Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance (33 page)

Kelsie ran her hands down Zach’s pecs to his
rock-hard abs, letting her fingers feel the ridges of muscles and
the valley between.

“There’s one thing that’ll happen, cold day
in hell or not.” He seemed fully awake now. His dark eyes glittered
with the now familiar fires of desire.

“And that is?”

“I’m hard for you.” Hands on her waist, he
pulled her up his body until his mouth was even with one of her
nipples.

“You’re hard for me in your sleep.”

“Uh, yeah.” He sucked her nipple into his
mouth, lavished it with attention from his tongue, and had her
squirming in under five seconds, which had to be his best record.
Next thing she knew, he’d flipped her onto her back without letting
go of her nipple, a true talent in her book.

He straddled her—the man did like his
missionary position—and turned his attention to her shoulders and
neck. She writhed under him, wanting the release only Zach could
give. His erection rubbed against her inner thigh. She wanted it to
rub a little higher and a lot deeper.

“God, woman, what you do to me.” He spoke
against her skin as his mouth burned a path across her collarbone
and up her neck to her earlobe. Meanwhile a little further south,
his talented fingers pinched and tweaked her nipples into hard
little nubs. She wanted to feel him a lot further south. A certain
spot between her legs begged for attention or at least the
attention of a certain long, hard part of him.

“What do I do to you?”

He stared down at her, silent for a long
while. “A lot. A helluva lot.”

“Same here.” She felt his smile in the
darkness, could just make out his white teeth. Then his mouth
covered hers, hungry and demanding. Giving and taking. Needing and
wanting.

Kelsie wrapped her legs around his waist and
showed him how much she needed and wanted, too. He got the message
loud and clear. A moment later, his erection sent another message,
this one to her very core, as he positioned himself and slipped
inside her slick walls.

Her hips rose to meet his, and they found
their rhythm together like ballroom dancers who’d been partners for
years. Everything seemed so right, so natural, so hot with Zach. So
damn hot. Hotter than a Texas sidewalk in August.

He thrust in and out making it last,
carrying the passion to the very end, not letting her slip over the
edge until he was ready. She’d start to fall, and he’d slow his
pace or almost withdraw, pulling her back from the ledge, torturing
her, and making her want him all the more. Time after time, he’d
tease her like that until her body couldn’t take anymore more and
shuddered with her release. A scream erupted from her throat, and
his name bounced off the walls of the dark room.

Zach thrust a few more times and came with
his own shouted declaration, one which sounded like, “I love you,
Kelsie.”

Certainly, she’d fabricated those words due
to her own euphoria-distorted state of mind.

Or had she?

As they slipped back to reality, he pulled
her into his arms and held her close. She cuddled against him,
feeling, safe, protected, and cherished. And loved? Yes, she
suspected this was what love truly felt like.

CHAPTER 23

Veronica paced back and forth, wearing a path
in the plush carpet in her office at Jacks Headquarters, her
devious brain racing faster than a punt returner with a clear shot
to the end zone. The PI stood by the door, waiting, and not exactly
patiently, which pissed her off. She had a right to be impatient,
he didn’t. He was an employee, nothing else, and didn’t have a
personal or professional stake in the outcome of this situation.
No, he didn’t bleed navy and gold like she did.

She fingered the piece of paper in her hand.
“So, nothing more on her ex? Mark Richmond? Or the divorce?” She
knew there had to be more information that would be useful.

“No, ma’am.” The way he said ma’am made her
skin crawl. She needed to find another PI, but most wouldn’t do the
stuff she paid this guy to do.

“How are the newlyweds doing?”

“Like newlyweds as far as I can tell. You
told me to back off, and I have, unless you’d like me to get up
close and personal, maybe get some pics?” He sounded way too
eager.

She shook her head, highly annoyed he didn’t
see the situation clearly. “I’m not in the sex scandal business,
and they’re married. No dirt there.”

“So is that all? What’s next? Business as
usual?” He tapped his foot on the floor.

