Fair Game: A Football Romance (34 page)

“No, I figured we would.”

He opens the garage door, and it lifts automatically, so the house must still have power. When he pulls inside, everything still looks okay. A few things have shifted out of place and fallen onto the ground, but there’s no structural damage. Major takes a few minutes to replace the wayward rakes and shovels before going inside.

Inside appears to be in order as well. There isn’t really anything that could have fallen, no knickknacks on shelves or crooked pictures. He straightens a vase in the foyer that looked perfectly fine to me before deeming the house satisfactory overall.

On the way back to the hospital, he fidgets in his seat and adjusts his seatbelt several times.

“You okay?”

“Yes.”

“You seem a little nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” he says, but he sounds offended.

He’s quiet for a couple of miles. I keep looking at him out of the corner of my eye, checking on him. He is so nervous. I don’t care what he says. His mouth his body language speak volumes.

We turn into the hospital parking garage, and he shuts off the engine.

“I think you and your mother should come and stay with me. The hotel isn’t habitable. I had it checked out, and it’s not safe. We can go by and see if they’re able to get any of your things, but it’s been closed for business until further notice.”

I turn in my seat and pull my knee up so I can look directly at him.

“How did you find all of that out? And when?”

“I texted a friend of mine who works in security at your hotel.”

“I don’t think you really want us staying with you.” I have to say it. He’s obviously been stewing about this since we left his house. I’m no psychiatrist, but I’ve pretty much diagnosed Major with OCD.

“I just extended you an invitation, didn’t I?”

“Yes, after miles of adjusting your seatbelt and trying to get comfortable in your own car. Major, it’s okay. We can find another hotel. Actually, I’m sure the wedding’s going to be postponed, if not because of the earthquake, then Mattie’s and Belle’s condition. We’ll probably go home tomorrow.”

“Violet, I want you and your mother to stay with me. I have no reservations about it. You may be going home tomorrow or the next day, but you’ll need somewhere to stay until then, and it only makes sense that you both stay with me.”

For the first time since I met him, I can read emotion on his face. His blank, flat affectation is gone and tension is vibrating in his eyes. He is being very stubborn about this, however, so I accept his invitation.

“Okay, if my mom will come, I will too, but I’m pretty sure we will be going home tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Chapter Eleven

Major

Who’s the boss?

This is so not fine. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I’ve never had anyone over to visit, let alone houseguests to stay the night—or two nights, or however long they need to stay.

Six years I’ve lived here, and no one other than maintenance people and my housekeeper, Edith, have stepped foot inside until this weekend. But I needed to know they were safe. I didn’t have a choice, so now I have two people in my house, touching my things, using my bathroom, and eating in my kitchen.

I can’t concentrate. I’ve been pacing the floor in my bedroom since we got home this morning. Standing in that hospital, where I spent so many days waiting to see if Katie would pull through, was awful, but being home and having people inhabiting my sanctuary is worse.

Violet is in my shower, and her mother is downstairs sleeping on my couch.

I rub the back of my neck and stretch it out, trying to relieve the tension there. Katie used to tell me I looked like a pelican trying to swallow a fish when I stretched like this. She teased me all the time about my idiosyncrasies, but she loved me despite them. She couldn’t comprehend my strong sense of organization or my need to make lists so that things would be done properly. I told her it’s the Marine in me, but she would just shake her head as if she knew better.

We had our fights. I would flip out if she moved something unexpectedly or if she didn’t replace something before it ran out. I hate that. I keep four of everything in my house so that when it runs out, there’s another ready to replace it. Soap, toothpaste, condiments, fabric softener. Everything is stocked at least four deep.

I like lists. I make them for everything that I do. But once in a while, my Katie would add things to one of my lists in her handwriting, which is nothing like my handwriting, ruining my list.

I would have to throw it away and start over, and it pissed me off. Probably more than it should have. I would yell at her, and she would yell at me, and then she would go into the bedroom and cry. That made me even angrier, and then later on, when her eyes were puffy and she would be cooking my dinner, keeping every box and every bottle in straight lines on the counter and cleaning up every splatter or drip as she went, I would feel like a complete asshole. It was a vicious circle of madness, and she was a saint to put up with me. I vowed never to subject another woman to my eccentricity, and now here I am having . . . I don’t know what I’m having with Violet.

Feelings. That’s what I’m having, but I’m not going to label them. It’s pointless anyway. She’s going home to San Diego tomorrow, and we might never see each other again. It makes my chest ache when I think of that, of never seeing my sexy Target girl again, but it’s for the best. I don’t want to ruin her life the way I did my Katie’s.

