by Mara Jacobs
“Yes. But on one condition,” Marlee said, holding Declan’s gaze.
Declan groaned playfully. “Of course there’d be a condition. I should have figured that with a woman like you. What’s the condition?”
Marlee ignored Declan’s “woman like you” comment. “Yes, if you can correctly guess how many slips of paper with phone numbers you have in your pants at this exact moment.”
“Easy. None. Guess it’s a qualified yes, then.”
“I don’t believe you. There must be at least five, probably more.” He knew she’d seen the women hand him their numbers and Declan, in turn, had put them in his pants. He could tell she thought he was lying. The look of hurt on her face proved it.
“There’s none, darlin’, but you’re more than welcome to find out for yourself.” Declan freed his hand from hers and held his arms out from his body, to indicate he was ready for Marlee to frisk him. The loss of contact, and its adverse effect, shocked him. He wanted to reconnect immediately, but Marlee was insistent on the phone numbers.
“That won’t be necessary.” She turned away from him, back to Anna and Cole, who were engrossed at the moment in their own conversation. Thank goodness. He didn’t want her friends to hear what he was about to say to her.
Declan took Marlee’s hand again and said quietly in her ear, “I trashed them all in the kitchen as I was leaving the house. I don’t need anyone’s number tonight, Marlee. I only want you.”
Marlee’s head was spinning. Darn, she was right back where she was moments ago, wanting a man whom she had no business wanting.
He said he didn’t want anyone else’s number tonight. That was telling. Obviously he was thinking even shorter-term than she. That was fine; she’d just have to get her fill of Declan in one night. Hopefully it would just be a very long night.
Cole and Anna’s discussion ended at the same time Declan and Marlee had made their peace, and Cole turned to Marlee. “Hey, Marlee, what was it you wanted to talk to me about? Something to do with why you wanted to go to the game with us today, right?”
“Oh, well, I’ll ask you some other time, Cole. It’s really not that important.”
Declan squeezed her hand. “What was it, sweetheart? What did you want to talk to Cole about?” As he said this, Declan disengaged their hands that had been previously hidden under the table, and put his arm around her shoulder. Out in the open now. Might as well let Cole and Anna in on their secret.
They were going to be together. Probably only for tonight. But Declan seemed intent on letting everyone know it.
Cole and Anna once again exchanged glances but didn’t seem too surprised by Declan’s PDA.
Marlee faced Declan, surprised that she kind of liked the “sweetheart.” “It seems silly now, with you here, but the reason I wanted to go to the game today and the reason I want to pick Cole’s brain is I want to learn more about the game of football.”
“Well shoot, darlin’. You’ll get two for the price of one tonight. Why do you want to know about football? And, better yet, why don’t you know about football already? It’s our national pastime, for Christ's sake.”
“I thought that was baseball,” Cole piped in.
“Whatever.” Declan arrogantly waved Cole’s statement away as he turned to face Marlee. He had begun absently stroking her shoulder and upper arm with his strong, callused thumb, and she found it soothing, hypnotic.
“Believe it or not, I’ve done more than okay in my thirty years without knowing a thing about football. It may be your entire life, but a lot of us out there couldn’t care less about the sport.”
“Okay. So why learn now, if you’ve done so fine before?”
“Anna mentioned that I’m a communications professor?” At Declan’s nod of acknowledgement, Marlee continued, “Next week I’m going to DC to speak with the education department about the need for more speech and public speaking, starting earlier in schools. From there I’m touring some universities to talk about it. How the onslaught of texting and social media has drastically decreased the ability for young people to do any kind of intelligent public speaking.”
“True dat,” Anna said with a wink.
Marlee smiled at her and continued, “I don’t do it a lot, but when I speak at other schools I usually do some kind of icebreaker, then I tie speech theories to it in a metaphorical way, and then I come back to it as I wrap up the lecture. In the past, my lectures have been attended by solely other faculty members of the universities where I’m speaking, so the interest points I weave through has been very, shall we say, cerebral, for lack of better term.”
“Meaning I wouldn’t have a clue what you were talking about?” Declan said, and they all laughed.
“This series of lectures will probably be different. Because of the Department of Education’s interest on the topic, it’s my understanding that there will be larger audiences of a more general makeup. And I’ll want to have a more relatable icebreaker that I can then tie back around. So, the common denominator that I’ve come up with as a thread throughout my lecture is football.”
“That’s a great idea. Especially in college towns,” Cole said.
“That’s what I was thinking. If I can make it interesting enough, or state it in a way that appeals to the mass audience, I know I’ll have a better response.”
“So you want to cram up on football? Darlin’, it’s not that easy.”
“I know, but I figured if I went to a game, then had Cole explain the basic theory behind it, I could come up with something. Tie the need for good public speaking skills to, I don’t know, the need for a good…offense?”
Declan gave her a look like she’d just said something adorable. She figured she’d probably messed up even that small analogy.
He caught a wisp of her hair that had come down from her chignon. He twirled it around his finger. He motioned for the waiter. “Let’s get our order in now, and then I’ll tell you why your plan sucks.”
