Gauging the Player: A One-Night-Stand Sports Romance (The Playmakers Series Hockey Romance Book 3)

by G. K. Brady

  He backed up, sat on the edge of the bed, crossed his ankle over his leg, and pulled off a sock, wearing an expression he hoped was a grin and not a leer. “If you’re that self-conscious, I’ve got a shower that accommodates two.”

  Jabbing her thumb over her shoulder, she turned. “I should … That call could be about Daisy.”

  “That was my phone, and I don’t give a shit who’s calling.” He held out his hand and curled a finger at her. “Come here, beautiful.”

  Chapter 19

  I’m Not Shy

  Guilt nibbled at Lily over what she’d been doing with the sexy, mussed-up man sitting on the edge of his bed. Over the more her girlie parts had her contemplating doing. There’d be no turning back if she followed their lead. Her body was so ready to jump him, but her mind was putting up a fight. Sort of.

  Even before the kiss, her stomach had been gyrating. Hell, her whole body! Now she could swear squirrels were scrabbling inside it, making it hard to think.

  He didn’t need a shower. He smelled like leather in the pines, and her babbling hormones told her she wanted that intoxicating scent all over her.

  Let’s see where the crazy chemistry takes us. Straight to a laboratory explosion of epic proportions! Keeping her hands off him lately had been tougher than doing all of her Christmas shopping on Black Friday. At the mall.

  As he eyed her, her rational mind threw up one last gasp, warning her not to give in to her burgeoning desire. But the urge to touch him, to feel his smooth, solid warmth beneath her fingertips nudged away reason, and she leaned against the door frame, arms folded over her chest as if barricading herself. Ankle resting casually on his knee, he pulled off his other sock. The sight of him, in gym shorts and sleeveless T-shirt that exposed his sculpted biceps and powerful shoulders, shot tingles throughout her body, seeming to congregate in her core. Even his feet were beautiful.

  Gage regarded her and smiled. Not his usual dazzling smile, but a hesitant one, as though he wasn’t confident what to do next. He straightened. “Are we okay here?”

  Little alarm bells clanged. “Why wouldn’t we be?” She waved her hand between them before tucking it back in place. “Nothing’s changed. We’re friends.” The words sounded all wrong for what she wanted to convey. But what exactly did she want to convey? She drew a blank and shut her mouth before it could run away from her. One big barrel of confused, roiling emotions heading for a plunge from the cliffs—that’s what she was.

  He arched an eyebrow at her, then neatly placed his socks next to him before swinging his gaze back to her. “Lily, I need to set a few things straight.” Resting his elbows on his thighs, he leaned forward and sighed. Her heart jumped into her throat.

  Where’s he going with this?

  “I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” he said. “I’m not interested in being friends or business acquaintances or whatever hell label you want to put on it. Not with you. Not anymore.”

  Excited, terrified, she stood frozen and blinked.

  “What I want you to understand …” He swallowed. “I intend to take this to the next level because being in the friend zone isn’t enough for me. And I hope you’re okay with that. If not, we need to stop this before it goes any further.”

  She stared at him, his words scoring their message on her heart. In the dim corners of her mind, that little voice told her what she was planning to do was wrong. Her stomach tightened, one coil at a time. “Um …”

  Smoldering blue eyes held hers as he leaned back on fisted hands. “People think I don’t date because I’m shy or something like that.” He shook his head. “I’m not. The reason I don’t date is because I’m particular, which means I don’t chase indiscriminately. But make no mistake. It might take me a while, but I’m not easily deterred when I make up my mind I want something.”

  Processing, processing, processing!

  Her pulse rate ratcheted up, and blood pounded between her ears. Was the thudding preventing her from hearing him correctly? From thinking coherently? Her head nodded without asking her permission.

  She masked her inner reeling self, the one whose engines were revving at peak RPMs, primed to burn rubber. As though her body were tethered to an unseen line, she toed off her shoes and moved toward him.

  A sparkle in his eyes hypnotized, drawing her in. Like Svengali. Dracula. Without the bloodshot whites. She had no choice but to obey; she couldn’t summon any will but his. If he ordered her into the shower, that’s where she’d go—pasty skin, lumps, and bumps on full display.

