Game For Love: All The Right Moves (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

In fact, her entire thought process was ridiculous. She was placing more importance on
their
relationship
than was necessary. Instead, she would focus solely on their time together, not expecting more.

Not expecting forever.

“If I read or hear something from anyone who isn’t you, then I’ll ask.”

“Thank you.” He smiled “Ready to go play
with Gunner and Bluebelle?”

“
You know it.” She bolted from her seat, halfway to their dogs before she called over her shoulder, “Last one there never wins a Super Bowl ring.”

He flew past her before she could blink, stopping beside the two canines that were staring at them like they’d lost their minds. Maybe she had.

“Already won three of those, firecracker.”

Ashley blew out a breath
, and then tried to catch it. “Except last year.”

Ryan grunted. “How many have you won, Ms. Designer?”

“Three less than you.”

He threw his head back and laughed at her answer.
Crossing the small distance between them, he put his hands on her hips. “Another reason I like dating you,” he said, dipping his head to capture her lips in a hot kiss that left her more breathless than ever. “You give as good as you get.” Bluebelle and Gunner circled them, jumping and begging for attention. Ashley couldn’t help but grin. The day was turning out to be completely perfect.

***

That night, after Ryan took Gunner home and came back to her place, Ashley made a meal fit for an entire team of football players. She fried chicken, baked biscuits, and whipped up potatoes swimming in butter—just the way he liked them.

He fingered the ruffled hem of her apron. “Did you make this?”

She nodded happily, as she set a bowl of fried okra on the table. Those dimples of hers, the ones he found so damn sexy, appeared in her cheeks. “I like to sew. The domestic arts give me a sense of purpose. Actually, I
love
sewing, cooking, and planting flowers.” Her smile fell a little, as her nose wrinkled. “I probably sound super old-fashioned.”

He pulled her into his lap. “Not in the least. It’s not often that people get paid to do what they love.”

Loosely wrapping her arms around his neck, she cocked her head to one side. “Does that include you?”

“I love football. Have ever since I was old enough to throw one.”

“Did you play with your dad?” she asked.

“Until the day he died,” he replied.

Sympathy covered her face. “I’m so sorry, Ryan. How old were you?”

“Twenty-two. He was seventy-one
, and his heart gave out. But he got to see the very first game I played with The Outlaws.” Ryan smiled at the memory. He had flown his seventy-year-old dad out to San Francisco. Everything had been amazing to him—the stadium, the food, the players… everything.

“I’ve always been proud of you son, but this beats all,”
he’d said in that deep Georgia accent of his.

“I’m so glad he was able to see you
play before he passed,” she said and kissed him on the cheek. She leaned her head against his and played with the hair at the nape of his neck. “I bet he still watches you play on the most ginormous flat-screen television heaven has to offer.”

Yeah, he liked to think that, too. “As much as I love you sitting on my la
p, I’m starving. Mind if we eat?”

Ashley practically jumped off his lap, untying her apron as she sat down beside him. She carefully folded and placed it in the chair next to her. “I have peach cobbler for dessert.”

He groaned. “Trying to make my Monday weigh-in go badly for me, sweetness?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just because I made it,
it doesn’t mean you have to eat it.”

No way he wouldn’t eat it. He’d eat every damn thing she put in front of him. He handed her a plate and said, “Load it up.”

The smile she gave him made his skin tight. “But not too much,” she admonished, as he began to dig into his mashed potatoes. “Save room for me.”

He almost dropped his fork, but
he quickly recovered and gave her a wink.

“My
brothers want to meet you,” she said without preamble. “We have this dumb rule about three dates and a meet-and-greet, but you don’t have to abide by them.”

He knew her family was important to
her, and he felt the same way about his. Every single one of his sisters was happily married with kids, and he was an uncle at least ten times over. Ashley would fit right in.

But would he fit in with her family? Would they think th
e worst of him, because of Dean? He knew he’d be ultra-protective of a sister who’d been hurt by some jerkwad of an athlete.

“If you want me to meet them, then I will.”

Her blue eyes widened. “But we haven’t gone out on three dates.”

Smiling, he glanced at the table and then at her. “Pretty sure this is date number three, but honestly, we’ve been dating for months now.”

“Months?” she asked, clearly bewildered.

“Yeah, if you count those two weeks of
puppy-parenting classes, plus the three weeks I spent
thinking
about dating you, along with our most recent dates, then the scoreboard would have to add that I scored a two-point conversion.”

“I know you did not compare us to a football play,” she said with a scowl, but her eyes twinkled.

“Baby, you’re the best play I’ve ever made. The ultimate Hail Mary.” Grinning at the look of pleased astonishment on her face, he ducked his head and resumed eating supper.

With Ryan’s help, Ashley cleaned up the kitchen and dining room in record time.

He stuck a detergent tablet into the slot and closed the dishwasher, as she finished wiping off the island in the middle of her kitchen.

“What’s left?”

“Nothing with the way you ate,” she teased.

He smirked at her. “I saved room for you.”

Her cheeks heated. “About that. You don’t have to… spend the night if you don’t want to.”

He came to her, his muscular arms wrapping around her and molding her body to his. “I came prepared.”

She took a sustaining breath. “How prepared?”

“Brought my toothbrush and deodorant.”

A giggle escaped her mouth. “No pajamas?”

“I thought I’d wear you to bed instead.” He
winked, and her heart fluttered in her chest.

