Silver Fox

by Kristen Strassel

  “We’re always looking for more volunteers to answer the questions on there.” Tessa said, and I’d forgotten she was here. The world around me had vanished, and there was only Jenna. I wondered how I never saw it before. How I let her go.

  Jenna chuckled. “I’m not sure I’m the person who should be giving advice on anything.”

  “Why not?” I asked. My animal growled, not liking it when she doubted herself. The fox needed to slam on the brakes. We had eighteen years of bad blood between us and the beer and possibilities were making me dizzy.

  “You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said.” She shook her head, but her grin had yet to fade. “My husband ran off with a bartender, I don’t have a job, and my daughter is...I don’t even want to speculate, because it’s probably ten times worse than anything I could come up with. I’m forty years old and I’m on a reality show. I wouldn’t exactly call any of this having my shit together.”

  “Nobody has their shit together.”

  She quirked a brow. “Whatever, Mr. Football Superstar.”

  “I’m a good quarterback. But I’ve played for ten teams in the last eighteen years. The guy who I’m supposed to be training as my protégé just asked if he could take my daughter out—”

  “He did?” Jenna asked. “That’s so old-fashioned and sweet.”

  “Yeah.” It was, and it took balls to do it in the locker room after I’d threatened him the night before. If I could keep his ass in line, we had hope for Fiona. That was, if she stayed with him. I hadn’t been thinking about more than one night when I was eighteen. But that wasn’t my problem with Tyler Jones. “The kid is a pain in my ass. He’s not willing to work as part of the team and pay his dues as a backup. He’s practically drooling, waiting to take my job. And every time I fuck something up, every ache and pain I have, it becomes more obvious that he’s the future and I’m not.”

  I’d never said that out loud to anyone before. Plenty of people knew it, from the reporters who spent every Sunday speculating about my future to the fans in the stands who held their breath every time I took a wicked hit.

  “What’s your plan for after the game?” Jenna asked.

  I usually hated this question because I had no answer, but I’d made her answer it, and it wasn’t any less painful for her. She’d had everything ripped away. I always knew football would come to an end, and it was my own stupid fault I hadn’t planned for it.

  “I could coach or go into broadcasting, if either one would have me.” I ran my hand over my beard and leaned back in my seat. “This is the part of the season I start to think maybe it is my last year. Everything hurts and I don’t bounce back as fast as I used to. It used to be an advantage to be a shifter, but all the guys on the Bloodhounds are shifters. But by the end of the season, I’m not ready to let go.”

  She nodded and grabbed a fresh beer from the bucket. “It sucks,” she said, but she was in her own world. She snapped back, frowning like she didn’t like what she’d seen. “I made dessert too, but I think that can wait.”

  “What do you want to do?” Just like with football, I hadn’t planned for anything after this dinner. It was either going to be a disaster or we’d go where the night led us. But it had led us to a place we were never supposed to go—where our dreams came true but they didn’t last. When we were vulnerable and scared and clinging to hope by our fingernails. What happened next would change everything. For both of us.

  The beer bottle landed heavily on the table. Her grin was lopsided. “What does a Real Werewife of Alaska usually do on a date with a Bloodhound?”

  Oh shit. My animal was going crazy.

  “The hot tub is free tonight,” Tessa said, her eyes bright. She loved those fucking hot tub dates. “You don’t have to go any further than what makes you feel comfortable. And we always know to shut off the cameras, if that’s the right thing to do.”

  I couldn’t breathe when I looked back at Jenna. “What do you think?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Seven

  JENNA

  I should’ve known better than to drink on the first date. Alcohol made me stupid, and its effects increased the older I got. Just because last time I had a first date with Landon Fox I could drink him under the table didn’t mean it was still a possibility.

  I followed Tessa into a dressing room. She gave me a once-over, opened a drawer, and handed me a two-piece bathing suit. “We’ve got more if that doesn’t fit.”

