“Can I help you with something?”
“You have a confidence problem.” He pointed a long finger on one of his big hands at my chest. I raised my gaze to meet the man’s green eyes. He ran a hand through his messy, dirty-blond hair and regarded me with near contempt. It was as if he was here against his will.
Wham! It hit me. Of course I knew who this guy was. If it wasn’t that he shouldn’t have ever been at my house, I’d have recognized him immediately.
“You’re Tanner Wolfe,” I stated with absolute certainty. Tanner had been one of my football idols, especially since coming to Seattle. He had plenty of ’tude and had been a big shot in college. He’d faced adversity and risen from it. Yeah, he was the guy I wanted to be, minus the adversity—I wished. Adversity was starting to be my middle name.
“Riley sent me. We’re related—he’s my nephew through marriage.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know.
“Riley sent you?” I was beyond puzzled.
“Yeah, wants me to talk to you. I’ll buy you a drink.” Tanner motioned for me to follow him to his beyond-expensive sports car. In awe, I lowered my long frame onto the passenger seat, and we drove to a nearby bar. Once seated inside near the back in a private booth, Tanner wrapped his hands around his beer glass and regarded me with more intensity than a scientist studying a new disease under a microscope.
“I’m not going to be drafted,” I said for lack of anything else to say. I sounded pathetic and whiny, and inwardly, I cringed.
“So you’re giving up?” he sneered, and his green eyes held mine until I squirmed with discomfort.
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, what can I do?”
“Go to the combine. Wow them with your skills. Force them to look at you.”
Easy for him to say. He finished his college years with a national championship. Of course they looked at him, but I didn’t voice my opinion. He probably wouldn’t take it well.
“I was going to try.”
“And I’m going to help you,” he said with such conviction it was my turn to stare.
“Why? Why would you do that?”
“Call it giving back. Call it my ego talking because I think I can make you into the next big thing. Call it a favor for a friend and relative. Whatever the fuck it is, I’m going to do it.”
I couldn’t possibly turn down one of the best QBs in the country. Instead I nodded enthusiastically and grinned. “I would be honored and humbled and—”
“Cut the crap,” Tanner sneered. “You won’t be thanking me by the time I’m done putting you through the wringer.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Perhaps keeping my mouth shut was the best thing I could do. For the first time this school year, I felt hope rising inside me.
Tanner finished off his beer, left a twenty on the table, and stood. “Sorry to cut this short. My wife is expecting me home soon. I’ll be in touch after my season’s over. We’ll work out something.”
I held out my hand, and he shook it firmly. “Thank you,” I almost gushed but managed to hold myself back.
He nodded curtly and strode from the room with the air of a man who owned every place he walked into. I used to be like that, commanding, confident, and cocky. I’d had the three C’s in huge doses. You had to if you wanted to be a successful quarterback.
Feeling good about my future for the first time in ages, I walked the mile home, plotting my next move. Alisa’s car was parked in the driveway. I hurried inside, needing to tell someone my good fortune and glad it was her. I stopped in my tracks when I heard her arguing with someone.
“Father, I’ll be there in a few weeks, as soon as finals are over.”
She was silent as the person on the other end of the line must have been speaking. After a minute or so, she spoke again. “I’m looking forward to it. I won’t disappoint you. I promise.” Another pause. “Goodbye, have a nice evening.”
She glanced up, startled to see me standing at the entrance to the living room. “Oh, uh, hi. I didn’t see you standing there.” She was oddly flustered, cluing me in to something being up with her.
“I thought your father was dead?” I said, knowing I sounded like an insensitive ass.
“My stepfather, the man who raised me, is dead. That was my real father. I just met him months ago.”
“And this is the first time I’m hearing of this?”
“Is it any of your business?”
“Aren’t we friends?” I shot back.
