Slamdunked By Love (One on One #2)

by Jamie Wesley

  His tone went amused. “You like that, huh? Looks like a certain part of you doesn’t like all your teasing. Touch your nipples, Caitlin. Imagine it’s me doing it.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed, his words washing over her. Like they had a mind of their own, her fingers wandered the few inches south and touched her hard nipples. A shaky moan slipped through her lips at the first contact. A delicious dart of desire lined its way between her legs. Brady loved touching her breasts, playing with them, sucking them. She loved when he did it.

  “Just like that, baby,” he murmured.

  She rolled her right nipple between her index and middle fingers. She pinched her left nipple with her other hand. Ribbons of lust unfurled in her. Her legs pressed together in a doomed attempt to control the arousal rampaging through her system. “Brady.”

  “Don’t close yourself off from me. I want to see everything. Take off your panties.”

  She stood on shaky legs only long enough to do as he’d demanded, then lay back on the bed and opened her legs for his view only. She was wet, her inner thighs slippery with want. He could see everything. How wet she was. How close she was. She hid nothing from him. She couldn’t even if she wanted to. He saw her. He got her.

  His voice, dark and compelling, washed over her. “That’s what I want to see. It’s time. Touch yourself.”

  She needed no further direction. Her hand slipped down to the area between her legs. She found her clit, which was begging for mercy, and squeezed. A flood of heat rippled through her. She felt so empty. She needed relief. But only at his direction. Her eyes opened. The fire in his eyes scalded her. She licked her lips, forced them open. “I need you, Brady.”

  “I know, baby, but you’re going to do this by yourself. Go ahead.”

  Caitlin slipped a finger inside her, her flesh eagerly clamping around the digit. She pumped once, twice, but it wasn’t enough, so she added another finger, scraping across her nerve endings. A little better. She settled into an intoxicating rhythm, her bliss just out of reach. Wanting it to be him filling her. She moved her hips in counterpoint to her fingers, wanting to make it good for him. Sending a new wave of pleasure through her system in the process.

  A garbled groan had her eyes flying to the computer screen. Brady’s chest heaved like he’d just completed five wind sprints in a row, his wild eyes focused on her. She did this to him. She added a third finger, stretching herself. Adding to her pleasure. Yes. That. So good. Too good.

  Caitlin gasped. Brady’s answering groan let her know her actions were appreciated. Her clit was begging for attention, so she circled it again with her free hand, teasing herself.

  Pleasure twisted inside her, tighter and tighter, until she started to shake with the need to hold it in check. She was so close.

  His voice washed over her. “Do you like me watching you pleasure yourself?”

  “Yes,” she moaned, pressing a finger against her clit.

  “Come for me, Caitlin.”

  She did, the orgasm sweeping through her body, over and over in undulating waves. When the shaking finally stopped, she drew in a breath. “Thank you.”

  “It was my pleasure, believe me.”

  Maybe, but he looked tortured, his eyes wild, his mouth drawn tight, his chest still heaving. She drew up, curling her legs behind her. “It’s your turn.”

  His eyes darkened. “What do you want me to do, Caitlin?”

  “Do you trust me to make you feel good?”

  “Yes,” Brady said simply. Calmly.

  “Take off your clothes.”

  He whipped his T-shirt and shorts off.

  “Man, I love your body.” Her eyes slipped down his frame, boldly leaving no doubt to the truthfulness of her statement. She stopped at his erection and licked her lips. “Especially that part.”

  His cock jumped like an eager puppy waiting for a treat.

  “Did I cause that?” she asked.

  “You know you did.” He’d nearly gone off like a rocket earlier, but he hadn’t wanted anything to distract him from watching Caitlin find her pleasure.

  Her lips curled into a magnificent, wicked grin. “Good.”

  “I can’t wait until I see you in person. I’m going to make you pay.”

  “Promises, promises. Don’t you think you should take care of that first?”

