Pass Interference (29 page)

When he lifted his head they were both breathless.

Everything that had been jumbled inside her settled in place and warmth spread through her.

“Something’s going on with you.” Rafe stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “You always nibble that poor lower lip when you’re not sure about something. Come on, Tyler. No secrets between us anymore.”

“You’ll probably think it’s a stupid idea.” She leaned her head into his shoulder, avoiding his eyes.

“Unless it involves throwing me out, I’m sure I’ll be fine with it.”

She blew out a breath. “Okay, here goes. I want to go back and finish getting my degree.”

Tyler waited for him to laugh at her or tell her it was dumb or any other put-down. But he surprised her. He tipped her chin up so he could look directly into her eyes.

“I think that’s a great idea. A really great idea.”

Her eyes widened. “You do? You don’t think at my age it’s stupid?”

“Tyler, honey, people twice your age are getting their degrees. I think it’s great and I’m sure your dad will, too.”

“I-I want to make you both proud of me.”

“We will be. We are.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Any idea what you’d like to study?”

“Uh-huh. I was really good at my business courses, especially statistics, which I think is why when I started to understand the game today it fascinated me. And then…”

“And then?” he urged.

“And then I’d like to ask my dad if there’s a place for me in the Hawks organization. I figure if he says yes we can be a real San Antonio Hawks family.”

He studied her face for a long time. “This is quite a change in lifestyle for you. Are you sure it’s what you really want?”

“I know what I don’t want,” she told him, “and that’s to go back to living the way I was. That night at Mike’s I was already regretting so much of what I’d done. I want you to be proud of me, like your friends are of their wives and significant others. I want
me
to be proud of me.”

“
Cara
, I think that’s great. And I know Kurt will, too.” He pulled off her ball cap and tugged her ponytail loose. “But I won’t love you any more because of it, because I don’t think I could love you more than I do. Some might think us an unlikely pair, but as far as I’m concerned we fit perfectly. So. We ready for that shower now?”

She nodded. “The last one we took together worked very well.”

Rafe laughed. “It did, so let’s have a repeat.”

In what seemed like seconds they were standing beneath the steaming cascade of water, her smaller body pressed back against his very large one as his big hands soaped her body. For a man of his size, his touch was unbelievably gentle as he spread the rich lather over her nipples, her rib cage, her tummy and down to her pussy. His thick fingers slid between the lips of her labia, sliding up and down, rubbing against her tender clit in a way that sent little electrical charges through her inner walls.

She squeezed her thighs together, trapping his hand between them, and his low laugh rumbled in her ear.

“You’re so slick and so wet for me. I love sliding my fingers through you like this and feeling how tight you grip me.” He nipped the shell of her ear. “I’ve never felt this connection with another woman, Tyler. I think you bewitched me.”

She leaned back against him. “If I did I hope it doesn’t wear off.”

“Not a chance.”

He murmured hot, erotic things in her ear as he continued to rub her swollen nub while pressing his cock into the cleft of her buttocks. Tyler didn’t know if her body was ramped up because of everything that happened that day or if Rafe just pressed every one of her buttons by just touching her.

She had a sense of possession. His hands were magic, coaxing responses every place they touched. She was so aroused, so on edge, he’d barely stroked and teased her before a climax burst from deep inside her. She was glad Rafe was holding her so tightly or she would have fallen to the floor, as much as she was trembling.

“Well, damn,” he murmured, “I must be better than I thought.”

Her laugh was soft and shaky. “But not better than
I
thought. But what about you?”

“Coming right up.” He bit her earlobe. “If you’ll pardon the pun. But I want to be on a bed for this.”

He hastily dried both of them, then carried her to the bed, stripped back the covers. In seconds he had rolled on a condom and knelt between her thighs. When he looked at her there was such love and passion in his eyes it made her weak all over again.

He entered her with one strong thrust, then held himself in place while her body adjusted to him. Their gazes locked and Tyler felt as if he could see clear to inside her soul. It gave her such a sense of belonging she actually felt tears come to her eyes.

Rafe stilled. “Are you okay? Am I hurting you?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Far from it. I feel as if every part of me belongs to every part of you.”

“Good. Because I feel the same way. I know I said I wanted to make slow, delicious love to you, but I don’t think I can do that this time. I want you too badly.”

“Then don’t wait. We’ll have plenty of time for slow later on.”

Rafe began to move, slowly at first, measured strokes, in and out, his eyes never leaving hers. She wound her legs around his hips and locked her ankles at the small of his back, holding herself to him as tightly as she could. He never broke the rhythm he set up, in and out, slow and steady. Soon that was all that consumed her, their joining and the tempo of their bodies.

She clung to him, wrapped in the velvet of erotic pleasure, everything focused on the two of them joined together, on Rafe’s plundering of her body, on the feel of his thick cock filling every inch of her. Everything they felt for each other seemed poured into this single act.

Tyler was focused totally on the feel of him, the thickness of him, the slick slide and retreat. She was so caught up in the building layers of sensation she was stunned when the orgasm rolled up, so suddenly it shocked her. Rather than the cataclysmic mating of the previous nights, this was more sensuous yet no less intense. Her inner walls gripped him like a vise while his cock flexed and pulsed inside her. The spasms gripped her again and again, ebbing and flowing like slowly rolling waves, on and on and on.

And then it eased, slowed and faded, until they were both left weak and limp and drained. Rafe dropped to his forearms and rested his forehead on hers.

“Incredible.” His lips tilted in a slow smile. “Just damn fucking incredible.”

