Explosive (28 page)

He hated that her self-consciousness bordered on shame at times, but he cherished that character trait as well, because it helped him to know Sophie better. To understand her. He doubted she’d ever get to the point where she strutted around in low-cut dresses and spiked heels, but he was more than thrilled to see she’d dared to greet him with only a scrap of material cradling her breasts.

Besides, Sophie braless, flushed and warm from a shower, was sexier than stilettos and half-bared breasts any day.

“This is an original recording,” he continued, awe tingeing his tone as he held up the album.

He stared, transfixed by her small smile.

“My parents have quite a collection. I keep telling them I’ll send it to them—it must be worth thousands—but they’re apparently happy with their CDs and i-Pods.”

“Their loss is my gain,” he said gruffly. Even though he was trying to make up for his earlier bluntness, he found that he couldn’t stand it another second. He needed to have Sophie in his arms. He set down the record album and beckoned to her.

“Come on. Dance with me.”

Her smile broadened as she walked toward him. He didn’t know why, but the image of her coming to him on that gray, rainy day—her face luminous, her hand outstretched, her hips swaying subtly, a secret in those dark eyes that always drew him in like a moth to flame—something told him that vision of Sophie would stay with him for a long, long time.

He reached out his hand and she took it.

“That’s better,” he murmured as he enfolded her in his arms and breathed in her scent. He pressed his lips to her neck as they moved to the music. “God, you smell good.” He smiled when he felt her shiver.

“Did you catch any fish?” she asked.

He glanced up distractedly. “Fish?”

“Yeah . . . you know . . . what you were trying to catch on the end of that pole out there in the lake? No fish stories, huh?” Sophie laughed softly when he didn’t answer because he was dropping kisses on her cheek, jaw, and the corner of her lips.

“I’ve got better things to do than tell stories,” he mumbled before he dipped his tongue in the center of the beguiling target of her lips. She responded to him with equal hunger, coming up on her tiptoes to meet him, pressing her breasts against him, her stiff nipples poking between his ribs, tangling her tongue with his and applying a slight suction. His body buzzed in pleasant anticipation.

Touching Sophie, surrounding himself in her taste, always kept the dark shadows at bay. Had he really only been away from her for four hours? It felt like days.

The beast in him had fully wakened a moment later. “You taste like sex, Sophie Gable.”

“Do I?” she whispered next to his lips.

“You know you do,” Thomas said as they slowly turned on the carpet and Elvis crooned to them.
Wise men say only fools rush in, indeed,
he thought with a mental roll of his eyes as he considered the lyrics to the song. Unfortunately, foolishness had never before felt remotely this potent.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” he asked after a moment of enjoying the ensnarement of Sophie’s liquid dark eyes. Sometimes, it felt like he was falling into them.

“I’m planning on seducing you,” she said.

His lips and his cock twitched in unison. “
Nice.
But since when does that require planning?”

She gave him an arch look. He chuckled and kissed the end of her nose.

“So, how are you planning to do it?” he asked in a conspiratorial whisper near her ear.

“I don’t know,” she replied. She shifted her head back from his seeking lips and studied him soberly. “I was just going to wing it—”

Wing away,
he thought dazedly when she placed her hand at the back of his head, pushed him down for a kiss that blew him away. It managed to strike him as sweet and voracious, innocent and skilled all at once.

His entire world collapsed to the feeling of Sophie’s soft, vibrant body in his arms, the seductive movement of her lips and tongue, her delicious, pervading flavor, the prized scent rising off her skin that always perfumed the air after—

He sealed their kiss. She gave him a startled look when he abruptly started to lift her skirt.

“What are you doing?” she murmured at the same moment that he dipped two fingers beneath the tiny panties she wore. He grunted in arousal.

“You’re all creamed up, Sophie,” he rasped as he slid his finger into the juicy crevice between her labia. She inhaled sharply when he flicked at her clit. He smiled down at her. Just like it had last night, when he’d pulled out that big cock she kept in her bedside table, the contrast in Sophie’s fresh, girl-next-door appearance and the evidence of her deep sensuality aroused him monumentally. His eyes widened as he continued to stroke her and he realized just how wet she was.

