Offsides: The Originals (Seattle Steelheads Book 3)

by Jami Davenport

  She licked the bulbous tip, sliding her tongue along the velvety skin and savoring the salty taste.

  “Kelsie, I don’t recall this in your charm school book. What’s the proper protocol?” He groaned and shook his head back and forth, eyes squeezed tight.

  “Protocol?” She glanced up at him, keeping her fingers wrapped around his hard shaft.

  “Yeah, for giving a guy a blow job in a truck in a public park. Is there a proper way to have public sex?”

  “We’re not having public sex. Yet. We’re only in the foreplay stage. But, no, there’s not a proper way. This is all very improper.”

  Zach glanced around the dark lot. Kelsie followed his gaze. Old cedars towered over the truck and cast ominous shadows.

  “Maybe we should go home.” His voice sounded strangled and not entirely convinced as she rubbed his erection to make him forget who and where he was.

  “You’re a conservative guy, aren’t you?” The throaty whisper didn’t sound like her.

  “You just figured that out?” He ground his teeth together while she moved her hand up and down.

  “Your idea of sex is missionary or doggie style.” Which was true, sorta. But did the man ever make good use of those two positions.

  “I’ve never heard you complain.”

  “You won’t, but we could start by being a little more adventurous.”

  And Zach put her on a pedestal? She wasn’t just a mean girl, she was an opportunist. Actually, had been, but no more. This thing with Zach had nothing to do with opportunity and everything to do with overwhelming need.

  “Does sex with me bore you?”

  “Not on your life. Missionary sex with you is more exciting than kinky sex with any other man.”

  At first, he puffed out his chest a little, then the full effect of what she’d said seemed to sink in. “You’ve had kinky sex?”

  Well, yes. But Zach didn’t need to know. “It’s just a statement. Doesn’t mean anything.” She bent down and took him in her mouth again. He pushed her down farther onto his erection. Kelsie took him deep, fought off the gag reflex, and let him slide inside until her nose pressed against his pubic hair. He held her there for a moment, and she let him. She pulled back and took a gulp of air, then went after him again.

  “I’m gonna come, baby, if you keep that up.”

  “That’s the idea, but I’d rather have you inside me.”

  “I’m all in, honey. Lead the way.”

  “Good thing. You need to be all in. Get in the back seat.”

  He hesitated for a moment, seeming to balk at her authoritative tone, then climbed into the backseat, falling in a heap with his pants tangled around his ankles. Kelsie would’ve laughed, but she was too horny. She crawled after him.

  “Condom?” she asked as he leveraged his big body onto the seat. He pointed toward the pants. She fished out his wallet and found a condom. “You’re prepared.” Zach carrying a condom around in his wallet didn’t sit well with her. Did he think he might meet some anonymous woman somewhere that he’d need a condom? Maybe that waitress? Surely, he hadn’t planned on them hooking up in the truck? Then again, maybe he had.

  She tore off the wrapper and rolled it over his shaft. He watched her. His thighs splayed, his head back against the headrest, and looking every bit a man who’d surrendered his body to her carnal pleasures.

  Kelsie hiked up her skirt to her waist and yanked off her panties. “Are you ready for me, big boy?”

  “My big boy’s ready, and I’m ready.” His brown eyes sparkled like hot fudge simmering on the stove. Only this had nothing to do with Grandma’s house. She looked down, past his thick neck and broad shoulders. His biceps bulged from all the working out. Her gaze came to rest on his shaft, the condom glistening with moisture. She smiled the smile of a woman who knew what she wanted and what her man wanted and also knew they were both getting lucky tonight.

  Kelsie straddled Zach’s thighs and lowered herself down until the tip of his penis just grazed her sex. Gripping her shoulders to balance herself, she slid down onto his thick cock.

  “Oh, yeah, baby, that’s the way to do it.” He grasped her waist in his hands, which almost spanned her waist.

  “See, out-of-the-ordinary sex isn’t so bad, is it?”

  “Would you call this kinky sex?”