Besides, I wanted it to be my business more than I’d realized. These past few months looking but not touching had been sheer torture. I hadn’t had sex since Alisa and I had done it almost a year ago. But it wasn’t just sex. Not one other woman interested me. I wanted her and her alone. We’d danced around each other for a long time and never really admitted our feelings.
With Tanner’s help, I could do this. Having Alisa at my side as I fought for a future for both of us would be icing on the cake. There wasn’t any denying my feelings. I had to man up and admit how much she meant to me, but tonight didn’t seem right. I had to figure out when was the right time. The clock was ticking, and we were both aware we had a few short weeks left in each other’s presence.
“Lis, I’m glad you’ve had contact with him. Sounds like you’re getting along well.”
“It’s been an adjustment. Months after Dad—my stepdad—died, Mom told me about him.” She flashed one of her dazzling smiles. I’d have climbed in her pocket and stayed there forever if she’d let me.
“That must have been a surprise to you.”
“You can’t imagine.” Her faze flicked nervously to my face and away again. She wasn’t telling me everything, but I wasn’t in the position to press for more information. I had other, more urgent issues to discuss.
I closed the distance between us as she stood, most likely planning her escape route.
~~Alisa~~
I had to get out of this room. Gage’s presence was too overwhelming, too tempting, just too, too everything. Only he wasn’t letting me off that easily. His clear blue eyes pulled me in, stripping the last bit of strength I possessed to resist him. I was drawn to him, my control obliterated by the unspoken words and unexpressed emotions reflected in his gaze.
I meant something to him, just as he meant something to me. I read his needs as clear as day, but I couldn’t do anything about them, not without leaving both of us to suffer irreparable damage in the end. I was damaged enough for the two of us. No need to drag him down with me.
“Gage, this isn’t a good idea.” Even as I said the words, I moved, zombie-like, closer to him until we were toe to toe, eye to eye, and chest to chest. He didn’t touch me, merely held my gaze captive. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t run from myself and what I wanted, couldn’t even breathe. The power of those blue eyes paralyzed me.
“Not being with you isn’t a good idea either.”
I couldn’t argue with him there.
He placed his big hands on my shoulders but made no attempt to pull me into his arms. I was incapable of turning away or taking any action to save myself. I was at his mercy and looking forward to what a sweet mercy it would be.
“I want you, Lis. I don’t care what the future holds. I care about today. Maybe even tomorrow or next week. I’m not thinking beyond that. I have to get my shit together. Figure some stuff out. See what’s on the horizon.”
“So do I.”
His mouth came down on mine without warning, crushing me with the sheer force of emotions and obliterating my resolve to keep my distance. I kissed him back with the ferocity of a woman kissing her lover for the last time on a sinking Titanic. Only this didn’t have to be our last time. Even if our ship was sinking, we still had an unforgettable few weeks. Easton’s words came back to me about regrets. They were the last coherent thoughts I had.
Gage stepped into me, pushing my back against the wall, while never removing his mouth from mine. I slid my hands under and up his sweater
, relishing the warm feel of his bare flesh against my palms. Within seconds, we were panting and sweating and gloriously turned on. His thigh was between my legs. I took full advantage and rubbed my crotch against him. He growled, reminding me of a big cat, like a lion, and I growled right back, ready to be his lioness. His hands roamed freely over my body clad in a tight sweater and even tighter jeans.
“Too many clothes between us.” My words exploded out in a husky rush of pure lust.
“I know.” He reared back, his eyes darkened with desire and heat. Grasping the bottom of my sweater, he yanked it none too gently over my head, and I gladly accommodated him.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he said reverently, making me feel cherished in a way no other man ever had. I forced myself to recall how Gage’s seduction methods were legendary. There’d been a saying in the sorority that once you had Gage, no one else would do. Making a woman feel cherished was part of his MO, and not necessarily unique to me. I wished it were, but I didn’t delude myself. Gage and I had been voracious lovers because we’d fed each other’s proclivity for having sex in places where the probability of us getting caught was high. We were thrill seekers and risk-takers. We thrived on adventure and danger.
