Bigger Than Beckham (18 page)

Martha couldn’t hold back a squeak when Tony
swooped down and caught her lower lip between his teeth, giving it
a little nip. Then he gentled, soothing her with a smooth sweep of
his tongue across her lips as his big hands, the palms slightly
roughened, brushed down her bare arms. She shivered, her eyelids
falling shut as she took in the taste and scent of chocolate and
hot, sexy male. God, he smelled good, with just a hint of bracing
aftershave and the clean scent of a warm summer day.

And the feel of him, skin against skin, his
mouth playing with hers as his fingers traced little patterns on
her shoulders. Whimpering with pleasure, she pressed against his
hard body, silently urging him to pull her tight against him.
Martha was tall and had the toned body of a professional athlete,
but plastered along the length of his impressive physique she felt
both feminine and oddly fragile. He touched her as if she was as
delicate as a piece of spun glass, his hands whispering up and down
her arms as he tasted her in a leisurely, maddening fashion.

Martha did
not
want gentle. Not right
now.

She wriggled against him, pushing into the
erection that felt huge through the layers of fabric between them.
That pulled a moan sounding more like a growl from the depths of
his throat, and she drew his pleasure in as she slid her arms
around his neck. Her nipples, already stiff and starting to ache,
pressed into the wall of his chest. She gasped and dug her fingers
into his shoulders, loving the zing of excitement that shot
straight between her legs.

Tony broke the kiss, holding her slightly
away with fingertips that pressed hard into her flesh. Martha gazed
up at him, panting. The narrow, feral look in his eyes, the dark
bronze of the flush across his cheekbones, hit her like a freight
train and made everything inside go into melt-down.

“Fuck, Martha,” he growled. “Are we going to
do this right here? I’m about ten seconds away from ripping off
your clothes and shagging you senseless.”

His hot, crude words had a double impact,
both rattling her nerves and sending her desire for him sky high.
As she stared up at him, lust blazed in his gaze, overwhelming and
barely contained. But she saw a warning there, too.

“Are you sure you want this?” he asked,
putting words to his look. “Because once I start, I’m not into
stopping.”

He leaned down and nuzzled her temple,
breathing her in. Then he moved to her ear, giving the lobe a quick
little bite.

“And you won’t want me to stop either,” he
whispered when she let out a startled gasp. “So be sure, Martha.
Because once we begin we won’t be turning back.”

She swallowed hard, trying to reassert a bit
of control. “Pretty sure of yourself aren’t you, big guy? Or are
you afraid you can’t handle me?”

His eyes narrowed to glittering black slits.
“I can handle anything you throw my way, babe. But I want you to be
absolutely sure you want this as much as I do.”

She clutched at his shoulders, peering up at
him. In the physical sense, he had to realize she wanted him as
much as he obviously wanted her. But she knew he was asking the
deeper question, warning her that this could change everything
between them and make both their lives a lot more complicated. But
of course she’d known that before she’d begun her reckless
seduction, just as she’d known how he would respond. What she
hadn’t anticipated was Tony stepping back and giving her a chance
to rethink it.

Or, put another way, to take responsibility
for her actions.

Brother.
She was
so
sick and
tired of being responsible.

A teasing smile split his sensual mouth.
“It’s not a math problem, love. Just tell me what you want.”

Martha let out a choked laugh. “I think you
should be able to figure out exactly what I want.” She pressed into
him, rubbing her belly against his cock, just to see how far she
could push him.

His hands slid from her shoulders and skated
down her back, cupping her bottom. “I hear you loud and clear,” he
murmured as he lifted her against him. He nudged gently, pressing
the width of his erection right against her sweet spot. “I just
wanted to make sure.”

“Oh, God,” she gasped, trying to open her
legs a bit more so she could feel all of that tempting length
pressing against her inner lips. Damn her tight skirt! It had
seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she couldn’t wait to
get it off. “Tony, please. You’re driving me crazy.”

He laughed again, a dark, husky note that
shivered across her skin. “Slow down, Martha. Don’t forget, this is
our first kiss. We don’t want to blow past the opening
whistle.”

