PASS INTERFERENCE (Gods of the Gridiron Book 3)

by Shanna Swenson

  “Rebecca Christine Ryan. I know we aren’t really engaged and this whole time it’s been ‘fake,’ but my sweetness, nothing has been fake about how I feel for you. Somewhere along the line, I gave you my heart, and I would willingly do it all over again, despite the many hurdles we’ve faced along the way. I don’t know what our future holds or that you even want to be my wife one day, but I do know that I want you in my life. I want you to be there when I’ve had a rough day, I want to hold you, laugh with you, enjoy all the time I have with you. I want to share my dreams with you, my hopes, and my fears. I pledge my hands in friendship, my crown in loyalty, and my heart in love eternal to you. Do you accept this token of my affections?”

  Becca beamed into his equally as happy face and nodded. He pushed the ring onto her finger. A perfect fit, if she did say so herself, and peered up into the handsome face that held her future.

  He pulled her into his arms then and kissed her soundly, pulling back only for a breath.

  “Veda? Where are you going?” Becca asked as Veda began to shove her shoes on and gather her keys.

  “I think you two need a little alone time, don’t you?” she smirked. “Besides, now that you got your man, I think it’s time I went and got mine.”

  Becca laughed, and so did Pax, his forehead hitting hers softly as he admired the ring on her finger.

  “I love you, sweetness.”

  “And I love you, Poseidon. Even if you are a jealous god.”

  “Only jealous when it comes to you.”

  He leaned down and kissed her again; softly, sweetly. She kissed him back with force, and soon, his lips were hungry and his passions needy as his hands roved her back.

  “Mmm,” he moaned, “where’s your mom?”

  “Hospital. I have an hour before I have to go get her.”

  “I might need more than that,” he teased as he backed her down the hallway toward her bedroom.

  “Well, that’s all you get, hippie boy.”

  “Your tongue is bound to get you spanked, Amphitrite.”

  Becca giggled as his hands went to the hem of her shirt, then moaned as his palms touched her bare flesh. “Mmm.” She kissed him back as his body pinned hers against the wall. “You’ve promised that before and not delivered.”

  “Well, my naughty little naia, I think it’s time your god kept his word, don’t you?” His voice deepened as he raised her hands above her head with one hand and feasted on her neck. All the while, her body quivered as his other hand teased her flesh, moving his fingertips over her as if he had all the time in the world. Her pants were down around her ankles and her shirt was tugged up above her bra, her nipples hard and aching, when he finally spun her around. She heard his zipper give and felt the velvety soft tip of him touch her ass cheek. She moaned as he began to rub it across her plump flesh, then felt his shaft smacking her left and right across her butt cheeks. It might’ve been funny if she hadn’t been so aroused that her wetness oozed down her legs, shamelessly. Her cheeks pinkened, and she felt dizzy with need for him.

  “Mmm, Pax. I want you inside me, please?”

  “Are you begging me, sweetness?”

  “Yes, I’m begging. I need you. I want you.”

  He chuckled even as he spun her back around and kissed her hard, grabbing her breast and kneading it in his huge palm.

  She was scooped up into his massive arms as if she weighed no more than a feather, and settled onto her bed, where her god smiled down on her, touching her face as if she were a precious piece of glass he feared he would break.

  “I love you,” he said again. God would she ever tire of hearing his deep voice say such a wonderful phrase?

  “I love you,” she answered back and grabbed for his hard manhood, anticipating the feel of him inside her. “Please, make me yours, Paxton.”

  “How can I say no to my sweet goddess?” His hand peeled the lace down from her bra. “You always wear the sexiest damn lingerie to be such a bashful little historian.” His mouth took her nipple in as his hand moved in between her legs.

  She spread them easily, wanton as a slag, but she didn’t care. He was the only answer to the ache that resided there, the only cure for the ailment throbbing within her.

  They both gasped and moaned as their sexes met. Pax kissed her passionately as he began to slide smoothly into her, shivering when he reached the hilt.

