Looking for Trouble (9 page)

Sophie grasped his head in her hands, the prickle of his stubble against her palms almost too much for her mind to process. Yet another wicked sensation to take in. Her palms sizzled with the feel of it as her whole body trembled. His tongue was so light, so torturous, so perfect and maddening.

She gripped his head harder, pressed him tight, and when he sucked at her this time, she finally got what she wanted. Her entire body was that one spot, all heat and pressure and tightness. She pressed her head back against the wall, and let everything spiral tight.

“Yes,” she urged. And then she broke apart, shaking, screaming, pressing herself to the sweet heat of his mouth.

He didn’t let up, he didn’t miss a beat, he just opened his mouth wider and sucked harder and rode the wild spasms of her hips as she came. When the pleasure finally shook its way out of her, she felt drugged. Spent. Her knees trembled with such weakness she would’ve felt embarrassed by it if she’d had the capacity. But she didn’t. All she could think was
Oh, fuck.

He was good. So good.

When he rose up, Sophie had to press herself to the wall to stay upright. Then he reached for the buckle of his belt, and she wasn’t sure the wall would be enough. Her mouth went dry and her heart gave up its new languid pace and thumped to eager life again.

Right here. While she was naked, her clothes strewn across the living room floor. With him still fully dressed. He was going to take her right here, against the wall, like she was a toy to be enjoyed whenever he felt like it.

He unzipped his jeans and reached into his briefs and then, good Lord, he fisted his cock in his hand and eased it out. Sophie made a noise. She couldn’t help it. He was thick and beautiful, the head a perfect plum she wanted to taste. And when he reached for her hand and wrapped it around the base, she moaned. She couldn’t help that either, because he was even thicker now with her small hand wrapped around him. So thick and hard and heavy that she felt faint with lust. She wanted all of that.

He tugged his wallet from his back pocket. He must have been getting out a condom, but Sophie couldn’t bother to look. She was too busy watching her hand squeeze him. Then stroke. All the way up to that gorgeous head and then back down. He hissed in a breath, so she did it again. More firmly this time. She was rewarded with a tiny bead of liquid at the tip. Sophie slicked her thumb over it and swirled it around.

“Jesus,” he groaned. She heard the tear of the condom wrapper and let him go so he could put it on.

There was clearly no need for more foreplay, and she was glad he didn’t pretend. Alex simply bent his knees and lifted one of her legs to his hip. He notched his cock to her opening and he penetrated her. Slowly. Patiently. But without a hint of hesitation. He pushed in, forced her open, and Sophie groaned at the way her body stretched for him.

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “God. Yes.”

He pulled back a little, then thrust hard, burying himself deep and tight inside her. She couldn’t breathe for a moment, so stunned by the brutal invasion. But she loved it. She was so wet that it didn’t matter how big he was, her body let him in.

Alex pulled her other leg up, wrapped her ankles around him, and began to fuck her. Her shoulders were pressed to the wall, but his big hands held her ass in a steady grip as he thrust hard and slow, looking down to watch as his cock disappeared into her. Sophie twined her arms around his neck and took him.

“God, you’re hot,” he growled. “So hot and wet for me.”

“Yes.”

“You’re perfect. Fucking beautiful.”

“Yes,” she repeated. She was. Shoved against the wall and fucked like an animal. She was wild and amazing.

He kissed her and she tasted herself on his mouth and loved it. She wanted more, so she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and began to move with him. Alex groaned into her mouth. His hands got a better grip on her ass and he moved her like she belonged to him. Like she weighed nothing. Like she was just an extension of his body and he could use her any way he liked.

His cock filled her over and over, shoving out thoughts of anything except him. His thick, hard flesh. His need to be inside her, as deep as anyone could get. Sweat made his neck slick beneath her hands, and she liked making him work hard for it.

He shifted his hold, hooking his arms under her thighs and lifting her higher against the wall. Now she was spread wide and vulnerable. Alex thrust hard. Sophie screamed.

