He kissed her for a few minutes before he ripped her shirt off, taking out a few buttons in his haste to get it off her. She felt chagrined until he unhooked her bra and took her breast in his mouth, and then she couldn’t feel anything at all besides his lips, his tongue, and unadulterated pleasure.
Just when she thought she would come unglued, he stripped off her shorts and kissed his way down her stomach. Her legs parted of their own accord, but she was shocked when Blake kissed the inside of her thigh. She knew about oral sex, of course—Aimee took delight in shocking her with tales of her sexual exploits—but surely not their first time. Aimee had said that men hardly ever took the time to do this…
“Blake, I’m not sure we should—”
“Let me make you feel good, sugar. This is your first time, and I need to make you ready for me, or it will hurt.”
“I, um…” She was going to say okay, but then she seemed to lose her ability to speak when his lips found her moist center.
“You taste so damn good, Amanda. So sweet…”
Chapter Twelve
She was amazing, erotic, and responsive, and innocent all in one gorgeous package. When she was on the verge of orgasm, Blake slid his fingers into her tight, wet opening while he continued to pleasure her with his mouth. He moved his fingers inside her, preparing her for the invasion of his steel-hard erection. Christ, he was so hard for her that it hurt.
Then she came for him, and the feel of her tightening rhythmically around his fingers almost burned away all vestiges of self-control. He shed his clothing and settled himself over her once more. Feeling his erection resting against her soaking-wet slit was torture, pure and simple.
“Are you sure about this, Amanda? We don’t have to do this if you aren’t—”
“Please, Blake. I want you inside me so badly.”
She didn’t have to give him any further encouragement. He positioned the tip of his penis at her entrance, then kissed her tenderly. “You’ll never know how sweet this gift you’re giving me is, letting me be your first, Amanda. I’m honored.”
Then he gently slid into her, going slow even though it was heaven and hell all rolled into one to finally be inside her, but to have to keep still until her body stretched to accommodate him. It eventually did, though. The first time she lifted her hips to meet his, he was lost. He slammed into her again and again. The orgasm took him fast and hard, and left him breathless and in awe.
He would never, he realized, respond to anyone else the way that he did to his dear, sweet Amanda.
“Darlin’, I’m afraid you’ve ruined me for other women.”
Her husky chuckle rang with the tones of a satisfied woman and filled him with pride. “Shut up and kiss me, Blake.”
Chapter Thirteen
Life had fallen into a predictable pattern since that day she’d shown up at Blake’s door, filled with uncertainty. It was a blissful, perfect pattern. Every evening after she finished work at the vet’s office, she would head out to Blake’s ranch. Sometimes they would go horseback riding or fishing, while other times they just hung out around the house. Always, though, they enjoyed every minute of each other’s company and the evening ended with Blake begging Amanda to stay. She’d given in a time or two, but it upset her father for his unwed daughter to spend the night with a man, even if it was one whom he now heartily approved of.
Today was different though. Today when she walked through the door, Blake had been so absorbed in his laptop that he’d hardly noticed her.
“What has you so engrossed over there, Blake?”
He looked up at her and grinned. “Online auction.”
“You’d better not be bidding on the same thing you bought the last time you used an online auction. I’m a jealous mistress, babe.”
He didn’t even hear her. “I’m pretty sure I just secured the winning bid. Now get over here.”
She gladly complied. “I don’t think you understand the concept of online auctions. The idea is to pay the smallest amount possible, not to pay ridiculously exorbitant prices to avoid competition.”
“I don’t know,” he replied, his gaze raking up and down her body. “My way seemed to work pretty damn well the last time I tried it.”
An hour later, she was entwined in his arms, sweaty, breathless, and utterly satisfied.
“So what were you bidding on?”
“I’ll show you.”
A moment later he was back beside her with his laptop. Her heart filled with joy when she realized that he’d bid on an exquisite diamond engagement ring.
“What do you say, Amanda? I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone. Will you marry me?”
“Well,” she replied saucily, “It looks like I have to, since you already won the ring…”
He let out a whoop of joy and kissed her again. “See? I have a way with online auctions, you know.”
And so, Amanda thought, did she. One had, after all, led her right into the arms of the man of her dreams.
*****
THE END
Slam Dunk Baby
Chapter One
Jazmin Robinson grimaced as the ball sailed toward the net. If she was any judge—and she was, because she lived and breathed basketball—the shot was true. She let out a sigh of disappointment as the ball sailed softly through the basket. Just as she’d feared, it was nothing but net. Damn, but she would have loved to be wrong about that one.
She’d finally been granted a locker room interview with the Spurs, and they were, in all likelihood, going to be in a foul mood. Losing in the final seconds after a game has gone into overtime not once, not twice, but three times, was guaranteed to put them in a piss poor humor. Jazmin could understand.
They’d needed this win, and she wouldn’t blame them for being upset that they didn’t get it. Hell, if she didn’t need to put on a bright face for the camera she’d be cursing the loss every bit as loudly as the Spurs’ disgruntled fans were. She felt like stomping her foot and cussing up a blue streak. Instead she checked her lip gloss and smiled brightly at the camera.
