To Win Her Smile

by Mackenzie Crowne

  With a helpless groan, he curled his arm around her waist and tucked her closer, hissing at the press of her mound against his growing erection. He shifted his head, adjusting his mouth on hers. Sliding his hand down the curve of her hip to the hem of her skirt, he curled his fingers beneath the material and up the silky column of her thigh. Past the stretchy lace of her stockings to even silkier skin, then farther, to the damp silk at the juncture of her thighs.

  She gasped into his mouth as he burrowed his fingers beneath the elastic edge of her panties and sought the sultry heat beneath. He slid his fingertips through the curls shielding the path to paradise to her slick and swollen folds. A delicate shiver raced over her and she bucked against his caressing hand. Once. Twice. On a third violent tremble of her body, she broke apart in his arms and the cry on her lips was his name.

  Crushing her to him, he held her close, fingering her through the latent spasms to prolong her pleasure. His cock was a pillar of granite and his fingers were drenched with her essence when she finally lifted her head from his chest.

  Hazy with pleasure, her gaze met his, and she breathed his name.

  “Shhh.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead as he withdrew his hand from beneath her skirt. Because he couldn’t help himself, and wanted her to know it, he brought his hand to his lips. Inserting his middle finger into his mouth, he tasted her as he stared into her eyes.

  Her pretty mouth rounded in a silent gasp, and the flush riding her cheeks deepened. Repeating the process with his index finger, he fought his own shudder and dragged in a haggard breath. Dropping his forehead to rest against hers, he came as close to begging as he ever had.

  “Just say when, Piper. And say it soon. I want you so badly, I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”

  Chapter 10

  Twenty-four hours later, with half the funds for both the Marauders and Wyatt’s projects pending approval in her private account, Piper clicked the shutter, focusing on Tuck’s face. With an eye for composition, she’d skirted the patio of the Tuckers’ sprawling Long Island home in order to capture the line of trees at his back edging the green lawn. Their colorful fall foliage created a natural backdrop that would make the photos pop.

  There. She snapped off several shots in quick succession, capturing the handsome wide receiver’s pure joy as the molded plastic swing raced toward him on its forward arc, and his infant son squealed his excitement. Tight at first, Tuck had loosened up as the day passed, as if he’d forgotten her presence.

  “Tuck! Dear God. Not so high,” CC admonished from behind Piper.

  She glanced over her shoulder as CC exited the French doors leading from the kitchen.

  “He loves it. Don’t cha, big guy.” Tuck grinned and gave the swing a hearty push. Huey shrieked his agreement.

  Piper winced and snapped a few more shots as the swing reached its backward zenith, hovering for a fraction of a second with the delighted eleven-month-old stretched out perpendicular to the lawn. She made a mental note to keep these last few photos private, for Tuck and CC’s viewing alone. Made public, the damning pictures could potentially end up as evidence once the authorities launched their child endangerment investigation.

  “I’ll be completely gray before I’m thirty-one,” CC grumbled.

  Piper lowered her camera and turned. “That’s eleven months from now and you don’t have a single gray.”

  CC handed Piper a glass of wine, then shot a glance toward her husband and son. “With those two, it will take a lot less than a year.” She bit back a gasp and held out her arms. “Bring him here, Tuck, before he throws up.”

  Piper laughed and lined up CC in her lens. “I thought you said you’d be working in the gallery studio until five.”

  “It’s five-thirty. I ran by the grocer on my way home to pick up some wine and juice. Kris and the rest of the Gridiron Girls are joining us for dinner.”

  “There goes the neighborhood,” Tuck called as he unbuckled Huey from his swing.

  CC huffed at his teasing slight to her friends. The Gridiron Girls, as the five friends referred to themselves, included CC and her cousin, Kris, who had married Tuck’s brother, Tim, last year. V Fitzpatrick was also part of the group, but Piper had yet to meet the last two women. According to CC, Gracie Malone, wife of the Marauders’ retired, record-breaking tight end turned broadcaster, was the apparent leader of the group. Then there was Jessi Tucker-Grayson, Tuck’s country music superstar cousin.

