Player's Ultimatum (9 page)

“I’l have to think about it Lucia. The team’s twice a day practices don’t make me good company of late.” Paulo chucked her under the chin. “But when things slow down, you wil be the first person I’ll cal .”

“Promise?”

Paolo almost rolled his eyes. “You’re at the top of my list,” he reassured without locking himself into a promise he knew he wouldn’t keep.

To Paolo’s relief his assurance was enough because she turned around and headed back to the lobby. Having successful y charmed her, Paulo slipped inside the locker room, the one place she wouldn’t fol ow. Stil , he waited ten minutes before he changed into a pair of black swim trunks.

Opening the door to the main bath, Paolo prayed Lucia wasn’t lurking about ready to pounce. Greeted by an empty hal way, he breathed a sigh of relief. He hated scenes especial y with women. Paolo might be selfish, but he wasn’t an asshole.

As expected the main pool wasn’t heavily populated. Most Romans didn’t come to soak in the bathhouse’s therapeutic waters until the end of the workday. Stil , Paolo avoided it. He wouldn’t be able to relax in the main pool. Instead of soothing his sore muscles, he’d be bombarded with questions, unsolicited strategy for the next game and even criticism on how he captained the team.

A creature of habit, Paolo headed for his favorite alcove. At the end of the hal , the room’s peace and tranquility couldn’t be interrupted by foot traffic or curiosity hounds. After checking the room’s occupancy, he stepped inside and kicked off his flip-flops. He walked over to the room’s private sauna, but paused midway. The room wasn’t vacant as he’d first thought, a woman floated in the middle of the
tepidarium
.

Curious, Paulo edged closer. Stretched out like a sacrifice to the gods, and unashamedly topless, she barely breached the water’s surface. Gently rounded in al the right places, her brown skin glowed amidst an outline of pale green water. Her feet were tiny and topped off with pale nail polish. Not seeing any visible corns or bunions, Paulo mental y checked that off his list.

An admitted foot man, her feet were definitely lickable.

Moving up her body, his eyes caressed the outline of her toned thighs and rounded hips. The V between her legs and her lower bel y would be a perfect pil ow for his head.

Her breast with their chocolate-tipped nipples weren’t any less perfect. They could fil a man’s hands and then some. Paulo’s bal s tightened and his cock hardened.
What was new?
A beautiful woman always flipped his cock’s power switch.

Seeking safer ground, his gaze rose to the woman’s face. Like a kick to the gut, he almost doubled over. His brown goddess was none other than Robbie Gutierrez’s fiancé.

Was she alone?
She better be!

Hackles rising from jealousy, his gaze ransacked the room. Noting only one robe hung next to the sauna door, Paolo coaxed the beast in him to come to heel. His cock remained ramrod stiff, but at least he didn’t want to rip someone’s head off!

Embarrassed, Paolo adjusted his dick, only making his arousal jut up and out like Rio’s Sugar Loaf Mountain. If he couldn’t stem this hard on what would? There was no way he was leaving, but he couldn’t come off like a rutting animal. Not yet anyway.

Grinning wickedly, Paolo slipped into the pool, his careless entry sloshing waves over his brown goddesses’ sleek form. As he leaned back against the pool’s edge, he eyes shot open and she struggled to come to her feet, her arms flailing wildly.

To Paolo’s horror, she sunk to the bottom of the pool.

*****

One moment she was floating on the pool’s surface, the next fighting for her life and al because her solitude had been broken by someone else entering the pool.

Shocked by the intrusion, while topless no less, she’d lost her equilibrium and sank to the bot om of the pool.

Head and chest burning, Yvonne sought purchase on the pool’s bot om then pushed up. Clearing the surface, she gasped for air, but ended up sputtering and coughing on the warm salt water in her lungs.

Disoriented, her instinctual need to survive kicked in and she grabbed for something solid to keep her afloat. Instead of the side of the pool, she clung to the arms suddenly wrapping around her. She was safe! Yvonne laid her head against her savior’s shoulder. She was so relieved she almost giggled at the fact she almost drowned in a very large bathtub.

Her good humor was short lived.

