He groaned hard and tugged at her hair. The entire experience had her aroused and on edge, her sex heavy and wet, the need to finish him in her mouth warring with the very real need to slide down on top of him and ride him to completion.
She moaned at the thought, and the vibrations triggered his release. He spilled his essence inside her mouth, as she swallowed quickly, taking every drop he gave until he was spent. She released him gently, laid her head against his chest, and caught her breath.
“I like waking up with you.”
Warmth spread through her. Ditto, she thought, not ready to reveal her feelings as easily as he did.
“C’mere, sunshine.” He pulled her up and covered her mouth with his, ignoring where it had been and kissing her for all he was worth.
And as she’d learned, the man could kiss. She purred, rolling her hips against him, causing him to break their connection on a chuckle.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of you too.”
“Good to know.” Actually he’d proven himself such a generous lover last night, she’d had no doubt he’d soothe the building ache.
He flipped her over and began to slide down, his greedy eyes devouring her, making every negative thought she’d had about her body flee in the wake of his approval.
His hand gripped her thighs. “Spread for me.”
Her breath hitched, and she did as he asked, leaving her open and exposed.
“Who needs breakfast when I have this?” He slid one finger over her sex, parting her lips, then dipped his head and licked her. One long swipe of his tongue, followed by a satisfied moan.
She trembled, her entire body arching at the intimate touch. “God, Dylan.”
He ignored her, suckling her clit, and she started a slow climb to ecstasy. He ate at her like a starving man, and she loved the sensations he created as he played her body.
She writhed beneath him, so close so fast, she began reaching for the climax just out of reach. That’s when he slowed down, and the languorous feelings drained away. “No!”
“Yes.” He chuckled and teased her clit with the tip of his tongue. “Delayed gratification only makes it better.”
She couldn’t reply, not when he delicately teased that most sensitive part of her in a way that had her lost and on a fine edge of need. The slightest bit of pressure would set her off, but he seemed determined not to provide it.
Instead, he slid one finger inside her as he kept up that light, teasing touch.
She began to pant, to arch her hips, to grab at the sheets and beg. “Dylan, please!”
“Please what? I want to hear it.”
A toucher and a talker. She nearly wept at the intensity of the desire that teased her but wouldn’t take her over. “Please make me come. Please!”
He added another finger, spreading her wider, pumping them in and out,
still
not letting her fall over. “You’re killing me,” she practically wailed.
“I’m going to give you the best orgasm you’ve ever had,” he promised, and if the building pressure was any indication, he was right. She just didn’t know how much more teasing she could take.
“Ready?” he asked, his breath warm and tantalizing against her sex.
She whimpered in reply. He’d reduced her to a needy mass of nerve endings and raw emotion. Then, suddenly, he curved his fingers inside her, pressing in one spot, then another, hitting exactly the right place, and she moaned, the tremors beginning in earnest. He added his mouth, sucking hard at her clit while thrusting with his fingers, and she screamed. Everything inside her burst open, shooting spiraling heat, and warmth blindsided her in an explosive climax that seemed to go on and on, endlessly perfect.
And just as she came down, she realized he’d grabbed a condom and thrust inside her quickly. Hard. And deep. He kept driving into her, somehow finding that already sensitized spot that immediately sent her spiraling a second time.
She didn’t know when she came back to herself. How long had they been lying there catching their breath? She rolled her head and looked at him. A wondrous smile met hers.
Yeah. She got that. Pretty incredible, she thought.
“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
He rose from the bed and strode out of the room still naked. She couldn’t tear her gaze from his strong body, the lean line of his spine, and the grooves above his ass. She hoped her sister didn’t choose that moment to arrive home.
She laughed at the thought. Avery had wanted her to go for it. To have fun. And she had. A whole lot of fun that made up for a long stretch of deprivation. But even she knew it was more. She and Dylan clicked so well it was scary.
