PASS INTERFERENCE (Gods of the Gridiron Book 3)

by Shanna Swenson

  “Guess I’ll have to settle for a toga instead then.”

  Pax burst into laughter and moved toward her, making her heart beat faster, and her laughter faded. He stopped within inches of her and reached up to finger the curl in front of her face, the one that had fallen loose from her bun. He then touched her glasses.

  “I’ve had lots of fantasies about you with these on, you know?”

  She felt her mouth open in surprise even as his lips fell to hers. She moaned when his tongue invaded, plunging in, and she stepped into his alluring arms. The feel of his solid, hard frame against her own did wonders for her damaged heart. His hand cupped her face as he angled her jaw, deepening the kiss and making the few inhibitions she had left fly right out the window. He pulled back after a moment to murmur her name and nibble her exposed neck as goosebumps broke out on her skin.

  “I want you. I don’t wanna spend another night without you.”

  Would she be brave? Would she finally give herself to him? She’d said she wanted to, said she didn’t want to save herself. What was she waiting for?

  She nodded even as his fingertips touched the portion of her collarbone, bare beneath her silk blouse. “I want you too, Paxton.”

  He grinned as he looked her over for any reluctance. When he didn’t find any, he picked her up fireman style and carried her up the stairs. Her heart galloped and her lungs burned. This was it. She was doing it, for real. As much as it scared her, there was a part of her that was relieved. And if you do marry, she told herself, you’ll have this out of the way and not feel as nervous on your wedding night. If that was supposed to make her feel better, it didn’t. Her wedding night was a long way off, and this was the here and now—and here and now she thought she would faint as Pax began unbuttoning her shirt and kissing her again. She followed his lead, letting their mouths tangle and suck and explore as her own hands moved to the buckle of his pants.

  He chuckled as he pulled her shirt from her shoulders and moved next to her bra. “You should probably not start with my pants with your inexperience, my little naia.”

  Instead of being offended by his statement, she was grateful. He was right, she needed to pace herself. Shirt first. He chuckled again as her hands moved to the hem of his shirt. “Mmm,” he murmured, “your hands feel so good on me, Rebecca.”

  “Yours too,” she agreed as his hand cupped her lace-covered breast and squeezed gently, testing the firmness there. She shivered as a finger dipped into the bra cup and brushed her nipple. His head fell and he kissed the meat of her breast as his hands fell to her jeans, quickly unbuttoning and unzipping her. She moved her focus from him to her bra and unclasped the back, anticipating his mouth on her once more. He grinned as she pulled the material from her shoulders and let it drop, moaning when his mouth returned to her breast. His hand cupped her there and brought the aching peak to his mouth to torture. Becca gasped and moaned as his hands descended her bare back to the lace panties that barely covered her ass cheeks. He gripped her there, pulling her into his massive frame.

  “Good lord, sexy lady. I don’t know how long I’ll last with you like this,” he sputtered his words at her nipple.

  “Oh Pax,” she whimpered. She was ready to open her legs—her body—to him, but realized he was still fully clothed; her hands had stymied their attempts to undress him in order to unburden herself.

  He took a step back only long enough to peel the shirt over his head and unbutton his jeans before launching himself back at her, his mouth returning to hers in an overwhelmingly powerful kiss. His hands were greedy, kneading her breasts then moving to her ass and back again, feeling her up then down, as he feasted on her lips. Soon, her hands were tugging at his jeans and sliding into the soft denim to feel his stout thighs. Her hands moved lower to touch the part of him that fascinated her even more than his hulking body and chiseled muscles did. That part of him that jutted out at her, swollen and thick with need. The need she was eliciting within him. The need to take her, own her, and love her like she had never been loved before.

  She gulped as she traced the length of him, hearing him groan in desire as his mouth moved to the crook of her neck, his palms gripping her ass cheeks once more and spreading them. She pressed herself to his chest, loving the broadness and heat of his big frame, the protection of his sheltering arms, and the lust that he invoked within her with every touch of his hands.

