by Susan Arden
“You’ve a beautiful pair of legs.” He placed his hands on her thighs, spreading his fingers over the backs of her legs and started kneading her hamstrings. Her legs were tight and he’d learned fast tonight that she could dance at the saloon. So could her sister-in-law. Those two tore up the dance floor. Then he’d been informed about the dance studio owned by Gillian and didn’t have to ponder Cory’s level of expertise. She shared that not only had she been a student, she also helped at the dance studio before leaving for college.
“Tell me,” Cory moaned and made to close her legs. ”Or else!”
He held her legs open. Damn, he was so hard, and holding back required his full concentration. “We’ve special team meetings in the morning. But if I’ve got an injury, I stop by the trainer and get wrapped. Figure out what treatments I’ll need to prepare for the upcoming game. Our coach is hardcore and runs through schemes or plans. We have another team meeting with all the players. Each player is given their parts and we’ve got to memorize the plays.”
“Sounds like it’s a play and you guys are actors.”
“Some days, it’s just as much work inside the head as it is body. A guy with his head screwed on backwards gets slammed. Hurt.”
“How do you remember it all?” She glanced back over her shoulder, her brows drawn together.
“We run through the schemes on the field with a practice squad. A football team is huge. It’s excruciatingly slow and the whole practice is filmed. A player messes up, it isn’t missed. After lunch we have another meeting and watch the film.” He shook his head. “The whole thing gets dissected. It can get pretty tense.”
The coaches laid it on harsh if things didn’t go smoothly. Christ, he’d had his head handed to him the first year in the pros, until his sports agent had the intelligence to ask for required workplace accommodations for people with disabilities. It was a federal law—ADA—and that required someone to take notes for him and the use of a laptop. It hadn’t been easy to admit he needed help, but once he’d gotten the resources, his whole world changed. Other players came to him, asking for help on where to go for the same type of assistance.
“You’re in class as much as I am,” she said.
His head snapped upward. “I seriously doubt that. You’re at one of the best schools in the world.”
“We’re both learning schematics and how they work, both in a class and then in play. Sounds tremendously alike. Minus the throwing of a football and getting tackled.”
“I bet you’d do a bang-up job with a break away, or barreling through a defensive line.” He curled his fingers around her calves and he worked his fingers down her legs, massaging her skin and muscles all the way down to her ankles.
“Do you actually get time on the field to play ball?”
“For a couple of hours. It’s supposed to be ninety minutes, but that can run over. I end up in the weight room, then shower and I’m done.”
“You’ve got your whole night ahead.”
“Sure,” he chuckled. “If that includes bags of ice. Injuries have to heal. If not, they keep me off the field or get worse. I don’t need either headache. The newspapers make it seem like I’m out all the time. It’s why Fridays can get crazy. Playing ball is more than the lights and fans, it’s stressful in a heartbeat.”
“It’s hard to know what to believe from the outside looking in.” Cory shifted to her hip, watching him massage her feet. He pressed his thumbs against her arches and felt for pressure points he’d learned. “You’ve got a couple of knots…here.” He pressed and she moaned.
“You’ve a real gift,” she whispered. “How’d you learn to do that?”
“Heck, I’ve been in rehab working with physical therapists for years. Our bodies are roadmaps where we hold tension. I’ve a friend who I trust when I’m hurt. One of those long relationships. I ask questions.”
Her expression tightened. “Well, you’ve done me a favor. I feel wonderful.” She pulled her foot from his grasp and sat up, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, coming up next to her. “You’re thinking something. I’ve told you about my life. Be honest with me.”
“Brett, I want to be honest with you, but I also don’t want to come off an imbecile.”
“Trust me. Tell me what you’re uptight about.”
She shook her head, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed. “How about if I show you what I’m thinking?”
“First,” he took hold of her and pinned her to the bed. He lifted her arms over her head so she couldn’t move. “You’d better answer my question. I’ve got ways to make you talk.” He lowered his head, pressing his mouth to her neck and began to kiss, then suck a spot.