“Is that how you like it, Sophie?”

She shut her eyes and nodded. He slammed his hips into her, his cock sinking deep and true.

“You like to be fucked hard? Tell me.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Look at me.” His voice was a snarled order. “Look at me and tell me what you want.”

She didn’t want to. It was too much. She’d already shown him just who she was. But his hips slammed into her again. “Look at me,” he growled.

She opened her eyes. Alex looked like someone’s deepest fears. His shaved head and stubbled face and wide, muscled shoulders and the vivid threat of his tattoos as his biceps flexed to hold her still for his pleasure. His face offered no reassurance. He looked furious and desperate as he fucked her. An animal bent on violence. Like he wanted to hurt her with his cock.

Sophie’s stomach clenched inside her. Her heart tripped over fear and lust and danger. “Fuck me, Alex,” she said.

He snarled and fucked her faster.

“Fuck me,” she repeated. “Hard. Please, just...
Please
.”

He lifted her hips, tipping them up, pressing her shoulders harder against the wall. His motorcycle boots provided the perfect traction on her wood floor. Sophie whimpered as he pistoned into her.

“Are you going to come again?” he asked.

She shook her head. She couldn’t. Not even for him.

“Yes, you are,” he growled. “Touch yourself.”

“I can’t—”

“Touch yourself.”

There was no saying no to him. Not when his voice was as hard as a fist. She unlaced her clutching fingers from behind his neck and carefully slid a hand between their bodies. Her bare sex was slippery wet. Her fingers brushed his cock as it slid out of her, and his shaft was slick and hot from her cunt.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, then said it again when she brushed her clit and jerked against his thrust.

“That’s it,” he murmured.

She pressed her fingers to her clit and felt the way his cock dragged against her flesh. He was so thick, so big. “Yes,” she urged.

“I want to feel it,” he said. “I want to feel you come around my cock. Do that for me, Sophie.”

She shook her head again, but she wasn’t sure she meant it. Just the way his voice ordered her so roughly was pushing her closer.

“Yes,” he insisted, his hands pulling her hips even higher. “That’s it,” he murmured when she circled her clit faster. “Show me how much you love it.”

Oh, fuck, she did love it. She did. “Harder,” she demanded.

Alex cursed and wrapped a hand behind her shoulders to pull her toward him. He knelt and lowered her back carefully to the floor, but that was the last hint of restraint. Once she was on her back, he drove hard into her, forcing a cry from her throat.

“Harder?” he growled, his hips slapping into hers.

“Yes,” she rasped. “Yes, yes,” as she took him deep and deeper and she finally felt that sweet tension building, tightening around his thick cock. He curved over her, fisting a hand into her hair.

“Come for me,” he ordered. And she did. She came, head thrown back, clenching her teeth to hold back a scream, hips lifting to take him deeper as she climaxed.

He stilled within her. For a moment, all she could feel was her own body, tight and pulsing, the spasms just starting to fade. But as her awareness returned, she realized he was still hard, his muscles still taut.

The fist in her hair loosened. He slid his hand to her jaw and tipped her head toward him. “That was good, Sophie,” he murmured against her mouth. “So good.” Then he kissed her and moved slowly inside her. His cock pushed deep, then slid out so slowly that she hummed with pleasure.

She curved her arms around him and dug her fingers into his ass. He still wore his jeans. And she was still so naked. But she felt powerful as his muscles clenched under her hands. Alex grunted and went taut as his heart thundered against hers and he thrust one last time. She held him there and wished it wasn’t over.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“H
I,
M
ANNY!”
S
OPHIE
called as she walked down her driveway into the crisp morning.

Her sixty-year-old neighbor popped up from the open door of his taxi and tipped his porkpie hat. “Hey! Beautiful day, ain’t it?”

“It’s perfect,” she responded, meaning it wholeheartedly.

Manny got back to cleaning the inside of his windshield. “You know, my nonny always said ‘Autumn days come quickly like a running hound.’”