  Piper lowered the camera. “Oh, CC. I wish you wouldn’t go to such trouble. I’m here to work, not to be wined and dined.”

  “It’s no trouble, and it’s the least I can do since you insist on staying at a hotel instead of here with us.” CC waved her off. “Anyway, the girls wanted to meet you.”

  Tuck approached and wrapped CC in a one-armed hug. Piper stealthily raised her camera to document the heated kiss he bestowed on his wife before handing her their son. They shared a private smile, and a pang of envy tugged at a spot just below Piper’s heart. Would she ever know the type of passionate and joyous relationship her friend had found with her handsome player husband? If, by some miracle, Piper found the simple man whose vague image hovered in her mind, was she even capable of the deep and lasting love required to build a happy life and family? After Cody, she’d come to believe she wasn’t and the possibility left a lingering sadness behind.

  She shook aside the melancholy as Tuck shot a glance at the house. “I think I’ll make myself scarce before the horde arrives.”

  CC nuzzled her baby boy’s cheek. “Weenie. I don’t expect them for a few minutes yet.”

  “Good. Gives me a decent head start.” Swatting her behind, he headed for the house.

  “You’re just trying to get out of helping with dinner preparations,” she called to his back.

  He laughed as he disappeared inside.

  “I’ll help,” Piper offered. “What do you need?”

  CC shook her head. “Nothing, actually. A little Italian place in the center of town delivers. The food will be here in a half hour.” She waved a hand toward the patio table, indicating Piper should sit, then joined her. Arranging Huey on her lap, she pinned Piper with squinted eyes. “Which gives me plenty of time to find out why you arrived here this morning looking like you hadn’t slept a wink.”

  Piper winced. “That’s probably because I didn’t.”

  “Why not?” Concern flashed in CC’s Irish-green eyes. “What’s happened?”

  “I’ve miscalculated, CC. Badly.” Piper bit her bottom lip. “Since you obviously told V Fitzpatrick about it, you remember the stipulation Da had in his will.”

  CC’s nose wrinkled with her guilty grimace. “I didn’t give V any actual details. She simply asked if I thought you would be open to taking the photographs for her project. I remembered you mentioning you owed your cousin her inheritance and told V I thought you could use the money.” Her eyes filled with apology. “I’m sorry, Piper. I was just trying to help.”

  Piper sighed. “I know you were, and what you told V was the truth. I do need the money. Desperately.” She shook her head. “What I didn’t tell you was just how much the estate owes Abigail or that I’m under a rapidly approaching deadline to pay it.”

  Worry wrinkled CC’s brow. “If you’re short, we could…”

  “Oh, dearest. No.” Horrified, Piper leaned forward to press a hand to CC’s arm. “I appreciate the offer, but it’s not necessary. Between the money the Marauders are paying me and the,” she dropped her gaze to fiddle with the zoom button on her camera, “um, project I’ve agreed to work on for Wyatt Hunter, I’ll have plenty of cash on hand to settle with Abigail before the New Year’s Eve deadline.”

  “Hold on.” Piper glanced up as CC tugged her pearl necklace from Huey’s chubby fist. “You’re working on a project with Wyatt?”

  Piper nodded.

 
; “What type of project?”

  “It’s sort of a… Well, it’s a…” Piper twisted the camera strap around her fingers, then tugged them free once more. “I’m shooting a hunk of the month calendar including him and eleven of his teammates.”

  “Of course, you are.” CC burst out laughing and shook her head. “This was his suggestion, I take it.”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, and he’s paying me a fortune to do it.”

  CC’s laughter choked off and her brows shot to her hairline. “Define fortune.”

  Piper arched a satisfied brow. “Enough to allow me to pay off the debt to my cousin when it’s all said and done.”

  CC blinked, but then cocked her head. “You said his teammates, right? Who are the other eleven?”

  “You know, I don’t know the answer to that, yet.” She hadn’t thought to ask for that detail during their negotiations. Then again, discussing details was difficult while sucking on a man’s tongue. She groaned inwardly.