Oh, God.
He was right. They’d barely
even kissed, and she was practically begging him to do her—in her
stadium suite no less, which had to count as one of the crazier
things she’d ever contemplated doing. He must think she was a
complete tramp even though she was anything but. She hadn’t had a
boyfriend in over a year, and not even a date for months.

Which was probably one reason why she was so
desperate to have him all over her, and inside her, too.

She was about to apologize for rushing him
when he shifted, leaning her back over his arm. Her breasts thrust
up, nipples hard against the light cotton of her shirt. That fact
didn’t escape him since his gaze dropped there for a few seconds,
hot and intent.

“Yeah, those are very fucking nice,” he
murmured. “I’ll get to them in a minute.”

Martha had never been much for dirty talk,
but Tony certainly had a way with salty words of both the American
and British varieties.

But any quip she might have made in response
died when he took her mouth in a demanding kiss. He sure as hell
wasn’t in a hurry, letting things go hot and wet as he plundered
her mouth with a slow, evocative pressure. She had to clutch at his
biceps to keep her balance, even though the muscled arm across her
back kept her in place. Good thing, too. Tony kissed like a man who
knew his business, wrapping his entire body around her as his mouth
consumed hers. Long, slow kisses, with deep glides of his tongue
that turned her mind to cotton candy.

And her body into melted butter. If they
didn’t get their clothes off ASAP, she just might have an orgasm
simply from kissing him. Well, that and the fact that she was
writhing against him like as polecat in heat, eager for the feel of
his hard length between her thighs. But another part of her didn’t
want the kiss to end. It was so inexpressibly tender despite their
spiraling desire. Tony’s hard body surrounded her and yet his hands
were gentle as he held her securely. When one hand came up under
her chin, tilting her face to find an even deeper, more intimate
taste, unexpected tears welled in her eyes. The loneliness she’d
been struggling with for so long almost overwhelmed her.

Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she forced
the vulnerability away, refusing to acknowledge it. She would not,
could
not be vulnerable to him, at least not
emotionally.

Physically—now that was another matter.

Finally, when his dominating kiss had her
shaking with a combination of frazzled, eager nerves and insane
lust, Tony drew back. Martha sucked in a huge breath, trying to get
her head to stop spinning.

“Christ,” he muttered, sounding kind of
awestruck. “That was a damn fine first kiss.”

“I’ll say,” Martha replied in a dazed voice.
Hell, it was the best first kiss she’d ever had. But she wanted a
lot more where that came from, preferably when they were both naked
and he was on top of her. Given how she felt at this moment, a kiss
under those circumstances would be cataclysmic.

And she could hardly wait.

“Let’s say we get some of these clothes off.”
Impatiently, she tugged his jacket from his shoulders.

He let out a husky laugh, glancing at the
wide window that overlooked the field. “No one can see us, right?
No wankers with binoculars and long lenses? Because a picture like
that would give the sports pages something to gossip about. Not to
mention your sponsors.”

Martha finally wrestled his sports coat from
his arms and tossed it in the direction of a chair. “As long as we
aren’t right at the windows, we’ll be fine. In fact,” she said,
stepping away from him, “why don’t we take this to the couch? That
way we’ll be completely safe.”

As she slowly backed away from him, she
pulled her blouse from her waistband and began slipping the buttons
free. His eyes flared with heat as he tracked her, but he stood his
ground, leaning against the table as he crossed his arms over his
chest.

“Ready to enjoy the show?” she asked in a
sultry voice.

“Baby, you have no idea.”

She teased him, taking her time, reveling in
the heat building between them. She slipped her blouse free,
letting it drop from her shoulders. His eyes went black and smoky
as he took in what she wore underneath—a pale pink bra, mostly lace
with just a few silk straps to hold it together. Martha didn’t have
large breasts but she’d always thought they had a nice shape. And
the cute little number she wore had a nice way of showcasing what
she had—thank you, Victoria’s Secret—a fact made evident by the
tight-lipped expression on Tony’s face. He looked like a man pushed
to the edge of his control.

Fun!

“You like?” she asked.