  “If that’s what you want to call it, that’s what we can call it.”

  “I haven’t done this since high school.”

  She wriggled on top of him and pressed her crotch into his. “You need to get out of your conservative box.”

  “Why do I think you’ll be helping me with that?”

  “As long as I don’t distract you from your mission of a ring.” Kelsie rose up until only an inch of him was inside her and moved her hips in a slow, circular motion.

  “Didn’t seem to hurt my game.”

  “That’s because the best thing to do is it get me out of your system on a regular basis.” She panted as she moved up and down on him.

  “Hell yeah. That’s the only way.” He sought her mouth, and she gladly accepted his lips and tongue. Their mating became a wild frenzy of slamming hips, panting, wet mouths, and tangled hair. She could tell by how his cock twitched inside her that he was close to coming. He knew it, too, and reached between her legs to thumb her clit, taking her over the abyss with him.

  Kelsie didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Not ever.

  Chapter 20—Losing Field Position

  Over two weeks later, the Steelheads’ record was five and five. They weren’t burning up the league, not like Zach and Kelsie were burning up the sheets every night and every morning.

  For the majority of his life, Zach’s world revolved around football, but now Kelsie had entered that orbit, and sometimes he couldn’t say whether Kelsie or football occupied the majority of his thoughts. But his game wasn’t suffering, and that was what mattered the most.

  Or it should have been.

  Funny how a guy didn’t realize how much he’d been missing until he found it, which had a lot to do with why he’d caved to her latest request just to see her smile. Zach never cared much for family gatherings, so attending Thanksgiving dinner at Derek’s house wasn’t his idea of fun. The place was packed, not only with teammates who had no family in the area, but with various family members complete with all the dysfunctional family crap that happens on holidays. Not nearly as dysfunctional as Zach’s family had been but a more normal state of dysfunction.

  Obviously, Derek’s brother-in-law Mitch didn’t care much for Derek. Rachel and Lavender’s respective fathers and brothers zoned out in front of football games. Derek’s dad, stepmother, and sister were like a dream family to Zach.

  Then there was Harris’s family. Now they were interesting. All strong-willed women, and Tyler alternated between ignoring them and kowtowing to them. Neither approach saved him from their constant badgering. No wonder the guy had such a healthy ego. A guy would either learn to be impervious to their attempts to control his life or be turned into a sniveling coward. Harris might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t a coward.

  Actually, Zach almost felt sorry for Harris after he met his two ball-busting, man-eating sisters, Freddie and Estie, and damned if he knew which was which. They weren’t twins, but they might as well be. Close to six feet tall with long dark hair and faces models would die for, they most likely turned heads wherever they went. Zach noticed they didn’t bring husbands or boyfriends, probably scared them all off. One was an attorney, the other a financial advisor. If Zach knew which one did the financial stuff, he’d hit her up for some advice, but he might get the wrong one, and that’d be embarrassing.

  Kelsie fit right in with the classy women, plus her girl buddies Rachel and Lavender. Left to fend for himself, Zach started to skirt around Harris, who was getting an ass chewing by his sisters over something, when one of them snaked out a hand and yanked him into their little circle. Damn, that hurt. The woman must lift
small men for a hobby. Good thing he didn’t qualify.

  “Freddie, drop it. Murphy and I are working on our differences.”

  The one Harris called Freddie turned a pair of blue eyes the same color and intensity as her brother’s on Zach and pinned him. “You’re prone to telling us what we want to hear. I want to hear it from him.” She jabbed a lethal red nail into Zach’s chest.

  Zach backed up a step and cleared his throat. He just wanted away from these women with his balls intact. “Ty and I are buddies,” he lied and refused to make eye contact with the sister.

  “See?” Harris wrapped an arm around Zach’s shoulders and grinned at him. The guy had missed his true calling. He should’ve been a con artist.

  Freddie narrowed her eyes. Her sister did the same.

  “So, buddy, whadaya say we grab a brew and join the gang in the family room? From the noise, I’d say the game’s a good one.”

