She nods, her hands framing my face. And even in the midst of this hot need, there’s a hint of a smile on her lips when she whispers, “No justs about it.”
I sink home.
12
Greg
I’VE WOKEN UP with plenty of women before, but waking up with Julia in my arms is like nothing else. She’s sexy and vulnerable and trusting, and all I want is to wrap my arms tighter around her, hold her closer than I already am. Thing is, she’s still sleeping, and as much as I want to get my squeeze on, I don’t want to ruin what is, quite possibly, one of the most perfect moments I’ve ever had.
She smells fucking amazing, and I’m thinking about my bed smelling like her after she leaves and wondering if it would be weird to ask my housekeeper to skip a week washing the sheets.
There’s a subtle change in her breathing, followed by the languid stretch of her body.
Taking my opportunity, I draw her closer, pressing my nose into her golden hair.
“Morning,” she purrs, cuddling into my heat with a contented sound that has my inner caveman thumping his chest.
Mine.
“Morning, Jules. Sleep okay?”
“So good.” Christ, it sounds like porn the way she says it, her morning voice all low and sultry. The sound of it goes straight to the man downstairs, and I feel like I’ve got to apologize for the way he’s shoving at her hip.
She shifts again, turning on her side so she’s facing me. Her bare breasts cushion against my chest, and her knee begins this leisurely up-and-down slide against my thigh. But it’s those sleepy soft brown eyes peering up at me that get me the most. I’m so lost in them, I almost don’t notice when her heel hooks around the back of my leg to draw me closer to the warm, wet—
Damn. I’m right there.
Right.
There.
If I thought I’d found heaven before, it had nothing on this.
“I was dreaming about you all night,” she murmurs against my chest between butterfly kisses.
I reach for her hip, pulling her closer. It feels so good, so slick and warm and inviting, but all I’m willing to give either of us is the slow rock of my hips against that soft, needy place. I cradle the sweet curve of her ass in my hand, using it to move us together in a tease that’s mostly torture. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold out.
“What were you dreaming about?” I want every detail.
“About this.” She sighs as I slide through her slickness without sinking inside. “About the way you kiss me and hold me and what it’s like when I have you inside me.”
I rock again, and her breath catches, her eyes hazing over.
“What’s it like?”
“Overwhelming. But in the best way.” Another fractured breath as I tease the head of my cock over her clit. “It’s like everything is too much when you’re inside me. Like I’m not sure I can even handle it, but then I realize I don’t have to. The only thing I need to do is give myself over, let go, and just feel you, filling me more than I ever thought I could be. Loving it.”
She doesn’t have any idea what her words are doing to me. She can’t.
I want her in ways I’ve never wanted other women. I want everything.
I’m coated in her slickness, driving us both to the brink of madness with this skin-on-skin contact I would never give in to with another woman. But with Julia, I can’t stop, and I don’t want to stop, until I’ve made her come. It’s as close as I can get to what I really want. Sinking inside her with nothing between us. No barriers.
The thought alone has me ready to spill with a deep guttural sound rumbling out of my chest as I push Julia back and knee her legs wide beneath me.
“Getting on top of you drives me fucking wild.”
Her lips part on the kind of satisfying gasp that makes a guy think he can do anything.
I slide over that sweet spot again and feel the buck of her hips. The tightening of her fingers in my hair.
“Condom?” she asks breathlessly. Despite my rock-hard fantasy, I know I should get one. I know I’ve already taken this too far. That every time I give in and the blunt head of my cock grazes over her opening, pressing in just enough to drive us both crazy, I’m tempting fate in a way I never usually do.
Five seconds, hell, three, and I’ll be suited up and sinking deep.
But that dark voice in my head keeps saying, just a few more seconds. Just a little longer. Just a little deeper.
“I want to feel you come like this. Then I’ll get one.” My hips haven’t stopped moving. I’m propped on one elbow next to her head, cradling her ass to bring her hips up, sliding back and forth with my cock trapped between our bodies so the hard ridge of the head drags over her clit in a firm press. “I want my cock drenched in your come. I want to be dripping with it.”
She’s already soaked, and every word I say seems to be getting me closer to my end goal.
“Greg, mmm, please, oh God, so good, just like that, don’t stop.”
“You like this, Jules?” I know she does. I can feel her spasm even from the outside.
“I do.” She’s tensed, her breath coming in ragged bursts as her hips snap against mine. “I love it.”
Jesus, I know she’s talking about the sex. Fine, about my dick in particular, but hearing that forbidden L-word spill from her lips in conjunction with any part of me feels like getting called up for the draft.
“You’re going to come for me.”
“Yes, mmm, Greg, just like that. Right there.”
I slow my movements and shorten my stroke, focusing on her needy little bud.
“Here?”
Her lips part on a stunted breath, her eyes going wide as they lock with mine. And I’ve got it. Exactly what I wanted… Julia coming against the bare skin of my cock, coating me with her pleasure.
