It Had to Be You (32 page)

“What do you think you’re doing!”

His massive body pressed her up against the washbowl. “I’m giving us a little privacy so we can talk.”

The tiny cubicle was much too cramped for both of them. One of his knees wedged between her thighs and her breasts flattened against his chest. It was hard for her to catch her breath.

“I don’t want to talk to you now. It’s obvious you’re going to lose your temper, and I don’t happen to feel like being yelled at.”

Anger crackled from him. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you stormed into my locker room tonight.”

“I didn’t storm in!”

“You came this close to sabotaging a whole season’s work!” His eyes narrowed into the same fierce slits that had found the weakness in the most awesome defensive lines in professional football. “I want my players focused before the game, not distracted from the jobs they have to do with a lot of idiotic mumbo jumbo. If those men ever needed proof that you don’t understand this game, they got it tonight. You don’t have any idea what they’re facing when they run onto the field. It’s serious business out there, not some kind of joke.”

She struggled to squeeze past him, but she didn’t have a prayer. His body pressed harder against hers, and his voice was low and furious.

“I don’t ever want you doing what you did tonight, you hear me? You stay out of the locker room before the game. You’re just lucky they’re disciplined enough that your little exhibition didn’t distract them so much it cost us a win!”

She stared at him. “You don’t have a clue why I was there, do you? You have no idea what I was trying to accomplish. My God, you really do think I’m some brainless bimbo.”

“After listening to your asinine theories about naked football players, I’m not going to argue with you there.”

She’d never thought of herself as a short-tempered person, but now her fist shot up from her side, and she punched him in the ribs as hard as she could.

He gave a soft “oof” and stared at her incredulously. She stared back, unable to believe what had just happened. Even though she was too close to have put any real force behind the blow, she had still struck another human being, something she had never done in her life. This man was turning her inside out, and the fact that she had let herself be pushed so far made her even angrier. A red mist swirled before her eyes.

“You stupid, pigheaded, simple-minded
jock!
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me! I’m saddled with a head coach who is not only an emotional six-year-old, but mentally deficient as well.”

“Deficient!” he sputtered. “Now you listen to me—”

Her elbow hit the mirror behind her as common sense fled, and she jabbed him in the chest with her index finger. “No! You listen to
me,
buster, and you listen well. I was in that locker room—not because I wanted to be there—but because
you’ve
managed to get
my
football team so tense that they haven’t been able to hold on to the football.”

“Are you actually suggesting—”

“You,
Mr. Jock Strap, may be a brilliant strategist, but your knowledge of human nature is just about zero.”

“You don’t have the slightest idea—”

“Anytime—” She jabbed him again, punctuating the syllables with her index finger.
“A-ny-time,
do you hear me, that I want to address
my
players in
my
locker room, I will do it. Anytime I feel they’re too tense, too jumpy, too uptight to do the job I am paying them a ridiculous amount of money to do, I’ll stand in front of them and
strip,
if I want to. I’ll do whatever I judge necessary to make certain that the Chicago Stars are able to do what they are supposed to do, which, in case you have forgotten, is what I helped them do tonight. That is, to win a football game! I, Mr. Pigskin-For-Brains, am the owner of this football team; not you. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”

There was a long pause. Her cheeks were flushed, her heart pounding. She was appalled at her loss of control, and she braced herself for his retaliation, but instead of exploding, he almost seemed distracted.

“Uh-huh.”

She gulped. “That’s all you have to say?”

The plane hit a patch of turbulence, pressing his hips more firmly against hers. Her eyes flew open as she realized he was fully aroused.

Looking vaguely embarrassed, he held up both hands. “It’s not intentional. I know you’re trying to make a point and I heard every word you said. Honest. But you kept wiggling while you were talking, and the plane started to bounce, and— I don’t know. It just happened.”

Her temper rekindled. “I’m not in any mood for this.”

“Neither am I. Not mentally, anyway. As for physically . . .”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

The jouncing continued, rocking their bodies together. Once again he shifted his hips, cleared his throat. “Are you—uh—seriously trying to tell me that you think you’re—uh—responsible for us beating the Giants?”

