Page 39 of Love Game

The glower might have been more effective if he weren’t so damn delicious-looking. The fact that he was rubbing his stiff dick mindlessly against her stomach lessened the impact as well. Determined to flout his stern warning, she smiled and whispered, “Make me.”

She yelped when he yanked her up off her feet. Tall as she was, there weren’t many men who could manhandle her. The perverse girly-girl inside her squealed with glee when he turned to the bed and tossed her onto it with a bounce. The woman in her almost purred.

Husky laughter rolled off the walls. Hers. His. Theirs.

It spoke a language of its own. The sound of it filled her up, making her heart drum faster, her breasts swell, and her pussy almost embarrassingly wet. She might have been self-conscious about the slick arousal if the evidence of his weren’t so readily apparent. He wanted her. Judging from the tension in his defined muscles and the tiny throb in the corner of his jaw, he wanted her bad.

She scrambled back a bit, grinning as she arranged herself in what she hoped was an alluring come-hither pose at the center of the mattress. It worked. He followed her without hesitation, planting his hands on the quilt and crawling up over her slowly, deliberately, stalking her like a big, sleek cat.

A long sigh escaped her as he lowered himself to her. Her arms and legs wrapped around him, every instinct demanding she hold him there. Close to her.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

The old adage popped into her head without invitation. She stiffened as his mouth touched hers.

Danny instantly drew back. Propping his weight on his elbows, he searched her face. Concern etched a deep divot between his inky brows. “Am I hurting you?”

She shook her head, as much to dissuade him as to loosen the niggling kernel of doubt. “No. You feel good.” To emphasize this point, she pulled him down for a hard, fierce kiss. “So good.”

He wasn’t buying it. She could see the skepticism in his narrowed eyes. Fortunately, she was also in the perfect position to divert his attention. All it took was a little wriggle, and a hoarse groan broke in his chest. Their breaths mingled, and their noses bumped. He settled against her hips, his cock nestled into her damp curls. Her toes teased the soles of his feet.

He fit. They fit.

That transient bit of awareness chased the last of her cliché-ridden worry away. “Condoms. Nightstand.” She punctuated the words with soft, lingering kisses.

She should have known it wouldn’t work. He was an athlete at heart, filled with determination and a stubborn need to conquer even the smallest obstacles. She squirmed some more as he searched her eyes, but not in a sexy, don’t-you-want-me-baby sort of way. “What happened just then? What were you worried about?”

“Nothing,” she answered too quickly. When the corners of his gorgeous mouth turned down in a frown, she broke. “I just… It’s stupid.”

“Tell me.”

Gritting her teeth, she inhaled through her nose and let it go slowly. Sometimes, in order to score, a player had to suck it up and charge the goal. She might get hacked—or worse, blocked—but she had to take the shot. “We’re not enemies, are we?”

His scowl disappeared. In its place, he wore an expression of such blank surprise he almost looked like a cartoon character. Then he pointedly glanced down at their nearly joined bodies. “Enemies?”

“I told you it was stupid.” She spat the retort at him but refused to turn away. She’d committed to this shot, and she’d follow through. “It’s…with all this stuff. Millie, the reporters, the sparring and trash talk. Then this.” She ran her hand down his back, fingertips tracing the valley of his spine while her palm mapped the hard ridges that led down to his ass. “It’s a little…confusing.”

The line between his brows deepened. “I thought that was for show.”

The oxygen she’d been hoarding whooshed from her lungs. She didn’t bother even trying to hide her relief. “So we’re friends?”

He chuckled softly, clearly amused by the leaps in her logic, and lowered a bit more of his weight onto her. “I’d like to be.”

She raised her face for a kiss, and he obliged. A long, lazy kiss that would have made her feel foolish for asking if he hadn’t tasted so damn good.

“I’d say this feels pretty friendly.” He pecked kisses to each corner of her mouth, then shifted to concentrate on her neck and throat.

He found the sensitive spot beneath her ear, and she shivered. Then, like the masterful player he was, he exploited the weakness. Kate gasped and arched as he drew the tender skin into his mouth and sucked. She panted with a mixture of relief and disappointment when he let go.

He soothed the spot with his tongue, then scraped it with his teeth. The implication was a warning and a promise. One she hoped he planned to see through. But no. He just meandered along, covering her neck, throat, and shoulders with feathery kisses that left her head spinning.

At last, he shifted his body down. The move snugged the thick shaft of his cock against her clit. She parted her legs farther, a blatant invitation for him to give her the friction she craved. Instead, he chose to string feathery kisses along her collarbone. She moaned her delight and frustration, rolling her hips in a not-so-subtle reminder.

To her dismay, Danny pushed up on his hands, peeling his body from hers. She clutched at him with arms and legs, and they froze like that, two fierce competitors with strong bodies and equally enduring wills locked in a battle for something they both wanted.

Desperately.

“This isn’t going to be a fast break,” he said.

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