Hanging On (30 page)

With a tiny smile on her face, Sophia finished peeling the remaining potatoes, rinsing them and adding them to Drew’s pile as she went.

One by one, the rest of her family got to work on their portions. David peeled the corn, fastidiously removing every piece of silk. Anna added ribs to the simmering pot of Vernors. Daniel readied aluminum foil sheets and loaded them with Drew’s cut potatoes.

It was quiet, which was strange for her family. Also strange was the fact that being next to Drew, working in silence, filled her with contentment. It was a foreign feeling, but one she liked.

“So, Mrs. DiMarco, what’s in the pot besides those ribs?” Drew framed the question in an offhand manner, as if they had been conversing the entire time.

Anna bristled a bit, shifting the racks of ribs in the pot more than necessary. “Family secret.”

“My Anna is protective of her recipes,” David explained as he bent over the growing pile of corn guts on the table.

Drew grinned at her mother’s back. “Sophia already showed me the red wine in the tomato sauce thing. I added it to a new dish I’ve developed. I’m featuring it on an episode this season.” A hand fluttered to her chest, pressing tight. Her mother had her emotions under control before she turned around. If she had been pissed at him, she wouldn’t have worried about it. But she was pleased, so it made a

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difference. “My grandmother taught me that. Sophia’s always loved my sauce.”

“With good reason,” Drew said. Though he only appeared to glance casually at her, and not notice how happy she was, he knew exactly what he was doing. Sophia struggled not to laugh at the game the pair played. “Do you want to come to the taping? It’s Tuesday at my house. Noon. Sophia can bring you.”

“I’m working,” she said, handing Drew her last potato.

His brows drew together. “Ginny said you weren’t working tomorrow or Tuesday.”

“For you. I have other clients.”

“She working for me,” Daniel supplied. “I had her first.” Drew knew about the proposal Sophia had submitted to Christopher’s firm. The question in his eyes stewed there for an indecisive minute. Though he was supposed to get back to her Friday, she hadn’t heard from Chris at all. Tomorrow, she would place a follow-up call just to see where things stood. Likely, she hadn’t been chosen. They were probably waiting to confirm with their primary choice before informing the rest of the bidders that their bid wasn’t accepted. Still, a friendly call would have been nice.

“You need to know how to do your own books.” David’s admonition boomed from the table. It had been a point of contention between Daniel and him for many years. It was an old, worn-out argument any of them could have lip-synced.

Mom chimed in, defending Daniel as she always did. “David, leave the boy alone. This is Sophia’s business.”

“I can do my books, Dad, but then I’d be denying Sophie the pleasure.

What kind of big brother does something like that?” Their mother ended the argument before it could get into the fact Daniel finished college with a degree their father considered useless, political science. If he’d gone on to become a lawyer, David would have been okay with it. But when their grandfather retired and left the studio to Daniel, he jumped at the chance to follow his dream.

“Danny can give you the afternoon off, Sophia. What time are you picking me up?” Anna couldn’t have been more pleased.

Drew didn’t understand her glare. She sighed in exasperation.

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“I’ll pick you up at eleven, Mom.” Before Daniel could say a word, Sophia held up a hand to him. “I’ll come back after dancing lessons Tuesday, and I’ll finish up Wednesday night after class.” Because Drew wanted her to watch him film all afternoon, he was going to lose two nights with her. She watched as he ran the rest of her weekly schedule through his head and he realized he wouldn’t see her alone again for an entire week.

He swore under his breath, but only Sophia was aware of his foul language. This time, it didn’t make her laugh.

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Daniel popped in a Bruce Lee DVD and camped out on Sophia’s couch.

Taking that as their cue to leave, her parents kissed Sophia on the cheek and invited Drew to call them by their first names.

The rest of the day had gone extremely well. Drew found an easy fit with her family. He grilled the meat with Daniel, talked preseason football with David, and charmed Anna out of her culinary secrets by gushing over her ribs.

Of course, Drew made the barbeque sauce, which was sweet and tangy, so she wasn’t sure if her mother’s simmering marinade or Drew’s sauce made the meal. It was tasty, and that’s all she cared about.

She closed the door behind her parents, ready to turn her wrath on Daniel. As she prepared to kick him out so she could be alone with Drew for the first time in four days, he stretched and grabbed for his phone and keys.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

“For what?” She wrinkled her nose at him in confusion.

“For acting like I’m staying late tonight, Sophia. Do you really think they would have left before Drew?”

“Oh,” she said. He was right. “Thank you. Are you leaving?” She had to make sure.

“After you answer one question.”

Drew wrapped his arms around Sophia from behind and pressed a kiss into her neck. Danny needed to leave.

“Make it quick.”

“Are you pregnant?”

She froze, her arrested attention fixed on Daniel. “What?”

