by Timms, Lexy
He pulled her to him and wrapped her up again in his limbs.
Amanda stiffened a moment and then realized she was being held by one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen. Why fight it? He wanted her there and, honestly, she wanted to be there. More than running away, more even than Casablanca. She nestled into him and let herself sleep better than she had in months. Morning could take care of itself. Besides, she’d promised, hadn’t she?
She was sure she wouldn’t sleep so much as a minute, but then she was waking and alone in the giant bed. Daylight seeped around the cracks of the heavy curtains and she sat up, trying to figure out whether he’d merely gone to the bathroom, or had defected to Russia, when the door opened and the twin smells of coffee and toast proceeded him into the room. He hadn’t bothered getting dressed.
He looked kind of cute, naked and holding a serving tray, and she couldn’t help but giggle. She sat up and fought the urge to cover herself with the blankets. It was one thing to strip in the heat of the moment, but to sit exposed in the unforgiving light of day was unnerving. Still, he was setting the tone, so she gamely complied.
The toast was simple, butter and some jam, but it was a heavy wheat and had nuts and seeds.
“This is really good,” she said around a mouthful.
“It’s on the diet list,” he said, biting into his own.
She blinked then sat back to take a good look at him. A very good look. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. “You’re on a diet?”
“The whole team is. Not losing weight, but we have a list of things we’re supposed to eat and how often and how much.”
“Right,” she said, blushing because it was the sort of thing she felt she should have known. “Because you burn so many calories.”
“Yeah,” he smiled and nudged her with his shoulder, “and you and I burned off a few last night, so eat up.”
If anything, Amanda blushed even deeper, though she hadn’t thought that was possible until now. She ducked her head and bit into the bread like she was told. “Can I ask what happened with Allanna?” she asked after she’d chewed and swallowed. Maybe it wasn’t the best morning-after conversation, but she wasn’t going to sit easy until she had a clearer understanding of things. Better to get all the nasty things out of the way now, while she could still bolt with some semblance of dignity.
“You recognized her?”
Amana snorted. “Not that hard to miss, she’s on every checkout register in the supermarkets.”
“Yeah. She saw the paper and wanted to get back together. Seems that now that I have some publicity again, she wanted to use that to boost her image. It keeps her in demand if she’s always in the news, you know.”
“So, what happened?”
“I told her I already had a girlfriend and that she was living with me. She told me to trot you out to meet her, I told her to go to hell. We compromised: she left, and I didn’t take a bat to her car. It worked out best for us both.”
Amanda blinked. “You didn’t have to. I mean if you’re retiring anyway, what difference does it make to keep up the façade?”
Nate pulled the covers off her lap, exposing her.
“HEY!”
“Just checking,” he said, and pulled them back over her legs.
“For what?”
“Well, I think I can absolutely state that you are, in fact, a girl.”
Amanda blushed and bit into her toast before she said something she regretted.
“And, considering the events of last night, I would say that you and I have some sort of relationship, so I don’t think I exactly lied to her, did I?”
“But she’s so pretty.” Amanda was getting flustered. “She’s a supermodel. I’m just…”
“You’re just…?”
She carefully set the toast down on the plate. “… Me.” The word came out in a whisper. Suddenly there weren’t enough blankets in the world to hide under.
Nate leaned over and kissed her nose. “Let’s just stay naked today. We have a big house, a stocked refrigerator, and an Olympic-sized pool.” He smiled that mischievous grin and turned it into a challenge.
Amanda took a shaky breath. A tiny part of her unfolded, much like a flower coming into bloom. “Well, what the hell,” she said finally, shrugging and even laughing a little. “OK. I seem to be naked around you a lot anyway.”
Nate smiled and kissed a little stray jam from her cheek. The look he gave her was pure dynamite.
Damned if she wasn’t ready to see what blew up next.
Chapter 16
The day after a game was supposed to be used to recover from said game. There were no practices, no exercises to do, no meetings of team members to discuss strategies and plays. In laymen’s terms, ‘a day off.’
Amanda was just a little uncertain about spending a day without dressing, in the way a turkey might be uncertain about Thanksgiving. She kept seeing that long leg in her memory, and it got longer and leaner with every passing moment.
She stood in front of a mirror on tiptoes, trying to see what effect it would have on her. She liked the way that it looked, she decided. High heels stretched out the leg, firmed up the ass. She tried turning to see how it looked from the front, but decided against it when she fell on the carpet.
She was on her feet quickly, before he stepped back into the room wondering what ‘that noise’ was. She looked around and tried to not pay attention to the heat rising in her face.
“So…” she shrugged, naked… Naked! In front of him. This was getting too…
“Let’s take a shower,” he suggested, nodding past her to the enclosure that passed for such a thing in his bathroom. She’d never seen so many shower heads in her life. For that matter, she’d never been in a shower that could comfortably take a half dozen people and leave room for soaping…and whatever.
Of course, it being the famous TNT’s shower, this led to her wondering whether the shower had been put to just such a use already.
