by Cathryn Fox
He reached up and released her hands, rubbing her wrists where they were a bit red from all her squirming. He helped her remove her open blouse and take her bra off, leaving her completely naked. Shifting beside her, he pulled her to him and covered them both up. She snuggled in and placed her hand on his chest, feeling warm and content in his arms. He brushed her hair back, and there was a hitch in his voice when he said, “You came for me again.”
“I know.” She might be naive in the ways of sex, but she was pretty sure it was her turn to pleasure him. “Jack.”
“Yeah.”
She marched her fingers down his chest until she reached his belt buckle, but he captured her hand and held it. “I’d like to do the same for you. To return the favor.” She listened to his throat work and angled her head to look at him. “Do you want me to do that?”
“More than fucking life itself. I can’t wait to feel that hot mouth of yours on my cock.” She made a move, but he stopped her. “Just not tonight, okay?”
“But I want to. I want to see what it’s like.” She freed her hand and curled her finger around his nipple. He flinched beneath her, and she pressed her mouth to his chest, enjoying the salty taste of his skin. Wanting to talk to him openly and honestly, the way he talked to her, she added, “I actually want to taste you and feel your cock in my mouth and hands.”
“More research?” he said, sounding like he’d just eaten a bucket of nails.
She hid a smile, liking that she could do this to him. “Yeah,” she answered, then considered it deeper. Sure, there was a part of her that wanted to do this for research, but there was also a big part that just wanted to taste and touch him, to pleasure him for no other reason than to make him feel good.
He growled and shifted to face her. He cursed under his breath and grabbed his knee. “Shit.”
Worry clutched her gut. “Oh, no. What happened?”
“I probably should have gone easier on it, but the second I found myself between your legs, I couldn’t think about anything else. Not when you tasted so fucking sweet. And then when you came for me. The way you clenched so hard around my finger. Holy fuck. It was all worth it. ”
She felt her cheeks heat up. When he said things like that, it did the strangest things to her. “I’ll get ice.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
She tossed the blankets off and was hit with a measure of embarrassment when she found herself standing before him naked, even after everything they’d just done. Feeling his eyes on her, she glanced over her shoulder and found him grinning like the damn cat that swallowed the canary.
She glared at him.
“What?” he asked, his voice laced with humor.
Oh, she was so onto him. She didn’t know whether to laugh or throw something at him. She put a hand on her hip. “Do you really need ice or did you just want to see me walk around naked?”
He burst out laughing. “Both.” The twisting of his body hurt his knee again. He winced and shifted, straightening it out on the bed.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed her robe. “Serves you right.” Danielle hurried to her kitchen, wet a cloth, and filled it with ice. Then she rushed to the bathroom for a washcloth and warmed it. When she got back to the room, she found Jack lying flat, his hand under his head as he looked at her ceiling, deep in thought, as if something was bothering him.
“You’re going to have to take your pants off.”
He pushed the button through the hole and lifted his hip. He shoved his pants to his thighs, and she reached for the waistband and tugged, helping him from them. She tossed them on the floor and turned back to him. Unable to help herself, she took in the bulge in his boxer shorts and swallowed tightly. But that would have to wait. She needed to take care of his leg.
He lifted himself higher on the pillow, and as she gently put the ice on his knee, she examined the surgery scar. “How’s physical therapy going?” she asked.
“It’s okay.”
“Do they have any idea when you’ll be able to rejoin the team?”
His shoulders slouched, worry obviously weighing them down. “More like if.”
Her heart squeezed at the emotion in his voice. He said he didn’t need therapy, but he was definitely dealing with a lot right now. Football was important to him. It had been his life for so long, he was likely struggling to think of what he would do if the team didn’t take him back. He said he didn’t need counseling, but he needed it more than he realized. How could she help him without being intrusive?
“Thanks,” he said quietly and reached out to brush her hair from her face. “That helps a lot.”
“Still hurt?”
“Still hurts,” he said, making light of the situation as he adjusted his cock inside his boxers.
She grinned and lightly touched the bulge, shaping the hard ridges. He growled. Maybe if she wrapped her mouth around him, it would take his mind off his problems.
With the flat of her palm, she pressed down on his cock and ran her hand along the thick length of him. “Jack, I know I told you I’ve never done this before. I’m actually a bit worried that I’m going to screw it up, maybe even hurt you when I’m trying to do the opposite.”
He captured her hand and linked his fingers through hers. “Don’t worry. I’ll walk you through it. Just don’t bite,” he said, teasing. “There is nothing you can do to hurt me.” She stroked harder, and he stopped her. “We’re just not going to do it tonight. You’ve had enough lessons for now.”
“But you’re hurting.”
“Which is why I’m going home to whack off.”
She laughed, loving his blatant honesty and his filthy mouth.
He scoffed. “You think that’s funny, do you?”
“Sometimes it’s the way you say things.”
He arched a brow, his look playful. “Dirty things?”
She nodded. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her mouth to his. His kiss was warm, sensual, and tender, yet still full of hunger. “Lessons resume tomorrow night.”
