Pass Interference (Connecticut Kings Book 6)

by Christina C Jones

  “Coach Brooks,” he groaned – yet another thing I felt between my legs. “Exactly how much action are you willing to get into?”

  “Not too much… unless you’re trying to kill me,” I told him, keeping my tone playful even though I was completely serious.

  He laughed in my ear. “Well, you’ve definitely asked if that’s what I was trying to do before. Usually a sign I was doing something very, very right.”

  I sucked in a breath as his hand slipped into the waistband of my sleep shorts and between my legs, touching me where I’d been reticent to even touch myself for months. That lack of stimulation was probably the culprit behind my hyper-sensitivity now – just the brush of his fingers had me throbbing.

  I called on every piece of willpower I had to circle my hand around his wrist, stopping. “Nate… no.”

  I felt that word register to him – first the surprise and confusion, then the removal of his mouth from my neck and his hands from my shorts.

  “You’re serious?” he asked, shifting up to look me in the face.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. I watched, feeling helpless and stupid and a little hurt as he maneuvered himself out of bed, and headed for the door. “I’m afraid to have an orgasm!” I shouted after him, feeling like I needed to explain myself. “I know my doctor and the internet say it’s okay, but I… this is terrifying, okay? Not knowing if the things that used to be like second nature to you might make your heart stop working! This isn’t easy for me!”

  When I finally stop speaking long enough to focus on Nate again, I found him frozen by the door, halfway through the act of taking off his shoes. His expression was a mixture of sympathy and bafflement, but that started to melt away when we realized my mistake.

  “You thought I was leaving?” he asked, and as my gaze dropped to my hands, all I could do was nod.

  To Nate’s credit, he didn’t laugh. He just went on about what he was doing before – taking off his shoes to leave by the door, and stripping down to his boxers to join me in that itty-bitty college standard twin bed.

  He took the spot against the wall, laying on his side so he could poke at me until I stretched out too, staring up at the ceiling instead of looking at him.

  “Don’t tell me you’re trying to fake like you’re embarrassed,” he teased.

  “Fake?” I sucked my teeth. “No, the embarrassment is real.”

  “For what?” he asked. “Daring to tell me how you really felt? The horror.”

  “Don’t do that.” I finally shifted to look at him. “It’s not funny.”

  “I’m not laughing. I’m serious, Sloane. I appreciate that you opened up to me.”

  My eyebrow lifted. “Because I so rarely do?”

  “Were you not trying to get me to fuck another woman last month, even though it wasn’t what you really wanted?”

  I sat up on my elbow, turning to him. “Correction - I didn’t want you to just fuck her, I wanted you to make her your girlfriend. And I didn’t know it wasn’t what I wanted until there was a real possibility of it happening, so that doesn’t even really count.”

  “So you’re really about to try to just speak some sense into your actions?”

  “Emotions aren’t about making sense,” I argued. “Which is what makes them so dangerous. Feelings will have you in some bullshit every time, and you will just merrily wallow, because your stupid ass “heart” said so.”

  Nate chuckled. “Is that what we’re doing right now, you think? Merrily wallowing?”

  I smiled, reaching out to run a hand over the soft, low-groomed hair on his chin. “Right now, you and I are downright filthy.”

  He caught my hand, pulling my fingers to his lips. “I don’t know… I kinda like the sound of that.”

  “Feelings. It’s all their fault.”

  He used his grip on my hand to pull me closer, right up against his chest. We were squeezed together tight on that little bed, but it didn’t feel remotely uncomfortable. It was… cozy. Cozy and comfortable, and so absolutely right that I couldn’t help melting into him a little more.

  “You’re not falling asleep on me, are you?” I asked, feeling the subtle shift in his breathing after neither of us had said anything for a while.

  “Hell yes,” he mumbled into the top of my head. “Why not?”

