Play-Off Partners

CHAPTER ONE "They were wonderful, darling. You did it!" She stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him. Ted hugged her with his free arm. "No thanks to the referees. That Burwell wouldn't know a clip if he saw one." "You didn't need his help. I knew you could do it." "Rita, with a wife like you, how could I miss?" He pinched her bottom. "Ted! People are watching!" "Forgot myself. End run, you might say." "I'll end run you! Now, be good! I've got to run." "Oh, Christ! Snack bar?" Rita nodded. "Ann Wirts didn't show. I'll have to work in her place until after the next game." "That's two hours, or better!" "With Ron's Broncos playing, it'll be longer than that." Ted groaned. "I was looking forward to a tall beer and the Rams game on TV." "I know. Maybe it won't hurt to watch Ron's game. You might wind up having to play him." Ted grinned. "Fat chance. Looks like he's got it made in his division, but we don't have a prayer." "After the way your kids did today? Ted! You haven't lost a game yet!" "Look, hon. We've just finished the easy half of the schedule. We're going to be playing football teams from here on!" "I'll argue about it later. Look at that line-up at the snack bar." Rita turned and ran, her gold swing skirt bouncing and her black hair swishing across her shoulders. Ted stared after her, conscious of a pleasant tautness in his groin as he translated that motion mentally into response in bed. Not bad for a thirty-four-year-old woman, he thought. Hell of a lot better than most of the teenagers that were flaunting it around today. "A penny for your thoughts, coach." Ted looked down. "Cora! How come you're still here?" Ted shrugged. "Al said not to follow him. He was too burned up and didn't want to take it out on me." Ted chuckled. "Ted, don't try to make it sound like it was Burwell's fault. You heard Al; everyone in the stands did." "But it wasn't clipping!" "Of course not! No one but Burwell thought it was! But you're the head coach and you didn't scream out to the kids that there were days when they'd have to play against twelve men instead of eleven. That wasn't the line coach's place!" "Well, no, but ..." "I've been married to Al for eighteen years, Ted. When he gets mad, he's a big mouth. He knows it and so do you. He'll sulk for three or four hours and be all over it. Forget it." Ted laughed and squeezed Cora's arm. "What're you supposed to do? Wait here until he's human again?" "He said you and Rita'd probably want to drop me off at the house and recap the game." "Of course!" "Hey, coach! Good game!" "Congratulations, coach!" "You really wiped 'em out, coach!" Ted walked slowly through the parents of his boys, commenting on individual play and agreeing that it had been a fine game. They always were when the score came out on the positive side. Wait'll they lost one. At the gate, he lost most of the crowd and outside they scattered toward their cars. Ted strode along the vine-covered fence toward his own van. He'd get rid of the equipment bag and then have a look at Don Demming's fabled Broncos in action. "Hey! Not so darned fast!" Cora panted. Ted slowed. "Hell, I didn't know anyone was behind me!" "I am." Cora caught up and walked beside him. They rounded the corner of the fence and reached the Dodge. Ted unlocked it and stowed the equipment under the rear deck. As he turned, Cora stepped close. "Don't I get my victory kiss?" she asked. Ted glanced around at the empty lot and took her in his arms. "That you do, pet." He swung her into the air and kissed her. "Mmmm! Sweet victory!" Cora tilted her head back and smiled at Ted. "Remember the promise I made about if you won this one?" "Promise? I ..." "When Timmy Gale's father scouted the Bucks and told you about that power combination they used? And you made Ron switch his defensive line assignments?" "That night he and Ross and I met at your house?" "That's right. Tuesday night." Cora looked expectant. "Well ... I ... you said it was going to be a grand-daddy victory lass, didn't you!" "I sure did!" Her dimple showed. "I sure did, coach." Cora leaned back against the edge of the deck and held her arms up to Ted. "Come here, baby," she said. Ted leaned down and took the half step that let him feel her toes against his feet. Her arms circled his neck and her lips molded themselves to his. He felt her body press against him, her breasts hard inside the bra she wore, her abdomen soft against his upper thigh. Sudden heat grabbed at his groin and he stiffened and Cora's belly ground itself against the hard shaft of his p***s. He clutched at her buttocks and drove his tongue between her parted lips. Her breath puffed on his cheek as she panted. Then she pulled her head back. "Warm-up, darling," she murmured. Her voice was husky. Ted looked quickly around again. There was no one. He heard a whistle from the field. They must be getting under way. "Let's get inside, darling," Cora said. "It's too exposed out here." She glanced into