“Roll it, Vincent.”
“Well, the Spurs have faced some disappointment tonight, but it’s early in the season yet. Let’s head back to the locker room to see what the Spurs have to say about tonight’s game.”
She dropped the smile as she hurried toward the locker room. There was something to be said for a job that would just let you be in a crappy mood when you felt the need.
It didn’t matter though. Disgruntled players or not, win or lose, she was going to make this interview flawless. It was the first locker room interview she’d ever been granted at the pro level—the first game she’d allowed to cover in her three years as a sports reporter—and there was no way she was going to mess this up. She’d worked too damn hard for it. She headed toward the locker room with a determined stride.
As soon as she’d made it into the locker room Jazmin made a beeline for Caleb O’Connell. The public loved the unpredictable, wild point guard. Jazmin would have preferred to interview another player, one who didn’t behave like a frat boy instead of a grown man. Unfortunately, O’Connell was what the network would want. He seemed to play by no one’s rules but his own, and as a result his erratic, impulsive behavior often made headlines. People ate it up and only loved him more with each outlandish stunt. Jazmin couldn’t understand why they seemed to long to watch the man throw away a career most people would kill or die for.
Well, she thought to herself, maybe she could almost see why. With his chiseled features and bright blue eyes…well, the man was definitely a sight to behold. He probably could have had a career as an underwear model if the whole basketball thing hadn’t panned out.
She banished the thought of him posing for those photo shoots. She wouldn’t be able to conduct the interview if she was too turned on to think straight. It only took her an instant to hone in on Caleb O’Connell’s bright red hair.
Jazmin didn’t ask permission t
o interview him. Sports reporting was a man’s world, and there wasn’t room for her to show even a hint of weakness if she wanted to be taken seriously. She just strode up to him like the interview was a forgone conclusion…It was too bad that Caleb O’Connell didn’t seem to agree with that conclusion in the slightest.
“Well, that game was an emotional roller coaster, wasn’t it? It was like a whole different team took the court after the first half. What changed?”
Some emotion flickered in O’Connell’s eyes, but Jazmin couldn’t identify it.
“Not now, sweetheart.” The way he said sweetheart made it sound like an insult.
“Caleb—Mr. O’Connell—“
He advanced toward her—only a half-step, but she’d been standing close enough to him before that with even that small movement Jazmin could feel the heat radiating off his body. When he spoke, she could feel his breath tease her earlobe. She shivered involuntarily as lust flared up in her middle. Damn. Hopefully he thought she was intimidated. Or, better yet, disgusted…yeah. Fat chance of that. The man was built like a god and he knew it.
“I have no intentions of talking about the game. It was shitty to lose after all that buildup, and now I just want to shower and get out of here. Unless you’d like to join me for that shower, I think you probably want to leave now.”
Jazmin tried to ignore the part of her that wanted to take him up on the offer. She knew that men often felt drawn to her big brown eyes and dark brown skin, her ample curves…but she was used enough to the attention men paid her to deal with it gracefully. And she was a professional, for cryin’ out loud. Attractive men were to be expected, and she usually had no trouble ignoring any lust that flared up in her during interviews.
She must have taken too long to answer, because O’Connell started speaking again.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Oh. Dear. Lord. The man was taking off his clothes. First he stripped off his shirt. Jazmin couldn’t help staring at the chiseled abs as they were revealed, and from the smirk she saw when she finally pulled her eyes back up to his face he’d definitely noticed. He didn’t stop with the shirt, though. He peeled the rest of his clothes off. Jazmin couldn’t look away. She’d regret that later. Or maybe not. The memory might be worth it. The man was hung like a—
“I’m starting to think you might actually want to take me up on the shower, sweetheart. Do you like what you see?”
Jazmin couldn’t even take her eyes off his body to deny her interest. “I don’t…”
O’Connell reached for a towel and covered himself. Jazmin damn near wanted to tear the thing back off of him. It was like a hormone driven stranger had taken over her body.
“There. Now can you concentrate? My eyes are up here, Jazmin.” O’Connell laughed, a hard sound devoid of humor. Jazmin shook herself and forced her mind back to the interview. Whatever it took, she reminded herself.
“Mr. O’Connell—“
“You’ve seen me naked. I think Caleb’s fine.”
“Caleb. If you could just answer a few interview questions, please…” No. This was crap. Just because he could dribble and shoot a ball didn’t give him the right to treat her like a common whore. “No. No. I’m not going to say please. What you just did is nothing short of sexual harassment, you…freaking prick. Nothing gives you the right to talk to me the way that you just did. Nothing. Do you get off on sexually harassing any woman within eyesight, or am I just fucking lucky?”
She’d probably pissed him off, but damn it, she needed this, and he was blowing it off just for a few minutes of entertainment. He must have seen something of her genuine distress in her face. His expression softened.
“I don’t see why not. Fine. Go ahead then. Ask away.”