“That’s a lovely saying, Manny. You must miss her.”

“She was a good woman. Real traditional-like.”

Sophie shook her head once she was past his lot. Manny didn’t have a nonny. His family had come to Wyoming by way of Utah in the nineteenth century, and his name was Michael. But Manny had gone to New York once in his youth and he’d fallen in love. He’d retired from his job teaching high school shop class five years ago, and he was finally living his dream of being a New York cabdriver. In Jackson Hole.

He’d somehow acquired a trace of a New York accent along with his yellow-checker-painted Ford Taurus and old-fashioned cap. The tourists bought into the shtick and she was pretty sure Manny had bought into it, too. But it made him happy, so even the locals played along.

Everyone deserved something to make them happy.

Sophie ducked her head and tried to hide her smile as she walked up her block. It wasn’t easy to hide. It was a big smile. She had a lot to be happy about.

It was a gorgeous September day, even warmer than the last. She knew she’d only have a few more weeks of weather suitable for walking to work in a skirt and heels, so she reveled in the sun on her face and the swish of her blue cotton dress around her thighs. She also reveled in the slight twinge of soreness as she walked. Her muscles were still tired, her hips a little sore, and between her legs she felt bruised in the most satisfying way.

A soft breeze swept over her as she turned a corner, air slipping over her bare thighs. She’d worn her favorite pale pink garter today. The silk fabric was embroidered with taupe swirls that perfectly matched the color of her nude stockings. The bra was the same pale pink, with taupe straps that matched the swirls on the garter. Beyond that...she wore nothing at all.

The smile snuck up on her again, because that felt most wicked of all. The air caressing her bare sex as she walked. The most secret of secrets and no one would ever know. Unless she happened to see Alex later.

She patted the royal-blue skirt of her shirtwaist dress. She looked like Mrs. Cleaver in this dress. Like a woman who should be home cooking a nutritious meal for her loving family. But the truth was that all she wanted to do in the kitchen was be shoved over a counter and taken hard, her pretty little dress bunched around her waist. And she knew just who should be doing the taking.

She still couldn’t believe he hadn’t been angry. She’d lied to him, or at least withheld the truth, and he hadn’t seemed the least bit affected.

Then again, maybe he had been affected. Maybe when he’d realized who she was, the wrongness of it had turned him on. Because it was wrong. Their parents had been lovers. Cheaters. Liars. They’d run away together.

Sophie’s heel scuffed the sidewalk and interrupted her stride. She kept walking, but she’d lost her smile.

That was the truth she’d lived with her whole life. That her mother had run off with Wyatt Bishop. That they’d both abandoned their children for lust and illicit love and disappeared together forever. The shame of it had clung to Sophie her whole life, and to her father and brother, too. It had felt like a stain on her skin. A marking that everyone could see. Your mother didn’t love you. Your mother was a slut. Your mother left her children.

Sophie was only just starting to get used to the fact that it wasn’t true.

A year ago, Alex’s brother, Shane, had accidentally solved the twenty-five-year-old mystery. While exploring Bishop property near the Providence ghost town, he’d found a washed-out camp road and then, far below it, hidden in a ravine, he’d found their father’s truck and camper.

The news about Alex’s father had been immediate. But the confirmation that the second set of skeletal remains had been Sophie’s mother...that had taken weeks.

Dorothy Heyer hadn’t left her family. She may have cheated, but she hadn’t left Sophie motherless. Not on purpose. There’d been an accident, and she’d died.

Sophie took a deep breath and tried to ignore the shaking of her heart. She’d grieved for her mother too many years ago. She couldn’t do it again. The knowledge of her death didn’t change anything. Not really.

A horn honked behind her and Sophie jumped. By the time Manny pulled up next to her, Sophie had caught her breath and turned toward the street.

“Hey again, Miss Sophie!” he called.

“Manny, you scared me.”

“Sorry! I’m on my way to pick up a fare at the airport. Need a ride somewhere?”