The mildness of his tone, the hot friction between their bodies, took the starch out of her. “No. . . . Not exactly. . . . Of course not. Well, maybe a little bit. . . . Partly. Yes, definitely partly.”

“I see.” He ducked his head and braced both hands on each side of the counter behind her. His hair smelled of pine and spice from his postgame shower. She could feel his thumbs against her hips. The plane continued to bounce and she fought to ignore the thrilling abrasion of her breasts rubbing against his chest.

“You’re a loose cannon,” he said quietly, “and I don’t like surprises.” His jaw brushed her hair as he spoke. “If you thought there was a problem with my coaching, you should have talked to me about it.”

“You’re right. Theoretically.” Her voice sounded as if it were coming from a distance. “But, you can be intimidating.”

Once again, she felt the soft caress of his jaw against her hair. “So can you.”

“Me?” Her mouth curled in a delighted smile. “Really?”

“Really.”

Her smile faded as she saw the way he was looking at her. She licked her lips. “I’m . . .”

“Hot?” His molasses drawl made that short word last forever.

She swallowed. “Warm.”

He smiled his Southern boy’s crooked smile, slow and easy, conjuring up endless humid nights. “Not warm, darlin’. Hot.”

“Maybe. . . .”

“Me, too.”

She could feel every part of him through her clothes. He thrilled her, he scared her. He made her feel as if she’d only been half-alive before they’d met.

His hand settled around her waist. “You and me. We’re . . .”

“Hot.” The word slipped out.

“Yes.” He dropped his head and took her mouth.

The lateness of the hour. The tension of the game. For whatever reason, the moment his lips touched hers, she lost all sense of restraint.

He scooped his big hands beneath her hips, and his elbow whacked the wall as he lifted her. Their bodies ground together. Her knee bumped into the door. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gloried in the feel of him pressed so hard against her.

Their kiss turned into a wild oral mating, something primitive and ungovernable, fed by a passion that had taken on a life of its own.

With a hoarse exclamation, he lowered her onto the edge of the small counter behind her and shoved up her sweater and bra. Gathering her breasts in his hands, he lifted them to his mouth. She gripped his belt buckle, while she pushed her other hand under his shirt so she could feel the hard muscles of his chest.

Her thighs were splayed wide to accommodate his legs, and his mouth dived to encompass one nipple. Sliding his hand down over her stomach, he cupped her.

“Don’t ever . . .” he murmured against her moist nipple while he rubbed her through her slacks, “. . . wear these again.”

“No . . .”

“Only dresses I can pull up.” He unfastened her slacks, pushed down the zipper.

“Yes.” She grappled with his belt buckle, shoved up his shirt.

“And no panties.” His mouth left her breasts. He slipped his hand inside the cotton fabric.

Wet. Hot. He found her.

With a gasp, she pressed her open mouth against his bare chest. The hair was silky under her tongue.

“Here,” he murmured hoarsely. “Inside. . . .”

“Do. Yes. . . .” She worked at his zipper, but the fabric caught in the metal teeth halfway down. With a moan of frustration, she slid her hand inside, past the elastic band of his briefs to encircle him.

He made a strangled exclamation and lifted her while she stroked. His shoulder bumped into the wall. He braced his left foot on the platform that held the commode and worked at her slacks and panties, but their removal was difficult because of the confined space. She felt the wet cold of the basin on her buttocks and his heat in her hand. His upper arm hit one wall, his opposite elbow the other. He was finally forced to use the toe of his shoe to free her garments from their snare around her ankles. Kissing her deeply, he worked her with his fingers.

Her hand on him trembled. She had never done this to a man, but suddenly her hand wasn’t enough. It was too distant from her heart. She pushed him as far away as she could manage and slipped from the edge of the basin. Turning her hips to the side, she bent into an impossibly awkward position and parted her lips. A shudder swept through her as she lost a new virginity to him.

It was thrilling. Deliciously sweet to do such a thing to this man.