Chapter Three
Inside the physical therapy clinic, his therapist watched as Jack adjusted his unforgiving shorts, his mind on Danielle and not on what she was saying. So much for whacking off twice last night. Fuck. Taking things slow was making him batshit crazy, but blue balls be damned. Danielle deserved a special touch. He’d take her only when she was ready, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
He choked back a sob of pleasure when he thought about what tonight’s lessons would bring. Who would have guessed he’d be educating Danielle on oral sex, teaching her how to wrap that sweet mouth of hers around his cock and give a proper blowjob. As if there were such a thing. He’d be lucky not to blow the second she touched him, the second that hot tongue of hers made contact with his rod. Honest to fuck, he was the luckiest goddamn man alive. Well, he would be, if he didn’t have a career-threatening injury. Speaking of his fucking knee…
“Can you walk to the door and back again, Jack?” Katie, his therapist, said.
He walked the length of the room as Katie studied his movements. It was hard to put one foot in front of the other and walk like a sober person when his cock was hard as a rock. All he could think about was falling into bed with Danielle—sweet innocent Danielle who’d picked him out of every man in the world to help her. He must have done something right in a past lifetime. But what would happen when they were done? Would she take everything she learned from him and use it on someone else? Of course she would. Why the hell wouldn’t she? His knee nearly buckled, and he grabbed the wall for support.
“Your gait is off worse than ever,” his therapist said, jotting down a few notes on her clipboard.
No shit.
“Hurt my knee last night,” he said. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the reason he’d nearly ended up on the floor.
She narrowed her eyes. “What were you doing that was so strenuous?”
“Ah…”
he stammered, and scrubbed his chin. “Let’s just call it extracurricular activities.”
A grin curled her lips, and she shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t need the details.” She pointed to the bed, and he slid on. With a little extra sway in her hips, she dragged the TENS machine across the room. Jack flattened himself on the thin mattress as she put the stickers on his knee.
“Comfortable?” she asked.
He nodded, but she bent over him to adjust his pillow, anyway. Was the move innocent, or had she just blatantly put her breasts in his face? She inched back and slid one hand over his thigh, letting it rest there for a minute. Jack looked at the placement, the position far more intimate than it should have been for a patient/therapist relationship.
“I was thinking,” she said, brushing her tongue over her bottom lip. She paused and adjusted the dials, running her fingers over the knobs casually.
He put his hand under his head, waiting for her to continue. Finally he asked, “About?”
“An extra session.” She flashed him a smile, then waved her hand around the sterile clinic. “If we want to get you up to speed before practice starts up, we should add in a few more sessions, don’t you think?”
The sessions were kicking the shit out of him as it was, but if she thought he needed more, if she cared about him and his career enough to add extra sessions, he should at least hear her out. “What do you have in mind?”
She looked over her shoulder at the closed door, then leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I don’t have any more openings here in the daytime, but I do have some equipment at my place. You could always come by.” She shrugged and gave him a sexy smile that spoke volumes. “And maybe a bottle of wine might help relax this leg and let me work on you a little harder.” Her gaze briefly brushed over his cock. “Really get in there, where it hurts.”
His heart sank slightly, and his mood darkened. Katie didn’t really give a shit about helping him. Fuck, he’d pretty much told her he’d hurt himself during sex. Guess she figured what everyone figured—whoever he was with last night wasn’t serious. He was known to enjoy a good time, so really, was it his therapist’s fault for wanting to play with the player? Hell no.
So why, all of a sudden, did that bother the fuck out of him? It wouldn’t have before. He knew where he stood with women. They all wanted something from him, and he was okay with that. Or was he? He wasn’t sure, but at least he knew the game and the score. His thoughts careered to Danielle. Was she any different? When it came right down to it, she was the same as any other woman he’d had in his bed. She’d asked for sex, nothing more. So then why did she seem to care about his injury, about him? Was she worried he wouldn’t be able to continue helping her, or could she actually see him—not the football player, but the man himself?
He looked at Katie, who hovered close awaiting an answer. Any other time, he would have taken her up on her offer, would have buried himself in her balls-deep and had some fun for a few weeks. But he was with Danielle now. Technically, he wasn’t with Danielle, and he could fuck whoever the hell he wanted. Unfortunately, Danielle was the only one he wanted between the sheets, beneath his body.
Fuck.
A bone-deep need settled in his chest and tension coiled through him, tightening his every muscle. Shit, even if she truly cared about him, he knew better than to get attached to a girl who didn’t do attachments. In less than two weeks, they’d have gotten what they needed from each and would both go their separate ways.
Maybe he should screw his therapist to get Danielle off his mind. This thing between them was an experiment, simply to get her up to speed on sex. She’d go back to her life in two weeks and with any luck, he’d be back at training.
Even with that knowledge, he found himself saying, “Thanks for the offer, but I think one session each morning is doing the trick. I’ll just be more careful.”
She smiled and gave a small shrug. “Okay, but the offer is on the table if you change your mind.”