I thought it would be enough, to have her this way. It’s more unprotected contact than I’ve ever had with any other woman. But fuck, I want more. Julia’s eyes meet mine, and I can see what she’s offering without words. We can do this. She’d let me into her perfect body… bare. Nothing between us.
That trust. It does something to me. It means something to me.
Emotion pushes at my chest. The way she’s looking at me, I don’t trust myself not to say something it’s too soon to say. Instead I kiss her, sinking into the softest, slowest, most tender and heartfelt kiss I can give, tasting her lips with the barest lick of my tongue, and when she opens beneath me, sinking into her mouth and tasting her there.
So sweet.
Sweeter still when she moans around my next measured thrust.
I make love to her mouth, thoroughly, completely.
Dragging myself from the brink, I roll on some latex before I do something neither of us can take back.
Leaning over her, I find that soft point of give between her legs and, eyes locked with hers, sink home. The snug fit of her body taking mine is so hot, so good. I don’t want to think about what it would have been like with nothing between us. How much louder her moans and cries would be. How hard I could make her come.
How she’d be the only one.
I want that.
Christ, for the first time since Shelly—shit. Don’t go there. Not now. Not with Julia beneath me, around me.
This is enough. More than. I don’t need to skip the rubber to make Julia lose her mind. I withdraw and, shifting my angle, push deep again. Her eyes go wide, and her breath escapes in a gasp. Deeper still, I rotate my hips, making sure she feels me everywhere.
I give her long and slow, hard and fast. Dirty and dirtier. Every trick in my book. Things I’ve only heard as rumor. All of it.
When I’ve made her come three times, and our bodies are slicked with sweat, and my back is scored from her nails, I bury myself deep and come so hard I see stars.
We lie there a few minutes, breathless, caught in the kind of intimate tangle I could live in forever. But the rubber’s got to go. Reluctantly I unravel our li
mbs and, crawling off the bed, drop a single kiss to her breast. When I return from the bathroom, Julia lifts the sheet for me to climb back in.
She rests her fingertips over my heart as we lie there. “That was as close to having sex without a condom as I’ve ever come.”
I press my hand over hers, holding it there. “Me too. Was it okay that we did it?”
She nods, her smile shy. “More than okay. And umm, just so you know, I’ve been on the pill longer than I’ve been having sex.”
I gently brush back a few strands of golden blonde hair that have fallen into her face. She’s got to be thinking about all the bullshit the press puts out about me. The different women, the player reputation. That hasn’t been me for a long time, but even when it was— “I’ve always been safe, always been tested, so you don’t need to worry.”
She gives me a contented yawn. “I’m not worried. I know you would never do anything that put me at risk. I trust you. More than any guy I’ve ever been with.”
I trust her, too. In too many ways to count.
“You know what I’m thinking about?” she asks around a satisfied sigh.
“My recovery time? How long before I can do that to you again?”
I’m pretty sure she was trying to give me a playful swat, but now she’s just feeling me up, and there’s not much in this world that feels better than the lazy exploration of her fingers over my chest and stomach.
“High school.”
Makes sense. “Wishing you’d let me kiss you that last night after all, huh?” All this time we could have been together. Hell, by now she’d probably be—
“I’m thinking about your mom’s van.”
Okay, so much for connecting on a level where we share each other’s thoughts. Clearly that’s bullshit, because my mom’s 2002 minivan was seriously the last place my mind would have gone. “Umm, what about it?”
“That van was parked outside the school at 2:35 every school day, your mom fidgeting in the front seat and then practically peeling out of the lot once you were in the car.”
Yeah, she’s a little intense. I should probably call her this week. “Had to get me to practice. It was kind of a haul.”
“Yeah. But what was always crazy to me was after the draft. After the signing bonus, even that last night when you met me at the lagoon, you showed up in that van. You could have bought yourself an Escalade or a Hummer, but you were still driving your mom’s teal van.” Stacking her hands over my chest, she rests her chin on top. “You paid off your parents’ mortgage, but you didn’t get yourself a new car.”
“I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do. I mean, Julia, the sacrifices they made so I’d have the opportunities I did—moving to Bearings sophomore year? They gave up jobs and friends and a house they loved so I’d be within driving distance of a Tier 1 team. My mom drove ninety minutes each way to get me to those practices.” I run my hand over the silky strands of her hair. “What’s got you thinking about that stuff?”
She smiles, but there’s almost something bittersweet about it. “I didn’t give you enough credit when you were leaving. You kept saying us being friends wasn’t going to change just because you were going into the NHL. You dropped me at home that last night, and I went into my room and cried because I was so sure it was the last time I’d talk to you.”
I remember what it was like saying goodbye to her.
I was terrified about going to Dallas. Worried I was going to fail and that all the things I’d given up over the years—parties, dances, prom, relationships that required a commitment I’d already made to my sport, college—would be for nothing.
Julia looked me in the eye that night and told me she believed in me. That I was going to make it. But that even if somehow things didn’t work out—I would never have to wonder what might have been if I’d just given that much more. I’d given everything I had, and she was proud of me. It was what I’d needed to hear from my best friend, and in that moment, I’d wanted her to be more. Of course, she shut me down with a consolation IOU, one that’s paid off pretty well, based on the fact that we’re both lying in bed naked. But I still can’t believe she thought I’d disappear on her.
