Текст книги "Game for Anything "

Автор книги: Bella Andre

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CHAPTER TWELVE

There were many reasons why this date-plus-one should have been mortifying: The fact that Ty got to meet a guy she'd liked enough to have dinner with; that she had to explain to Dave that Ty was accompaning them to the restaurant for business reasons; that the owner of the packed restaurant had no trouble whatsoever finding a larger table for "the great Ty Calhoun and his friends" even though there was a two-hour-wait out on the sidewalk; and that Dave was quite possibly the world's biggest Outlaw fan and knew every significant play Ty had made since college, seemed to have memorized their playbook, and hadn't so much as looked at Julie after she'd opened the door.

But the most mortifying thing of all was that Ty cearly felt so sorry for her that he kept coming to her rescue.

For the past hour she'd counted bites, then chews, then sips of water, because even those were more interesting than Dave's incessant football chatter.

Finally, Ty cut him off. "Did you know Julie and I went to high school together?" Uh-oh. Dave's mouth opened, making him look like a fish on a hook. What had she ever seen in him?

"Oh man, I can't believe you actually witnessed Ty's moves when he was a teenager. That must have been awesome."

She shook her head. "I didn't go to any football games."

Dave's big mouth grew impossibly bigger. "You missed watching one of the greatest high school players of all time in action? What were you thinking?"

What a total jerk. "Do you really want to know what I was thinking, Dave? Or would you rather ask Ty instead?" she asked sweetly.

Dave blinked in confusion. "Okay." He turned to Ty. "Why didn't she go to football games?" Ty looked impossibly handsome in the dim light, and Julie was sure every woman in the restaurant was having an orgasm over him. She didn't know how he did it, let all those people stare at him, probe at him. She liked her privacy and couldn't imagine giving it up.

"Julie hates football," Ty told Dave.

"Are you crazy?" he squeaked, a very unattractive sound from a man. Ty answered for her. "Not everyone likes sports. You've got to respect the fact that people are different, that they have their own interests." Ty turned away from the bumbling fool. "Who is your favorite novelist, Julie?"

Something within her sparked into life. "Alive or dead?"

"Dead."

"Jane Austen."

"Painter. Dead."

"Mary Cassat."

"Musician. Dead."

"Johnny Cash."

He laughed. "Really?"

She shrugged, smiling for the first time all night. "I've always been a sucker for a rebel." Who would have thought Ty could be so nice? That he'd actually care about her interests, that he wouldn't hold it against her that she didn't know what a safety was?

Clearly, though, Dave didn't care for the new topic of conversation. "What are your plans for next season, Ty?"

Ty waved over the waiter. "I think we're done here. Thanks." He handed him a credit card. Turning to her loser of a date, he said, "First, I'm going to get to bed early tonight." Dave nodded, happy to bask in the glow of his hero, not realizing that his moment of glory had just come to an end.

The waiter quickly returned and Ty signed the bill, then held out a hand to Julie. She gladly accepted it and let him pull her toward him.

He whispered," Say good night, be nice, and whatever you do, don't invite him back to your house." His words were soft and comforting, rather than bossy.

Dave followed at Ty's heels like a puppy dog following its master. Forcing herself to be polite, Julie smiled and said, "It's been a lovely evening, Dave, but I'm afraid I've got an early day ahead of me tomorrow. Good night."

Not surprisingly, he barely blinked in her direction. "Fine. Great. So, Ty, you up for getting a beer? I could call some friends to meet us."

A muscle jumped in Ty's cheek and his voice turned cold. "Sorry to disappoint, buddy, but I've got a beautiful woman waiting for me to take her home."

Julie's heart pounded. She didn't need Ty to be her knight in shining armor. Yet it felt so good to hear him call her beautiful.

Dave shook his head admiringly. "Wow, you must get all the babes. Who is she?" A sneer curled Ty's lips and Julie was taken aback, accustomed to the carefree grin that drove everyone wild.

