Casual Affair (Timid Souls Book 2) (6 page)

He yelled at the rest of the guys to pause the game for a minute and ran over to me, my pulse spiking with every long stride he took.

“Bea, hey,” he greeted, stopping in front of me, that damn smile still on his face. “What are you doing here?”

Eye contact, Bea.

Don’t make it obvious that you’re basically drooling over him.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

I looked down.

And
oh, boy
. He looked even bigger and better up close.

My British crumpet was built.

Wait, he wasn’t
my
anything.
Snap the hell out of it, Bea.

“Um. I was just out for a run,” I said to his abs. Like, I was actually having a conversation with his six-pack—my eyes hadn’t met his during that whole sentence. I don’t think I’d ever before used the word
lickable
to describe any part of a man. But dammit, Zane’s abs were
so
very lickable.

He cleared his throat. “My eyes are up here, Bea.”

I finally snapped out of it and looked up at him. There was amusement on his face and he was clearly trying not to laugh. But his eyes were soft as he looked at me, tender even. My face flushed and I looked away from him altogether, mentally berating myself for looking so stupid and desperate in front of this man. I didn’t get easily embarrassed in front of guys, so this was a brand new experience for me.

Zane Price kept throwing me off-balance in a big way.

“Sorry,” I muttered. I was three seconds away from bolting before I could humiliate myself further. “I’ll let you get back to your game.”

I started to turn away but stopped when he spoke again, that deep accent caressing me from head to toe. “Would you care to join us?”

I bit my bottom lip, considering it. It was rare that I passed up an opportunity for a game of anything, and I definitely loved soccer. But I wasn’t sure if playing with this man would be a good idea.

Because all I’d been wanting to do lately was
play
with this man.

“Well, I—”

“Unless, of course, you’re too intimidated to play with a bunch of big, brawny men. A little thing like you might not be able to keep up.”

Dammit, he knew how to play me, how to hook me.

The look he had on his face was both knowing and devious.
Bastard.

And I took the bait.

“Please. You soccer players are the biggest wimps of all.” I started walking toward the group of guys without waiting on Zane.

He caught up and walked beside me, looking down with a challenging smirk. “Maybe your
football
players are, here in America. But we Brits are men,” he said, dramatically puffing out his chest and flexing his biceps.

I won’t lie, I was impressed.

“We’ll see about that.”

His smile just got bigger. “Great. You can be skins.”

##

Zane

How does this woman keep getting sexier?

The fact alone that Bea had been willing to play with us pleased me because a lot of women would have been hesitant to be the only girl playing with a bunch of unruly men. But the fact that she was actually really good at football?

That was a huge turn on for me.

And apparently not just for me.

I had noticed some of the other blokes checking out her ass in those tight shorts or zoning in on her tits, which bounced with every move she took. Their attentions irked me. Possessiveness snaked around my spine and made my blood boil every time I saw it. I knew that Bea wasn’t mine, but there was something going on between us. And although I didn’t know what it was yet, I knew what I wanted it to be and I damn sure didn’t like any other guys imagining the same thing with her.

And anytime any of them actually came into contact with Bea?

I wanted to stomp over and rip their arms from their bodies.

I think Bea quickly found out that we weren’t a bunch of “wimps.” This was the same group that I often played rugby with, and some of those habits transferred over to our football games. Meaning, we tended to be a bit rougher than was really necessary. Everyone was sure to take extra care around Bea, though, because we weren’t about to shove a woman to the ground. But it didn’t surprise me when she knocked a few of us on our asses.

Based on our first night together, I should have remembered that the woman gave as good as she got.

“Oi, Price!” Danny yelled over at me from a few feet away. “You going to stare after your little lass there or are you going to play some defense?”

I guess my admiration was no secret, either. Good thing Bea was down at the other goal or I would have had to connect my fist with his face.

“Sod off!” I shouted back.

He just laughed.
That wanker.

Just then, our team scored on their goal, causing cheers to break out and backs to be slapped.

“
Blimey bloody bollocks!”
This came from Bea, who had a scowl on her face and was kicking at the grass.

We may have taught her a few curse words.

Everyone burst into laughter at hearing those words spew from her mouth. Her southern accent made our British slang sound hilarious and my heart warmed every time I heard it. Although she tried to hide it and act annoyed, the corners of her mouth quirked up into a small smile at their laughter, despite the fact that her team was now down by two goals.