  “My god, Becca, it feels like it’s been an eternity without you, my love. How did I ever survive?”

  “Never again.” She punished him with her mouth, kissing him hard and passionately, letting her tongue torture his as she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist.

  “Oh shit, baby,” he whimpered as she rocked with him, higher and higher, arching her hips with his. “So good, Becca, so damn good.”

  He cupped her bottom and gripped it hard, pumping into her while her soul-rending release came. Pax was climbing with her, over the wall of bliss, and skating down it with her as she surfaced. He then dipped into her slowly, achingly slowly, as his body loved hers.

  She’d barely had a chance to breathe before he was pulling out and flipping her over.

  “Now what did you say about that spanking, little naia?”

  Becca gasped in surprise as his big palm lightly smacked her bottom with a thwack. “Paxton Andrew Guthrie, how dare you!” her cheeks reddened as he did it again.

  “Ms. Ryan, you know you shouldn’t tempt a god.”

  But she moaned and forgot his words as she felt his hard shaft filling her again. “Oh, God,” she whimpered.

  “That’s Poseidon to you, sweetness, you keep forgetting. Do you need another spanking to help jar your memory?”

  But she gripped his muscular thigh and dug her nails in as she pushed her bottom into his thrust, and he took her from behind, grunting as the pleasure became too much for him. She quickly saw who owned who as his moans became thicker, breathier. His hands gripped her waist with a possessiveness that touched her even deeper than where his cock was lodged.

  Soon, they were spiraling together as they crashed into one another, not unlike the waves of the sea he was the god of. Their releases were perfectly timed and assaulted them with such force that it took their very breaths.

  They came down from their highs slowly as Pax stroked her back and hair, groaning his love for her as her inner walls continued to milk every last ounce from his rigid member.

  “Oh, my love. I missed you,” he confessed when he flipped her over and pulled her to his sweaty frame.

  “Hopefully you missed more than my body,” she smarted even as he chuckled and his lips touched her forehead.

  “Oh, aye, lass. I missed all of ye.”

  “Don’t you dare…” she giggled and grunted when he grabbed her breast.

  “I still have to make love to you in my kilt.”

  “You did not buy a kilt.”

  “I swear I did.” He gave her a crooked grin as she looked back into his face, astonished. “Just because Halloween’s over, doesn’t mean I can’t dress up for my lady.”

  “You are full of surprises. You know that, Pax Guthrie?”

  He kissed her again, and she lingered there when he finally pulled back. “We do stupid things for love, you know?” He grinned again, and she melted for the tenth time in a half hour.

  Suddenly, he sat up, his brows hitting his forehead.

  “Holy shit, Becca! That’s ridiculous.”

  Becca felt her cheeks flame as she looked to the wall of her room Paxton was focused on. She gulped as he took in the numerous photos, posters, and Fatheads of the man she adored, in various forms of dress and football poses. Her entire wall was dedicated to the celebrity crush that had become her real life one; the one who was now her lover and love of her life.

  When Pax looked back to her, she shrugged.

  “My, my…” he stroked his chin. “I think I need to bend you back over for a spanking, little naia.”

  “Oh, is that so?” Her hand moved beneat
h his sweater and over his big chest, loving the feel of the muscles that moved beneath her palms.

  “Oh yes, I need to punish you for your sins while I look at the wall you’ve dedicated to your idol.”

  Becca laughed. “The bible does say, ‘Put no other gods before me.’” Becca frowned. “I’ve been a bad girl, Poseidon.”

  “Yes, you have indeed.” He smirked as he looked the wall over again.

  “Take your sweater off, though, before you do so that I can admire your chest,” she cooed, even as she began tugging at his shirt. He grinned knowingly, aware of how sexy he was, how sexy she thought he was.

  “Perhaps you were named for the wrong Greek, though?”

  “Oh?” he asked, peeling the sweater over his head and tossing it aside.

  “Yup, you should have been Narcissus.”

  Paxton laughed and pulled her back to him. He began loving her all over again, loving her like she’d never imagined she could be loved.