To Yvonne’s horror, the arms wrapped around her belonged to a man, a very tal man considering her feet barely skimmed his knees. Suddenly remembering her nakedness, she pushed away from the arms holding her up. And in her panic, she plummeted to the bot om of the pool again.

Thankful y, the very same person, who stil had their arms around her naked torso, came to her rescue. Yvonne tried to disentangle herself from the man’s embrace, but he held her firmly against him, crushing her breasts against his forearm.

“Be stil , I’m not going to hurt you.”

Yvonne went as limp as a rag doll, barely moving a muscle. Not out of obedience, but due to a strange sense of déjà vu creeping over her, affecting her precarious equilibrium.

It couldn’t be him!
Yet deep down, she knew only one sultry, accented voice that had the ability to make her melt and lose al of her common sense. Stealing herself, she glanced over her shoulder and found herself face-to-face with Paolo Saito.

Drops of water ran down his neck and onto his chest. Despite her better judgment, Yvonne fol owed one of the droplets as it slowly slipped down his throat, the valley of his breast bone, to the ridges of his six pack abs. She looked away before she decided to go in after it.

“Be careful, Yvonne. If you’re going to check me out, I expect the same courtesy.” A mixture of embarrassment and self-directed anger ripped through Yvonne’s body, stealing her ability to speak. Sputtering, she clamped her hands over his and shoved.

“Why are you spoiling al the fun?” He asked, cocking his head to the side and sporting a shit-eating smirk that lifted the corner of his very kissable mouth. “I quite like having you in my arms.”
Was that water in her ears or had his voice dropped an octave and sounded sexier?
As if that was actual y possible, she mused as her mind suddenly drifted south. Her curiosity piqued by the bulge pressing into her backside. Bad move under the circumstances. Was that an anaconda in his swim trunks or was he just happy to see her?

Like a catalyst, his arousal awakened hers. Her belly started to churn and her sex tingled with need. Unsettled by her below-the-belt musings and her body’s response, Yvonne kicked away from him, using his thighs for a springboard. Hopeful y the distance would diminish the inexhaustible sexual charge ping ponging between them. Anymore heat and she’d spontaneously combust.

Taken by surprise, Paolo let her go. Quickly putting some distance between them, she bobbed toward the center of the pool.

Before turning around to face him, she clamped her arms over her breast.

“
Tsk
…
tsk
…why al the false modesty. We’re both adults here. And I’m yours for the taking,” he said, opening his arms wide.

Like warm bronze poured over muscle, Paolo Saito’s body called for a hands-on exploration. If he would have been anyone else, she’d be sorely tempted to take him up on his offer. She’d start with tracing the smooth contours of his broad shoulders and chest. Then fol ow that with trailing her fingertips over the tapered lines of his lean waist and hips. She’d dip her hands inside the waist band of his trunks and squeeze his firm…

Yvonne squeezed her eyes shut. What was she doing? Losing my damn mind, she surmised. Before she did something she’d surely regret Yvonne searched for the exit ladder. Paolo stood in the center of the pool blocking her path. If she wanted to get out, she would have to climb over the side of the pool, giving him an undeserving eye ful .

Silently, Yvonne weighed her options and the feelings he evoked by just looking at her or uttering her name. Since one route didn’t involve her repenting in the morning, the debate was short lived. With the water swirling around her like warm molasses, she turned around.

“Don’t leave, Yvonne.”

Three simple words and he cracked her resolve.

*****

Paolo watched her lean into the pool wal and then hesitate. Seeing this as an opening in the wal she’d erected between them, he swam over and placed his hands on either side of hers. With only a few inches separating them, he smelled her citrus-scented shampoo. Afraid she might bolt at any second, he resisted the urge to bury his face in the silky wet locks. Instead he inched closer, stopping short of touching her. Paolo groaned. The heat, rolling off of her, weakened his knees and made his cock harder than a lead pipe.

“Don’t leave,” he implored barely above a whisper.

Paulo’s eyes widened. He’d done the unthinkable. He asked, no, more like begged a woman to stay. He hadn’t lowered himself to this level in over six years, not since Gia. She’d stil walked out the door, leaving him because he wasn’t good enough, rich enough.

Unfortunately, his past didn’t lessen his desire to see her stay. His desire for her was just too great. Impatient and bolstered by her silence, Paulo reached out and tilted her chin up. It was an awkward position, the end result would be the same as he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.

