See You in My Dreams: Speed, Book 1 (7 page)

Curiosity got the better of Nathan. He suddenly wanted to know a whole lot more about Sophie. Like everything more. “Why psych?”

Sophie gnawed on her lower lip. “Experience. A psychologist helped me get through a really difficult period in my life. I want to be able to offer that same help to other kids.”

“You were a child when you saw a psychologist?” What could have been so difficult that a young Sophie would need to seek professional help?

She looked at him speculatively, as if debating whether to answer or not. “I was nine. My parents had just been killed in a car accident.”

Jesus, fuck. “Sophie, Christ—”

She waved off his concern. “It was eighteen years ago, and I’m alright now. But I wasn’t so okay after the accident.”

Nathan held her a little closer, ran his hand over her hair. “Tell me.”

Sophie sighed. “I was in the car with them. But, as I was told a million times, I was very lucky. I escaped uninjured.” She laughed humorlessly. “Thing is, I never felt very lucky. My parents were both dead, and I was traumatized. I went from living in a big house with my mum and dad to staying at my gramma’s small flat. For months afterwards I had horrible nightmares. I kept seeing the truck that hit us bearing down on the car, kept hearing its hooter blaring. I’d wake up sobbing, absolutely terrified. My gramma wasn’t sure how to help me. Finally she took me to see someone. Debbie.”

“The psychologist?”

Sophie nodded. “She specialized in educational psychology and dealing with kids. With her help the nightmares gradually stopped. When I grew older I just knew I wanted to be able to offer other kids the kind of help she gave me.”

Nathan took a moment to digest everything she’d told him. “I’m sorry for everything you went through.” The words sounded like empty platitudes, offered so many years after the event, but they were the truth. Nathan was desperately sad that the woman of his dreams had been forced to go through such hell as a child.

Funny how he’d never had a glimpse into her psyche while he slept. Never dreamed about her as a child. He’d only ever seen the beautiful, adult woman. “You seem amazingly together now. I doubt I’d have survived such a trauma as well as you did.”

Sophie grinned. “Debbie was good at her job. And my gramma helped too. I’d never have coped without her.”

“Did she raise you?”

“Yeah.” She let out a long, soft breath. “I lived with her right up until she died last year.” This time Sophie didn’t sound quite so resolved about the loss.

“You must miss her.”

“I do.” Her smile was sad. “She was my whole world—my mother, my father, my grandmother, and when I got older, my best friend. I miss her horribly.”

“Do you have any other family?”

When she shook her head, his heart ached for her. He couldn’t imagine existing without his parents and brothers. They were his life. His grandparents had been too before they’d died. But he’d had the rest of his family to lean on after they’d passed. Sophie had no one.

“Hey, I’m not alone in the world, you know. There’s no need to get all morose on me. I have friends. Really good friends. They’ve become my family.”

Nathan kissed her soundly on the lips. “I’d be your friend if I lived here. Your really good friend.”

Sophie frowned good-naturedly at him. “I don’t make it a practice to sleep with my really good friends.”

He grinned. “Well then, I guess it’s lucky I don’t live here after all, because I intend to sleep with you a lot until I leave.”

“Nathan, I’m serious. I don’t know whether I can come back tomorrow.”

“I understand.” He did. After listening to her story he kind of thought, on a logical level, that she shouldn’t come back here. She should get her assignment done so she could move one step closer to getting her degree. But then there was the illogical level, the one that selfishly wanted her back, that wanted her in his arms for as long as he could have her there. “You have to do whatever you have to do. But…”

“But what?”

“But on a purely selfish level, I’d really like you to come back.”

She pursed her lips in thought. Was she considering it?

“Think about it before you give me an answer. In the meantime, why don’t I help you make up your mind?” He dipped his head and took her succulent lower lip between his lips, sucking gently.

And for the next forty-five minutes he did whatever he could to convince Sophie to return the next day.

The second he heard the key in the lock, a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding escaped in a hiss.

She came back.

Nathan grabbed the handle and threw the door open. Sophie was in his arms before she’d even had time to remove her keys. Her bag dropped to the floor as her arms circled his neck.