The shower shut off, she’ll be here in seconds, her cocoa brown skin wet with droplets of water trailing down her body . . . onto my floor.

Fuck, see, Sawyer? You can’t even have an erotic thought about her without turning it into a cleaning session.

“You look like an animal stretching its neck. You okay?” she asks, exiting the bathroom exactly the way I just envisioned her minus the dripping on the floor. She’s dry and glowing.

“Somebody else used to say that to me,” I say, more than a little spooked.

She unconsciously pulls her towel a little tighter around her chest and steps back in fear. What makes this woman fear me? I’ve never given her reason to shrink away from me.

“Violet, are you afraid of me?” I ask.

She screws up her face. “No, what makes you say that? Is that what you’re out here worrying about?”

I sit down on the edge of the bed and motion for her to come closer to me. She approaches slowly, with a bit of hesitance.

“Because you’re clutching that towel like a life preserver, and you stepped away from me just now when I spoke to you.”

She’s standing between my legs now. My hands are on her ass, holding her in place. She won’t look me in the eye. She’s focusing on something over my shoulder. I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger and turn her lovely, fresh, lavender smelling face to mine.

“Tell me,” I say gently.

“I just feel like we’re intruding on your space, and I’m gathering that your space is a very important part of your life.”

I look away from her eyes and focus on the space between our bodies, taking a deep breath.

“You’re correct. It is, but your comfort and safety are more important. I want you here. I would be twice as anxious if I didn’t know where you were or if you were safe. Buildings are unstable after earthquakes. They may look fine externally, but internally, there can be severe damage.”

I think about the way that comment relates to my life while she snuggles against my chest. I put on a good front externally, an excellent one actually. The world believes I’m a hard ass Marine who has his shit together and doesn’t give a fuck about anyone. That’s how I’ve portrayed myself, but inside, I’m tortured by the need to control all things in my life—people, objects, situations. Everything. And truth be told, I’m lonely. Fucking random women is fine if you’re just looking to get off, and I thought that’s what I wanted. No woman will ever fill the hole Katie left in my chest.

Or so I thought.

“Are you hungry? I can try to make something quietly without waking your mother.”

“No thank you. My stomach is in knots after everything that’s happened tonight.”

“What can I do for you then?”

“Nothing. Why don’t you let
me
help
you
?” she says, lowering her eyes to my lap.

“Yeah? You sure you’re up for that? I thought you’d be exhausted.”

“I am, but making you feel good is more important to me right now.” She winks at me and starts unbuttoning my pants and tugging down the zipper. I’m hard for her, but when am I not?

She takes a step away from me and tries to pull me up. It’s a funny sight to see this tiny woman trying to help me stand. She pushes out her bottom lip and pouts when she can’t make me budge. I stand and tower over her while she works my pants off. She tries to take control of the moment again by pushing me down onto the bed. She’s not a quitter. I’ll give her that.

I let her do it and fall onto the mattress.

I watch her continue to unbutton my shirt. She stops and lifts her eyes to my lips after the third button. She slowly blinks her lush lashes and dips to kiss me softly on the chest at the opening of my shirt before unbuttoning the forth and fifth. Her eyes find mine again. There is so much open, honest vulnerability there. It makes me want to rip her towel off and ravish her, but I let her lead the way . . . for now.

Her lips follow her fingers down my chest until my shirt is open. Her mouth is dangerously close to the tip of my twitching cock when she straightens up and makes a show of pushing my shirt off my shoulders. When I’m naked with my cock pointing straight at her, she drops her towel. I lean back on my hands to show her I’m all hers to do with as she pleases.

Control is my forte, but Violet’s willingness to take the reins is irresistible and she doesn’t disappoint. She reaches out and strokes my shaft from root to head.

“Want me to talk dirty to you, Major?”

“Mmmhmm,” is about all I can muster. She’s going to end this before it begins with her sexy fucking voice if she’s not careful.

“You have the biggest cock I’ve ever seen.” She bends to swirl her tongue on the head of the biggest fucking cock she’s ever seen, and I moan.

“I’m going to take you all the way in my mouth. I’m going to suck you so hard until you hit the back of my throat, and I’m going to love it.”

And she does.

Her full, soft lips cover my cock, and it slides across her tongue and, just as promised, I bump the back of her throat. She sucks hard and drags her mouth along my rock hard length and swirls her tongue over the head.

“Fuck, Violet . . .”

