Sidelined (25 page)

“Pretty much.”

“Um. Why?”

Jack grins. “Because then you can come back to me and I can remind you why I’m so much more fucking awesome than he is.”

I laugh into his chest.

“Come on. You gotta give the guy a fair chance. I mean, he’s never gonna get you, but at least let him try.”

“You sound so sure.”

“You’re here instead of there.”

“I was forced here.”

“Semantics, babe. Semantics.” Jack steps back, his grin wider and brighter than before. “Just don’t meet him on Saturday. I’ll fuck up the game if I know you’re with him.”

“How about tomorrow?”

“I wanted to fuck you first. You know, so he’s got something to live up to.”

“I’m here now.” I point behind me. “And a wall is right there. What are you waiting for?”

Turns out, nothing.

He tugs me to him and around the bar and table. I grin as he pushes me against the wall and slides a hand up my bare thigh to my panties.

“So considerate of you to wear a dress for me,” he murmurs.

“Wasn’t it?”

“Too much talkin’, not enough kissin’.” He finishes his sentence with a kiss that is ten times harder and hotter and more determined than the one we had a few minutes ago. This one sweeps fire through my body, and as our tongues dance together, he wastes no time in hoisting my dress up and around my waist. “Don’t expect me to be nice.”

A thrill tingles through my body at his words, and I feel him fumble between us with the button of his pants. He pulls them down with his underwear, his cock springing free, and if it weren’t for him grasping my thighs and lifting me, I would reach between us to wrap my fingers around it.

Jack takes my mouth once more and runs his fingers along my pussy. I gasp as he removes his fingers and shoves my panties to the side.
Oh, God.
The end of his cock pushes against my opening, and he stops.

“What are you waiting for?” I whisper. “I thought you weren’t going to be nice. Well, bad guys don’t exactly hover at the opening of a pussy until they’re ready to go right in. Come on, Jack. Rock my fucking world.”

“It’s fucking hot when you dirty talk me.” He slams inside me, unapologetic, and I throw my head back as well as one can when pressed against a wall.

The intrusion of him is harsh but welcome, and tiny thrills rocket through me. His fingers dig into my ass cheeks as he holds me up easily, and I grip him tight as he pulls out, ready to slip back inside.

Each thrust is deep and powerful, and heat builds quickly in me. I didn’t know I needed this—needed him. I didn’t know how much I needed something almost brutal and totally raw in its power.

I didn’t know I needed something so passionate that it’s close to being painful.

Heat peaks, and pleasure takes over, and I fall to pieces in Jack’s arms. The room spins as I come down off my high and he whispers, “Baby, fuck,” into my ear, over and over. His grip on my butt loosens as he pulls out of me and lets my legs down. I wobble when my feet hit the ground, and he swoops his arm around my waist.

“You good?” he asks after a minute. “’Cause I should probably put my cock away now.”

“Are you kidding? Your cock should be on display to be worshipped,” I sigh.

He laughs low. “You wouldn’t share it.”

“I didn’t say anything about sharing it. I’m saying it should be worshipped. By me.”

“I love it when you talk dirty without actually being dirty.”

“Fifteen minutes ago, you loved it when I talked dirty. Which one is it, handsome?”

“Both.” He grins.

“Great. Can I get some clean panties now?”

“Only if you promise to stay tonight.”

I fall into his body at his tug.

“And you make a certain phone call.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Really? You’re mentioning him right after sex?”

“That wasn’t sex, baby. That was a cold, hard fuck that was driven entirely by my male jealousy and protective streak.”

“For the record, I’m pretty fond of your male streaks right now.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me that. I might take advantage.”

“I’m not averse to that,” I say slowly. “But if I’m staying, making a call, and you’re taking advantage of me, I really need to go home to get some clean panties.”

Jack grins against my mouth. “Baby, you’ll need several pairs.”

Now there’s a promise I like.

“J
esus, Jack.” Macey drops her arm over her eyes, her chest rising and falling.

My grin is smug as I roll to the side. “Next time you have to talk to him, leave the fucking room.”

She turns her head and looks at me. “If that’s what happens after? No way.”

“Do it again and I might not be so polite.”

“Polite as in you waited for me hang up before you kindly ripped my dress over my head and carried me upstairs?”

“That’ll be it, babe.” I slip out of my bed and stalk into the adjoining bathroom. The floorboards creak behind me as Macey follows me, and I glance over my shoulder.

With her hair messed and her skin flushed with heat, she looks fucking gorgeous. And not only because I put that there—because the cause of the slight rash on her neck is my stubbly jaw or that the purple-looking mark on the side of her tit is because I sucked and bit her a little too hard. She looks fucking gorgeous because there’s a brightness in her eyes that makes the dark-brown color seem flecked with gold at the center of her irises.

Maybe they always have been. Maybe I just never looked close enough before. Maybe I never fucking cared enough to look closer.

