Quarterback Sneak (5 page)

He swallowed a groan. The imagery
wasn’t doing much for his self-control. Neither was his desire to strip her
clothes off and lick every inch of her delicious-looking body. He could imagine
her sweet ass beneath that flirty red skirt, his hands itching to cup its
roundness. And the jacket barely counteracted the swelling of her breasts
peeking over the top of the cami.

Jesus! I’m driving myself nuts.

He shifted in his seat, trying to
ease the pressure in his groin.

“Are you okay?” Her voice was edged
with concern. “Why are you twitching around like that?”

“What? I’m not. I mean, I’m fine.”
He slid a glance in her direction and caught her frowning at him. “No scowling.
Only fun today.”

He made a turn into a long
driveway, and Stacy leaned forward in her seat.

“A ranch?” She almost squeaked.
“You took me to a ranch?”

He laughed. “With horses and
everything.”

“Max, I’m hardly dressed for the
country,” she protested.

“You’ll be fine. They won’t expect
you to muck out the stalls or stuff like that. I promise.”

She looked at him as if he was
speaking a strange language. Nevertheless, she let him help her from the car
and lead her toward the barn.

“I don’t think these shoes are made
for walking on gravel.” She wobbled on her high heels.

“No problem. I can fix that.”

Without giving her a chance to
protest, he swept her up into his arms. The feel of her soft body against his
was nearly his undoing. Her breasts were warm and full, even through her
jacket, and her ass fit so nicely in his hand.

“Max?” she prompted.

He realized he had stopped and just
stood there, holding her. Shifting her slightly, he carried her through the
open doorway of the barn. Arnie was giving a final check to the bridle of the
horse hitched to the old-fashioned cab. Beside him, his wife, Josie, grinned
from ear to ear.

“Usually it’s the women trying to
seduce you, Max,” she chuckled.

Stacy tensed in his arms. “You can
put me down,” she said, pushing against his chest.

“Who said anything about seducing?”
He stole a quick kiss then set her on her feet before she could object.

“What are we doing here, anyway?”

“Stacy Halligan, meet Arnie and
Josie Durand.”

“Nice to meet you.” Stacy shook
hands with them. He could hear the confusion in her voice. “Wait. Arnie Durand.
Didn’t you use to play—?”

“With the Warriors.” He nodded.
“That’s where the stud here and I got to be friends.”

“The stud?” She quirked an eyebrow
at him. “Have you been keeping interesting details from me all this time?

Max could feel the red creeping up
his face. “Pay no attention to him. Please. Cut it out, Arnie, okay?”

Around any other female, he would
have reveled in the nickname, but not with Stacy. He had avoided discussing his
sexual exploits with her, not always proud of the way he behaved. Now, it was
even more important for her to get the right impression of him.

“Can I tell her you helped me get
the ranch going after I blew out my knee and couldn’t play anymore?” Arnie
asked.

This time when Stacy faced him,
admiration shone in her eyes. Damn. Better, only he didn’t want hero worship,
either. He wanted her to…to want him. As a man.

“He’s kind of kept an eye on us,”
Josie added. “Even passed the word with all the stud muffins about our Valentine’s
Day deal. The publicity helps promote the ranch.”

“What kind of deal?” Stacy wanted
to know.

Max would have given her the
abbreviated version, anxious to get going, but there was no stopping Josie.

“We mostly breed and train cutting
horses,” the woman said. “Then we got involved with a rescue group. That led to
buying these old-fashioned buggies and—”

“They do special rides for
Valentine’s Day,” Max cut in. “And if they’ll shut up, I can show you what
they’re talking about. Open that door, Arnie.”

Arnie opened the door to the cab
and offered Stacy his hand. She hesitated a moment before stepping up to the
running board.

“Just go with the flow, okay?” Max
said. “I promise you’ll have a good time.” He followed her inside and sat next
to her, his arm pulling her against him.

She inhaled the tantalizing aroma
of his aftershave mixed with his clean male scent and every erogenous zone
pounded with desire.

“I think she’s a keeper, stud.”
Josie chuckled before the woman closed the door.

