Chapter Five

 

Ava cast her gaze around the hot tub and then up at the night sky, still reeling from the blunt showcase of the most impressive, and, uh, substantial cock she’d ever seen. A couple fireworks blasted in the distance. “Now this is the way to ring in the New Year. And it’s probably the most adventurous thing I’ve done in a long time—skinny dipping in a tub of boiling water with an extremely well-hung and fine-looking…” She frowned.

Well, what is he, exactly? “You never said. What position do you play?”

“I’m up for any position you like,” he said.

“Oh my God…” She splashed water at him. “You’re such a goof. A sleazy Austin Powers.”

He only laughed harder and splashed back at her.

“I meant what position you play.” She was surprised she hadn’t asked inside. Then again, she’d been distracted with their limbs touching and his hands eliciting tingles to rocket up from her toes.

“Pitcher.”

“Okay. Baseball.” She rifled through her sketchy mental catalog of sports names and tried to remember the closest Minor League team. “For the Tortugas?”

He shook his head, making his black hair shift, and cast some droplets of water at her.

“Oh…”

“Tampa Bay Rays.”

Oh, wow. Her jaw fell slack for the second time in moments. “Major league.” Letting that detail sink in, she blew out a single laugh. “So not only are you big”—she tipped her head down toward where he was sitting—“You’re a big name.”

I bet skinny-dipping isn’t the most adventurous thing he’s done this year. His stardom didn’t make her feel small, though, because her first impressions of him remained the same. Sexy. Ripped. Generous. Laid-back. Animal-lover. Horrible jokes.

“I…” He moved to the seat next to her. “Sorry. I should have been upfront and told you. I don’t like to rush to share that with people.”

“Your dick, or your identity?”

He released something crossed between a groan and a reluctant laugh as he let his head fall back to the pillow. Meeting her eyes again, he said, “Both. Neither. I don’t sleep around. And I prefer not to broadcast who I am.”

“Gotcha.”

“It was always tough for me, surrendering my privacy, my normalcy. I was already thirty when the Rays signed me on, so I already experienced a real life before being thrust into fame.”

Ava nodded. “I get it. Well, I don’t, really, but I respect that. Actually, one of my second cousins was nominated for an Oscar last year. That’s a more remote degree of fame, where you’re um, much…closer. To. Me.” She glanced down at the bubbling water, reminding herself just how near she was to him. Nearly pressed against all those muscles and strength. She shot her attention back to his face.

“You’re not weirded out? Or intimidated?” he asked.

“By being close to your big cock, or your big name?”

Okay, seriously. Stop thinking about his damn penis.  

She dodged his splash of water just in time.

“I’m sleazy? You’re just as bad,” he teased.

Bad? Do you want me to be bad—Ava bit her lip, trying to tamp down on her grin. He was too much fun, and so easy to volley pathetic dirty talk with. Caleb had yet to show alarm at her bluntness and sarcastic humor, in fact, he seemed to have those traits in common with her.

“I didn’t want you to get all fangirly. I see you’re as down to earth as a woman can get. And it’s not the end of the world to tell you who I am. But it’s rare for people to know and treat me as just me. A person. A guy. Not some celebrity on a pedestal. And I appreciate that—you. You’ve given me a chance to hang out and simply let go of that stress. I haven’t had candid companionship for too long.”

“I’m more a football girl—if I’m any kind of sporty. Honestly, I thought you were just my hunk of a neighbor.” Talking was great, and all, but dammit, how the hell did he expect her to just chill—in a hot tub? With no clothes. No distractions. It’d been almost a year since she’d enjoyed an orgasm, over a year since she’d obtained one from something that didn’t operate on batteries.

Never one to wait for what she desired, and always a gal who feared nothing, she twisted to face him more, her knee pushing against his thigh.

More... I need you to touch me… Please read my mind or something so I don’t feel like I’m preying on you. A thrill seared her as he placed his hand on her knee. Baby steps of touches, but each one racketed up her desire.