“Please,” she moaned.
CHAPTER 16
The words were crouched at the very tip of her tongue, about to fly free. Curlicues, business card, heart, and Tuesday. Oh yeah, don’t forget Raquel. Abort! No. No.
Don’t tell him, she kept thinking. You’ll sound all shades of stupid and tack on being a jealous shrew. Any man who says he wants to hear a woman’s thoughts—honestly doesn’t. Seriously, you know if you spill, a naked harpy isn’t sexy the day after. This is your last night with him, don’t end it on a freakish note.
He lifted up his head and his intense gaze caught her breath. “What have you got to say for yourself?”
She shook her head, her eyes fluttering. “It’s just I’m on edge. Tomorrow we’re leaving and I don’t know what to think.”
Brett narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t I believe that’s what got you ready to claw my hide?”
“Because you want me to say something to feed your colossal ego,” she said. “Let me go.”
She tried another route and prayed he’d let the matter drop. She twisted and tried to pull her arms from his grasp, employing the tactic of something, anything, to distract him. Far too easily, he recaptured her wrists, hoisting her arms even farther toward the headboard, leaving her shaky and exposed.
Her last chance. She “mistakenly” bumped her hip against his hard-on. Not once but at least half a dozen times while thrashing her legs around his.
“You fight dirty,” he said hoarsely, his eyes searching hers, then crinkled at the corners when he smiled. “Better be prepared to pay the piper.”
“Send me the bill, and I’ll PayPal you.”
“You are really are a firecracker.” He cocked his head. “But I’m learning how to deal with ornery creatures.” He pushed upward, wedging his knee between her legs, then switched his hold on her wrists, taking both of hers in one large palm.
Now he had a free hand and one of her legs caught under his…what could she do? Think. Dammit. She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. Her breath had quickened from this little wrestling match. She pulled up her knee, intending to use it as leverage against his chest, and ended up kneeing him in the groin.
“Whoa,” he groaned, cupping his balls.
“I’m so, so, so sorry!” she began, and still he refused to release her arms. “What can I do?”
“Stop struggling like a wildcat.” He looked down at her, arching a brow, and his eyes shot through with pain.
“I don’t want to fight you.” The words came out soft and from deep within her.
Before this weekend, it seemed like she’d spent a lifetime fighting. Being something that other people projected onto her and in a second, with her arms bound and a man heavy enough to pin her down, she teetered—not because he might emotionally crush her, but because she might actually find her way toward being free. This fight had evolved over the years into a talent for chasing her own tail. Letting others wag a carrot at her, she’d reach out for it. To take or bat away, but she still reacted. She needed to just stop.
“Trust me,” he said and let go of her wrists, moving his hands along hers, rubbing her fingertips. He let go, tracing the sides of her body with his fingers as tingling jolts burst into spasms
over her skin.
“I do.” She said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She pulled him down, across her body. Brett tucked his head against her neck, and lightly kissed a trail up to her face, then over her cheek until their lips met. She whispered words next to his mouth. “I don’t know what to do, but we don’t have to. Right?”
“So right, baby.” He blinked slowly down at her before he devoured her mouth, her moans, and she let him in, opening to him. She lightly scratched her nails down his back.
He fumbled with his wallet on the nightstand and pulled out a condom. “Gotta put this on.”
She gazed at him handle his cock and felt her muscles tighten at the sight of Brett holding his erection. “I’d love to see you make yourself come.”
“Same,” he said, letting out a quiet laugh. “You’re amazing to watch. What else do you like?”
Cory ran her fingers along the hollows and dips of his shoulders, then up the sides of his neck, and under his jaw. “Your mouth is magical. I love when you suck on me.” She hesitated. “I like it that you possess me. It feels like you own me. Consume me. Is that crazy?”