He visibly swallowed. “Damn,” was all he
managed in his rasping, sensual voice.

Martha couldn’t help preening a bit as she
reached up to take the clip from her loose bun, lifting her breasts
high as she let her hair cascade around her shoulders. Tony Branch
might
think
he could control what was happening between
them, but she had every intention of proving him wrong.

When she reached for the zipper on her skirt,
ready to tease him with a drawn-out strip tease, Tony finally
moved, so fast it was just a blur of motion.

“Let me do that,” he growled, grasping her by
the waist and spinning her around. She gasped as his big, hard body
plastered her from head to toe, nudging her over to the wall.

“Put your hands on the wall, Martha.”

The dark, erotic tone of his voice sparked a
little quiver of trepidation deep inside her as he reasserted
control.

“What are you doing?” Her breathless voice
betrayed that she was suddenly unsure of herself.

He took her hands and placed them on the
wall, pressing his mouth gently to the side of her neck at the same
time. “I’m helping you get undressed, babe. Just relax and enjoy
it. I’ll take care of you.”

Martha shivered again, but this time from a
building anticipation. Yes, this was a bit outside her comfort zone
and, yes, she couldn’t help a frisson of worry that Tony might be
more than she could handle. But she believed him to be a man of his
word—if he said he’d take care of her, then he would.

Sighing, she let her head fall back to rest
on his shoulder. He whispered his approval as his hands slid under
her arms to cup her breasts. His callused fingertips squeezed her
nipples, gently pulling them into hard, tight points. A moan
escaped from her throat as she arched into him.

“Oh, yeah,” he purred, “those are gorgeous.”
He pulled down the cups to expose the soft flesh. “I bet you’d like
me to suck on them, wouldn’t you?”

If she hadn’t been nearly out of her mind
with lust, she would have rolled her eyes. “Is that a rhetorical
question?” she gasped.

“Just checking. I want to make sure I satisfy
your
every
need.” He cupped a hand around each breast,
squeezing gently.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing.” She
ground back against his pelvis. In this position, his erection rode
right between the curves of her bottom, feeling huge and hot and
temptingly hard.

Tony pulled in a hissing breath. “I’ll pay
more attention to your pretty tits later. Right now, I want to get
you out of this skirt.”

She blinked, surprised at how turned on she
was by his earthy talk and his dominating manner. She’d had a few
pretty spectacular lovers in the past, but she couldn’t remember
losing control of the situation quite like this. In fact, Martha
didn’t like giving up control at all, and when in bed with a man
she’d always made sure to hold a little piece of herself
back—through humor, if nothing else. When things got too intense,
she tended to snap off a joke or take control of the situation by
using her skills and looks to reduce her lover to putty in her
hands.

But with Tony…well, she seemed to be losing a
handle on things in a big way. And, God help her, she loved every
second of it. That should be scaring the crap out of her, and
tomorrow it probably would. Right now, though, she’d rather jump
off a cliff than have him stop what he was doing to her.

Deftly, his fingers slid to the side zip of
her skirt, flicking open the concealed button and then easing the
zipper down. The skirt didn’t have a lot of give, so he took his
time sliding it down over her butt. Finally, he helped her step out
of it, holding her steady as she balanced first on one foot and
then the other.

“Have I told you how much I like your fuck-me
shoes?” he asked.

Martha let out a startled laugh, glancing
over her shoulder. “Those are Jimmy Choo sandals, you cretin. I’ll
have you know they cost quite a pretty penny, even on sale.”

He gave her a lascivious smile. “I just like
the way they make your legs and ass look. And I must say,” he said,
pushing her gently away from him and forcing her to lean into the
wall, “you have a truly spectacular ass.”

Martha went willingly, resting her cheek on
the cool, smooth wall as his hands shaped the globes of her bottom.
Excitement curled low in her belly as he kneaded and squeezed,
growling his appreciation as he played with her. Then he slipped
his fingers under the narrow fabric of her thong and traced the
line of her cleft, between her thighs, sliding forward to cup her
damp nest of curls. She moaned when a fingertip brushed over her
clit, and she pressed back to deepen the contact.