Not anymore. I had to keep sex in the bedroom and my partners limited to those who wouldn’t kiss and tell in the tabloids.
But for now…
I had nothing to worry about. Gage was a very private person who did not kiss and tell.
He unbuttoned the top button on my jeans and lowered the zipper. He slid his hand under the fabric. I wrapped one leg around his waist to give him easier access. He slid one long finger inside my wet heat and bent it slightly, scraping it along the sensitive inner channel. I whimpered, cried out, and bucked against his hand. He thrust his finger over and over until stars burst before my eyes, the world exploded, and I collapsed like a limp rag against him. I don’t know how long he held me up against the wall before I gained sanity. It could’ve been five seconds or five minutes. Finally, I found the will to speak.
“The guys could come home any second.”
“Yeah.” He feasted his eyes on my lacy black bra, thin enough my nipples clearly protruded against the fabric.
“Let’s go upstairs.”
“Since when do you care if we have an audience?” His mouth was all over my shoulders and neck.
I didn’t care, but I needed to care. I was a princess, and princesses didn’t fuck men with the potential of others watching, but the naughty idea had its merits. Oh, fuck, yeah.
But we couldn’t—
If we were going to do this, we had to curb our kinky tendencies and do it like proper adults in a proper bed with a proper door shut.
Damn.
He’d stopped kissing me long enough to look into my eyes. “You’re serious about this?”
I nodded before I gave in and did the dirty right in the living room for our roommates to witness if they happened to walk in the door.
He picked me up as if I weighed nothing and hauled my ass up the stairs. Next thing I knew, I was spread-eagled on his bed and happy to be there.
I gazed up at him with my most sultry, come-hither smile, the one I’d been using on men since I got boobs. He grinned back with one of his feral, wolf-like grins. I held out my arms, expecting him to cover my body with his. Instead, he bent over, yanked my unzipped jeans down my legs, and threw them aside. My panties came next. Only the bra remained. He didn’t touch it.
Gage stepped back a few steps and proceeded to strip off his clothes. Oh, yeah, I liked that. A lot. Gage’s body was epically cut, like a fine sculpture created by a long-dead artist. No other man compared to the male specimen standing before me. And his dick. Oh, my heavens, that dick of his was the dick of dreams. We should’ve been doing this very thing all quarter instead of behaving like idiots. Or maybe it was only me who’d behaved like an idiot?
No matter. Now we’d have to work extra hard to make up for lost time.
I knew as well as he did without saying the words that we’d be in bed with each other until I boarded that plane in a few weeks. The thought of leaving my home and my friends and Gage gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach and squeezed at my heart. I pushed the sadness away, locking it up to pull it out another day in the distant future when Gage was only a memory.
A memory?
I swallowed, not wanting to go there.
“Show me how well you use that cock of yours, big guy.” I crooked my index finger, arched my back, and spread my legs wider, giving him a full view of what he’d been missing.
His gaze flicked to that area between my legs and sauntered lazily back up my body. He took a few strides toward his nightstand, fished around for a condom, tore off the foil, and rolled it down his impressive length.
“Fuck me, Gage. Fuck me hard.”
The determined set of his jaw indicated he planned to do just that. The bed sank under his weight, Greedy for more and impatient to feel him inside me, I grabbed his hips. He was too strong and resisted just to be a tease, but he didn’t tease for long. Soon, he was between my legs, as he supported his upper body on his elbows. He dipped his head and sucked one nipple between his teeth through my bra. I buried my fingers in his bare ass and cried out in ecstasy. Gage knew all my buttons. He knew what drove me wild with desire. He had the weapons to reduce me to a quivering mass of satisfied woman and the ability to do so multiple times in one night.
I reached for his cock and wrapped my fingers around the silky, impressive length of him. He jerked, giving me a good clue he wasn’t in control as much as he pretended.