“You’re a coffee addict, yet you won’t drink it, or anything else with caffeine. You refused beer twice today. Drew doesn’t seem surprised. He
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didn’t even offer you any coffee after dinner, though the rest of us were drinking it.” He stared at her expectantly. “And I found a pregnancy test in your purse the other night.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m not pregnant.” The shock running through Drew manifested physically. His body jerked against hers, and he let go of her. “You’re not?”

“I told you I wasn’t.” Her body was stiff, and her voice was a whisper.

If Daniel saw her lie, he didn’t call her on it. With a brief nod, he squeezed a hand on her shoulder and bid them good-bye. He locked the door behind him.

Sophia turned to Drew and pulled his face to hers. She wanted to drown in his kiss and revel in the feel of his strong hands roaming her body.

He had other ideas. “Sophia, does this mean you’ve started your period?”

With her mind firmly on the fun she wanted to have that night, she shook her head. “Not yet.”

Those hands held her shoulders firmly, thwarting her efforts to get romantic. “The test was negative?”

Stepping back, a low growl escaped to illustrate her frustration. “I didn’t take the test yet. My period is only a few days late, which is not at all unusual. Don’t push it, Drew. I’m being careful.” And she was being careful. Everything Daniel said was true. Even though she desperately didn’t want to be pregnant, she was taking every precaution to protect something that was a maybe.

Frustrated, he glared at her for the longest time. His internal struggle played over his features, shades of anger and defeat turning to acceptance and patience. When he pulled her to him, his kiss was rough, ravaging her lips with repressed passion. His hand wound in her hair, and he jerked her head back to suck and bite at her neck.

She let him have her this way, reveling in his barely restrained ardor.

Treatment like this from anyone else would have scared her. She never thought she would be able to trust anyone enough to really let herself go, to just accept the things he made her feel. Drew shattered almost all of her boundaries. She would do anything to keep him from looking at her with disgust or pity. Her resolve to keep her past from him strengthened as her love for him grew.

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Suddenly, he broke away. “Let’s go downstairs, Sophia. I have a surprise for you, and I’m sure you don’t want the neighbors calling the cops over all the screaming you’re going to be doing.” That didn’t sound good. “Screaming?”

He grinned. “Yeah, you know. Faster. Harder. Oh God, Drew. Yes.” She blushed, sure those words and more were going to flow from her in profusion. Drew was the only lover who had ever moved her to be desperately vocal. She’d always directed her lovers with gentle commands, not frantic demands.

Turning out most of the lights, she left the one over the stove lit as a nightlight. It was doubtful they would make it back upstairs before dark.

Drew had most of her clothes off before she locked the door to the playroom. His lips were everywhere, lighting fires that would never be quenched. He wore a polo shirt today, which he helped her remove, but he stopped her when she went for his pants.

She looked up at him, puzzled.

He smiled, a sly, cocky curving of those luscious lips. “Time for your surprise.”

She didn’t move.

“Trust me?” It was both a question and a request.

There was nothing tentative about her nod.

Lifting her with ease, he threw her to the mattress, and then he bound her hands above her head. Her heart beat so fast she thought it would burst from her chest. She struggled, fighting the restraint and a panic attack. “No, Drew, don’t do this to me.”

His response was to kiss her until passion took over, calming her. Then those clear blue eyes met hers, unflinchingly intense. “Trust me, Sophie. I’m only going to make you feel good. I promise.” Her nod was tentative, but she was determined to trust him. She didn’t protest when he slipped a blindfold over her eyes and finished undressing her.

His weight eased off the bed, and the door opened. She heard his footsteps moving up the stairs and echoing through the kitchen. Icy breaths caught in her throat, stabbing the sudden dryness there. Rationally, she knew he wouldn’t leave her like this, yet her vulnerable position made her nervous and unsteady.

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Moisture rushed to her pussy. It swelled in anticipation and scented the air with spicy arousal.

Drew’s returning footsteps only heightened the tension. By the time he secured the door and the bed dipped under his weight, she was as tight as a bowstring. One touch would send her over the edge.

“Miss me?” he whispered before plundering her mouth with a demanding kiss.

She met his demand, matching his passion and whimpering with need.

The nights at work had begun to take a toll on Sophia. She no longer wanted to spend her evenings whipping or binding strangers, even familiar strangers. Every second she spent at the Club was a second she wished she was spending with Drew. The procession of naked bodies, which used to fuel her passions, did nothing for her anymore.

But now she needed the job for the income, not the emotional outlet.

God, how she missed Drew!

“Yes,” she whispered back. “I’m glad you came home early.” His lips curved happily as they traveled down her body. Wispy caresses cascaded down her arms, across her breasts, and down her stomach. He skipped her pussy, as he had skipped her nipples, to concentrate on her legs.

The breath sucked out of her when she felt his mouth close around her smallest toe. The rhythm of his sucking and the scrape of his teeth created a curious sense of urgency. She pressed her legs together, trying to concentrate the swirling as he gave each digit the same treatment.

Taking one ankle gently in his hand, he wrapped cold leather around it.