  Right. Most of the Werewives were half my size and not one of them had my ass. All I could think of as I got undressed was that soon Fiona would be doing this very same thing. The thought was enough to kill my beer buzz. Unlike Landon, I thought it was sweet Tyler asked his permission to take her out. The poor kid didn’t stand a chance against Fiona.

  A robe hung on a hook. I wrapped it around myself and headed to the main area. The bathing suit fit and was only moderately horrifying. Tessa grinned at me. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.” If someone had told me a year ago I was going to spend some sexy hot tub time with Landon Fox, I would’ve thought they’d place bets on which one of us would try to drown the other first. Instead, I was trying to remember what his lips felt like against mine. It was a defense mechanism, my only hope of not completely falling for this man. We didn’t get it right the first time, and if things went wrong tonight, I might not get another chance to fix them.

  Tessa turned to look behind herself, like she expected to see someone else standing there. We were alone. She grabbed my arm and smiled. After last night, I was still walking on eggshells around her. It shocked me how much I didn’t want to screw this up, and it had nothing to do with Fiona.

  “It’s my job to let the dates play out as they would if there were no camera crew, but I’m a producer, and I’m human. There’s been a couple pairings I’ve really wanted to work. You’re one of them. I’ve known Landon a long time. He’s got so much passion and he doesn’t know how to funnel it into anything but football. I know you have a reason to be patient with him, but give him a chance. I consider him a friend, and he deserves to be happy.”

  “What happens in the hot tub?” I asked, too nervous to talk about what I wanted for Landon.

  “Whatever you’re comfortable with. Some people just talk, and others do a lot more.” Tessa waggled her eyebrows. “The tub takes down the wall. Relax. Have fun.”

  Right. Like it was that easy, and like this was a first date with a random guy and not the father of my child.

  “There’s a camera in the corner of the room. If you want us to shut it off, look directly into it for five beats. You’ll see the green light fade. That means we’re no longer recording. But we stay nearby, so if something happens that you’re not comfortable with, we’re just in the next room. I get a lot of shit that dating shows are completely sexist, so I want to make sure the ladies are always in the driver’s seat.”

  I nodded. If it wasn’t for the show, I would’ve never gotten back in touch with Landon. He let all my phone calls go to voicemail, and my emails and texts were answered with the fewest words possible.

  What changed? Was it being this close to each other again? Or was it the context—love was in the air and it was impossible not to be smitten?

  I sank into the water. I was the first one in the hot tub room, and I closed my eyes, giving myself a chance to process the craziness of the last two days. Here I was, with Landon. We’d united—not over what we were going to do about Fiona but because we were two adults who’d found ourselves alone in the same place at the same time.

  The water splashed, and I startled. Landon had come into the room. Sometimes it was easy to forget he wasn’t human. But knee deep in the water, wearing nothing but swim trunks, it was hard to think he was anything but animal. Muscles rippled down his abdomen and his biceps tensed. Emotion surged in his blue eyes like the water he sank into. The fog was thick between us, and I had so much to tell him, but at the same time, I had no wor
ds. I didn’t need them.

  Landon’s lips parted as he took my face in his hands. They were rough, sure, and steady from years of battle on the gridiron. My heart pounded as hard as the bubbles percolating around us. I wanted him to kiss me.

  I wanted him.

  For the first time in eighteen years, Landon and I wanted the same thing. He claimed my mouth with a kiss as sure as his grip. There was a comfort to it, a relief I wasn’t expecting. We fit together because we understood each other. We shared so much, even if we’d taken different paths to get to this place. Landon’s kiss was like coming home. But I wouldn’t settle for what we had when there was so much more at stake.

  Our tongues tangled as I pushed him back against the edge of the tub. I wanted to crawl inside him and make his pain go away because maybe some of mine would fade too. He groaned, and I was in his lap, writhing against him. Things were moving much faster than I ever expected. I thought we’d talk and maybe kiss a little bit before calling it a night. This wasn’t making out. I needed to consume him to make myself whole.