Pressing his advantage, he used his tongue to slide between her lips. A moan exploded at the back of his throat. She tasted sweeter than he could have imagined!

Of course, he’d planned on a slow exploration, a long overdue lesson to prove she wasn’t as indifferent to him as she pretended to be. Unfortunately, the dynamic of the kiss changed when her tongue met his and matched his fervor.

Something inside of him flared, like a Roman candle on New Year’s, and his seduction no longer had quite the same purpose.

He yearned to possess her. No pretenses. No more games. He wanted her all to himself.

Just the thought of her belonging to another man ignited a red-hot streak of jealousy within him. It goaded him, challenged him to take a stand with a singular urgency that made his mouth and hands seek possession of her body.

He hands skimmed over her hips, spanned her waist and stroked the gentle curve of her bel y. The more he touched her the more he wanted. And until she told him no or stop, he would take and take until he had his fill.

Would making love to her run along the same course?
Would he constantly want more? Paolo shuddered at the thought.

He’d been able to love a woman then leave her, regardless of her beauty and intel igence. Gutierrez’s fiancé would be no different.

To prove a point, Paolo decided to put his nagging doubts and Yvonne back in perspective. He slid his hands inside her bikini bot oms and massaged her firm but cheeks. She gasped and her back bowed as if in shock, but as his hands became more insistent, a moan ripped from her lips and she relaxed against him.

Her final surrender! Paolo growled as he sucked on her tongue.

Eager to take more liberties, he inched his finger along the seam of her ass. A shudder rippled through her to him, hitting him like an electrical shock, making him weak in the knees. Even though his head was spinning, Paolo pushed forward until he touched the cleft between her legs.

Too bad they stood in warm water. He couldn’t tel if she was already wet for him or just a condition of their environment.

There was only one sure way to find out. Paolo pushed aside the minimal covering and ran his thumb through the springy curls covering her slit, opening her to him.

The intimacy of their position must have triggered something within her and she suddenly became the aggressor. She wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him closer, drawing him in, deepening the intensity of their kiss. Moaning long and hard against his lips, her tongue sucked on and dueled with his.

Paulo leaned into her for support. He felt like he was unraveling. He was even finding it difficult to breathe! In no time at al she’d caught him off guard, effectively turned the tables on him and rocked him to his core. Desperate for more, he tilted his hand upward and slowly pushed a finger deep into her pussy.

“So tight,” he hissed against her lips, “so tight…so wet.”

Turned on by the snug grip of her sex, Paulo slipped another finger inside of her hot depths. Slowly, fearing if he went too fast it would scare her, Paolo pumped his fingers in and out. But it wasn’t enough. He needed more contact! Using his idle hand, he explored her body.

Paolo marveled at the nip in her waist and the softness of her mocha skin, yet neither of these held a candle to the sensual rise of her pert breasts. He took one of them in his hand and he ground his teeth in frustration. What he wouldn’t give to take the blackberry-tipped nipple into his mouth! But he didn’t want to chance it. A simple change in position and the tenuous string holding them together could snap.

Paolo set led on lifting and massaging her twin peaks. Before too long, a warm wetness coated his fingers and the tempting buds he yearned for ripened and pressed insistently against his palm like his cock against her luscious ass. Driven by her response, Paolo came to a realization. He wanted to see her get off. In some roundabout way, her pleasure would trigger his as wel .

His choice made, Paolo guided his fingers even deeper, practical y lifting her from the pool’s floor. He plucked, pulled and strummed her ripe body, tuning her energy to only his.

He tweaked her nipples until they became hard lit le pebbles and changed the measured strokes of his fingers into short hard thrusts.

Paolo didn’t hold back, wouldn’t hold back. By the time she stumbled from the pool, she’d know without a doubt he was the one that made her come.

In no time, her body grew rigid. Her gasps for air turned into loud moans and her tiny hands clawed at his shoulders. Paolo smiled in triumph.

She was coming undone!

“Let go. I have you.”

And who are you?
Yvonne wondered, drifting back to reality. She looked down at the strong arm wrapped around her waist and the hand leisurely thumbing her nipple and groaned.