His hands dropped to my hips as he groaned. He stilled me, held me against his hard length between us, and met my eyes. “And if I want more? If I think we could be more?”
My lips parted. “What?”
“What would you say to that?”
I’d come to Raleigh to start over. Being close to Beaux had been my only option after leaving Melissa and Des Moines behind. The last thing I’d expected, two weeks after arriving, was this.
To meet Oliver Powell. To end up in his bed. Or to have him kiss me the way he did this morning, angry and adamant that I’d never say goodbye to him again. When he’d gone silent in my workroom, I was certain that was what he was doing when he walked away from me. When he’d come back and kissed me hard and long, he’d thrown me for my first rollercoaster loop of the day.
“I…I don’t know.”
I wanted to be honest. I also wanted to think of what I needed. I didn’t want to get lost in his shadow, forgetting my passion and my desire.
“What if we drop the timeline we set forth and see what happens?”
I was still stuck on my last thought. “I won’t stop Stamped for you.”
He frowned. “I would never ask you to.”
“That means I can’t come to away games, or be there every time you need me to come running.”
His frown changed direction and his hands left my hips to press against my cheeks. “Fucking hell, Shannon. I wouldn’t demand that shit of you. You have your own business. You don’t think after seeing it today that I wouldn’t respect that?”
I didn’t know what to think. If I was honest, I wanted a redo on the entire day. I wanted to not freak out in the shower that morning. I wanted to do everything different once we got to Stamped. I wanted to be able to sit on his lap, at that very moment and not be afraid I would lose myself in him.
“You scare me,” I admitted, my voice breathless.
“Then we’re even.” He leaned forward and brought his lips to mine, nipping at my bottom lip and then soothing it with his tongue. “Because you terrify the shit out of me.”
I laughed. He pulled me forward until our foreheads touched. Through his thick, dirty blond lashes, he looked at me, his hazel eyes swirling with amusement. “I still want to try this. Something with you. Something without timelines and restrictions. You in?”
I threw caution to the wind. I considered Melissa’s advice from earlier…if it makes you feel good, makes you laugh and makes you happy, jump in and enjoy the ride. I considered my own feelings, along with the fact that he was as scared, too.
I considered the fact that sitting in his lap, I was already beginning to grow heated and wet in my center, longing for him. This morning, I’d gotten him off. I was still sore from last night, but disappointed I’d freaked out before he could return the favor.
I considered all of it, staring into his eyes, debating and making him nervous by the wait, based on the way his nostrils flared and his eyes darkened.
The doorbell rang, breaking the moment.
“Yes,” I whispered and tilted my head to brush my lips against his. “Yes. Okay. No deadlines.”
Chapter FOURTEEN
OLIVER
It was all I needed to hear. She swung a leg over mine and stood up.
I rolled to one hip and grabbed my wallet out of my back pocket, handing her cash. “Here.”
“I already ordered it before you got here.”
I gave her a look. “Take the money, Shannon. You knew I’d be here eating it and I’m guessing you bought twice as much knowing I was coming.”
“Three times, actually.” She grinned and swiped the money out of my fingers. “Thank you.”
She wiggled her ass as she headed toward the front door for the pizza.
When the man was paid and tipped well, she disappeared into the kitchen.
She returned with three large pizzas, and stacked on top of the boxes were paper plates and bottles of water.
I moved to get up to help her when she stopped me. “Don’t. I’ve got it and you need to rest your ankle.”
It had been so long since someone had attempted to take care of me, tried to help me, that I had to swallow the smart-ass comment.
“Thanks,” I mumbled when she took her place next to me on the couch.
We ate. We talked about her jewelry business, about football and the season. Every time she offered up an opinion, I realized how much she truly knew the game. She’d studied it, loved it. It seemed almost as much a part of her as it was to me.