  Landon snaked his fingers into my hair, yanking my head to the side. His beard scratched my cheek as he nipped and kissed my neck. If he wasn’t holding me, I would’ve fallen back into the water.

  “Damn.” The word rumbled against my skin. “I forgot what it was like to be with you.”

  “What’s it like?” I could barely talk.

  “You make me lose all fucking control.” Another tug on my hair contradicted that statement. He licked the dew off my shoulder, and I pushed my bikini top down just in case he thought I wanted him to slow down. Landon made me lose control too.

  He growled. I’d never been with another shapeshifter, and I missed the way that sound made the muscles low in my belly clench. I curled my fingers into the flesh on his shoulders. His muscles tensed against his skin, and my wet hair clung to his shoulders.

  We were one, and as he took my nipple into his mouth, I couldn’t figure out why I ever wanted anything else. How it ever made sense for us to be apart. At the time, I had to conquer my world and Landon his. Now here we were, like we needed each other as much as we needed to breathe. Like I wasn’t whole without him.

  His talented tongue had me shaking, writhing in his lap. My nipples were taut peaks that he nipped and sucked as he dragged his hands down my arms and into my lap. There was no hiding he was as turned on as I was. Scraping my hands down his chest, I only sort of regretted the red marks I left in my wake. I could mark him, too.

  He was already tugging at my bikini bottom, and I rose out of the water to help him. Holding me against his hot, wet body as I slipped one leg out, and then the other, his lips rumbled against my skin. His hand was back in my hair as I straddled his lap. We were eye to eye, skin to skin, our lips desperate for one another.

  His other hand slipped between my legs, sending a bolt of electricity rocketing through my body. It was a miracle we both weren’t electrocuted. Landon had learned a thing or two in our time apart, and I was ready to reap the rewards.

  My clit was between his knuckles, and he had me seeing stars. The fog wasn’t just a thing around us, it was a thing between us as the line between my past, present, and future blurred. He let go, and I exhaled for what felt like the first time in a long time. My bones were jelly. Landon was wriggling below me, and I had to hold on to him or I would’ve slid away in the water.

  The swim trunks landed on the stone with a slap, and Landon let go of me to dig something out of the pocket. I laughed when I saw the foil packet.

  “Don’t want to knock me up?” I laughed.

  He licked his lips. “We can’t handle another one.”

  “True.” Sometime later, when I was lying in bed, soaking in the afterglow, I might think about what it would be like to raise a kid with Landon, instead of in constant opposition. But now, I couldn’t process anything but the condom rolling onto his massive cock. It wasn’t so-big-he’d-rip-me-in-half massive; no one wanted that. It was just the right size to fill me completely and leave me with the memory of our union after we parted. My insides pulsed, muscle memory, as he positioned himself to enter me.

  The fog around us turned to smoke and smoke turned to fire as he thrust inside me. Long, slow strokes, his fingers in my hair, his forehead once again against mine. I sank down, and he was in all the way to the hilt. His strong hands stilled me as his lips found mine. It wasn’t frantic like the kiss that set this night into motion. It was slow and had a just a hint of sweetness. Like I could picture myself doing this for a long time.

  It was just a hint. Landon bit my bottom lip as he slammed against me. The rhythm of his thrusts changed, like he’d had the same thought I did just a moment ago and it scared him. Now he was fucking me like he was never going to see me again.

  Like he had any idea how much I needed this. To abandon all rational thought and let sensation take over my body.

  “I’m going to come,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “I know.” But he didn’t give me any mercy.

  “You know?” Cocky bastard.

  “Yes, Jenna, I know.” Each word was a struggle.

  My hearing tunneled as my body switched into overdrive. His thrusts slowed, in time with the tremors that racked my body. A hand on the back of my neck held me steady. “Doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we last did this. I’d never forget the way your body feels.”