  “Sounds good.” Together they bolted for the door, leaving the she-lions standing behind them, claws still extended and teeth bared.

  They paused in the doorway, both glancing back. Blowing out mutual breaths of relief, Zach followed Harris to Derek’s well-stocked bar and hitched a hip onto the barstool.

  Zach took a good, long swallow of the beer Harris handed him. “Are they older or younger?”

  “Older.” The quarterback downed his beer in one long guzzle and opened another. Zach didn’t blame him. He’d be in therapy with sisters like that.

  “How did you live to puberty with them around?”

  Harris chuckled. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Between Derek and me, there were three older sisters. We lived on neighboring ranches. We did a lot of riding and hiking, anything to get away. Lots of guy trips with our dads.”

  Zach glanced around. He didn’t see Tyler’s father anywhere, and his mother was here by herself. “Where’s your dad?”

  For a brief moment, Harris’s guard slipped on black ice and fell on its ass for all to see, but only Zach noticed. “He’s not here.” The words came out choked, as if someone were strangling the life out of the quarterback.

  Harris’s answer should’ve been Zach’s clue, but a rare moment of curiosity drove him to ask more questions. “Where is he?”

  “Dead.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.” Now Zach felt like the insensitive ass he always was.

  Harris shrugged one shoulder and fingered the label on his beer. “Yeah, he died of a heart attack the summer before my freshman year of college. Just like that. One moment he was large as life, the next he was lying on the floor in the den. Gone. It was pretty devastating. Lavender’s dad was my college coach. Without him and my family, I’d have never made it.” Harris met Zach’s gaze with true interest. “Where’s your family?”

  Zach started to evade the answer, but Harris had been honest with him and given him a little glimpse into what made him tick. “My brother plays NHL hockey. The rest are dead, in prison, or on the streets.”

  Harris’s brow furrowed. He seemed to be working through how to respond to that. Finally, he shrugged and offered Zach a wry smile. “Family. Can’t pick ’em.” He held up his bottle in a salute.

  “Yeah.” Zach let the cold beer run down his throat, relaxing a little. This wasn’t a high-society bash. He could deal with these people, even though the women in Harris’s family struck fear in his heart. At least the rest of the guests seemed like average people. No pretenses. They were who they were.

  With a jerk of his head, Tyler wandered over to watch the game. Zach followed him and squeezed onto the couch between Derek and a rookie safety from Florida. Tyler settled into an easy chair that one of Rachel’s brothers had just vacated. Obviously, it was every man for himself. You move, you lose.

  He glanced around the room at the raucous group, oddly comfortable with them. No one here judged him—not even Harris. None of them cared if he used the proper fork or even if he used a fork. He caught glimpses of Kelsie bustling around the kitchen with the other women, all laughing and talking at once—pure female chaos. He hoped they didn’t let her make the gravy. Her gravy tasted like cardboard and chicken broth. Regardless, the food smelled fucking fantastic.

  He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the game on television, not really seeing it. A million things raced through his head. First and foremost should be his goal of winning a Super Bowl. Yet it wasn’t. It was Kelsie who occupied his thoughts.

  At five and five, the team was still hanging on by a thread in the wild-card hunt. Zach pushed Kelsie’s luscious body into a compartment in his brain and concentrated on the game on television—or tried to. After all, they’d be playing this team in a few weeks. A very short few weeks.

  He needed to be ready. Filter out all the distractions and focus single-mindedly on football, like he used to be able to do. Before Harris. Before this stupid gala. And before Kelsie in her current incarnation as a nice girl.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Kelsie cuddled next to Zach and flattened her palms against his broad chest. The hitch in his intake of breath gave him away. He was awake. Scranton lay on the pillow next to her head. She rolled up onto his chest and stared at him.

  “Admit it. You enjoyed today.”

  “Like I enjoy a tight end powering past me to score a touchdown.” He squinted at her, his brown eyes hazy with sleep.

  “You did. When I looked in, you and Tyler were debating some obscure football fact.”

  “He’s a football trivia machine. Who’d have guessed? I couldn’t stump him.”