the curtained van and back at Ted. "That's cheating," he said. "On Al and Rita?" Cora laughed. "You mean it'd put us one up on them?" Ted shook his head. "I'm not keeping score. I was just thinking about their not knowing." "Oh. Well, we'll tell 'em all about it, afterward." Ted grinned. "I guess they won't mind." Cora turned. "They won't. Boost me in." He lifted her into the van and climbed in behind her, pulling the big doors shut and locking them. He unrolled the pad and drew curtains across behind the driver's compartment. "Oooh! Cozy!" Cora snuggled against him. "Now for that grand-daddy kiss!" Ted gathered her to him and crushed her mouth with his. Their lips rolled against each other, mashed by their teeth and sucking greedily. Cora pushed one foot behind her and arched herself in ward to fit the curve of Ted's body. Out of the corner of his eye, Ted saw that her knee was raised and her thigh bared. He slid his hand over the thigh and she strained it wider, exposing the narrow strip of white nylon that half covered her crotch. He laid his hand over the strip and squeezed. Cora surged into the pressure and her arm tightened compulsively. She jerked her face free. "Ted! Oh, Ted! Stop it!" But she thrust herself harder against him and saw her crotch on his hand. Ted reached for her mouth with his lips and she drew back, turning to lie on the pad and stare up at him. His face approached hers and they locked again in that hungry kiss. Cora planted her other foot and levered her bottom off the pad, swinging her hips from side to side under the finger massage. Ted pulled his other arm out from under her and awkwardly fumbled for the buttons on her blouse. She twisted her face free. "No, Ted! Please! Don't undress me! Someone might come out here with Rita's key!" Ted frowned and studied Cora. Then he grinned. "You don't mean that," he said. "You don't believe that." She hesitated. "No. I don't believe it. But just my pants, Ted." He sat up and slid one hand inside the front of her blouse and into one of the cups, closing his fingers on the hidden breast. With his other hand, he worked her panties off her hips and down over her thighs. She pulled one foot out of them and pushed them off the other leg. "A quickie, baby?" Ted asked. "Ugh! Don't call it that, Ted! It sounds so dirty! It's ... it's ... " She clenched her fists beside her naked hips and looked suddenly troubled. "What is it, baby?" "It's something else," she whispered. "It's the car and the sound of the crowd ... " (He heard the crowd yelling in the background. It sounded like someone had broken loose.) "... and the smell of the equipment. Its ... Ted, the first time was ..." "This is how it happened?" "The very first time. He was like you, Ted. Strong and fast. Oh, please! Go on, before I lose my nerve!" He leaned on his elbow and pressed his lips to hers and rubbed his finger in tiny circles that made her c******s roll. She pumped her hips and clung to his wrist and moaned in her throat. Abruptly, she released his wrist. Her fingers clawed at the zipper of his trousers and she wrestled his p***s into the open. She lowered her left knee to the pad and tugged at him until he rolled over it to crush his p***s in the bristles over her crotch. She wriggled against it, arching up under his weight. Tearing her mouth free, she grunted at him. "Now, Ted! Get it in now!" He raised himself and felt with his fingers, guiding the head among her folds into the fluid and against her gaping opening. She was tight. She wasn't waiting for their play to get her to the point where she'd draw it in as if she were inhaling it. He pushed gently. "No, Ted! Jam it hard! Like he did that first time! Make it hurt!" She grabbed his buttocks through his pants and jerked at him. "Hard, Ted! Hard!" He tensed, then drove against her upturned crotch, feeling her tissues yield inward and then pop open before the brutal thrust. She gasped and clamped her lower lip between her teeth and tears leaped into her eyes. "Oh, God!" she moaned. "That hurt! That did hurt! Now pump, Ted!" He pumped, a long, rhythmic pumping that he knew would arouse her as it did him. "Not that way! Fast and hard! Come, damn it! It's supposed to be my first time! Who the hell cares whether I come?" Cora tossed her head. Ted slammed against her with short, vicious jabs, feeling the knot gather in his gut and the heat well behind his buried shaft. Whatever it was that had triggered this flashback for her, he didn't care. It had been a hell of a long time since he'd allowed himself the luxury of meeting his own tempo and to hell with the broad. He let his elbows take the weight of his upper torso and clamped his fingers on Cora's shoulders, pinning them hard against the pad. She writhed and tossed beneath him and dug her nails into his sides. He felt her draw her legs up until her thighs gripped his waist and her heels beat against his buttocks. A great contraction seized the stuff at the base of his p***s and hot fluid spewed through its passage into her. He grunted and smashed her bottom down. