Slap Shot (7 page)

“Yeah, I think so. I’ve been mulling it over this afternoon.” He reached out and the tip of his index finger just brushed the curve of my shoulder. “What do you think, you know, as a businesswoman?”

The same sizzling sensation I always got when he touched me burned across my collarbone and tightened my nipples. I glanced down and checked they were safely beneath the bubbling water. They were. I swallowed tightly and said, “It sounds like an ideal way to gain publicity and get the project off the ground. I guess it would just be a case of juggling the two roles until you did retire from the NHL.”

“Yes, it would keep me kind of busy.” He moved closer. “But then I guess that would be a good thing. Keep me out of trouble.”

I hitched in a breath at his sudden close proximity. Even in the hot water, his body heat radiated toward my bare flesh.

“Dana,” he said in a quiet voice. “Thanks for coming tonight. I’ve really enjoyed your company.”

“I’ve…” I paused and breathed in his delicious scent. “I’ve had a really nice time. The meal was great.”

He slid his finger up from my shoulder and touched my cheek. His leg brushed mine beneath the water. I didn’t move away.

“I have to go now,” I whispered, trying not to fall into the liquid desire in his eyes and trying not to let his delicious scent infiltrate every cell in my body.

“In a minute,” he murmured. The gentle touch of his finger on my face turned into a palm over my jawline. “Stay with me for a little while longer.”

My head tipped to his touch and the hard patches of skin on his hand rubbed my cheek. It only added to the rawness of him, the deep maleness that could never be associated with anything vaguely feminine. “No, I really should go, now.”

“But you haven’t had dessert.” He swept his tongue over his bottom lip.

I mimicked his action, my heart pounding in my chest. “What’s dessert?” I asked.

“This.” He slanted his head and pressed his lips to mine, his soul patch tickling my chin. I didn’t resist, I knew I should, but suddenly every nerve in my body was wide awake with lust. I closed my eyes and put my hand over his large one, which still cupped my cheek. He was so damn good at making me forget I’d said no. Even though I’d told him it was time I went home I wanted him. I wanted him
so
badly.

What am I doing?
“No,” I snapped, pulling away and remembering my vows to myself. “You have to stop, Rick.”

He gaze staked mine. “I will if you say ‘stop’ like you mean it.”

“I…I…” The word wouldn’t come out, at least not with an iota of conviction.

He grinned, his gaze heavy and full of promise. “But I will stop…eventually,” he whispered. His mouth hovered, tempting me with the heat and softness of his lips and his sumptuous flavor.

I leaned into him. His chest brushed my peaked nipples and I caught my breath.

“It’s just a kiss, Dana,” he breathed. “Just a kiss.”

Oh god, but my body needs so much more.

“And it’s not like I haven’t kissed you before,” he went on in a low, murmuring voice. “I like kissing you. You’re the sweetest, most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted.”

His lips were a hairsbreadth from mine and each word, each whisper undid my resolve a little more. Weakened me for him.

He threaded his fingers through my damp hair until he cradled my skull. Then he was kissing me again, confidently, expertly. My breasts grew heavy and my nipples tightened further against him. I wanted this. I wanted this heat pumping through my veins, the delicious tug between my legs. It was wrong of me. He was bad for me. But it had been so long since I’d felt anything like this—well, apart from last time I’d been alone with
him
.

I slid my hand down his corded forearm, which held my head for the kiss. Smoothed over his wet skin, feeling the haze of hairs thinning as I reached his dense biceps. My palm cupped over the hard bulge of muscle and absorbed the solid, tense texture of him.

The kiss deepened, his hand left my hair and stroked over my shoulder. It slipped below the water line and rested on my waist. Just his touch, his flesh on mine was like a match to gasoline, it rushed across my flesh creating a burning desire that was spiraling dangerously out of control.

Who was I kidding? I was already out of control. Pressing up harder against him, I fed back the same hungry kisses he was giving me. Our tongues mated. He was hot and wet and eager, his body a rock beneath the bubbling water.

“You feel good, wild thing,” he said, his voice deeper, rougher than before. “So damn good.”

He sent kisses trailing over my cheek to my neck. I tipped my head and clung to his wide shoulders. I’d always been a sucker for neck kisses. It was as though there was a hard wire from the skin on my neck to the core of my pussy. Suddenly I was aching with need, a real, painful swelling of want between my legs. Starving myself of sex all that time had clearly not dampened my libido, if anything it had rocketed it to sky-high levels. “Rick,” I gasped, twisting so our wet, slippery bodies connected more fully. “Please, I don’t, I can’t”

“Shh,” he soothed, his hand busy exploring the sensitive skin of my belly generating little trembles beneath the surface. “Shh, just give yourself up to me.” His mouth came back to mine. “You know you want to.”

I groaned. He’d got me. He had me.

Again.

He tucked his fingers below the waistband of my bikini bottoms and I parted my legs. My clit was buzzing, my pussy aching. I needed him to touch me there like I needed to take my next breath.

He brushed his big fingers downward, stroking through my pubic hair and just skimming over my clit. I gasped and my head fell back, only to be caught by his other palm. He pulled me closer and I felt the bikini elastic stretching as his hand journeyed farther in, sliding over slick folds of needy flesh.

My toes curled off the base of the spa and my fingernails tensed on his back. “Rick,” I gasped as his teeth grazed my neck. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing was quite real. It was as though he’d cast a spell over me and reeled me in.

I squirmed as his thick finger found my entrance and pushed in. I lifted my leg, opening myself farther for his invasion. He groaned approvingly, added a second finger and allowed his palm to catch on my clit as he ventured higher.

The immediate fullness and stretching along with the touch where I needed it most stole my breath and my eyes fluttered shut. Every nerve in my body homed in on the glorious sensations he was creating.