  “I’m sure there are facets to him that’ll surprise you, just like there are with you. Neither of you show your true colors.”

  “That’s not true. I’m an open book.”

  “Your book is padlocked and stowed in a trunk.”

  “You think?”

  “Zach, you are the most private man I’ve ever met. You’re a loner, but I don’t think you are by choice.”

  “Then why am I?”

  “Because you don’t want people to see the sensitive guy hiding under all that masculine posturing. Just like Tyler.”

  “Tyler’s as shallow as that puddle outside the back door.”

  “That puddle is deceptive. Puddles are murky. You can’t see the bottom. You never know what secrets are concealed under the surface. Step in it and you’ll see. After last week’s rain, you could drown in that puddle.”

  “Once the sun comes out, it’ll dry up again.”

  “Probably, but the sun never stays out for long, does it?”

  Zach stared at her in the dim light. “Why are we talking about puddles?”

  “We weren’t really talking about puddles.”

  “I was. I don’t know what the hell you were talking about.”

  Kelsie laughed. Zach liked to play the part of the dumb country boy, but he was sharp as they came. “Why would a guy who graduated with honors keep it a secret?”

  “Are we still talking about Harris or puddles? ’Cause I don’t think Harris ever came close to a degree, and the puddle hasn’t gone to college.”

  Kelsie chuckled. “I might be referring to a certain linebacker and what a certain nosy woman discovered.”

  “Maybe that nosy woman shouldn’t spend her spare time sticking her nose into that linebacker’s business.”

  “Cold day in hell that’ll happen.”

  Kelsie ran her hands down Zach’s pecs to his rock-hard abs, letting her fingers feel the ridges of muscles and the valley between.

  “There’s one thing that’ll happen, cold day in hell or not.” He seemed fully awake now. His dark eyes glittered with the now familiar fires of desire.

  “And that is?”

  “I’m hard for you.” Hands on her waist, he pulled her up his body until his mouth was even with one of her nipples.

  “You’re hard for me in your sleep.”

  “Uh, yeah.” He sucked her nipple into his mouth, lavished it with attention from his tongue, and had her squirming i
n under five seconds, which had to be his best record. Next thing she knew, he’d flipped her onto her back without letting go of her nipple, a true talent in her book.

  He straddled her—the man did like his missionary position—and turned his attention to her shoulders and neck. She writhed under him, wanting the release only Zach could give. His erection rubbed against her inner thigh. She wanted it to rub a little higher and a lot deeper.

  “God, woman, what you do to me.” He spoke against her skin as his mouth burned a path across her collarbone and up her neck to her earlobe. Meanwhile, a little farther south, his talented fingers pinched and tweaked her nipples into hard little nubs. She wanted to feel him a lot farther south. A certain spot between her legs begged for attention. Or at least the attention of a certain long, hard part of him.

  “What do I do to you?”

  He stared down at her, silent for a long while. “A lot. A helluva lot.”

  “Same here.” She felt his smile in the darkness, could just make out his white teeth. Then his mouth covered hers, hungry and demanding. Giving and taking. Needing and wanting.

  Kelsie wrapped her legs around his waist and showed him how much she needed and wanted, too. He got the message loud and clear. A moment later, his erection sent another message, this one to her very core, as he positioned himself and slipped inside her slick walls.

  Her hips rose to meet his, and they found their rhythm together like ballroom dancers who’d been partners for years. Everything seemed so right, so natural, so hot with Zach. So damn hot. Hotter than a Texas sidewalk in August.

  He thrust in and out, making it last, carrying the passion to the very end, not letting her slip over the edge until he was ready. She’d start to fall, and he’d slow his pace or almost withdraw, pulling her back from the ledge, torturing her, and making her want him all the more. Time after time, he’d tease her like that until her body couldn’t take any more and shuddered with her release. A scream erupted from her throat, and his name bounced off the walls of the dark room.

  Zach thrust a few more times and came with his own shouted declaration, one that sounded like, “I love you, Kelsie.”