False Start (Red Zone Rivals, #5)

by Kandi Steiner

I told myself I did it for show. I told myself I was just holding up my end of the bargain. And I swore to myself it wasn’t because, in that moment of panic, I knew kissing him would make me feel calm again. And it did.

I couldn’t be sure how long we stood there losing ourselves at that railing with the sun setting behind us, but eventually, Kyle pulled back, tucking me under his arm again with his lips coming right to my ear. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to have a situation,” he said, his lips against my skin.

He dug his fingers into my side as I laughed, but then he dropped his mouth to my ear again. “I need to apologize to you. Or, rather, I should apologize… but I’m not sure I’m sorry.” I frowned. “Apologize? For what?” “I heard you earlier.” I froze, my next exhale lodging in my throat as a zip of excitement ran all the way down my spine. He heard me? “You said my name.” Oh, my God. He heard me.

I felt my heartbeat in my throat as he sucked the lobe of my ear between his teeth. “I also know you left yourself… unsatisfied,” he rasped.

A small part of me wondered if I should be appalled, if I should feel angry or violated. But I didn’t. Not even a little bit. Intrigue filled me, instead. “Don’t worry,” he added with another nip of my earlobe. “I can help with that.”

God, I’d missed her.

“I like her.” I blinked, turning to find Zeke to my left.

“I’m not competitive,” she said, cracking her neck. “Uh-huh,” I mused. Then, I finished my beer and leaned in close enough for my next words to sweep across the back of her neck. “And I’m not still thinking about you in that bathtub.”

“That’s just cold,” I said. “Oh, don’t be a baby. I’ll get you next time,” Madelyn said. “What if Braden picks me?” “Holden,” Braden said, and I turned my look of betrayal on him. He just shrugged. “Sorry, man.”

“Enjoy being the one to call the shots now because that’ll be my role when we get back to the room.”

“Don’t I get a kiss for that game-winning point?”

“I think it was me who scored the winning point,” I combatted,

“Technicalities,” she whispered. And I kissed her.

I didn’t know what the fuck we were doing anymore. But I knew there was nothing fake about what I had planned for when we got back to that hotel.

I can help you with that.

“Do you want to take a shower?” My eyes bulged at the question, heart kicking in my chest, and Kyle chuckled. He took one small step toward me, but it was enough to suck all of the oxygen out of the room. “That wasn’t me inviting myself to join you,” he said with a smirk, one of his gorgeous eyebrows ticking up into his hairline. “Although, it would save water…” I rolled my eyes on an exhale of a laugh, a little of the tension melting away when I did. “Oh sure, now you’re environmentally conscious? I know what you drive,” I shot at him. That made his grin double.

“You go ahead, I’ll take second. I’m going to get some ice.” “Ice?” “Yeah,” he said, pulling the door open before looking back at me. “For your water.” He left before my jaw popped open, and I stood there gaping at the closed door for a full minute before I dragged myself into the bathroom and ran the shower as hot as it would go. He remembered that?

You slept in the same bed with him plenty of times when you were kids.

And when we did share a bed, it was anything but innocent.

I can help with that. The way he’d rumbled those words in my ear, the way his eyes had sealed the promise when he pulled back and pinned me with a dark smirk… I stopped breathing as a realization hit me. Did I want him to follow through with that promise?

Then, without warning, he dropped the towel. “Kyle!” I pulled the covers over my eyes and shut them tightly as a throaty laugh rumbled through the room. “Caught you looking,” he teased as the memory of his perfectly sculpted ass burned itself into my brain. “I wasn’t looking,” I argued. “Then why are you so upset?” “Because you flashed me!” “You can always flash me back if it’d make you feel better to get even.”

“You have plenty of room,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. “Scoot over.” “I’m good.” There was a soft laugh in the darkness. “Madelyn, you’re about to fall off the fucking bed.”

Until I felt a large, warm hand at the small of my back. My eyes shot open, heart stopping for a full ten seconds before it kicked back to life in my chest. I was completely still as Kyle rubbed his knuckles against my skin. When I didn’t pull away or say anything, he splayed his hand, running his palm up and over my hip. Oh my God.

