The Billion Dollar Player: A Billionaire's Club Story (7 page)

“How was your day?” He leaned in and kissed her forehead, her temple, the hollow of her cheek.

“Mmm.” Her eyes drifted shut as she leaned in to his kisses. “Good. But better now, too.” Jase kissed the corner of her mouth and her lips curved into a soft smile. He moved downward across her jaw to her throat and she shivered against him. “Did you come straight from practice?”

“Uh-huh. Why? Do I smell?”

“Like a locker room,” she said with a laugh.

“Sorry.” For the record, he totally wasn’t sorry. “I was anxious to see you and a shower would’ve taken too long.”

Avery sighed, her warm breath fanning across his cheek. “I bet you say that sort of flattering stuff to all the girls.”

Her voice was still husky with desire, lazy and low. The sound rippled through him, tightening his skin and prickling with a heat that settled low in his gut. “You’re the only one, sugar.”

She gave a little snort as though she didn’t believe a word of it, but he couldn’t have spoken truer words. Jase wasn’t some inexperienced kid and he sure as hell didn’t have to work hard to get a date. Hell, he didn’t have to work at all. He’d never paid any of them a compliment that equated to more than “nice ass.”

And whereas Avery had the finest ass he’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes—or his palms—on, she deserved more than some vapid comment about her body. She intrigued him, and he found that beyond his blinding lust, he simply wanted to be with her. Talk to her. Spend whatever free time he had with her. Could it be that this would be the beginning of a real relationship with Avery? Holy shit. He’d been after nothing more than a casual fling. A one-nighter to steer his luck in the right direction. What was quickly developing between them was so much more than Jase had bargained for. And it scared the fuck out of him.

“Not that I’m not happy you decided to come over, but don’t you have a playoff game tomorrow? I might be wrong, but I heard it’s sort of a big deal.”

How could Jase think about football, or anything else when she touched him that way? Avery’s fingertips danced across his skin, skimming over the surface of his pecs, down his ribs, and the ridges of his stomach. She ventured lower, past his torso and the trail of hair that led from his belly button and Jase held his breath. His cock twitched as though it had been trained to respond to her touch.
Jesus
. “I, uh.” His voice cracked and she stifled a laugh. He cleared his throat and started over, trying to ignore the sensation of her fingers flirting along the border of where his hips met his thighs. “I do have a game tomorrow. And yes, it is a big deal.”

She reached between them and cupped his sac. Jase let out a slow groan as she kneaded his flesh in her palm, her skin so damned soft. He wanted her again, but he couldn’t press his luck this close to a game. His legs felt like Jell-O already. Another go with Avery and he’d be useless on the field tomorrow.

“Home game?”

“Uh-huh.” She stroked down between his thighs and Jase’s brain went blank. Her hand ventured back to his cock and he thrust into her hand, his body committing all-out treason against his mind. “You should come.” No, he should come. Again. Right now. He needed to get his mind out of the gutter, but how, when Avery was performing magic on him with her hands? She worked the condom free of his renewed erection and her hand slid across his stiff flesh.

Jase swallowed audibly, stifling a groan. “I’ll get you tickets. Front row. Fifty yard line.” Hell, if she kept stroking him like that, he’d get her down on the goddamned field if she wanted him to.

“I can’t.” Her voice was nothing more than a whisper in his ear. “I have to work back-to-back events. But maybe we could go out to dinner tonight? Hang out until your bedtime?”

Her teasing tone didn’t go unnoticed. But the thought of having to get dressed up and spend time fending off fans and autograph hounds just didn’t appeal to him. He wanted to stay right here with her, naked on the couch, for as long as possible. “How about I take a shower, so I don’t stink up your apartment, and we order in?”

“Oh, okay.” Jase wondered at her disappointed tone. “Sure.”

A nasty thought took root in Jase’s mind. What if what was really important to Avery was that she be seen with him? He didn’t want to believe that she was just like all of the other users out there, and it soured his stomach. He wanted her to be different.

No. He
needed
her to be.

“Shouldn’t you be fueling up on something healthier? Carbo-loading on whole grain pasta and power foods for tomorrow?”

