Play to Win

by Kelly Jamieson

  I find myself talking to Lacey about some of the issues I’m facing with the team as we eat our delicious breakfasts. She doesn’t try to solve the problems for me, obviously, but her intent listening and the questions she asks help me process things.

  After breakfast we go home, and I find myself saying, “Okay, let’s go for a walk.”

  Lacey’s face lights up and that makes a warm glow spread through my chest. We walk close to the water on the firm, damp sand, Lacey pausing to pick up shells or unusual rocks.

  “This one’s shaped like a heart.” She holds it up then pockets it.

  Her joy in such a simple thing makes my heart turn over in my chest. I spot another heart-shaped one, which I pass to her. I keep walking with my head down, watching for others.

  “Byron!”

  Startled, I look up at Lacey’s shout. She’s greeting a dog, a beautiful golden retriever. Byron? What the hell?

  Byron seems happy to see her too, trying to lick her face, and she’s laughing. I glance over at the woman with Byron, who’s smiling.

  “See, he likes you,” the woman says.

  “You’re such a good boy, aren’t you. Such a handsome boy.” She rubs Byron’s ears, then straightens and looks at me. “This is Byron. And Taylor. My husband, Théo.”

  Taylor reaches out to shake my hand. “Nice to meet you, Théo. I hear you’ve moved into Bobby’s house.”

  “Yeah.” Perplexed, I glance back and forth between Lacey and Taylor. “You two know each other?”

  “We met yesterday out here.” Lacey turns to Taylor. “How was your date?”

  “Omigod, the worst!” She rolls her eyes. “Dinner went okay, but just as we were leaving the restaurant, he took off running down the street.”

  “What!”

  “I started running after him, asking what was wrong, and he yelled ‘Cops! I have a warrant out for my arrest!’ So I stopped and the police ran past me and arrested him. Apparently he was dealing crack cocaine.”

  Lacey’s mouth drops open and she stares at Taylor. “That is the worst!”

  “I know, right?” Taylor shakes her head. “I have no luck with men.”

  I’m speechless.

  “You want to come over for margaritas?” Lacey asks her. “I’m going to make guacamole because I’m on a mission to eat avocado every day.”

  She’s already had avocado today, but I like guacamole.

  “Sure. Let me take Byron home.”

  “No, bring him! I love him.” She pets Byron then turns big eyes on me. “You should get a dog.”

  “Let me think about that. No.”

  She laughs. “What? You don’t like dogs?”

  “Sure, I do.” I hold out my hand so Byron can sniff my knuckles. “I just don’t have time for one.”

  “Bah.”

  Within a short time, we’re at home, on the patio, drinking margaritas and eating chips and salsa and guacamole and Manny has joined us and there’s music playing. And I should be at the office, but I’m not, because I’m laughing and drinking tequila and I haven’t been this relaxed and happy in a long time.

  “You think your family’s weird,” Manny says. “My grandma has fake plants but she puts them in real dirt.”

  Taylor laughs. “That’s hilarious! My grandma—bless her soul—used to turn off the TV when she was undressing because she didn’t want the men on TV to see her naked.”

  We all laugh uproariously. The tequila might have something to do with it.

  I can’t take my eyes off Lacey—her smile is radiant, her jokes make me laugh, she’s absolutely fucking gorgeous. And I can’t have her. Christ.

  Then Taylor tells Manny about her date last night. He commiserates. “I once had a date with a woman and when I showed her a picture of my dog, she said ‘I hate dogs’ so I got up and left.”

  “You have a dog?” Taylor’s eyes light up.

  I meet Lacey’s eyes. Taylor and Manny seem to be getting along great.

  She grins at me and holds up her margarita glass. Okay, it’s a wineglass, but whatever. I’ll have to get some margarita glasses.

  We end up cooking chicken breasts and veggies on the grill, then Manny and Taylor head home, eyeing each other like they both want to say something but don’t.

  “They’ll totally get together,” Lacey says as we clean up the kitchen.

  “You think so?”

  “I know so.”