  I pulled back so I could look up. “Well, there’s the whole, somebody might see you sneaking out of here in the morning angle to think about…”

  “Nah.” he shook his head. “I have a room in the building. I showered and all that before I came to your door. I’ll slip out while everybody is at breakfast to go back upstairs.”

  Oh.

  He’d thought it all the way through.

  “And you’re sure you wouldn’t rather have one of these itty-bitty beds all to yourself? This can’t be very comfortable for you.”

  Nate ran his tongue over his lips, pinning me with sleepy eyes. “Sloane… I am exactly where I want to be.”

  I couldn’t help the smile those words brought to my face before I leaned in, pressing my lips to his. I knew better – was too old not to know better – than to be swayed so easily by words. I’d spent a good chunk of my life married to a man who always knew exactly what to say to keep me.

  Looking back now, I could see the manipulation. Back then, it hadn’t been quite so clear.

  Am I making the same mistake again?

  The soft press of Nate’s lips was so, so persuasive, and the warmth of his tongue was even more convincing. His hands on my ass were especially influential, making it easy to forget my little nagging fears. And the fact that he seemed content to stay just like this, making out and grabbing ass, but taking it no further… well… for me that just sealed the deal.

  “Is there a such thing as like… just a light orgasm?”

  Nate laughed, rolling onto his back to press a hand to his chest. “A light orgasm? What does that even mean?”

  Replaying it in my head, I laughed too. “I’m serious. I know it sounds a little silly, but all orgasms aren’t built the same, right?”

  “Right,” he agreed.

  “Okay. So… maybe if we take it easy…”

  “I get what you’re saying, Sloane. I’m just messing with you. You sure you want to do that though? If you’re concerned, then—”

  “I’m sure. Very sure.”

  Nate chuckled at my sudden enthusiasm, then nodded. “Well, in that case… one light orgasm coming right up.”

  “Do you have to say it like that?” I asked, giggling as her brought his mouth to my neck.

  “Just repeating your term.”

  I wanted to quip back, but with his tongue behind my ear and his hand between my legs again, I only got as far as opening my mouth. It stayed like that, bottom lip just hanging in the air as his fingers strummed and stroked, very easily creating that familiar pull of pleasure, deep in the pit of my stomach.

  “Is that okay?” he asked, and all I could manage was a nod, because hell yes it was. His fingers kept working as he moved, lowering his mouth to my breasts, covered only by the thin fabric of my tank top. With one hand, he yanked it up, giving my breasts exactly the kind of awe-filled stare they deserved before he pounced, licking and sucking and nibbling until I was squirming underneath him. And then he asked again, “Is that okay?”

  My answer was the same – a hell yes communicated with just an emphatic nod.

  His fingers left my pussy so he could use both hands to grip my waist as he kissed his way down to my belly button. I pushed myself up on my elbows, wanting a better vantage point as he grabbed the waistband of my shorts and panties at the same time, pulling them down, and off, and tossing them across the room.

  My heart rate spiked as he pushed my legs open, situating himself between my legs. He wasn’t even touching me yet – he was just looking at it, staring between my legs with a hunger that had my heart thumping so hard I could damn near hear it.

  But I wasn’t about to say shit.

 
We were too far now.

  He picked my leg up, trailing his tongue up my thigh, right to the sweet spot in the middle. Twin appreciative moans came from both of our throats as he closed his mouth over my swollen clit and sucked me there.

  Hard.

  “Oh, God,” I exclaimed, backing away as my whole body seemed to contract with pleasure. But Nate was right there, locking an arm around my thigh to keep us connected, and with the other hand, threading his fingers through mine as he slurped me up. I bit down on my lip as it got harder to breathe, harder to relax, harder to just… let go and enjoy. Nate must have felt it too, because he squeezed my hand, his non-verbal plea for me to calm down.

  But how the hell was I supposed to calm down with his face buried between my legs, tickling me with his hair and soothing me with his lips and nibbling with his teeth and doing some shit with his tongue that I couldn’t even describe but seemed capable of making me turn myself inside out.