Chapter Four
After a wonderful dinner comprised of a magnificent salad, full of feta, walnuts and dried cherries, and a loaf of fresh-from-the-oven bread, Declan turned to Marlee. He normally couldn’t wait to have a glass of wine or two after his last game of the year. He abstained during the season, but he didn’t order one tonight. He wanted his head clear with Marlee.
He’d taken his arm back so that he could eat, and now he placed his hand on her thigh. Very high up on her thigh. Her thigh was almost as firm as Declan’s, and much more shapely. She must work out. Then why did she know nothing about sports? Probably tai chi or yoga or some such crap. Of course she’d have to wear pants tonight, Declan lamented. No skirt hem to gently ease up with his hand. Couldn’t anything with this woman be easy? She was making his head spin more than seeing a nose guard bearing down on him.
“Marlee, true football people can smell a phony a mile off. If you, someone who knows absolutely nothing about the game, opens your lecture with a football anecdote, you’ll lose all credibility right then and there. Then who’s going to listen to you wax about the importance of—and breakdown of—public speaking, when all they’re thinking to themselves is ‘she meant tight end when she said right guard’?”
“How could I ever mix up a tight end and a right guard when I don’t even know what either one is?”
“Exactly my point.”
“So explain the difference to me.”
“Marlee, I know to your educated eye football seems like a barbaric game where men just run willy-nilly around the field trying to hurt each other, but it’s much more than that. The tactics, the precision, the strategy, the talent that is on that field is astounding.”
She hesitated, then said, “I realize that.”
“No, you don’t. You don’t realize that, you just don’t want to piss me off because of what’s happening between us. You don’t want to sabotage it.” She looked like she wanted to argue, but he quickly continued, “But let me be clear. We are going to happen, Marlee—I don�
��t know for how long, but I do know it’s going to be good. It’s going to happen regardless of this football-as-it-applies-to-public-speaking discussion we’re having, so you might as well speak your mind on the subject.”
“Listen, we’re going to take off, can you guys get home all right, or…” Cole said.
“We’re good,” Declan said to his friend. They shook hands, Declan standing and giving his former teammate a hug. “Thanks so much for coming today, man. With my family not here, it really meant a lot. I’m just sorry you had the Sunday off so you could make it.”
“We’ll make it further next year,” Cole said, and Declan nodded. It was a fluke and an unlucky fumble that had the Outlaws out so early in the playoffs this year.
“You’re…okay?” Anna asked Marlee.
Declan watched the unspoken words that flashed across the women’s faces. It seemed Marlee had Anna’s approval, and even encouragement, to go home with him.
“I’m good,” Marlee finally said. Anna hugged her friend in the booth, then scooted out the other side, and the married couple left the restaurant.
Sliding back into the booth, even closer to her statuesque body than he’d been before, he asked, “Where were we?”
“Me learning football.”
“Right. Or rather not being able to learn it over a dinner so that you could speak intelligently about it.”
“I just think that I’d able to pick up the basics of the game, tailor it to my lecture, and that would be that. I don’t need to know the philosophy of the game or its conception through current history just so I can have an icebreaker, for Pete’s sake.”
“You said you’ll be lecturing at universities?”
“Yes.”
“Major universities, small ones, junior colleges, what?” He played with her hair again, then let go of the tendril of hair and moved to her neck, softly stroking. She had a long, graceful neck that seemed to rise from her silky blouse like a tall aspen reaches for the sky. His fingers gently caressed, smoothing down the line of a translucent vein. Her skin was so soft, and he could just catch the scent of…jasmine.
“Mostly major universities, why?” She seemed flustered by his hand on her, her face flushing a cute shade of pink. But she moved her head slightly, giving him better access.
“Well, you know, the icebreaker you make at University of Florida might be a hit there, but a flop at Maryland. If you discuss texting as being as big an archrival to public speaking as Michigan when you’re at Miami, you’ll flop. If you say the same thing at Ohio State, you’ll have them enthralled. If you talk about speech in elementary schools as if it were a basic running game at UCLA, where they run nothing but the West Coast Offense, you’ll get blank stares.”
Declan got a blank stare of his own from Marlee.
“But Marlee, it could have a lot of potential. It’s a great idea, really. Do you have a list of where you’ll be speaking yet?”
“I have a complete itinerary at home, why?”
“I’ll take a look at it. You tell me your thoughts on what you’d like to say, how you had planned to weave football terms into your lecture, and then I’ll tailor it to each university for you. This could be fun. I loved college football. The rivalries were the greatest. The traditions. You don’t get that in the pros. There’s a purity to the game at that level you don’t have anymore in the pros. Though, unfortunately, college football is a big business itself these days.”
“I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that for me, Declan. That would take up a lot of your time.”
Yeah, time he could be spending in bed with her. Still, it could mean more that just one night with her. And he was beginning to think that one night with Marlee Reeves might not be enough.