Okay, he really isn’t telepathic, right? Realizing he simply was on the same page as her, she grew hungrier for them to get to the next one.  

“I still am just your neighbor.” His hand smoothed up higher on her leg, his fingers clutching her to ease her closer to his lap. “Now I’ll always just be me.”

She knocked her shoulder to his, staying in the lean, to slide their arms against each other. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

His smile was gentle. “It’ll take some getting used to.”

“Well, like you said. New start in the new year.”

He nodded and glanced at the sky. “What time do you think it is?” Focused on his profile, his lightly stubbled face inches from hers, she licked her lips.

Lone fireworks had been blasting on and off, but no clusters of booms and lights that would signify a celebration.

“Gotta be getting close,” she said. Peering past him, she searched the darkness of the backyard. “I’ll need to find Polly. I bet she’ll give me a decent kiss at midnight.”

Fishing much? Now who’s lame? Or pathetic.

“How about I give it a shot?” he asked.

“Hmm. No harm in trying.” Shivers prickled her skin despite the hot water. Flirting wasn’t the sharpest tool in her repertoire. But with him, he made it fun, exciting, and challenging.

He leaned in too slowly, finally pressing his lips against hers. At the first touch of his hot skin, she melted past the simmer she’d been coasting at. With just enough pressure to hint at his urgency and an equal amount of tenderness, perhaps an indication he was holding himself back, he ended his kiss with a light brush over her lips.

His hot breaths fanned her face. He ducked lower, as though to peer into her eyes. Warm, whiskey-brown eyes held a question as she licked her lips.

“Hmm.” She pursed her lips. “Not … bad…”

His brows dipped down. “Huh?”

Oh, this is going to be fun. As much as he could be a goofball, he really needed to lighten up. Or maybe he wants this just as much as I do and doesn’t realize I’m joking.  “I mean, it could be better.”

“How about this?”

She didn’t have a chance to reply as he slid one hand around the back of her head. His digits threaded through her frizzed waves. Caressing her jaw, he pulled her near again. Barely able to bite back the moan in her throat, she sighed into his second take as he opened her mouth with his hot tongue. As quickly as he’d kissed her, he pulled back again.

I’m going to evaporate.

She cleared her throat, striving for the most neutral expression possible. “Um…”

He started to smile.

“Better…” She shrugged. “But … eh.” Tilting her hand, she gave him an iffy gesture.

“What?” He cupped her face with his calloused hands and slammed his mouth to hers. This time there was no hesitation in diving his tongue into her mouth, demanding she reciprocate. Falling into his embrace, she shot her hands out to anchor herself closer. As she let out a muffled whimper-grunt of need, she ran her palms up his taut pecs, over the bunches of muscle at his shoulders. Draping her knee over his leg, she tried her damnedest to shift closer to him, to climb on top of him. Anything for more of the exquisite friction of his rougher, harder body against hers beneath the water.

Before she could straddle him properly, he jerked his face away, held her head too far from where she wanted to be. Wh-at? No!

“Better?” he asked.

Better? Was there a word to trump “best”? His kisses were as addicting as though he’d branded her soul and as wicked as if he’d poured lighter fluid on her libido.

Panting, she gulped in a rush of air. He had to know she’d been teasing, right? “Um…” Hell, I don’t have that good of a poker face. “Um. Yeah, but not … perfect.” Just fucking kiss me again.

Stroking her jawline with his thumbs, he smirked. “No? Then let’s cut the crap with this little game and you show me.”

“Finally.” She flung her leg over his lap and wasted not a second to crush her lips to his. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she made no room for the bubbly water between them. Pecs to breasts, pussy to erection, they couldn’t have a more intimate connection than if he was inside her. Which couldn’t happen fast enough.

Guttural groans rumbling from his mouth notched her arousal to the stratosphere. Fisting his hair in one hand, she clung to him, her biceps tucking him to her. Smashing her breasts to his torso, she reveled in the teasing torture of his chest hair against her nipples. Their tongues danced in a slow, insistent rhythm as she ground her bare hips to his. Every inch of slick skin came alive—warmed by the hot tub, then deliciously inflamed by his contact.