“Oh.” Heat pooled between her legs. “Well, I thought I’d wear you out,
and then go to bed.”

“Are you issuing a challenge, firecracker?”

“Afraid you can’t keep up?” she asked, lightly trailing her fingers along the collar of his shirt. His skin was hot, and he smelled so good.

“No, ma’am. I’m a professional athlete. We train for nights like this.”

She broke away from his embrace, casting a sultry look over her shoulder at him, hoping she didn’t do something dumb like trip over Bluebelle. “Why don’t you show me?”

A second later, Ryan scooped her up in his
arms, and she smiled. “How’s this for a first play?” he asked.

“It’s a good start.”

He laid her down on the bed and crouched over her, his gaze roaming over her body. She touched his face, rubbing her hand over his five o’clock shadow.

“You’re beautiful,” he said.

She glanced away. “I’m not.”

He captured her chin in his hand. “Never argue with someone who’s twice your size.” Straddling her legs, he began to work at the buttons of her blouse. “Repeat after me, ‘I’m beautiful.’”

“I’m beautiful,” she whispered, feeling foolish. The material parted, baring her demi-cup bra to him.

“And I’ve the greatest pair of tits the world has ever
known.”

“And I’ve got the greatest pair of—Ryan!” She punched him in the shoulder. “I am
not
saying that.”

He leaned down, blowing lightly on her tight,
lace-covered nipple. “I will. I’ll shout it from the rooftops.”

“Don’t you dare!”

Peering at her through his ridiculously long lashes, he said, “How about if I whisper it?”

“No.”

“Sing?”

“
Oh my Lord
.”

“You want me to pray about them?”

She broke out in helpless giggles. “No, you idiot. I don’t want you to do anything but worship me.”

“Normally, I’d be pretty damn upset if the woman I
’m in bed with is laughing and calling me an idiot, but I really like how the movement makes your breasts jiggle.”

Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. “Where have you been all my life, Ryan Shea Turner?”

His gaze was tender. “Waiting on you.”

Once again, his head dipped to hers. His lips brushed over her mouth in a tender kiss. She kissed him back eagerly. Greedily. She had to have him. With a fierceness she didn’t know she was capable of, she grabbed his button-down shirt and yanked at the center.

Buttons popped and went flying. Ryan pulled back a little, a wicked grin appearing on his mouth. “Is that how you want it tonight?”

Rather than answering him with words, she unfastened the front of her
bra. “Take off the rest,” she ordered.

Determination and lust glinted
in his dark eyes. He almost ripped her dress off her while she tugged, unfastened, and pulled at his jeans. Before she knew it, they were pressed skin to skin, his tongue in her mouth and her legs wrapped around his waist.

His thick cock brus
hed at her core, teasing and making her wish that he could slide right in. That they didn’t need anything between them.

His hips surged against her, and she moaned. One of his big hands wrapped around her thigh and pulled it up and over his arm.

“Much better,” he murmured, looking down. He slid his cock between her curls, where she was wet and slick and hot for him, over and over again, until her entire body felt as though it was about to go up in flames. “Feel good?”

“Yes,” she all but shouted.

He laughed, low in his throat, and ran a hand over her breast, before pinching and rolling her nipple between his fingers. Bending down, he took it in his mouth, sucking and nibbling, until she begged him to end the torment.

“I’m just getting started, sweetness,” he said
, pushing her thighs wide. Leaning up, he kissed the side of her neck, nibbled on her ear, and licked his way down her throat.

Her body shook
, as he rubbed his jaw along her collarbone and cupped her breasts in his big hands. He kissed the skin under them, and then licked a pattern across her stomach.

“Seven,” he said. “That’s how many times I plan on making you come
tonight.” He canted his head to one side. “For starters.”

“I can’t come seven times in one night,
” she protested.

But
he paid her no mind, just kept kissing, tonguing, and nibbling at her body. He licked her clit once… twice, and she cried out his name as she went over the edge.

“How many are we up to now?” he asked from between her
thighs, after she shattered for the second time—or was it the fourth?

“I don’t know,” she said, even as her body yearned for more.

“If you’re still talking, then I’m not doing my job.” He lowered his mouth and spread her. “Prettiest, wettest—” Then he licked her, and she moaned.

          
He touched and stroked her everywhere, even at one point turning her over on her stomach to kiss the globes of her butt.

“Every inch of you is perfection,” he said, dragging his cock along the inseam of her bottom. She tensed up slightly. “Don’t worry, baby. We’ll save that for another time.”

“Will I like it?” she asked.

“You’ll love it.”

“But what if I don’t?”

“Then we
won’t.”

Ashley exhaled. That would not
have been Dean’s answer. Ever. His motto was to keep trying until she caved in and resented him later, until she felt guilty for it.

“Don’t think about him,” Ryan said, flipping her over. His face w
as serious and slightly jealous looking. “We’re the only two people in the room, and you’re the only woman in my brain. Let me be the only man in yours.”

“Sorry,” she whispered.

He cupped the side of her face and pressed a heated kiss to her lips. “Who’s in you now?”

“You
.” She let out a gasp, as he slid inside of her, “Oh, God. You are…” Her body bowed off the bed at his erotic invasion.

Withdrawing slightly, he thrust forward again. “That’s right.”
He withdrew from her again and slid forward, over and over, until he was fully inside of her.