  Paxton smiled as he watched Becca put her mother to bed and come out the door to greet him.

  “She gonna be ok?” he asked.

  Becca nodded. “She has three rounds left. Then they’ll do another PET scan, and we’ll go from there.”

  “Well, I handled the medical bills. You and Veda no longer have to worry about losing the apartment.”

  “Pax, you didn’t have to—”

  He held his finger to her lips, shaking his head as he smiled big. “I wanted to. I’m your fiancé, remember? I can’t have my bride losing her home.”

  Becca looked down, her lip trembled but she didn’t cry. “That was very generous of you.”

  “Becca, I would do anything for you. You know that, right? Move any mountain. Give you the shirt off my back if it meant keeping you warm, keeping you safe.”

  She gave him a sweet smile and pulled his hand to her face, nuzzling it lovingly.

  “I know you gave the money back to Madi. She called to talk some sense into me, even after I’d already decided what I was going to do.” He held her gaze, wondering why he’d ever doubted her trustworthiness. He knew she’d told Veda about the bribe, and Veda had been the one who’d “officially” taken it. They were sisters. Sisters told each other everything… or so Madi said, anyway.

  “So, I haven’t seen Jeremiah lately. Was that you?” Becca’s dark brow rose, her lovely lips puckering.

  Pax shuffled his feet, looking down. “Let’s just say, I had someone go talk to him. They were very persuasive about the distance he needed to keep from you.” He would say no more on the matter, for the thought of another man touching his beautiful Irish goddess was infuriating, bringing out Poseidon’s fury.

  Becca looked up, her emerald eyes as green as the island she reigned from sparkling back at him in the light from the hallway. “I love you, Paxton Guthrie.” The words, once more, stole his heart and had him a puddle of goo on the floor.

  “And I you, Sass—”

  “Don’t.” She shivered, and he smirked. “My mother’s home now. I don’t want to wake her raving like a banshee while my lover does unspeakable things to me.”

  “Mmm, what unspeakable things did you have in mind, my little naia?”

  The giggle that came from her throat excited him beyond words.

  “Later, Pax. I gotta have you anticipating our next union, lover.”

  Pax practically growled as he pulled her to him and savored her sweet, honey lips with a deep kiss. “I’m always anticipating that, my love.”

  Becca giggled again when he pulled back. “So, I did something.” She pulled her lips in, looking mischievous, and his arousal began to throb uncomfortably between them.

  “Oh? And what did you do? Were you a naughty little goddess?”

  Becca put her fingers up “measuring” an inch, and Pax tried to quiet his laugh so as not to wake Kathleen. Becca then pulled him back to the kitchen where she moved to the table and grabbed up an envelope.

  She looked apprehensive as she bit into her lip and her cheeks flushed. “I took it upon myself to have your mother pull your adoption records. I know you’ve always wondered about your origins and who you are, so I wanted to find out for you. I’m a historian, after all, so I couldn’t just let the past be the past.”

  Paxton’s heart hammered in his chest, anticipation, dread and excitement racing through his veins. He gulped audibly.

  “I wanted to give it to you for Christmas, but I’ve never been very patient.”

  She started to hand the envelope to him, but he shook his head.

  “You…you read it to me.” His hands were too shaky; he wouldn’t be able to hold it steady.

  She smiled softly and looked down at the papers before her. “Your birth name is Alexander Miller. You were born in Burbank, California. Your mom was—”

  “Annie Miller, father was a trucker from Alaska who went by the nickname of Bear because he was such a big dude.” He knew all that. Tara had actually given him those records years ago.

  “Yes. Well, I dug deeper than that. I found your family tree and did the DNA ancestry for you. Your roots are half Australian, a quarter German, and a quarter Scandinavian. Now you know who you are.”

  She looked apprehensively up at him—fearful she’d overstepped, he was sure. But Pax was overjoyed. That she cared enough to do something so significantly sentimental touched a place deep within him, and he grinned big.