“We’re good to go,” he called to
Arnie. Then he reached down and pressed a button beneath the seat.

Music began to play softly around
them, mingling with the clopping of the horse’s hooves on the barn floor and
the buggy began to move forward.

Well, he promised me an adventure,
and I guess I’m getting one.

She hoped it involved more of those
drugging kisses
.

Stacy was both bewildered and
enchanted. She could have objected at any time. If she had told Max she didn’t
want to go along with whatever he had planned, she knew he’d have taken her
home again. She was curious, though, about what came next, as well as about his
motive. Maybe she should take Max’s advice and shake up her life a little.
Setting off on a Valentine’s adventure with him offered an enticing way to do
it. Besides, the ride was one of the most romantic things anyone had ever done
for her. And what could she lose except an afternoon at work?

What had prompted this change in
plans? Why was he doing it? An unexpected thread of sexual excitement wiggled
its way through her body.

Ohmigod!

Sex and Max? Was that even
possible?

Still, as the enclosed buggy
jostled along over the terrain, music drifting through the space, the memory of
their kisses kept replaying in her mind. God, the man could certainly kiss. And
that tongue. How would it feel on other parts of her body? Immediately, the
pulse in her cunt throbbed with the intensity of a jungle drum and her nipples
tightened.

Wait a minute!

Again, her brain hit the pause
button.

This is Max! I don’t have sexual
thoughts about my best friend. What’s wrong with me?

What was wrong with her was that,
for the first time in three years, she saw Max as a hot man and wanted to spend
hours fucking him every way possible.
Ohmigod!
Exactly when had that
thought popped into her mind?

It was the damn kisses, she kept
reminding herself. Apparently, they turned her brain into a sponge and her body
into a furnace of sexual desire. Because ever since that first unexpected kiss,
her body had been on full throttle, and the desire to get naked with Max and do
whatever she could think of was becoming an obsession.

February in the Texas Hill Country
could sometimes be very cold. Today, however, a rare warm spell made it more
like fall. Through the cab window, she saw the acres of rolling green dotted
with copses of trees and native shrubbery growing in wild profusion, all bathed
in golden sunlight. Close to the barn, horses romped in the pasture. Now they
were well past that, and the landscape was suddenly dotted with a variety of
wildlife—white tail deer, squirrels, and a variety of birds.

Then Max distracted her, playing
with her hair and stroking the nape of her neck, skimming the line of her jaw.
When he leaned closer and tickled her ear with his tongue, desire raced through
her.

Kisses. I want more of those
kisses.

As if he’d heard her thoughts, Max
turned her face and placed his mouth softly on hers, the touch as feathery as
an angel’s wing, a feather brushing across the surface of her lips. He traced
the seam with the tip of his tongue, coaxing her to open for him. When she did,
he thrust his tongue inside, and the kiss turned hungry and fierce.

So lost in the power of the moment,
she barely noticed when he unbuttoned her jacket and slid one hand up her rib
cage to cup a breast. But when a thumb rasped back and forth over the nipple,
the walls of her pussy began to spasm and heat suffused her body. A tiny
portion of her brain insisted she should back off, move his hand away. Only it
felt so damn good, and the kissing was even better than she remembered.

“Moving too fast for you?” he asked
in a rough voice.

“No.” She could barely get the word
out. She wanted to say if he stopped or slowed down, she’d kill him.

Max gently squeezed her breasts,
and his groan vibrated through her. She danced her tongue over his, loving the
taste of him. Loving his hand on her.

Just do it. Go with it.

So, she gave herself over to the
feelings racing through her.

When his hand left her breast and
coasted down over her hip and thigh to slide beneath her skirt, she widened her
legs to give him better access. For the first time, she regretted wearing
pantyhose to work, but the touch of his fingers pressing the fabric into the
lips of her cunt was even more erotic than if he stroked bare skin.

They were both gasping for breath
when he broke the kiss and cruised his mouth over her cheek and down to her jaw
where he traced a line with his tongue.

“God, you taste delicious.” His
voice was deep and husky. “I’ll bet your pussy tastes even better.”

Oh, God!

Heat speared her, and a new flood
of liquid soaked her crotch.