“Actually, you hit me at the right time. I am now officially unemployed. I have to be in New York next Monday morning. I’m taking a flight out Sunday afternoon, but my time is yours until then. And I’d really like something to distract me this week, anyway.”
“Distract you from what?”
“Monday I start working on an audition tape in New York. Then my agent shops it around to the networks. I’m spending all next week at meetings with FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, and ESPN. I never did any endorsements throughout my career because I didn’t want to distract myself at all, so I have absolutely no experience in front of the camera, other than press conferences after games, and those are always a blur to me. I have this horrible vision of getting in front of those cameras next week and freezing, nothing coming out. Or of just rambling.”
That was his worst fear. Making an ass of himself. Declan had always been so confident of his abilities, knew exactly what he was capable of on the field. This unknown of his possible new direction in life was beginning to creep up on him.
He hadn’t allowed himself to think much about it while there were still games to concentrate on. Now, just the thought of stepping in front of the cameras made him tense. Unwittingly, Declan squeezed Marlee’s neck. It wasn’t hard, but it took her by surprise and she let out a little squeak.
“Sorry, darlin’.” He smoothed her skin where he had squeezed it. “See, I’m getting all tensed up just thinking about it. My agent says they’ll have all sorts of experts there to help me through it, but…”
“Declan, my God, you’d be amazing on camera. I don’t know what size the female audience for watching football broadcasts is, but it will triple when you’re on the screen. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” Realizing what she’d blurted out, Marlee ducked her head. Declan lifted her chin to look at him, and she saw what was surely a smug smile. “Apparently you do know how gorgeous you are.” She nudged him in his gut, causing a small grunt.
“But it’s certainly nice to know that you think I am.”
“So if you think you’d be so bad at this, why are you doing it?” she asked him.
Declan shrugged. “It’s what ex-quarterbacks do. We go on TV and tell America how it should have been done.”
“And you can do that?”
“Tell them how it should have been done? Sure. That was always my strength: strategy, play breakdowns, tactics, play-calling, I can do that in my sleep. The thought of being on camera to do it…that makes me nervous.”
“The great Declan Tate nervous, I don’t believe it. You play in front of cameras every week.”
He waved a hand in dismissal. “That’s different. I don’t even know they’re there. And three hours ago you had no idea who ‘the great Declan Tate’ was, so don’t pull that bullshit with me.”
“Three hours. I’ve only known you for three hours, and now…” She let the thought go, but Declan picked up the fumble and ran with it.
“And now we’re going to sleep together. We are moving pretty fast, aren’t we? I’m not going to lie and tell you I’ve never slept with a woman on the night I met her. Because I have, several times. I will tell you that I’ve never been the aggressor in those situations, it was always very easy for me. You’re not an easy woman, Marlee, and I don’t just mean sexually. That’s obvious.
“I’m not going to get all flowery, either, and start spouting words that you and I both know I don’t mean. I will tell you this. I have never been as immediately attracted to a woman as I am to you, Marlee. And I think it goes both ways. I’m only in town until Sunday, and you leave soon after that. We could have a great time scratching this itch that’s been irritating us since we laid eyes on each other. I know that’s not your usual style. You probably take things much slower, and I appreciate that, but Marlee…do you really want to slow down?”
He was giving her an out, but damn he hoped she wouldn’t take it.
“No, I don’t want to slow down. In fact, how fast can we get out of here?”
Declan had her out the booth and had Gino calling for a cab before she could take another breath.
He nuzzled her neck as they stood in the dark vestibule of the restaurant while they waited for their cab. He balanced her coat in the crook of his elbo
w, wanting her in as few layers as possible until their cab arrived and they had to brave the cold. His hands ran up and down her back, lower to her thighs, and once again he cursed her choice of pants over skirt. He really wanted to get his hands on her skin, but she was completely covered. She certainly left more to the imagination than most of the women he knew. He found he liked that. Liked having to imagine the shape and size of Marlee’s breasts, not having them shoved in his face in a barely concealing top.
He undid the buttons of her suit coat and slipped his hand in to feel her smooth silk blouse. He rested his hand on her tummy. “God, Marlee, I can’t wait to get you home, I need to get these clothes off you.”
Marlee seemed distracted, and not only by Declan’s hands on her. “Declan, I think I could help you.”
“I know you can help me, baby, but not here, and not in the cab, either. I want you bad, but I don’t want the driver getting off on our exploits. Or selling photos to TMZ.”
Marlee giggled. God, what a cute sound she made when she did that.
“Not with that. Though I’ll help you with that later. I was thinking about your audition. Do you think practicing in front of a camera and getting some feedback from me would put you more at ease about next week? I am good at what I do, you know.”
Declan brought his head up from where it seemed permanently attached to Marlee’s neck and thought about what she had just said. “Yeah, I think that would help. Do you have access to something like that, or were you thinking of home movies? Because, baby, I could think of lots of ways to film you and me together.” He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive but kidding manner that made Marlee smile. God, what a smile she had. And that mouth: full lips that came to a perfect bow on top. Oh, what that sexy mouth could do to him.