“Okay,” he said, even though it wasn’t going to happen. He shut his eyes to end the conversation, and concentrated on the electrical impulses shooting through his body as Katie left the room to attend to another patient.
Thirty minutes later, he still couldn’t get his mind off Danielle. Not knowing what else to do, he drove toward his dad’s garage. Maybe a few hours under the hood of a car would make him forget the way she was getting under his skin without even trying. He turned down a side street and found himself slowing in front of the house she wanted to buy.
He parked and walked up the driveway, noticing the For Sale sign still displayed on the overgrown lawn. Stepping around an old planter, he walked around the place. He didn’t know much about old houses, and she probably couldn’t afford to have anyone come in for a proper inspection. But maybe his dad would know. His old man didn’t just know a lot about cars, he knew a lot about everything. Maybe he’d agree to check out the place for Danielle. He hated for her to keep hoping if it wasn’t sound.
When he reached the front again, he walked the three steps up and put his hands on the glass to look in the front door. He sure as hell hoped it didn’t have an offer in on it yet. Danielle deserved a house like this.
“Jack?”
He spun around, and feeling like a kid caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, he pushed his hands into his pockets. With a stack of books in her hand, Danielle crinkled her brow and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Nothing. I was just driving by and thought I’d take a closer look at the place. See what you like about it so much.”
Her frown faded and a hopeful smile took its place as she hurried up the walkway to meet him. She ran her hand over the rail with chipped paint and peeked in the window. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s perfect. Have you had an inspector check it out?”
She frowned. “No, I can’t afford that right now. I just love the look of the house and the location.”
“You’ve never been inside?”
“No. I examined the layout on the Realtor site and thought about the changes I’d want to make, but I’ve never been through it.”
“We should make an appointment for a viewing.” She gave him an odd look and he corrected himself. “I mean, you should make an appointment. Bring your friend Violet.”
“I thought you said I shouldn’t listen to her anymore,” she teased.
“Only when it comes to dating advice.”
“Hey, if I didn’t, then we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.”
“True, and I really like what we’re doing.” Probably a little too much. He grinned and touched her hair, coiling it around his finger and reveling in the soft texture. Her sweet citrus scent reached his nose and he breathed it in, letting it fuel the desire inside him. His cock jumped and he quickly marshaled it, appeasing it with the knowledge that tonight Danielle would be his. “I guess she hasn’t been wrong about everything. So why don’t you two schedule a viewing?”
She nodded, but he saw a deep sadness settle on her face. “You’re probably right. I just didn’t want to get myself too attached only to lose it. Teaching at the college pays well, but even after I pay things down, I’m not sure I’ll have enough equity for the bank to give me a loan.”
Her frown pained him, and he opened his mouth, about to offer to help her, but then shut it again. He didn’t want to insult her, and she definitely wasn’t the kind to take a handout. “You mentioned your foster parents had a trust fund for you. What if you borrowed the money from them, like a loan?”
She crinkled her nose. “I never thought of that.”
“It would solve a lot of problems.”
Her hair fell into her face as she nodded. “True.” She gave a noncommittal shrug. “I guess I’ll think about it, a last resort maybe. But first, I need to get working and bringing in my own money.” She poked his chest, and he grabbed her hand to hold it. “Thanks to all your help, I should be getting a great pay
check.”
He grinned. “It’s not like I’m not getting anything out of it.” Truthfully, he liked helping her. He wished he could help her more. He brought her finger to his mouth and kissed it. Her breath hitched. “I don’t want to overstep any boundaries here, but my dad is pretty good with old houses. He could probably take a look, just to make sure it’s sound, before you go any further.”
“No,” she said quickly. “I can’t ask that. You’re already doing enough for me, and I haven’t really done anything to pay you back. That doesn’t rest well with me.”
The fact that she never wanted to accept his help only intrigued him more. She was definitely different from other women he’d known. He smiled and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “Tonight, you will. After all, I’ll likely be teaching you about giving a blowjob. Believe me, I’ll be the one getting something out of it.” He pushed his thumb between her lips, parting them slightly. “It’s all I’ve been able to think about. Well, that and burying my mouth between your legs again. You liked that, right?” he asked, even though he knew she did. He just wanted her to think about it again, remember the pleasure he could give her.
She flushed and drew his thumb into her mouth. She sucked, her tongue swirling as her wet heat closed around him, and he damn near fucking lost it.
“Jesus, Danielle,” he said, ready to drag her to the grass, thrust inside her, and ravish the fucking hell out of her. Everything about her seduced his senses and made him forget he wanted to take things slow. Across the street, a group of women pushing strollers walked by, a few watching them with curious eyes. Did she enjoy having an audience? After their trip to the BDSM club, had she found pleasure in that kink? “What the fuck are you doing to me?”
She let go of his thumb. “Practicing.”
“I think you’ve got it.”
“Really.” Her eyes lit with innocent sensuality. “I’ve been reading about it, and last night, I tried it out.”
His cock nearly burst through his zipper. “You did? How? On what?” he asked, his muscles stiffening.