  Her confidence and pleasure in her prediction for her new friend is a total turn-on. Don’t ask me why. I want to crowd her against the counter and kiss her until neither of us can breathe and she’s begging me to fuck her.

  Jesus.

  I dry my hands on a towel and hang it inside the cupboard.

  “Let’s go in the hot tub,” Lacey suggests.

  I gaze at her for a moment, remembering our drive from Vegas to L.A. and her telling me she’d rather have sex in a hot tub than on the beach.

  I swallow a groan. This is probably an epically bad idea. If I’m having a hard time keeping my hands off her, it’s not going to be any easier sitting in a hot tub half naked.

  “We haven’t tried it out yet,” she adds.

  I try to run through pros and cons and identify alternatives. If I say no, her feelings could be hurt. Or not. Maybe she’d rather be alone. If I say yes, I’ll be…aw, fuck it. “Okay.”

  “I’ll go get my swimsuit on!” She darts away into her bedroom.

  Once again she’s got me doing things I know I shouldn’t do. And the weird thing is…I don’t even care.

  I don’t want to analyze this too much, which is also weird, because I live for analysis. Maybe sometimes it’s better to just not dig too deep.

  Or maybe I’m a coward.

  Whatever. I jog upstairs and change into a pair of board shorts. The hot tub is outside my bedroom so I head out and lift off the cover. Steam rises into the air along with the scent of bromine. I turn on the jets and the lights, and let the water churn for a few minutes while I wait for Lacey.

  She appears in my bedroom door, and all the air leaves my lungs. I can’t fucking breathe. Her red bikini doesn’t cover much, and she’s absolutely goddamn gorgeous. Her hair is piled on top of her head in a bunch of loops and she drops a towel onto a chair and smiles.

  The sun is setting and the solar lamps on the deck are illuminated, the sky above us a deep blue with a few stars winking here and there. Lacey walks toward me and I can’t speak, can’t think, still can’t breathe.

  Chapter 16

  Théo

  “This is going to be so nice.” She dips a hand into the water. “Hot.”

  “That’s the idea.” I clear my scratchy throat.

  The hot tub is built in, with two steps up to it. Lacey climbs them, giving me a stellar view of her ass, barely covered by the scrap of red Lycra, then lowers herself into the water and wades into a corner. She lets out a long sigh as she sinks into a seat. “Lovely.”

  I leap in and submerge myself to hide the wood I’m suddenly sporting. The hot water closes around me. I’m in the opposite corner to Lacey, nowhere near enough to touch her. Except our feet. My toes brush hers when I stretch my legs out.

  She leans her head back and closes her eyes. “Oh my God, this is wonderful.”

  “It’s pretty nice.”

  “I can just feel the tension melting out of me.”

  “Yeah. Wait. What tension? We had fun today.”

  “Oh, you know. Just normal stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  She sighs. “I’m still worried about Chris.”

  “Have you heard any more from him?”

  “I texted him yesterday, and he did reply and said he’s fine. I think he’s mad at me.”
<
br />   “He has no fucking right to be mad at you.”

  One corner of her mouth kicks up. “I know.”

  “When we left Vegas, you were pissed at him for trying to pimp you out and disappearing, and you were strong enough to cut him loose to stand on his own two feet.”

  “Yeah. But I still worry about him.”

  I wade through the water over to crouch in front of her. I take her hands and squeeze them. “You’re being the strong one, you know. You’re doing the right thing.”

  “As long as he doesn’t end up dead.”

  Ugh. That is a concern. I wish I could fix things for her. “He won’t. And I for one am glad you’re here, and safe.”

  She leans forward and plants a kiss on my mouth. My body zooms to attention, going still other than my dick which swells and twitches. It’s a chaste, closed-mouth kiss that lasts a few seconds, then she draws back and says, “Thank you.”

  I stare at her, my body tingling, blood rushing hot through my veins. Her expression changes, her eyes darkening, her lips parting. I study that mouth. I want to feel it on mine again. I want to taste her. I want her warm wet curves pressed up against me, especially one part of me that’s throbbing with need.