She pointed at the library. “Just headed to work. But thank you.” She started to wave, but he didn’t pull away.

“All right. But I just thought I’d warn you that Mrs. Bishop is looking for you.”

“What?” Again?

“She just came by your house, all bothered about something. I told her you were long gone.”

“Thanks, Manny. I appreciate it.”

Crap. Had she somehow found out about Alex’s visit yesterday? Maybe she had a camera set up to point down the street. But it didn’t matter. Sophie couldn’t worry about it. Alex would be leaving soon enough.

“Hello, Sophie,” one of the firefighters called from the doorway of the station. He was with two of the other guys, all of them young and built for playing hero.

“Hi, guys,” she called with a wave.

They all smiled at her, and Sophie blushed, feeling more than a little scandalous after what she’d done yesterday. They thought she was shy, of course. One of them called out, “That’s a pretty dress, Sophie!”

She laughed and let them have their fun. She liked that they thought she was a bashful, conservative girl who was fun to tease but definitely wouldn’t be much fun to take home. It contrasted perfectly with the fact that she was so close to naked in very important ways.

If she ever actually needed rescuing by the fire squad, they’d all be in for a serious shock, especially if it involved hauling her down a ladder.

She was still giggling when she stepped into the library. Compared to her mood the last time she’d worked, today was going to be like a party. She hadn’t made plans to see Alex tonight, but she had a feeling he might text her. This time, he’d had as good a time as she had.

She was smiling at the thought when she spotted Lauren behind the circulation desk and waved. But instead of responding in kind, the smile Lauren had been wearing fell away. She took the books that a young boy was handing her, and she shot a pointed look toward the director’s office. When she looked back to Sophie, Lauren widened her eyes and shook her head. She was obviously trying to convey some sort of alarm, but Sophie couldn’t imagine what. She hadn’t even worked yesterday. What could she possibly have screwed up?

Lauren jerked her head toward the small office they shared behind the circulation desk, so Sophie headed that way to hide out until she could get the scoop. But she hadn’t moved quickly enough. She’d hesitated out of confusion and before she could make it past the director’s office, the door opened and Jean-Marie stepped out.

“Sophie,” she said coolly. “Could I speak with you a moment?”

“Of course!” she answered cheerfully, but she shot Lauren a look of horror over her shoulder. Lauren winced but couldn’t offer any clue. She had to turn back to her patron. Oh, well. Sophie was about to find out what she’d done to inspire a Serious Talk. Her day had suddenly lost its background music of singing birds and tinkling piano notes.

“Sophie,” her director said in a mournful voice. She sounded as if she were personally pained by just the sound of Sophie’s name.

“Yes?”

“In light of the new circumstances, when Merry Kade stops in today I’m going to tell her that I assembled the Providence display in the lobby.”

“The new circumstances?” Sophie asked blankly.

“I know you did the work, but I’m sure you understand why it would be better not to attach your name to it.”

“No, I don’t understand,” she insisted, but as the words left her mouth, a terrible thought struck her. People knew. People knew that she and Alex were sleeping together and it had created a new scandal. Maybe his mother really had put up cameras on the street. Maybe she—

“Don’t you think Merry might take offense?” Jean-Marie had dropped any semblance of concern and now looked only impatient.

“I’m sorry,” Sophie stammered. “I...I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your brother,” Jean-Marie said, her mouth as flat as her words. “Now...” She turned back to her computer, obviously dismissing Sophie. “If you’ll—”

“My brother? I have no idea what you’re talking about. What does he have to do with anything?”

“Honestly, Sophie, if you can’t keep up with your family’s peccadillos, then I don’t know what to say. Your brother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Bishops this morning. I’m sure they’re understandably distraught, and I don’t want the library thrown in with your pile of dirty laundry. You know how important the support of the historical trust is to us. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”

Sophie would’ve liked to excuse her, but she couldn’t move. Her brother had filed a lawsuit? Against the
Bishops?
She just sat there, staring at her boss, mouth agape in undignified shock. The calm part of her brain told her to get up, close her mouth and leave. The shocked part was running around in mad circles, squealing like a panicked mouse.