In the darkness under the mask, she realized he was binding her ankles. She didn’t fight him. Her legs were spread, and she couldn’t close them, and she didn’t care. She wanted his face there. She wanted his mouth sucking her clit the way he sucked her toes. She wanted to come in his mouth. If she was running the show, he would be bound in this position while she rode his face. Maybe they’d do that next.

His weight shifted to make the bed dip near her hip. Something feathery brushed her nipple, swirling around the areola until it puckered. Air rushed across, hardening it to the point of pain. It burned pleasantly, aching for the pressure of his mouth or the pinch of his fingers. Moaning, she arched toward him, offering her breast.

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But he shifted again, leaning across her. Part of his arm grazed her stomach lightly, sending tingles rocketing in all directions. Silently, he repeated the motions on the other nipple.

Now both of them burned. She moaned, squirming against her bonds.

“Like that, honey?”

The brush swept lightly across her bottom lip, leaving something sticky there. Darting out her tongue, Sophia tasted sweetness that left a light tingling behind. She caught his play on words. “Honey? What did you mix in with it?”

He chuckled lightly. “A chef never reveals his secrets.” With that, he left her quivering, aching body to settle between her legs.

She didn’t get her hopes up too high. The denim scraping her leg said he was still clothed.

The outward push on her thighs had her spreading them wider. The bindings on her ankles slackened as she gave him what he wanted. His hot tongue licked long and deep, tracing a trail along the inside of her vaginal lips and circling her clit. She arched into him, wishing the situation was reversed and she could ride him as fast and hard as she wanted. He licked for a while longer, keeping his pressure light to let her know this was still the warm-up.

Then he was gone. The brush replaced his tongue, lightly flicking over and around her clit. The sticky substance burned there more intensely than it did on her breasts. When he blew on her to dry the honeyed mixture, she lifted her hips from the bed, crying out in frustration. Yes, this was very stimulating. It made her want to rub her entire body on him and fuck him blind.

Wetness spurted into her pussy, but he kept her spread open, forcing it to pool somewhat south of her clit. He wasn’t going to give her relief any time soon.

Even as she bucked and squirmed, he tightened the bindings, forcing her legs further apart and limiting her upper body movement even more.

“Drew!” He was right, she was screaming his name, but not in the way she thought she would.

“Patience, my love.”

She heard him rummaging through the containers on her shelves. One of the reasons she selected her toys and props beforehand was so that if her
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submissive was blindfolded or tied with their back to her, which was frequently the case, they could not be aware of exactly what she was doing.

Not knowing heightened the tension.

For Sophia, knowing heightened the tension. Drew wasn’t trained on using the other kinds of bindings or the whips, not that she thought he would try to use them. He’d promised he wouldn’t hurt her, and he didn’t have any special love for the whip himself. He was unfamiliar with many of her toys, not that he couldn’t figure them out.

Foil packets dropped on the bed next to Sophia and she sighed. Finally, he was going to get down to business.

His big, warm chest pressed against hers as his lips reminded her that she belonged to him. Arching as much as she could, she offered her body to him. The honey on her nipples had dried to a hard shell, pulling the skin taut. Whatever spices he mixed into the honey tingled tantalizingly against her sensitive skin. Her breasts were on fire for his mouth, and her pussy was an inferno.

She writhed with need.

He pulled back, and she felt the tip of a fairly wide, textured toy nudge her opening. “I love to watch you come, Sophia.” The vibrating length slid into her. She rocked against it, wanting it faster, harder, and rubbing against her clit. He did none of those things.

Whimpering, she begged. “Please, Drew. ‘Upon thy eyes I throw all the power this charm doth owe.’”

He chuckled, and she knew he found amusement in the reversal of their roles. “Oh, honey, the power of your charm is definitely upon my eyes. Tell me how you want it, sweetheart. I want to make you come.” The easy solution was to bury himself deep inside her. He wasn’t going for easy tonight. “Fuck me with it, Drew.” It wiggled inside as he pressed it up and down. The increased pressure of the vibrations against her vaginal walls lifted her hips the few inches allowed by her bonds. She cried out, so near an orgasm. He pumped it in and out, up and down, rotating the curved head inside as she screamed out her first orgasm.

The clenching and pulsing of her pussy did little to alleviate the burning on her clit, but Drew paid little attention to that need as he continued to thrust the vibrating toy deep into her. No man had ever pushed her the way

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Drew did. He didn’t let her orgasm wane before forcing her to the next one.

The sensitized muscles of her vagina only pulsed faster. Tension coiled, a hurricane swirling toward that ultimate release.

She screamed again as she shattered. The many parts of her body littered the bed. She was aware they existed, but she had no control over anything anymore.

Drew planted a kiss on her slack mouth and dialed down the setting on the vibrator, but he didn’t turn it off. “I love you, Sophie. I love watching you come. You’ll come again for me, won’t you?” She didn’t know if she had it in her. She lacked the ability to move or to respond to Drew’s question.