“Julia, it kills me to think of you like that. Especially considering I had to force myself to wait to call you when I got there.”
Her head pops up, shock in her eyes. “What?”
“I didn’t want you to think I was some wuss, too chickenshit to make it a day in the big leagues without needing to check in with his emotional support buddy.”
That earns me another one of those swat-feel combos. Then she’s shaking her head.
“You’re a really good guy, Greg.”
I cough. Wrapping my arm snugly around her, I flip her over so I’m on top. “Julia, we’ve known each other for thirteen years. You’re just figuring this out now?”
She laughs, and the sound makes everything okay. “No! No. I’ve always known it. I just wish I didn’t always doubt the good things.”
Peering down into her soulful eyes, I promise, “You’ll never have to doubt me.”
13
Greg
LET’S GO OUT,” I suggest, kissing my way down Julia’s neck to the little spot I discovered a few weeks back. The one that gets me results of the breath-catching, eyes-hazing, lip-biting variety. “I want to buy you a giant breakfast with waffles and bacon and whipped cream. Fresh-squeezed orange juice and too many cups of coffee. Late practice today, so I’m off until four. We could take a walk down by the lake.”
She smiles, moaning softly when I flick my tongue against her skin. “Food sounds great, especially the whipped cream, but what do you think the chances are of getting all that ordered in?”
I press my brow to her shoulder and breathe. It was worth the ask.
It’s been a month since Julia and I started sneaking around in earnest, and truth be told, I’m surprised we haven’t gone public yet. Initially, it made sense to be cautious. She wanted to make sure this thing between us stuck. But it’s good with us.
And I’m not talking about the sex, which is also fucking good. Seriously, hot as sin.
What I’m getting at is, it’s more than that. The full package.
We talk. We tease. We bicker and debate and trash-talk and fall into bed laughing on the nights we’re in town together.
We order late-night takeout, and once, after I was gone for a six-day stretch, we even tried to cook dinner together. It was pathetic, and I had to throw out half a set of ruined cookware, but when the smoke cleared and the fire alarm was silenced, it was just the two of us standing there in each other’s arms, laughing so hard we could barely stand. When we finally caught our breath, I looked into her smoke-reddened eyes and it hit me square in the center of my chest.
This woman couldn’t be more perfect for me if I’d scribbled one of those wish lists and set it on fire to let the ashes float up to God himself.
I want to take her out. Show her off.
I want Rux to stop talking about how hot she is.
I want my sister to come over and give me relentless shit in front of her, just so I get to hear Julia laugh a little more.
I want to take her to my mom’s for our traditional not-on-actual-Christmas Christmas dinner.
I want to go to one of her football games and make sure all those players who keep asking her out know she’s mine, and just answer her questions like fucking professionals.
Jesus, I want to take a walk with her.
But more than any of that, I want her to want it too.
Her fingers thread through my hair, sliding around in that way that almost feels as good as sex. “Are you mad that I don’t want to take things public?”
I pull back to meet her eyes. “No. No way, Jules. And it’s not like we’re talking about waiting forever here, right?”
The tiniest wince flashes across her face, and I can’t quite believe she hasn’t filled this pause that’s stretching just a little too long with assu
rances.
I clear my throat. “You’re protective of your career. I respect that. But it’s not like I’m in the NFL.”
“No, but you’re a pro athlete, and that’s enough to get people talking.”
“Maybe, but at some point, that’s a bridge you have to be willing to cross.” I need her to hear me. “This isn’t a fling, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Again, there’s a flash of vulnerability in her eyes. I lean closer, gentling my tone. “It’s you and me. We know each other in ways that put us past casual before we even crossed the first line.”
“I know. And of course I’m planning to cross that bridge with you. I am.” Snagging the sheet that’s draped across my waist, she wraps it around hers like a sarong as she slips out of bed topless. “It’s just timing.”
Damn. My eyes fix on her breasts as she gathers her hair above her head and clips it into a messy knot.
It’s a cheap tactic, and I know she’s trying to distract me.
She’s not ready. I said I’d be cool about it, and for her, I will be.
So I soak in the sight of her beautiful body and let the rest go.
Julia
I’m in New York to meet with my agent, Joanne Peets. It’s gone from an afternoon meeting to a meeting and a drink and now to a meeting, drink, and dinner. It’s exciting that she’s got so many opportunities to talk about and ideas for upping my recognition beyond just the sideline reporting. And while I’m honored to be invited to speak at my alma mater and present an award at a literacy benefit, I can’t help but wish she had something for me with more long-term potential.
We’re finishing our braised lamb appetizer when I hear a familiar voice from behind me.
“Well, if it isn’t two of my very favorite girls in the world.”
“Mike!” Joanne beams over my shoulder and quickly stands to meet him.
I follow that adoring look and, sure enough, find Mike Rylan, NFL superstar, walking up behind us.