“So perfect,” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “You feel so perfect for me.”

I moaned an agreement as his hand began to work quickly but methodically, fingers inside me, the heel of his hand rubbing and caressing my clit. He didn’t waste time, he just got busy, searching for my orgasm, building it up, coaxing it from me. It was growing in the pit of my stomach and spreading outward, and as he brought me nearer I felt it rushing and prickling over my skin. He took me so high, almost to my release then stopped.

“Rick,” I managed, clawing at him and riding his hand for more. “Please.”

“So you want your dessert after all?”

“Yes, yes, oh god, please.” My voice was whiny and desperate even to my own ears.
Where the hell has astute, independent, celibate, businesswoman Dana Wilcox gone?

He caught my mouth in a mind-blowing kiss, thrusting his tongue in time with his clever fingers. My mind turned white—white and hot with neon flashes. “Ah, ah, yes,” I panted around his lips. “Please, keep going.”

He pushed into me harder, faster, stroking my G-spot, catching my clit. I cried out again, intense pleasure racing through me. My ears rang and my body trembled as I teetered on the edge of climax for several long, blissful seconds.

Then I crashed down, completely overtaken by my orgasm, my pussy convulsing around his fingers and a sob tearing from my throat. It seemed to go on forever, shaking and pulsing, releasing my desire. It was consuming,
he
was consuming. I gripped his body, gasped for oxygen and my thighs clamped around his expert hand.

His mouth left mine and I opened my eyes. It took me a second to focus on his chocolate gaze.

“You’re so damn responsive,” he said quietly, his eyes searching my face, his hands and arms still tight on me, in me.

I dragged in a breath and felt a tear slip from the corner of my left eye—a single drop of regret for what could have been.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?” His brow creased and he caught the tear with the tip of his thumb. “Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head. He hadn’t hurt me, he’d made me feel amazing. No one else had ever affected me the way he did.

“So what is it?” He slipped his hand out of my bikini bottoms and rested it firmly in the small of my back, pulling me closer to him in the chugging bubbles and allowing his steely erection to push into my belly.

My face got hot, there was a tightening in my throat. It was all very well him saying I was perfect and encouraging me to hand myself over to him, but if he ever found out about my past, about old Dana and her reckless ways, would he still want me, still think I was right for him? I very much doubted it. My past couldn’t be brushed off as a quick mistake. I had lived that way for years.

“Please, take me home,” I said, placing my palms over his hard pecs and removing his cock from my abdomen. “I really need you to take me home.”

“But, Dana, I don’t understand.”

“No, you don’t and you wouldn’t.” I managed to slip from his embrace. Rick Lewis was a heartbreak waiting to happen if a woman was foolish enough to fall for him. And I for one didn’t use the “foolish” label for myself anymore. Okay, so I was behaving like the worst sort of tease, but it was
his
fault. He didn’t have to give me dessert.

I dressed quickly and hovered by the front door as Rick slipped into dry clothes and did up the laces on his sneakers.

In silence he helped me into the car and went through the ritual of opening the gates and watching them close in the rearview mirror to ensure no one slipped into the grounds of his home.

“Dana, I want to see you again,” he said in a low, determined voice as he turned onto my street.

I shook my head and stared out at the amber lamps lining Highgrove Avenue. “No, I’m sorry.” I couldn’t be trusted around him so there was only one thing to be done. I would have to stay away from him altogether.

“But I thought everything was going well between us, we had a great evening, chatting, eating. I… I can’t understand what I did so wrong. I thought you were enjoying yourself, you sure seemed as though you were.”

I looked at him and saw him glance my way through the shadows.

“I told you before, it’s not you. I don’t want a relationship. I don’t want a man in my life.”

“And I’m telling you, again, that you do.” His voice was firm and his hands gripped the steering wheel. “My god, you’re like a wild flame in my arms, you want it, you need it, I’ve never felt so…”

I tipped my head. “So?”

“So goddamn crazy with lust and then been able to let it go without feeling mad, cheated.” He reached across the stick for my hand, squeezed it tight in his palm. “Because it’s not just about sex, it’s about you. I want to get to know you, figure out how you think and make you understand that there is no sense in being alone.”

“But why would you care about me being alone?”

“Because that’s how my life is, trying to meet someone is always superseded by my NHL fame. Women see the money, the hockey captain. They don’t see me.” He lifted my knuckles to his mouth. “I can sense that you’re different and I like that. I like it a lot.”

The car purred to a stop outside my house. “I am different, but that doesn’t necessarily mean in a good way.” I pulled my hand from his and gripped my purse. I had seen how relationships could go. The way my mother and father lived together was enough to put anyone off getting involved.

“Let me be the judge of that.”

I shook my head and opened the door. “I came out with you because you left me no choice. The meal was lovely and I wish you well in all your future plans, Rick, but…”

“But?” His voice was a low growl. “But what the hell is the problem?”

“Once again you caused me to break a promise I made myself and I can’t afford to do that.” I slipped out. “Goodbye.”

Quickly I shut the door. Tapped my heels up the path and let myself into my home. Dead-bolting the locks, I leaned back against the wood, my eyes filling with tears as they adjusted to the darkness of the living room. The Lexus waited several minutes, ticking over in the silence, then revved away, a deep hum that faded into the distance and out of my life.

Chapter Four

“Have you sorted out the Warringtons’ cake yet, Maddie?”

“No, I haven’t had time. This golden anniversary thing at the zoo is a complete headache. They even want to ride off on an elephant at the end of the evening.”

“Is the zoo okay with that?”

“Yes, but they say it has to be before eight because
apparently
that is elephant bedtime.”

“And have you told Mrs. Johnson?”