Veronica considered her next move. She
shuffled through some papers and handed him a folder. “I need to
you check out this kid Dad’s pressuring the GM to draft. I think he
has drug issues and abuses women. Find out what you can.”

The man thumbed through the papers. “Will
do. I’ll be in touch.” He slipped out the door just as her father
walked in.

“Who the hell was that guy?” He shut the
door and entered her office.

“Just some salesman hawking an idea for a
new kind of helmet.” Veronica sat down in her chair and regarded
her father.

“I understand Murphy and Harris are getting
along quite well.”

She snorted. “By whose definition?”

“I’m talking with Murphy’s agent this week.
I’m offering him a contract extension.”

Furious, Veronica leapt to her feet and
smacked the flat of her hand on the desk. “You can’t do that.”

“I can. There’s a shortage of good
linebackers in the draft and nothing out there in the free agent
market. Murphy is playing well enough to merit an extension. He’s
brilliant when it comes to reading defenses, and he’s barely lost a
step in speed or power. By my estimation and HughJack’s he’s still
one of the best out there.”

“We need to groom a young guy.”

“We are. We have a few on the roster, and
who better to train them than a future Hall-of-Famer.”

“Dad, you can’t do this.” Veronica hated the
begging tone in her voice.

“Of course I can. It’s my team. Don’t you
forget that.” He turned back to the door. “Knowing how unreasonable
you are about the linebacker, I wanted to give you forewarning.
Live with it.”

On that note, he left.

Veronica slumped in her chair and swiveled
it around to stare out the window. Two more years with Murphy on
the team could not happen. He was washed up, not worth the money,
and his ineptness in social situations coupled with his public feud
with Tyler did irreparable damage to an already damaged team. And
to Veronica it was all about the team.

No, her father could not re-sign Murphy.

Not if she could figure out a way to prevent
it. For the good of the team, of course.

She picked up the business card and dialed
Mark Richmond’s phone number.

* * * *

After winning their last game on
Thanksgiving weekend, the Jacks were on the verge of another
crushing loss. Zach once again sat on the bench and ground his
teeth in frustration, as the offense blew the game. Bruiser fumbled
a handoff. The Bears ran it back for a touchdown, putting the game
out of reach with only fifteen seconds on the clock. Even so,
Harris gave it the college try, throwing a couple Hail Marys into
coverage, but none of the passes connected. If Zach didn’t know
better, he’d swear his great-aunt Gertrude had put a hex on his
team. She’d been known to do that in the past, even from her grave
in the Louisiana Bayou, though her football hexes were usually on
the opposing team. Maybe he’d pissed her off somehow.

In a nasty slap of fate, his old team was
leading their division and sure to clinch their first playoff spot
in years—the same years he’d spent giving them all he had—while the
Jacks, once a sure thing for the playoffs, might need a miracle to
make it as a wildcard.

The clock ticked off the final seconds with
agonizing slowness. Zach grabbed his helmet and trudged toward the
tunnel to the locker room. Ahead of him, Harris sprinted into the
tunnel, avoiding the press and the fans. In his situation, Zach
would’ve done the same.

Once in the sanctuary of the locker room,
Zach yanked off his sweat-soaked jersey and shoulder pads, then
took a long drink of water. Harris sat on the bench next to their
lockers and stared straight ahead, a man in a trance.
Don’t-even-mess-with-me was written across every hard line of his
face, but warnings like that never stopped Zach. He needed to speak
to Harris to show the team that they’d put their differences to
rest—even if they hadn’t.

“Your receivers were dropping perfect balls
left and right. You did the best you could.”

“My best wasn’t good enough. I’m the
quarterback. I’m responsible.” Harris swung his murderous gaze
toward Zach. He would’ve pinned a lesser man to lockers with that
look, it didn’t faze Zach.

Well, not too much.

Zach pulled off his shoes. “Hey, if you want
to be a martyr, not my problem.”

“I don’t want to be anything but a
winner.”

“Yeah, well at least you have two
rings.”

“And I’m trying like hell to get you
yours.”

Zach glanced up and an honest response
rolled off his tongue. “I know.” He did know. He’d seen it with his
own eyes.

