Game On Box Set: Time Out\Her Man Advantage\Face-Off\Body Check Read online

  She released his pants to clutch the condom, waving it over her head like a trophy.

  “We both win!” she exclaimed, unwrapping it while he shed his pants and his boxers. When her eyes dipped south, she dropped the prophylactic. “But I really, really win.”

  Her wide-eyed gaze flattered the hell out of him, but by now, he couldn’t play teasing games with her. Need unfurled at the base of his spine, clawing up his back.

  Gently, he captured her lips, kissing her until she went pliant, lying back on the mattress. He trapped one thigh with his, holding her where he wanted her. She tasted so good, so sweet. When he smoothed a touch across her hip and down her belly, her kisses grew more urgent. She twisted beneath him, wriggling until he cupped her sex. Tested her warmth with a finger.

  Any worry about her being ready for him evaporated. He rolled on the condom then entered her in one long stroke. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, a welcome pain, even as she whispered frantic demands for more. Now. Faster.

  “One day,” he promised, shifting slowly inside her, “we’ll do everything just the way you want. But not now. Not tonight.”

  Not when he’d been without a woman all season. When he’d been without her his whole life.

  She nodded in the dimness, eyes passion-dazed and her mouth swollen from his kisses.

  “I’ll have you any way I can.”

  Her words drove him crazy even when he’d succeeded in stilling her beautiful body. His release churned inside him, demanding completion. Gritting his teeth against it, he pumped his hips harder. Faster.

  In the half light, she smiled. Her head thrown back, she cried out, holding on to him with the same fierceness he felt. Her hips bucked wildly, breasts bouncing until he captured one with his palm and tweaked the nipple.

  Her orgasm came hard and fast. She shouted. Gasped. Squeezed him tight between her legs.

  At last, he gave in to the pleasure, his own release racking his body for endless moments. Afterward, temporarily satisfied and drained, he held her until their bodies cooled and he had to wrap the duvet around them.

  Speaking wasn’t an option. He couldn’t begin to think about how he felt or what it all meant that they’d been together. For now, he just wanted to lie beside her. Touch her. Know her.

  There would be time enough tomorrow to wonder how they could avoid the cameras and keep her safe while his old gang sought retribution. Until then, he planned to savor every moment of pleasure he could with this sexy, strong-willed dynamo who’d barreled into his life when he’d least expected it.

  8

  CHELSEA PUSHED A LETTUCE leaf around her plate, trying to focus on what Vincent was saying instead of thinking about the fact that she’d never had dinner alone with a guy. Ever.

  She wouldn’t have gone with him, either, except that he was one of the players. The first player who’d spoken to her and made her feel like a valued part of the team’s fan base. She’d started following the Phantoms because she loved the confined aggression of the sport. The rules and order that tempered physical conflict. It appealed to her hidden desire to kick ass and take names in a world that was too often cruel and unfair.

  Now, finishing her Cobb salad in a quiet corner of the hotel’s restaurant, she listened to Vincent’s story from his teenage years about a cow who’d escaped an enclosure and wandered out into a deep ravine. He’d wrangled the fourteen-hundred-pound beast out the night before his high school hockey playoffs. She liked his stories of a life that seemed straight out of the pages of a kids’ book, complete with farm animals and morals, challenges and lessons. Order ruled Vinny’s world, just as it ruled hockey.

  “So how did you do in the playoffs?” she asked, focusing on his stitched forehead now that she had no more food to distract her.

  He passed his plate to the hovering waiter and she was relieved to see he’d eaten every last bite, too. She had huge issues with wasting food from back in the days when she’d begged at the back doors of restaurants at closing time.

  “I scored a hat trick and we advanced to the next round.” He grinned, the smile crinkling the skin around his eyes. “My whole team knew that I’d been awake all night, and I wanted to make sure no one thought I was dragging the team down by being unprepared for the game.”

  His good humor was infectious, making her smile, too. That in itself was pretty amazing given how nervous she’d been about spending time with him tonight. Alone.

  Especially after he’d kissed the palm of her hand. Just thinking about that moment made her skin tingle. Beneath the linen tablecloth, she twined her fingers together and tried to squeeze away the sensation that still lingered there.

  “You proved your point.” Her gaze connected with his and held until the clinking of silverware and conversations around them faded.

  Warmth stirred inside her, making her self-conscious.

  “It took me a while to learn I didn’t need to constantly prove myself.” He drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before he added, “Although I’m willing to do it again if I need to.”

  “I’m sure you don’t need to prove anything to the team. You’ve already—”

  “To you.” He snagged the attention of a passing waitress to ask for more water, giving Chelsea more physical space even as he crowded her thoughts with a notion that was both frightening and compelling at the same time. “I’m willing to prove myself to you, Chels. I just want a chance to know you better.”

  The center of her palm throbbed where he’d kissed her, that sensitive patch of flesh reminding her that she couldn’t suppress her needs as a woman forever. Then again, how could she expect a great guy like Vinny to wait around while she battled old demons that didn’t have anything to do with him?

  “I had fun tonight,” she started, not wanting to damage their friendship. “And you’re a great guy. I know that. So it wouldn’t be fair to ask you to—”

  “Ask me anything.” He leaned forward again, elbows on the table, his hazel eyes more brown than green tonight in the flickering candlelight from a single white taper surrounded by fresh daisies.

  His tone seemed so earnest that, for a moment, she forgot her point. What would it be like to be with someone so open? So willing to take a chance?

  “I can’t. I wouldn’t feel right seeing you like this and knowing you had expectations of me that I’m not comfortable…fulfilling.” Although, considering how enticing that one kiss to her hand had been, she had the feeling she would dream about that and more with him tonight.

  Just because she had sexual hang-ups didn’t mean she’d lost her carnal appetites.

  “First of all, I have no expectations. I have hopes. Those are very different things.” He kept his voice low as the waitress passed them with an empty tray on her way to the kitchen.

  “I would be a huge disappointment for you.” She’d kept the guys on the team at arm’s length for good reason. She wouldn’t want to sacrifice her special relationship with the Phantoms as a whole just because she got romantically entangled with one of them.

  It went without saying that romantic entanglements would end in disaster, right? Although she had to admit, Vinny seemed like the patient sort.

  “The only thing that’s going to disappoint me is if I let you slip away without telling you how much I like you.”

  Her heart picked up speed, but in a good way. This was different from the times her heart raced during the fight-or-flight response, which was what she usually felt when a man got too close or pushed for more from her.

  “You don’t even know me,” she reminded him, reaching for her wallet as the waitress came back with their check.

  “I invited you,” he insisted, gently steering her hand back into her purse before she could open her wallet. “I’m buying.”

  The busy young waitress seemed to conspire with him, snatching his credit card from his hand and flouncing off with the check.

  “Thank you.” Chelsea tried to let it go, thinking Vinny shouldn’t have t