"We're keeping our relationship under wraps," he said. "She's not convinced I'm good enough for her yet."

As Dave's mouth dropped open again, Ty put his big palm on the small of Julie's back and guided her through the front door, then out around the corner.

Perfectly happy to go wherever Ty was leading her if it meant getting away from that uber-jerk, she was surprised to find that he'd just steered her into a tiny pizza joint.

"Two slices with everything on 'em and a pitcher of Coke," he told a passing waiter, then pushed her into a carved wooden booth and shoved in next to her. "Please tell me that was a blind date." Her stomach was grumbling. The waiter slid two enormous pizza slices onto the table. She picked one up and inhaled.

"I wish." She took a bite. And then another. "God, this is good." Julie couldn't deny how nice it was to have Ty's warm, hard body pressed up against her in the little booth. He was watching her eat, his eyes moving from her mouth, to her throat, to the tops of her breasts on display in her red dress.

She felt like an idiot for even bothering to dress up for a dud like Dave, but at the same time, part of her was happy she'd looked good. Foolishly, she liked it when Ty looked at her. Liked it even better when he was enticed by what he saw.

She looked down at her empty plate, then at his full one. She'd been raised always to be a lady. And a lady never ate more than a man, never raised her voice, never put herself in an untenable position. Thus far with Ty, Julie had done all three. And the strangest thing was, she wasn't the least bit ashamed of any of it. In fact, she felt downright good.

"You gonna eat that?" she asked, swiping his slice before he could answer.

"Few things are sexier than a woman who eats," Ty murmured, and his words felt like a caress. Her nipples hardened beneath the thin fabric of her dress.

She gulped down some soda, then wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. God, she loved how free she suddenly felt.

"I refuse to believe that any of those women by your pool eat. They're all ribs and silicone." He stared at her. "I don't believe I've ever called those girls sexy, have I?" She forced herself to swallow. "I guess I just assumed."

"They're not my type."

The noise of the pizza joint fell away and she felt like they were the only people in the room.

"As far back as I can remember, I've had a thing forcurvy blondes with big . . ." Why did he have to be so predictable, such a cavemen?

"Brains." He grinned, then looked down at her amply presented chest. "Although a nice pair of breasts is good too."

She reached out for her soda, trying not to show how pleased she was by his comment. "We all know you're a master at coming on to women," she said, trying to extricate herself from the position she was in. The one where she was about to beg him to take her right then, right there on the table.

"Unexpected compliments, focusing on their hidden assets." Ignoring her sarcasm, he said, "I just want to say one more thing about tonight, and I don't want you to try to turn it around or read anything bad into it, okay?"

She looked up at him and saw sincerity in his eyes. "I'm all ears."

"Your date was an ass. He was crazy for not paying attention to you. And he doesn't deserve you." His words hung in the air, and Julie could have sworn she heard what he didn't say: And I don't deserve you, either.

Only she was starting to wonder if maybe he did.

Ty bought her an ice cream cone and she enjoyed t more than she should have. If she'd had any sense of self-preservation she would have ended the night long ago, locked herself in her bedroom and forced herself to watch the news or read a book.

But surprisingly, she enjoyed his company. He had a natural charm with his fans. Dozens of people wanted pictures and autographs outside the ice cream parlor. When the two of them finally returned to her home, everything in her world felt like it had been turned upside down. She couldn't deny the truth any longer. She wanted him. Desperately. Wanted him touching her, kissing her. Wanted him inside her. Her body no longer cared what her brain was telling it or the warning sirens clanging around in her head.

"Thanks for a great night," she said, and she meant it. But she also hoped that he'd know she was trying to say she didn't want it to end.

He reached for her hands, rubbed his thumbs across the sensitive skin. "How about next time we leave your date at home?"

"Okay," she whispered, letting him pull her closer. She hadn't wanted to be kissed this much since she was eighteen, when she saw Ty walking across the deck straight toward her, the embodiment of her crush.