And just like it always did when she let herself go and be happy, the inevitable comparisons began to form in her head. Was this what her mother had felt when she’d met her father? How long before she’d known things weren’t what they seemed? Because Alex wasn’t that much younger than Ian, which meant her father had been cheating almost from the start. Or maybe her mom hadn’t known. After all, Olivia had been clueless when Jeff was fooling around with his teaching assistant right under her nose. She shook her head. It was hard to dispel the ridiculous thoughts and comparisons. She needed to put the past behind her if she wanted to enjoy her life.
And Dylan seemed to be giving her a lot to enjoy.
* * *
Dylan stuck around for breakfast with Olivia and Avery, who’d announced her arrival by yelling at them for leaving their clothes around the dining room table. Dylan had laughed. Olivia had been mortified. But Avery had brought muffins, Olivia had made coffee, and they’d eaten quickly. He’d then pulled Olivia to the front door, leaving her with a long, deep kiss intended to let her know how much he’d enjoyed their night.
He arrived at work—separately from Olivia, at her insistence, not his, because he didn’t care who knew they were together. No sooner did he settle into his desk than they were called into an emergency meeting.
With the Pro Bowl a little over a week away, Ian wanted a meeting. After Big’s latest episode, caught, of course, by TMZ, Dylan understood the man wanted to be sure all bases were covered. Although the Pro Bowl was mostly an individual endeavor, the players still represented their teams. Which left Dylan with a lot of responsibility on the trip. And no time to deal with distractions.
But as he settled into his seat at the conference table, was his focus on team image? The players? The travel schedule? Hell no. It was on the woman who’d opened her body to him last night. Her rich laughter echoed around the room as she laughed at something Riley said, the husky sound thickening his blood, and he clenched his pen tighter in his hand.
He narrowed his gaze just as she glanced from beneath her eyelashes and looked directly at him. He raised an eyebrow, and she grinned, pursing those luscious lips that had been wrapped around his cock this morning, before immediately returning to the paperwork in front of her. Beneath the table, he pressed his hand against his thickening erection, cursing her effect on him when he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Okay, people. Let’s talk.” And that was Ian’s way of calling this meeting to order from the head of the table.
To his right was Riley, then Olivia, to his left, Coach Carter and the PR people who worried over every misstep.
“Dylan? You first.” Ian sat down, ceding the floor.
Dylan nodded. “The hotel is set. The Montelucia Resort and Spa in Scottsdale has our reservations.”
“Double checked and confirmed,” Riley, his assistant, added.
“I’m meeting with the attending players this afternoon, along with the PR team.” He inclined his head their way. “We’ll go over the ground rules, the planned interviews, and the possible unplanned ones. There won’t be any problems.”
“I should hope not,” Ian said. “Liv, you’re going.”
“Wait … what?” Olivia asked, obviously caught off guard.
“Coach told me there was no way he’d have gotten through to him without your influence, so in case there’s trouble, I want you nearby.”
She opened her mouth and closed it again, as Dylan did his best not to grin. Apparently, fate was looking down on him, because he and Liv were headed to a desert oasis for a week of business, yes, but plenty of private time too. Not that Ian knew he was facilitating Dylan’s agenda.
“Problem?” Ian asked his sister.
A sudden grin lifted her lips. “Scottsdale, Arizona, for a week? No, no problem.”
Ian ignored her excitement and moved on. “Carter, you’re there for backup.”
The other man, an ex-MVP himself, now forty-five and a star coach the Thunder was lucky to have, merely nodded. “Always planned to be there.”
Olivia tapped her pen against the table. “Dylan, what time is your meeting?” she asked, meeting his gaze. Those Dare sibling eyes, a deep indigo fringed by thick black lashes, stared back at him.
Those same eyes had looked at him with wonder last night seconds before just one of many explosive orgasms had hit her hard. He swallowed a curse and shifted in his seat, but his discomfort remained. “Meeting’s at three in the locker room,” he told Olivia.
She nodded. “I’ll join you there. Big needs to know we mean business.”
The next thirty minutes continued with the PR people laying out the plans for next week and their proposed spin on Big’s latest antics. Finally, the long meeting ended.
“Everyone set?” Ian asked, glancing around the table.
Murmurs of assent arose, and everyone grabbed their folders and things and filed out, heading to their offices to work.
