by Sybil Bartel
She turned the burner off and spun on me. “Because I don’t want to like you, okay? Is that so hard to understand?”
I grabbed the back of her neck. “Why? Because you think I don’t like you? You think I’m lying about what I promised?”
Her face twisted as if with grief. “You’re an escort.”
I knew it was coming. It had to. I sold sex. I wasn’t an idiot, I knew at a fucking minimum, she’d be insecure about my past. It’d be an uphill battle to get her past it, and I didn’t have a fucking clue how to address it except with the hard truth. “Now I’m your escort.”
“What does that mean? I don’t even know what that means! You sleep with me until you decide you’re bored? You tell me I’m yours but you still go make money at night with, with, with them.”
“It means I own every fucking orgasm of yours and you own mine.” I reached for her.
Hard and fierce, I kissed the fuck out of her.
When she kissed me back, I growled and grabbed her ass, lifting her up. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her legs went around my waist and I was walking us to the bedroom without a single thought except getting inside her. Tossing her on the bed, I yanked my shirt over my head then pushed my boxers off. I fisted my cock, crawled on top of her and rubbed the head around her soaked entrance. My jaw clenched in restraint, I forced words out. “This isn’t going to be gentle,” I warned.
So soft, I barely heard it, she whispered, “I like you rough.”
I shoved to the hilt in one thrust.
She gripped my arms, her head fell back and her mouth opened with a gasp.
Hot, wet, and tight as hell, she clamped down on my dick and I saw stars. Motherfucking hell. I grabbed two handfuls of her hair. “You pulse on me and I’m gonna come so fucking hard, you won’t know what hit you.”
A sexy half gasp, half moan escaped her lips. “You don’t,” she panted, “have a condom on.”
“I know.” Goddamn it, I knew. “You want me to pull out?” God fucking help me, I wanted her to say no.
“Just, please….” Her eyes fluttered shut and her hips tried to move under my weight.
I gripped her chin and barked, “Hey.” I didn’t have self-control. I didn’t have restraint. I was a loose fucking cannon waiting to detonate and she was the fuse.
“Jared?”
My name, said like that, from her? Jesus. My grip on her softened. “Yeah, baby.” I touched my lips to hers.
Her green-eyed gaze landed on me. “I need you,” she whispered.
My heart climbed up my chest and lodged in my throat.
Her small hand cupped my face. “Just like this.”
Slow and deliberate, I eased back then thrust deep, once, twice. “Trust me?”
“Yes,” she breathed, holding my gaze.
“I’m gonna make you feel good, but I’m not gonna come inside you. You good with that?” Christ, I never wanted to pull out.
She sucked in a breath and glanced down to where I was slowly riding her. “I don’t do this.” She looked back up at me. “I’ve never done this.” She bit her bottom lip.
I tugged the lip free with my thumb. “I’m clean.” I slid home and rotated my hips.
Her chest rose and fell twice. She looked at me like no other woman had ever looked at me. “You’re so big.”
I forced a half smile and gave her a slow burn as I ground my hips. “Answer my question, Red.” I sucked lightly on one of her nipples.
Shy and so damn sexy, it hurt to look at, she smiled. “You’re being gentle.”
Air locked out of my lungs and I stilled. Not because I was being gentle but because I was losing my fucking mind over it. Hard as shit, my dick ready to explode, I could’ve thrust one more time and simply let go. Inside her.
I fought the tremor that started at the base of my spine.
“Jared?” Her fingers slid into my hair.
“Yeah?” Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
She looked alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” And that was the problem. Not a fucking thing was wrong. I wasn’t pissed the fuck off. I wasn’t hearing a distant ringing in my ears, my back didn’t fucking burn, my head wasn’t screwed sideways. I was fucking slow. And I was enjoying it.
“Okay.” Small and hurt, her voice crawled into my head.
I lowered myself to my forearms and dragged my nose across the sweet scent of the heat on her neck. Better than any whiskey, she was intoxicating. My hips keeping the slow rhythm I’d only ever done with her, I kissed her jaw. “You want the truth?”
Her hand let go of my hair. “I don’t know.”
I gave it to her anyway. “I’ve never fucked like this.”
She said nothing.
I sunk myself deeper. “I could get addicted.” I sounded like a fucking pussy, but I gave zero fucks. I was riding a sweet woman I had no business fucking with, but my heart and body were drawn to her in a way I couldn’t explain. I knew I should let her go, but I’d never done the right thing.
Her hands landed tentatively on the back of my neck. Slowly, her fingers brushed across my flesh and moved to my shoulders. “Is this okay?”
Forcing my breath to stay even, I stilled. “Yeah.”
She traced the scars over my shoulders and across my back. “Does this hurt?”
Fighting the urge to pin her hands down, I stared at her. “No.”
Her fingers glanced over the deepest scar. “Do you like it?”
I liked everything she did, but not this tender bullshit. “I’m not made of glass, Red.” I had too much scar tissue to feel shit except the pressure of her touch.
“I know.”
No, she didn’t. I didn’t want her fucking pity. Ever.