"Good night, Julie," he said, then leaned down and kissed her gently on the cheek. She stood completely still, her heart sinking like a rock. She watched him walk down the hall into her guest bedroom and close the door with a soft click.

She'd just been turned down by the one man who had never turned down anyone in his life. She'd never felt so stupid, so embarrassed, so senselessly aroused in all her life.

Ty sat down hard on the queen-size bed in the guest room. His hands were shaking. Did Julie have any idea how fucking hard it was for him to keep his hands off of her? How much he wanted to take her right there on the carpet in front of her fireplace?

He couldn't think of the last time he'd been this hard. Blue balls were not something he experienced on a regular basis—until Julie.

Of all the times to decide to act like a goddamned gentleman.

Ty ripped off his shirt, breaking several buttons in his haste. He wanted Julie to know that he could behave appropriately, that he respected her, that he wasn't going to ravage her without wooing her first. Not that pizza and ice cream were the most romantic things in the world, but they were a hell of a lot better than a boring dinner with the world's most boring guy.

Jeez, what on earth had she seen in that jerk?

It was obvious from looking at the guy that he was wealthy and successful and came from the right side of the tracks. But apart from that, he didn't have anything going for him. Julie could do much better. Didn't she know that?

He turned on ESPN and hit the floor to do some sit-ups.

He hoped Julie was happy with the sacrifice he made in the name of honor tonight. Because he wasn't sure he had it in him to be a gentleman again.

She rolled over on her stomach, then her left side, then her right. She counted to a hundred, thencounted back to one, but nothing helped. She couldn't sleep—not with Ty so near. For hours she'd staredat the wall, wished she had X-ray vision, wished she could see what he was wearing, if he was naked.Was he touching himself, was he pretending her lips were on him, her hands?

Again she heard a voice inside her say, Enough! But this time, it wasn't telling her to stop falling forthe one man she'd sworn never to have feelings for again. No, this time it said, Go get what you want, what you need. Go on. Go now.

She ripped off her sleep shirt and dug in her lingerie drawer for something lacy. Then she walked outinto the hall, to Ty's closed door.

Don't think, the voice urged, just open it.

Slowly, she turned the knob and crept into his room. Moonlight streamed in the bay window,illuminating his perfect form reclined on the bed.

"What took you so long?"

His question was softly sensuous and she instinctively moved toward him.

"I wanted to make you wait," she said, not recognizing her own voice.

"I'm not a patient man," he said, and she smiled.

"Too bad. Tonight we're playing by my rules."

He was lying on his back, his hands propping up his head. "Next time we'll play by mine."She pulled the sash from her robe and moved slowly to the bed. His magnificent chest was bare andshe couldn't resist toying with him, dragging the edge of the pink sash across his tanned expanse of skin.He growled deep from his chest and reached for her.

She took a step back. "Somehow I didn't think I could trust you to behave yourself. Keep your armsabove your head."

His brown eyes followed her as she moved up to the head of the bed. Her open robe revealed ashort, tight, and translucent slip.

He hadn't obeyed her command yet, so she threatened, "I can either use this on your eyes or yourwrists. Your choice."

A wicked, aroused smile curved his lips. "What if I choose one now, one later?"

"My rules, Ty. Make your choice." She never knew how much she liked being in charge, liked playingthe bad girl.

Being with a bad boy like Ty had roused her inner seductress.

"Wrists," he said. "But first, this." He reached up and pulled her slip off over her head, leaving hernaked but not the least bit chilled. Everywhere he looked, every place his fingers drifted, was burning up.Knowing it would drive him crazy, she leaned over him as she tied his arms to the bedpost with thesash. Her breasts swayed over his mouth and she was sorely tempted to drop her nipples into his waitingmouth. But she wanted to tease him, to tantalize him, wanted him to burst with desire for her before shegave in.