My heart was pounding out of my chest, and Kyle pressed a featherlight kiss to the back of my neck before his hand on my hip was traveling, gliding over my thigh and down to my knee before his fingers slid to the inside of my leg and trailed up at a torturously slow pace.

“Mads,” he whispered, and I heard him swallow, felt his hand hesitate where it was traveling up. I didn’t respond. But I opened.

Every cell in my being buzzed under his touch as I spread my legs, my ass still nestled against his hard-on as I did. The motion sent his hand sliding farther north, the rough warmth of his palm skating against my upper inner thigh. One thick fingertip brushed against the lace...

Kyle paused there, kissing the back of my shoulder as he ran his fingertip over the lace. He trailed up to my right hip, dragged that gentle touch down to the left hip, and then went back to playing with the edge along my inner thigh. I was still at first, frozen, afraid to so much as breathe. But the more he toyed with that edge, the more I sq...

“I didn’t just hear you earlier,” he husked against the shell of my ear. His touch was still just a tease against my thigh. “I watched you.” Another gasp left me. “I watched you touch yourself, listened to the way you moaned.”

“It was intoxicating,” he continued, his breath ragged against my skin. “I couldn’t look away.” “Kyle,” I breathed, arching against him, and he groaned with a buck of his hips. “I heard you say that, too,” he murmured in my ear. “You were thinking of me.” “Yes.” He cursed, his teeth sinking into my shoulder.

“I fucked my hand as I watched you,” he admitted, and the shock only lasted a second before a rush of power swept through me. The thought that he couldn’t resist himself, that he risked getting caught because he was so turned on…

“When you gave up…” he continued, and his fingers slid between my legs, toying with the sensitive skin just next to where I wanted him. I chased his touch, but he pulled away, continuing his tease. “I had to force myself out of this hotel...

“Let me touch you, Mads,” he begged, teeth sinking into my shoulder. “I want to hear my name on your lips again. But this time, I want to earn it.” He bit the lobe of my ear, making me hiss and roll against him. “Let me get you there. Let me hear the way you moan when you come.” The words lit me on fire.

“You’ve been uncomfortable all night, haven’t you?” he mused, grinning against my mouth before he kissed me harder. His finger slipped under my panties again, and this time, he pressed inside me just a half-inch as I shook and gasped into his mouth. “How long have you been this wet for me?”

It had been so long since I’d been touched like this — slowly, softly, reverently. It had been so long since I’d been touched like this by him.

“I need you to tell me what you want, baby,” he said,

“Do you want me to tease you, to make this last?”

“Or do you want that relief you’ve been craving all night?” “Get me there,” I breathed against his lips, rolling into his hand. “Get me off.”

“That’s my fucking girl.”

“God, I’ve missed touching you,” he breathed against me, low and needy.

“Sit on my face, Mads.”

“Hands on the headboard,” he commanded,

“Play with those pretty tits, baby,” he rasped

“Come on my tongue and let me hear you say my name again.”

“That was the hottest fucking thing I have ever seen,” he said,

It was just a little fun. It was just a harmless hookup between two consenting adults. It didn’t have to mean anything. But when he wrapped me in his arms, spooning me and nuzzling into the back of my neck with a content sigh, my chest seized. It didn’t matter how I tried to downplay it. The truth was impossible to ignore. This changed everything.

I fell asleep curled around Madelyn, and when I woke the next morning, the first thing I did was reach for her. All I found was an empty bed.

One foot was on the floor, the other was perched on the edge of the chair, and she balanced her chin on her knee as she wrote in a notebook. I stilled. She was writing.

I sat up as slowly and quietly as I could, not wanting to disturb her. She had a soft smile on her face as the pen dragged along the page, and at one point, I thought I saw her cheeks turn a bright pink. I watched her for a stolen moment of time, emotions battling for my attention as I did.

I offered a lopsided smile. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

“I don’t know how you like it,” she said, the mug steaming in her hands. “Your coffee.” “Well, you must be a psychic, because this is exactly how I like it.” “Black?” “No.” I shook my head, taking the mug from her hands and setting it on the nightstand before I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap. “Delivered by you in a nightgown.”