He leaned over on his forearm next to her body. “It’s not crazy. I do own you when I’m inside you. God, it feels like I could fuck you forever.”
She sucked in a breath and said the words she’d never uttered to another man. “Fuck me now.”
His lips curled. “You’ve a dirty mouth.”
“Only with you.”
“Ah,” he groaned. “Then I’d better give you what you want.” He moved in between her legs, his cock in his hand, and he tapped the head on her clit, rubbing himself down her slippery folds that were swollen and wet from being teased and tormented.
She dug her fingers into his arms. “Tease much?”
“I’m learning.” Brett moved and let go of his cock as it glided across her sex, and he brushed over her sensitive folds with his fingers. Circling around her opening, he bit his lip, and then he slid a finger into her. “How’s this feel?”
“Amazing. Everything you do is mind-blowing.” She moved her hips up and down his fingers, spreading her legs, and holding on to his hand.
He bent his head over her chest, licking a line down from her collarbone to the tip of her nipple. “I love your tits.”
“Love them in your mouth.” She cupped her breast, offering herself to him. Brett blew a stream of air over her nipple until she groaned. When he sucked her pointy peak into his mouth, she melted. Taking his head between her hands, she held him to her, pressing her breast to his mouth.
“I’m so damn hard.” His voice sounded strained, and he looked up to see her bite her lip. “Are you trying to break me?”
“Never.” she said. “Please, get inside me.”
Above her, he pulled her down a few inches, running his hands over her hips, holding open her legs. He pressed himself against her, making her gasp. In one ramming thrust, he plunged his cock inside her body. The glowing pleasure splintered apart into a hundred flashing rays. Closing her eyes, she cried out his name. He didn’t relent in plunging inside her, and jerked her hips to him, moving incredibly deeper.
“Open those beautiful eyes and look at what I’m doing to you.”
He took her legs and put them over his shoulders, canting her body under his and entering her in just the right way to come into contact with her G-spot. He drew out each stroke, his shaft wet with her juices, and he groaned looking down between their bodies.
“Damn woman,” he grunted. “I can’t get enough of you.”
“Don’t hold back from me,” she whispered.
A muscle twitched along his jaw and he groaned. “Fine. Let’s have at it.” Brett propelled his hips faster, his muscles tensed under her hands, and he ended each stroke with a hard grind when he was balls deep inside her. His breathing sped up with the ferocity of his thrusts and his gaze consumed her each time their eyes met.
His groans and parts of words, incoherent bursts from his lips, sent shivers across her skin. She gazed at him, so powerful and commanding in how he took possession of her body. Her skin grew warm as she moved with him, keeping time to the rhythm he set with his hips, the slapping of skin against skin.
Cory raised her hips upward, capturing him, every inch he had to offer. He sank into her, going farther than he’d been before, but it was the long drag of his cock that had her coming undone, ready to scream his name and scratch her nails down his back. A coiling ripple of pleasure shot through her. Brett squeezed her breasts. He had her growing wetter and wetter with his hands palming her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers. Her name fell from his lips in an arduous groan as he slammed into her. He arched upward, the position had him moving against her at a sharp angle and he drove himself farther inside her.
Brett gazed down at her, directly into her eyes, and she didn’t look away from the intensity she found, no matter how vulnerable she was at that moment in his ability to possess her simply by using his body, his words, and the way he moved.
“Tell me what I want to hear.” His voice caressed her skin, it was perfect, so utterly perfect. She moaned, watching his body tense, a bow and arrow all at once. She moved her hips, pressing harder against him.
“Your cock is making me crazy. Fuck me, Brett.”
Powerfully, he thrust into her. “God, I’m going to explode. Are you about to come?”
She gripped his arms tightly. “Yes. Now.” Her pleasure detonated into a glowing cascade washing over her senses.
He fucked her through her release and on to the other side. Brett continued to thrust until a body-slamming shudder wracked him and he grunted, then loudly groaned. “Fuck. Cory.” He lowered his head, pressing his mouth to hers, and sweetly kissed her. Lifting up a few inches, he looked down at her. “You are mine,” he whispered.