“You came.” He pushed the door shut behind her.

“Couldn’t not,” she managed before he dipped his head and kissed her.

Had it been just twenty-four hours since he’d last done this? Felt like a week. A month. Fuck, it felt like a lifetime ago. “I thought you had to complete your assignment?”

“I tried. Couldn’t get more than half of it done. Every time I looked at my computer screen, I realized that instead of putting forward my reasons for choosing behavioral therapy over psychoanalysis, I’d typed your name all over the page.”

Listening to her talk about her studies only turned him on more. He kissed her greedily. Kissed her until his cock ached and sat rigid beneath his shorts. He kissed her until she whimpered in his arms and twisted her hips, rubbing her pussy against his groin.

“I’m glad you came. Gonna make you come for real now. Over and over again.” He kissed her until lack of oxygen demanded he stop to breathe.

When he’d drawn enough air into his lungs to sustain him for a minute or two, he kissed her again.

The bottled pine scent he’d come to associate her with was gone, replaced by a hint of vanilla. Or strawberry. Or both. Or maybe neither. Maybe it was just the scent of Sophie. Whichever it was, it made him ravenous. Turned him into a man famished for more than a little taste of his woman. Keeping her in his arms, he stumbled to the closest seat, a couch in the living room.

Nathan had gotten back to the apartment well after midnight, and woken up way earlier than he should have, considering tonight was
Speed
’s first concert in almost a year. He’d needed the rest.

But thoughts of Sophie had filled his head. Dreams, strangely unsatisfying, had jerked him awake too many times. Yes, they’d been as erotic as always, but this time, although Sophie had featured in all her exquisite nudity—and not just as a blurred face around her blue eyes—the dream girl had not been enough. Now that he’d had the real-life flesh-and-blood Sophie, that was all he wanted.

Nathan should have been dragging his limbs as he walked. Five minutes ago he had been. Exhaustion had slowed his every step. But now untapped energy raced through his veins, revitalizing him. The reason for the surge of adrenaline perched on his lap, her thighs on either side of his, tugging off her tight lilac T-shirt and white satin bra.

He filled his hands with her breasts, relishing the plump swells that fit so perfectly in each palm. Nathan whispered to her, told her exactly what he wanted to do to her, to her breasts.

“I’m not
just
here for the sex,” Sophie said breathlessly, as he leaned forward and made the most of the pretty tips of those flawless breasts, gorging on her nipples.

She wasn’t idle. As he feasted, she pushed his shirt over his shoulders, and ran her hands over his chest and side.

“Mmmm? Why else?” It wasn’t so easy putting a sentence together when her nimble fingers explored every inch of his skin, leaving a trail of gooseflesh wherever she touched.

With a carnal groan she climbed off his lap and undid her denim cut-offs. Cut-offs that revealed a mile of toned, tanned thigh. Sophie looked so damn fine in them, he almost objected to her removing them. Almost.

“I…told you all about me, yesterday. ’Bout my…studies.” She lost the skimpy denim. “’Bout my parents.” Her panties disappeared, leaving her beautifully naked. “And my gramma.”

The fine, thin line of hair above her pussy made his mouth water. Her lean yet curved body made his chest ache with need.

She must have seen the hunger in his face, because when she looked at him, her own eyes dilated and she moaned softly. “A-and you told me nothing ’bout yourself.”

Nathan lost his own clothes in record time. “I’ll tell you whatever you wanna know.” Christ, would he? What if her next question was,
are you Jamie Speed?
“Ask me anything.” He retained enough lucidity to grab a condom from a bag on the kitchen counter and race back to Sophie.

She took the condom from his fingers with a hot, sexy smile and pushed him back onto the couch. He let himself fall, landing in a sitting position.

And then her mouth was on his again, her tongue seducing, her lips adoring.

His breath was gone. It left, along with his rational thought processes.

All Nathan was aware of was the taste of her sweet mouth, the scent of her tempting perfume and the feel of her hands on his penis, sheathing him.

“Did you go to uni?” Her fingers aroused as they worked, tempting his erection in soft sweeps of motion and cupping his testicles in deliciously teasing caresses.