Jean-Marie aimed a long-suffering look in her direction. It was the look she assumed anytime she had to do more than show dignitaries around the library or play solitaire on her computer. Sophie had seen it a hundred times, but it still snapped her out of her state of shock. The mouse stopped running in circles, Sophie closed her mouth with a snap, and she made her escape.

Lauren grabbed her arm and led her into their office. “You didn’t know,” she sighed.

Sophie shook her head.

“It only happened fifteen minutes ago, I think. You know Betty’s sister works in the county clerk’s office, and she called.... Well, never mind. Anyway, I was just about to text you, but I didn’t know if I should stick my nose into your personal business.”

“It’s not my business,” Sophie said numbly, but she knew it wasn’t true. It was her business now. Her awful, insane business. “I need to call my brother.”

“Yeah, go on. Jean-Marie won’t be out of her office again until lunchtime.”

That brought an automatic smile to Sophie’s mouth, but it felt stretched and unnatural. Lauren left and closed the door behind her, giving Sophie some privacy. She dialed her brother’s phone immediately, only realizing her hand was trembling when the phone shook against her glasses. He didn’t answer. She could barely find the words to leave a message.

“David, what did you do?” was all she said.

Sophie hung up and called her dad’s home phone number. When there was no answer, she called his cell, but it went to voice mail right away. He was out of range. He almost always was.

She didn’t leave a message for him. She couldn’t. She had no idea what was going on.

Shaking her head, she stared down at her phone. This couldn’t be happening. It
couldn’t
. The entire twenty-five-year scandal had been over, just one more weekend, one little dedication, and it would be done.

Now what was she supposed to do? Just put her phone in her purse and go to work?

She sent a text to David, repeating
What did you do?
He didn’t respond after thirty seconds. Or sixty. Or ninety.

Five minutes later she was still staring at the phone, waiting to hear anything. For one terrible moment, she considered calling Alex to ask if he’d heard something, but she recoiled from the idea. If he hadn’t heard yet, how would she explain it?

Oh, God. David had mentioned something about a lawsuit a few months ago, but she’d blown him off. She’d said no. She’d considered that the end of it.

She tried her brother’s cell again, then squeezed her eyes shut. This had to be a misunderstanding.

Still shaking, she slipped her phone into her purse and stood up to smooth down her hair and take a deep breath. She had work to do. She couldn’t break down now.

Sophie sneaked behind Lauren’s back and grabbed a cart. She hadn’t planned on weeding books today, but she needed to hide in the stacks, for a little while at least.

She made it halfway through one shelf, feeling a surge of satisfaction when she found an obsolete children’s book about the future of the space race and dropped it onto the cart. That book was definitely heading for the trash. There’d been a lot of progress in the space program since 1976. She hoped nobody had checked it out for research in the past two decades.

But Sophie’s brief interlude of peace was over when Lauren sneaked around a corner and grabbed her in a hug. “What did you find out?”

“Nothing,” she said into Lauren’s shoulder. “He didn’t answer.”

“Crap. So you didn’t have a clue?”

“No, and I doubt my dad did either.” She pulled back. “Neither of us would’ve supported this. It’s outrageous.”

Lauren grimaced. “Maybe it’s not that bad. You haven’t seen the suit yet.”

“It’s a wrongful death suit over a car accident that happened twenty-five years ago! There’s nothing reasonable about that! They’re both long dead. No one even knows what happened.”

Lauren put a finger up to her mouth to shush her, and Sophie realized she’d been speaking well above a whisper. “I’m sorry. I just can’t...” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she tried to blink them away.

“Sophie, you need to figure this out. Take a personal day.”

“I can’t! I’m going to need all the personal days I can get when I go to trial for murdering my little brother.”

“Ha. Don’t murder him. Just rough him up a little. Either way, you can’t do that from here.”