  “Théo…”

  I shift closer, sloshing water, to find her waist. I clasp my hands on her and her knees part to let me closer. I’m weirdly weightless in the water. She sets her hands on my shoulders.

  “Kiss me again,” I quietly order.

  Her eyelids drift down and she leans forward. Our mouths come together in another kiss, this one gentler, our lips clinging, until I open mine on hers, coaxing her to open to me too. I lick inside, tasting her sweetness, swallowing her soft moan.

  Her fingers tighten on my shoulders and I break the kiss to tilt my head and go in deeper. I ease her forward on the seat of the tub until I’m wedged between her thighs and my aching cock is pressed against her soft pussy.

  “Oh.” She breathes against my mouth and then she slides closer still, winding her arms around my neck, pressing her breasts against my chest, hooking her heels behind my back.

  Christ.

  My hands wander over her, up and down her sides, around to her ass and I pull her even tighter against me, thrusting my hips a little. She makes a needy sound in her throat. The glowing water bubbles and swirls around us. My blood is swirling and rushing through my veins too, straight to my cock, which is so goddamn hard it hurts.

  I move my mouth off hers and drag it over her jaw and her head falls back as I kiss her neck, then her throat. Those sweet tits are right in front of me, barely covered by the bikini top.

  “We’re not supposed to be doing this,” she murmurs as I lick the hollow of her throat. “You said…”

  I sigh. “Yeah. I did.”

  She lifts her head and focuses lust-hazed eyes on me. “Do you want to stop?”

  “Christ, no.”

  “Me either.”

  “Then let’s not.” I kiss her again, deep consuming kisses that she responds to with clutching hands and needy sounds.

  Lust punches through my stomach, every nerve ending in my body on fire. My cock is a throbbing spike.

  When we pull apart, nearly gasping for breath, our eyes meet. It’s like a spell, holding us in place. My heart pounds.

  Lacey lifts her hands to behind her neck and unties her bathing suit top.

  My breath stalls in my chest, my lungs deflating.

  Inch by inch, she lowers the top, revealing perfect, firm round breasts tipped with the most erotic nipples I’ve ever seen, perfect hard little nubs.

  “Jesus,” I rasp. “You’re beautiful.”

  She gives me a shy smile and I reach for her, cupping the resilient flesh, squeezing gently, the feel of her in my palms making me ecstatic. Blissful. I catch her nipples between my thumbs and forefingers and squeeze, tugging them out.

  She whimpers.

  I watch as I play there, pinching and pulling, her nipples going a gorgeous deep rose. Her eyelids droop and her breath is choppy. Her arms go lax in the water and she whispers, “Oh God, that feels good.”

  Yeah, it sure as hell does. Electricity pours into my body, zapping and jolting me, my need for her burning inside me.

  I reach around behind her and undo the back of the bikini, then toss it over the side of the hot tub. “Nobody can see us up here.”

  “I don’t know.” Her eyes flicker toward the glass panels at the front of the deck, facing the ocean.

  It’s all dark out there, and we’re on the second story. I shake my head. “No.”

  “Okay.”

  I grasp her waist and lift her. She lets out a little shriek, grabbing my arms. I plant her butt on the side of the hot tub and hook my fingers into the bikini bottoms to drag them off.

  “Pretty sure Bobby intended this tub to be used in the nude.”

  “You think?” Her slow smiles sets my groin on fire.

  “Yeah.” And I tug the laces of my board shorts to loosen them and shove them down over my hips. They float away in the bubbling water.

  Lacey’s gaze drops to my dick, which expands even more. “Oh. That’s nice.”

  “Yeah?” I give my shaft a firm tug.

  “Yeah.” Her tongue slides along her bottom lip.

  I move closer, sloshing water, parting her thighs. Then I glance over where I left my towel. “Hang on.” I wade over to grab it, fold it into a thick pad and set it beside her, then lift her onto it. The wall of the house is only a foot or so away and I ease her back to lean against the smooth cement. Then I lay my hands on her inner thighs again and press them open.

