Offside (14 page)

“Bullshit.” That was
whacked.

“Well, they might’ve looked, but
nobody ever asked me out.” Her voice took on a slight
edge.

“Are you telling me you haven’t
dated…at all…or anything, for…how long?”

“Let’s just say it’s been a while.”
She gave him a faint scowl.

“Well hell.” He sat there and stared
at her across the steamy pool.

“It’s fine,” she said. “Not a big
deal. I’ve been too busy for hooking up or dating. And if anything,
it made me realize how shallow and stupid most guys are, if they’re
only interested in half-dressed girls with big boobs and bleached
hair.”

“Not all guys are like that. Most guys
aren’t like that.” He paused. Actually he wasn’t a hundred per cent
sure of that. Some of his team mates definitely fit that
description. “Ninety percent of guys aren’t like that.” Also, her
boobs weren’t big. They were nice. Really nice. But considering
she’d had implants, they weren’t huge.

She laughed and lifted a hand let
water trickle through it. “If you say so. I guess I’ve met the
other ten percent.”

“Honey. Come here.”

She met his eyes and went still.
“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“I’m
not like that,” he said
softly. “Because I fucking wanted you since the minute you walked
into that boardroom, dressed in your little suit with your hair
pulled back. Even though I was pissed as hell to see you
again.”

Her eyes widened. “You were
pissed?”

“Hell yeah. Weren’t you?”

“Um. Well, not pissed exactly. I was
surprised. Embarrassed.”

“Why embarrassed?”

“Because…you know why,” she whispered.
“Because…oh never mind.”

“No. Why? And get your ass over here.
I’m tired of shouting this conversation across the hot
tub.”

For a moment she held his gaze then
slowly she eased her way through the water toward him. He dropped
his nearly empty beer onto the cement deck next to him and reached
for her. His hand slid on her skin, finding her waist as she got
closer and he pulled her more forcefully toward him, onto his lap.
He shifted her legs to the side and one of her arms made its way
around his neck.

“Matt…”

“Why were you embarrassed?”

She bent her head. “I don’t want to
talk about it.”

He lifted her chin. “Tell
me.”

Once again, their eyes met and held
and once again, something hot expanded inside him.

“Because of the things I’ve done,” she
whispered. “You and I…we were together…I know it was a long time
ago, and I know I was pissed at you when you went to my dad behind
my back, but I wanted…I didn’t want…” She exhaled sharply in
apparent frustration. “At the time I was acting like that, I wanted
attention. From anyone. Even negative attention was better than no
attention. I was pissed at you and that made me act out even more.
At the time, I wanted you to see that. I wanted you to know how
much fun I was having without you.”

“Fuck
me
,” he whispered. His
heart constricted and his hands tightened on her hips.

“But now…it’s just embarrassing.”She
paused. “Why were
you
pissed?”

Damn. He had to think about that.
“Because I wanted you. But I didn’t want to want you. Does that
make any fucking sense at all?”

She sucked briefly on her bottom lip.
“Yeah. I think I feel the same.”

“Great.” Okay, she wanted him too.
Good. That was good. Neither of them was happy about that. But what
the hell. They’d gone this far…might as well keep going.

“I think I need to get out,” she said,
her voice a tiny bit slurred.

“Enough heat?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Okay. We can go back up and have
dessert now.”

She started to shift off his
lap.

“But first I want your
mouth.”

She stilled again. “What?”

“Your mouth. I want your mouth,
Honey.” He slid a wet hand into her pulled-up, damp hair and
brought her face to his. He tipped his head right, she did the
same, and their mouths met in a long, clinging kiss.

Fuck yeah.

He moved his mouth on hers, opening
wider, and she responded. He slid his tongue inside, found hers,
warm and wet. She made a soft little sound in her throat that went
straight to his dick. He kissed her again, and again, hot, wet
kisses, until the fire burning in his groin had spread all the way
through his body and his control started to fray.

“I’m surprised the water in this pool
isn’t boiling,” he muttered, setting his forehead against hers,
still holding her head.

She panted against him, her body soft
and lax. “It’s hot enough,” she said. “I’m cooked.”

He gave a low laugh. “Yeah. Time to
get out.”

He eased her off his lap and stood,
then climbed out first and held out a hand for her. “Come on. Let’s
go eat…dessert.”

Chapter Ten

Honey wasn’t sure if she could walk.
Luckily Matt was there to guide her into the elevator and back up
to his apartment.

She had a feeling that it was mostly
Matt’s kisses that had her head whirling. And the things he’d said.
The things they’d shared. This was freaky deaky. He made a whole
bunch of weird feelings twist up inside her. Attraction. Affection.
Lust. Gratitude.

In his living room, she collapsed onto
the couch, the towel wrapped around her. “Good thing it’s leather,”
she mumbled.

“Yeah. You okay, Honey?”

“Oh yeah. Just nice and
relaxed.”

“You want to change before we
eat?”

“I don’t think I can move.” She was
sitting there in a wet bathing suit and damp towel, but she was so
warm and lethargic she really didn’t care.

“Fine by me,” he said. “I like that
suit a lot.”

She smiled, head resting on the
cushioned back of the couch.

Matt disappeared and returned wearing
a T-shirt over his board shorts. He brought her another glass of
wine, this time in a real glass, and another beer for himself,
along with a container and two forks.

The music was still playing, now
Eminem. Huh. She lifted her head to peer at the dessert. “What is
it?”

“Chocolate Kahlua cake with chocolate
mousse icing.”

“Oh holy mother of cake,” she
breathed. She loved Kahlua and she loved chocolate cake.
Together…yum. He grinned and handed her a fork. Sitting beside her
on the couch, he held the container as they both forked up
mouthfuls.