I loved her competitive nature. It meant that she was passionate about what she was doing. And I had been completely joking about Bea being on the skins team. But she had agreed to it and said she would play in her sports bra if she needed to, though I could tell she was only trying to get a rise out of me. It had worked, too. Even though I knew she hadn’t been serious, the mere thought of her removing any clothing whatsoever in front of all these horny tossers made me want to throw her over my shoulder like a cavemen and lock her up in my apartment so no man could ever lay eyes on her again.

This reaction, along with many others I’d had since meeting her, cemented my decision to try to take the next step with her. It was clear that she was still jumpy and relationship-phobic but I had a plan.

Basically, I was going to trick her into dating me.

I didn’t say it was a good plan.

We’d already proved that we could have fun together without having sex. I could tell she had a good time at the bar with me and Mike last week, which was why I opted to not invite her over to our place that night. I wanted her to stew on it a little and realize that there might be more than just sex here.

Today was another great example of how we could enjoy each other without always making it sexual. So, my plan was to keep getting her to hang out with me like this without calling these encounters “dates,” throw some sex in there because we knew we both wanted it, and pray that she would develop the same feelings that had already bloomed within me.

I wouldn’t use trigger words like “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”, “exclusive”, “commitment”, or anything else that might give her heart palpitations. Labels obviously freaked her out, so I wouldn’t use them and we wouldn’t call it what it was:
dating
.

I was just enjoying her way too much to not give us a chance and see where it could go. I was not going to focus on the fact that I would be moving back to England at the end of the year. That was months from now and I didn’t even know what could happen between us. It gave us plenty of time to figure it all out.

“You were out of bounds, Gardner!” one of the guys yelled at another.

“Rubbish! You’ve got piss poor eyesight, Crafton.”

Then, they went at each other. It was just a skirmish; it happened often enough in these games and they’d get over it after a roll or two on the ground. We all just stood around and waited for their lovers’ quarrel to end. When I looked over to my left, I saw Bea watching me with a single-minded intensity and everything below my waist stood at attention.

It wasn’t something a man could necessarily control when a gorgeous woman looked at you like that.

Oh yeah. She wanted it.

I’d known it from the second I saw her eyes first rove over my body today. And I couldn’t have been happier with that response. Suddenly, arousal hit me with such force, I almost ran after her and tackled her right there on the grass.

I needed to get her out of here, quickly.

Fifteen minutes later, the game was over. Bea’s team had lost by one goal but I don’t even think she noticed or cared. Because she was looking at me with fire in her eyes, licking her lips like she wanted to eat me alive.

That was enough for me.

I walked over and stopped inches away from her. “Got your car here?” My voice came out low and gravelly. I was so hard it was painful and it was making even speaking difficult.

She just shook her head and I could hear her breathing heavily, though I knew it wasn’t from the game.

I just nodded. “Good. Follow me.” It wasn’t even necessary to speak in complete sentences at that point. We both knew what was about to happen.

We started to walk away together when Mike shouted, “Hey, you two! You going to come get a pint with us? I feel like getting knackered!”

Bea laughed and I looked back over my shoulder at him. “We’re good. You lot go on ahead.”

And before I turned back around, I looked him in the eyes and communicated without words
if you come home before I give you the go-ahead, I’ll beat the living piss out of you.

He smiled in understanding.

I drove like a bat out of hell back to my flat.

I was already hard as granite but when Bea reached over the seat and began to stroke me through my thin gym shorts, I was so close to just stopping alongside the curb, pulling her onto my lap, and taking her right there in my front seat.

Then, the little minx leaned in and put her dirty mouth right at my ear and began to whisper. “I want that inside me. I want you to rip my clothes off the second we walk through your door. And I want you to take me hard and rough, just like you did that first night. Can you do that for me?”

I groaned and almost ran into a street sign before I corrected the vehicle. “Bloody Christ, Bea. Do you know what you’re doing to me right now?”

Her hand wrapped around my entire shaft and stroked harder, faster. “Oh, I know exactly what I’m doin’.”

Yes, she very well did.

Ten hours later—at least, that’s how long it felt—I flew into a parking space and yanked open her door. I had zero patience left and didn’t want to hear anything out of her mouth except her moans of pleasure and my name. Without a word, I pulled on her wrist and practically dragged her up the stairs to my door. Luckily, she seemed as eager as me and didn’t give me any sass. Granted, I would have almost enjoyed it if she had.