His wrists secure, she pulled down the sheets that covered him.

He was blessedly naked. And so incredibly beautiful.

His cock rose up, huge and thick. "I take it you found what you were looking for?"His words were taunting and yet seductive.

"I can't stop reliving what you did to me yesterday with your hands, your mouth. I can't stop thinkingabout what it would have been like if the tables had been turned."He swallowed hard. "Turn them."

She climbed up on the bed and straddled his thighs. "I can't help but wonder if you taste as good asyou look."

His voice was strangled. "There's only one way to find out."She smiled. "Who says jocks aren't smart?"

Slowly leaning down, letting her hair brush against his abdominal muscles so that they jumped andtightened, she pressed her lips to the tip of his cock. A drop of liquid surfaced and she licked it off in onesmooth stroke. Until this moment, Julie had never been a big fan of blow jobs.Funny how one man could change her opinion about absolutely everything.She ran her tongue lightly down the long, thick shaft. How had they managed to fit together whenshe was an eighteen-year-old virgin?

She couldn't wait to find out again.

Without warning, she took him deep into her mouth.

His hips bucked up off the bed and he groaned her name. She loved watching him lose control,loved knowing that she was the woman making it happen.

"Untie me," he growled.

She shook her head. "Not until I'm done with you."

As much as she loved tasting him, giving him pleasure with her tongue and lips, she wanted to feelhim deep within her more. Right now.

She moved up his body, put her hands on his chest, and pushed down onto his cock, letting his firstthick inch spread her wide open. She'd relived their lovemaking so many times over the past ten years,yet nothing could have possibly lived up to the incredible reality.

"More, Julie. Take more," he urged and she gave in, taking him in another inch. Before she couldstop herself, before she could remember to slow down to torture him with longing, she slid all the waydown, pressed her pelvic bone against his.

And that was when Julie realized she'd been lying to herself: Having any control over her body whereTy was concerned was impossible. All she wanted was him inside her just like this, hard and pulsing. Shecouldn't get enough of him, never wanted this bliss to end.

"Untie me," he said again, somewhere between an order and a plea. But before she got the chance,his arm muscles rippled and the fabric ripped in two. Then his hands were on her, and they wereeverywhere—her breasts, her clitoris, her bottom...an orgasm began to ripple across her breasts, over herstomach, deep in her core.

Julie panted, her hand between her legs, Ty's name on her lips as she came. The sheets were twisted around her, and it took her several moments to realize that she wasn't in her guest bedroom. She was in her own bedroom.

And Ty was still on the other side of the wall.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Julie woke up curled tightly around her extra pillow. Her eyes felt gritty and puffy; the light seemed harsher than usual.

Oh, Lord—while he slept peacefully a bedroom away, she'd been in the throes of a wet dream that had seemed utterly real.

Well. She'd never get through this assignment without a serious dose of positive thinking, so from now on, she'd keep her emotions firmly in check and her mind on the business at hand. Jay, Ty's agent, had filled her in on the rest of Ty's off-season schedule yesterday afternoon during a phone meeting, and tonight she and Ty were attending an important charity event in the vineyards of Napa Valley.

She sat up and reached for her watch, then glanced at the time. 10:00 A.M.?

She blinked hard and looked again. Her internal body clock always woke her up at 6:30 A.M., even when she changed time zones!

How could this have happened?

Ty shook everything up. Everything.

She jumped in the shower, dried her hair, did her makeup, and dressed in record time. Then she headed for the kitchen, looking for coffee, hoping Ty was engrossed in TV or something. No such luck.

He looked up from the sunny corner where her round, stone kitchen table was tucked beneath a bank of windows. It looked like he had several contracts spread in front of him and a yellow legal notepad full of scribblings. Great. He was working hard on business matters while she was sleeping away the morning. Yet again, he'd managed to get a leg up on her.