“Fuck me,” I implored while milking him. He was rock hard, and I knew he needed to be inside me as much as I needed him there. His blue eyes bored into mine, full of hope and promises and things I dare not get excited about.
Finally, he positioned his cock at my entrance and slid inside slowly, inch by excruciatingly slow inch. I closed my eyes and savored the moment, relishing the feel of this man inside me, filling me as if he were meant for me and only me. I’d been with a lot of guys in my short but uninhibited life, but none of them came close to Gage. We had this connection, this unexplainable something that bound us together, and neither of us had been fully able to break those binds.
Once he was buried to the hilt, he paused, and I groaned, impatient to get to the good stuff. Not that it wasn’t all good stuff, but the actual fucking was my favorite part. I had to quit using that word. Princesses didn’t use such crude words. The things I thought of when I was trying to keep myself from crying out in frustration.
“Gage,” I begged, my voice a growling plea for mercy. “Please, fuck me.”
His blue eyes sparkled, and a deep chuckle rumbled within his chest. I arched my back and angled my hips, pledging to make his leisurely pace as hard on him as it was on me. I succeeded. His eyes literally rolled back in his head, and the sound he made was half human, half wild beast. Cocky with satisfaction, I wrapped my legs around his waist and dug my heels into his ass, forcing him even deeper.
“Shit,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“I want you. Now.” My words were an order, and Gage didn’t take orders very well, but this time, he must have decided to make an exception. He flexed his hips until only his tip was inside me.
“You ready for this?”
“I’m always ready for you. Give it to me. Hard. Rough. Fast.”
In his eyes, I saw the exact moment his control snapped. He plunged into me, and I screamed out, “Yes!” I’d never been much of a quiet lover, and Gage brought my noisiness out even more.
His gaze narrowed to two blue slits as he watched my face while he thrust roughly in and out of me. I was bucking wildly underneath him, meeting his every thrust with one of my own. There was that moment when my mind was so destroyed by lust I thought I’d surely entered the realm of the insane. Then ecstasy won and my orgasm rolled over me in wave after powerful wave. Gage was coming, too, and pressing deep ins
ide me as he did so.
He collapsed on top of me and rolled to his side, taking me with him. We held each other tightly, and I knew I was just where I was meant to be with the man I was meant to be with.
Chapter 9—Who Are Those Guys?
~~Gage~~
Every morning for the next few weeks, I woke up with Alisa’s naked body cuddled next to mine. It was one hell of a way to wake up, and I was becoming addicted to her body and her presence.
We were dating, boyfriend and girlfriend, and for once we weren’t denying our relationship but allowing it to blossom and bloom into something scary and real and precious. Precious? Yeah, if I didn’t watch it, I’d start writing love poems.
The future shone brightly in front of me. With Alisa by my side, I could do anything. Absolutely anything. She gave me the power to believe in myself just by her mere presence.
I’d make it in the pros. I had the talent, even Tanner had said so, and he would know. I needed to get beyond my mental blocks.
I was falling for Alisa. Falling hard and fast and completely. I was in love with her. I couldn’t deny my feelings any longer. I’d probably always been in love with her.
In a short while, she’d be gone, and I’d be alone again. Only I wasn’t going down without a fight. This time she’d know how I felt. I’d pledge my undying love and wait for her. She couldn’t stay in Europe forever. Even if she did, I was willing to wait forever.
I wasn’t sure where my romantic side had come from, but with her, it’d surfaced in full force with both guns blazing.
I loved her, and I’d tell her soon. She had to know how important she was to me.
I’d planned to wait until I had my life together and made enough money to be worthy of her, but waiting wouldn’t be a good idea. She had to know how I felt before she left the country and me for her overseas adventure.
Alisa stirred beside me. Her eyelashes fluttered until those gorgeous baby blues squinted at me in the sunlight pouring in our window. Sun in Seattle in December was rare, and I considered it a sign of good things to come.
Tackled in Seattle Page 6