“Did I go where?” Not so easy concentrating when she teased him like that.

“To college.”

Ah. Okay. Easy enough question. “Spent seven years at Brown.”

The scent of her fragrance was not the only aroma perfuming the air. She was aroused, and the slightly musky, oh-so-subtle smell, hit him like a full-body blow.

He’d missed her, he realized with a start. Missed her desperately. Had wanted to wake up feeling the curve of her spine against his stomach and chest. Had wanted to hold her while he slept. Had wanted…her. Just wanted her.

“What did you study?” Sophie straddled him again, her thighs on either side of his. There was nothing separating them. Nothing to prevent the sensational burst of pleasure as she wrapped her hand around his erection, positioning him just so, and eased her pussy over his cock, sliding down to take him inside. Enveloping him completely.

He struggled to pinpoint his answer. What
had
he studied? Christ, he’d spent seven years doing it, yet the answer eluded him.

He shifted his ass forward slightly, so he could lean against the back of the couch and give Sophie more space. “Business and marketing,” he groaned, grateful for the one-second burst of clarity. “With a master’s degree in economics.”

In this position Sophie was in control. He was at her mercy.

She showed him none. Or maybe she showed him too much. Nathan was incapable of telling. He was aware of nothing but the feel of her pussy sliding over his cock, up and down. Over and over, slowly at first and then gaining speed. Aware of nothing but the way her breasts bobbed as she rocked atop him. Nothing but the angle of her neck beckoning to his lips as she threw her head back in ecstasy. Nothing but her soft, bewitching moans.

“Wh-what did you do with your degree when you left Brown?”

Fuck, how was she still talking? Focused enough to ask questions?

How could he be focused enough to answer honestly, without giving up
Speed
in the process? He wasn’t ready to go there with Sophie. Wasn’t ready to reveal his public persona, when his private one was so very, very happy to be the focus of her attention.

“Went into a j-joint business venture with my brothers and a friend.” He couldn’t last like this, didn’t have the stamina. A day without making love to her had left him rabid for another Sophie-inspired orgasm. It built fast, furiously. “Something we’d started dabbling in at college. It took off better than we expected.” He was ready to come in minutes, seconds. But not without her. “Made us a tidy sum of money before my youngest brother had finished his undergrad studies.”

Nathan traced his hand over her body, starting at the base of her throat, moving down between her breasts and over the gentle swell of her belly, easing past her navel and coming to rest on the thin strip of hair above her pussy.

Sophie exhaled in a rush, rocking her hips forward, exposing herself to his touch.

“He dropped out of college and joined us full-time.” Christ, his balls were knots of steel, so tight he wasn’t sure he’d last. A tempestuous storm raged within, demanding release. An orgasm inside Sophie would be paradise. But an orgasm inside her while she climaxed above him? The ultimate high.

Sophie opened her mouth, and he knew another question was coming. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer it, more that he no longer had the strength to talk. Or the concentration. His life force was gathering in his groin, draining his brain and other body parts of blood. Of logic.

He slipped his thumb lower, finding her engorged clit.

Sophie gasped and lost her rhythm. But only for a second. As he stroked her, using nothing but his thumb, she found her beat again, rocking on him, throwing her hips into the movement, lifting and dropping in the most sensual of dances.

Her question was forgotten. Conversation seemed as impossible for her as it was for him.

Nathan’s heart wrenched. His chest ached as he watched her erotic dance. He could fall in love with this woman. He could fall hard and fast and never know what hit him.

That tingle in his spine, that seemed to have been present since he yanked the front door open, multiplied. Electricity chased its way over every nerve ending.

He stroked a little harder, faster. His hips began to move, jerking up, pumping his cock deeper inside her. Her dance became wilder, frenzied, and just when he thought he could not last one more second, just as sensation exploded within, Sophie came.

Her climax broke him. As her muscles clenched, their velvety grip holding him tight, his own orgasm detonated. The climax blindsided him. He bucked beneath her, spurting burst upon burst of come into the condom.

Yesterday with Sophie, Nathan had been convinced he’d had the best sex of his life. That it couldn’t get better.