“This isn’t just from getting turned on. You just came, didn’t you?” he asked quietly.

“Thomas. Don’t.” She grabbed his hand and pushed him away, giving him a reprimanding look. “I’m supposed to be seducing you.”

His smile widened. God, she was amazing. He reached for her hand when she used it to smooth her skirt back over her hips and thighs.

She gasped in disbelief when he lifted it to his mouth and slid her forefinger into his mouth.

“Never mind. I have my answer,” he said, his voice sounding garbled while he laved her skin with his tongue. He closed his mouth around her. Her taste inundated his brain and had far-reaching effects on his body. He took one last gentle suck on her finger before he released it, only to capture the second one greedily with his lips. He kissed her knuckles after he’d found every last remnant of her sweet essence.

“What got you so turned on, Sophie?”

It wasn’t entirely fair that he’d asked her a question because he wouldn’t allow her to respond. He was too busy devouring her. He couldn’t keep his mouth off hers. Something about tasting her juices on her own fingers had made him go a little nuts.

A lot
nuts.

He pressed her to him tightly while his hands explored every straight line and curve on her body and his tongue searched avidly for more of her secrets in the depths of her mouth.

He grunted in dissatisfaction when she backed out of his arms.

“Thomas, no . . . wait.”

He paused and took stock of himself as he stared at her and panted lightly.

“Sorry,” he said after a moment. “I really do turn into an animal around you, don’t I?”

A tendril of light gold hair fell onto her cheek as she shook her head decisively. “No. It’s not that. I like the way you make love to me. I . . . I love it.” He sensed both her softness and her strength when she met his gaze. “But you always bowl me over. I want to be the one to make love to you.”

His heartbeat throbbed in his ears in the seconds that followed. “Just tell me one thing.”

Her elegantly arched brows rose.

“Is that what you were thinking about when you were touching yourself in that bathroom?”

“Yes. In part.” The color in her cheeks became even more vivid, but she held his stare and her voice sounded smooth and even.

He threw up his hands. “Then I’m all yours. Do whatever you want to me. If it got you that turned on, I’m all for it. The way I’ve been behaving lately, it wouldn’t surprise me if you wanted to be the one to take charge. Probably safer all around,” he added under his breath.

She stepped toward him. “No. That’s not what I meant. I’m not worried about
safety.
I was just thinking I’d like to be able to . . . to touch you without interference.”

“Really?”

She shook her head in mild exasperation. “Why would that surprise you?”

He shrugged. “So . . . what do you want me to do?”

She licked her lower lip. Thomas suspected she did it out of anxiety, but his whole body tightened anyway. Why did he think everything she did was sex distilled?

“Why don’t you start out by taking off your clothes. And . . . you can lay on the couch, if you like.”

Thomas stripped with rapid efficiency while the notes to “Puppet on a String” resounded from the speakers and Sophie watched him with dark eyes that shone like moonlight on two deep pools.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

The plug seemed to throb in her ass as she watched Thomas remove his shirt with a compelling flex of defined muscle. It surprised her how much the sensation aroused her. Apparently there were sympathetic nerves between her ass and pussy that had never been fully awakened before, because her clit tingled with excitement. It’d felt delicious when Thomas had stroked it just now.

She inhaled slowly when Thomas dropped his boxer briefs and his long, firm erection sprang free. The buzz of her clit amplified to a burn.

The silicone plug felt slightly uncomfortable lodged in her body, but the pressure it caused was undeniably arousing. She was surprised to learn the far-flung effects of the plug. The bottoms of her feet felt hot and her breasts were heavy and achy, as if they possessed a mind of their own and were demanding to be touched and fondled. Even the nerves in her mouth seemed to tingle, making her lips feel warm, swollen, and overly sensitive.

Thomas flung off the last of his clothing and sprawled back on the couch, pulling a pillow beneath his head, and Sophie had to admit . . . maybe it wasn’t just the ass plug that was making her entire body hum with sexual awareness. He lay there—a long stretch of defined muscle and male tumescence—and smiled at her.

