“Wow,” she said, drawing her index finger over the smooth surface of a table lined with photographs of him during games or at press conferences. God, he’d been such a schmuck with the decorating of this place. “This is not what I expected.”
“My interior designer has very specific tastes,” he said lamely. Definitely, definitely should have taken her anywhere but this condo.
She presented herself as the girl next door, but there was a little bit of siren in her now, which made his heartbeat kick up a notch. Brooks made her way around the room and he couldn’t take his eyes off her as she moved. Slowly and sinuously. Taking in everything around her. This was a different Brooks than the woman he thought he’d known over the past week. That woman was businesslike most of the time. The moments she let her guard down, like when she talked to the kids without that microphone in tow, though, she was irresistible. Impossible not to watch or wonder about. It was one of those moments that made him ask her out for dinner. That dinner had led them here.
Jonas met her at the kitchen counter, put his hands on her hips and turned her to face him.
“It was a date,” he said and bent his head so he could taste her lips. She was sweet, as he’d imagined so many times over the past few days. She wound her arms around his neck and slanted her mouth, giving him better access to the sweetness that was Brooks. He squeezed his hands around her waist and she shivered. “It was always a date,” he said again and began walking her down the hallway to the bedroom.
“I told myself it was business, that I wanted it to be business,” she said when he paused at the door. Brooks took a deep breath and stepped out of his embrace. “I didn’t want this to be business.”
“It’s not business.”
Brooks turned, pulled the lacy top over her head and then pushed the long skirt over her hips. Stepped out of it and continued toward the bed. She didn’t wear a bra and he watched, fascinated, the play of muscles in her back. Got lost in the twisting of her hips under the lacy, hot pink boy-briefs. Long, long legs tapered down into those thin, strappy sandals that should look completely ordinary, but on her looked like something he might have seen on a runway somewhere. Those sandals and the beat-up Nikes she’d worn one day at the camp were hotter than any spiked heels he’d seen.
Brooks’s long ponytail swayed side to side, brushing against her strong shoulders as she walked, beckoning him to follow. Jonas did.
He entered the bedroom to find Brooks sitting on the navy comforter the interior decorator insisted was perfect against the mahogany of the big California King-sized bed and the hardwoods on the floor. She sat on the edge of the bed. The last rays of sunshine cast an orange glow around the room, making her hair seem like a halo around her head. But this woman teasing him, beckoning him, was no angel.
Jonas took a deep breath. He was the one who was supposed to keep Brooks guessing. Instead, she had him tied up in knots wondering what was next. First, she wanted his story. Then she’d agreed to hold the story for a later date. When she accepted his dinner invitation those big, green eyes were as wide as an innocent’s, and he’d picked her up at her parents’ house. He had never picked up a girl anywhere but a dorm or an apartment where she lived alone. It was all too surreal, as if somehow he’d flashed back to the high school life he had never truly experienced.
Jonas was torn. On the one hand, her job could still put him in the crosshairs with his team. Sleeping with her would only draw her farther into his life when he was probably better off keeping Brooks as far from him as possible. On the other hand, since the meeting in Earl’s office she hadn’t pushed—not even after she overheard his conversation with Mark—for his story even once. She made a deal and she stuck with it. That kind of loyalty, of character, was something he had been missing in his life. How could it be wrong to invite a woman like that into his life?
Screw it. Just for a little while he would not think about his shoulder or his future or anything except the woman sitting on his bed. Waiting for him.
She shifted on the bed, and they watched one another for a long moment. What was she thinking? What was he thinking? He should call this off now.
Instead, Jonas pushed away from the door, kicked off his loafers and started for the bed.
Her pupils dilated, leaving only a dark green ring of color in her eyes. “Jonas?”
His mouth was an inch from hers. “Yeah?”
“This isn’t about anything but tonight. I want to spend it with you.” The words were wisps between them, as if she couldn’t quite find her voice. She reached her arms around his neck as his lips touched hers. Sighed into his mouth.