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" she cried. She began to shudder in great spasms. "Gooddamn it! I ... I'm ... coming! Oh, goddamnit, Ted! I ... spoiled ... it!" Ted felt his tension drain into her with his semen and then, having absorbed it, she dissipated it as women always managed to do and subsided into exhaustion. "Oh, Ted," she whispered. "I couldn't go back. It wasn't the same." "I'm sorry, baby." "I ... I guess I'm not, Ted. I got close enough. And I like it better now that I come, too." She smiled up at him, "I always like it with you." "What made you want to go back, baby?" "You know those times when you know you've been through things before? When everything's happened sometime, somewhere, in your past? It was that. You're winning and the referee and the congratulations and ... He was the new coach, Ted. I think it was his first year out of college. We all fell in love with him. After that game, I followed him back to his truck ... and he had one of those panel jobs and the floor was hard and full of splinters. But I didn't care. I just wanted to give him my own special congratulations. Only he ... he ..." Cora stopped and shuddered. Then her lips curved into a smile of recall. "He stunk. He was sweaty and smelly and half drunk because he'd won a game he was supposed to lose. And all of a sudden he pushed me onto my back inside the truck and had his hand inside my pants and his tongue in my mouth. I couldn't fight him; I didn't want to. I let him get my pants off and helped him find the hole. And he didn't care whether I came or not. But God, was he furious when he found out I was ...! Well, he'd figured I'd been had before." Ted chuckled. He felt uncomfortable, picturing that experience. "Come on, baby. We'd better get back to the stands." "You've got Kleenex in one of these cupboards, haven't you?" "Sure." Ted leaned across and dragged out a box of tissues. Cora pulled out a handful. "Okay. Out, tiger." Ted pulled out and wiped himself off with some of the tissues. "You go ahead," Cora suggested. "I'll be with you in a few minutes." She pressed the handful of tissues against her crotch and clamped her thighs together. "Go on, now!" Ted grinned and zipped himself up. He bent down to kiss her on the cheek, then eased through the curtains into the front of the van and scanned the empty lot. "Hurry, sugar," he urged. "Go on! I'll be with you in a little bit!" "Okay." He let himself out of the van and closed the door. Ron's team was functioning with the precision Ted had been told about. The defense had mastered the technique of gang tackling, so that the opponents knew that every play would include a fight for the ball. His running game was coming apart under Ron's clever defensive strategy and his quarterback couldn't evade the blitzing line backers to get off a pass. With three minutes left in the first half, Ron already led twenty to nothing and he was playing one of his strongest opponents. Ted could see the frustration and anger of the other coach, even from this side of the field and he sensed the ominous quiet in the other stands. As he watched, the op posing fullback took a hand-off and plunged off tackle. Big Tony Miller, Ron's left tackle, reached out and grabbed the back and Ernie Bowman, the middle linebacker, bored in for the kill. Ted winced at the impact, but he saw the football squirt into the air, where Ron's left half-back picked it off. The gold-jerseyed back yelled bingo and raced for the side-line. Other gold jerseys immediately converged on him, setting up a screen between him and the stunned enemy. It was Hershel, Ted realized. Charley Hershel. The green-clad Warhawks hadn't a prayer of catching him. And they didn't. He walked the last five yards. The conversion made the score twenty-seven to nothing. Mercifully, the gun sounded before Ron's boys could score again. Ted felt a hand close on his elbow. He looked around. "How's it going?" asked Cora. "Oh! Hi, stranger. Twenty-seven for Ron, a goose-egg for the Warhawks." "Oh, no!" "Oh, yes. As the kids are going to say, Ron's creaming them!" "But they're one of the strongest teams!" "Not when they're up against Ron!" "How does he do it, Ted?" "Cora, baby, I don't know. I've heard rumors, but I haven't had a chance to watch his boys before." Cora nodded. "Al says he heard there was a pro test before the federation board about Ron." Ted shrugged. "I don't know about that." It just didn't pay to comment on that kind of story. It might be true, but it might just be the sort of rumor that a coach as successful as Ron had to expect. So far, all they could prove was that his team was much too good to be playing in this league. And Ted was damned glad he didn't have Ron on his schedule. "Let's go over to the snack bar," he suggested. "I'll buy you a cup of coffee." Cora smiled and her dimple looked deeper than ever. "I need it," she said. "I sure need it!"