by Desiree Holt
“I’m so sorry about this,” Colin Segar said.
“It’s not your fault,” she objected.
“Maybe yes, maybe no. Nate was on his way out,” Colin told her, confirming the fact that the man had truly been in big trouble. “He promised he’d be getting back with you and bringing in the Hawks as clients.” He made a disgusted sound. “I should have known better. No, I should never have hired him in the first place. I had a feeling he was a loser from day one.”
Rafe returned eventually after handing over supervision of security to his assistant, never leaving her side until the game was over. Tyler wanted to tell him he could go back to work, but she was afraid if he left the suite, her hard-won control would shatter.
The game went right down to the wire, with the Hawks just barely edging the Mustangs seventeen-fourteen on a last-minute field goal. In Kurt Gillette’s suite at the stadium, insanity reigned. The win moved the Hawks into first place in their division and people couldn’t stop screaming and high-fiving each other.
Despite everything that had happened, Tyler soon found herself swept up in the celebration and the excitement. Part of it had to do with her sudden newfound absorption in the game itself. But a bigger part was the way her father had reached out to her. He took great pains to introduce her to everyone in the suite with unexpected pride and went out of his way to make sure she had a good time. But the thing that really made her feel good? During a time out on the field, he leaned close to her and whispered, “I have a lot to make up to you for. I’m not going to waste any more time getting to it, either, if you’ll just give me half a chance.”
Half a chance? She’d give him a whole chance. Tony Castillo had made a couple of comments that she’d had to think about. Looking at it as objectively as she could despite years of emotional pain, maybe her father hadn’t been able to deal with his grief. And maybe his answer had been to shut her out completely. But he’d begun to reach out to her when the situation with her stalker had blown up. So maybe the “new” Tyler could try to meet him halfway.
Rafe explained to Tyler he’d have to take her to the police department in the morning to file an official complaint. He also insisted on telling Kurt about the episodes with Chad and Ed.
“I’m going to have a very long talk with Chad,” Kurt said after Tyler told him everything that had happened with that man. “His behavior has been unforgiveable. If he can’t get his head straight, I don’t need him out there with the media.”
“He really surprised me,” Tyler said. “I don’t know where that possessive steak came from.”
Kurt grimaced. “I may have given him the wrong impression when I asked him to be your permanent escort to all those functions. I just thought the media relations director would be the best person. I had no ulterior motive where the two of you are concerned.”
“I couldn’t believe how antagonistic he got when I told him Rafe was taking me last night.”
“I think it’s a case of getting too big for his britches.” Kurt shook his head. “We’ll see how our little chat goes. Ed Spinelli is on my list, too. He doesn’t work for me, but he knows I carry a lot of influence in the world of pro football. He won’t want to get on my bad side.”
At last the game was over. As Rafe led her away, her father came over to give her another hug.
“Tomorrow we’re having lunch,” he promised, “and I’m going to start making up for the fact that I’ve been the world’s worst father for twenty-two years.” He kissed her cheek. “You go home with Rafe now. He’s a good man. He’ll take care of you.”
Which was exactly what she needed.
Chapter 13
By the time she and Rafe finally returned to the town house, she felt she’d been through ten wringers.
“I think I am beyond exhausted.” Tyler flopped down on the couch in her great room.
“No wonder.” He lifted her in his arms, sat down, and placed her in his lap, still holding onto her. “I nearly lost you today, cara. I’m not ashamed to say I was scared shitless.”
“Me, too.” She nestled her head in the crook of his neck.
“I wanted to tear that fucking bastard limb from limb.” He sighed. “But knowing he’ll spend a good many years in jail is almost as satisfying.”
“I still can hardly wrap my head around it.”
“I’m glad to see a change coming up in your relationship with your father,” Rafe commented.
“Me, too.” She smiled. “I’m having lunch with him tomorrow. He said we have a lot to talk about.”
“I’d say he’s right.” Rafe nodded at her. “He made a lot of mistakes, for whatever reasons, but he knows it.”
“I did, too,” she admitted. “I’d like to think he and I can get past all this.”
“You can if you want to,” he told her. “I realized something else today, too.” His words were soft, his lips pressed to her cheek.
“And what’s that?”
“If I’d lost you, I would have lost the one woman who could give meaning to my life. They say it takes a shock to make you realize the truth. Today I believe it. My truth is, I’m in love with you, Tyler. Maybe I have been forever. I was just…” He paused, as if not knowing what to say.
“The past is the past, Rafe. Maybe this is the wakeup call we both needed.” She curled more tightly against him. “I think I’ve always been in love with you. Does that scare you off?”
“Not even a little bit.” He touched two fingers to her lips. “What’s past is past. There’s an old saying that out of death comes the affirmation of new life. I’d say the threat of death is almost the same thing. Let’s go upstairs and celebrate it.” He stood up with her in his arms, studying her so intently she wondered what he was looking for.