Jonas took his time, exploring her mouth the way he’d imagined a hundred times before, but it felt completely different. She tasted fresh, cool, like the best parts of a hot Kentucky summer. Sweet iced tea and watermelon and just a hint of dangerous, as if maybe that sweet tea had been laced with a little bourbon or something. Or maybe he was completely losing his mind because this was just sex. With a woman. He’d done this more often and with more women than he cared to count and none of them had tasted like anything more than the moment.
She tilted her head, giving him better access to her mouth, and he thrust his tongue inside. He nipped the corner of her mouth and she sighed before running the tip of her tongue along his bottom lip. Her hands played with the short hairs at his nape, urging him closer and closer. Jonas knelt on the bed, taking her face in his hands. He pulled back a fraction. Drew the tie in her ponytail down until the hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves.
He pressed her back against the soft pillows and stripped off his T-shirt. Brooks curled one leg around his as he positioned his arms on either side of her, and the feel of her soft skin against his nearly pushed him over the edge. If this was only one night, he was going to make it the best night. He would make it last as long as possible, and he would drink in every last moment. And tomorrow everything could go back to normal. She would do her job. He would do his. This didn’t have to change anything else.
“This is not what I expected when I invited you to dinner. Or when I picked you up at your parents’ house.” Stop talking, Jonas, just stop talking.
“It isn’t what I expected, either,” she said with a wry smile. “But then I didn’t expect that you’d get the Boomer and Ickey jokes about my name, so,” she shrugged, “I guess the unexpected isn’t so bad.”
Maybe just a little talking was okay. “You’re hotter than any running back I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been in enough locker rooms to know what I’m talking about,” he teased as he traced the tips of his fingers over her collarbone.
“And you’re the best-looking quarterback I’ve even seen. And I’ve been in enough locker rooms to know what I’m talking about,” she said, mimicking his words. She batted her eyelashes. “And that is with or without that silly towel you were so obsessed with that first day.”
“I was trying to be a gentleman.”
She chuckled. “No, you weren’t.”
“Okay, so maybe I was trying to hide your effect on me.”
Her hands were on the back of his neck, sliding over his skull and making him lose his train of thought. Where was this conversation going? Locker rooms? Sweaty, smelly locker rooms was so not where he wanted this night to go, so he slanted his mouth across hers.
Her mouth was pliant beneath his, her hands spinning lazy circles on his back while his smoothed her hair on the pillows beneath her. She tilted her head, pushing back into the pillows, and Jonas took the opportunity. He placed light kisses over her cheek and along her jaw until his mouth found her earlobe. He pulled it between his teeth and gently bit down, and his fingers found her nipple and squeezed. The hard nub tightened even more as he rolled it between his fingers. Jonas sucked her lobe into his mouth and flattened his hand over her breast as he gently twisted his wrist left and then right. Brooks moaned in response.
Need took over. He kissed his way down her body, pausing for a moment to play with the pulse at her throat before staking his claim to her breasts. Jonas laved attention on her dusky areolae, flattening his tongue against one, pulling it into his mouth while his fingers feasted on the other. Switching back and forth so that she couldn’t know what was coming next. Brooks writhed beneath him, her fists clenching in the sheets. Jonas sucked one nipple into his mouth, rolled around the nipple with his tongue, withdrew and blew over the moist skin. He grinned when it puckered and she sighed.
“More.” The word was barely a whisper but it seemed to echo around the bedroom. A flash of light caught his attention as the sun set, turning the sky into a wonder of pinks, reds and oranges. The beauty of the scene was nothing compared to the woman in his bed.
And she was his. At least for tonight.
Brooks clenched her hands against his head when his mouth found her breast again. Jonas kissed his way back to her mouth, capturing her lips with his. She arched her back, pressing her breasts against his chest. He ran his tongue over her chin, tracing an invisible line down her throat to the fast-beating pulse in her neck.
