His heartbeat kicked into overdrive, the thumping louder than a stadium full of fans at fever pitch. Anchoring her against him, he tugged down her panties with one hand until they slid to the floor.
Later, he would touch her. Taste her. Pile on so many orgasms she wouldn’t see any man but him for the next decade. Or ten.
But right now, he needed to be inside her. Laying her down on the sofa, he shed his shorts and felt around for his pants on the floor until he found the right pocket. He withdrew a condom and rolled it on, heedless of her hands tugging him down to the couch.
To her.
If he didn’t sheathe himself now, it wasn’t going to happen. It had been far too long since he’d touched her.
Positioning himself over her, he parted her thighs and allowed himself just one feel. Circling the hot center of her, his finger slid easily along the swollen folds. Her wordless plea assured him she was ready and he entered her in one breathless stroke.
Possessing her.
He felt the surge to his core, just the way he knew he would have every day for the last year if he hadn’t made a colossal mistake. Words of praise and commitment, reverence and—ah, hell—more than that bubbled in his throat.
Ruthlessly, he held it all back, determined to give her one night that wasn’t about anything else but pleasure.
She wrapped her legs around him, her slender thighs squeezing, locking. She arched her hips, meeting every stroke, taking all he had to give. He framed her face in his hands and kissed her, mirroring the slow glide of his hips with his tongue.
Heat blazed over his back, dotting his shoulders with sweat as he kept his movements seductively easy. Gentle. He could feel her tension mounting around him as she stilled, her breasts heaving with gusty breaths punctuated with little moans.
Just when she turned the most rigid, her fingers digging into his shoulders, he increased his pace. A cry wrenched from her lips. She writhed beneath him, so gorgeous in her pleasure, her muscles clenching his tight. He let go then, losing himself in the lush feel of her and the absolute perfection of the moment.
Later, he wrapped her tight in his arms, side by side on the couch. His heart slammed hard against his ribs for a long time afterward, as if it wanted to make itself known.
After all, he hadn’t just come here for one night with Naomi, no matter what he’d allowed her to think.
3
NAOMI’S ALARM WENT OFF, the wailing electronic beep ruining the great dream she’d been having about Brody…
Oh, wait. It hadn’t been a dream this time. She felt the very real proof wrapped around her, spooned against her in the tangle of sheets. The alarm hadn’t ended a great dream. It had ended her brief reunion with Brody, a one-night indulgence that had been far too delectable for words. Being with Brody had been…transporting. Amazing.
And oh, man, she was in over her head.
“You can’t seriously be thinking of getting out of bed at this hour.” Brody’s hand shifted where it lay on her hip, skating along the indentation of her waist and dipping lower to tease a response from her body that awakened it instantly.
“I coach kids’ softball on Saturday mornings, remember? I have no choice.”
Of course, she’d set the alarm early, after the power came back on, so she’d have time to say goodbye. Time for her heart to recover from her night with a man she’d always cared about more than she could admit. And their night together hadn’t done a damn thing to lessen the attraction.
The caring.
Her heart tightened in her chest. The parting was not going to be easy.
“Naomi.” He softened his tone and twisted her around in his arms so they faced each other.
Dawn hadn’t fully broken yet, so his expression remained shadowed. She hoped hers did, too, since she feared giving away the feelings last night had stirred.
“Mmm?”
“Breaking up with you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Surprised but wary, she squinted through the dimness to meet his steely gaze. She had not expected to have this kind of conversation. Nor did she want to remember the aftermath of their breakup.
“I assume that’s why you opted out of splitting with me in person and chose to simply dial my digits while you were a thousand miles away.” The sheets cooled at the thought and she was grateful she’d left ample time before she needed to shower and be at the practice field.
She sent up a prayer of thanksgiving that the rain had stopped during the night. She needed that field to be dry enough to play on by 8:00 a.m. because she needed something to get her mind off Brody.
“I was a chicken shit and I hated myself for it, but I swear to you, I would not have been able to look you in the eye and tell you it was over when I still loved you like crazy.” His gaze never wavered, as if he spouted the God’s honest truth when she knew he was full of it.
Suddenly, the prospect of walking away from him this morning seemed a little easier.
“Don’t you dare lie to me after what we just shared—”
“How many times did people tell us how tough it would be to make a relationship work while I was on the road and you were here?”
“And you decided to buy into the naysayers’ logic without telling me? After all the plans we’d made for a future together?” She regretted the note of outrage in her voice that hinted at how much he’d hurt her. What happened to using their night together to get him out of her head for good?
“I was going to spring training in Florida and then 162 games around the country while you were committed to a job here. How fair would it have been to ask you to wait for me while I traveled around the country with a major league team? How many relationships do you know that could have survived that?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that instead of giving me the heave-ho like I was some girl you picked up in a bar?” She was shaking with the memory of it even now. Or maybe she was shaking because he’d made her feel something incredible last night and then brought up all this garbage first thing this morning.
Why couldn’t they have parted civilly, with the taste of kisses on their lips, instead of angry words? But then, Brody always had a way of sweeping you into his world, firing you up and making you feel as passionate as he did. Good or bad, his emotions were contagious.
“I was too conflicted about the whole thing to have broken up with you if I hadn’t had your anger to seal the deal. I knew in my heart it was wrong to drag you out on the road with me when you were excited to buy a house and put down roots.” He ignored her spluttered protest and pressed a finger to her lips. “Besides, we’d hardly dated anyone but each other. I had this idea in my head that you should date other people so you wouldn’t resent me for monopolizing most of your romantic life.”
She wanted to argue about how unfair it had been to deceive her. About how wrong he’d been to make a big relationship decision without her, and to break her heart because he thought he knew what was best for her. But something—maybe the sincerity she saw in his eyes as the sunlight filtered through the blinds—made her think twice.
He’d been under a lot of pressure when he signed with the Aces. And his family had all been there with their hands out when they heard about his fat contract. As exciting as his career had been, it had shown him who his real friends were.
Too bad that—after finding out—he’d turned his back on her, too.
“So instead of resenting you for tying me down, you made me resent you for ditching me without so much as a face-to-face conversation.”