"Looks like you could use some coffee," he said. "I just brewed a fresh pot." As if he could read her mind he added, "I got in the habit of waking up early at training camp in college. Never figured out how to sleep till noon like some of the other guys."

She nodded and poured herself a large steaming cup of coffee, not trusting herself to speak until she'd imbibed a lethal dose of caffeine.

Hell, she barely trusted herself to be in the same room with Ty. If her dream was any indication of her sex-starved state, she was perilously low on self-control.

"I'm usually up early too," she said, feeling defensive and hating it. He sat back in his chair. "Something keep you awake last night?" She scowled at his low blow. Grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl on the kitchen island, she sat in the chair across the table from temptation.

"I had to take some work to bed," she replied. When she realized exactly how she'd taken her work tobed, she blushed profusely. Crap! She never blushed. As a fair-skinned blonde she'd had to teach herself early not to reveal her emotions so easily. Whether in personal or professional situations, keeping her control was vitally important.

"Mmm-hmm," he said.

Was she imagining the slightly mocking note in his voice? Or was she just feeling guilty?

As if the earth's rotation depended on it, she cracked open the top of the banana, peeled one long slice down to the bottom, then the next. Finally the firm, yellow flesh was ready for her to eat. Just as she was bringing the pointy tip to her lips, she looked up at Ty. His eyes were trained on her mouth, on the banana she had clasped in her hand.

Oh God, how had breakfast become so incredibly mortifying?

Her first instinct was to drop the banana. But something inside her wanted to punish Ty for taunting her in her dreams last night. She'd never felt like this before, so constantly tempted and on the verge of doing bad things.

She slowly brought the banana to her lips. Covering the tip with her mouth, she sucked in an inch, and then another, finally taking a slow bite, closing her eyes in pleasure as she chewed.

She heard Ty's coffee cup hit the table with a clatter, and she smiled. She felt much better when they were on an even playing field.

"Our first event is tonight," she said. "In Napa." He shifted in his seat. "Don't wear that little red dress again."

"Excuse me?" she said sharply, even though she would never wear something so sexy to a work function. Last night was the first time she'd ever worn the impulse buy; it was far more revealing than her usual style.

Her mother had always said that men couldn't control themselves, so there was no need to dress like a whore and tempt them to make a pass at her. And while Julie knew that her mother was bitter over the buxom young girls her father made no secret of sleeping with, she'd still taken the advice to heart.

"Don't get me wrong, you looked great in it. Too good. Way too good." She liked his compliment. Far too much. It was time to put Ty firmly in his place.

"Your team hired me to tell you what to wear. Not the other way around."

"I get that. But Montague is a dirty old man. You wear that dress and he'll be eyeing your breasts all night, trying to cop a feel when he thinks no one is looking. As it is, he'll be following you around all night like a dog chasing a juicy bone."

"You're the first person who has ever compared me to a dog bone. Now, that's a compliment to remember."

"You're welcome."

He grinned and she couldn't keep herself from grinning back. It was so easy, sitting with him like this in her breakfast nook, even when they were sniping at each other.

She gestured to his papers. "Got some contracts to look over?" He gathered up the papers. "My agent couriered over some new ad contracts. You wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork I have to deal with."

He was right. She'd believed football players were nothing more than big, dumb guys in tight white pants chasing a ball during hailstorms. She'd never thought of them as businessmen before. Now she knew better.

"Speaking of your agent, he sent over your appearance schedule. I've already crossed out several inappropriate events."

He stood up, picked up their empty coffee cups, and put them in the sink. She hadn't had the pleasure of seeing him in jeans and a T-shirt until now. Desire nearly undid her. Annoyed by her reaction, she added, "And I don't care who your dates are supposed to be for the charity events. From this point forward you're going stag, with me just one step behind."

"I'm all yours," he replied in a low, sensual tone, deliberately letting her explore the idea of his really being hers.

Just as she had in her dream last night when she'd tied him up and had her way with him.

