Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

TATE

I wake up to sunshine spilling through the windows and dancing across the planes of Lily’s body. She’s sprawled next to me, one leg touching mine, her arms under her pillow. I study her smooth, pale skin and a large freckle to the right of the cute dimple in her lower back.

I’m used to waking up after indifferent sleep in impersonal hotel rooms, but today my body feels well-used and well-slept. The bed is comfortable, cocooning my heavy, lethargic limbs but despite this, inside I’m alive and buzzy and today is bright and brilliant. I turn, and there she is, asleep next to me, her blonde hair spread out on the pillow like every dream you can imagine. She’s like a mirage. She’s really here, and last night we had mind-exploding sex, not once, not twice but three times. On the third occasion, all inhibition blown out of the water, she rode me like a cowgirl, grinding down on me so hard I almost saw stars, although I’m not sure I’ll ever forget her perfect tits bouncing above me, or her head thrown back, face contorted with ecstasy as she shuddered through the orgasm I felt rip through her.

Sex with Lily was so much more than I could ever have imagined. Was it because we waited so long? Or was it the near-brush with death that sparked a basic need to redefine our existence. Celebrate life in its rawest terms?

She stirs and rolls over, one arm thrown above her head, and the sheet falls aside leaving her back and shoulders exposed. Her smooth muscle tone beneath the soft skin is clearly evident, reminding me who she is now.

‘Stop watching me,’ she mumbles. ‘I’m sleeping.’

‘How can you know I’m watching you, if you’re sleeping.’

‘I have eyes in the back of my head. Go make coffee, if you need something to do.’

‘Someone’s grouchy.’

‘Seriously? You’ve forgotten I’m not a morning person.’

‘No. I remember, but I’m trying to figure– in your line of work, do you tell the bad guys not to bother you before 9am?’

She rolls over and puts an arm across her eyes. ‘Very funny. When I’m working, it’s different. I could still pin you to the ground in an instant, if I wanted to.’

‘I’ll go make that coffee,’ I say and drop a kiss on her sulky mouth.

‘And for the love of God, put some clothes on,’ she adds, as I stand up. ‘How am I supposed to resist that ass?’

The contrast between who she appears to be– ninja bodyguard-princess– and the reality of the slightly shy but passionate lover, makes me smile. But it also reminds me that we are stuck in the middle of nowhere and that tomorrow the rest of the team is flying in. Practice starts then, and I have to be there.

I’d gotten caught up in the sex. Forgotten about what’s important. What I’ve been working towards my whole life. This is not some grand reunion. Eight years ago, I let Lily Heath get under my skin and I fell apart when she left. That isn’t going to happen again. Yesterday we almost lost our lives. It was good sex, hell, fucking great sex and I’m up for us enjoying ourselves as long as we’re here, but I can’t afford for this to derail my future. She almost did it once, she doesn’t get to do it again.

But even as I study her smooth back and the indentations of her spine, which are begging me to kiss each and every one, right down to the swell of her cute ass, I think about what her skin will feel like under my tongue. My dick stirs and I promise myself, one last time. I lean over and kiss the very top of her spine. She wriggles and looks over her shoulder at me with a sleepy smile. ‘What happened to coffee?’

For a moment I’m transfixed by the sight of her and the uncomfortable thump of my heart. I turn and go make some coffee, wriggling my hips to give her an eyeful.

When I return ten minutes later, Lily’s lying on her front dozing, and I put the coffee next to her and study her sleep-tousled hair and her relaxed face.

Her eyes open. ‘Morning,’ she says with dopey smile, and right there I’m gone. I kiss her mouth and press her back down, moving to sit astride her, keeping my weight on my knees as I slip my hands under her to fill my hands with her breasts. She squirms, her ass rising up to kiss my balls. I squeeze her nipples as I start to work my way down her back, nuzzling and kissing her skin. She wriggles but I clamp my knees on her hips, and with my mouth I press her into the bed. There’s silence apart from the rustle of sheets. I can feel her heartbeat rising as I lick and kiss my way down. When I reach the hollow of her spine, I shift back and put my hands on the top of her ass, kissing the very top of the crease there, and she moans. I start to slide a finger all the way down between her ass cheeks and she moans, her hips tilting up slightly to give me better access. I pause at the tight pucker and hear her sharp inhalation, but her hips rise a fraction. I toy with the tiny circle pushing one finger against the tense muscle. She lets out a soft murmur, which I take as encouragement, and I push a little harder, making her moan. I trace down with my other hand, finding her wet and oh-so ready.

Without any preamble, I thrust two fingers inside Lily and pump her without any finesse. I know I’m punishing her for me not being able to resist her, but she takes it, murmuring, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ between pants.