  “That’s probably because Wyatt hasn’t asked the guys yet. If he had, Tuck would have known and had a blast ragging on Wyatt about the project before volunteering for a month himself, of course.” CC snickered. “But you said you’d miscalculated. How, exactly?”

  Dragged back to the original point of the conversation, Piper frowned in self-disgust. “By letting my libido get out in front of my head.”

  “Oh, reee-ally?” CC pinned her with an anticipatory stare.

  “I let him kiss me.” Piper cringed as the understated mistruth left her lips. “Twice! The first one I actually initiated. In your kitchen.”

  “You slut, you!” CC grinned. “And the second?”

  Piper blew a windy sigh. Twenty-four hours later, she was still teetering on the edge of meltdown just remembering it. “He initiated the second kiss and it was entirely too intense to be labeled a simple brush of lips.”

  “Well, well.” CC fanned her face, making Piper cough on a laugh.

  “I’m telling you, locking lips with him was a complete and utter miscalculation on my part.” She’d climaxed, for heaven’s sake. Fully clothed and standing on her feet, she’d come in Wyatt Hunter’s kitchen with no more stimulation than his kiss and the flick of his fingers. The man was a danger she couldn’t afford.

  She groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead.

  “Oh, please.” CC bounced Huey in her lap. “He’s single and gorgeous. So are you, and he’s obviously interested. Why do you think he showed up for lunch last week?” She smirked. “That excuse he and Tuck came up with that Wyatt was here to watch game tapes was laughable.”

  “Game tapes?”

  CC snorted. “Exactly. He showed up for one reason.” She pointed a finger at Piper’s nose. “You. I wondered what went on between the two of you before you came outside with the wine. And I noticed neither of you were bleeding, or even limping.” She grinned. “So much for your bad mojo with athletes theory.”

  “Yes, well, you didn’t let me finish. I also tentatively agreed to sleep with him for the next five weeks, so there’s still plenty of time on the clock for disaster to strike.”

  CC laughed and placed her wineglass out of Huey’s reach. “Neither of you are attached, so I still don’t see the problem.”

  Piper sipped her wine before answering. “The problem is, I didn’t think this through properly.” But after he’d rocked her with a standing orgasm, she’d done plenty of soul searching throughout the sleepless night. “In the cold light of day, I fear sleeping with him would be a mistake on multiple levels.” She gulped the remainder of her glass as the image of his face smiling at Mandy shimmered in her mind. “On a personal level, the more I see of Wyatt, the more I understand he’s not just an incredibly sexy man. He’s also a nice guy.”

  “Yeah, I can see how sleeping with a nice guy would be a problem.”

  Piper choked back a laugh at her friend’s sarcasm. “The problem is, I’m a pushover for a nice guy, and when he comes in a package like Wyatt’s?” She rested her free hand over her heart, not surprised to find it thumping erratically. “If I go forward with this, I fear I won’t be going home with my heart intact when it ends.”

  CC struggled to hold on to her wriggling son as he spotted a squirrel on a nearby tree. “Going into this relationship assuming it’s going to end might be the bigger mistake.” She shook her head. “Wyatt isn’t Cody. He might just surprise you. The fact is, you’re right. He is a nice guy.”

  “He’s also a player and a womanizer, who, I might add, agreed wholeheartedly with the temporary arrangement I suggested. In five weeks, I’ll return to England and, no pun intended, he’ll return to playing the field.”

  The smirk tweaking CC’s lips made Piper nervous. “Maybe so, but Wyatt wouldn’t be the first womanizing player to end his playboy ways thanks to a temporary arrangement.” She pressed a kiss to Huey’s cheek. “Trust me. I know. Tuck and I planned to go our separate ways after such an arrangement, and well.” Her eyes flashed with utter happiness. “You get my point.”

  Piper swallowed. “The situation between Wyatt and me is completely different than what happened with you and Tuck. Why, anyone can see the two of you were made for one another. Plus, you lived in the same city when you met. I live and work on another continent. Wyatt plays football for a living, and throws around money like it grows in his garden.”