"The only thing that's nonnegotiable is football camp," he added.

"I thought training didn't start until July?"

"It doesn't. I volunteer coach at a camp for kids. The best and the brightest." Julie was surprised, and she said thoughtfully, "It must be like looking in a mirror." She could have sworn his eyes clouded over. "Sometimes it is."

"There must be so much pressure on those kids," she said, and his eyes met hers. For a second, she saw everything he wanted to keep hidden.

It hit her square in the chest: She wanted to be close to him. But could she actually risk dropping the walls she'd erected to protect her heart to find out more about what was in Ty's?

"I've got to work out for a couple of hours. I'll grab my stuff so we can head to the gym." Just as quickly as he'd opened himself to her, he closed off, and she felt oddly alone in her warm and cozy kitchen.

Julie had a knack for hitting too close, Ty thought as he bench-pressed three hundred for ten reps. He was pushing himself, trying to work off some of the relentless energy pushing through him. Through the glass wall, he could see Julie sitting in the gym's cafe, talking on her cell phone, taking notes, and tapping on her laptop. She was always so focused, so driven. She didn't smile nearly enough.

She picked up a clear plastic cup with the green sludge the trainers insisted was "power" protein and took a sip. Her face scrunched up and her cheeks sucked in with obvious disgust. Yet another thing they had in common, he thought as she surreptitiously spit it back into the cup after looking around to make sure no one was looking.

She seemed distracted this morning, and he was hoping he knew the reason why. All night long he'd been falling in and out of triple X dreams of the two of them. Him on her, her on him. Doggy-style. Up against the wall. Sixty-nine.

In his dreams, he'd had her in every possible way. Was it too much to hope that she wasn't any more immune to him than he was to her?

He got off the bench and picked up an eighty-pound barbell to work on his triceps. How pathetic would he be if he got an erection at the gym? He had to stop acting like a teenage boy dreaming about getting his first piece of ass.

Dominic DiMarco, one of the veteran Outlaws, walked into the gym, and Ty watched him speak to Julie. When Julie laughed, jealousy drop-kicked Ty.

Dominic was one of the few guys on the team who went home alone after a game, who didn't burn it out with groupies hanging on to him. A girl like Julie was probably just what Dominic was looking for, the perfect gorgeous, smart woman to settle down with.

Whereas Ty was fucking around and wasting his time.

His triceps burned as he pumped the weight harder in jealousy and frustration. Dominic dropped his gym bag on the floor between them and picked up some weights. "Julie's with you?"

Fuck. They were already on a first-name basis.

"I'm living with her," Ty said, then felt like an idiot for trying to lay claim to her before his friend could. He'd never acted like such a pussy before.

Dominic laughed. "Sean told me your new image consultant had you on a short leash." He did a curl, then winced in pain. "Good time to be a dog, I'd say." Then he asked, "You like being with her?" Ty grunted as he did his last rep. "Sure," he said in an offhand way. Time to change the subject.

"Your shoulder still giving you trouble?"

Dominic dropped to a lower weight. "A little," he admitted. "Julie said you knew each other in high school. Pretty girl."

Ty could think of a hundred better words to describe her than pretty.

"Thinking of settling down?" Dominic asked.

Ty forced a laugh. "No way. Not with all the action I get." It sounded empty, even to himself.

"I know you're not asking for my advice," Dominic said, putting down his weights and pinning Ty with a glance in the mirror. "Hell, you probably don't even need it. Forget I said anything." Ty sat down on the incline bench, figuring it wouldn't hurt to let Dominic say his piece.

"I'm listening."

"I made some bad decisions way back." Dominic shook his head. Ty nodded, wondering where Dominic was heading with this. He'd never been much for other people's opinions, but Dominic had the years, the experience behind him to back up whatever he was going to say.

"If you're lucky enough to meet someone special, don't let her go. You've got money and fame already. But you won't have her."