The Right Time (4 page)

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen,” Sophie said dryly, with a roll of her eyes.

Ransom maintained direct eye contact, his big body relaxed in the chair, one hand resting at the base of the martini glass on the table, the other on the chair’s armrest.

Sophie played with the idea of a quick fling before she went back to the States, to soothe her bruised ego. Ransom would be the perfect person to console her.

“I feel like I’ve been talking about myself all night,” she said.

“Nothing wrong with that. I like listening to your voice. It’s very sexy.”

His comment made her blush. She missed this type of interaction with a man. The flirting and teasing had long disappeared from her own relationship.

“I happen to like your voice, too.” Sophie rested her forearms on the table and leaned toward him, an instinctive response to seek closer contact. “Tell me an interesting story about your job. I know you have some.”

“I’m just a boring attorney,” he said, a twinkle in his eyes.

“I do not believe that. Come on. Tell me something fun or interesting. Do you ever get to travel?” She really did want to know more.

“On occasion. I’m one of the top litigators in my firm, and my work sometimes takes me to other countries. Last year a Japanese company got into a legal dispute with some of the workers at their subsidiary in Chicago. My team and I spent three weeks in Tokyo, advising the Japanese attorneys on how to handle the case. Let’s see…” He dragged a thumb across his lower lip, and Sophie’s eyes followed the surprisingly sexy movement. “A couple of years ago I flew back and forth to Paris for six months, helping a French consumer products firm navigate our legal system after a children’s advocacy group sued them for making false claims in their ads. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of Tokyo or Paris.”

“Why not?”

“Too busy working.”

Sophie pouted. “That’s a shame,” she murmured.

“You worried about me, Sophie?”

She tuned out the other diners and concentrated on the way he said her name. The way he spoke. Firm, succinct words in a low tenor that made the inside of her belly flutter.

“A little. You sound like one of those workaholics who misses out on life.” Like her boyfriend, Keith.

“I’m postponing the fun until a later date. How’s that?” He took a drink from the martini glass. The muscles beneath his shirt moved with the controlled movement.

“Not much better, but I’ll give you a pass.”

He chuckled, a low, masculine sound.

“So…with all this work you do, I guess you don’t have a girlfriend? Or a wife?”

“I recently ended a relationship and have no plans to enter another one. Too distracting. Too many demands on my time.”

Sophie’s stomach clenched and she broke eye contact. She barely knew Ransom, yet his answer disappointed her. Rather than examine the unexpected feeling, she rested her chin in her hand. “What’s next?” she asked.

“Breakfast.” He smiled at her from across the table. Not a full-on smile, but a sort of sexy, wicked hint of a smile that displayed deep lines in his cheeks.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s the least I could do after I take you to bed.”

The audacious remark left her breathless and a little aroused. Her nipples tightened. “How can you be sure that’ll happen?”

He shrugged. “It’s what we both want.” He exuded confidence and a certain amount of arrogance. He knew he was the shit.

Sophie laughed. “You, sir, are being rather presumptuous.”

“Am I?” His gaze locked with hers.

She took a steady breath, the apex of her thighs throbbing, answering the hunger she saw reflected in his eyes.

“I’m a little disappointed.” She pursed her lips. She would not make it that easy for him, and intended to prolong the wait and extend the verbal foreplay they’d been engaged in for the past few hours. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she was shocked to realize that she’d made up her mind to sleep with him.

“Why are you disappointed?” he asked.

“I thought a lawyer…someone who claims to be successful at what he does, would present a better argument.”

“I can be very persuasive. And patient,” he added, as if he knew exactly what she was up to. “What would you like to do next?”

She pretended to think about the options, though she already had an idea. “Dancing would be fun.” She’d heard the nightclub upstairs from the casino served up great drinks and great music. It was a popular spot for hotel guests and islanders.

His eyes ran over her breasts and arms, and the heated gaze warmed her skin everywhere it landed. “I’d love to watch you dance,” he said huskily.

Everything he said sounded like a seduction, and she fell deeper and deeper under his spell.