“Jesus!” he murmured.

Then he slipped his hand free and
brought it to his nose, inhaling her essence before licking his fingers.
Totally turned on by the sight, barely realizing what she was doing, she eased
her hand over his thigh to find the bulge at his groin. Oh, yeah. The hard
thickness of his penis pushed against the fabric and into her palm.

His hand was back beneath her
skirt, rubbing her mound, when the buggy unexpectedly came to a stop and the
music ceased.

Arnie’s voice intruded into the
intimacy of the cab. “We’re here, guys.”

“To be continued,” Max whispered
then stepped out onto the ground.

He held out his hand to her, but
before she could climb down, he swept her up in his arms and pulled her tight
to his body.

“Max!” she laughed. “I can walk.”

“Yeah? How romantic would that be?”
he teased.

Sure Arnie had some idea of what
they’d been doing, she pressed her face to Max’s shoulder to hide her blush.

“It’s all good,” he whispered.

“Where are we?” Her eyes widened as
he carried her toward a rustic log cabin sitting beneath two giant oak trees.

“Line shack,” he told her. “At
least it was ages ago. When this place was a cattle ranch with a lot more
acreage, it offered a stopping place for cowboys riding fence line or out in
storms tending to the cattle.”

“What is it now?”

He set her on her feet on the porch
and swung the door open. “Take a look. What do you think?”

She was speechless. A king bed with
a red satin comforter and piles of pillows sat against a wall of the one-room
cabin. Red and white flowers in large clusters filled two vases, and candles
decked nearly every surface.

“My God!” She could only stare,
trying to take everything in. “Who did all this?”

“Arnie and Josie set it up three
years ago. They rent it out for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, events like
that. Starting next Monday, they’ll do one run every afternoon and one every
evening. Arnie was kind enough to pull it all together right away for me.”

“Does anyone get to stay
overnight?”

He winked at her. “That comes
later.”

“It’s so…so…so….“

“Romantic?” he finished, teasing.

“And then some.”

“Don’t move,” he said. “I’ll be
right back.”

She was still trying to process
everything when he returned to place a large wicker basket on the small dining
table. When he lifted the lid, she saw that it held two bottles of wine,
glasses, and a square box of chocolates.

“They didn’t miss a trick,” she
commented, still trying to catch her breath.

“I promised you wine and chocolates,
right?” He moved away from the table and came to stand in front of her. His
lean fingers sifted through her hair and those midnight blue eyes blazed into
hers.

“You always keep your promises?”
she whispered.

“You bet. This is going to be a
Valentine’s holiday you’ll never forget,” he told her in a gruff voice. “And
it’s only the beginning.”

“Wait,” she said. “What…? Are
you…?“

“You talk too much.” He brushed his
mouth over hers. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this opportunity. I
don’t even know where to start, but the wine and candy are rewards for being a
bad girl.”

“B–bad girl?” Her eyes widened.

“Uh huh.” Tossing his jacket to the
side, he eased hers from her shoulders and slid it down her arms. “Very, very
bad.”

When he tilted her chin up with two
fingers, she expected another of those combustible kisses. Instead, he trailed
his lips down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat, pressing his
tongue at her pulse frantically beating there. He cupped her breasts in his
palms as his tasted the upper swell of her breasts. She shook as he teased her
with wet kisses and his fingers before, with a quick movement, he pulled the
cami over her head.

“Gorgeous,” he murmured as he
sucked her nipples hard, one at a time, through the filmy fabric of her bra.
Then he bit each one, lightly.

Her legs were so weak she didn’t
know how much longer she could stand. As if sensing it, Max walked her
backwards to the bed and eased her down on it, all the while laving circles on
her bare neck and shoulders.

“Don’t move,” he told her, kneeling
in front of her.

He slipped each shoe off, set them
aside then, lifting each foot, placed a kiss on the arch. A shiver raced over
her skin. He took a moment to open the front clasp of her bra, easing it down
her arms and shifting so he could tug it away. Then, sliding his hands beneath
her skirt, he reached up for the waist of her pantyhose and very slowly rolled
them down, over hips and thighs and ankles, until he could discard the garment.