Chapter 14 #2
When we finally finished and I met her halfway between her table and mine, I swept her outside onto the patio, away from the crowd and curious eyes.
“That was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?” she said.
“You were beautiful. I didn’t notice the rest of it.”
“You are so . . . dreamy. You know that? You have me—”
“Wet?”
She giggled into my ear as she wrapped herself around me. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I have a confession,” she whispered into my ear. “I thought of nothing but you during the whole ceremony. And it was so long. I thought it would never end.”
It was my turn to laugh.
“That was very naughty of you.” I took her face in my hands then.
“I love your naughtiness.” I kissed her lips and it felt like I was finally taking a breath after almost drowning.
A sigh escaped me, my cock moved, expanded, sent me a message putting me on notice that it would not be ignored.
I had no intention of ignoring it. Had no ability to ignore it any longer.
Ending the kiss, I kept an eye on the patio door.
“How long do you think we’ll have to stay before we can leave?” I asked.
She looked at me, speculating, trying to hold back a grin. “A few dances. I can claim a headache. It’s not like Cat and Hunter are leaving tonight so I won’t have to stay to the bitter end. We’ll see them at the brunch tomorrow.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought this through.”
“I might have.”
“Then let’s go dance.” We moved in the direction of the door.
“Maybe I should dance once or twice with someone else besides you,” she said. “I think it would be best since Coach might notice.”
I hated the suggestion, hated the idea and everything in me rebelled, especially my cock, at the notion of her in someone else’s arms.
“I don’t think so, Red. We’ll be fine.”
“But what if Coach sees you with me and gets a stick up his ass over it. The last thing I want is for him to be on your case.”
“That’s a polite way of putting it. He’d give me a barrel of shit if he thought I was spending the night with you.” I’d said it, admitted my not so honorable intentions. Her face lit up and she threw herself against me, arms around my neck.
“Max, I want to spend the night doing wild erotic things to you, and then sleeping in your arms until the bright sun forces us to wake.”
My chest constricted at the image she painted, beautiful and ominous, titillating and tender and tempting past my ability to withstand.
“We can spend the night together.” I didn’t add that it would be just one night, couldn’t say it because I didn’t want to think about it, admit it, make it real. I was in deep shit.
“Of course. It was inevitable,” she said.
We returned to the reception and danced. Fast and slow and she managed a dance with Hunter’s younger brother while I watched, trying not to look disgruntled. The kid was harmless and I could afford one dance even if it felt like the clock was ticking, winding down on our one night together.
We finally escaped and I met her near the elevators to bring her back to my room. She’d convinced me our night was inevitable, so I should be past any crisis of conscience.
We stepped into the elevator, alone and silent. I had an arm around her.
I wanted her. Fling or no fling. I might be just as vulnerable as she was and if she was willing to take a chance on me, I’d take a chance on her. We were sleeping together, we weren’t getting married. Fuck, we might not ever see each other again.
You should tell her about the vasectomy.
What good would it do? We would never see each other again either way.
Because she might change her mind about the fling if she knew.
Was that a reason to tell her or a reason not to tell her?
She was the one who’d convinced me our chemistry made it inevitable, determined that we should spend a wild night together fucking. That was the word she’d used. She hadn’t said making love. If she had . . .
My conscience was still warring with my heart and soul—and my cock—when she metaphysically shot a gun in the air, ending the debate. Putting her hands on me, notably on the zipper of my pants, she freed my cock in a dizzying instant and touched it with her hot, capable hands.
“Jesus.”
“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “The camera can’t see.” She was plastered against me, her hand holding my cock between us.
“The elevator ride isn’t long enough for this,” I said and removed her hand, zipped up my pants with a sure swift movement. “You’re too wild for your own good, you know that?” My cock throbbed.
She laughed and the elevator doors popped open.
Thank God there was no one around. We’d left the reception early and that had been noteworthy enough.
If Coach found out, I’d handle it, but the least I could do was save Natalie from gossip or, worse, media attention.
There’d been far too many cameras and lights flashing at the party even though no media had been invited.
I knew better than to make assumptions about this being a truly private event.
She held my hand and pulled me, racing down the hall to my door like a runaway colt, excited and impossible to stop. She’d been right. This was inevitable.
I hoped to hell that wasn’t my cock talking, trying to justify a fling that I’d made so many promises I wouldn’t have—to Coach, to Hunter, to Gabe, and to myself.
But there were also promises made that I would.
The promise to Natalie, if not in so many words, the promise to Liz, and the promise to myself, that I would have this fling.
Those counted, said my cock to my conscience.
Letting us inside the room, she swirled through the door and inside ahead of me in a rustle of fabric and excitement.
“Do you know how much I want you?” She spun around, whirling the gown around her.
“You’re so breathtakingly beautiful, Red.
” She was. The ball gown was gorgeous, but it was a lot of material and all I could think about was getting it off her—without ruining it.
For all my vaunted experience, I had none at this one particular task.
When I married Liz, she wore a short dress.
Our wedding had been simpler because we’d been living together and I’d still been on a rookie contract.
We put all our savings to buying our dream house.
The one she still lived in. With another man. And my girls.
Natalie wrenched my attention back to her as she came to a stop next to the bed. Nerves vibrated in the air between us, coming from her. I hadn’t expected that. Going to her, I took her in my arms, slowly lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her gently. At first.
The heady scent and feel of her, the knowledge that she was giving herself to me for the night—no strings—that she wanted me badly sucked me into a vortex of desire.
She was sweet and fun and strong enough to let herself be completely vulnerable.
Her emotions overwhelmed me as much as her physical presence, made me forget about being gentle as I put my hands on her ass—which I found in spite of all the layers of ball gown doing their best to hide the perfect lush mounds—and crushed her against my hard, growing cock.