“I’m all for that.” Yes, she definitely was.
“We’ve got something really good going here, Tyler. Sitting at the fundraiser the other night, I realized how much I want what the Reillys and the other couples have. I want to explore what you and I have and see if this is something that’s going to stick.”
“Me, too.”
He carried her up the stairs and into her bedroom, setting her down beside the bed. Very slowly he lowered his head and pressed his mouth to hers. His tongue slid across her lips before he prodded them to open and swept inside. She slipped her tongue over his in an erotic dance, tasting every bit of his mouth, sucking hard on his tongue. Rafe captured her head with one hand, holding it in place while he slid the other down to the curve of her ass and pressed her body hard against his. His thick cock was a hard length pressed against her sex. Moisture seeped into her panties and her inner walls flexed as desire coursed through her.
When he lifted his head they were both breathless.
Everything that had been jumbled inside her settled in place and warmth spread through her.
“Something’s going on with you.” Rafe stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “You always nibble that poor lower lip when you’re not sure about something. Come on, Tyler. No secrets between us anymore.”
“You’ll probably think it’s a stupid idea.” She leaned her head into his shoulder, avoiding his eyes.
“Unless it involves throwing me out, I’m sure I’ll be fine with it.”
She blew out a breath. “Okay, here goes. I want to go back and finish getting my degree.”
Tyler waited for him to laugh at her or tell her it was dumb or any other put-down. But he surprised her. He tipped her chin up so he could look directly into her eyes.
“I think that’s a great idea. A really great idea.”
Her eyes widened. “You do? You don’t think at my age it’s stupid?”
“Tyler, honey, people twice your age are getting their degrees. I think it’s great and I’m sure your dad will, too.”
“I-I want to make you both proud of me.”
“We will be. We are.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Any idea what you’d
like to study?”
“Uh-huh. I was really good at my business courses, especially statistics, which I think is why when I started to understand the game today it fascinated me. And then…”
“And then?” he urged.
“And then I’d like to ask my dad if there’s a place for me in the Hawks organization. I figure if he says yes we can be a real San Antonio Hawks family.”
He studied her face for a long time. “This is quite a change in lifestyle for you. Are you sure it’s what you really want?”
“I know what I don’t want,” she told him, “and that’s to go back to living the way I was. That night at Mike’s I was already regretting so much of what I’d done. I want you to be proud of me, like your friends are of their wives and significant others. I want me to be proud of me.”
“Cara, I think that’s great. And I know Kurt will, too.” He pulled off her ball cap and tugged her ponytail loose. “But I won’t love you any more because of it, because I don’t think I could love you more than I do. Some might think us an unlikely pair, but as far as I’m concerned we fit perfectly. So. We ready for that shower now?”
She nodded. “The last one we took together worked very well.”
Rafe laughed. “It did, so let’s have a repeat.”
In what seemed like seconds they were standing beneath the steaming cascade of water, her smaller body pressed back against his very large one as his big hands soaped her body. For a man of his size, his touch was unbelievably gentle as he spread the rich lather over her nipples, her rib cage, her tummy and down to her pussy. His thick fingers slid between the lips of her labia, sliding up and down, rubbing against her tender clit in a way that sent little electrical charges through her inner walls.
She squeezed her thighs together, trapping his hand between them, and his low laugh rumbled in her ear.
“You’re so slick and so wet for me. I love sliding my fingers through you like this and feeling how tight you grip me.” He nipped the shell of her ear. “I’ve never felt this connection with another woman, Tyler. I think you bewitched me.”
She leaned back against him. “If I did I hope it doesn’t wear off.”
“Not a chance.”
He murmured hot, erotic things in her ear as he continued to rub her swollen nub while pressing his cock into the cleft of her buttocks. Tyler didn’t know if her body was ramped up because of everything that happened that day or if Rafe just pressed every one of her buttons by just touching her.
She had a sense of possession. His hands were magic, coaxing responses every place they touched. She was so aroused, so on edge, he’d barely stroked and teased her before a climax burst from deep inside her. She was glad Rafe was holding her so tightly or she would have fallen to the floor, as much as she was trembling.
“Well, damn,” he murmured, “I must be better than I thought.”
Her laugh was soft and shaky. “But not better than I thought. But what about you?”
“Coming right up.” He bit her earlobe. “If you’ll pardon the pun. But I want to be on a bed for this.”
He hastily dried both of them, then carried her to the bed, stripped back the covers. In seconds he had rolled on a condom and knelt between her thighs. When he looked at her there was such love and passion in his eyes it made her weak all over again.
He entered her with one strong thrust, then held himself in place while her body adjusted to him. Their gazes locked and Tyler felt as if he could see clear to inside her soul. It gave her such a sense of belonging she actually felt tears come to her eyes.
Rafe stilled. “Are you okay? Am I hurting you?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Far from it. I feel as if every part of me belongs to every part of you.”