Sweat broke out on his forehead as he felt the gentle tug of her mouth. He was abandoning all his principles, all his resolutions, and at that moment, he didn’t care. The only commitment he’d made was to himself, and he could work that out later.

Through his raging excitement, he observed the tender, vulnerable curve of her neck. Many women had served him in this way, so why did this time seem so different? And it
was
different. There was a sweet ineptitude about that soft, warm suction that thrilled him even as it mystified him.

He caressed her hips, clenched her cheeks as his passion drove him higher. A dim internal voice pointed out to him that she wasn’t doing it exactly right. Logic said she should be a pro at this, but the sweet awkwardness of that soft mouth defeated logic.

He stroked her hair, and a fierce wave of tenderness swept through him. Without planning it, he found himself drawing her up. Regardless of how she looked, how she dressed, how she behaved—regardless of his own raging need and every single damning thing he knew about her, he couldn’t take her like this. She deserved something better from him than a mile-high pop in an airplane john.

“No,” she whispered, and he saw something both bereft and bewildered in her amber eyes that tore his gut apart.

He kissed her lips and lost himself in that swollen mouth. She sobbed his name, shuddered, and he understood she had slipped past reason. Setting aside the violent demand of his own body, he stroked her with a deep and gentle movement of his hand. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, and the sound of those short, frenzied pants nearly drove him over the edge.

“Phoebe, darlin’, you’re killing me.” With a hoarse exclamation, he plunged his tongue into the moist recesses of her mouth. When she shattered, he swallowed her cries.

She fell against him, her body limp and vulnerable, the nape of her neck moist with soft blond tendrils clinging to it. He felt her chest heave as she tried to draw breath. She attempted to slide her thighs together. At the same time, she shuddered, and he knew she wasn’t done. He couldn’t leave her like this, and he stroked her again.

She climaxed almost instantly. She gasped for breath and then began to tremble, signaling that her need still wasn’t satisfied. He resumed his stroking.

“No. . . . Not without you.”

At the sound of her soft, whispered wail, he ached to drive himself deep inside her. Nothing was holding him back. At that moment he couldn’t even picture Sharon’s face. And Phoebe was a curvy, buxom, good-time girl, custom-designed by God for just this kind of romp. Of all the women he’d ever been with, this one should have been the last to give him scruples. Instead, she seemed to be giving him the most.

He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to accept the fact that he couldn’t finish this. Phoebe was too lost in passion to think straight, so he would have to do it for her.

“I don’t have anything with me,” he lied.

She slid her hand up his thigh, touched him. “Could I . . .” She tilted her head, looked at him, and the uncertainty in her eyes cut through him. “Maybe I could do the same thing to you.”

Her throat spasmed as she swallowed, and those eyes, as uncertain as a fawn’s, undid him. He simply couldn’t let this go any farther. Painfully, he fastened his slacks.

“It’s all right. I’m fine.”

“But . . .”

He looked away from her wounded eyes. His hands weren’t altogether steady as he slipped her sweater back down over her breasts. “Everybody in the front of the plane should be asleep by now, but maybe you’d better slip out first, as soon as you finish putting yourself back together.”

She struggled with her slacks, rubbing against him with every movement. When all her clothing was back in place, she looked up at him. “How do you do it?” she asked quietly.

“Do what?”

“Act so hot, and then turn so cold.”

She believed she’d been rejected. Even though he’d tried not to, he knew he’d hurt her. “Right now I’m about ready to explode,” he said.

“I don’t believe you. What is it Tully calls you? ‘Ice’?”

He couldn’t fight with her, not after he’d seen how vulnerable she was, and he could only think of one way to heal the hurt. He gave an elaborate sigh and managed to sound annoyed. “It’s starting again, isn’t it? The only time the two of us aren’t arguing is when we’re kissing. I don’t know why I even try to be a good guy with you because it always backfires.”

Her lips were still swollen from his mouth. “Is that what you were doing? Being a good guy.”

“About as good as I’ve ever been. It doesn’t come naturally, either. And you know what? You owe me for it.”

“I
what?”
Those amber eyes weren’t defenseless any longer. Just as he’d intended, they had begun to flash sparks.