She swallowed, more heat pouring over her.
He lifted her hips, kneed her legs apart, and then entered her from behind, a different pressure, a fiery stretching. Every nerve ending jumped and her fingers curled into her palms. His cock seemed to go deeper at this angle, so intense it almost hurt. She whimpered and he paused.
His hand landed on her middle back. “Okay, baby?”
“Yes. It’s good.”
“Okay. Don’t wanna hurt you.”
“You’re…not. I love it.”
“Good.” He seized her hips and began to move, driving deep and hard. Pleasure torched her body, sweeping her away, and even though she’d just come she felt it start to build again. A delicious tingle behind her clit, a tightening in her lower back…oh God.
He wrapped a hand in her hair and tugged her head up, bending over her for a kiss she had to turn into.
“Hot, sexy girl,” he groaned. “So fucking hot.”
Everything inside her wound tighter and tighter. Her inner muscles trembled and then clenched, and Duncan gave a roar. Light exploded, heat shimmered over her and she spun into the deepest, sweetest ecstasy. Duncan pressed himself against her, his body taught.
“Holy fuck,” he breathed. His grip on her hair loosened and he leaned over her again to press his mouth between her shoulder blades. “Holy. Fuck.”
“That was intense.”
“No shit. Wow, baby.”
He eventually pulled out and got rid of the condom. Her inner thighs ached, and her knees were tender where he’d pushed them apart with his own. She wearily snuggled beneath the covers.
He slid back into bed and pulled her against him, into the position that had now become so familiar and comforting and easy. He stroked her hair and pressed her face to him. “Okay. Now talk to me. Tell me what this hang-up is about me and my money or whatever the fuck it is that I don’t understand and keep fucking up.”
Chapter 19
Amber didn’t even tense up at his question, she was so limp and replete, and she felt so safe. “It’s not you, it’s me,” she mumbled.
Duncan laughed and hugged her tighter. “Whatever. Talk to me, sweetheart.”
This time she didn’t have the energy to try to avoid it. And what the hell. He deserved to know that it really was her, not him. He was gorgeous and kind and talented, and her psychological freight was the problem.
“Okay.” In the dim room, her face pressed against his muscled chest, it didn’t seem quite so scary. “My dad was a pro football player.” She paused, but he said nothing so she continued. “I grew up in Los Angeles. He played for the Warriors. He retired when I was fourteen.” She took in a long breath and let it out, waiting for the familiar pain to return. And it did a little, but Duncan’s big hands smoothing over her bottom and playing with her hair seemed to help. A lot.
“He got into a bunch of different business ventures after he retired,” she continued. “But he was a better football player than a businessman. Things didn’t go so well. Plus…I didn’t really understand this until later, but he was doing a lot of drugs. And drinking. Even when he’d been playing football. We lived in a big mansion in Bel Air that we couldn’t afford. I was just a kid, so I didn’t really know what was going on. All I knew was I loved my dad.”
His arms tightened around her and now emotion rose up into her throat. She swallowed it down.
“He was larger than life, a big, strong man who everyone idolized, including me. A football hero. A Super Bowl champion. But he was going deeper and deeper into debt. And doing even worse things. I didn’t know a lot of it while I was little, but I found out more shit that was going on when I was older. Like the time he crashed his Porsche driving drunk, after a bachelor party for one of the guys on the team. And that he’d been arrested for sexually harassing a woman who worked for the team.”
“Jesus. Who’s your dad?” Duncan demanded roughly.
“Deke Johnson.”
Duncan was silent, and then he said, “Holy fuck.”
She sighed against him. “Yeah. I know.”
“Is he still in jail?”
“Yes. He’s getting out…like, now. My mom let me know a couple weeks ago. So you’ve heard of him.”
“Uh yeah. He was a fucking amazing receiver.”
“I know.” She gave a sad smile. “Such a waste, right? Drugs and alcohol and…I don’t know, greed or stupidity…He just lost control of his life. When I was sixteen…” She paused and exhaled sharply. This part was awful. “When I was sixteen I—I saw him and our housekeeper, um…”
“Oh Christ.”
“Yeah. She was on her knees in front of him and, well…”
“I get it,” he said roughly.