It only increased my attraction to her. Since Serena had walked out on me, angry I’d tossed her to the side for a dream I’d had since before I ever asked her out in high school, I hadn’t met a woman like Shannon. Most of the conversations I’d had with women over the last several years revolved around my muscles and the way my ass looked in tight football pants.
I didn’t know women like Shannon existed. Every layer I peeled back, every time I dug deeper, I continued to be pleasantly surprised.
She knocked me sideways and upside down as we watched ESPN highlights of the night’s preseason games. She yelled and cursed when Beaux’s old team won.
“What the hell?” I asked, surprised by her outburst.
My hand curled into her shoulder and I pulled her closer. I wanted her there. Loved her energy and her inability to hold back anything she was feeling.
“I can’t help it,” she said, bouncing on the edge of the couch. “I wanted them to lose.”
“Typical girl,” I said, pulling her so she fell against my chest. The ice on my ankle was long gone. I’d iced and rested it and I was tired of it. “Always holding a grudge.”
She slapped my abs, and I grabbed her hand with my other one, holding her against me. “Shut up. I can’t help it. They let him go and they could have used him and now their old quarterback doesn’t have a decent backup.”
I laughed and pressed my lips against the top of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo. “Yeah, but then he wouldn’t be here, in Raleigh and starting.”
She relaxed in my arms—her fingers trailing circles on my abs. The light teasing touch, the scent of her, the feel and the weight of her all rolled through me, sparking and igniting interest and desire for her.
“Where’s your room?” I asked when the attraction between us pulled tight and I didn’t want to wait any longer. “Told Beaux I wouldn’t fuck you on his couch.”
“Oh my gosh.” She groaned and buried her face into my chest. Her shoulders shook with muffled laughter. “You talked about me? In the locker room?”
I wasn’t going to get into it. Not all of it.
“He simply said no fucking on his furniture.”
“The bed I’m sleeping on is his.” She grinned when she pulled back.
I was already pushing to my feet, bringing her with me until her legs were wrapped around my hips and my hands were holding her by her ass.
“Semantics. I also said we wouldn’t wait up for him.”
“Oh my God. I’m never going to be able to show my face around the team again.”
“Hey.” I walked her toward the room she gestured to and kicked the door open. “Does it bother you? You gotta know sometimes shit gets flung around, but between me and Beaux, no one’s going to say shit to you. And if they do, we’ll handle it.”
She pressed her hand against my cheek and her fingertips played with the hair above and behind my ear. She always did that—found a way to touch me so gently that it drove me to distraction.
I wanted hard fucking, nails digging into skin, grips so tight they bruised, and yet she was the sweet to my spice, the light to my dark. Every time I wanted to dirty her up, she made me want to slow down and relish the moment at the same time.
So fucking different from the last six years.
I leaned into her touch while she pressed her lips to my jaw. “I don’t care what they say.”
Thank fuck. I didn’t want to have to promise to kick my teammates’ asses, but I would if it bothered her. Beaux would back me up, too, unless he was the one taking the first swing.
I bent forward and laid her down on the bed. She clung to me, not letting me go, and pulled me down on top of her.
“I love your weight on me,” she said, her hands sliding down my shirt until she pushed her fingers beneath the waistband of my shorts. “And this butt.”
I buried my face into her shoulder and pushed her further up the bed until I could kneel on it. “Get them off me. And my shirt.”
I lifted my hips long enough for her to push my shorts down before I kicked them off, then I rolled us until she straddled me and helped her with my shirt.
Her fingers were cool on my skin as she dragged them up the planes of my stomach, the curves of my chest.
“You’re so hard,” she whispered, her eyes glazed over with admiration.
I worked on my body because it needed to be the best it could be at all possible moments, not for it to be admired. With Shannon’s hands dragging through my chest hair, brushing across my nipples, light, teasing, and exploratory touches, I was fucking thankful I didn’t have a desk job where I didn’t have to work so hard.
“Stop teasing me.” I groaned as her hand dipped across my lower abs, one fingernail trailing through the hair just above my waistband.