“Then let’s go, and I’ll show you my moves.”

She didn’t say no to breakfast.

That was Ransom’s thought as he followed Sophie up the stairs to the nine-thousand-square-foot nightclub and watched her hips sway in front of him.

Purple and red lights flashed over the crowd as they entered. Near the door, an ebony-skinned woman danced on a raised platform in a sparkling blue bikini. She worked her toned body back and forth, whipping a waist-length ponytail around her head in a circle.

“Come on, let’s dance,” Sophie said, taking Ransom’s hand.

The music in the club pumped hard enough that he had difficulty hearing, but he read her lips easily enough.

Ransom shook his head. He pulled her close, so that not only his breath but his lips touched her ear when he spoke. She smelled flowery, her skin sprayed with a fragrance that made him want to press his nose into her neck. This was the closest he’d been to her all night, and he slipped a possessive arm around her waist, marking her as his for anyone paying attention.

“
We
are not going dancing. I don’t dance.” He had two left feet and no rhythm.

She lifted her eyes to his. “Then why did you agree to come here?”

He pulled her closer again, very aware of her. The jasmine notes in her perfume. The soft curve in her back where his hand rubbed up and down her spine. His body tightened in response. “To spend time with you,” he said, making direct eye contact.

She shivered against him, and he let his hand fall away. She remained transfixed, speechless and looking up at him. He nudged her forward with his hand. “Go on. Have fun.”

She licked her lips, teasing him the way he’d done her, before dancing off into the crowd.

Tables and cushioned benches lined the walls, and Ransom found an empty place to sit with a good view of the floor and the bar on the other side of the room. All around him men and women moved to the music and laughed, having a good time.

He stopped a server when she walked by and ordered a mixed drink. Then his gaze drifted around the room and landed on Sophie, kicking up her heels. She smiled up at her dance partner, teasing him with her sultry eyes and a secretive smile on her lush mouth. The more he watched, the more he noticed.

Clearly the kind of woman who tended to be the life of the party, she downright glowed in the dimness of the club. Her undulating figure stood out in the bright sundress against the golden yellow of her skin. The dress clung to her hips and the swell of her derriere as she twisted and gyrated, hands in the air, shimmying low and then twisting back up again.

High-heeled gold sandals elongated her legs and showed off her calves. His gaze stayed on those legs for a long time, imagining them locked around his waist. Her head tossed back. His mouth on her neck and his hands gripping her hips as he drove into her trembling body. He imagined her gasping and pleading and begging him to drive harder, an image so vivid that for several long seconds he stopped breathing. Lost in the fantasy of fucking her breathless.

Ransom shifted positions on the seat and flagged down the server to order another drink. By the time Sophie joined him, he had his body under better control.

“Whew, that was fun.” She plopped down next to him.

“Don’t tell me you’re finished?” he asked, extending an arm along the back of the seat. His fingers played along the line of her shoulder. She had soft skin.

“Oh no, I’m going back out there.” She glowed under the colorful lights. Her cheeks were flushed a becoming pink color, and her eyes sparkled. She fanned her face. “I needed to take a quick break.”

“Let me buy you a drink.”

“Water for now.”

“You’re a cheap date,” Ransom teased.

He flagged down the server and Sophie ordered a water and, at Ransom’s insistence, a Nassau tea, similar to a Long Island tea but made with Blue Curaçao.

During the next three or so hours, a steady stream of top-forty hits dominated the DJ’s selections, and even though Ransom occasionally checked his phone, more often than not, his eyes were drawn to Sophie out in the middle of the club. She lost herself in the music and put her all into dancing. That vivaciousness made it so that she was never without a partner, and he could only imagine how that energy would translate into the bedroom.

Late in the night, the music shifted to selections with slower beats, and Sophie came to sit beside him.

“Are you hungry?” Ransom asked.

She picked up the menu and perused it. “I don’t see anything I want except the potato skins, and they have bacon on them. I’ll be fine with just some water.”

Ransom flagged down the waitress. “Two waters and a platter of chicken tenders for me.” He pointed at the menu. “Can we get the potato skins without bacon?”

