-11-
KAYLA
Jay’s palm pressed to my chest, and the heat of his hand warmed me from the inside out, which I didn’t need help with. It was sweltering in his car, sitting in his lap.
Something was definitely wrong with me because, no, I didn’t want to stop. I needed him to keep kissing me. If our brief make-out session at Marcy’s wedding had been the first half, he’d come out of the locker room after halftime as a whole new player. More aggressive and confident.
It was totally working for him. My fingers shook as I undid another button on my shirt. I wasn’t shaking with fear, I was trembling with anticipation. I needed to send him a clear signal since I couldn’t rely on my words. My body wanted his touch, so I put it in charge.
The parking lot wasn’t lit, and the sun had set as we’d come back from the diner, so it was dark inside the car. The moon was bright, though, and he looked so handsome in its light, it stole my breath. His eyes widened a degree when he realized I’d granted him better entry into my shirt, and the desire that flooded his face made me ache.
His hand slipped inside, and fingers dipped beneath the cup of my bra. I’d been wrong. Now it was sweltering in the car. A bead of sweat trickled down my spine, moving at the same painstakingly slow pace he was.
He didn’t try to undo my shirt. Maybe he knew I wanted to stay decent while still allowing his fingertips to glide over my sensitive skin. My moan was so deep, it started in my belly.
The car wasn’t in motion, but everything felt like it was moving. The world spun too fast, and abruptly jerked to a stop as he cupped my breast and tugged my nipple between two fingers. The sensation was a jolt of white hot pleasure, zipping down between my legs.
I was melting. Every inch of me turned into liquid as he massaged and teased the aching points of my breasts. Even when he focused on one, the sensation of my lacy bra brushing against my oversensitive skin on the other was pleasurable.
Since my body was in control, I rocked in his lap, and the sexiest noise came from him. A grunt, filled with longing. I wanted to touch him as he was touching me, so I burrowed my hands under his t-shirt.
“Oh my God,” I said.
“What?” His voice was low and unfocused. Too distracted with what his wandering hands were doing.
My palm chattered over the ridges of his stomach and chest. “You’re, uh, athletic.”
He laughed. “Student athletes usually are.”
I made a face, not wanting the reminder, or the distraction from the magnificent work of art his body was. His skin was feverish under my hands, and his eyes drifted closed for a moment, as if he were enjoying my touch.
I was suddenly grateful we were in a car. If we’d been alone with a bed nearby, I’d probably toss my inhibitions away faster than I could get his shirt off. Which was strange. I wasn’t the type to give it up quickly.
It was cruel for the universe to show me this beautiful man, and then make him play for Michigan.
“Okay.” His strained voice brought me back to earth. “You keep moving on me like that and I’m going to make a mess.”
Jay gripped my waist as he attempted to turn me. I bumped my head into the ceiling, and his elbow slammed against the headrest, making us both laugh. Finally, he had me seated beside him so my legs were over his lap.
Things went from silly to serious when his hand closed on my knee and worked upward. Goose bumps pebbled on my skin and my lungs constricted. Up his hand went along my bare leg. He was halfway up my thigh before I found air to breathe.
His eyes studied me. They watched for a signal to stop, but I wasn’t going to give one. My body demanded he keep going, and I sighed in relief as his large palm slid inward. It coursed all the way up the inside of my thigh, disappearing in a leg hole of my shorts, and I gasped when his fingertips brushed the lace beneath.
I was wet. So turned on, it bordered on embarrassing, and when Jay discovered it, a wicked smile curled on his lips. He brushed the pads of his fingers over my center, and I jerked with pleasure. Everything was focused on his touch, and when he made direct contact, it was fireworks. Shudders shook my shoulders, which he had to feel. His right arm was around my back, holding me, while the fingers of his left taunted.
I sipped air through my parted lips. My heartbeat roared in my ears. I was dizzy from his touch, craving more. Should I undo the button on my shorts? Not a soul was around, but the parking lot was half-full of cars. At any moment, someone could appear.
“Oh,” I whispered. I put a hand on his shoulder, fisting the sleeve covering his toned bicep. My shorts weren’t tight, giving him plenty of room to work with as he pushed the crotch of my panties to the side and . . . really touched me.
It was a sauna in this car. I was panting and lightheaded, clinging to him while he rubbed tiny circles around where I was aching and swollen. What he was doing was hot, but the way he watched me? That was incendiary.
“Oh,” I moaned again as he sank one long finger inside me.
His lips moved, mouthing a word that looked like fuck. The arm supporting me tightened, keeping me upright as I went boneless. It felt so good, just the stretch of one finger filling me. My greedy body already craved more.
I groaned when he began to move. “God, yes.”
His deliberate pace was just right. He pressed his finger in and out slowly, working me until a second finger joined in. My mouth, which hung open, rounded into a silent “oh.”
Jay’s face was glossy with sweat, but otherwise it didn’t seem like the heat was getting to him. He was focused on me, his expression set. His fingers pumped faster, and I didn’t know where to look. His hand moving beneath my shorts was erotic. His powerful arm flexed and coiled as he thrust into me. His determined look said the only thing he cared about right now was sending me over the edge.
Orgasming with anyone other than myself didn’t happen, and I’d begun to believe I was doomed. Yet every deep thrust from Jay’s fingers convinced me otherwise. His thumb pressed against my clit, and bliss surged, a volcano heating in me, its violent eruption only seconds away.
“I’m so close,” I gasped. I may have said it out of shock, not as a warning to him.
His tempo kicked up one more notch, and I was done for. I flung my head back, crying out as pleasure overwhelmed me. It seized my core, crashing through me in waves that wracked my body and left me a shuddering mess in his arms.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered. “I can feel you coming.”
