by Mandy Baxter
So far, their evening together had been anything but impersonal. Avery studied Jase from the corner of her eye, so at ease, lounging on her couch with his long legs propped up on her coffee table as though he hung out in rat hole apartments like hers all the time. You’d never think he had a fifteen-thousand-square-foot mansion on the other side of the city. “So, what did you do today?”
The question threw Avery for a loop. No strings attached meant he wasn’t required to ask questions about her day. “Um, I had class today.”
“What sort of class?”
This was dangerous territory. He was opening the door for their relationship to venture past meaningless sex. And whereas it might not have seemed like a big deal to Jase, for Avery, it was a different story. What would happen once he set her aside? “I’m attending Le Cordon Bleu.”
“Cooking school?” he asked with a grin that melted Avery’s spine.
“Culinary academy,” she replied. “I’m not just learning how to flip an egg over there.”
“You know, I love food. Eating is my second favorite pastime. Well …” He stroked one long finger along Avery’s jaw and she suppressed a shudder. “After today, I think I need to amend the list and make eating my third favorite pastime.”
She gave a nervous laugh. When he talked to her in that seductive, smoky tone, it was all she could do to keep from tackling him to the floor. “I love to cook. It’s my second favorite pastime.”
“What’s your first?” His eyes sparked with heat and he licked his lips.
Avery’s gaze locked on Jase’s mouth. God, how she loved kissing those lips. She looked away. “My new favorite pastime might have something to do with a certain football star.”
“Oh really? Anyone I know?”
She answered him with an enigmatic smile. “Could be.”
“Are you sure you can’t come to the game tomorrow?”
Avery didn’t miss the disappointment in his tone, or the way his eyes conveyed emotion that was too deep for what she needed this to be between them. “Gotta pay the bills,” she replied. “That tuition doesn’t pay for itself, you know.”
He looked away as though embarrassed. “Ryder paid my college tuition. I was offered a scholarship but I turned it down. I didn’t think it was fair to accept a free ride when there were other guys on the team who could benefit from the financial aid.”
“I think that’s great, Jase. Especially that your brother would help you out.”
He snorted. “You’d think so. But the shitty thing is that I might have gotten a hell of a lot more respect if I’d just taken the damned scholarship. For all four years of my college career I had to field questions from smart-assed sports reporters asking if my brother had bought my position on the team.”
“That’s awful!” Avery couldn’t believe that the media would try to persecute Jase and his family for doing something good.
He hiked one massive shoulder and Avery resisted the urge to reach out and touch. “It is what it is. It’s how I got my nickname.”
“You don’t like it, do you?” Even Avery had to admit that a tag like “Billion Dollar Blackwell” probably wasn’t complimentary. She regretted using the nickname herself when she’d talked about him with Kristie.
Jase snorted. “Not so much. I’d like for the media to see past my family’s bank account and acknowledge my skill on the field. I mean, it’s not like any of the guys in the NFL are living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t know why they continue to fixate on mine.”
Avery had failed to consider that Jase’s life might not be a cakewalk. After all, money didn’t solve every problem. “I’m sure that the people who matter recognize your skills. Everyone else can piss off.”
Jase leaned forward to snag another piece of pizza from the box. “What about you?” he asked. “Have you ever seen me play?”
Again, Avery wondered at his tone. Tentative, yet hopeful, as though both anxious and afraid of her response. “I have.” She wasn’t exactly an avid football fan, but she’d watched more than her fair share of games. Football was a Texas institution, after all.
His unsure expression tore at her heart. “And?”
“Well.” She stroked her fingers along his arm, mapping the topography of muscles that flexed beneath her touch. “I’m no expert, but I’d say you’re pretty amazing.”
His answering smile was as brilliant as the sun and Avery was powerless to fight his magnetic pull. She leaned in to his chest and though she knew allowing him to fold her into his arms would surely lead her further toward ruin, she didn’t care.
“What about you, sugar?” His deep voice rumbled in his chest and she shivered. “How do you rate your chef skills?”
“I’m not a chef yet,” she replied. “But someday. I don’t know … most days I feel like I’m barely cracking a three. I’m so clumsy and scatterbrained sometimes. I spill and burn stuff, but when I’m focused, I can definitely hold my own in the kitchen.”
“I have a feeling you’re selling yourself short,” Jase remarked. “I think you’re going to have to step up to the plate and let me rate your skills myself.”
Avery pulled away so she could look up at his face. “I doubt I’ll measure up for someone whose third all-time-favorite pastime is eating.”
“Sugar, if what I’ve seen of you already has any bearing, I have a feeling that nothin’ you do is less than a perfect ten.”
Avery’s cheeks heated at the innuendo. No guy had ever told her that she was good in bed before. Hell, no one had told she was good at anything before. She didn’t think she was awful, but definitely not a ten. “If I’m a ten, it’s only because you set a pretty high bar, Mr. Blackwell. I had no choice but to step up my game or get left behind.”
“Not a chance.”
∗∗∗
Jase couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at ease with a woman. Avery was funny, smart, and though he wished she’d own how great she was and quit being so self-conscious, good-natured. He had a soft spot for a woman who could take a little teasing, and he was willing to bet that Avery could give as good as she got. Goddamn did she ever turn him on.