  “Becca, this is… Wow! Thank you. This means so much.” He reached for her hand, then pulled her into his arms, grateful to have a woman so beautiful both inside and out. A woman who genuinely cared for him and listened to him. A woman who had given him the gift of a past… a woman who he couldn’t wait to share his future with.

  EPILOGUE

  “Veda?” Becca knocked lightly on Veda’s door, hearing her cries echoing through the quiet hallway.

  She’d decided not to stay the night with Paxton. She hadn’t known when, or if, Veda would be home, and she’d left her mother alone far too many nights as it was—despite that Mam said she was fine and for them to stop worrying about her.

  She looked fine. In fact, Becca’s mam was starting to look healthier than she had in years. The glow and color was returning to her cheeks, and there was a pep in her step she hadn’t had before. The treatments seemed to be working, her illness appeared to be diminishing; Becca knew it to be true.

  She felt her heart break a little when she opened her sister’s door to see Vey sitting there on her bed, sobbing into her hands.

  So, the reunion Veda had spoken of must not have gone so well.

  Once Pax had come to confess his love, it appeared to light a fire under Veda’s ass to go talk to Quillan, and Becca had been glad. Her sister hadn’t seemed happy in a long while, but that Halloween night Becca had seen a sparkle in Veda’s eyes that signified hope when she’d been dancing in Quillan’s arms. It’d been subtle, and Veda wouldn’t admit to it to save her life from damnation—for she really was that stubborn—but Becca knew she cared for Quil, even if he didn’t return those feelings.

  Becca prepared for the worst as she came to sit next to her sister, pulling Veda’s hands from her face and coaxing her twin to her chest. Becca stroked Veda’s thick hair and let her sob for the longest time. No words were needed between them. They were twins; she felt her sister’s pain as acutely as if it were her own.

  “I take it you didn’t get your man tonight?”

  “I chickened out because I’m a feckin’ coward,” Veda choked out and wiped at her nose, angrily.

  “You are the bravest person I know.”

  “It’s all an act,” Veda retorted heatedly and pulled her head from Becca’s chest. “I didn’t go to him.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, first off, I don’t even know where he lives.”

  “You have his number, you could’ve called him.” Veda just glared at Becca, as if she was so far beyond that. Becca added, “You could’ve had me ask Paxton.” No, that wouldn’t have b
een an option for her prideful sister, either. “Ok, what’s second?”

  Veda furrowed her brows.

  “You said, ‘first off.’ That leads me to believe you had other reasons, too.”

  Veda huffed and looked away before finally saying, “What do I even say to him? ‘Hi. Remember me? I was Medusa. We fucked at the Halloween party.’ Besides, I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m the one who sold him out on social media. Hell, I’m no better than a traitor—look at what I did to you. I just fuck people’s lives up, apparently.”

  “No, Veda, you don’t. You were trying to protect me. And furthermore, how could he ever forget you? I saw some serious sparks flying at that hospital cafeteria, so he obviously didn’t forget you. And you’re not a sellout, you would never jeopardize his career. He just doesn’t know you.”

  “He thinks I’m a bad-news slut.”

  “Were those his words?” Becca felt a flash of anger at the thoughts of Quillan speaking so ill of her twin, no matter that Veda hadn’t made the best impression where the Gladiators were concerned.

  “I know that’s what he thinks of me.” She left it at that, but Becca knew there was more to that statement with the edge in her sharp tone.

  “Wait, what aren’t you saying?”

  “I saw him again, at RISE a couple weeks after Halloween.”

  “Oh.” Becca blushed. So, they’d been seeing each other; that answered a few questions she’d had on the matter of Quil.

  “I’ll be quitting soon, by the way, as soon as I can get a steady thing going with modeling.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Although Becca wasn’t sure if this whole modeling thing was the right thing for Veda either.

  “I got a few promising gigs from Brooke,” Veda said as if trying to ease Becca’s mind.

  “Well that’s good.”

  Veda gave her a withered smile. “She said I have a lot of potential.”