  Holding her gaze, he wet his palm with some pre-come seeping out of his dick and then grabbed himself. Taking care of himself was nothing new, but having Caitlin’s hot, covetous eyes on him, knowing she could look, but not touch, ramped up the eroticism about ten notches. He pulled hard, the way he liked, the action sending a fresh wave of arousal through him. He gritted his teeth. Tingles crept up his spine, then spread to all corners of his body.

  “Keep going,” she murmured.

  He did. He worked harder. He squeezed. He was rough. He used both hands. His balls drew tight as he reached close to the end. He alternated his strokes, harder, then softer, trying to prolong the ecstasy. The agony.

  “I wish it was my hand, my mouth on you. Licking you. Sucking you. Taking you all.”

  Shit. Was she trying to kill him? Caitlin’s mouth was pure magic. Remembering her pleasuring him—how she looked on her knees, how she made him feel when she put her talented lips and tongue to work on him, the sensual look in her eyes—was his undoing. He came with a hoarse grunt, stars exploding behind his eyes.

  Sometime later, when he returned to Earth, he immediately sought out his computer screen. Caitlin watched him with a satisfied-with-herself grin on her face. She’d covered that magnificent body of hers with a sheet. Too bad. He’d never get tired of seeing it, worshipping it.

  “Hey, stranger,” she said. Her eyes slipped down to where he had softened, but was getting harder under her perusal.

  “Hold that thought.” He gathered the strength to rise from the bed and head for the bathroom.

  “Hmm, the back view is almost as nice as the front. Tight, round ass.” She let out a wolf whistle.

  Brady stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at the computer. “Are you objectifying me?”

  “Yes.” She nodded eagerly.

  He grinned and continued on his way. He grabbed a towel and cleaned himself up, then returned to the bedroom and drew up his shorts.

  “You don’t have to do that for my benefit,” she said.

  “I’m doing it for myself. That was…”

  “Incredible?”

  “Yeah, for starters. I can honestly say I’m no longer bored.”

  She laughed, unabashedly. Freely. Like she did everything. Holding nothing back. Her eyes sparkled. Her skin was radiant. She was radiant. So caring. So giving. So Caitlin.

  “I love you.” The words slipped out before he could stop them. He didn’t want to anyway. They were the truth. She made him feel again. Made him realize that he could let people in. He didn’t have to hold people responsible for what others had done to him. He was so lucky to have her. The decision to pull over to help her was the best decision of his life.

  Her laughter cut off abruptly. Her eyes widened. “What did you say?”

  “I said I love you. You’re everything I’ve been looking for and never knew I wanted.”

  She blinked. “That’s, that’s—”

  “I don’t expect you to say it back. At least not yet. But you will.”

  “I will, will I?”

  He’d never been surer of anything in his life. “Yeah. I’m done pretending you don’t mean the world to me. Our relationship might have started out as a means to an end, but we’ve moved so far past that. What we have is the truth.”

  A smile, stunning, spread across her face like she could no longer contain it. Like she had no desire to do so. She pressed her fingertips to her computer screen like she could actually touch him and trace his features. Her eyes shone with joy. “Why the hell are you in Milwaukee?”

  Caitlin moved back and forth in front of her desk. Stupid office. It was way too smal
l for pacing, but it was all she had at the moment, so she’d have to make do. For at least the tenth time, she reached the end of the room and turned and headed for the other side.

  “Caitlin?” Noelle asked. “Are you going to tell me what’s up? The room isn’t that big. I would think the pacing would get old after a while.”

  She stopped mid-step and faced her best friend. Noelle was perched on the edge of her desk, the concern in her eyes belying her light tone. “Brady said he loves me.”

  And hearing the words, remembering how he looked when he said it, sent her pacing again.

  “Oh.” Noelle sounded stunned. “That was fast, but okay. Seems like it was only yesterday that you were telling me y’all had decided to take your relationship from fake to real.”

  “I know, right? At first, I was shocked, then he said some really sweet things, and I was all ‘aww.’ Now I’m freaking out.”