There were times when that cat-and-mouse game could be fun.

But not now.

I was way too pent-up right now to delay my gratification. Or hers.

As soon as the sound of my door slamming shut echoed through the apartment, I flew at her, attacking her mouth with mine. Our groans mingled together the instant our lips touched, our tongues immediately dueling for control. Her taste was something I would forever recognize, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to go this long without it again.

Her hands wrapped around me, squeezing my ass and pulling me closer into her. My hands went into action, grabbing the bottom of her tank top and ripping it over her head, revealing her sports bra-clad chest to me. Her hands were fumbling for my own shirt but was becoming impatient, so I reached back and pulled it over my head, throwing it to the floor.

I leaned back down to connect our mouths again, needing to savor every part of her, consume every breath. Her hands trailed down my bare chest and around my back as if she wanted to touch all of me at once but couldn’t. I couldn’t take much more, so I divested her of those ridiculously tight shorts and started walking her backwards toward the bathroom.

I tore my mouth away and looked down at her when we were just outside the door. Her face was tinted pink with excitement and her eyes were dark with arousal. I absolutely loved knowing that I was responsible for that look and I craved more of that feeling.

“I can’t wait anymore, Bea. I need you now.”

Her chest was rising and falling with heavy breaths. “Do it. Fuck me. Right now.”

Those words having a primal effect on me, I quickly yanked her bra and panties from her body, leaving her spectacularly naked before me as she pushed my shorts and underwear to the floor. Her hand went to wrap around me once again but I pulled it away.

“You do that now and this won’t last long.”

She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Every part of her fit so perfectly in my hands, it was like a dream. Her body was all woman. Toned and fit, strong yet soft where it counted. Capable of handling a bigger, stronger man and willing to participate when things turned rough and frantic.

I was never worried that I would break her.

Knowing that she could take all I had to offer and still ask for more—that her preferences matched mine—did something to me.

We made our way over to the shower, our kisses now traveling along each other’s necks and shoulders, hands groping everywhere. I reached up with both hands and started to run my thumbs over her nipples. Her head flew back, her eyes closing at the feeling, and her breathing quickening.

“God, I love the way you touch me,” she breathed.

I almost came right then, just from hearing those words. I backed her into the shower and reached back to turn on the water. Cool water hit our heated skin in a welcome relief, but it did nothing to stave off our desires.

“Yeah? Well, then you’re going to love this.”

Before she could react to that, I knelt down on my knees before her and lifted her leg to rest on my shoulder. She clearly knew what I was about to do and she tried to push me away. I wasn’t having it and gripped her hips to keep her in place.

“Zane, I’m sweaty and gross. You don’t have to do that.”

“I’m going to fucking taste you, Bea,” I growled at her. “It’s been too long since the last time I did and it’s been driving me mad. I need to.”

I wasn’t going to wait for permission. I stroked her a couple times and leaned forward, covering her entire mound with my mouth. Her hand flew out to steady herself on the shower wall, but I had a good grip on her ass so I wouldn’t let her fall. My tongue lapped at her with a ferocity that I could tell she wasn’t used to. Her other hand gripped my hair and pulled slightly but it felt good.

Before long, she was thrusting her hips forward into my mouth and I swear it was the sweetest moment for me. When she was basically asking for more of what I was giving her, practically begging for it. When she needed something that only I could give her in that moment.

When she started whimpering and chanting my name incoherently, I knew she was close. I thrusted two fingers inside her and closed my eyes in amazement at how tight she was. She was going to feel so good. Even better than the last time because now we knew more about each other and it somehow just made everything that much better. That we’d been able to connect on a non-physical level made this form of intimacy that much more addicting.

I felt her channel pulsing and knew she was right there. “I need you to come like this, luv,” I told her, coaxing her to give in. “I need to feel you let go just like this, on my mouth.”

When I leaned in again and sucked that bud of nerves into my mouth, she released with a scream. “Oh my God! Zane…shit,
Zane
.”

The realization that my mouth had caused her legs to tremble brought me immense satisfaction. I pulled away and steadied her before rising to stand before her again and brace her against the wall. As I reached around the curtain to grab the condom I’d placed on the sink just before we got in the shower, I noticed a strange look on Bea’s face, one I had never seen before. She looked almost nervous. I’d never witnessed Bea look unsure about anything, never seen her vulnerable.