Emotion bloomed in his chest as she flashed him a wide smile. The expression was so honest and open that it made his breath catch and he wondered how he could have ever suspected that she was nothing more than another football groupie. He didn’t know her well, but Jase sensed that Avery wasn’t the type of woman to use a person for her own selfish reasons.
“Maybe we’re both perfect tens because we make a good team.” He might’ve been pressing his luck referring to them as a “we” but Jase didn’t care. “Sometimes even the best players have a shitty showing on the field because they’re just not compatible as teammates. You and I just play well together.”
“Mmm.” Her green eyes sparked with fire and Jase’s body responded, warming to her heated expression. “I have to admit, we do play well together …”
Jase grabbed Avery and pulled her up into his lap. He cupped the back of her neck with one hand while the other skimmed down between her breasts to the hem of her shirt. His palm found the smooth flat skin on her stomach and Avery’s eyes became hooded as he ventured upward, cupping her bare breast in his hand and feathering over one pearled nipple with the pad of his thumb. She went liquid in his embrace, her body melting against his as her lips parted with shallow pants of breath.
He could stay here all night and simply pleasure her. Take in the sight of her furrowed brow, her teeth as they grazed her bottom lip, the flush that began to spread across her cheeks. Jase hiked up her T-shirt and bent his head to her breast, taking the dusky nipple into his mouth. He sucked deeply before drawing the taut peak between his teeth and nibbling. Avery moaned—a low, seductive sound that hardened his cock in an instant—and threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him against her.
“Jase … god … your mouth.” Avery’s words only stoked the fire of Jase’s lust. No matter how much he wanted to bury himself
to the root in her slick heat, he had to restrain himself. Especially if he wanted to be worth a shit for tomorrow’s game. But just because he was forcing the torture of abstinence on himself, didn’t mean Avery had to suffer right alongside him.
As he continued to suckle her, Jase’s free hand found the waistband of her cotton shorts. He flirted with the elastic band for a moment, delving his fingers under the garment and then up her torso and around her belly button. Avery let out a whimper, thrusting her hips to meet his touch. He cupped her sex in his palm, stroking her through the fabric that was already damp with her arousal.
It was going to take an act of sheer will not to fuck her senseless at this point.
Avery reached between them and took his hand in hers, guiding him inside of her shorts. He slipped his fingers below the hemline, teasing the nest of curls and the slick wetness that clung to them. He dipped his forefinger between her already swollen lips and Avery bucked as he swept the pad of his finger over her clit. Then he broke the seal of his mouth from the tight point of her breast and circled the dusky nipple with his fingers, spreading her own sweet honey over her skin.
“Oh god,” she panted as he covered her with his mouth, licking the sweetness from her flesh.
He reached down and dipped his finger into her pussy again, repeating the motion of slathering Avery’s nipple with her own arousal. “You taste like clover honey,” he murmured against her flesh before lapping it all up. “So damned good.”
“Jase.” She trembled in his embrace, stomach muscles twitching and contracting with each light brush of his fingers. Avery let out a whimper as though she couldn’t push the words she wanted to say past her lips.
“What?” Jase reached down and eased her shorts down over her ass, taking her underwear with them. He repositioned them so that he was sprawled out on the couch, her body stretched out on top of his. Leaning up enough to strip off her shirt, he then guided one of her legs up until it was slung over the back of the couch, opening her up to him. With shaking hands, he stripped off his own shirt so he could enjoy the silky skin of her back pressed up against his chest. “What do you want, Avery?”
Her head fell back on his shoulders, the short strands of her dark hair like satin on his skin. “Don’t stop touching me, Jase.”
Avery craned her neck back and he leaned over, putting his mouth to hers. Their bodies fit together so well, her petite frame cradled by his much larger body. He reached around to fondle her breasts while his other hand returned to the slick flesh between her thighs. With one touch, she melted against him, their breaths becoming one as he continued to kiss her. Jase craved her body like a drug, couldn’t get enough of her sweet mewling cries as he circled the swollen knot of nerves at her core. No woman had ever had this effect on him.
Women came, they went. One-night stands, though admittedly, none of those encounters had ever lasted more than a couple of hours before he hightailed it and headed back home. He’d never burned with the need to have any one of them more than once. But the woman in his arms now was different. His gut pulled into a tight knot as the realization dawned that Jase might not ever get enough of Avery. Once, twice … Fifty times wouldn’t sate his hunger for her or quench his desire.
In just a couple of days, Avery had become as vital to him as water or air. “Come for me, sugar,” Jase murmured in her ear. She arched into his touch, reaching around to cup the back of his neck in her palm. “That’s it.” He laid his lips to her throat, rolled her stiff nipple between his fingers. “Let me hear you.” She cried out as he plunged one finger and then another into her tight channel. Adrenaline coursed through Jase’s body, his cock throbbing in his jeans. “Come for me, Avery. Now.”
