gorgeous little boy, who had an unmistakable ripe smell coming from his squishy butt that was encased in a bright-blue plush sleeper. “I think he needs a change, Daddy. And he might be too hot in this outfit.”
“Would you? His stuff’s over on the bar.” Keith turned to Bobby. “This trying to take care of that little guy by myself is gonna kill me yet. Not that I’d give him up for anything.”
Marly extricated a handful of her hair from the baby’s fist and lay him onto a pad on the counter behind the wet bar. Two neat stacks, one of disposable diapers and the other of tiny clothes, flanked the pad, and cleaning stuff was lined up in front of the bar sink where she imagined they’d displaced bottles of cherries, bitters and other condiments for adult beverages. By then his cries had slowed down. Apparently he knew she was going to change him even before she started to unzip the sleeper. “What’s your name, little fella?” It felt weird to be undressing somebody when she didn’t know his name, baby or not.
“John Keith Connors, but I call him Jack. Do you have everything you need? He has a lot more stuff upstairs. I’ve found he gets clean enough when I hold his bottom under the faucet in the sink. There’s some baby-smelling soap in that pink bottle.”
“Oooh.” Jack seemed to like getting clean, because his howls stopped and he broke out with a silly grin. “He seems to like water.”
“Yeah. He doesn’t like being dirty. I can’t imagine me ever having been that particular, can you, Bobby?”
Bobby laughed. “It’s hard to worry much about dirt when you make your living the way we do. I’ve dreamed about walking off the field someday without a bit of dirt on me or my uniform, but I don’t think it will ever happen.”
“Not unless they get a couple of beasts to fill out the offensive line.” Keith laughed. “Are you okay over there?”
Marly diapered the wiggly Jack then kept him still with one hand on his belly while she found him a clean sleeper, this one a stretchy terry cloth that looked like it would keep him warm enough without being oppressively hot. “We’re fine.”
“Need a job? I’m looking for a live-in nanny for him so I can get back to work.” Keith paused, shot a grin toward Bobby. “No, I guess you wouldn’t. I imagine you must be the only Gamblers fan around who prefers seeing him taking snaps.”
“Possibly. But Bobby may have a solution for you.” Jack in hand, she came to the sofa and sat between the two guys. Boy, wouldn’t Liz Grady turn green when she heard Marly had sat within touching distance of the great Keith Connors. She was already halfway jealous that Marly had caught Bobby’s attention. “We have a guest from back in Hedgecock.”
“And this might affect me how?” Keith reached over and took Jack, who laughed out loud when his dad lifted him over his head then brought him down to sprawl on his six-pack abs.
Brian put an arm around Marly, as though he thought she needed the contact before he actually mentioned Tina. “Do you remember Tina Black?”
Keith’s look of puzzlement morphed into one of recognition. “A kid about your age, always hung around with you and a bunch of boys. I remember you all pestering me to play with you my senior year in high school.”
“Yeah. You know, back then I never really thought we were pestering you. I figured it out, though, when I was trying to avoid pesky little ones later on. Guess you deserve an apology, even though it’s been a long time. Anyhow, Tina’s here, now, and she needs a job and somewhere to stay. Marly’s understandably not very happy at having my old friend in our guest room.”
Marly turned to Bobby. “Friend? You admitted you two had sex under the bleachers after games. Besides, it’s not that I’m unhappy, it’s that I want Tina to have a place to stay and something to keep her occupied.”
“Sure.” The men said it in unison, and little Jack let out a baby cackle, as if none of them believed Marly wasn’t dead set on getting Tina out of Bobby’s line of vision as quickly as possible. Bobby pulled her closer to him and blew in her ear. He sent delicious little sparks clear down to her toes when he did that—and he knew it. She hoped her glare let him know she was a little unhappy about him obviously not believing her.
Bobby turned to Keith. “Tina’s dad died about the time my dad left, and when we were seniors in high school, her mom married again. The guy’s a real bastard. According to Tina, he left her alone until they were in an accident and her mother was left paralyzed. By then I was off to college. Her mom died this summer, and she moved in with my mom to keep away from her stepfather. Apparently he started stalking Tina, and Mom thought the best way to deal with it was get her out of the creep’s reach.”
Keith got up with little Jack and fished a bottle out from under the bar. When he came back and sat down, he opened the bottle and held it to the baby’s mouth. “Sorry, when he starts getting restless, the only thing to do is feed him. Tina didn’t have anybody there to chase this creep away?”
“No. Garcia’s big enough to intimidate most everybody left in Hedgecock. And he seems to stay one step ahead of the sheriff. So Tina’s here, bunking in with us until she finds a job. I thought about her when I heard Coach Lyle mention that you had a real babysitting problem.”
Shifting Jack on his lap, Keith shot a doubtful look at Bobby. “Most young women want a little better job than being a nanny. The few who’ve applied seem to be auditioning for a spot in my bed.”
That made sense. Marly had no trouble imagining Liz Grady or a few hundred other rabid female fans angling to get a piece of Keith by way of babysitting his son. “That must be pretty tough to take,” Brian commented.
“Yeah, it is. I’ve got no interest now in women—Jackie’s still very much a part of me, even though she’s dead. A few nice young women have seemed to get along well with Jack, but even they seem as interested in a Marlins quarterback as in—“ Keith shot an apologetic glance toward Marly—“present company excepted.”
“You’re excused. You’ve gotta know that before I fell for this big lug, I was a rabid football groupie. After all, I decided to devote the better part of a year to being a Gamblers cheerleader.” She squeezed Bobby’s muscular thigh then leaned back in the cushions while he continued.
“Tina doesn’t have any education past high school. No money. She’s always been quiet and I doubt she’d try to seduce you because her stepfather’s undoubtedly done a good job of turning her against men in general. But she’s smart, and I’m pretty sure she’d fall in love with
little Jack.” Bobby paused. “I can’t imagine she’d be afraid of being in your house, either.”
Keith looked down at Jack, who’d grabbed hold of his big hand on the bottle and was squeezing it as though that would make the milk come faster. He looked down on his son with a loving smile. “She’d be safe all right. I’d never let a bastard like her stepfather anywhere near Jack—or Tina, if she’s his nanny. I’d pay her well, of course. Taking care of this little guy is a big responsibility. I know.”
Marly didn’t doubt that. And she imagined Keith would be as good a protector as Bobby’s old girlfriend was likely to find. Except for Bobby, she thought before slamming that thought to the back of her mind. “If you’d like, I could bring Tina down to the practice field with me and we could have lunch or something after you two finish practice.”
“That would be good. Keith could collect Jack and we could all go grab some takeout and bring it back here.” Bobby stood and pulled Marly up from the sofa. “We’ve got to get going—not that you’re not good company, but we’ve got a guest to entertain.”
Keith got up, too, and walked them to the double door. “See you tomorrow then. I hope Tina will want the job. Congratulations, by the way, on your engagement. It made big news today in the Memphis papers.”
“Yeah, I know.” Bobby grinned and gave Marly a little hug. “You think your shoulder will be well enough for you to play this Sunday?”
Keith shrugged. “Probably. But I want it to be a hundred percent before I go rushing back out there. You’re doing a great job—for a raw rookie.”
“Sure. See you in the morning. We’ll talk to Tina tonight so she won’t be blindsided when you guys meet her tomorrow.” With that Bobby steadied Marly as they walked down the stairs to the circular drive where he’d parked an hour or so earlier. On the way home they sat in a comfortable silence Marly hadn’t experienced with Bobby since he told her about his old hometown girlfriend’s impending arrival into their lives.
