Game For Love: Love Games (Kindle Worlds) (16 page)

The rest of the afternoon was spent working. They watched the tape of Declan’s performance from the morning. Marlee gave a few suggestions—simple stuff, like for Declan to watch the use of hands. He tended to wave them around and make gestures while he talked. He nodded, and she could see he was absorbing all she said. She even gave him some simple tips she’d given different politicians over the year about holding a pen so that his hand felt more weighted and less likely to wave about.

They edited the file in iMovie, taking out the spots where they’d stopped and discussed things, then copied it to a thumb drive that they put in Marlee’s satchel for Declan to take with him to New York. He’d take all the files they’d film in the next two days to give the professionals in New York an idea of Declan’s weak spots, and bring them up to speed with his ability.

“Thanks, Marlee. Good tips. Let me think about them, then I’d like to try it again tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

“Absolutely. Let’s do you again tomorrow and then on Friday, if you’re still willing, I’d like to try some of the basketball things you were talking about for my lecture.”

“I’m more than willing, I’d love to tailor your stuff for each university. I love college sports, all kinds, and I still follow them all really closely. My Buckeyes aren’t doing so well in B-ball this winter, but the Big Ten could have a shot at a couple of spots in the Final Four this March.”

Marlee grasped maybe half of that analysis, but didn’t press for clarification. It really wouldn’t matter after this week, anyway. “Thanks. If we’re done here, let’s go home. It’s my night to cook for you.”

It became a ritual for them. That is, if you could create a ritual after three nights. A sumptuous dinner that tickled their taste buds. Warm conversation filled with childhood anecdotes from both their families. Then the hours of being together without intimately touching each other would become too much, and their desire would win out.

 
After hours of making love, Declan would invariably slip on his jeans, throw his shirt at her, and make for the kitchen. She always added his scarf to the ensemble, stopping to retrieve it from wherever he’d discarded it.

He would glide through the living room like it was his own, and he’d remark, once again, at how much alike their homes were.

“Same living room layout, same photos above the mantel, same appliances, I’m going to start feeling spooked if there’s a pint of Häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche in the freezer,” he said as he entered the kitchen.

 
Marlee stopped in her tracks as Declan mentioned her midnight vice. “There isn’t
a
pint. There are several.” She was starting to feel spooked too. Much to her chagrin, she hadn’t seen Declan’s kitchen the night of the party, and his living room had been swamped with people so she didn’t get a good look at it. But if he were telling the truth about how similar their houses were, coupled with this new discovery about the ice cream…she didn’t want to think about it.

They looked at each other, their gazes meeting. Declan’s look seemed confident, as if he had just confirmed something to himself. Marlee’s was a little stunned, finding it hard to believe that she and a football player could really have the same style, goals, and interests, right down to the same taste in ice cream.

“God, I love this stuff. I like to put mine in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up.” He raised his eyebrows at her, as if to get her consent, and she did a “be my guest” gesture toward the microwave.

“You’ll find that fifteen seconds on my microwave makes it just soft enough for the spoon to go easily through, but not soupy.”

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “God, what a woman. I can’t believe no man has snatched you up yet. Oh, that’s right, you don’t like sports…that must be it.” He put the ice cream in and tuned in fifteen seconds on the microwave, then turned to her. He leaned up against the counter, his hands resting along the marble counter top at his hips, and watched her with a teasing smile on his face.

She moved to his side to get a spoon from a drawer and gave him a good-natured jab to his ribs with her elbow. When he groaned louder than necessary and feigned pain, she teased him back. “I thought football players were supposed to be tough. Can’t take a nudge from a little ol’ girl?”

He pivoted and stood behind her, his hips pinning her to the counter. He reached around and fondled her breasts through her shirt.
His shirt
, she reminded herself. He’d said liked seeing her in his shirt, and she loved wearing it, smelling Declan on herself.
 

Her breasts were full and heavy and he lifted them as he squeezed. “Darlin’, there ain’t nothing little about you. Especially these.” He tweaked her nipples as the bell from the microwave dinged, and for just an instant Marlee thought her sensitized breasts had signaled their readiness.

He bent his head to her neck and nuzzled aside his scarf then licked her skin. They had both worked up a healthy sweat during sex, and she knew she probably tasted of salt and sweat. Of passion. The thought of tasting Declan in turn made her forget about the ice cream.
 

He ground the beginnings of an erection into her ass.

“Nah unh. No way, mister, keep that thing away from me. Not until I get some sustenance.” Marlee could reach the microwave from where Declan had her pinned in. The container was still very cold to the touch, but the consistency was just as she had described. She sliced her spoon through the confection and reached it over her shoulder for Declan. “I will be nice and let you have the first bite.”

“I intend to have the first and last bite, Marlee, and not necessarily of ice cream.” He cleaned the spoon of ice cream and moved back to his original spot against the counter. Marlee turned around and leaned her behind against it as well, so they stood side by side. All the better to share.
 

Marlee held the pint while Declan took turns spoon-feeding her and then himself. It was no accident that his arm brushed across her breasts each time he reached for more. Their moans of ecstasy as they consumed the ice cream echoed the moans they had made upstairs a short time ago.
 

“Okay, switch. Give me the spoon. Holding this thing is freezing my hand.” Marlee reached for the spoon handle and pushed the pint at Declan. He took the ice cream and grudgingly gave her the utensil.

“Crybaby.”

“Oh yeah? Feel how cold.” Marlee lifted her frigid fingers, intending on placing them on Declan’s cheek. At the last moment, her hand detoured and she placed them instead on Declan’s bared nipple. He instantly stiffened and let out a groan.

“Oh God. I don’t know if that feels incredible or horrible. But Christ, don’t stop.”