∗∗∗
The engine was running and the pickup was still in gear, but Jase couldn’t bring himself to put it in park and turn the damned key off. He just sat there in his garage, knowing he needed to take his ass inside and at the same time, wanting to race back to Avery’s apartment. Hands shaking, Jase gripped the steering wheel like it was the only thing keeping him anchored to the earth. It took an actual physical effort to finally put the truck in park and cut the damned engine. He was wound as tight as a fucking spring, his cock so hard it caused him discomfort. Being with Avery was supposed to be a release. A tension breaker meant to relax and focus him. But now, all he could think of was speeding back to her and fucking her into the early hours of the morning. He relived their moments together, reveled in the memory of her coming at his command and the way her pussy clenched his fingers, so tight. Her cries echoed in his ears, a plea for release that he’d been more than happy to answer one more time. His body was tense, his mind racing. He needed to come so badly, he hurt all over.
He needed her.
Instead of hitting the shower yet again and taking his ass to bed like he knew he should, Jase took a detour, bypassing the staircase as he made a beeline for his weight room. Too wound up to relax, sleep would be impossible if he didn’t do something to work Avery out of his system. And whereas the better option would have been to just jerk one off and call it a night, Jase knew that it wouldn’t sate him. His own goddamned hand was a poor substitute for the real thing. The only option at this point was to distract the stiff bastard between his legs with physical exertion.
Lifting seemed like a promising way to beat his body into submission. He traded out the bumper plates for something lighter since he wanted to wear himself down, not physically exhaust himself. It only took a moment to shuck his jeans and Jase settled onto the weight bench in nothing more than a pair of boxer briefs. The cold metal of the bar felt good in his palms and the weight as he hoisted the barbell up off the rest and high above his chest was a welcome distraction. He pumped the weight down on a slow inhale and back up on an exhale. Up, down. In, out. He let the sound of his breath channel his focus, the weight pressing down on him, clearing his mind of all distraction. If he didn’t get Avery out of his head, he wouldn’t be worth a shit tomorrow. His plan to use a little booty to break his bad-luck streak had totally fucking backfired.
Sweat beaded on his chest and trickled down his neck as Jase continued to pump the barbell up and down. Up and down, his once slow and measured breaths chuffing in and out of his chest. No amount of physical exertion would banish the memory of her, soft and willing in his arms, from his mind.
How could he possibly focus on his career right now when all he wanted was her?
Chapter Eight
“Jason, this is without a doubt the best game you’ve played all season. Maybe even your entire career. Can you tell us what brought on such a dramatic change?”
Jase stared into Erin Andrews’s expectant face, knowing she was waiting for his response, but his brain was calling up an answer that he didn’t want his mouth to deliver. “It’s the playoffs,” he finally said, flashing her a confident smile. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t giving a thousand percent on the field.”
“Well, it certainly showed,” she said as she pulled the microphone back to her mouth. “Your performance seems to improve with each game. You’re one win away from the division title and with the stellar teamwork between you and Carson Rader, you helped to move the Cowboys one step closer to a Super Bowl bid. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Jase cast a quick look toward the camera before heading for the locker room. Carson was still fielding questions from the press. Erin wouldn’t waste a second to snag him next. Jase was thankful for the distraction his teammate offered because right now there were only two things on his mind: taking a long hot shower, and getting to Avery ASAP.
Amid knocks to the shoulder and words of congratulations from his teammates as he passed, Jase hurried through the locker room and straight for the showers. Anticipation coiled in his stomach as hot water sluiced down his body. It helped to ease his sore and too tight muscles, but he wasn’t planning to linger under the spray for long. He’d been seeing Avery for three weeks now. Easily the longest relationship of his
life. The euphoric high of being with her hadn’t lessened in the slightest. In fact, the more time he spent with her, the greedier he became for just another minute, one more hour of her time. If he had it his way, she’d be moved into his house by now.
“Blackwell’s got himself a pregame lucky charm,” someone remarked as though in answer to a question from the other room. “Wish I had a sweet piece of ass to give me a good-luck fuck before next week’s game.” Fucking Carson and his big mouth. Jase was going to kick his ass. He gossiped worse than a nosey old woman. “Hey, Jase, you wanna share? Give the rest of us some of that superpower pussy?”
His earlier anticipation congealed into anger. Cold and heavy like a boulder rolling around in his gut. Guys talked shit in the locker room. Period. And giving in to his urge to beat the piss out of some sorry fucker wasn’t going to do anything for his team’s cohesiveness. To the guys on the other side of the wall, Avery was nothing more than a faceless fuck. Another football groupie Jase was using to work off the stress of playoffs. But the depth of his feelings for her was his secret. One that he coveted and held close to his heart. He’d never felt this way about a woman before. There was a chance that maybe … Maybe he could love her.
Shit.
The once-famed playboy converted to monogamy? Stanger things had happened.
Catcalls and lewd remarks continued to drift to his ears from the locker room as Jase wrapped up his shower. If he hung around to listen to their bullshit, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from laying into someone. The team couldn’t afford any rash, hotheaded behavior right now. Too much hinged on Jase keeping a level head.
“Sorry man.” Carson turned on the nozzle next to Jase and stepped under the spray. “I never would have said anything if I had known they were going to give you so much shit.”