“So good,” she moaned.

“Fuck,” he muttered, sounding as if he
was in pain. She realized how she might have sounded.

Matt was right. She wasn’t innocent.
On the other hand, she hadn’t been with a guy on a date or even
flirted with a guy for a long time.

“I should go change,” she murmured
when they’d finished. The towel had fallen down around her
waist.

“Cold?”

“Mmm…no…but I’m wet…”

“Wanna make you wetter,” he murmured,
his face moving closer. His hand slid around her neck.

And her stomach did a slow, happy
roll.

His mouth brushed over hers. Her
breasts swelled and her nipples tingled while heat curled low in
her belly. What he did to her…it could be because, as she’d said
earlier, it had euphemistically “been a while”. Probably that was
why she was so turned on by him.

Right.

She was so attracted to him it almost
hurt. It wasn’t just because she hadn’t had sex in over a year. It
was just…him. Matt.

She opened her mouth for him and
kissed him back. Her head spun a little again, and sure enough,
heat flooded through her veins as his tongue licked into her mouth.
A moan climbed up her throat.

“Maybe the bedroom would be better for
this,” he whispered against her lips. “Come on.”

He rose and drew her up and then to
her shock he bent and slid an arm under her knees and picked her
up. She grabbed onto him and emitted a little gasp but he was
already striding down the hall toward the bedrooms.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she
questioned her sanity at doing this. But it was only a whisper, a
vague thought that spun away when he set her on the floor. “Get on
the bed, babe.”

She’d lost the towel, somewhere. She
climbed on and sat there, butt on her calves, hands on her thighs,
watching as he reached behind and pulled his T-shirt forward and
off over his head. Her lips parted as she once again took in his
nearly naked body. Earlier, in the hot tub, she’d been struck dumb
by how gorgeous he was. He was big. She knew that. He’d talked
about his struggles to keep weight on, but wow, he’d been pretty
damn successful. His shoulders were bigger and more muscled than
they’d been at nineteen. The muscles in his arms bulged as he
pulled his shirt off, revealing a powerful chest and abs that were
totally ripped.

Holy crapping crap.

Then he climbed onto the bed,
surprising her by moving behind her, also kneeling. His fingers at
the ties of the halter top loosened it, but he didn’t remove it.
All the while he was kissing the side of her neck and the top of
her shoulder with hot, open-mouthed kisses. Her eyes drifted closed
and still she floated. She lifted her hands from where they rested
on her knees and held the triangles of fabric to her aching breasts
as he kissed her shoulder, then nuzzled her ear. Her body tingled
everywhere, especially between her legs.

His hands curved around her upper
arms, then stroked up and down. More sensation shimmered over her,
more heat built low down inside her. Then one of his hands released
her arm, slipping between it and her body, skimming over her
stomach and down to her bikini bottom.

Her neck became too weak to support
her heavy head and she let it fall back against him. And his
fingers slipped lower still, inside the fabric, over the small
patch of curls there. He brushed the curls with his fingertips and,
so sensitive there, a hard shudder worked through her. Then his
fingers pressed in, right on her public bone where she was even
more sensitive, and her back arched as a gasp left her
lips.

Her breathing became a series of gasps
and pants as his hand slid lower, right down into the heat of
her.

“Oh god,” she whispered. “Oh my
god.”

“Sweet Honey.” He kissed her shoulder.
“So wet and hot. Just like I wanted you.”

She made an inarticulate sound of
agreement. His fingers slid through liquid, back and forth, then
found her clit and circled it, over and over and over until her
body was buzzing and her hips moving. Then he withdrew his
hand.

She gave a soft cry.
“Wha—?”

Matt shifted and pushed her down onto
her back in the pillows then moved over her. He bent his head and
again kissed and sucked gently on the side of her neck. His hand
slid up over her ribs to her breast and gently cupped it, then
squeezed it, through the fabric of her bathing suit top. God that
felt good, her breasts aching to be touched.

“Nice,” he murmured. “You feel so
good, Honey. Such sweet tits. Lemme see them.”

And he drew down the undone ties and
lowered the top, revealing her bare breasts to him.

The room was semi-dark. The sun had
long since set, but enough light came down the hall from them to
see each other in shadow. She watched him look at her breasts, his
expression burning hot.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

She resisted the impulse to tell him
they weren’t real. Because why did she keep doing that, putting
herself down? As a teenager, all her friends had been getting
implants. Her mom had implants. It was the thing to do. He’d never
even realized she had implants back when they’d first been
together. He liked what he saw, he saw
her
, and that made
her happy.

She rolled her bent knees to the side,
the side away from him, still flat on her back, and he continued to
kiss her collarbone, her shoulder, her ear, while fondling her
breasts. He caressed one, then the other, then shifted his head
lower to—oh god!—take one nipple into his mouth. She cried out
again at the pleasure that streamed through her, all the way to her
aching pussy. He drew a nipple into his mouth and suckled gently,
moved to the other and did the same.

Honey’s mind began to whirl away
again.

Matt lifted her top leg and tossed it
aside, moving between her now spread thighs. He grabbed her hands
and pressed them to the mattress up near her shoulders, holding her
down. For a moment, she went still, gazing up at him, her blood
rushing hotly through her veins, but when their eyes met, fear was
replaced by excitement. He lowered his head and kissed her again,
and again, long, slow and deep.

Another moan climbed her throat, her
entire body burning with need. Her pussy clenched and she could
feel the wetness there between her legs as he devoured her mouth,
rubbed her tongue with his and gently nipped at her bottom
lip.