Jase folded the wide slice of pizza into his mouth and took half of it off in a single bite. “I’m totally carbo-loading. I plan to eat this entire pizza by myself. It’s a good thing we ordered a second one for you.”

He gave her a wink and Avery couldn’t help but smile at his easy charm. In fact, it was too easy to be with Jase. Too comfortable. Her plan to keep him at arm’s length was failing miserably. She tried not to let her disappointment ruin the evening. The fact that Jase had turned down her suggestion to go out stung despite the fact that she’d coached herself into believing what was happening between them was nothing more than a fling. You didn’t go out on dinner dates with a guy you were sowing your oats with. Her heart didn’t need to be in the equation. Keep it light. Fun. No strings attached so she wouldn’t get hurt.

“Your car should be ready by the end of the week. I told the guy at the garage to deliver it here when they’re done. I hope that’s okay.”

Okay? Was he kidding? She wouldn’t even have to find someone to take her to pick it up. It was better than okay. “Can I get his number? I’ll need to talk to him about working out some kind of payment plan.”

Jase waved her off. “Already taken care of.”

The last thing she needed was for him to think she expected him to spend his money on her. She wasn’t that sort of woman and she didn’t want him to get that impression. “Jase—”

“It’s already taken care of.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he shushed her. “And if you argue with me, I’ll just go out and buy you a new car.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“Do you like Mercedes or BMW better?”

Avery grinned but kept her mouth shut. She had a feeling he’d go out and buy her a damned car just to prove he could. His triumphant grin caused her stomach to rocket up into her throat and float back down to her toes. “Good. I’m glad that’s settled,” he remarked before snatching up another slice of pizza.

So far, their evening together had been anything but impersonal. Avery studied Jase from the corner of her eye, so at ease, lounging on her couch with his long legs propped up on her coffee table as though he hung out in rat hole apartments like hers all the time. You’d never think he had a fifteen-thousand-square-foot mansion on the other side of the city. “So, what did you do today?”

The question threw Avery for a loop. No strings attached meant he wasn’t required to ask questions about her day. “Um, I had class today.”

“What sort of class?”

This was dangerous territory. He was opening the door for their relationship to venture past meaningless sex. And whereas it might not have seemed like a big deal to Jase, for Avery, it was a different story. What would happen once he set her aside? “I’m attending Le Cordon Bleu.”

“Cooking school?” he asked with a grin that melted Avery’s spine.

“Culinary academy,” she replied. “I’m not just learning how to flip an egg over there.”

“You know, I love food. Eating is my second favorite pastime. Well …” He stroked one long finger along Avery’s jaw and she suppressed a shudder. “After today, I think I need to amend the list and make eating my third favorite pastime.”

She gave a nervous laugh. When he talked to her in that seductive, smoky tone, it was all she could do to keep from tackling him to the floor. “I love to cook. It’s my second favorite pastime.”

“What’s your first?” His eyes sparked with heat and he licked his lips.

Avery’s gaze locked on Jase’s mouth. God, how she loved kissing those lips. She looked away. “My new favorite pastime
might
have something to do with a certain football star.”

“Oh really? Anyone I know?”

She answered him with an enigmatic smile. “Could be.”

“Are you sure you can’t come to the game tomorrow?”

Avery didn’t miss the disappointment in his tone, or the way his eyes conveyed emotion that was too deep for what she needed this to be between them. “Gotta pay the bills,” she replied. “That tuition doesn’t pay for itself, you know.”

He looked away as though embarrassed. “Ryder paid my college tuition. I was offered a scholarship but I turned it down. I didn’t think it was fair to accept a free ride when there were other guys on the team who could benefit from the financial aid.”

“I think that’s great, Jase. Especially that your brother would help you out.”

He snorted. “You’d think so. But the shitty thing is that I might have gotten a hell of a lot more respect if I’d just taken the damned scholarship. For all four years of my college career I had to field questions from smart-assed sports reporters asking if my brother had bought my position on the team.”

“That’s awful!” Avery couldn’t believe that the media would try to persecute Jase and his family for doing something good.

He hiked one massive shoulder and Avery resisted the urge to reach out and touch. “It is what it is. It’s how I got my nickname.”

