by Ann Jacobs
He pressed a remote control device, and a gate opened. The big SUV barely made it through a narrower gate that led onto the narrow ring of concrete around the playing field. “Come out here with me,” he said, shutting off the car and grabbing a blanket off the backseat before stepping outside.
She followed him, wondering what he had in mind. It was about thirty degrees outside, not exactly ideal weather for outdoor lovemaking, but…
Keith had shown her in the past few days that he could keep her warm anyplace, anytime. She stepped out of the cozy vehicle and walked over to the blanket he’d just spread on the cold artificial turf. She stared at the blanket for a minute then grinned up at him. “You know, honey, the back of that SUV is plenty big for what you have in mind.”
He laughed. “How do you know that? Maybe what I want is just to hold you, tell you how happy you’ve made me.” He sat and drew her down beside him. “Maybe I want to do things right this time.”
Shivering a little, Tina cuddled up next to Keith, used his big body to shelter her from the cold wind. “What things?”
“Will you marry me, let me spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy?”
She’d already said she would, so she shot him a questioning look. “I said I would. In every way I could think of.” She’d told him with every kiss, each embrace, and there had been so many in such a short time.
He pulled out a small box from one of the pockets in his black parka and flipped open the lid. “Then I want you to wear this. It’s got a matching band I’ll give you next week.” Fumbling to take off his gloves, he lifted a huge, sparkling diamond solitaire from the box. “Baby, you need to take off a glove so I can put this on your finger.”
Her hands shook so, she could barely peel her glove off her left hand, but he steadied them as she trusted he’d steady her when she started to doubt herself—and him. Then he took all her doubts away.
This was Keith Connors, all-pro Maulers quarterback, seller of razors and TV sets, incomparable groupie magnet—and the only man Tina wanted. His expression serious, he met her gaze. As she watched him, he let those gorgeous eyes fill with something she realized had already been there for some time. Only she hadn’t had the confidence to give that something a name until now, as he gave voice to it.
“I wanted to make sure to do this right, so I haven’t said much about being in love with you before. But I’m telling you now. I love you, really deep down love you, as much as I love playing football, as much as I’ve ever loved another person in all my life.” Very gently he pushed the ring onto her finger then brought it to his lips.
While tears filled her eyes and her heart ached, he continued with a smile.
“If we were kids I’d let you wear my letter jacket to cover up with while we made love back behind the high-school bleachers. Since we’re both grownups and I just won that rolling bed over there, I think I’ll see if the back of it’s big enough for a guy as tall as me to make it with his lady.” He grinned then lowered his voice. “No one’s in the stadium but us, just in case you care.”
She didn’t. Keith loved her and she wouldn’t mind shouting it to the whole world. “I’m glad you love me. Because I love you, too. I want you now, and I wouldn’t care if all seventy thousand or so seats in this place were full.” Tina had never been happier. Never felt more cared for, protected. Or desired. Keith lifted her, retrieved the blanket and set her down inside the warm car.
Echoes of cheering crowds rang in her ears, though the stadium was quiet. As Keith bent over her, taking her mouth as he splayed one big hand over her belly beneath the zipper of her jeans, Tina explored the rugged planes of his face. The face that smiled at millions but looked at only her with love. Already a hint of stubble scraped sensuously against her fingers when she caressed his cheeks, the sinewy column of his throat.
She felt her hero unzip her jeans and slide them down her legs, heard him unzip his own. The sound of silk tearing when he tore away her panties, a burst of cool air on her naked flesh made her whimper against his insistent mouth. The heat of his long, thick cock seared her channel when he flexed his hips and joined their bodies. The slick abrasion of flesh on flesh made her clench her inner muscles, welcome him inside.
Nothing wild. He took her missionary style, as though they were new lovers, kids experimenting under the bleachers for the first time. Though he lay over her, the heat of his big body pressing her, controlling her, this wasn’t a raw kid but a full-grown man, a skilled lover coaxing her climax with patience, with love. She lifted her hips, answered his silent demand for all she had to give.
His jeans abraded the tender skin of her thighs with each hard plunge into her core. She loved it. Loved him, more than she’d ever thought she loved her childhood friend. When he sank deep inside her and shouted out his pleasure, she knew. This was the man she’d been born to love.
