FOUR
GAVIN STOOD IN THE
BOX AND READIED FOR THE BALL, studying the pitcher’s stance, trying
to figure out what he was going to throw. The pitcher wound up,
threw, and Gavin swung the bat. Wood connected and the ball soared
into the outfield.
It felt good to
swing the bat again, to feel the power. He liked seeing the
baseball disappear deep into center field.
It was only
practice, but as he took a few more swipes, his muscles loosening
under the Florida heat and humidity, he felt the typical
anticipation of the upcoming season.
By October he was
dead tired, burned out, and desperate for a break. By February he
was eager to get started again, ready to play the game. Every
season it was like this.
He loved baseball.
It had been in his blood since he was five years old and his father
had stuck a bat in his hand and pitched him his first ball to hit.
Something about seeing that ball skip across the dirt and through
Mick’s legs or over Jenna’s head had made him feel a sense of
accomplishment he couldn’t get anywhere else. And all through
T-ball and Little League, and in high school and college, he knew
there was only thing he wanted to do with his life.
Play baseball.
Because he was damn good at it.
After his turn at
the plate, he grabbed his glove and went to his position at first
base to shag grounders and work on his fielding.
They were having a
scrimmage with Tampa Bay today. Warmups were finished and Tampa
Bay’s batters were up first, so Gavin stayed at first base. Wasn’t
even an official preseason game, but it was a game, and damn he was
ready.
While the pitcher
warmed up, he glanced into the stands and saw Elizabeth sitting in
the second row on the first baseline. Sunglasses shielded her eyes.
She wore her hair up, as usual, but she at least wore a sleeveless
blouse and those pant things that came up to her calves. Capri
pants. That’s what she’d called them when she got dressed this
morning.
And high heels. He
shook his head.
She was on the phone
talking to someone, and her face was buried in her laptop, typing
away at something.
In other words, she
wasn’t paying attention. Not even when the announcer called batter
up and the crowds applauded loudly.
She might as well
have stayed at the house for all the attention she paid to the
game.
Gavin focused his
attention on the batter, who struck out. Gavin rolled his shoulders
and got into position, bending over and readying for whatever might
happen. Batter two hit a grounder toward first base. Gavin scooped
it up and touched the base before the runner was halfway down the
line.
Two
outs.
Third batter popped
up in right field.
It was time for
Gavin’s team to bat. Gavin waited in the dugout, since he was third
in the lineup. Jose batted first since he had a good average, was
fast, and could steal bases. He hit a grounder just past the
shortstop and got on base. Dave popped up so Jose had to hold at
first base, which brought Gavin up to bat. He stood at the plate
and held at the first pitch, too high. Second pitch looked low and
inside, but the umpire called it a strike. Third pitch was right
down the middle and Gavin swung. It dropped in front of the left
fielder, and Gavin ran for first. Jose, one fast motherfucker,
ended up at third.
Gavin took a quick
glance at the seats. Elizabeth still had her head buried in her
laptop, not paying attention to the game.
He was irritated by
how much it irritated him. So she wasn’t watching. What difference
did it make? She was his agent and they were fucking. It wasn’t
like she mattered to him or anything.
Focus back on the
game, he got into running position and stepped off the base when
Dedrick came up to bat. As their cleanup hitter, Dedrick was a
powerhouse with a bat and held the team home-run record. Gavin
leaned right.
First pitch was a
strike. Second was in the dirt, but the catcher smothered it,
saving a run. Dedrick got a piece of the third pitch but sent it
behind him into the stands, foul. He connected on the fourth pitch
and let it sail over the left field wall for a home run. Hell yeah.
All Gavin had to do was make a slow trek around the
bases.
As Gavin made his
way to homeplate, despite the fans wild cheering, Elizabeth didn’t
once look up.
Dammit.
They ended up
winning the practice game seven to two. Gavin showered, talked to
the press, and signed a few autographs. Elizabeth met him at the
dugout when he was finished.
“Next time I need to
bring a hat. The sun is hot,” she said as they walked to his
car.
“Did you enjoy the
game?”
“Yeah. It was
great.”
As if she had any
idea. “What was the final score?”