“Um…I’m not sure,” the waitress said.

“I’ll make it worth your while if you can make that happen.” He flashed a grin.

The young lady blushed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Appreciate it.”

Leaning close, Sophie said, “You didn’t have to do that.”

Ransom shrugged. He didn’t, but he’d wanted to. “It’s no big deal.”

She bit her bottom lip and her eyes softened. “That was very sweet. Thank you.”

Ransom swallowed past the tightness in his throat. He rubbed her arm. “My pleasure.”

Minutes later, the waitress set the food and water on the table in front of them.

“Pretty soon they’ll be kicking us out,” Sophie said, taking a bite of a baconless potato skin.

She should be tired after being up for almost twenty-four hours and spending so much time dancing, but she felt very much alive. Her heart raced and skin tingled with excitement. No doubt her mood was influenced by the man beside her.

Ransom reached across the back of the seat and pushed his hand under her hair, letting his fingers massage the nape of her neck. She leaned into the pressure of his hand, and aching need compounded between her thighs.

During the many hours they’d spent together, he had touched her often. Her shoulder. Her arm. Her wrist. Each touch eroded her resistance to him. Not that she’d really been trying to resist him, but their time together was a delicate dance of showing interest without appearing too eager. And his constant touching made her eager—very eager—and over the course of minutes, a definite shift had taken place.

They’d been circling each other all night, simply waiting for the right moment when they were completely in sync.

That moment was now.

Ransom pulled her in and pressed his mouth into hers. A gentle probing, almost as if testing her. Of their own accord, her fingers flattened against his hard chest, exploring the muscles and the firmness of his broad shoulders. Breathlessly, she opened her mouth and allowed his tongue to sink between her lips. Hers darted toward him, sliding and twisting in a bold greeting. Then his mouth firmed and he applied more pressure, and she pushed into the kiss, moaning softly.

He hadn’t removed his hand from the back of her neck. He kept it there in a casual manner, and his warm palm clasped her skin and pooled heat in her loins.

His other hand slid beneath her dress and pulled her legs apart. Her heart jolted. She tried to close her legs, but he pulled them apart again, placing a firm hand on her sensitive inner thigh and letting his hand climb even higher. Sophie gasped into his mouth as excitement pulsed like a drum in her core.

His lips left hers to nip the corner of her mouth, pluck her full bottom lip between his teeth, and move across her jaw down the side of her neck. Sophie’s eyes fluttered half-closed and she arched her back, uncaring of their location and uncaring that the table in front of them barely covered their actions. She was solely focused on the movement of his hand and moist mouth.

Ransom brought his lips to her ear. “Since the flight I’ve imagined you naked, and all night I’ve wanted to take you out of this dress and spread your legs.” He squeezed her bare thigh, and he flicked his tongue against the corner of her mouth, seducing her with words and touch. “Would you like to spread your legs for me?”

A flicker of doubt threatened to derail the seduction. Struggling to breathe, Sophie let her gaze meet his. “I have a boyfriend.”

He didn’t flinch. “That’s his problem, not mine.”

He kissed her again while his hand moved higher to trace the edge of her panties at the crease of her hips. A charge of hot lust speared her sex, and Sophie whimpered, trembling at the light caress.

“I would only be using you.” Her voice came out ragged and hoarse.

“Maybe I’m using you.”

Her entire body tingled with anticipation. She’d been moving toward this very moment from the minute she approached Ransom at the roulette table.

Revenge sex. The perfect way to pay back Keith for what he’d done, and reward herself in the process.

“In that case, let’s use each other.”

They burst into Ransom’s room, mouths and hands clinging to each other as they fumbled to remove their constricting clothes. Sophie had a vague sense of the grandeur of his suite as they stumbled over the floor of the parlor into the adjoining bedroom. Punches of orange and yellow whizzed by the corners of her eyes in the dimly lit room, but she couldn’t be bothered to pay close attention, too busy moaning with pleasure as Ransom sucked the base of her neck, brushing his nose along the curve of her throat while squeezing her aching breasts in his big hands.