  With her thighs nearly bumping his knees, he wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her between his legs, eyes still locked on hers as he looked up at her. His other hand, big and warm, glided over her hip.

  “So are you on board?” he murmured.

  God, yes! The only answer she gave him was another nod. Apparently, she’d been stupefied speechless.

  Breaking the connection, he lifted the hem of her thin sweater and focused on her exposed stomach. “Hold that,” he commanded softly. Wholly under his spell, she gripped the knit fabric in one hand. His hands slid slowly to her ass. Cupping her cheeks, he pulled her to within an inch of his lips. Her skin burned with anticipation, and when his open, moist mouth landed on it, she could’ve sworn it sizzled.

  His kisses were warm, languid affairs that coaxed her skin into a goose-bumped landscape. Taking his time, he worked his way across her belly, first one way and then the other, pausing to lightly suck, lick. She dropped her free hand on his shoulder, out of his way, not wanting to interfere with his determined track. Behind her, long, strong fingers began kneading her flesh through her leggings. Her head dropped back, and a moan bubbled up in her chest.

  He brought a hand back to her stomach, eliciting a gasp from her when his fingertips brushed her sensitive skin. Mouth adhered to her abdomen, still performing its magic, he pushed her bra up, exposing the swell below her breasts. Instinctively, she cinched her sweater tighter, lifting it higher, giving him access, inwardly begging him to work his way up. Wetness was pooling in her panties, and she vaguely wondered if he could smell her surging arousal.

  Kissing the undersides of her breasts, he took care to touch his lips to every inch. As he passed over the tender flesh, he flicked his tongue out, licking a warm trail back and forth. Legs quivering, she fought to stay upright. She released the sweater, and it fell on his head. She scrabbled to regather the hem. He pushed it away and mumbled, “Off,” before withdrawing his lips and all that heat. Disappointment swelled inside her until he raised his head, his perusal skipping over her stomach and chest and landing on her eyes. A heady combination of affection and awe swam in a sea of blatant, blue-eyed lust, flipping her stomach upside down.

  With a gentle tug on her sweater, he repeated his demand. “Off. Now.”

  She complied, jerking the top over her head. His gaze fixed on her breasts. She felt her taut nipples poking the sheer lace of her bra cups. Whatever had possessed her to wear her best underwear today didn’t matter at the moment, but she was grateful she had. With his finger pads, he traced the bare contours of her breasts below the bra’s underwire. A flurry of shivers shimmied up her spine, shooting along her arms, down her legs. His thumbs strummed her nipples while he watched, seemingly entranced. Then his mouth latched on, his tongue and lips assaulting her nipple through the lace while his thumb circled the other one. Unable to stop herself, she wrapped her hands around his head, tunneling her fingers in his strands. The smell of his hair, him, teased her nose, and she pulled in his scent, looking on in a daze while his mouth and hands moved from one breast to the other. Her breathing ragged and shallow, her mind spun out into the Kuiper Belt, where it tumbled end over end.

  Her hips began writhing, trying to find purchase against him. Without breaking contact, he slung an arm between her legs, splaying his fingers across her ass and the small of her back. She ground herself with shameless abandon against the makeshift saddle formed by his rock-hard forearm and bicep.
The gauzy fabric of her bra became saturated as he moved back and forth, back and forth. Either nipple his mouth abandoned chilled, and she moaned an incoherent plea for its return.

  When he stopped and withdrew his arm, she pulled back and met his smoky gaze. His hands snaked up her back, and he released her bra clasp, peeling the straps slowly down her arms, his fingers grazing her as they went. The promise of what was to come ignited her like a backdrafting fire. She ached to feel his skin against hers. To have him buried deep inside her.

  In a surprising move, he pulled her into his body and twisted, flipping her on her back on the bed. Fingers lacing with hers, he stretched her arms wide and scanned her bared chest beneath him.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, his voice thick and reverent. “Absolutely beautiful.”