  He eased me on the bench beside him after we both came, but he didn’t let go of me. His fingers slipped between mine and he squeezed as we both caught our breath. The condom landed on the stone next to his shorts. I tipped my head back against the edge of the tub, savoring the moment. He was right, I’d never forgotten what it was like to be with him. The same fire and passion that brought us together ripped us apart. Just as I was about to drift into post-orgasmic euphoria, my eyes snapped open.

  “Shit. I was supposed to look directly into the camera when I wanted them to shut it off.”

  Landon had the audacity to laugh. Bastard. But right now, he was my bastard and I didn’t want him any other way. “The light is off. Can’t tell you when it happened, but there’s something you should know about Tessa. If she likes you, she’s got your back. She’ll never make you look bad.”

  “Seems counterintuitive for a reality show.” I wouldn’t pretend I didn’t know what I got myself into. “Usually we all come out looking a little bad.”

  He shook his head. “Tessa fought hard to get where she is, and she didn’t do it by stepping on anyone else. She did it by making people look good, even in the worst circumstances. After a last-minute loss, the last thing I wanted to do was talk to reporters about how I fucked up. But Tessa would always focus on the one bright spot in the game. She knows how to get people to do what she wants.”

  I glanced back at the cameras. The green light was on again. For a moment, I was a little weirded out that the crew had stayed close enough to know when the coast was clear to film again, but this was what I signed up for, to have my journey documented.

  “She wants you to be happy,” I said.

  “Yeah.” Landon’s eyes closed for a long, lazy blink. “She’s been after me to find a mate ever since the show started.”

  “How come you never settled down?” It was a shame for a man with as much passion as Landon Fox to have no one to share it with.

  “Football was my love. Still is. And I like women who are too stubborn to uproot every time I get sent packing.” He grinned, but it was sad. “Don’t feel bad for me, Jenna. I wasn’t alone.”

  “But were you lonely?” There was a difference.

  The grin faded. “Sometimes.”

  “I’m sorry.” Even more sorry because I knew exactly how he felt. All along, we’d been living the same life, miles apart.

  “Don’t be.” His eyes lit up, even though his gaze was far away with some memory that he wasn’t ready to share with me. “My dreams came true, but I’m living proof you can’t have it all.”

&n
bsp; “You can’t have it all at once. You wouldn’t appreciate it.” I sat up and pulled my hair over one shoulder and wrung it out. I loved the way Landon’s gaze followed the movement, like he couldn’t get enough of my body. It had been a long time since I’d felt like that. Before Landon, I didn’t know what it was like to go without that sort of adoration. I had to lose it to be thankful it was back. “So I think it would be a good idea if you spent some time with Fiona.”

  “I always wanted to spend time with her. But all that fighting took its toll. She knew how we felt about each other.”

  “I thought I was teaching her to be honest.” I sighed. “I told her tonight that she’s got daddy issues and this was the last chance to fix them.”

  Landon leaned over and kissed me. “We’ll probably wind up screwing her up worse when she sees we’re back together.”

  “Are we? You didn’t want to just get in my pants after I cooked you dinner?”

  He tried not to smile. His lips were all crooked and it wasn’t working. “I hope so. Unless you only came to watch me lose my mind as my daughter seduces every one of my available team mates.”

  “The Bloodhounds don’t stand a chance.” I chuckled. “Maybe at first I wanted that. But now that I’m here, I want you.”

  Chapter Eight

  LANDON

  “I need your help, Dad.” Fiona looked just like her mother, with a touch of fox. No wonder she was trouble. She dropped her purse on the island in my kitchen and collapsed on the bar stool like she’d hiked here from Montana.

  “With what, sweetheart?” I loved being able to see her like this. Not because it was a special occasion, just because it was Wednesday night and she came over for dinner.

  Nothing like the one her mother had cooked last night. What a perfect night. Good food, better company, and amazing sex. Every time I closed my eyes, I pictured Jenna’s incredible body writhing on top of mine, and her muscles pulsing around my cock. It would be easy to fall into that pattern with Jenna.