Jazmin opened her mouth to do just that, but then was horrified when the nausea crashed into her out of nowhere. She whirled away and ran out of the room with Caleb and her camera man’s laughter trailing behind her.
Of all the damn times. This was her first chance at an interview with an pro player. She’d managed to land one that everyone would be interested in seeing. She’d been tough enough to endure his harassment and demand his respect…only to have to leave because her body had betrayed her. This had to be the worst first day on the job in the history of…well, the history of jobs.
Tears pricked her eyes as she ran to the women’s bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet before her stomach gave up the fight and she lost everything she’d eaten for the day. All she could think, as she huddled over the toilet, was Thank god I didn’t throw up all over Caleb O’Connell’s naked body. That would have been a memorable interview, to be sure.
Chapter Two
Jazmin’s hands shook as she cupped them to drink some water from the sink in an attempt to soothe her raw throat. With the automatic faucets it was damn near impossible. To make matters worse, she was fighting tears.
Jazmin didn’t cry. Ever. She wasn’t about to start now. It was like a stranger had taken over her mind and body. A stranger who was bound and determined to tear down everything Jazmin had ever worked for in an entire evening.
And now she had to go and gather her things still…she had to leave without the footage the station had been counting on for tonight’s evening broadcast. She was so fired. Jazmin took a moment before she left the bathroom to type out the email explaining what had happened and hit send before she headed back outside. The sooner the station knew she’d messed up, the sooner they could readjust things to prepare for tonight’s broadcast. Waiting would only make things worse. Not to mention the fact that waiting might make her lose her nerve. By the time she got done typing out the email her hands were shaking.
She had to keep this job. She had to. She had bills to pay, and they were only going to keep piling higher and higher as the months passed. Her degree in journalism wouldn’t transfer well to any other fields besides, well, journalism. And it was a small world. If you messed things up badly enough, word was bound to get around. If she ended up blackballed in the only career she had ever wanted, her own disappointment would be the least of her worries. The forty thousand dollars in student loans that she needed an income in order to pay would be the much bigger concern.
Still, maybe this was salvageable. Surely it was. It had to be. Her phone buzzed with a reply from her supervisor.
My office, tomorrow morning. Your excuse for this one had better be fucking amazing. Peter’s pissed. Great. Just her luck that the head producer had apparently picked tonight of all nights to stick around the office. Her hopes of somehow saving the situation from turning into a catastrophe began to evaporate faster than morning dew drops beneath the brutal south Texas sun. She started trying to mentally rewrite her resume to cover this huge screw up. Maybe she could move somewhere far away from Texas and find work there…did they need sports reporters in Canada? South America maybe? Plenty of time to find out tomorrow, she supposed. For today, though…For today she needed to face the music and get out of this place before she fell apart completely.
She could do this. She just needed to gather her things and make it home before she broke down. Easy as pie.
“Get it together, girl.” She took a deep breath and headed out into the hallway.
“What the hell, Jazz?”
Her cameraman, Vince, was waiting for her in the hallway near the bathroom. She’d never liked him. He was crack addict thin and had the missing teeth to match. Jazmin couldn’t confirm without a doubt that he was a user, but he definitely had the loose morals of a druggie. Unfortunately, the man was damn good at his job. Jazmin doubted he’d be fired any time soon. She resented the sound of her nickname on his tongue.
“I’m just not feeling well tonight, Vince.”
“Yeah, well you’re going to pay for it, that’s for damn sure. Somehow I doubt the network’s going to want to air shots of you getting all hot and bothered over Caleb O’Connell while he manages not to answer a single damn question.”
“I kno
w, Vince. Just…please, let it go. I don’t need you telling me that the entire night was shit. No one knows it better than me.”
Thankfully Vince managed to keep his mouth shut while they gathered their equipment and headed out to the parking lot. Vince might be one of the most miserable excuses for a human being Jazmin had ever seen, but he was right. She was screwed. This had been her big shot, and she’d blown it. She hoped that somehow she’d be able to get another chance to cover pro games before they fired or demoted her, but she knew she shouldn’t hope too hard. This was a competitive business, and she’d managed to walk away from her first chance at covering a major game with absolutely no usable footage. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep the tears that threatened at bay while they loaded equipment into the truck.
“You know, I could fry for this right along with you, babe.” Vince had walked up to her while she’d been preoccupied. He was so close that she could smell the stale cigarette and rot tang of his breath. She shuddered and took a half step back.
“I wouldn’t let you take the fall with me, Vince. I’ll let them know that I got sick, and that you were there ready to work with no reporter to film.”
His eyes raked up and down her body and he took a step closer to her. She steeled her jaw and fought the urge to shudder. It was obvious that she hadn’t hidden her reaction to him, though. His eyes hardened even as they glittered with malice and lust.
“I don’t have any reason to believe things will play out that way. The way I see it, you owe me. Don’t worry. I’m sure we can think of some way to pay your debt…”
He trailed off and ran a hand down her side. Jazmin flinched and stepped back, getting ready to open her mouth to say something. Then Caleb came out of nowhere and coldcocked her cameraman right in the jaw.
Double Obsessions Page 10