“Good. Because I feel the same way. I know I said I wanted to make slow, delicious love to you, but I don’t think I can do that this time. I want you too badly.”
“Then don’t wait. We’ll have plenty of time for slow later on.”
Rafe began to move, slowly at first, measured strokes, in and out, his eyes never leaving hers. She wound her legs around his hips and locked her ankles at the small of his back, holding herself to him as tightly as she could. He never broke the rhythm he set up, in and out, slow and steady. Soon that was all that consumed her, their joining and the tempo of their bodies.
She clung to him, wrapped in the velvet of erotic pleasure, everything focused on the two of them joined together, on Rafe’s plundering of her body, on the feel of his thick cock filling every inch of her. Everything they felt for each other seemed poured into this single act.
Tyler was focused totally on the feel of him, the thickness of him, the slick slide and retreat. She was so caught up in the building layers of sensation she was stunned when the orgasm rolled up, so suddenly it shocked her. Rather than the cataclysmic mating of the previous nights, this was more sensuous yet no less intense. Her inner walls gripped him like a vise while his cock flexed and pulsed inside her. The spasms gripped her again and again, ebbing and flowing like slowly rolling waves, on and on and on.
And then it eased, slowed and faded, until they were both left weak and limp and drained. Rafe dropped to his forearms and rested his forehead on hers.
“Incredible.” His lips tilted in a slow smile. “Just damn fucking incredible.”
“I agree.” She unwrapped her legs from him, resting her feet on the bed, watching him as he slowly eased from her body.
He gave her a quick, soft kiss on the lips. “Be right back.”
She watched the muscles flex in his magnificent ass as he padded to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. How, she wondered, had she gotten so damn lucky? Less than a week ago she was a hot mess on a self-destructive path with not much to look forward to. Now she had a future with an incredible man who actually loved her.
“You look like someone who is very pleased with herself,” Rafe teased as he climbed back into bed.
“Just reflecting on the fortunate turn my life has taken.”
“You know what pass interference is, Tyler?”
“Barely. Tony was doing his best to explain things to me today, but it was a lot to cram into my brain at once.”
“In football it is when any player’s movement beyond the line of scrimmage hinders the progress of an eligible receiver in an attempt to reach the pass.” He rested his chin on her head and pulled her more tightly against him. “Here’s how I look at it. The ball in your game of life got snapped, but on the way to you catching it shit happened. It’s like a defensive player interfering with the receiver. You’ve been trying to get back in position to catch it again all these years.”
“Is that what it was?”
“Uh-huh. Someone just screwed with your playbook. I’m the one who’s going to straighten it out.”
She lay there silent for a moment.
“I love you, Rafe. More than I can ever tell you.”
“I love you, too, mi corazon. My heart. You own my heart.”
“Good. Because you own mine, too.”
Tyler relaxed in Rafe’s grip and slowly drifted off to sleep, more secure than she’d felt in a very long time.
Meet the Author
Referred to by USA Today as the Nora Roberts of erotic romance, Desiree Holt is the world’s oldest living published erotic romance author. A graduate of the University of Michigan with double majors in English and History, her earlier careers include agent and manager in the music industry, public television, associate vice president of university advancement, public relations, and economic development. She is three times a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award (and a winner in 2014), a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio, as well as twice a CAPA Award winner for best BDSM book of the year, and winner of the Holt Medallion for Excellence in Romance Literature.
She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and i
n The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The (London) Daily Mail, The New Delhi Times, The Huffington Post and numerous other national and international publications. She is also the Authors After Dark 2014 Author of the Year. Readers can visit her at www.desiremeonly.com.
Keep reading for an excerpt from the first book in the Game On series:
Get Ready to Play Rough
Shay Beckham grew up idolizing her brother’s best friend, star quarterback Joe Reilly. There was no one in their Texas town who had the moves to match Joe on or off the field. Years later, he’s still a player who has what it takes to drive any hot-blooded woman wild. But Shay isn’t a kid with a bad case of hero-worship anymore. She’s grown-up and independent, with her feet on the ground and a serious head on her shoulders. If she could just say the same for Joe.
It’s been fifteen years, but Joe Reilly hasn’t forgotten the skinny little kid who used to follow him around like a shadow. What he can’t get over is that the skinny shadow has grown into one hell of an incredible woman. One any man in his right mind would kill to get his hands on. And one who seems to be completely immune to him. He knows he and Shay could have something special together. If he could only convince her he’s about more than just the game.
A Lyrical e-book on sale now.
Learn more about Desiree at http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31606
Chapter 1
“Damn it, Hank. Why don’t you answer?”
Shay Beckham pressed End on her cell phone yet again and sighed. She and her brother had been playing telephone tag for two days. When he called, she was in meetings. When she called, he was out of signal range. The only voices talking to each other were their voice mails. How godforsaken could it be in Wyoming, anyway? It was still in the United States, right?