  “Nate, please. I… I can’t.”

  The long, slow swipe of his tongue was like a sudden calm in the storm, the tame nature of it giving me a break from the onslaught of pleasure. He did it again, and then his eyes came up to meet mine.

  “Do you want to stop?”

  “I don’t know. No. I… I don’t know.”

  He pressed his lips to the inside of the thigh his arm was still wrapped around. “Hey… I know you’re a little scared, but… I’m not going to let anything to happen to you. Okay?”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  I believed him.

  Even though it was an impossible sort of promise to make, even though there was legitimately no way that he could guarantee that… I wholeheartedly believed him.

  You’ve got it so, so bad.

  I shoved my inner thoughts away as he kissed me again, a little higher on the thigh this time. And then again, and again, and again, until he was back at my clit, kissing me there as he looked me right in the eyes. I couldn’t hold his gaze though. His mouth on me was so good that I had to close my eyes, and just lay back. Had to stop trying to see and focus on just… feeling.

  No doubts, no fears, no worries, just the pleasure of his mouth and the security of his grip and the reassurance of his fingers threaded through mine, and then…. Sweet, sweet release.

  Not in the soft, lapping wave I thought I wanted, but the abrupt crash I needed, wracking my entire body. My chest did clinch, and it did seem like my heart stopped, but instead of being scary, the deep familiarity of it was comforting. I relaxed back into the sheets, intensely, unexpectedly relieved.

  Like I’d successfully reunited with an old friend.

  I must have looked a little goofy, because Nate chuckled to himself once he’d kissed his way back up my body to reach my face. I didn’t ask though, just greedily accepted the sex-flavored kiss he offered. I moaned over the warm caress of his tongue against mine, getting familiar all over again with the taste of myself on Nate’s lips.

  “You happy?” he asked, when we finally came up for air.

  I nodded, running my hands over the broad expanse of his back before I dropped them to the band of his boxers, tugging down. “But you could make me even happier…”

  “You don’t think we might be pushing it?” he asked, but made no moves to stop me from pulling him out of his boxers.

  “I don’t care. I need you inside of me. Now.”

  A little smirk crossed his lips, and he adjusted to just the right position between my legs, then plunged into me.

  “When have I ever denied you anything you claimed to need?”

  Never.

  That was the answer to his question, but I didn’t say it out loud. I was too busy – we were too busy – enjoying the second overdue reunion of the night. In the four years we’d been at it, these last few months were one of the longest periods we’d gone without indulging each other. I whimpered and moaned as my body adjusted to him all over again, welcoming him home.

  Home.

  This time, that was what it felt like. Nate and I were incredibly well-versed in the intricacies of each other’s bodies, which was one of the major things that made the sex so incredible. But this… wasn’t that. Not that his long, deep, carefully measured strokes weren’t as good as always, it was just that… something had shifted.

  Something had changed.

  And somehow… this was even better.

  He was kissing me deeper, holding me tighter, intuitively adjusting his stroke, his depth, his pace, before the thought could even fully cross my mind. There was nothing fancy, no acrobatics, no feet on the headboard, nothing extra. Just me and him. Face to face, nothing between us, and it was… perfection.

  I opened my legs a little more, hooking them around his waist so that he could sink even deeper. He growled his appreciation in my ear as I dug my nails into his shoulders, not caring if I left a mark.

  As far as I was concerned… he was mine now, and I was his.

  Complications be damned.

  Eleven

  “Old King Cole,” I greeted my sister as I breezed through the door of her office uninvited – since apparently, her assistant had decided to take a break, leaving the desk empty. I knew Cole was in though, because of the light illuminating her closed blinds.

  My twin did not seem happy to see me though.

  “Nate! Get the fuck outta here!” she screamed at me, scrambling to get up and come around her desk. “Why would you burst in here unannounced?!”

  Confused as hell by her reaction, I stood my ground as she yanked at my arm, trying in vain to get me toward the door.

