Strike to the Heart(9)

Within seconds, I was inside her and she was pushing back against me. I stroked my palm up her back and wound a handful of her hair around my fingers. She was beautiful—the curve of her shoulders, the roundness of her ass.

I teetered on the edge so I pulled out of her tightness. I stretched out on my back. “Get on top of me.”

Jo smiled, a wicked, wanton smile filled with promise. She pulled off her clothes and straddled my hips.





Chapter 5

Jo

I looked into Zane’s eyes. The intensity of his gaze burned every self-conscious thought right out of me. There was no thinking about whether my breasts were too big or too small, my lips too thin, or my hips too narrow. His every touch conveyed his scorching desire to touch me everywhere and fill me completely.

Zane reached for my breasts, caressing the sides with his fingertips. I trembled. His touch was gentle—almost reverent. “I want to be inside you again.”

“Yes.” There was a pulsing ache deep within me and at this moment, only he could satisfy it.

Zane’s hands slid over my skin, down past my waist to my hips. He released one hand and grasped his shaft, positioning it between my legs. Shifting his hips, the head of his cock entered me. He gripped my ass and pulled me down, impaling me on him.

I closed my eyes and my head fell back. Pure sensation poured through me as I pressed him deeper—slowly, so slowly, until we were skin to skin. My breath escaped my lungs as he throbbed within me. When Zane was buried to the hilt, I paused, savoring the fullness of him.

I lifted off and pressed back down, sending waves of pleasure through my body. Zane’s fingertips dug into my hips and I raised myself again. He wanted faster, but I wanted to draw out the delicious friction. Orgasm teased deep inside where the tip of his erection nudged against me. It was growing, heating me with tendrils of tingling delight. I twitched around him.

Zane thrust up into me. “Oh yeah. Do it again,” he commanded.

I did, and the shivery flicker of orgasm burst into an inferno. I smiled with satisfaction as the pleasure crested and ebbed.

Zane moved underneath me, holding me in place as he drove himself into me repeatedly until he lost himself. After he came, Zane pulled me down onto his chest and I relaxed against him, boneless and gratified. His arms reached around me and I burrowed into his chest, seeking warmth. The languid aftermath of completion stole over me and I slipped into a deep, satisfied sleep.

~ * ~ * ~

Jo

I paced back and forth in the locker room. My morning match had gone well. Straight sets. I wasn’t tired, simply tense. I’d played doubles with Darcy a million times, but somehow I couldn’t mentally settle for this match.

Darcy sat in a chair, a frown of concentration on her face. It wasn’t her usual mode before a match. Usually, she joked and fooled around, and that relaxed us both. We’d walk out onto the court loose and ready to play. Something was occupying Darcy’s thoughts, but she didn’t seem ready to share.

I couldn’t take it. “Darcy, what’s up?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. Feels weird today, doesn’t it?”

“We need to get our head in the game. Gachev and Nikulin are no joke. They knocked off the tops seeds in the first round at Wimbledon.”

Darcy picked up a racket and bounced it from hand to hand. “You’re right. I know you are. I guess I feel more confident with you beside me. You make me stretch. You make me a better player.”

“Darcy, you are a good player.”

“I don’t have what it takes to make it to the top and we both know it. When I play with you, I want to make sure I hold up my end. I don’t want to disappoint you. I don’t want to be the cause of us losing. It makes me play better. When I play singles, there’s no fire. I don’t have your drive, and it matters.”

I sighed. There was truth to what Darcy was saying. She was a better doubles player. I’d never attributed it to her mental game though. “Some players have a real talent for doubles. Maybe you’re one of those players. You can have a successful career playing doubles.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it would be the same with anyone else. We know each other so well. We’ve played together for so long. I can anticipate exactly what you’re going to do. It’s what makes us work.”

“You’re probably right about that.” I hadn’t teamed up with other players often for doubles, but the few times I had, there hadn’t been the ease that I experienced partnering with Darcy.

“And you can’t do this forever,” Darcy added.

“What are you talking about?”

Darcy’s gaze darted away. “You’re about to break through. You’re about to hit the top. I think it will be now, but if it isn’t this tournament, it will be soon. I’ll just be an anchor.”