The whole thing was unnerving. Made worse by the fact that he was staring at her and waiting for her response.
“Sure!” As far as chirpy responses better suited to cheerleaders, it wasn’t half bad until she caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror. She looked like she was having an aneurism.
There were more controls than her car had. The hot water was a bit too hot, and she tried to slip it down a notch when he wasn’t looking. He yelped as the icy water hit him. This led to a good-natured tussle until they found a temperature they could both appreciate with no small amount of laughing. Somehow in there she managed to activate something that made the gentle rainfall from overhead turn into a downpour of hurricane proportions. He retaliated by introducing the heads built into the sides of the shower until she cried mercy, thinking she’d seen less water the last time she’d taken her sedan through the car wash.
Finally, half-drowned, a truce was declared and they got down to the serious business of getting clean.
Nate worked up a lather in his hands, all while eyeing Amanda speculatively. She backed away, suddenly unsure. He caught her anyway, taking her in his arms under the spray as he soaped her back and worked his way down her spine to her ass. He clenched her buttocks in his strong hands while the steam rose around them, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember what she’d been running from.
He soaped her ass, her thighs, and went to one knee to wash her shins. His face was at her crotch and he leaned in to take advantage of the position. His tongue weakened her knees as his hands spread the remaining soap on them. She grabbed his head and held him as he slipped his tongue into her and played with her nub.
Kissing upward, he licked her belly and breasts and took a nipple into his mouth as his hands spread the soap where his tongue had just been. He pulled on the nipple, teasing it, nibbling at it with his teeth and tormenting her with his tongue while his fingers washed her slit. He stood and worked the lather into her breasts, his thumbs flattening and flicking her sensitive nipples
.
Amanda had no idea how she was staying upright and clung to him, fingernails digging into his shoulders as he took the shower head and washed her front and back and then poured the water over her head. She wasn’t ready for that particular attack and came up sputtering, swatting his hands away until she could wipe the water from her eyes. He paid no attention to her protestations and took the shampoo and lathered it into her scalp, briskly rubbing it in, massaging her head.
It was intimate.
Arousing.
She was honestly surprised. Sex between them had been all explosions and mad passion. Now, standing under the warm spray with his hands running over her body, she discovered something else: the low steady throb of passion just beneath the surface. The way her skin was positively humming as he moved his hands over her.
The way she wanted this to go on forever, coupled with the need to touch him in the same way.
The soap ran down the drain, cascading down between her breasts. Slipping between her ass cheeks in silken warmth that left her smoldering. She couldn’t take it anymore.
It was her turn.
Amanda looked him up and down with more than a hint of speculation. She’d read something once…though it was way outside of her comfort zone.
Okay, what part of this is IN my comfort zone?
With that thought in mind, she took the soap and created a great deal of lather, but she didn’t put it on him. Instead she spread it liberally over her breasts. Then, holding her breath, she stepped into his embrace, rubbing herself over him. Her tight, aching nipples smashed up against his hard, muscular chest. Her hands grabbed his ass as he had with her, but her breasts were moving over him, and all the careful rinsing he’d done with her was forgotten.
She knelt—squatted really—and trapped his cock between her breasts and pressed them together, rubbing the ripe flesh up and down the length of his cock. It was already hard from the touching and the heat they’d generated, and he gasped and grabbed the shower door to steady himself.
Heady with delight at his reaction, her hand soaped his balls and legs and she turned around and ran her ass cheeks over this part of his body, over his hardness and his belly until she was bent over at waist height. It was a dizzying sensation. She rose once only to snatch the shower head, and hosed him off, taking the time to rinse the soap again from her own body, and presented herself again.
There was no hesitation on his part. She could have sworn he cheered, or at the least gave some sound of satisfaction as he slipped into her. She gasped as he filled her and stood a moment, adjusting, before she realized she still held the shower hose in her hand. He moved against her and the hose shifted and moved as she did, sending the spray shooting up between her legs. It hit her clit and her eyes shot open in surprise at the measure of delight. From that point on she held it there, driving needles of hot water over her most sensitive of spots as he pushed into her and filled her again.
This time when he slammed home, she almost dropped the shower head. As it was, the water shot wildly into his face, but he only crashed into her harder for it. With the choice fast becoming that of bracing herself somehow or falling on her face and drowning, she dropped the hose and pressed her palms against the tiled wall as he grasped her hips and pumped into her again.
The nozzle of the forgotten hose sped across the floor of the shower, spraying water in every direction as he slammed in and out in and out. At random, warm water sprayed them or the wall or the door and she cried out and came hard, her sex pulling his, trapping his cock with her throbbing core. He gave a shout and slammed home one last time. She felt him pulse inside of her, his whole body rocking and shaking with the spasms of his own orgasm as he held her against him.
She fumbled for the hose, still curling around the floor of the shower like a wild thing, and rinsed his cock one more time, following up with an impish lick along the length of it before rising and washing the residue off her breasts.