“Yeah?” Harris met Zach’s gaze.

“Yeah.” Zach was shocked to realize he meant
it. The Tyler Harris from last year had slowly returned to the
fiery, reckless quarterback of prior years. It happened so subtly,
Zach didn’t see the changes until today. The guy hadn’t quit on the
team once, no matter how tough it got or how far down they got in a
game, he kept trying. The young team surrounding them saw it. They
also saw Zach and Harris’s mutual dislike fading away to be
replaced by grudging respect. Yet, they weren’t winning like they
should be. They might be one year off, but Zach didn’t think he had
a year left.

Which sucked the big one.

At least he had Kelsie waiting at home after
a long flight, which was more than he’d had in the past. A lot
more. Even if it was only for a few more weeks.

The team had to go all the way to the Super
Bowl. Not just because he wanted that ring but because it kept
Kelsie in his life that much longer. He sank down on the bench and
buried his head in his hands as the truth broke over him like a
rogue wave and pulled him into a strong undertow. It tore the
oxygen from his lungs and dragged him deeper. He didn’t think he’d
ever be able to fight his way back to the surface because he didn’t
want to.

His priorities had shifted like the sands on
a beach, so subtly, yet so permanently.

He wanted Kelsie even more than he wanted a
ring.

* * * * *

For the next few weeks, Kelsie rarely saw
Zach. Her husband spent every waking hour at the practice facility
with a couple exceptions.

She did insist he spend an hour or two on
Tuesday mornings continuing their etiquette lessons before he did
his time with Tyler. He might not understand the importance of
these non-football activities, but she did.

Not only did she stake her floundering
business on the success of this gala, but more important Zach’s
future with the Lumberjacks and his consideration as an assistant
college coach depended on his behavior.

And she saw him in bed. She saw a
lot
of him in bed, or at least felt him, every square inch of him,
including her favorite nine to ten inches, not that she’d measured
it. Oh, Lord, she didn’t need to.

Still, she missed him horribly, wishing he
were around more. Heck, she’d even spend evenings at The Squatch if
she could spend them with him. She lay in bed every night,
listening for the sound of his truck. The second she heard it, her
heart jumped like a cheerleader after a touchdown and her body
revved up and got ready to go. And go they did. All night long. How
the man existed on a few hours of sleep a night, she didn’t
understand.

He’d hold her and make love, whisper to her
in that gruff, straightforward way of his that had come to mean
more to her than any poetry or flowery phrases ever could. Kelsie
lived for those moments.

She crammed her days to overflowing with
gala preparations, always carving out time for her new girlfriends,
Lavender and Rachel, when they were available. Lavender was
attending college to get a degree in gerontology and Rachel worked
as a football scout for a couple small colleges. She’d been
traveling quite a bit around the state until the high school
football season ended a week ago.

At her request, Tyler had invited the UW’s
head coach and athletic director to the gala, along with some very
powerful UW athletic club supporters. She was determined Zach would
have the job he wanted when he retired from football.

Just this morning, Kelsie had drilled him on
fine dining etiquette and the art of conversation one more time.
He’d slumped in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, and
scowled. When she’d finally asked him to sit up straight, he’d done
so with a long-suffering sigh, and actually kept his elbows off the
table. The man was picking up a few tips. Praise the stars
above.

The gala was only a few weeks away. Workers
bustled in and out of the house, putting up decorations and
transforming it into a Christmas scene right out of
Better Homes
and Gardens
. Zach didn’t say a word, but by his tense jaw, he
wasn’t thrilled wasting money on the one-time cost of decorating
for this gala.

The stakes were getting higher as the season
rolled on. Since Thanksgiving, the team had split their last two
games, making their record six and six, as they dangled on the edge
of making a wildcard playoff spot.

Later that evening after all the workers
left for the day, Kelsie pulled into the practice facility. She’d
cooked Zach his favorite and the one thing she could cook well, her
mouth-watering fried chicken, as a small reward for his progress
this morning, even if he’d been somewhat grumpy.