  I drink in the sight of her beauty—perfect feminine bliss, plump, smooth flesh with a neat patch of light brown hair above it. “Gorgeous.”

  “Th-thank you.” She’s flushed everywhere now, her chest, her throat, her face. Her eyes glitter and she reaches out a hand to touch my chest.

  “Are you okay there? Is that towel enough padding?”

  “I’m okay.” Her voice is breathy. “Are you going to touch me?”

  “Oh hell yeah. I’m going to touch you. I’m going to lick you. And suck on you. Until you come on my face.”

  She shivers. “Oh my God.”

  I caress her inner thighs lightly, sliding up and down, closer and closer to her center, studying her with focused intensity. Then I lean in, closing my eyes, and breathe in her scent. “I need to taste you,” I whisper.

  She whimpers.

  I kiss her softly, over the smooth skin of her plump outer lips, sucking gently, letting my tongue linger. Then I use my thumbs to part her lips and I slide my tongue through heaven.

  She twitches, one hand gripping my hair. “Ohhh yeah.”

  I lick her more, up, down into the crease of her groin then back to her center, probing with my tongue, swallowing her essence. Then I flick the tip of my tongue over her clit.

  She jolts again, yanking my hair. I fucking love it.

  Her body is quivering, quaking. I go for it, laving her swollen bud, sliding a finger inside her to curl against her inner wall. She cries out again, and again, shaking harder, and I suck her clit into my mouth.

  Her fingers pull my hair again as her body spasms, clutching around my finger, and she makes the sexiest gasping noises I’ve ever heard.

  I gently lick her more until she relaxes a little, then lift my head. “Okay?”

  “Oh my God.” Her head rests against the house, her eyes closed. “Oh my God.”

  I kiss my way up over her abdomen, between her breasts, and then I kiss her mouth softly. “Making you come is my new favorite thing.”

  She gives a choked little laugh and kisses me back, then sets a hand on my chest to push me away and slides back int
o the water.

  “Are you cold?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, good, because I’m taking you out of here. I’m going to fuck you.” I pause. “Okay?”

  “Oh God, yes, please.”

  I lift her out again and lead her over to one of the lounge chairs, which have nice thick cushions. She lays down and smiles at me as I kneel on the cushion between her legs. Then I pause. “Hold on. Gotta grab a condom.”

  I zip into the bedroom and grab one, rolling it on as I hustle back out there.

  “We’re married,” she murmurs as I rejoin her on the chair. She reaches for my hips. “We shouldn’t need that.”

  “We can talk about that later.”

  “ ’Kay.”

  I can’t take my eyes off her, so beautiful, her smile heartwarming, her body supple and smooth and perfect. I stretch out over her to kiss her again, first her mouth, then her throat, then the tops of her breasts. “I love your tits,” I mumble before taking a nipple into my mouth.

  I sense her smile. “Thank you.” She cups the back of my head as I suck on her, her nipple stiff against my tongue. I love how her breath hitches, how her hips roll up against me as I tug and draw on the budded tips, one, then the other, until she’s shaking again.

  I slip a hand between us to find her wetness, and yeah, she’s wet. So wet. I push back up onto my knees and carefully find her entrance with the head of my cock. I look up to watch her face and see her watching me too, eyes dark and glittering, her lips parted hungrily. “Okay?”

  “Yes. God, yes.”

  It takes a bit to work myself all the way inside her. She’s tight, gripping my cock, almost making me lose it. I grit my teeth, sensation flowing through me, hot and electric. My skin prickles all over, pressure building. A groan rumbles up from my chest as I’m finally, finally seated inside her, all the way, and she throbs around me in an erotic rhythm. I go still, holding on by a thread, my body pulsing and hot everywhere.

  Then I move. I hold her thighs and rock into her, my cock sliding in and out in a sublime tempo, trying not to go too fast but dammit, I can’t, I can’t hold back. My eyes meet hers, which go wide as we move together, both of us feeling something…huge. Something…unexpected.