She tilted her
sunglasses down her nose. “Seven to two. You won and you scored
twice. You’re crowding the plate a little, though. You need to step
back, or someone’s going to bean you in the head.”
Huh. So maybe she
was paying attention.
He opened her door
for her and she slid in. He tossed his gear in the trunk, feeling
stupid for being mad. He slammed the trunk door and got in the car,
started it up and headed back to the house.
When they got
inside, Elizabeth went into the kitchen. “You want something to
drink?”
“A beer would be
good.”
He went outside and
sat on the porch. She brought out two bottles of beer. He twisted
the top off both, handed one back to her.
“Don’t really see
you as a beer drinker,” he said as she took a seat on the
swing.
She took a long
swig. “You don’t know all that much about me, Gavin.”
“True enough. Why
don’t you tell me?”
“I’m not really here
for you to delve into my background, am I? I’m here because you
want to fuck me. So let’s just leave it at that.”
He’d hit a nerve.
Something she didn’t want him to know about. But she was right. He
didn’t know much about her other than she’d started working for one
of the top sports agencies right out of college, apprenticed with
one of the best agents, and pushed her way into getting her own
clients by the time she was twenty-three. Right off the bat she’d
signed some pretty impressive figures. Since then she’d picked up a
portfolio of some of the best the sports world had to offer in a
wide variety of sports—athletes from football, baseball, hockey,
basketball, tennis, and NASCAR. She was known as an agent and
public relations magician, and she was highly sought after.
Athletes came to her, not the other way around.
But losing someone
as high profile as Mick had hurt her, put a dent in her
credibility. He wondered how much.
Actually, he
wondered a lot about her, realized he knew nothing about her
personal life at all. He’d never bothered to ask.
“Where did you grow
up, Elizabeth?”
She didn’t answer
right away, instead took a long swallow of beer.
“Arkansas.”
His brows rose.
“Really? For some reason I thought you grew up in the
East.”
“You thought
wrong.”
He sat on the chair
across from the swing and tipped his beer to his lips. “Where in
Arkansas?”
“A small town. You
wouldn’t even recognize the name if I told you.”
“You’re a small-town
girl? I never would have believed it. You have big city written all
over you.”
“People can change
who they are, reinvent themselves.”
“Is that what you
did?”
She lifted her gaze
to his. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to
get away from the girl who grew up in Arkansas and become someone
else.”
“Who were you back
then that was so bad?”
“I don’t want to
talk about this, Gavin.”
She swirled her
thumb over the top of the bottle. It was obvious she was
uncomfortable talking about her past. But something made him
push.
“Why not? Everything
we are today is partly due to who we were back then. I want to know
about you.”
“Why? Why does it
matter? We’re just fucking. You don’t need to know
me.”
“We’re not just
fucking. We’re talking. We’re spending time together.”
She laid the bottle
down and came over to him, leaned against him and smoothed her hand
down his arm. “I’d rather just fuck.”
He could push her to
answer his questions. She’d cave eventually. But her scent was hot
and sexy, and her breasts were pressed against his chest, and okay,
they were just fucking. He didn’t know why he was curious about her
past.
Right now he was
curious how far she was willing to go to make him forget the
questions he wanted to ask about her.
She smoothed her
hands down his arms and over his chest. “I love the way you feel,
Gavin, the way you smell.” She raised up and pressed her lips to
his neck, so she could stroke her tongue across his throat. His
pulse kicked up a fast beat. He liked her mouth and he wasn’t a
passive kind of guy, so he swept his hand behind her head and
kissed her, tasting beer and mint.
The late afternoon
sun beat down on his back. Sweat gathered and slid down his spine,
but he wasn’t about to move, not when he had a beautiful, sexy
woman sliding her hand into his shorts and winding her fingers
around his hard cock.
It was still
daylight, but there was plenty of privacy on the deck, especially
since he’d pulled the shades down on the sides, leaving only the
front visible. And with him shielding Elizabeth and the beach a
hundred yards away, someone would have to come up to the porch to
see what was going on.
Not that he much
cared since she had a stranglehold on his cock and was stroking him
with deliberate intent.
“You trying to kill
me?” he asked, his gaze riveted to the motions of her
hand.
“No, not kill you.”