CHAPTER 17
“Morning,” he whispered as she got back into bed and came up next to him, warm, silky skin sliding seductively over his. He pulled her to him, rotating Cory so that they could spoon for a couple more minutes. With her ass nestled against his crotch, he hoisted his thighs and wrapped his arms around her until they were as close as two coats of paint, never mind spoons. She fit perfectly against him. This he could get used to, if he could devise a way to get her to agree. Who would have thought a random airport careen would become a razor-edged fantasy, then a fully fledged goal that tore him up.
In football, they studied the other team’s plays, moves, nuances. They worked on the idea that through replication and tweaking, they’d be ready for victory. Here in bed, there wasn’t any ‘opposing team.’ Unless he thought about what held her interest. Then that left him with proposing UCLA as his competition. Hell. No.
He wasn’t the type of man who frustrated a woman’s desire to stand on her own feet. He saw no way around this dilemma that didn’t involve long distance travel. So far, all he had going for him was a boatload of patience; all well and good when they’d spent the last few days hip to hip. No reason to act as though what he had with her was ending.
This was the beginning, and he wasn’t about to back off, not if she was willing. Picking up her hand, he traced the back of her knuckles, and pulled her body close to him.
“The wheels are turning again,” she whispered, lifting their entwined fingers and kissing the skin on his hand.
“How about coming to my game? I can get you tickets and fly you out. We’re playing in California. Not that far a distance from your school.”
“You mean the one this weekend?”
“Yep. Just need a nod of that beautiful head of yours.” He’d shown her his game schedule and his travel agent was waiting for the go ahead to get the ticket.
“I think I can. We’ve a new grant our department just received. And finals are in a couple of weeks. This is a hard spot.” She lightly bite the tip of his finger.
His gut knotted. Not exactly the enthusiastic response he’d wanted to hear.
“I’ll have you back by Sunday night, right after the game. A twenty-four hour turn around.”
“Gosh, you make it impossible to say no.” She bit the corner of her mouth. “I’d love to come and see you play.”
He chuckled, kissing her shoulder and moving her over his erection that had suddenly lengthened and rubbed against her tempting ass. Damn, she had him going, all right. “I guess I have to get you back to your hotel instead of keeping you captive and making love to you again.”
“You know exactly what to do to get me to say yes,” she murmured, swaying her hips and pressing him into her. “Fuck me one more time.”
“When you talk dirty, it’s all I can to do hold back. Baby, tell me how it feels when I’ve got my cock inside you.”
He felt her intake of air. “I want to feel you so deep. Fill me, all the way up. Brett, bite me. Fuck me until I scream your name and when I say stop…don’t.”
“How do you want it?”
“Like this. You in back. Please, do me hard.” He pulled out of Cory, only to move her to the center of the mattress. Hauling her hips upward, he smacked her bottom.
“Lower your head,” he snarled, spreading apart her thighs.
He reached for a condom and swathed himself in latex, staring down at the curve of her ass, and thinking he wanted to fuck every place he could, make her think of him when they were apart. “I want you sore when you go to class. I want you to think of me tomorrow.”
He held on to the dip of her waist, just above her hipbone. Gazing down at his swollen cock, he positioned himself at her entrance. She jerked forward. Jesus, she was so fucking responsive. Pure wildcat.
“Going somewhere?” he asked. Keeping hold of her, he brought her back toward him at the same time he drove himself into her sex. Fuck, she was tight and wrapped around him in a squeezing vise. She’d milk him good if he didn’t buckle down. He reared back, his shaft glistening, then rammed himself back inside her hot center.
Cory whimpered. The sound undid him. He began to thrust into her with a hard, fast stroke. Hauling her back against him, he pounded his cock into her, groaning out words that told her how hot this felt. He slid his hand down her pussy, teasing her erect clit.
