Dare To Love Series: Dreaming Up a Dare (Kindle Worlds Novella) (7 page)

He seemed to recover faster than I did, brushing my hair out of my face and drawing me in to kiss me again. Possibly because the vibrator was still doing its thing, keeping me on the edge of another climb.

Slipping my hand between our bodies, I hooked a finger into the curve to pull it out, but Jackson put his hand over mine and stopped me.

“Turns out that was an excellent investment,” he murmured between kisses.

“Mmm. But if you don’t turn it off, I might have to put you in a headlock.”

“Promise?”

I jabbed an elbow in his ribs, which only made him laugh. Which made me laugh.

For some reason, I’d been worried that we’d never be able to laugh together again now that we’d had sex. Maybe I’d been worried for nothing.

Jackson pried my hand away from the vibrator and rolled over me again, pinning both my hands up beside my head. Out of instinct, I wrapped my legs around his waist and held him close to me.

“You believe me yet?” he asked, gently rocking against me and pushing me closer to the brink again.

“Believe you?” I was still far too distracted to sort out what he meant.

“That I love you. I mean, not like a sister. I don’t have one, so I don’t know how it feels to love a sister, but there isn’t a chance in hell I could—”

I stopped him with a kiss, which only came to an end when he nipped my lower lip between his teeth and let out a rumbling sound that turned me on even more. “Keep that up and we’ll be going back for round two,” he bit off.

“I’m okay with round two.”

“You believe me yet?” he asked again.

So he wasn’t ready to give up on that.  And honestly, I wasn’t sure it was worth my while to try to fight it. Not if things could be like this between us. There wasn’t any good reason we couldn’t still be best friends, even if we were more than that.

“I believe you,” I said, licking my lip where he’d bitten me.

His gaze followed the path of my tongue, and that cocky grin made its way back to his lips. “You sure?”

“Positive. And thank goodness you do, because I’ve been in love with you forever.”

“Same here. It’s about time we stopped being stupid.”

“It’s about time you get on with it,” I said, wiggling my hips against him and laughing when his eyes flashed with a dangerous look. I kind of liked that look. A lot. In fact, I hoped I’d be seeing a lot more of it now, if we were lucky.

“Careful now,” he whispered in my ear. “You said you just wanted sex tonight, but if you don’t watch it…” He left that threat hanging in the air between us.

My mind automatically filled it in with having him spank me. The crazy thing was, I wasn’t as thoroughly opposed to the idea as I’d been before. Probably because I was horny as hell.

He was already getting hard again. I tried to free one of my hands so I could drag his mouth back down to mine, but Jackson was too strong and refused to let go. Since he wouldn’t give in, I arched up into him, grinding my hips into him.

Jackson laughed, and damn it all if his laughter wasn’t contagious.

“Give me a minute to get a fresh condom,” he said, rolling off me.

I started to roll with him, but he sent a look in my direction that had me staying put.

In no time he was back, slipping between my legs and pinning me to the mattress, his mouth next to my ear as he rocked his hips in the most delicious, torturous way.

“I love you, Pepper,” he said, threading his fingers with mine and trapping my hands next to my head. “I love you.”

And this time, I didn’t just hear him with my ears.

I heard him with my heart.

Jackson

“I don’t know
what the fuck’s gotten into you,” Barnes said after practice on Wednesday, “but whatever it is, I like it and hope you keep it up. You haven’t played this well since your rookie season.”

“Yeah, but the rest of the league didn’t know how to handle Mad Dog then,” LeBlanc said, walking past us on his way to the trainers’ room. “Now they do. They’ll shut him down again in no time. Everyone always does.”

I glared at LeBlanc’s retreating back but bit my tongue. That was one of the things I’d promised the coaches—that I’d keep all the shit that was between us out of the room, even when that son of a bitch didn’t. I tossed my pads on the shelf in my stall and threw my dirty clothes in my gym bag, seething in silence and hurrying through the last few things I had to do before heading home to Pepper.

The last thing I needed to do was let LeBlanc get under my skin, especially since I was more than happy to let him and Elle have each other. They deserved each other, and besides, I was a hell of a lot happier with Pepper than I’d ever been when Elle and I were together.

“Shake it off,” Barnes said so no one but I could hear him. “Don’t let him win. It’ll only go to his head, and God knows he doesn’t need anything else swelling that massive melon.”