  “Damn,” I said, pulling away from her. “What the fuck did I do to you?”

  She took a breath, obviously realizing how crazy she was acting. She stepped away, holding up her hands. “Nothing. It’s just… really rude to burst in here like that. What do you want?” she snapped, her eyes bouncing toward the desk before they came back to me.

  What the hell is she so damn nervous about?

  “Ramsey Bishop. While you were out, on your honeymoon, he came to me wanting to set up some free movie screenings for kids in Bridgeport.” I held up the flash drive I’d brought in with me. “My email is acting stupid, so I put all the info here – the theatres, address, amenities, budget, all of that. Everybody hadn’t gotten back to me yet, so I was waiting until they did to put it back in your hands. You’re welcome.”

  She took the drive. “Thank you. Now can you go?” she insisted, again glancing toward her desk.

  My eyes narrowed, and before she could realize I was on to her, I sprinted to her desk, ignoring her frustrated scream as my eyes landed on her computer screen.

  I froze.

  She froze.

  And then we spoke at the same time.

  “You can’t tell anybody!”

  “You’re… pregnant?”

  Cole pushed out a sigh, covering her face with her hands as my eyes went back to the screen.

  Your baby at six weeks.

  Holy shit.

  “Nicki…” I spoke, and she looked up, tears in her eyes. I rounded the desk again to approach her. “Are you happy about it?”

  She ran her tongue over her lips, shaking her head. “I… I don’t know yet, Nate. You know what six weeks ago was, right?”

  I squinted a little as I backtracked in my mind. “Ohhh… Oh, shit!”

  “Right,” she nodded. “I got pregnant on my honeymoon, and… I love Jordan. You know that.”

  “I do.”

  “And I want to have his babies. I want to have this baby. I just…”

  “You feel like it’s too soon?”

  The tears she’d been trying to hold back finally dripped down her cheeks, and I took the last step I needed to pull her into a hug.

  “Come here,” I told her, after giving her a few moments to cry, pulling her toward the little love seat against the wall. I sat down, and she took the seat right beside me, head resting on my shoulder. For another few moments, neither of us said anything
, and then…

  “I was just… getting my body ready, you know?”

  “And here is where I tap out of this conversation.”

  “No!” Cole insisted, pulling me back down beside her. “I’m just… explaining. I stopped my birth control because I knew we’d want to… try. In like a year or something. I didn’t want the hormones in my body, I’ve been juicing, and started prenatals, and I’ve been exercising, so that when we did decide we were ready, we’d really be ready. I wasn’t even supposed to be fertile yet.”

  “And yet, you were.”

  She sucked her teeth. “If you’re going to be an asshole…”

  “I’m not being an asshole,” I insisted. “You didn’t let me finish. I’m saying, this may not be the situation you meant to be in, but… here we are. You probably wanted to enjoy being married before you became a parent – that’s understandable. Kids change your whole life. But the fact is – that baby is growing inside you, ready or not. You’re married to someone who loves the hell outta you, and if I remember correctly, has been politicking to put a bun in your oven since before he even showed you that ring. You’re healthy. You’ve got friends and family who would go to any length to make sure you’re good. What the hell is there to be down about?”

  She nodded. “You’re right. You’re right,” she repeated, nodding her head.

  “So?” I held up my hands. “Same question – are you happy about it?”

  Cole stared at me for a moment, and then a slow grin spread over her face. “Yes. I am.”

  “In that case… congratulations baby sister.”

  She put out a stiff arm, holding me back from hugging her. “Hold up – first of all, baby sister? Nigga, stop it. Second – what would your response have been if I wasn’t happy?!”

  “Do you need me to drive to the clinic, and do you need me to pay?”

  Cole’s eyes got big, and watered all over again. “Wow. You really do love me, huh?”

  “Stop playing,” I laughed, putting an arm around her neck to pull her into a hug. “Big head ass. I know you’re having a c-section, between you and Jordan. Baby gonna have a watermelon.”