If she’d thought he was big from her initial earlier glance at him in his half-mast state, she knew how large he was as she gyrated against his shaft.

“Fuck, baby,” he whispered into the seal of their lips.

He’d probably groaned it like an expletive, rather than a command. “Please,” she murmured, not at all ashamed by asking—begging—for what she wanted. Nestling closer, she sucked his earlobe into her mouth and teased with her teeth.

His body stiffened as though he’d gasped. A snort followed. “Ava, I’m at your mercy.” His fingers dug into the globes of her ass, clamping her closer to his erection.

His offer for her take charge was all she needed to lose her raveling reins on patience. Ignoring the faint nagging voices in her head that suggested she was behaving rashly, having sex before at least a couple dates, she grinned as she took his mouth in a hungry kiss.

Lifting her waist in the water, she moved to put his cock at her entrance.

“Hold on,” he said.

“Oh, I’ll hold on all right,” she whispered.

His chest bumped hers as he laughed, reaching backward for his shorts on the patio. “I meant wait a sec. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a condom in my wallet.”

Ye-ah. That’s why I can’t pull off the sex goddess act.

He ripped the foil package once he’d grabbed it and then darted his hands under the surface to guide it on.

“And now,” he murmured, seeming to try for an Elvis Presley aura, “hold on for a ride, baby.”

Clamping her lips shut didn’t contain the burst of her laughs. He joined in the mirth, but as soon as he lined himself up to enter her, the energy crackled right back to urgent sexual tension.

Between the water and her juices, she was more than ready for him, but she still needed to sink down on him slowly, stretched beyond her limits.

“Oh, my—” She inhaled sharply. “God.”

“Take it easy, gorgeous.” His hands stilled her hips and he spread slow open-mouth kisses from under her jaw to her collarbone. “We’ve got all night.”

Hugging her tighter to him, he twisted them in the water. Covering her, she reclined into the seat. He encouraged her to wrap one leg around his ass. She complied and the sting of cooler air on her exposed wet skin distracted her from the pleasurable pain of his width. But only for a second before he resumed filling her, sizzling all rational thought from her mind.

Caleb’s thrusts were slower, agonizingly so, but more controlled, and little by little, deeper. His powerful body rocked her back to the firm seat of the tub. Water sloshed out to the patio like waves crash on the shore. He lacked her desperate hurried pace and steadily sheathed himself to the hilt.

“You’re killing me,” he said with his lips at her temple.

A giggle would have escaped if she could spare the breath. Nice to know—she gasped as he shifted his angle, scorching her inside-out—I’m not the only—he sucked her into a fierce kiss—impatient one.

“You’re so goddamn tight,” he whispered in a graveled tone.

Arching his back to put a gap between them, he pumped harder and faster. When his hand gripped her breast, squeezing roughly, she welcomed the goosebumps that spiked on the back of her neck. Spasming, she relinquished the coiled grip of chasing an orgasm and cried out as she finally came.

Caleb grunted as she dug her fingers into his rock-hard biceps. Her head lolling to the side of the pillow, she blinked to clear her vision and watch as the sharp features of his face hardened. His teeth sank into his lower lip, and his hair smacked against his forehead. He met her gaze then. Smiling lazily, she waited hardly a moment more until he closed his eyes tight, his body stiffening as he came.

“Please don’t let me sink and drown,” he mumbled, out of breath, before he lowered himself on top of her.

She laughed as he blanketed her, his strong body relaxed as he weighed her down. His arms slunk down into the water as though he’d passed out and he whooshed out a long moan. After a minute of harsh breathing, he wrapped her in a hug and she traced feather-light figure eights on his broad shoulders and back.

He was the first to recover from their sex coma. Turning his head, he pressed close enough to kiss her cheek. All he could muster the energy to reach, she guessed.

Explosions of brightness highlighted the star-less sky. Booms echoed as neighbors announced the turn of December into January.

“Happy New Year’s…neighbor,” he whispered.