  “Mmm, Paxton,” she moaned as his lips came to her face, kissing her jaw. “Will it hurt?” she asked as his eyes came to hers and he paused for a moment.

  “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never been with a virgin.”

  She looked away, chewing on the inside of her cheek, feeling butterflies fill her stomach.

  “Hey,” he said and cupped her face in his big palm. “We don’t have to do this. You can say no, if you want.”

  But how could she say no? His manhood was primed and ready for loving her, she saw, as her fist gripped and squeezed it; he shivered with desire. She shook her head.

  He gave her a reassuring smile and grabbed the hand she was stroking him with, pulling it into his own and interlacing their fingers. “I know what they say about men and their boners. But I can stop. You just say the words. No is an option, and I’ll respect it if this isn’t what you want.” He was serious. Dead serious.

  “No. I want to. I do. With you,” she reassured him.

  “I’ll go slow. And I’ll make sure you’re ready for me. Don’t be intimidated by my size.”

  How could she not be? How in God’s green earth was that gigantic rod going to fit inside her?

  He pulled her into his arms again and backed them to the bed, the backs of her knees hitting the edge of the mattress. He laid her down, and she began to panic, realizing how close they were to this sacred act.

  Paxton pulled his jeans off and his boxer-briefs. The bed sank in as his knees moved between her legs. Her breathing became ragged as he moved atop her and she felt his big chest hit hers.

  “Damn, you’re so tiny, Becca. I’m afraid I might break you.”

  In more ways than one, Becca thought. Paxton’s lips came back to hers, and he began to kiss her. She forgot about the pressures of what was about to happen and just enjoyed the melding of their mouths and tongues, the feel of his hands on her naked flesh, cupping, squeezing and stroking. Her body was alive, her sex was tingling and oozing desire, and her legs were opening of their own volition when she felt his fingers pierce her opening.

  She grunted, only to realize how tense she was as Pax stroked her thigh with his other hand. “Shh, easy, baby, it’s just my fingers. I’m just getting you ready.”

  What did he mean by that? The wetness? She blushed up at him even as he smiled.

  He must have decided she was because he was moving in between her legs, aligning their bodies. She realized he was pulling something down the length of himself. Oh my God, a condom. How had she forgotten about using protection? But just as she scolded herself, she felt a widening between her legs, a stretch, and she gasped as she looked up at Pax’s focused face then down to see he was guiding himself into her, the head of his cock disappearing inside her.

  Her sharp intake of breath had him looking up into her eyes. “Does it hurt, baby?”

  Becca shook her head and pulled her lips in to concentrate on what he was doing. He pushed a little more and gauged her reaction. The feeling was that of being filled, a slight pressure and discomfort, but it wasn’t painful. Little by little, inch by inch, Pax slid more of himself inside her, until his shaft was filling her completely. She grunted from the strain but was grateful it wasn’t as agonizing as she’d read about in romance books.

  “Are you ok?” he asked as he looked down into her face, sweat breaking out on his brow. She nodded, but he asserted, “Rebecca, baby, I need to hear you say it. Keep your eyes on me. I can’t do this if I don’t know how you’re feeling.”

  His tenderness touched her, and she grinned up at him, glad it was him she’d
decided to lose her virginity to. “I’m grand, Pax. Now what?” she asked.

  She wasn’t oblivious to what happened next. There would be rutting, thrusting, and rocking of his pelvis into hers until he was spent—at least that was what she’d seen and read anyway. But reading it and feeling it were two very different things. As Pax’s body lowered, and he withdrew then plunged back into her, something incredible started to happen. Some wanton, primal nymph within her began to awaken, coming alive as her lover drove deeper and deeper inside her, his sex hitting clandestine alcoves within that made her tingle and cry out with the need to feel more and more of the undulating waves of pleasure assaulting her. Like a reverberating echo that audibly split inside a cavern, the stroking of his body within hers created a rippling effect.