She stroked and squeezed, and it took every ounce of strength he
had to stay upright. “Make you my slave, maybe.”
It was working. He’d
do anything for her right now. Time to even the odds.
He unbuttoned her
blouse and pulled it aside, revealing a light pink bra with lace
across the top. He traced the lace with the tip of his finger,
slowly, watching her breasts rise as her breath caught and
held.
“Now who’s trying to
kill who here?” she asked.
He swept his thumbs
over her nipples, the silk material unable to hide the hard bud
from his questing fingers. But what he really wanted was to feel
the softness of her flesh under his hands. He flicked the clasp of
her bra, and the cups sprang free so he could fill his hands with
her breasts. She pushed her breasts against him, her nipples hard
as she rubbed them across his palms. He slid his thumbs over the
nipples, and she backed away, out of breath, then dipped her hands
under his shirt, snaking her fingers over his belly and
chest.
He held on to the
railing of the deck and watched her, her shirt blowing in the wind.
She seemed not to care that her breasts were exposed. And he sure
as hell didn’t care; in fact, he loved the view of her hard pink
nipples and her perky round breasts.
She lifted his shirt
off and threw it on the chair, leaned in and licked around one of
his nipples. He sucked in a breath because it made his dick twitch,
so she slid her tongue over the other and flicked her tongue over
his nipple until it was hard and he was trying damn hard not to
squirm. She seemed to know exactly how that got to him. Not that he
was complaining, because he liked her mouth on him.
And when she dipped
down to a crouched position, taking his shorts with her as she
bent, he drew in a deep breath. He took a quick glance behind him.
He could see people playing in the water in the distance, but no
one seemed to be paying attention to what was happening on his
deck.
Good, because
Elizabeth dropped to her knees, grabbed his cock, and flicked her
tongue over the swollen head.
He ached for her
mouth, anticipated when she’d put her lips around him, but he liked
seeing her pretty pink tongue lick around his cock head. She
dragged her tongue along the underside of his shaft, then wrapped
her hand around him and stroked, lifting his cock to lick his
balls.
God, he liked
watching her play with him, especially when she licked his shaft
from stem to stern and put her lips around the head of his cock,
lifted up, and took him inside.
The heat of her
mouth was intense, and when she pressed down, squeezing his cock
head between her tongue and the roof of her mouth, he thought he
was going to explode right then. She flicked her tongue over the
crest, then dragged her tongue along the underside of his shaft,
letting him feel every slow inch being pulled deeper into her
mouth.
This slow play made
sweat drip down his back. He wished he had a camera so he could
take a movie of her mouth on his dick, her tongue darting out to
circle his cock head before she swallowed him whole
again.
Gavin gripped the
deck rail, pushing his hips forward to shove more of his cock
between her lips. She reached out and grasped the base of his shaft
and held him, squeezed him, pumping his cock between her lips and
sucking him hard until he felt the stirrings of orgasm. He held
back, beads of sweat dripping down his brow. He wanted to prolong
the sensation. But when she swirled her hands over his cock, then
pumped him within her tight fist and shoved his cock deep into her
mouth and took him all the way to the back of her throat, he
couldn’t hold back.
He reached down and
held her hair in his hand, tilting her head back.
“I’m going to come
in your mouth, Elizabeth.”
She let his cock pop
from between her lips and smiled up at him, licked the wide crest
of his cock head, then slid his shaft into her mouth
again.
Christ, she was
beautiful, her lips swollen from sucking him, her eyes glazed over
with passion. He grasped the back of her head and shoved inside her
mouth, making her take all of him as his orgasm tunneled through
him in a rush. She shifted and met his gaze and pressed her lips
around him, swallowing as he let out a groan and erupted. He
tightened his hold on her hair and held her there as he emptied
everything he had, his legs shaking the entire time.
Elizabeth licked the
head of his cock and released him. He tugged up his shorts, drew
her to a standing position, and pulled her against him, her bare
breasts sticking to his sweaty chest. He held her, kissed her,
tasting himself on her lips and tongue.
He turned her
around, placed her against the railing, and snaked his fingers
between her breasts, watching her nipples pucker. Her breathing
picked up as he bent and captured one bud between his lips, sucking
it between his teeth to nibble.