He had a point. I took a minute to breathe and calm myself down. Going
Mad Dog
in the locker room wouldn’t be a good idea right now. Or ever. It was one thing on the ice, and something else entirely off it.

“You were right, you know,” I said once I thought I could speak without blowing a gasket.

“Right about what?”

“You said getting laid would improve my mood.”

He cut up laughing. “Thought you weren’t like that with Pepper.”

“We weren’t. Now we are.” And thank fuck for that. The two of us had spent almost every waking moment we were together over the last few days in my bed, other than when I was busy with the Ice and when she was working with Alex Dare.

Well, not only in my bed. We’d also been busy in the living room. We’d tried in the shower, too, but that hadn’t worked out well with our height difference. At least we’d only come away with a couple of bruises and not broken bones. I wasn’t inclined to tell the coaches that I’d caused myself significant damage because I was screwing my best friend, who just so happened to be the world’s clumsiest gymnast.

“Knew that was only a matter of time.” Barnes laughed, which wasn’t uncommon. The guy might be the captain, but he was also one of the biggest practical jokers on the team.

Which reminded me… “Take it easy on Pepper tonight, okay?” The guys typically only pranked each other, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

“You know me,” he said.

“I do. Which is why I want to be sure you’re not going to give her a hard time.” It’d be hard enough for her to get through the party if everyone completely ignored her and left her to her own devices.

“I’ll be on my best behavior. And besides, I think you’re going to luck out.”

“Luck out?”

“LeBlanc told me he didn’t think he’d make it. Something about his brother being in town.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” I said.

It was going to be hard enough getting Pepper through the party without her having a panic attack. I didn’t need the added worry of having to deal with Elle and LeBlanc on top of that.

~ * ~ * ~

Pepper was in
the kitchen with at least a dozen different things going at once when I came home. She looked up and grinned when I tossed my gym bag on the floor. Arya took Pepper’s moment of distraction to jump up on the counter again, heading toward a bowl of raw chicken pieces. I grabbed the cat before she could chow down, tossing her into my bedroom and closing the door while she grumbled and hissed at me.

“You know we don’t have to take food with us tonight, right?” I said, sliding in behind Pepper and wrapping an arm around her waist. “It’s not like at home, where every get-together is a potluck and you have to take a few dishes to share with everyone.”

She snuggled back against me. How quickly we’d settled into being a couple still shocked me, especially after it had taken us so long to get to this point. Our relationship was the same as it had been before, mostly, other than the fact that we had more sex than a couple of rabbits in heat and when she put me in a headlock these days, it was while I licked her pussy and she held my head in place with her insanely strong thighs.

“I’m not making it for tonight,” she said, reaching for a clean butcher’s knife.

Now that I had a look at all the things she had out, I realized I didn’t recognize the majority of the equipment, and I was sure I didn’t own most of it. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“I told you Alex had set up a meeting for me with the Thunder’s chef.”

She had, but I hadn’t thought much of it. Just about the only thing I could think about lately was touching her and coming up with new ways to make her come. As far as I was concerned, she didn’t need a job. I wouldn’t stand in her way, of course, but I had no problem with it if all she wanted to do was spend her days naked in my bed. That still didn’t explain what was going on in my kitchen.

“Yeah…” I said.

“Well, I met with him today. He thinks he can help me get set up as a private chef. There’s a company he knows, and they’re looking for someone to work specifically with elite athletes, but he needs to see what I can cook and how I can prepare things in advance to be easily reheated, things like that. Healthier than frozen dinners, using fresh ingredients, but getting the kind of nutrition an athlete needs for peak performance. So I’m making a few meals to take back to him tomorrow.”

“Got it.” I reached for a cherry tomato and popped it into my mouth. “I get to sample tonight, right?”

She swatted at my hand when I reached for another. “You’re as bad as your cat.”

“But I’m hotter.”

“Don’t forget I have an enormous knife in my hand.” When I went for another tomato, she waved it in my direction. “And I’m a klutz. You never know what’ll happen around me.”

I swatted her lightly on the ass and backed away. “That’s not something I could ever forget if I tried. So I guess that means I don’t get to sample?”

“You can when I’m done. Not before.”