I love how fucking tight she is, how responsive, and how she takes everything I give her. I push a little deeper with one finger, continuing to pump her. My dick is hard, so fucking hard. I lift her hips and drive into her hot, wet pussy, balls-deep. As I close my eyes and feel her around me… fuck… I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. This woman. She clamps tight around me.

‘Lily. Oh, fuck.’ The garbled words are involuntary, I’m lost to the sensation of her sweet pussy pulling me in as I drive into her, over and over, and she meets me, thrust for thrust. My orgasm comes so hard and fast, there’s no warning. The intense pleasure almost paralyses me, and I collapse on top of her, my dick throbbing and pulsing. I gather her up to me, spooning her to me, my hands cupping her breasts. ‘Fuck, Lily. Fuck.’

She’s hanging onto me, stroking my arm, and I’m not sure if either of us know what is up or down at the moment. My chest stops heaving at the same time as the guilt creeps in. Fuck, I used her, really used her for my pleasure.

I turn her to face me, prepared for recrimination and ready to apologise the shit out of things. ‘Christ, Lily. I’m s?—’

She lays a finger on my lips. ‘Don’t.’ Her eyes are serene and there’s a soft smile on her face. I’m confused.

‘I should have slowed down. At least waited until you woke up properly.’

‘Did you hear me complaining?’

‘Fuck, no,’ I say remembering her breathy, incoherent cries, which even now make my balls tighten.

Her eyes brighten and the smile turns a touch smug. ‘I like that I can do that to you.’

‘You do, do you?’

She nods, soft and sated, blooming with feminine power. ‘It’s a good feeling that you can bring someone to their knees.’

I decide to bring her down a peg. ‘For that pussy I’m happy to go on my knees any time for you. Pizza or no pizza.’

She bursts out laughing. ‘You just have to have the last word.’

‘Always,’ I agree, and kiss her on the lips. She responds eagerly and all my intentions about getting up and out vanish.

* * *

‘I don’t like it,’ I say, sipping black coffee as I stand in the kitchen listening to the sound of our clothes in the dryer.

‘Of course you don’t,’ says Lily with a long-suffering sigh. She wants us to stay here for another night, which, despite my dick jumping and down, saying ‘fabulous idea’ I’m not sure about, at all. I need to get back to the structure of training and routine. They’ve shaped my life this far, I need that.

‘Look, Tate, while you’re in this house, you’re safe.’ Her voice softens and it does something to me inside. She cares about me.

‘There’s a someone out there who wants to kill you. You’re safest while you’re– I’m sorry to say it’—she uses her fingers to punctuate the word—‘dead.’

Sudden fear tightens my muscles. I don’t need reminding of our close call yesterday. It brings back last night’s dream, where I was trying to give her mouth-to-mouth in a car full of water before she turned into a rotting corpse and floated away.

‘Tate.’ She turns round to face me, her hip propped against the kitchen counter. With the sun shining through the window, lighting up her hair, she’s so beautiful, but her face is filled with worry. Her expression makes something shift in my chest. I’m not sure many people have actually worried about me for a long time. They might worry about the outcomes of things I do. How I play. Whether I score. But they don’t care about how I feel inside.

‘Something has changed,’ she says and her words are urgent, emotion spilling from them. ‘The previous attempts were loud, attention-grabbing…’ She shakes her head. ‘They were amateur, like they weren’t trying too hard… It’s been bothering me for a while. None of them were that serious.’

‘You are kidding, right? I mean, being ditched in the bayou felt pretty fucking serious to me.’ I’m trying to lighten the horror of it, even though it doesn’t feel real. I’m just a ball player, this is outside my remit.

Lily straightens up and comes to stand beside me, laying a hand on my arm. She sighs. ‘I have to say this because I need to be honest with you, and you wouldn’t thank me for trying to protect you from the truth. With the previous attempts, the peanut-tampering, the firebomb, they left the outcome to luck, to chance, whatever. But yesterday,’ her voice lowers and I can hear the vehemence in her tone, ‘yesterday was different. They meant business. They hung around to finish the job off properly. That was much more ruthless.’

‘Before, I was doing a job, I was making sure you were safe. Going through the motions but…’ She takes my face in her hands and holds it, her bourbon-brown eyes piercing mine.

‘Now I’m scared for you. Someone wants you dead.’

It’s the gesture as much as the words, that catch me at my core. It’s humbling, that she cares so much. I feel the slow tumble of my heart as I fall headlong back in love with her.

‘Lily, it’s okay,’ I tell her, even though I know it isn’t. Someone wants to kill me, and I have no idea who could hate me that much. ‘We can stay put for the time being, but I need to train.’

‘I can help you with that,’ she says and a wicked twinkle lights up her eyes, banishing the previous sombre tone.