“You like that? Want more?” She teases my head with her tongue, and that’s it. Her sultry, dirty mouth just started a storm, and like lightning, I snatch her forward and roll her onto her back on the bed. I tried it her way. I enjoyed it, actually, but we’re doing it my way now. I’m taking the control back.

“You think you have a dirty mouth, do you?” I say, hovering over her and pinning her crossed wrists over her head with one hand. The corner of her mouth lifts in a wicked, sexy smile and she nods her head up and down.

“I like what you do with that dirty fucking mouth of yours. I like it so much that I may fuck it again later, but right now, I want to know something, Target girl.”

“What’s that, Major?”

“How wet are you for me?”

She squirms under me, aligning our bodies so she can show me, but I want to hear her say it.

“Uh, uh, uh,” I say, shaking my head back and forth.

“Tell me.”

She wiggles her hands, and I free one of them. She slides it between her breasts and down her flat belly between our hot bodies and between her legs. When she touches herself her breath hitches, and I’m fast approaching the end of my short-lived control.

She brings her glistening wet fingers to my lips and slides them into my mouth. “That’s how wet I am for you, Major.”

I slide my cock between her folds and circle my hips, rubbing my head against her clit. “Are you ready?”

“Oh God, yes, please,” she moans, thrusting her hips upward. I’m right there. One more move and I’m inside her.

“Vie, I want to feel you. I don’t want anything between us. Are you on the pill?” I ask. I’m so fucking out of my mind to feel her around me right now, I’d probably risk it even if she weren’t.

“Yeah, for ten years.”

Perfect.

I blow out a breath and slide deep into her. We both cry out, and I remember her mother is sleeping right downstairs, so I cover her mouth with my hand that was holding her wrist and use the other for leverage against the mattress.

I can feel her mouth curve into a smile under my hand, and her eyes sparkle right before she licks me. I move my hand away, and she half-laughs, half-groans when I push in balls deep. She clenches around me as I pump in and out of her, feeling flesh against flesh with nothing separating us. It feels so good. I know I’m close, and from the way her eyes just rolled back into her head and her entire body just arched off the bed, she’s milliseconds from release, but I don’t want this to end yet. It’s too perfect, too passionate, too late. We explode simultaneously, yelling indecipherable words and grunts. I have no doubt Lilly is awake now. Hell we probably just scared the neighbors next door awake too.

I still inside her, basking in the post-orgasmic pulsing of my cock. Going bare is so fucking amazing. I haven’t had sex without a condom since I was married. I forgot how much more sensitive it is, how it feels to empty inside of a woman instead of a piece of latex.

I roll onto my back, taking her with me without separating. I’ll be ready to go again soon. I can feel it.

She kisses me on my mouth and sits up straddling me, pushing my semi-erect cock deeper inside her. She leans back a little, pressing her perfect round ass against my thighs, and I raise my arms up and lace my fingers together behind my head to admire her.

“You think we woke my mom?”

I wink when she looks worried. “I think we woke the whole neighborhood,” I say, lifting one corner of my mouth in a smirk.

“Shit, my mom’s the type who would come up here and feign concern just to find out what’s happening, even when she knows exactly what’s happening.”

She looks around as if she’s trying to find something to cover us with.

“Don’t worry. If she comes up here, she will be sadly disappointed. The door is locked.”

She relaxes and leans forward, placing her palms flat on my abs. I should pull her down to reassure her, but she’s too damn gorgeous. I want to look at her.

“You’re so beautiful, Violet. Sit up and push your hair behind your shoulders.”

She chews on the inside of her mouth for a second, and a little pucker appears between her brows, but she does what I ask. Sitting up, she scoops her hair up and twists it into a messy knot on top of her head with a rubber band she had on her wrist. Now I can see all of her.

“Much better.”

She squirms under my stare, but I can’t help it. I could lay here and look at her all night. I love the curve in her neck, her pecan colored silky skin, the dip in her throat that I kiss when I’m trailing kisses down her neck and across her collarbone. I like how she gets goosebumps every time I press my lips against that dip. I love watching her breasts rise and fall with every heave of her breath when I’m moving in and out of her. I love the way my hands look around her waist and when I slide them down over the curve of her hips. I eye the pretty little piercing on her flat belly when it sparkles in the soft light of the lamp on my night table.

“Is this your birthstone?” I ask, moving my hand out from under my head to fiddle with the piece of jewelry.

“Yes, Ruby.”

“So you’re born in July. What day?” I ask because I too am born in July, and what a strange coincidence it would be if we had the same birthday. I checked the year she was born on her driver’s license, but not the day or month.