Playing for Keeps Read online

  Lollipop had sidled up to the bed and was bouncing up and down like she was a pogo stick.

  “Don’t look at her,” Sadie whispered breathlessly, her fingers in his hair.

  He dropped his head to her gorgeous bare breasts. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think I can perform with an audience.”

  Sadie snorted and pointed at the dog. “Lollipop, go to your bed.”

  Lollipop panted happily, and proving she didn’t see herself as disabled in the slightest, took a flying leap on two fallen pillows, using them as stairs to get all the way up onto the bed. Very proud of herself, she pounced on her two favorite people in the world.

  “Ohmigod, you’re so effing cute,” Sadie said.

  “Yeah, she’s the cutest cockblocker on the planet.” Caleb scooped the dog up, let her nuzzle in for a minute, hugged her tight and then . . . took her out to the hallway.

  “Smooth,” Sadie said with a laugh when he—carefully—shut the bedroom door on the dog’s nose.

  “I’m motivated,” he said and dropped trou.

  It was now even darker in her room with the door shut, just some ambient lighting coming in from the window, but he could play connect the dots with the best of them. She’d wanted to leave some clothes on to stay warm so he tugged off her boots and bunched her skirt up to her waist. “Hold this,” he said and she took the material in her hands. He admired her pretty little lace panties, before they flew over his shoulder. When he dropped a knee to the bed and crawled up Sadie’s body, he took the time to kiss every inch of her he could get to. Her calf. The inside of her right thigh. Then he turned his head to do the same for her left and caught sight of some ink. Tattoos high on her thigh, written in a beautiful script that he strained in the dark to read.

  Heart

  Mind

  And

  Courage

  Fear

  He took his time there, kissing each, feeling his own heart and mind open up to her in a way he hadn’t expected. But then he realized she’d frozen at the first touch of his mouth to the ink. Frozen, and then squirmed in a way that had him lifting his head to meet her gaze, which was filled with sudden nerves and anxiety.

  “They’re beautiful,” he said, running his finger over the words. The two tattoos were lined up vertically, one beneath the other. And beneath them both was a two-inch-long scar that was at least several years old. “As beautiful as you.”

  She closed her eyes and he knew what that meant. Sadie retreated inward when she got uncomfortable, which was the last thing he wanted here. “Hey,” he murmured, lifting himself up to rub his jaw to hers, dipping his head to press a kiss to the spot beneath her ear that he knew drove her wild.

  And indeed he felt her breath hitch, felt her arch up into him, her fingers sinking into his hair. Her mouth sought his and when they finally broke apart, they were both taking short ragged breaths. “Still with me?” he murmured, his hands cupping her breasts, causing her to bow her back for more.

  “Yes,” she gasped, wrapping her legs around him.

  “Are you—?”

  “I’m sure! I’m 100 percent sure that I’m going to kill you if you stop now!”

  He laughed against her and slid down her body again, nudging her thighs open so he could taste her. “I’m not going to stop.”

  And he didn’t, not even when she went off like a firecracker, fingers gripping his hair, body arching up into his, nearly bringing him along with her and he hadn’t even gotten inside her yet.

  And that’s when he remembered. Condoms. He didn’t have any. Shit. He couldn’t believe it. How stupid was he for not carrying a Just In Case condom? Though to be fair to himself, it’d been a while since he’d needed one.

  “In,” Sadie said in a husky voice. “In me. Please, Caleb, get inside me now.”

  There was nothing he wanted more, but he lifted his head. “I don’t have a condom.”

  She met his gaze and bit her lower lip.

  “What?”

  “I have one,” she said. “I have several, but you can’t laugh.”

  “Babe, I’m about as far away from laughing as a man can get. In fact, if you’re teasing me, I might just cry.”

  “Top drawer of my nightstand,” she said.

  Holding her gaze, which was a sexy mix of desire and hunger, along with a pinch of embarrassment he didn’t understand, he pushed up on his hands and reached for the drawer.

  Her gasp stopped him cold and he twisted back. “What?”

  She covered her mouth, no longer looking dazed with lust, but like she was going to smile. “Your shirt hem rose up when you stretched. You’ve got a tramp stamp!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Dropping her hand, she laughed outright and pointed to just above his right ass cheek. “Then explain that.”

  “If you’re referring to the very regal, perfectly rendered—”

  “—Turtle,” she said, grinning from ear to ear. “You have Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle tramp-stamped on your ass!”

  “Hey,” he said. “Raphael and Nintendo got me through some really difficult times when I was sixteen, okay?”

  “Someone tatted you when you were sixteen?” Her smile faded. “That’s against the law.”

  “I lied about my age and I had a fake ID,” he said.

  “And some regrets?” she guessed.

  He shrugged. “The incident might be the reason why I’m no longer friends with vodka. Are we done discussing my early digressions and stupid mistakes yet?”

  “Not by a long shot,” she said, reaching into his opened trousers and wrapping her hands around the part of him that was currently harder than any of his other parts. “But we can certainly agree to table them for the moment.” She stroked him.

  His eyes nearly rolled up in his head. “Oh, this is going to take more than a moment.”

  “I certainly hope so . . .”

  He opened her nightstand drawer. There was a phone charger cord. A lip balm. A box of cookies. Correction, half a box and a few scattered crumbs. A People magazine. And . . .

  A string of neon-colored condoms.

  “From a friend’s bachelorette party,” Sadie said. “I won a gift basket. Seemed like a waste to just throw them away.”

  “Waste not, want not,” he said with a smile.

  Her mouth curved. “Exactly.”

  He tore off a condom, an eye-popping pink. Not exactly what he’d imagined for his first time with her, but he was the master of invention and making the best of any situation, so he rolled it on, incredibly aware of the way Sadie watched his every move, her breath catching in the back of her throat. At the sight of his erection encased in glow-in-the-dark pink, she laughed, low and knowing and eager, and he felt something inside him click.

  Just as he knew Lollipop had been meant for him, so was this woman.

  She lifted her smiling eyes to his and pulled him down to her. “Now, please,” she said, the words so sweet and so utterly contrasting with her tone, which was an absolute order.

  With a low laugh of his own, he slid in deep, making her gasp in gratification. He did the same, staring down at her, into those deep blue eyes, filled with the same mix of shock and pleasure.

  Like coming home, he thought, and almost lost it right then. He had to force himself to go slow. Long, slow, deep thrusts that had her fingers digging into his ass as she rocked up to meet him stroke for stroke. Reaching back for her hands, he slid them above her head, fingers entwined, so that his entire body caressed hers with their every movement. He felt her start to tremble, heard her panting his name just before she shattered.

  Watching it happen, taking in the sweet shudders that shook her body, how her head flew back, her eyes drifting shut, his name on her lips . . . he let himself go.

  After, not wanting to lose the connection, he rolled to his back, taking her with him. Limp and sated, she went willingly, in a way she never did when she was fully aware a