the open. She made a small sound in her throat and listened.
“After Mona, the women were standing in line. Hell, a guy is in seventh heaven when he can get anything he wants just for taking some bored housewife to bed. I had a hell of a time of it when my mother found out what I was doing. She has her own code of ethics and her ethics didn’t include adultery. She raised hell until I finally spent the last half of my senior year at a boarding school in Virginia. Sort of a military academy. No females. It was there that I learned I was damn good at athletics other than sex. I learned a lot about self-discipline. I also gained about sixty pounds and added about eight more inches of height.”
He paused for a few minutes and she simply waited. “After that I went to college in Michigan, played some football and got into collegiate wrestling and swimming. I found I was pretty good at all three but when I didn’t pass muster for a pro football team, I decided to work my way into pro wrestling.” He drew a deep breath. His long fingers twirled a silken strand of her hair as he spoke quietly.
“Women were a real problem. There were always too damn many. I went a little crazy. Then, after a couple of years of total excess and trying to be a super stud, I went completely celibate. It was one hell of a lot easier than dealing with the women who only wanted to see what it was like to have sex with Chance Braza, and one hell of a lot safer. The problem was, the notoriety made it even harder to stay away from sex. If you ever had a few dozen women throwing themselves at you day in and day out, you’d get pretty tired of it.”
She wiggled closer and sighed. “Good thing you bunked in with a woman who has total control of herself. It would be a real turnoff if you had to deal with a roommate who behaved in that kind of depraved manner.”
“I genuinely don’t think I could deal with a sex-mad woman who jumped my bones every time I turned around.” His grin was barely concealed by his serious tone of voice.
“You are so lucky to have found me. Not many women have the willpower I have, David. Why, I’ve actually been lying next to you for the past twenty minutes without so much as forcing myself on you.” She sighed and inhaled the warm scent of his skin.
“Okay. Now that I’ve bared my soul, shut up and take advantage of me while we still have fifteen minutes left.” He rolled her under him and bent to taste her rosy nipples.
“David. I told you, I’m not that kind of girl.” She gasped then arched upward and moaned. His wonderful hands began to find her sensitive zones and she bit her lip as he teased her until she widened her legs again.
“Oh yes you are.” His growl of satisfaction made her shiver with need.
“I guess you’re right about that,” she gasped as he slid slowly into her throbbing pussy once again and began a tantalizing, aching rhythm that drowned out her thoughts and made her forget her own name.
“David!” she cried against his hair as he drove himself to the root and gave a growl of triumph as he came hard. Her own orgasm clenched her tightly around his cock and as they lay gently rocking against one another to savor every tiny drop of pleasure, she whispered hoarsely against his lips, “I think we still have five minutes.”
How she got through the party was a mystery to her. When they arrived, he was beside her every moment, his fingertips brushing her skin seductively as they moved from group to group and conversation to conversation. The gown she wore was low-backed and the shivery feel of his hand on her bare skin left her breathless and giddy.
The buffet was delicious but she barely tasted a bite. She moved in a cloud of desire as she went through the motions but seemed somehow apart from everything in the room. She saw only him, heard only him. She smiled and nodded and conversed with Vic and Yvonne and others but her entire world was standing beside her, his hand on her back, his solid presence warming her side.
And then she heard someone say loudly, “I feel sorry for him. Look at how she hangs all over him like some pathetic groupie.”
She stiffened, blushing warmly despite her outward calm, and realized how she must look to all these people. So pathetically infatuated with a man whose gorgeous face and body made her look like a washed-out rag by comparison. She swallowed her humiliation and realized that she must appear to be so utterly besotted with him, she had no brain of her own. She imperceptibly moved a few inches from him and shivered as she felt his warmth leave her body.
And then he saw someone across the room, and bent to kiss her cheek and say he would be back in a moment. She felt almost as if she had lost hold of a lifeline, feeling completely alone in a crowd of over a hundred people.
Yes. She was pathetic. She forced herself to let him walk across the room without following him hungrily with her eyes. Without constantly glancing around to locate him as she joined a conversation with Heidi and Heather and forced herself to release the tightly stretched need to touch him. And when he returned to her side, she did her best to maintain a distance, evading his hands when they sought to rest on her body or caress her arm. Even when he glanced at her with a quiet frown on his face, she pretended that she didn’t notice. She had to start behaving like an independent, strong woman again. Because a dream couldn’t last.
Chapter Twelve
The week flew by, with the men and divas rehearsing moves and working-out days while the wives and girlfriends shopped and played cards in their hotel suites, or pigged out at the sushi bars that seemed to line every street with neon. And after the evenings’ events, she found herself helplessly entangled with the man of her dreams, making love and thrilling to his body as if every night would be their last together.
She hated knowing that she was so damn madly in love with a man who she worried felt nothing but a momentary heat for her, who would move on with his life after another three months and would never look back. And she knew that others were simply waiting. Waiting and watching for her temporary mate to lose interest and start casting his eye about for the next sexual conquest.
She did have to give him credit on his acting ability, though, because if she was not completely aware of the nature of their relationship, she might have been fooled herself, by his constant, ardent attention and his ability to make her forget her own name in bed. But after six months, he would quietly sign the release documents and she would be alone again.
They lay in bed, wrapped in each other’s exhausted, sweat-slicked bodies as David ran his fingertips slowly over her whisker-burned breast, his eyes closed in sated relaxation. He felt her draw a deep sigh and he murmured huskily, “Spill it, Sam. You’ve wanted to say something since we left the arena. Is something wrong?” His eyes opened and met hers.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Just thinking about the party Vic wants us to attend tonight. I think I would just prefer to stay here and have room service sent up.” She shivered at the touch of his lips on her erect nipple as he replaced his fingertips with a gentle tug of his warm mouth. “I feel totally drained after a full week of parties and matches and everyone shoving champagne or a cocktail into my hand every time I turn around. You go ahead. I think I’ll try to write a little.”
David drew back, his eyes concerned. “This is a really big deal tonight, Sam. Vic says you have to be there. We can cut it short if you want. But I can’t go without you.”
She gazed up into his dark eyes and wondered what he would say if she blatantly refused to go. But then, her presence here was payback for what he believed was a wrong she’d done to him and her needs and wants were not involved. Another huge sigh lifted her chest and she closed her eyes wearily. “I need to shower. And find something to wear. And I can’t if you’re lying over me like a fur rug.”
David frowned at the tone in her voice. Had he done something wrong? She had seemed to enjoy the time they’d just spent in bed. Was he losing his touch? Or was she getting tired of him? No. She still responded instantly to every caress, every gentle kiss. It must be his imagination.
He was so fucking pathetic the way he followed her around, feeling lost unless he was touching her, feeling her breath warm on his skin, seeing her face at ringside when he had a match. He knew how people were laughing at him but he didn’t give a damn. He only had three more months-three fucking short months-before she would quietly move on with her life and he would just go back to his own pitiful existence. He was like a drowning man. He felt totally lost without her by his side or under him in his bed.