He moved to her side and pushed her hands over her head, holding them there with one hand while the other drew swirls over her ribs and down her belly, making her muscles jump under his touch. The hot pink lace over her hips drew his attention and Jonas allowed his fingers to venture lower, lower, until Brooks’s breathing shallowed as she waited for a more intimate touch. He paused at the waistband, pushing his index finger beneath the lace and then drawing circles back over her skin toward her belly button or across to her hip bone. She mewled and pulled her full lower lip between her teeth.
Jonas repeated the move. Drawing slowly from her belly button across her stomach, watching as her muscles jumped and tensed beneath his touch. Pushed his finger beneath the lace a scant inch and then continued the journey to her hip bone. Then he changed direction, drawing circles over the hot pink fabric to the leg cuff. Peeking his finger underneath and tugging gently until the panties lowered slightly. He smoothed his hand over her panties, from her center across to her hips and beneath to the firm globes of her buttocks. Pulled them away and kissed his way down her legs to her ankles. Once he freed her body Jonas tossed the damp panties over his head and across the room.
She was perfect.
Brooks lay on the bed, her hands still above her head although he’d released her wrists to remove her underwear. She watched him through need-filled green eyes. Jonas played with her pretty pink-painted toes for a second, but it wasn’t her toes he wanted. It was all of her. And he wanted her now.
He kissed his way back up her legs, pausing for a moment to focus his attention on the sensitive spot just below her hip bone.
One finger pressed against her core, finding her wet center and pressing inside. A second quickly followed and then this thumb found the tight nub of nerves and flicked gently against it. Pressed down. Flicked again as his fingers began to move. In. Out. In. Out. Brooks pressed her hands into the pillows and bit down on her lower lip as her eyes squeezed shut. He pressed against her tiny nub again and her breathing grew shallow as her breaths came in short gasps in rhythm with his movements.
“Oh, God,” she whispered the words as his thumb circled her.
Jonas watched the orgasm come over her. Brooks’s shoulders stiffened and her hips arched up against his hand, driving his fingers more deeply into her. Pushing his thumb more firmly against her body. Her muscles contracted over his joints as if she might pull his fingers more deeply inside. Her mouth tightened a fraction and her fists clenched against the pillows.
And then she shattered. Her hips lowered to the mattress. Her arms fell back and her hands opened from tight, little fists to boneless fingers and palms. And still he kept the rhythm. In. Out. In. Out. Flick. Press. In. Out.
Jonas moved over her, dipped his tongue into her belly button. Her hands reached for him, pulling him up, up her body. Brooks’s hands found his hips and pressed beneath the denim. She unbuttoned them and pushed the zipper down as his mouth met hers. And then her soft hands were on him and Jonas was lost to her touch.
Pushing his jeans over his hips, Brooks freed his length. She circled his erection with her hand, her thumb playing with the little opening at the tip.
He groaned. “You do that again and we won’t get much farther.”
She circled her index finger around his head. “You shouldn’t be the one to have all the fun.”
Jonas pushed himself off the bed, shucked his jeans and grabbed a condom from the nightstand drawer. Brooks sat up and took it from him, opened the package and slowly slid it over his tip. Jonas caught his breath as she rolled it over his length. Clenched his jaw when her fingernail traced the veins bulging with need. He pressed her back to the bed with a long, deep kiss and then thrust inside her.
She was warm, ready for him.
He wanted to go slow. Wanted to make this last all night, but Brooks urged him on, meeting him thrust for thrust.
Brooks crossed her ankles over his hips, drawing him in deep as she caught his mouth in another kiss. He arched and her tongue traced a path from his lower lip over his chin to his collar bone. And he gave in to the heat between them, letting it take them both under.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BROOKS WASN’T SURE how long she slept. After the first couple of orgasms everything blurred into one long erotic moment. She opened her eyes and squinted at brilliant sunlight streaming through uncurtained windows that looked out over the common area of the condo complex. Her heart pounded. Naked. Above the covers. Before an open window. Okay, maybe whatever reckless spirit had taken hold of her last night was no longer completely in charge. Her hand grasped for the edge of the comforter and tried to pull it over her body.