  “Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” she swore and moaned. Pax took her lips, and her hands gripped his shoulders and back as his need began to overtake him. He thrust higher and harder, hitting even more spots that made her body shake, shiver, and quake beneath him. His hands moved over her naked torso, exploring her, his index finger and thumb teasing her nipples. His head flew back and he whimpered, attempting to hold himself from the restraints of his natural instincts.

  “Oh, God, Becca. You feel so good, my sexy little naia, so damn good,” he groaned, his breath choppy as he looked down at her.

  He was waiting for her, but she wasn’t sure if she…

  Then it happened; a swirling, pulling, tingling began somewhere deep inside, somewhere she’d never felt as his hard member hit it over and over again. Suddenly, she was sucked into a vortex of intense pleasure—pulled into a rogue wave. Down, down, down she went, to Atlantis where magical sea sprites exploded in thousands of lights, dancing and cascading, before she was crashed back onto shore. Her cries of ecstasy were foreign screams in her ears, and her voice cracked as her entire body spasmed in climax. Her fingernails dug into Paxton’s back, and her face buried into his shoulder, biting in as she held on for dear life afraid she would drown in this sea of bliss.

  Suddenly, Poseidon roared, his body wracked by the same tumultuous waves she was being hit with, and he shook with fury as the storm engulfed him too. When they were both left in its wake, she looked up into the clear blue eyes of her lover. The man who’d taken her virginity, the man she’d unselfishly chosen to give herself to.

  And she didn’t feel as if anything had been taken at all. It was the first time in her life she’d ever felt so full and complete—her body and her heart.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Paxton hadn’t been shocked to find that Rebecca’s hymen had been broken prior to her first sexual experience. That wasn’t unusual, especially since she was twenty-four-years-old and not sixteen. It could’ve been broken on a bicycle, putting in a tampon, or any kind of injury…or so he’d read in a Cosmopolitan magazine article years ago. She seemed more surprised than he’d been, but they were both grateful it hadn’t hurt her too much. What had shocked Pax was how incredible he’d felt afterward, how attached he’d felt toward her, how protective. He’d heard about earth-shattering sex but had always assumed it was an exaggeration, not a real concept. Now, he knew for a fact that it was.

  After their love-making, for that’s precisely what it’d been, he looked her over in awe and wonderment, touching her face to make sure she was really real. Her glasses were still on and her bun was a mess of curly tendrils; she’d never been more beautiful than she was in that moment. Her cheeks reddened from sexual bliss, her eyes filled with the same emotion. He chuckled, getting a deep one from her that jolted his sex like a live wire. He then had to explain to her why his eyes were practically rolling into the back of his head when she did so.

  From there, their night consisted of exploring each other in every sense of the word: physically, sexually, and emotionally, telling one another stories of their childhoods, their dreams, and their darkest secrets before pulling the other back into the throes of passion where they sought ecstasy in the arms of the other.

  Paxton had never experienced anything like it. Like her. Rebecca Ryan, his sweet naia. Whether she was indeed a nymph or a dolphin was debatable, and he didn’t care because she was his; his to love, torment, and adore with each stroke and kiss and thrust of his cock inside her. And he apparently did all three well because she kept climaxing over and over again, fascinating him as he tumbled with her and succumbed to her as much as he dominated her. Never had a woman captivated him so. And he knew what the feeling was before he could put words to it—despite that he hadn’t been ready, hadn’t wanted it, didn’t need it, fought to expel it. It was love. Plain and simple.

  Their night had been perfect, more than he’d ever hoped for, and the next morning came with the promise of a new day to do it all over again. Leaving his bed was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. Especially when faced with reality, knowing that he’d been abandoned by love before, as a child. What made this any different?

  He tried to banish the dark thoughts from his head as he showered and begrudgingly left Rebecca to head to the complex, fighting the urge to run. He tried to tell himself that Becca was genuine, she wouldn’t just leave him, but his insecurities surfaced throughout the day. This was the problem with love; it made him vulnerable, made him weak, made him unsure of things he’d been sure of all along, things he’d left in the past.