  He dipped his head and drew a breast into his mouth, circling her nipple with his tongue. Rolling it between his teeth, he bit down, sending shards of pleasure along her nerve endings, making her body throb all the more for him. Straddling her hips, he rose up, reached behind his back, and tugged off his T-shirt with one hand. She glimpsed a wall of glistening muscle before he bent his head and devoted equal attention to the other breast. Squirming, bucking against him, her inner pleas that he take her came out in moans and gasps. But he seemed to be on his own tortuous timetable.

  Minutes or hours later—she wasn’t sure which—while his mouth continued to demonstrate his adoration for her breasts, his fingers hooked the sides of her leggings and dragged them down her legs, bringing her panties with them. She helped him along, kicking her clothing off her ankles.

  Now she was totally naked to him. In broad daylight. He sat up once more, sliding beside her on the bed, sitting back on his heels, one leg nestled against her, creating a stripe of heat where it touched. Suffocating self-doubt rose to the fore as he roamed his hand over her body, his eyes following with primal intensity. And again. And again.

  As she watched him taking her in, something unexpected happened. Her modesty scattered. The way he looked at her, with so much hunger and heat, and the way he touched her, as though worshipping every square inch of her, made her soar inside. She’d never felt more beautiful, alluring, bewitching. The bulge in his shorts told her he was affected too.

  He ran a warm, calloused hand up her inner thigh, and she reflexively parted her legs, inviting him in, wanting more. After ghosting a teasing touch over her apex that made her clench with desire, he trailed his fingers down the other thigh. “So soft,” he whispered with awe.

  Re-positioning himself between her ankles, he draped his heavy arms on her thighs and planted his hands in place. Once he had her pinned, he began leisurely licking and kissing the trail his hand had just blazed up her thigh. The closer his mouth came to her juncture, the more her lungs stuttered and her hips struggled to rise off the mattress to meet his mouth, but his grip kept her grounded. Her moans grew louder, her panting more uneven, and she bit down on her bottom lip. Just as he reached her entrance, he switched direction to the other leg, working his way slowly back down to her foot. His soft hair brushed her sensitive skin. She wanted to yell in frustration and yank him back up.

  He kissed her toes and the tops of her feet and fondled the insides of her ankles with his tongue before moving to the outsides, leaving her gasping for breath. Oh so slowly, he tormented her with exquisite, erotic, nearly unbearable sensations as he moved up her calves to the backs of her knees.

  Muscles alternately bunching and stretching with ripples of pleasure, her body became a live wire, buzzing, sizzling, primed and ready for him. And then he stopped.

  He crawled up her body, swept the hair off her forehead, and kissed a corner of her mouth. “Good so far?”

  A cacophony of unformed thoughts bounced around her brain; they seemed to swarm around demands she both wanted and didn’t want to make of him. Push, pull.

  While she fought for a coherent answer, his hand swept down her chest to her breast, caressing, stroking, teasing. A mewl escaped her before she could swallow it. He let out a soft chuckle. “I take that as a ‘yes.’”

  “Yes,” she finally managed, “but you’re driving me crazy.”

  He nuzzled her neck and feathered kisses over her shoulder and collar bone while his hands explored her breasts. His touch was sometimes gentle, other times insistent. “Driving you crazy is the whole idea,” he breathed against her throat.

  “I know, but—”

  He took her mouth hard, cutting off the rest of what she’d meant to say. His tongue plundered at will, fragmenting her feeble train of thought. Her arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders, holding him in place.

  The kiss ended with a few soft pecks, and he lifted his head, his eyes mining hers. “But?”

  They were both breathing heavily.

  “I want you inside me,” she whispered, running the back of her hand along his jaw, over his sculpted arm, down to the hard shaft in his shorts, gratified when a groan rumbled in his chest.

  He captured her hand and trapped it above her head. “Not yet.”

  While his mouth kept hers busy with another feverish kiss, his hand slid farther down her body. He slipped a finger inside her, then another, stroking, curling, manipulating with a perfect touch, and her body arched off the bed.

  Oh. My. God!