Marlee had no intention of stopping after she saw how it affected him. She pivoted to stand in front of him. Face to face. Due to Declan’s height it was more like face to chin, but Marlee had her sights set lower anyway.

She continued to stroke his nipple with her cold fingers as she kissed his neck. She quickly moved her way down his neck and collarbone, planting light kisses along the way. He smelled of musk and man, and it was heaven. How can anyone who looked so good smell that much better? She took a small step back to gaze at this astonishing specimen of physical supremacy. His chest was incredible. Broad, strong, leading to exceptional shoulders.
 

She had wondered in the restaurant the night they’d met if his shoulders could possibly look as good naked as they had underneath his crisp white shirt. They did. His chest was heavily sprinkled with hair that was both soft and coarse, and she reveled in the texture of it. The hair covered the great expanse of his chest, and then tapered off into a fine line down his six-pack abs and beyond, to the fly of his jeans.
All in good time
,
Marlee. You’ll get there, but enjoy the trip down.

She scooped another spoonful of ice cream and fed it to Declan as her mouth latched on to his other nipple.

“Mmmm, good. Ice cream that is,” Declan said.
 

“Darlin’,” Marlee said, mimicking Declan’s drawl, “in about ten minutes you’re not even going to be able to figure out which end of that spoon goes in your mouth.” She gave a playful bite to his nipple as her hands moved down his sides, over his impossibly hard stomach, to rest at the top of his jeans. The metal of the cold spoon she held brushed across his side and he shuddered.

“Big talk.”

“Oh, I can talk big, all right. What words do you want to hear come out of my mouth, Declan?” Marlee had never been verbally bold with a lover. She had responded to Declan’s whispered intimacies, but she’d never instigated them. She had assumed that talking dirty during lovemaking just wasn’t something she was comfortable with. Now she realized she hadn’t done it because she had never had a partner whom she trusted so much.
 

During their earlier session, Declan had whispered all the things he was doing to Marlee and how it made him feel. What did they call that in the sports world? Play by play? If the way Marlee had responded to it was any indication, Declan would go far in broadcasting. He certainly was there already as a lover.

 
She didn’t allow her mind to contemplate how many women on whom Declan had perfected this craft. For once, the off switch in her mind worked and she gave herself up to the perfect sensations that being with Declan gave her.

“Tell me you want me, Marlee.”

“I want you, Declan.” To prove her point, Marlee reached her hand into Declan’s jeans and clasped his erect penis. Steel. And it was all hers for the rest of the week. She could almost feel Declan’s heart beating by just holding his penis. It was obvious to Marlee that the desperate wanting went both ways. It gave her the fortitude to go on.

“What else do you want to hear from me?” she asked.

Declan tilted her chin to meet his gaze. “Tell me how my cock feels, Marlee.”

Marlee felt her moistness begin. Just hearing Declan say things like that to her made her wet. She was shocked at how easily he could arouse passion within her. She wasn’t wearing any panties beneath his shirt, and she felt slick at the tops of her thighs.

“Your cock feels happy to see me.” As Marlee said the word “cock” out loud, he hardened even more and she gently squeezed his shaft. Feeling him jerk in return put a small grin on her well-used lips. Lips that were swollen and red from his kisses.

“Oh, it is that. Definitely.”
 

Marlee fed another spoonful of ice cream to first Declan and then herself. The spoon was in her right hand, her left hand firmly grasping him, her thumb brushing over his tip.

“What else? What else do you want to hear?”

“Tell me what you’re going to do to my cock, Marlee.”

“I can’t, Declan.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m about to have my mouth full.”
 

She took the pint of ice cream from Declan’s hand, and, with the spoon, went down to her knees. She placed the ice cream on the floor beside Declan’s foot, well within her reach. She stuck the spoon in the ice cream to allow both hands freedom.

She put her hands just inside the waistband of Declan’s jeans, then slid them down, bringing his jeans with them, careful to ease his full erection out of the well-worn material. His freed penis rose from his hair as if at attention. She pushed the jeans down to Declan’s ankles, but when he made to step out of them, she stilled his legs.
 

She wanted him just like that. At her mercy, as she’d been their first night together, when he had given her such an intense orgasm up against the door. She ran her hands up his heavily muscled thighs. In the back of her mind ran the thought that she’d never have a lover that was so toned, so rock hard, so, so…Declan.

She reached down and scooped up a spoonful of the ice cream. She smeared small amounts on his testicles.

“God, Marlee.” He hissed. He reached for her head, but she brushed him aside.

“Hands on the counter, Mr. Quarterback. I’m calling the plays now.”

Declan placed his hands on the counter, his fingers curling around the marble edge. His sac was heavy and tightening as Marlee licked it clean of the rich ice cream. She took the spoon and dabbed more of the sweet substance there, and also at the tip of his penis, where a drop of his milky fluid had formed. The white cream of Declan blended in smoothly with the Häagen-Dazs. She lowered her head once again to lick Declan clean. Her tongue darted out like a kitten at a bowl of milk.
 

She could feel his eyes on the top of her head. She looked up as she moved her lips from his balls to the head of his shaft, meeting his deep green eyes. As she took him into her mouth, she watched as his pupils totally dilated, turning his eyes almost jade.
 

God, he was gorgeous. And for now, he was hers. The thought jarred Marlee. She’d never been possessive before, not even with Justin. But then, she had never had her mouth around Declan Tate’s hard cock before, either.
 

That changed everything.

Her tongue whirled around the engorged purple head, taking the ice cream off in one swoop, but she kept going. The rough texture of her tongue played along his ridge and she tapped it against the underside and felt his shudder.