Her hands moved to my ass and she pushed down as she brought her hips up. “I have a confession.”
Concentrating on not coming inside her, I thrust once. “Confess away.”
“I love your cock.” She grinned.
Caught completely off guard, I fucking laughed.
“That’s not funny!”
“Trust me.” I smiled down at her and all the bullshit about her touching my scars evaporated. “Hearing you say ‘cock’ is fucking funny, gorgeous.”
She tried to push me off her.
“No way.” I held on to her hips. “You’re not getting rid of my cock until you come at least once.” I thrust deep and ground against her clit.
Her growl turned into a moan. “I hate you.”
“Good.” The little liar. “Take it out on me.”
She tried to look serious. “There is something wrong with you.”
“You’re right. I’ve got my dick buried deep in a beautiful woman and I’m fucking talking to her instead of pounding her into submission.”
Her expression sobered. “Is that what you like to do?”
“What?” I brushed her hair from her face. “Make you submit?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“You not been present the past few orgasms, Red?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or be fucking alarmed at her innocence. “Yes, I like to make you submit to me.”
“But what exactly does that mean?”
“I’m in control.” No more or no less complicated.
A small, shy smile touched her lips. “I think I’m okay with that.”
I didn’t return the smile. “I know.”
She frowned. “But that’s good, right.”
Really fucking good. “Yes.” Still balls deep in her, I was up to my neck in this conversation, and I needed to get out of it, but I stupidly did the fucking opposite. “You want kids?”
She went so still, I was surprised I could still feel her heart beat. “Why?”
“Because I’m inside you without a condom.” It was a simple fact what that led to.
Her pulse sped up and she blanched. “I don’t know you.”
That made two of us. The seco
nd I stuck my dick in her, I didn’t know myself. I hovered a fraction of an inch above her mouth and said the only thing I knew to be true. “I’m the asshole who’s gonna fuck you to tears.”
His mouth crashed over mine and I knew he was right. I already wanted to cry. The gentle way he was moving in and out of me, the hard exterior he held up despite his scars—my heart was breaking because he was breaking it.
His kiss was nothing like the way he’d come at me in the kitchen the first time. Hard and fierce and breathless, he’d taken me like a man possessed. But now? His tongue slowly stroking through my mouth, matching the rhythmic rocking of his hips, he kissed me like a completely different man.
His hand grasped the side of my face, but he wasn’t gripping my hair or holding me down. He wasn’t barking commands while he drove me mad with lust. His kiss was so far from that, I felt desired and needed and cherished. I felt loved. And it terrified me. Because Jared Brandt, with his gentle hold and questions about children, wasn’t going to make me cry, he was going to break my heart.
A tear slid down my face.
Without breaking his rhythm, his thumb brushed across my cheek as his lips moved to my ear. “Save those for when I make you fall apart.” He pressed deep inside me.
A spot I never knew existed before last night blossomed into a need so consuming, I wanted everything he was offering. “I don’t want to fall apart.” I wanted to believe the fairy tale he was selling.
“Yes, you do.” His mouth, his lips, they sucked my neck as his tongue swirled promises across my flesh.
His hips steadily taking me past the point of no return, I didn’t respond. Holding on for dear life, I closed my eyes.
His fingers slipped between us. “Eyes on me, right now.”
With no willpower to go against him, my gaze found his and oh my God, he was beautiful. So beautiful, I didn’t have any words. Only one thought climbed across my vulnerability and took up residence. I was going to be crushed by this man.
His thumb pressed down on my clit as his hard length caressed deep inside me. “Come,” he demanded.
The wall I’d built around my heart shattered into a million pieces as I started to come apart under him. With my core humming, and my body shaking, he pulled out and pressed the head of his cock against my swollen clit.
Hot semen pulsed against me and I saw fireworks.
Fisting my cock, pressing hard into her clit, I fucking exploded. Her pussy still contracting, her body shaking, I watched her fall apart. Coming harder than I ever had, I covered her mound with my release and spread my seed all over her red curls.
One singular thought sank into my fucked-up brain.
Mine.
She was mine.
I didn’t have any other words. I only had fucked up shit running through my head as green eyes full of emotion stared up at me.
“That,” she whispered, “wasn’t fucking.”
I didn’t lose it.
I broke.
Without a word, he turned me on my side and lay down behind me.
My heart hammering a warning, I pushed. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.” His arm snaked under my head.
His release dripped down my thigh. “Your sheets.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the sheets,” he snapped.
“You didn’t answer,” I said quietly.
“It wasn’t a question.”
“Fine.” Inhaling, I turned as much away from him as I could.
Either pretending not to notice or not caring, he snaked his arm across my waist and pulled me back, then his hand landed on my breast. Rough fingers twisted my nipple and desire shot between my legs despite me having just come.
“Stop it.” I shoved his hand away.
The arm under my head folded across my chest and he rolled me toward him. “You don’t want me to touch you?” His tone was accusing.
“I don’t want you to lie to me.”
His nostrils flared and his chest heaved, but his words came out even. “It was more than fucking, is that what you want to hear?”