  Her shoulders heaved on a sigh. “I have responsibilities in England, CC. I no longer have Da looking after things for me while I fly around the world like a carefree heiress. Not that I ever was one, as it turns out. Da spent every last shilling of his family’s money to keep Delaney Manor from being sold off. I owe it to him to assure that doesn’t happen now that he’s gone.”

  She shook her head. “The truth is, I’m broke. I have to work. At the same time, there are people counting on my good stewardship of Delaney Manor for their livelihoods.”

  “Who’s handling the stewardship of the manor right now?”

  Piper squinted at CC’s smirk. “You’re missing the point.”

  “Which is?”

  “My life and Wyatt’s are worlds apart and I need the money I’ve been promised here. Sleeping with him could jeopardize everything, considering our professional connection.” Piper grimaced. “Setting aside the calendar, I’m supposed to work with him on V’s Fab Five project. What do you think she’ll say if she finds out the two of us have become lovers?”

  “I’d say, as long as you produce the quality shots I’m after, who you sleep with is none of my business.”

  Piper whipped her head around and bit down a groan at discovering V approaching the table.

  Good Lord. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have none at all.

  Behind V, Kris and two visibly pregnant women exited the house from the kitchen. The Marauders’ PR consultant stopped beside the table and helped herself to CC’s half full glass of wine.

  Sipping briefly, V offered Piper an easy smile. “Of course, if you hurt him, you die.”

  Piper’s mouth dropped open and she blinked.

  “Piper!”

  Relieved by Kris’s timely interruption, Piper rose to her feet to hug CC’s cousin. “Good Lord, Kris, it’s been ages.”

  “Yes, it has.” Kris arched back to stab her with an accusing glare. “I can’t believe you were in town last week and I didn’t get to see you.”

  “You were in Cincinnati,” CC pointed out with a shake of her head.

  “That’s no excuse. I’d have come back early had I known Piper was going to be in town.”

  “It’s not Piper’s fault,” V supplied with a smirk. “We kept her pretty busy while she was here.”

  CC rose to make introductions. “Ladies, this is Piper Darrow. Piper, Gracie Malone and Jessi Tucker-Grayson.”

  Piper returned the women’s smiles. “It’s lovely to meet you both.
”

  “Same here.” With the exception of her prominent baby bump, Jessi, a petite redhead, looked exactly as she had on her latest CD.

  Gracie held out her arms to Huey. The tall blonde laughed as he abandoned his mother in a fearless leap. “We’re sorry for barging in on you your first full day in town, but we couldn’t wait to meet you. Not after CC told us all about the trouble the three of you got into as children in Italy.”

  As if on cue, Piper and CC spoke as one, “It was all Kris’s fault.”

  Their gazes met and they laughed. Kris shot them both a raspberry just as she had done when they were kids.

  “Kris’s ability to cause trouble is one of her best traits.” A dimple accompanied Gracie’s soft laughter and she turned to V. “So, who is it Piper is going to hurt, and why will she be dying for it?”

  Piper blinked, lost.

  V sent her a sidelong glance. “Wyatt has set his sights on Piper and she’s decided to give him a run for his money.”

  “Literally,” CC added.

  Piper bit back a groan.

  “She’s his new lucky charm,” V announced with a grin.

  Gracie turned to Piper. “Oh, do tell.”

  “Good for you, Piper. Wyatt Hunter is so hot,” Jessi proclaimed.

  “I…” More than a bit overwhelmed at having her personal life discussed by strangers, Piper decided silence was her safest bet.

  Gracie gently bumped Jessi’s hip with hers. “Don’t let Max hear you say that.”

  “She can do no wrong in Max’s eyes, these days.” Kris grinned. “Now that he knows his son will be arriving soon.”

  “Oh, Jessi.” Gracie’s eyes went misty. “A boy. When did you find out? And how is Max taking the news?”

  “Yesterday.” Jessi smiled dreamily. “He’s over the moon excited, which is an improvement on the green-around-the-gills look he wore for the first trimester.”

  Piper added her polite smile to the laughter from the other women, until Gracie turned to study her with an arched brow. The rest of the Gridiron Girls followed suit.