“Hold me. Don’t stop loving me.”
“I’ll never stop loving you, as long as there’s a breath in me.”
Epilogue
Hedgecock, Texas, the following Saturday
Melanie Tate looked over the small crowd then turned to her husband Cal. She’d done a great job putting together Tina and Keith’s wedding in such a short time, even if she said so herself. Of course Keith’s mom had been helping since she and her husband got in town two days ago.
Mel looked on with satisfaction as the newest newlyweds stood in the living room at the Tate house, holding hands and chatting with her son Bobby and his wife. Cal’s twin sons were home from college for the occasion, laughing and playing pranks and, if she didn’t miss her guess, plotting a ménage a trois with the pretty brunette they’d brought home with them for the wedding.
Good thing Cal’s grandpa had built a house big enough to put up half the Texas cavalry, because every room was full with laughing, happy football players and their significant others. Mel had commandeered the hotel and even put up some overflow guests with Keith’s sister in her own small house and at Tina’s empty place.
One face thankfully wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Something or someone apparently had made that bastard, Edgar Garcia, take off last weekend for parts unknown. “Cal, did you have something to do with Tina’s stepfather leaving town?”
“Not me. I wouldn’t put it past Keith to have issued a warning, though. I’ve never seen a man more protective of his woman.” He bent, dropped a quick kiss on Melanie’s lips. “Unless it would be me, taking care of you.”
Dave Delaney, who’d just arrived in town a few days ago, watched the festivities from a distance, a hard look on his darkly handsome face. If it weren’t for the obvious way the man adored that silly, shaggy-looking poodle he said was his daughter’s, Mel would have thought he had it in for everybody on Earth. Hopefully coming home, getting away from the playboy life Keith mentioned had pretty much destroyed his NFL career, would be good for him.
She figured it was pretty much time he retired anyway. Dave was pushing forty-two, a year older than Mel herself. From the research she’d done while planning for the upcoming quarterback reunion, she knew his talent had been as mercurial as his taste for the playboy lifestyle. “Let’s go over and say hello to Dave,” she told Cal. “He looks like he feels out of place.”
Seeing Keith and Tina so happy together warmed Mel’s heart. Not that she didn’t feel the same about Bobby and his effervescent bride, but they were so young. So untouched by the tragedies that had tempered Tina’s youthful exuberance, left Keith to put his life together after his first wife’s untimely death.
When Tina had left last October, Mel hadn’t thought she’d ever come back to Hedgecock. She was glad for them all that she’d been wrong. For years Diane Granger had insisted she didn’t miss her mother or Keith after they left, but today a weight seemed to have lifted from her shoulders.
“I’m glad they decided to come home to get married,” Mel said as she greeted Keith’s sister on the way toward the corner Dave had staked out for himself.
“Sometimes we don’t realize how much people mean to us until it’s almost too late.” Mel glanced at Keith’s mom, saw she was heading for Diane with Keith’s son in tow. “We’ll talk later. Right now I need to go cheer up Dave Delaney. He looks a little bit lost among all the happy faces.”
* * * * *
Keith could hardly wait to get Tina to himself. His mom had Jack for two whole weeks, and tickets to Honolulu were practically burning a hole in the pocket of his suit jacket. They’d get to their suite at a five-star hotel on Waikiki, crawl into bed and stay there until exhaustion and hunger took over and sent them out in search of sustenance. When he’d mentioned Hawaii, Tina’s eyes had sparkled with excitement. He wanted to see sights through her eyes, feel her enthusiasm. Her love.
He’d been right about having their wedding here, though. Tina needed to feel the love of everyone who’d been part of her life since she was born. What the hell. He’d needed that, too, to mend fences and renew old acquaintances. Today he felt that love he’d turned his back on for so long.
He took Tina in his arms, kissed her soft, sweet lips. Life was good. Better than he deserved, but he wouldn’t dwell on that.
Coach Williams, fifteen years older and even more grizzled than Keith remembered, tapped him on the shoulder. “I’ve been awful proud of you since you went away to college. Still am. You know, I’m retiring. I’m hoping to leave it to Dave over there to carry on the Hedgecock tradition.”