“I agree.” She unwrapped her legs from him, resting her feet on the bed, watching him as he slowly eased from her body.

He gave her a quick, soft kiss on the lips. “Be right back.”

She watched the muscles flex in his magnificent ass as he padded to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. How, she wondered, had she gotten so damn lucky? Less than a week ago she was a hot mess on a self-destructive path with not much to look forward to. Now she had a future with an incredible man who actually loved her.

“You look like someone who is very pleased with herself,” Rafe teased as he climbed back into bed.

“Just reflecting on the fortunate turn my life has taken.”

“You know what pass interference is, Tyler?”

“Barely. Tony was doing his best to explain things to me today, but it was a lot to cram into my brain at once.”

“In football it is when any player’s movement beyond the line of scrimmage hinders the progress of an eligible receiver in an attempt to reach the pass.” He rested his chin on her head and pulled her more tightly against him. “Here’s how I look at it. The ball in your game of life got snapped, but on the way to you catching it shit happened. It’s like a defensive player interfering with the receiver. You’ve been trying to get back in position to catch it again all these years.”

“Is that what it was?”

“Uh-huh. Someone just screwed with your playbook. I’m the one who’s going to straighten it out.”

She lay there silent for a moment.

“I love you, Rafe. More than I can ever tell you.”

“I love you, too,
mi corazon.
My heart. You own my heart.”

“Good. Because you own mine, too.”

Tyler relaxed in Rafe’s grip and slowly drifted off to sleep, more secure than she’d felt in a very long time.

Referred to by
USA Today
as the Nora Roberts of erotic romance,
Desiree Holt
is the world’s oldest living published erotic romance author. A graduate of the University of Michigan with double majors in English and History, her earlier careers include agent and manager in the music industry, public television, associate vice president of university advancement, public relations, and economic development. She is three times a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award (and a winner in 2014), a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio, as well as twice a CAPA Award winner for best BDSM book of the year, and winner of the Holt Medallion for Excellence in Romance Literature.

She has been featured on
CBS Sunday Morning
and in
The Village Voice
,
The Daily Beast, USA Today, The (London) Daily Mail, The New Delhi Times, The Huffington Post
and numerous other national and international publications. She is also the Authors After Dark 2014 Author of the Year. Readers can visit her at www.desiremeonly.com.

Keep reading for an excerpt from the first book in the Game On series:

Get Ready to Play Rough

Shay Beckham grew up idolizing her brother’s best friend, star quarterback Joe Reilly. There was no one in their Texas town who had the moves to match Joe on or off the field. Years later, he’s still a player who has what it takes to drive any hot-blooded woman wild. But Shay isn’t a kid with a bad case of hero-worship anymore. She’s grown-up and independent, with her feet on the ground and a serious head on her shoulders. If she could just say the same for Joe.

It’s been fifteen years, but Joe Reilly hasn’t forgotten the skinny little kid who used to follow him around like a shadow. What he can’t get over is that the skinny shadow has grown into one hell of an incredible woman. One any man in his right mind would kill to get his hands on. And one who seems to be completely immune to him. He knows he and Shay could have something special together. If he could only convince her he’s about more than just the game.

A Lyrical e-book on sale now.

Learn more about Desiree at http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31606

“Damn it, Hank. Why don’t you answer?”

Shay Beckham pressed End on her cell phone yet again and sighed. She and her brother had been playing telephone tag for two days. When he called, she was in meetings. When she called, he was out of signal range. The only voices talking to each other were their voice mails. How godforsaken could it be in Wyoming, anyway? It was still in the United States, right?

And why was he trying so hard to reach her? They exchanged texts now and then, but they were both so busy they only called each other in case of emergency. The places he went, cell reception was spotty at best and talking to him was like playing leapfrog. Wait! Was he okay? Her heart stopped for a moment at the thought he might be hurt, but then she relaxed. If something had happened to him, his boss would have reached out to her. So what was on his mind that had generated this flurry of aborted phone calls? Obviously, he wanted something because he was the one who’d initiated this current game of phone tag.

She leaned back in the taxi as it turned from the airport access road onto the interstate. Less than half an hour and she’d be home, thank God, and she could get out of her sweatshirt and jeans that wore the remnants of her diet cola from the plane.

With the way her luck was running, maybe she shouldn’t have accepted her complimentary beverage. On the flight out to New York a week before, a little turbulence had been responsible for her arriving with a huge coffee stain on her favorite yellow sweater. Maybe she should carry a bib with her. Or a large tarpaulin.

On today’s flight, she had just set up her iPad and lifted her glass gingerly to take a sip when the plane hit an air pocket and everything bounced. Her iPad. The purse beneath the seat. Worst of all, her drink. Her hand flew up, with it her diet soda and, most importantly, the ice cubes. Up in the air. Over the back of her seat. Into the seat behind her.

She could still hear the man behind her growling. “Shit!”

Then, “Damn it anyway.”

She’d used the miniscule courtesy napkin to blot up what she could from her sweatshirt and jeans. Shay had cringed as the man behind her continued to mutter under his breath.

“Hey, you in front. Didn’t you ever learn to pay attention on a plane? You got your damn drink all over me.”

He hadn’t seemed impressed with her mumbled apology so she’d just slid down even farther and buried her nose in her iPad again. And been damn glad to get to the end of the flight without further incident. When it was time to deplane, she’d avoided even looking back at the man, hustling up the Jetway into the terminal as fast as she could. Getting home was all she could think of.