My eyes crawl over her stomach to her hips, her pussy, her thighs, and finally, her bright-pink toenails. Jesus—pink. I’ve never been able to stomach the obnoxious color. Until she strolled into Reid’s birthday party, her body encased in a skin-tight, hot-pink dress that covered everything and left little to my imagination. Then my number-one priority was to peel that fabric from her lithe little body, show her the time of her fucking life, and hope that, with a body like the one she has, she’d show me the same.

She did. Fuck, did she. Macey Kelly took my one-night stands and ripped them up, and then she fucking shook them around for good measure as she rode my cock hard.

Slowly, that one-night stand became two, then three, then a proposition.

Now, that proposition is an all-out war with her ballbag of an ex who thinks he can storm back into her life and declare his love with a very skewed perception of her reaction.

As long as I’m around, my arms open as well as the zipper of my pants, Macey won’t be falling anywhere except into my goddamn bed.

“Hey, handsome!” Macey snaps her fingers in front of me. “You just ate me. No way are you still hungry.”

My lips curve into a cocky smirk, and I reach forward. Grasping her shoulders, I spin her, forcing her to face the mirror. I lean into her, my cock nestling itself against her ass and lower back. With my hands trailing down her arms, I meet her eyes in the mirror.

“Look at yourself, baby,” I murmur huskily, bringing my hands under her arms and cupping her full breasts. “Look at these gorgeous tits, marked by me.” My fingers tease her waist down to her hips. “Look at these curves, M. This utterly fucking sinful shape of your body.” My hand curves around one hip while the other sneaks forward, two of my fingers dipping between her legs. “Look at your pussy, still swollen and wet from my cock being inside you.”

Slowly, I bring my hand up, my eyes still on hers, the collision of our gazes in the mirror red hot. My hand finds her jaw and cups it, holding her face still so she can’t look away if she wanted to, which I know she doesn’t.

“Look at your face, baby. At your hair, your dark eyes, your soft, tempting lips… Look at every single inch of you and tell me I can’t fucking want you right after I’ve made you scream my name.” I lower my mouth to her ear, brushing my lips across it, our gaze still connected. “Try me.”

She takes a deep breath, but she dutifully pulls her eyes from mine and stares at herself. I watch her stare as it trails from her hair down to her painted toenails. I watch as she parts her lips and gasps when I push my hips against her so she can feel what she’s doing to me by simply standing there.

So she can feel how very much I want her. So she can’t fucking doubt what she does to me.

“Now tell me,” I whisper, curving my arms around her tiny body. “Did he ever want you like I do? In three years, baby, he ever desire you the way I do? He ever make you come as hard as I do? He ever drive you to distraction with insane need? He ever stop for one second and worship your body like the fucking temple I know it is?”

Macey exhales quietly, but it’s the kind of breath I never cared about before. The kind of breath that’s full of unspoken words. Unspoken words I want fucking spoken.

“Didn’t catch that.”

“No,” she breathes out. “No. Never.”

My arms go around her body as I move in front of her and clasp her against me. My erection rapidly deflates with the words I’m about to speak.

“Then, babe, my part in his bullshit game is almost done, except now, I’m calling my play. You go to him, and you let him think we’re done. That he has a chance. You see what he can do to you. You see if he can give you half the things I can—and I don’t even mean materially, M. I mean forever. If you can spend a few days with your ex and truly believe he can pleasure you like I can, treasure you like I can, then I’ll respect your decision. But, baby…” I sink my fingers into her hair and tug her head back so her eyes crash into mine with fire and apprehension mixing together. “Baby, if you think he can love you like I can, then get ready for a fight to the death.”

She freezes in my arms. “Jack.”

“I’m not gonna stand here with your naked body against mine and tell you I love you just to convince you to tell him where to go. I don’t love you, M. But I could. I know I could. You’re more fucking perfect for me than anything I’ve ever known. I won’t lie to you, baby. I crave your body and I crave you, but I don’t love you.”

Her eyes flicker with something indiscernible, but I hold her gaze.

“But just imagine—if I can make you feel physically what he can only dream of, just think of how I could love you one day.”

She drops her eyes and rests her face in my chest. My words hit her hard—I know they did. I’m not fucking dumb. But they didn’t hit her the way they would most girls. Right now, I know Macey couldn’t give a shit whether or not I love her. All she cares about is the fact that she’s the tug toy between two guys. She’s the ball being passed from end zone to end zone, quarterback to wide receiver. All she gives a shit about is that she makes the right decision in the end.

All she gives a shit about is that, when it’s her turn to call the play, she calls it right.

“Somethin’ you should know about me.” My words buzz along her jaw with my lips. “Football is my life. That isn’t ever gonna change, but that doesn’t mean that’s all there is to it.”

“Jack,” she whispers, her fingers digging into my sides.

“Three things you never cared to ask about me that I’m gonna tell you anyway.” I hover my mouth above hers, my eyes steely and intent on hers. “I play the game hard. I fuck harder. And I love even fucking harder than that.”