Keith followed the old man’s gaze to the Hedgecock star he’d followed, felt bad in a way for Dave Delaney. Dave had always been a bad-boy player, but he’d been hot in the clutch last season, so hot he’d taken a battered and bruised Savannah team all the way to the Super Bowl. And almost won. If it hadn’t been for that last hail-Mary touchdown, it would have been Dave, not him, hoisting the Lombardi trophy.
“I heard he might be moving back here. You know, the guy used to be my idol.” Like Bobby had tagged along behind Keith, Keith had pestered Dave. He guessed Dave must have idolized Colin Zanardi, the first of the Hedgecock quarterbacks.
“I know. I’m happy for you and your bride, even though I used to think it would be Bobby taking her down the aisle someday. He sure found himself a pretty one.” Coach Williams’ watery gaze shifted to Marly, who was holding Bobby’s hand and captivating Carl and Eddie, guys who’d protected Keith’s blind side back in the day. “You know, Keith, she’s a hot one, all right, but I think you may have gotten the best of that deal.”
He pulled Tina close. “I know I did. We’re going to go now, enjoy being newlyweds.”
“Don’t blame you, son. Just don’t forget us anymore. We all like seeing you once in a while other than on TV.”
Keith motioned for his mom to join them then gave his old coach a quick bear hug. “We’ll be coming back here next month. I’m hoping you’ll help me set up a football camp for high-school players.”
“Sure thing.”
* * * * *
They’d gone home, where neither of them had intended to go. And it was good. They’d go back again for the reunion. And more.
Later. Now, in a suite overlooking the beach at Waikiki, Keith and Tina sealed the promises they’d made. With love.
The End
About the Author
Ann Jacobs is a sucker for lusty Alpha heroes and happy endings, which makes Ellora’s Cave an ideal publisher for her work. Romantica®, to her, is the perfect combination of sex, sensuality, deep emotional involvement and lifelong commitment—the elusive fantasy women often dream about but seldom achieve.
First published in 1996, Jacobs has sold over forty books and novellas, some of which have earned awards including the Passionate Plume (best novella, 2006), the Desert Rose (best hot and spicy romance, 2004) and More Than Magic (best erotic romance, 2004). She has been a double finalist in separate categories of the EPPIES and From the Heart RWA Chapter’s contest. Three of her books have been translated and sold in several European countries.
A CPA and former hospital financial manager, Jacobs now writes full-time, with the help of Mr. Blue, the family cat who sometimes likes to perch on the back of her desk chair and lend his sage advice. He sometimes even contributes a few random letters when he decides he wants to try out the keyboard. She loves to hear from readers, and to put faces with names at signings and conventions.
Ann welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Ann Jacobs
A Gift of Gold
A Mutual Favor
Another Love
Awakenings
Black Gold: Dallas Heat
Black Gold: Entrapped
Black Gold: Firestorm
Black Gold: Forever Enslaved
Black Gold: Love Slave
Club Rio Brava 1: Loving Control
Club Rio Brava 2: Switching Control
Club Rio Brava 3: Unexpected Control
Club Rio Brava 4: Learning Control
Colors of Love
Colors of Magic
D’Argent Honor 1: Vampire Justice
D’Argent Honor 2: Eternally His
D’Argent Honor 3: Eternal Surrender
D’Argent Honor 4: Eternal Victory
D’Argent Honor: Eternal Triangle
Dark Side of the Moon
Enchained anthology
Gates of Hell
Gridiron Lovers 1: Naked Bootleg
Gridiron Lovers: Hot for the Reunion
Haunted
He Calls Her Jasmine
Heart of the West 1: Roped
Heart of the West 2: Hitched
Heart of the West 3: Lassoed
Her Very Special Robot
Lawyers in Love: Bittersweet Homecoming
Lawyers in Love: Eye of the Storm
Lawyers in Love: Gettin’ It On
Lawyers in Love: In His Own Defense
Love Magic
Out of Bounds
Tip of the Iceberg
Topaz Dream
Wrong Place, Wrong Time?
Zayed’s Gift
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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