“You’re the one who started this. You called me to meet you, you hit Dan, you brought me here and you made me promises. Don’t turn this around like I’m saying something I want to hear.” My finger jabbed into his chest. “This is what you started.” I sucked in a breath. “You did this.” There. Let him deal with his own truths, the mercurial bastard.
His tone turned to liquid sexual seduction. “What did I do?”
I eyed him. “Are you smiling?”
“No.” He fought a smile then turned serious again. “Minus your hair pinned up and the pink suit, I like the feisty Red almost as much as I like the innocent Red.”
Wait, what? “What’s wrong with my hair up and my pink suit?”
“I hate them.”
I bristled. “That’s a nice suit, and I always wear my hair up to work. It’s called being professional.”
“I don’t want you professional.”
I leaned back. “That is sexist, Jared Brandt.”
“If not wanting you to work with your ex and a bunch of steroid-driven ballers is sexist, then I’m fucking sexist.”
I blinked and a silly kind of relief that he didn’t find me unattractive with my hair up and in a suit washed over me. “So, it’s not the suit?” My traitorous heart danced around in my chest.
“No, Red, it’s not the suit.” He stroked my cheek then brushed my hair behind my ear. “It’s what you do in the suit.”
“Just so you know, steroid use is illegal in the league.” I hated how much I liked what he’d said.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“I have a mortgage.” I had bills to pay, and working for Coach was the best-paying job I’d ever get without a college degree.
His intense stare burned into me, and then he said something I never saw coming. “I don’t.”
Before I could open my mouth and sink myself so far over the edge, someone pounded on the front door.
Jared jerked like he’d been hit, then he was out of bed so fast, I had whiplash. “Stay here.” He grabbed a clean pair of jeans, stepped into them and headed for the door.
“I need my suitcase.” I wanted more than just his T-shirt or we’d wind up right back in bed and I was sore.
With only a nod, he disappeared then returned with my suitcase as whoever it was pounded on the door again. “Wait here.” He closed the door behind him.
A few seconds later, I heard angry male voices and I didn’t wait. I grabbed some yoga pants and the T-shirt I’d borrowed from Jared, threw them on, then I opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hall.
“You were supposed to be stationed out front,” Jared growled.
“Understood, sir. As I said, I was not authorized to serve the papers myself. My only choice was to let the process server—”
“Letting him up here was not your call,” Jared bit out.
I stepped into the living room. A dark-haired guy with almost as many muscles as Jared stood military straight in front of Jared. His gaze cut to me and he nodded with a clipped smile. “Ma’am.”
Jared spun. Anger contorting his features, he scanned my outfit then looked back at the guy. “Read it,” he demanded.
“Sir?”
“Read. It,” Jared enunciated.
The guy, who was dressed exactly like Jared’s friend, André, in the same type of black logo polo shirt and black cargo pants, looked uncomfortable. He glanced at me.
I walked over and took the paper from him. It was a complaint. I was surprised the lawyers had gotten this filed so quickly, but I was shocked when I read how much Dan was actually suing Jared for. I looked up.
Jared’s jaw clenched. “What does it say?”
My stomach bottomed out. “Dan’s suing you.” I swallowed. “Twenty-five million.”
Jared looked at the other guy. “Leave.”
“Yes, sir.” He nodded then turned to me. “I’m Tyler, ma
’am. I’ll be your protection detail for the next few days. Please let me know if you need anything.”
“Leave,” Jared barked.
Tyler walked out.
I handed the paper to Jared. “You need to call that attorney your friend André told you about.”
He threw the paper on the kitchen counter, picked up his phone and dialed. A second later he was telling someone to order takeout food.
I waited until he hung up. “I’m sorry.” Guilt was eating me alive. If I hadn’t agreed to meet him at the restaurant, none of this would have happened, including me and him.
“For what? Are you going to sue me next?” He walked into the bedroom.
I followed. “That’s not fair.” I didn’t tell Dan to be a jerk and I certainly didn’t tell Jared to hit him.
Pulling a shirt out of his dresser, he didn’t say anything.
I stood there feeling helpless. “What are you going to do?”
“Shower.” He walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
I grabbed my purse from the kitchen counter where I’d left it and fished out my cell as I walked back into the bedroom. When I turned it on, texts started coming in from Dan.
Where are u?
What the hell are you doing with that jerk?
Y did u leave?
Turn ur phone on!
Damn it Sie, I love u, u know I do
Don’t do this
You gave me ur virginity, that meant something!
I cringed at the last one. Then I let my indignation get the best of me and texted back.
25 million. Really? What’s wrong, is your cheerleader girlfriend blowing through your money?
The three little dots that said he was texting back appeared immediately.
Nothing HAPPENED! I told u that!
I didn’t believe it then and I didn’t believe it now. The simple truth was that Dan Ahlstrom was a self-entitled coward. I stupidly texted back.
Whatever.
His reply was almost instant.
Put the ring on and the lawsuit disappears
My stomach bottomed out then anger, red-hot and furious, blossomed. My thumbs flew across the screen.
Blackmail? That’s how you get women now? You’re pathetic.