“Okay. I’m ready to play doctor.”

Sophie snorted with laughter. He joined in her mirth as she walked toward him. It felt so good—so
right
to laugh with Thomas. His humor had been cloaked by the shadow of his grief. She realized that Thomas Nicasio was meant to laugh. The fact that she’d rarely seen him do it in their short acquaintance caused sadness to stab through her arousal.

“What?” he asked, still grinning broadly. He must have seen her falter in her mirth.

“Nothing. I just . . . hold on. I’m going to get something.”

His eyebrows shot up on his forehead when she returned a few seconds later carrying the bottle of lubricant.

“You said last night it was a massage oil as well,” Sophie murmured as she knelt beside the couch.

She glanced up at him from beneath lowered brows as she poured some of the light, silky liquid into her palm. She rubbed her hands together, smearing the oil. Sophie couldn’t help but notice that his cock lurched up from where it rested on his belly when she touched him. He said nothing when she began to smooth her hands and curious fingertips over his skin, lightly massaging dense pectoral and shoulder muscles. She watched the progress of her exploration of his body, but she sensed his stare on her face, and knew that he watched her with as much focus as she studied him.

It felt like a decadent treat, to be able to stroke and caress such a beautiful man without constraint. She discovered a ticklish strip of skin along his right rib. She glanced up when he started and they shared a smile.

“Would you put your arms above your head, please?” she murmured.

He did so slowly, holding her stare.

“You can’t expect me just to lay here for much longer,” he said while she applied more massage oil to her hands and they made a squishy sound as she rubbed them together. The inserted plug in addition to the opportunity to touch Thomas unhindered was making things between her thighs exceptionally wet.

“I
do
expect it,” she assured him.

She felt the tremor in his flesh when she swept her hands down the fascinating diagonal slants at the sides of his torso that ran from just below his armpit to his waist. It did something to her . . . to feel such a strong man tremble with excitement from her touch, to hold his heart between her hands.

Her gaze flickered down to his erection, which looked firm and delicious. A drop of clear pre-ejaculate beaded at the slit. It shifted on his belly, as though her glance had been a physical caress.

“Touch me, Sophie,” he murmured.

She leaned down and inserted a tiny, erect, dark brown nipple between her lips. He groaned roughly and cradled her head in his palm, pressing her to him as she studied the tiny bumps on his nipple with her tongue.

When she lifted her head a moment later, Thomas didn’t appear to like her absence.

“Come back,” he demanded, reaching for her.

Sophie laughed softly. “I will. Put your hands back above your head first.”

He did so, albeit with a scowl.

She felt the tension rise in his muscles as she continued to explore his body with curious fingertips. She molded his strong, hard thigh muscles in her hands while her gaze remained fixed on his full testicles and swollen cock. Everything between her legs, from her clit to her pussy, from her perineum to her ass sizzled with sexual energy.

He grabbed her wrist when she slid her hand partially beneath him and palmed a tight buttock. His other hand captured her free hand. Their gazes held as he placed her palm on his teeming cock. He folded his hand above hers and guided her motions, lifting the heavy column of flesh off his abdomen.

For several taut, delicious moments, they stared at one another as he moved her lubricated hand up and down the length of his cock. Sophie felt the air burn in her lungs. He looked magnificent at that moment, his muscles tight with arousal and gleaming from the oil, his dark green eyes pinning her with a fierce, feral stare.

“I’m not very good at giving up control,” he rasped.

“I didn’t want you to give up control. This isn’t about that,” she whispered. She clamped her thighs together tight, trying to alleviate a pinch of arousal, when he began to move her hand more rapidly over his cock.

“What is it about then?”

“I wanted to show you that I trust that you won’t lose control.” She placed another lubricated hand beneath the one that already fisted his penis and moved it in unison with the other, jacking him more thoroughly. He hissed in pleasure. “I want you to believe it; I want
you
to trust in yourself again. You’re grief-stricken, Thomas. Not dangerous.”