No luck. The fabric edge wasn’t long enough. She closed her eyes, took two deep breaths and then opened them again.
Jonas lay beside her, breathing deeply. At least he was still asleep. She barely resisted the urge to run her hand lightly over the smooth skin of his head. He would wake up, and maybe she could escape the voice in her head calling her a fool for sleeping with him last night. That was only delaying the inevitable, though, because she had been stupid.
She didn’t do this. Didn’t have one-night stands, especially not with men who were the subject of her work. But last night she couldn’t seem to help herself and, God, the ethical quagmire that put her in. Again. Only this time they wouldn’t report on a harmless dinner with Bobby long before she began investigating steroid abuse at the college. They could connect her sleeping with Jonas while not reporting on the extent of his shoulder injury. If they did that it would be “so long, career dreams, hello, life as a secretary,” because no television station or newspaper would touch her.
Heart pounding as if it might burst right out of her chest, Brooks pulled a small blanket from the foot of the bed, wrapped it around her body and searched for her clothes. She had to get out of here before anyone found out she spent the night here.
Brooks slid from the bed careful not to disturb him. The sheet she’d wanted to pull over her body was wrapped snugly around his hips, but his strongly muscled legs were free. His chest rose and fell evenly. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he woke up. They could talk through what had happened, come to an agreement on it not happening again. She swallowed hard.
No, she didn’t want to face him, yet. Maybe if she got out of here they could go back to their working relationship, pretending this had never happened. No one had to know. She could still do her job. He would continue his rehab. This didn’t have to be weird or uncomfortable, and if she could just get out of here before he woke up, things would be fine. Her skirt and top lay in a heap near the door, but her panties were nowhere to be found. She turned to the bed. Had to be somewhere in there.
She twisted her mouth to the side. No, she was not going in there after them. Jonas could keep them. As if he needed tangible evidence to go along with the proverbial notch she’d already made in his bedpost.
Wait. No placing blame. This was her mess and she’d clean it up as best she could.
Sighing, she left the bedroom. Brooks stepped into the long skirt and pushed her feet into her sandals as she pulled the yellow top over her head. Then she looked around, really looked at the pictures lining the walls, the trophies and ribbons. It was all so...ostentatious. The kind of loud display she had expected from the man that first night at the awards show.
It seemed off. She looked at one of the photos, a shot of him with Earl watching something happen on the field. It sat in the middle of the mantel, apart from the rest of the framed magazine covers. That was the man she thought she had come to know over the past few days.
Intent. Focused. Not wrapped up in the fairy tale the press told every time he went to dinner or stepped onto a football field.
She ran her hands over the smooth glass and it was as if she could feel his skin through the photograph. Whatever he was watching on the field put a light in those brown eyes she had only seen a couple of times. It was a good light. An honest light. Sunlight glinted through the window, struck a trophy on the side table and she blinked.
This was silly. Having walls filled with framed photographs and awards wasn’t a crime. Well, maybe a crime against interior decorating, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t also be the kind, dedicated man she’d heard talking to that kid about his friends.
A noise sounded in the other room, and a small voice reminded her she needed to go.
Leave a note? And say what? Had a great time, call me? No, she didn’t want a call from Jonas. Leave it as a good memory, she told herself as she quietly closed the door behind her.
Once on the sidewalk she used her cell phone to call a cab company and started walking toward the corner. It was early, and traffic was light. Well, at least there was no one to notice her walk of shame, right? Okay, so she wasn’t exactly ashamed of sleeping with Jonas.
Harlequin Superromance May 2016 Box Set Page 87