He stood there, one hand on the tiled wall just over her head, eyes closed, breathing hard. For once the athlete had been sated.
Her own hands were shaking as she moved them over the various knobs. Finally, she had the water turned off and faced him, her own chest heaving, her body aching pleasantly and more than clean. She looked at him, somewhat wide-eyed as she tried to process the whole thing and gave up, rising on tiptoe to plant a tender kiss upon his lips.
And immediately regretted it.
After a night of passion, a morning of blatant nudity, and now a shower from a porno, suddenly the kiss—the kiss made her shy. He hadn’t made a move toward her. There quite honestly had been no reaction at all.
Amanda panicked.
There was nothing to blame this on. No heat of the moment, nothing.
This was a kiss that meant more than sex, more than need. It meant something important and it came from her.
She realized what she’d done and wanted to flee. Her hand went to the door, one footstep back.
Then he smiled.
Amanda blushed and threw the door open, grabbing the first towel she saw. The sudden realization that he had dumped a supermodel for… her was too much. None of this was real. It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening to her.
What if it is?
And for just a moment… she let herself believe it.
After all, logic told her Ben and Jerry weren’t selling hallucinogenic ice cream. Maybe she wasn’t destined to wake up from this dream with a sugar hangover and the main menu from the Casablanca DVD waiting for her to push a button?
She buried her face in the towel, ignoring the fact that he was there, right behind her, and asking her more than once if she was okay. She was shaking.
This whole situation was just funny, hilariously funny. But in a weird, strange, stupid way that no one could possibly understand.
Nate was holding her, his voice starting to sound panicked. He thought she was crying and he was worried, and it was so sweet and nice that she dropped her towel. Her eyes met his, seeing the confusion and a small bit of fear in his eyes before she blurted out, “I suck at babysitting,” and dissolved into a bad case of the giggles.
Nate spanked her ass hard.
Amanda doubled over, laughing.
Chapter 17
“I wanted to talk to you about dinner,” Nate said, looking serious.
“Okay…” She had no idea why his face was so serious.
“There isn’t any.”
Amanda’s stomach growled. This wasn’t exactly the best news of the day. Or the worst. Though they had worked up quite the appetite.
Nate shrugged, hands palms-up in a whatcha-gonna-do position. “Look, I don’t cook and the nutritionist usually provides food for the team, but the day after a game is a ‘free day’, so I don’t have anything in the house.”
Amanda glanced down at herself. A day sans clothes suddenly felt a little problematic. “I’m not opening the door for the pizza guy naked,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her. Then she noticed the effect it had on him as she lifted her breasts like that. Nice as that was and all, she still blushed and dropped her hands to her sides. No, not exactly comfortable with any of it yet.
He stifled a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not in the mood for pizza.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Let’s go out and get something.”
“Naked?” she teased. “It was your idea to spend the day naked. I just didn’t know you meant in public.”
“Wouldn’t be my first time,” Nate said half under his breath.
Amanda chose to ignore that. “Well, I’m going to skip having a first time.” She got up and looked around the room. “Though, come to think of it, where did my clothes go when… last night?”
They searched the living room, under the couch, the hallway, the bedroom, but apparently her clothing seemed to have fled the premises. She wound up borrowing a bathrobe amidst his teasing about ‘being a party pooper’ and padded out the door and across the pathway to the
guest house, pausing to stick her tongue out at him from the front door.
She changed into a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and boots, and took a moment to try to fix her hair. Looking in the mirror was a strange experience. She had no idea who it was who looked back at her. This woman was cute, confident, smiled easily, and Amanda liked her. She wanted to be that woman and it took her a moment to realize she was.
Her hair hung loose over her shoulders, cascading in a tousled wave. The jeans were just a little tight; she’d never had the confidence to wear them, but it seemed right today somehow. She looked… sexy. Sexual. Sensual.
She took a deep breath, as deep as the jeans would allow, and smiled at that woman.
That’s me.
I like me.
When he rang the bell, she ran to meet him, laughing and out of breath as she flung open the door. He smiled and held out his hand to her. Damn, he was adorable. And for today at least… he was hers.
They drove with the top down despite the chill that traced the Denver wind.
She sat leaning against the door, half turned so she could watch him. It was an interesting experience, seeing the double-take of the guy in the truck next to them at the stoplight. The easy way that Nate smiled and waved before taking off.
Playing the celebrity.
Yet she’d seen a different side of him that morning. And in California.
“Nate, can I ask you something?”
He lifted an eyebrow in response.
“Why the act? When we met, it was like looking at a ten-year-old, but there’s so much more to you than that.”
He smiled and grabbed her knee as he slipped the car onto the freeway. “Let me ask you something. If you could be ten again, wouldn’t you grab at it? Especially if you could be ten and get paid a lot of money for it?”
Amanda nodded. It was a good point. But it bothered her all the same. Didn’t people need to grow up sometime? “There are benefits to being an adult, you know.”