“You don’t like it, do you?” Even Avery had to admit that a tag like “Billion Dollar Blackwell” probably wasn’t complimentary. She regretted using the nickname herself when she’d talked about him with Kristie.

Jase snorted. “Not so much. I’d like for the media to see past my family’s bank account and acknowledge my skill on the field. I mean, it’s not like any of the guys in the NFL are living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t know why they continue to fixate on mine.”

Avery had failed to consider that Jase’s life might not be a cakewalk. After all, money didn’t solve every problem. “I’m sure that the people who matter recognize your skills. Everyone else can piss off.”

Jase leaned forward to snag another piece of pizza from the box. “What about you?” he asked. “Have you ever seen me play?”

Again, Avery wondered at his tone. Tentative, yet hopeful, as though both anxious and afraid of her response. “I have.” She wasn’t exactly an avid football fan, but she’d watched more than her fair share of games. Football was a Texas institution, after all.

His unsure expression tore at her heart. “And?”

“Well.” She stroked her fingers along his arm, mapping the topography of muscles that flexed beneath her touch. “I’m no expert, but I’d say you’re pretty amazing.”

His answering smile was as brilliant as the sun and Avery was powerless to fight his magnetic pull. She leaned in to his chest and though she knew allowing him to fold her into his arms would surely lead her further toward ruin, she didn’t care.

“What about you, sugar?” His deep voice rumbled in his chest and she shivered. “How do you rate your chef skills?”

“I’m not a chef yet,” she replied. “But someday. I don’t know … most days I feel like I’m barely cracking a three. I’m so clumsy and scatterbrained sometimes. I spill and burn stuff, but when I’m focused, I can definitely hold my own in the kitchen.”

“I have a feeling you’re selling yourself short,” Jase remarked. “I think you’re going to have to step up to the plate and let me rate your skills myself.”

Avery pulled away so she could look up at his face. “I doubt I’ll measure up for someone whose third all-time-favorite pastime is eating.”

“Sugar, if what I’ve seen of you already has any bearing, I have a feeling that nothin’ you do is less than a perfect ten.”

Avery’s cheeks heated at the innuendo. No guy had ever told her that she was good in bed before. Hell, no one had told she was good at
anything
before. She didn’t think she was awful, but definitely not a ten. “If I’m a ten, it’s only because you set a pretty high bar, Mr. Blackwell. I had no choice but to step up my game or get left behind.”

“Not a chance.”

∗∗∗

Jase couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at ease with a woman. Avery was funny, smart, and though he wished she’d own how great she was and quit being so self-conscious, good-natured. He had a soft spot for a woman who could take a little teasing, and he was willing to bet that Avery could give as good as she got. Goddamn did she ever turn him on.

Emotion bloomed in his chest as she flashed him a wide smile. The expression was so honest and open that it made his breath catch and he wondered how he could have ever suspected that she was nothing more than another football groupie. He didn’t know her well, but Jase sensed that Avery wasn’t the type of woman to use a person for her own selfish reasons.

“Maybe we’re both perfect tens because we make a good team.” He might’ve been pressing his luck referring to them as a “we” but Jase didn’t care. “Sometimes even the best players have a shitty showing on the field because they’re just not compatible as teammates. You and I just play well together.”

“Mmm.” Her green eyes sparked with fire and Jase’s body responded, warming to her heated expression. “I have to admit, we do play well together …”

Jase grabbed Avery and pulled her up into his lap. He cupped the back of her neck with one hand while the other skimmed down between her breasts to the hem of her shirt. His palm found the smooth flat skin on her stomach and Avery’s eyes became hooded as he ventured upward, cupping her bare breast in his hand and feathering over one pearled nipple with the pad of his thumb. She went liquid in his embrace, her body melting against his as her lips parted with shallow pants of breath.

He could stay here all night and simply pleasure her. Take in the sight of her furrowed brow, her teeth as they grazed her bottom lip, the flush that began to spread across her cheeks. Jase hiked up her T-shirt and bent his head to her breast, taking the dusky nipple into his mouth. He sucked deeply before drawing the taut peak between his teeth and nibbling. Avery moaned—a low, seductive sound that hardened his cock in an instant—and threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him against her.