Dylan waited, knowing Olivia had to walk past him to exit. As she approached, he caught a whiff of her perfume, a scent now permanently emblazoned on his brain.
“Liv—”
“Dylan.” She strode up to him, her folders pressed against her chest, pushing up those fabulous breasts he’d felt intimately against his bare chest. “What can I do for you?” she asked.
“Aah, that’s a loaded question, Ms. Dare.”
A lovely flush stained her cheeks, but a knowing smirk pulled at her lips because they shared a secret. An intimacy no one knew about. And he had to admit it was a rush. He had to shove his hands into his front pants pockets in order to keep them off her.
“I guess you’re going to spend the weekend getting ready and packed?”
She nodded. “Good thing we live in Florida. I already have the type of clothing I’ll need.”
He leaned in close. “I was hoping there’d be plenty of times you wouldn’t need much in the way of clothing.”
She sucked in a shallow breath. “You’re bad, Mr. Rhodes.”
“I can’t wait to show you just how bad I can be.”
* * *
At eight a.m. the morning of their departure for Arizona, Olivia dragged her suitcase behind her through the terminal in Miami Airport. She wore a light blue pantsuit, knowing that as soon as she hit the hotel in Phoenix, she would change into more casual clothing; but for now, she represented the team. She made it through check-in and security, then stopped to buy herself a bottle of water before heading to the gate and settling in. Typical, she was punctual to a fault, early when she flew, and she was the only person from the team at the gate, so she settled in with her iPad and headphones.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She glanced up to see Marcus Bigsby standing over her. If she’d been outdoors, he’d be blocking her sunlight completely. He was that large.
She pulled her earphones from her ears and glanced up at him. “Hey, Marcus. Fancy meeting you here.”
“Good morning, Miss Olivia.”
She smiled at his formality. He could be so proper sometimes, so troublesome others. “It’s bright and early, that’s for sure. You all set for Phoenix?”
He settled his large frame into an empty seat across from her. “I guess.”
She frowned. “It’s your third Pro Bowl. Aren’t you excited?”
“Yeah. But my mama’s mad at me for sending Wendell home. She thinks I need family by my side.”
“You don’t need a keeper. You just need to trust yourself a little more.” And Wendell a little less, but she didn’t say that out loud.
“You believe that?”
She nodded. “I do.” For all the self-confidence he had on the field, he was sadly lacking in it in other areas. But his teammates liked him and had taken him under their wing, and things could only get better from him from here on in.
“Big, my man!” Glenn Sanders, the Thunder’s running back, made his arrival. At five feet ten inches, small by football standards, the blond-haired player strode over, and the two men exchanged handshakes. “It’s a good morning to fly!” Glenn said with a grin before turning to her. “Hey there, Ms. Dare.”
She smiled at him. “Looks like you’re a morning person.”
He laughed and grabbed the seat next to Marcus. Grateful the other man had a diversion from thinking about his cousin, Olivia returned to her reading, only to be distracted a few minutes later by a familiar masculine scent.
“Miss me?” Dylan asked as he smoothly slid into the empty seat beside her.
She shook her head. “Too busy picking out clothes and packing,” she lied as she pretended to continue reading a magazine on her tablet. In reality, she couldn’t focus on anything but the man beside her and how just his very presence had lit up her day.
“You really know how to hurt a man’s feelings.” He leaned in close, nuzzled his nose against her neck, breathing in deep. “You smell good.”
So did he. She closed her eyes and inhaled his musky scent once more before wriggling to the far side of her chair. “We don’t want the players noticing us.” She turned and met his amused gaze.
“I don’t think they’d care.”
Neither did she, but there was something to be said for acting professional. “We need to set a good example for them.”
Dylan stared at her long and hard for a minute before turning to the other men. “Anyone want some coffee?” he asked.
Marcus, Glenn, and Sawyer, who’d joined them, shook their heads. “No thanks,” came a chorus.
“Well, I do.” He rose to his feet. “Come with me.” He grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet.
“Bossy much?” she muttered. “Hang on.” She slid her hand from his. She placed her iPad into her travel bag and pulled out her small purse. “Guys, watch my things?”