She tangled her
fingers in his hair, her soft moans driving him to suck harder, to
tease one nipple between his fingers while he licked the
other.
She held on to the
railing while he dropped down onto his knees on the deck,
unbuttoning her pants and sliding them down to her ankles,
revealing a wisp of pink silk that matched her bra. He took his
time gazing up at her, loving the half-dressed look and the breeze
whipping strands of her hair across her cheeks.
He ran his fingers
up her legs, slipping his fingers across the dampened silk of her
panties. He swept his thumb over the hard bud of her clit, felt her
legs shake as she thrust her pussy at him.
“You’re hot here.
Wet.”
She stared down at
him. “You made me that way. Sucking you turns me on.”
His cock thrust
against his shorts, already hard again, eager to slide between her
legs and fuck her until they both came. But he restrained himself
because what he really wanted was to taste her, to slide his tongue
between the soft folds of her sex and feel her body come
apart.
He raised up, pulled
her panties aside, and pressed his mouth to her pussy.
“Ohhh.”
Elizabeth lifted
against him, pressing her sex against his mouth, feeding him the
softness of her. She tasted like tart honey, hot and sweet. The
sounds coming from her as he made a slow glide with his tongue only
ratcheted up his need to make this good for her—as good as she’d
made it for him.
He tucked his tongue
inside her pussy, fucked her with it and felt her legs
quiver.
Oh,
yeah.
“Gavin,” she cried
out, and he tilted his head back, watching his redheaded goddess
with her hair wild from the wind, her shirt flying out, and her
breasts exposed to his view. Her legs were parted, and her pussy
glistened from his mouth and her own desire.
She was beautiful
when open to him this way, giving him everything,
unrestrained.
He slipped a finger
inside her pussy and swiped his tongue over her sex, lingering at
her clit.
“Oh,” she said,
tilting her head down to watch him. “Yes. Fuck me with your
fingers, Gavin. Make me come.”
He loved watching
her let go, loved seeing her so turned on and near the edge that
she told him exactly what she needed. Her eyes were glazed over,
deep in passion, and he knew all she was thinking about was
climaxing. That’s exactly where he wanted her—poised on the edge
and ready to fly.
He circled the bud
with his tongue, then put his lips over her clit, put two fingers
inside her pussy, and started to pump fast, watching her face as
she came.
She was beautiful
when she was in orgasm, an almost-pained expression on her face as
she rocked her pussy against him and shuddered all over, her
breasts rising and falling as she panted and reached down, grabbing
his hair and holding him in place as the waves rolled over
her.
When she finally
settled, he rose and took her mouth, reaching into his pocket for a
condom and sheathing himself, then entering her. She cried out as
he drove inside her, felt her tighten around him as she wrapped her
arms around him and kissed him deeply.
He grabbed her hair
and held her while he pumped hard and fast. She was still spasming
from her orgasm, the convulsions squeezing his cock in a
stranglehold of sensation. Her tongue wrapped around his, and he
sucked on it, needing to come inside her, wanting her to go off
again. When he heard her whimper, he knew she was ready again, and
he powered up inside her and held, then rocked against her until
she splintered.
He went with her
this time, losing himself inside her heat, kissing her as he came
until they were both shaking, breathless and wet with sweat from
their efforts.
“It’s hot out here,”
he said when he pulled away. “How about a swim?”
She laughed, pulling
her pants up. “Sounds good to me.”
They threw on their
swimsuits and ran into the ocean, which felt damn good after the
heated fires they’d just been through. And even more, she surprised
him. She didn’t mind getting her hair wet, couldn’t care less that
her makeup ran in rivers down her face. In fact when he mentioned
it, she didn’t turn around to swipe at the mess under her eyes.
Instead, she laughed it off and splashed water at him.
He hadn’t expected
that of her. She was always well dressed, her hair
flawless—everything about her perfect. In the ocean her hair fell
over her eyes, and she kind of resembled a drowned
rat.
And she didn’t seem
to care at all.
There was a lot
about Elizabeth that was totally unpredictable.
And she’d given him
one hell of a blow job to keep him from finding out more about
her.
He wondered what she
was hiding.
Time to up the
stakes in this game he was playing and see if he could get a little
truth from her.