  “I assume by the way you’re acting that you don’t feel the same way.”

  She stopped again. “No. Yes. I don’t know. He’s so not what I thought I wanted except he is. We’re so good together, and I care about him. A lot. But to say ‘love,’ you know that takes a lot for me.”

  “Is he pressuring you to say you love him?”

  “What? No.”

  “Then what’s bothering you? Something obviously is.”

  Caitlin flopped down in a chair and buried her face in her hands for a second. “I’m keeping something from him.”

  Noelle settled in the matching chair. “From me, too, I’m assuming, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re right.” She took a deep breath. “I found my father.”

  Noelle’s mouth dropped open. “You did? How?”

  “I found a letter he wrote my mom. He’s Mack Jameson.”

  Noelle’s eyebrows did their best to leap off her face. “As in the Stampede coach?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wow.” Noelle reached for her hand and squeezed. “How are you handling this? Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. I’ve had some time to adjust.”

  Noelle studied her for a second, then nodded. “Okay, but what else aren’t you telling me?”

  Noelle was her best friend for a reason. She could read her like a book. “I wanted to get close to Mack to get some intel to expose what a fraud he is, which is the real reason I agreed to pretend to date Brady. I planned to write a scathing tell-all column and publish it on Zach Brantley’s website.”

  “Wow. Okay. This is a lot to take in.”

  “It is, and I know you’re going to say that wasn’t the healthiest way to handle the situation.”

  Noelle sighed. “Which is why you didn’t tell me.”

  “Which is why I didn’t tell you.”

  “Is it too optimistic to assume you’re having second thoughts?”

  “I don’t like lying to Brady. I have conflicted feelings about Mack. Brady loves him, and from what I can tell, he’s been great for Brady. But I can’t forget the hard times growing up. I can’t forget how he abandoned my mom without a second thought.” She took a deep breath. “But blindsiding him like this doesn’t feel right either. I’m finally ready to admit that. The column is finished, but I haven’t been able to press send. I kept telling myself it needed tweaking, but that wasn’t it.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “The only thing I can do. Confess and hope Brady doesn’t hate me.” She looked down at her hands for a second. “Do you think he’s going to hate me?” Her voice wobbled. “I don’t want him to hate me. His last girlfriend used him to get a job and slept with his teammate. I know it wasn’t easy for him to trust again after that, and I’ve been lying to him the whole time.”

  Noelle drew her into a hug. “Based on what you just said, it couldn’t have been easy for him to open up to you. His feelings have to be real. Believe in what he’s told and shown you.”

  Caitlin nodded. “Okay, I’m going to be brave and tell him everything.”

  But first she had a call to make. After Noelle left, she picked up her phone. “Zach, it’s Caitlin Monroe. There’s not going to be a story. I changed my mind.”

  He heaved a sigh. “We didn’t sign a contract, so I can’t make you change your mind. Whatever it is, it’s going to get out if it’s as juicy as you claimed. By not publishing the story, you won’t be able to control the narrative.”

  “I’m willing to take that risk. Good-bye.” She hung up the phone with no regrets. She was going to handle this her way.

  “Hey, Caitlin, where’s the recipe for the team cookbook?” Brady asked.

  “It’s on my desk,” she called out from her kitchen.

  He looked askance at the desk that was covered with piles of paper and God-only-knew-what-else. That desk? He hefted himself off the sofa and crossed the room. Caitlin claimed she had a system, so he didn’t want to mess anything up. He’d been down that road before and rousing the ire of the five-foot-two dynamo wasn’t something he wanted to encounter again anytime soon. Though she’d looked cute fussing at him. Sexy.

  At least she’d agreed to be a part of the cookbook, which had to mean she saw a future for them. Just because she hadn’t told him she loved him didn’t mean she didn’t or wouldn’t. She was skittish. He got that. So patient he would be.

  He lifted the stacks gingerly. No recipe. At least not for a German chocolate cake. All manners of articles about people doing weird things, which he could only assume was research for the radio show.