  The guys seemed to notice something was different and called him out, teasing him.

  “Leave him be,” TJ mused.

  “Why? Is it your turn to be badgered?” Trav asked.

  “A gentleman never kisses and tells,” TJ smarted back.

  “Who ever said you were a gentleman?” Linc snorted and playfully punched at his middle.

  “What about you, Quil? What happened between Hades and Medusa? She add another snake to her pile Halloween night?” Trav teased Quil, who looked undeterred by his comments.

  “You’ll never know if she did or not.”

  “Well, we know that Pax finally took the plunge. Kid hasn’t been this light since his rookie year.” This tease came from Brett, who beamed at him.

  It was true, Pax felt like he was soaring on cloud nine. He just grinned back, not needing to say a word.

  “Good for you, Pax.” Quil patted his back after the others went to the weight room. “It’s good to see that look on your face for a change.”

  Pax wasn’t really aware that he had a “look,” as much as a different mindset, but he wouldn’t argue with his teammates about it. Although, he was curious about what happened with Quil and Veda.

  “And what about you and Veda?” Pax asked, evaluating his super-secretive TE once he and Quil were alone in the locker room.

  For the longest time Pax wasn’t sure Quil would answer him, but finally he said, “It’s complicated.”

  “Complicated because you have a daughter?” Pax asked, treading carefully.

  “That’s one reason.”

  “You’re a widower?”

  Quil shrugged. “Veda just— Well, she isn’t what I need.” Quil looked down at that, as if regretful that she wasn’t. What had happened Halloween night? And the connection they had at lunch yesterday seemed genuine enough. Maybe Veda wasn’t the cold-hearted bitch Pax thought she was. Maybe she had a softer side. Like Becca. They were twins, after all. It was possible that Veda wasn’t her “evil” twin, so much as just an altered version of her. Or at least, Pax wished it was so, for Quil’s sake. Quillan Layton was an enigma. Broody. Quiet. Mysterious. Reserved. But put him on a football field and he was as passionate as any of the rest of them. Veda was too, when it came to her family. Protective. Ruthless. Maybe she and Quil weren’t that different after all.

  “Maybe she can be, for your sake…and Quinn’s.”

  With that, Quil shrugged and moved off to go workout.

  “Oh good, you’re home.”

  “Shh,” Veda scolded, once again watching her laptop while their mam slept.

  “Veda, why are you always so gru
mpy when you see me?”

  “Grumpy isn’t the word I would use to describe my feelings toward you right now.” Veda’s lips puckered, and her dark brow rose. Her nostrils flared and her nose ring sparkled.

  “This is why I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Well, can it wait until this episode is over?” she hissed and held her laptop tighter.

  Becca felt her anger rise and moved forward, slamming the lid on Veda’s computer and propping her hands on her hips.

  “You bitch!” Veda growled. “I was about to find out—”

  “I don’t care!” Becca’s frown deepened as her sister rose to confront her. “We need to talk, and I’m tired of you either ignoring me or pretending like nothing is amiss.”

  “Fine. Say your peace so you can go back to your mansion, Queen.”

  “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You’re jealous!”

  Veda snorted and rolled her eyes.

  “You are!” Becca confirmed. “Why?”

  “I’m not jealous. I’m annoyed. I’m bitter about the fact that you aren’t here to help me with Mam.”

  “I’m still helping you.”

  “No, you aren’t. You’re never here—”

  “I work.”

  “And so do I!”

  “Yeah, well if you didn’t get yourself fired—”

  “Don’t you dare! You invited me to that party, even knowing that I wasn’t supposed to be there with the players.”

  “So now I set you up? As if you were planning to keep the job, anyway. You can’t keep any job you have.”

  There. She’d said how she really felt. Veda was irresponsible, unreliable, and immature.

  “Kiss my ass. You don’t know what it was like, so don’t even talk to me about it.”

  “Well, if you had a normal job, but nooo. Little miss model is too good to get her hands dirty, so let’s priss around and—”