“So you’re going to starve me.” I walked around to the other side of the bar and took a seat on the stool, having a hard time not salivating over some of the stuff right in front of me. Particularly Pepper.

She pursed her lips and raised a brow. “Hardly. How was practice?”

“Had a hard time focusing.”

“Why’s that?” She cut an avocado in half and, just when I thought she was going to whack her hand in half with the butcher’s knife, deftly removed the pit.

“Because all I could think about was how much I want to get you to try something different. Something you wouldn’t normally do.”

“Different like eating haggis?”

“Different like kinky.”
Out of her comfort zone
might be more accurate for what I was thinking.

She might have had a threesome once upon a time, but so far sex between us had been relatively normal. She’d been game for using the vibrator, and we’d gotten it on in different rooms, but otherwise it had been Tab A in Slot B. It hadn’t been bad—in fact, it had been better than I ever could have imagined—but I liked variety. I liked to spice things up.

I liked a hint of danger, and tonight provided a perfect opportunity for that.

Pepper set the knife down and gave me a nervous look. “How kinky? Because I already told you—”

“I’m not talking about spanking you. Or you spanking me, for that matter.”

“Then what?”

I shrugged, trying to make it seem like a casual request, even though there wasn’t anything casual about it. “That vibrator was pretty quiet.”

“The remote-controlled one.” A statement, not a question. Her shoulders tensed.

“Yeah. That’s the only one we’ve used.” I tried not to laugh, but she was already getting worked up, and I hadn’t fully put my idea in front of her yet. “It’ll be loud tonight. No chance anyone—”

“You want to use a vibrator on me in public,” she cut in.

“It’s not public. It’s a private party in a private house.”

She scowled, which seemed appropriate. My argument was feeble, and I knew it. I got a strange sense of satisfaction that this part of our relationship hadn’t changed in the slightest.

“Yeah, a private house full of all sorts of strangers,” she shot back. “Strangers
you
want me to make a good impression on.”

“I just thought it might help you relax some.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “How on earth will using a sex toy with all sorts of strangers around me help me relax?”

“By taking your mind off the fact that you’re surrounded by so many strangers,” I said. Then I realized that didn’t come out right. If anything, it would make her more aware of how many people were around her. “No, that’s wrong. It’ll just give you something else to think about. And it’ll get you ready for when we come home.”

“But it—” She stopped, shook her head, and bit down on her lower lip. “How will it stay in place?”

“It stayed just fine the other night,” I said, laughing.

“It had a big dick keeping it in place.”

I cracked a grin and winked at her. “Really big.”

She wadded up a dish towel and tossed it at my head.

“Your underwear will be more than enough to make sure it doesn’t slip out and fall on the floor.”

“But surely someone will hear.”

“The remote’s louder, and I’ll be the one holding on to that.”

“And torturing me.”

“And
pleasuring
you.”

“But what if—” She blushed and didn’t finish that thought.

“What if what?”

Pepper turned to the stove and picked up a wooden spoon. She stirred a pot of pasta before scooping out a piece to test. I couldn’t decide if she was avoiding answering me or simply hadn’t decided what her answer should be.

After she’d strained the pasta through a colander, she met my eyes and said, “What if I come?”

I tried not to smile, because she was genuinely concerned about it and I didn’t want her to think I was laughing at her. “That’s part of the excitement, isn’t it? What if someone hears? What if you get
too
into it and can’t hold back? What if—”

“That kind of thing really excites you?” she cut in.

“It does.” More than I could ever explain to her. She needed to experience it for herself to be able to understand it. I never would have expected I’d be into things like that until that party when my ex had me spank her in front of everyone. That one night had opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me, however, and I’d never looked back.

Pepper transferred the pasta into a skillet full of fragrant sauce and stirred it all together with the same wooden spoon. She grated some fresh parmesan cheese over the top and stirred some more, then took out a small spoon and tasted her latest concoction.

When she came back to the bar, her eyes were full of conflict.

Which left me at odds with myself. I desperately wanted to broaden Pepper’s horizons and introduce new experiences to our sex life, but I didn’t have any intention of pushing her into something she was truly uncomfortable with.

But there was one thing I could do, one trick left in my arsenal, that could help my cause if it wasn’t something she intended to dig in her heels over.

“Dare you,” I said.

Her glare was filled with fire.