  She turned her lips away from the kiss so she could breathe, her eyes rolling back in her head. An orgasm crashed over her before she even realized it was building. No warning, catching her by surprise as she shattered and clenched around his fingers.

  Wind knocked from her lungs, she lay in his arms breathing hard, coming down. His unmoving fingers were still inside her. Warm lips caressed the shell of her ear. “Better?” he breathed.

  She nodded against his solid chest. “Better.”

  He dusted tender kisses across her eyelids and forehead before rolling to his side and propping himself up on an elbow. Her eyes fluttered open and were immediately caught in his gaze. His fingers started their rhythmic stroking once more, and her body responded as if acting on its own, her hips rocking to the tempo his hand set. All of her wanted to press herself against him, but he braced his arm, keeping her on her back.

  “I want to watch you.” His eyes swept from her face down her body, pausing where his fingers slid slowly in and out, in and out.

  His heated gaze settled back on hers, and she lost herself in their depths. The cadence picked up, his strokes intensifying, hitting that mind-bending chord. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched his shifting expression through half-lidded eyes, watched the pleasure build on his face as the pleasure he unleashed mounted inside her body.

  “God, you are so beautiful,” he said.

  Closing her eyes, locking out everything but the crescendo being orchestrated inside her, she spiraled upward to a carnal height, where she let herself go, falling to pieces in front of him, all over him, hissing God’s name in an endless loop.

  He slipped his fingers out and kissed her deeply, then turned her on her stomach before her conscious mind landed back on Planet Earth. Kneeling between her legs, he caressed her with his hands and mouth from the backs of her knees to her shoulder blades, taking his sweet time with her ass. Then she was on her back again, and he opened her legs, nestling his broad shoulders between them, his soft beard and hot breath tickling the delicate skin between her thighs. His mouth zeroed in on her with a single-minded purpose. He lapped in long, unbroken sweeps, top to bottom.

  She sucked in a breath, and he traced her again with the tip of that lethal tongue, licking and lashing, his fingertips trailing after, feathering over her.

  Nearly out of her body and mind, she hovered on a knife’s edge where he continually took her only to haul her back in when she got close to another climax. Sensations filling her, rocking her, she yelped when his taut tongue ran over her unbearably sensitive flesh and plunged inside her. His big hands kept her in place while she grinded against him. Groans of pleasure vibrated through his
mouth as his tongue fucked her.

  Her body shuddered, and she went over the cliff, lost in ecstasy, her cries echoing somewhere outside herself as if in a distant, cottony cloud. Like a rag doll, her limbs hung useless and boneless. She vaguely registered the rustling of fabric, then his heat and weight sank on top of her, his bare skin brushing hers, slick and smooth. Hands in her hair, he covered her mouth with his. She tasted herself on his tongue as it swept deep inside, probing, exploring, claiming her mouth. Rolling her tongue over his, she pushed back and sucked his bottom lip between her teeth. His cock, thick and heavy, was trapped between them, and she reached down and ran her fingertips along its length. He shifted his weight to give her full access, then rewarded her with a chest-rumbling growl when she took him in her hand.

  He broke the kiss and rubbed his nose against hers. “I need to get my wallet.”

  Confused, she asked, “What’s in your wallet?”

  He kissed a corner of her mouth and gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s not a credit card.”

  A giggle bubbled up. “A condom?”

  He nodded as he kissed the other corner of her mouth. She continued stroking him, and he hissed, “Oh Jesuuuus!”

  “Don’t you have some up here?” she asked.

  He raised his head and peered at her. “I don’t think so. Do I?”

  Her eyes slid to the side. “I’m pretty sure there are some in your nightstand.”

  Surprise flickered in his eyes. Had he forgotten them? She’d deal with that later because right now, she had more important things on her mind. “I have an IUD.”

  His eyebrows inched up his forehead.

  “Since neither of us has been with anyone since the last time we slept together …”

  “I’m clean,” he said instantly. “So are you, right?”

  Nodding slowly, she raked her fingers through his hair and teased his stiff cock with the other hand.

  He sucked in a breath, and his eyes rolled back. “Are you sure about this?” he gritted out.