He stopped moving but left his fingers buried inside me, and I pulsed on them, flinching with aftershocks as my orgasm began to recede. Everything was tingly numb, and I drifted back into the moment, one labored breath at a time.
His fingers withdrew, trailing damply over the inside of my thigh.
Jay was grinning, proud of himself. I had half a mind to throw my hands up in the air and signal touchdown. I didn’t get the chance. He leaned forward and planted his lips on mine. This kiss wasn’t as passionate as the others. It was sweet, and romantic, and scary as hell. It threw me off-balance and threatened to send me tumbling down.
“You. Are. So. Fucking. Hot,” he said, sweeping his hand up and down my leg. My climax had turned me into jelly, and his gentle caress made it impossible to solidify. I swung my legs off him, and my gaze fell to his belt. More specifically, to the bulge right below it.
I’d barely brushed my palm over his zipper before the hurried words came from him. “You want to come back to my place?”
I paused. Yes, my body whispered. No, my head screamed. I wasn’t sure which one was louder. But when I thought about it, the opening strains of The Victors blared in my mind, drowning out my ability to think.
Jay’s face emptied of lust, and he straightened abruptly. He scrambled to extract his phone from his pocket, but it was too late. Michigan’s fight song hadn’t been playing in my mind.
It was his freaking ringtone.
Realization splashed over me, dousing icy cold water on my desire. He was a Wolverine. Those same hands that just made me come harder than I ever had, were the same ones that carried in the touchdown last year, costing Ohio State the game.
The hated “music” cut off, and Jay’s anxious gaze turned to me. “Sorry about that.”
It was a mood killer of epic proportions. I shifted in my seat, tearing my gaze away from him and fighting the urge to flee. I sat still as he jammed the phone back in his pocket, and I flinched when he placed a hand on my knee.
“Remind me to turn my phone off next time,” he said. Because it was the second time we’d been interrupted by it.
I’d been ripped from the fog of lust, and blinked my critical eyes at him. “What next time?”
He sighed. “Really, Kayla?”
I frowned. “I told you, this can’t work between us.”
“Seemed to work great a minute ago when you came all over my fingers.”
I wasn’t a prude and didn’t get easily offended. I’d had all sorts of things screamed at me by drunken college kids at away games. Yet, my mouth dropped open in surprise. I wasn’t used to a guy being so direct.
Moonlight poured over Jay’s intense expression. “Stop fighting it. You’re attracted to me. Hell, you like me, even if you don’t want to. I like you, too. And there’s plenty of attraction here.” He glanced down at the bulge in his jeans.
It was true, I did like him, but how the hell could there be any future? And without a future, what was the point? I’d already made a rule not to get involved with any of the guys in the Buckeye football program. My schedule with cheerleading was hectic, but theirs? It was brutal.
“I can’t go home with you,” I said.
He nodded with understanding. “All right.”
I was in turmoil beneath the surface. An urge to escape the car and pretend the night never happened warred with a desire to stay and reciprocate the pleasure he’d given me. Could I go back in time and never find out the truth? That was what I wanted. To live in ignorant bliss. I’d liked him so much . . .
As I put my hand on his fly, the wretched fight song echoed in my ears. I shouldn’t have gotten in his car, but his mouth had been too convincing. He was the devil. The seduction of his lips could make me do anything. So, when he bent his head to try to kiss me, I drew away, and his mouth landed awkwardly on my ear.
The mood in the car shifted like an interception, and now it was all gone. Everything except his erection. I moved my hand over it, stroking up and down, trying not to think about what I was doing.
He sighed, but it wasn’t in pleasure. His hand covered mine. “I don’t want you doing that, unless you actually want to do that.”
“I don’t mind.”
Well, that came out sounding awful. I grimaced.
His grip on my hand tightened. “Yeah, don’t do me any favors.”
The situation in the car was rapidly deteriorating but I didn’t know how to correct it. Maybe it was better if I left before I made things worse. I slid my hand away and glanced out the window. “I think maybe I should get going.”
He was visibly disappointed, and perhaps annoyed, but didn’t say anything. He pushed his door open, climbed out, and shut it behind him with a heavy thud. Oh, God. I was so uncomfortable, it was painful. I stared at my knees and did up the buttons of my shirt. Cool air washed over me as the door on my side opened, and there he was, standing beside it with his hand out.
I swallowed a breath and took his offered hand.
It’d been a calculated move, because once I was outside and on my feet, I was too distracted by the cool nighttime air to stop him. His mouth pressed to mine.
Oh, his kiss. It burned in all the right ways, heating all the right places. Maybe we could turn this thing around. Just for tonight. We’d already fooled around, so was it that big of a deal to keep doing it? Just enough for him to get satisfaction?
“Jay,” I said. I set my hands flat on his chest. “I . . .”
“Where are you going? Back to Dayton?”
I swallowed thickly. “Columbus.”
“You’ve got a long drive back. I’ll let you get to it.” His arms around me fell away, and it was stunning how much I didn’t like the sensation. I followed his lead as we went to my car, and I pulled my keys from my purse. I unlocked and opened the door, but stopped and looked at him. Could he see how uncertain I felt about this?
“Kiss me.” My voice was a ghost.
He looked pleased but didn’t move to fulfill my request. “Why?”
It was an excellent question, and I went with a simple answer. “Because I want you to.”
A seductive smile bowed on his lips as he took my face in his large hands. “You don’t know what you want.” His mouth seared against mine, and he gave me just a sliver of tongue. Exactly enough to leave me wanting more. “You have my number. Call me when you do.”
I was surprised he let me slip into the seat when he’d mentioned he was ‘driven as fuck’ earlier, but my stomach did a flip-flop when I gazed up at him. His expression was almost triumphant.
It said that this thing between us was far from over.