  He almost missed it. He’d picked up the pace looking for a single sheet of paper when what he’d seen registered in his brain. He picked up the file folder and opened it. His heart sank. His hopes. His dreams. Everything.

  “What the hell is this?”

  Brady’s seething voice came from behind her. She spun away from the stove where she was carefully frosting the sugar cookies Brady liked so much. She’d been tinkering with the recipe and thought they were her best batch so far. But all those happy thoughts drifted away to nothingness when she registered the look on his face. And the folder in his hand.

  “Where did you get that?” she asked. Although she already knew the answer. The place she’d told him to look.

  “Why do you have a folder of articles about Mack? Why do you have a background check on him? A very thorough one as far as I can tell. That must have set you back a pretty penny.”

  “I can explain.” She gripped the frosting piping bag in her hand so hard frosting dripped out onto the counter. She set the bag down carefully to give herself a second to gather her thoughts. She didn’t make a move toward Brady. The fire blazing from his eyes let her know it wouldn’t be welcome.

  “I can’t wait to hear it.” Sarcasm, so poisoned, so sharp, dripped from his tone.

  “Mack is my father.”

  He shook his head, uncomprehending like she’d started speaking Japanese. “What did you say? What are you talking about?”

  “He’s my father. He doesn’t know,” she continued at Brady’s mystified look. “I only found out a few weeks ago.”

  “What were you planning on doing with that info? Don’t try to play me for a fool. If you’d planned to have a happy father-daughter reunion, you would have done it already. And that’s not even including all the notes in the margin—Use this. Make sure you tell him that. Who the hell is he? Because it sure as hell isn’t me.” He flipped to the front of the folder and pulled out another sheet of paper. “He’s not the man everyone applauds him for being. And that makes him worse. That false facade he shows to the world when the real man is as ugly inside as it gets. You wrote this drive-by piece.” His disgust was real. Palpable.

  Even though her heart was threatening to leap out of her chest, she had to remain calm. Make him understand. “I planned to write a column exposing him for the liar he is. He got my mom pregnant, wrote her a check for five thousand dollars, and told her he never wanted to see her again.”

&nbs
p; “You never planned to talk to him about it, I guess. It’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity to talk to him. Instead you planned to sell your story to the highest bidder.”

  She swallowed. “That was the plan, yes.”

  “Let me guess. Mommy Dearest put you up to this.”

  Her chin lifted. “No, my mother knows nothing about it.”

  “Aww, I see. You thought you’d get in her good graces with your act of bravery.” He sniffed, shook his head. “Where do I fit in all of this?”

  She went to him then. “I care about you. You know that.”

  He wrenched his arm away. “I don’t know anything. Was this all a set-up?”

  “No.”

  “No, but when you saw a golden opportunity, you ran with it, right? Tell me I’m lying, Caitlin. Tell me that you didn’t use me to get closer to your father. Tell me.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes. “I can’t, but let me explain.”

  “I don’t want to hear it. What a damn fool I was. ‘Reel him in even more,’ I’m sure you said. You must have been crowing when I told you I loved you. I’m sure you told yourself ‘Now he won’t be able to let me go and I can get closer to Mack.’” He backed away, his eyes widening. “Is that why you were so eager to accept that invitation to his house? So eager to cook with him?”

  She didn’t say anything. What was there to say?

  He continued moving away. “You’re just like all the others. I should have known it was too good to be true. I should have known you were too good to be true. Everyone always is. I thought I had to give you time. But that wasn’t it at all. You didn’t give a damn at all. It was all a game to you.”

  “Brady, please listen to me. What I feel for you is real. What we have is the truth. You told me that.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to believe that when you’ve been lying to me the whole time? Using me?”

  She went to him. Flinched when he again rejected her touch. “Listen to me. I changed my mind. I’m not publishing the column.”

  “Mighty convenient now that I found out, especially when I have the proof in my hands. You liked writing this. I can tell by the tone of the piece.”