Sophie asked him again if anything was wrong as she followed him into the car.
“No, I just want to ask Mick something.”
“What colour are her eyes?” he asked his driver after also asking him to raise the privacy screen.
“Sophie’s?”
“Miss Wright’s.” He would have glared if he could have.
“They’re blue,” Mick replied.
“I know that but what colour blue?” Brandan asked again. He wanted to know if they were light like aquamarines or if they were more cerulean opals or dark sapphires.
“I don’t really know, they’re just blue.”
“I want to take her out for dinner. Somewhere really beautiful, only the best.”
“Now?” Mick asked. Brandan heard the hesitation in the driver’s voice and wondered at it.
“No five minutes ago. Of course now.” Brandan didn’t know what the problem was. Wasn’t he the one paying for the services of a limo driver? Had his question about her eyes thrown the man? He didn’t think it was such a hard question.
“Yes, sir.”
“What is it?” Brandan snapped when he heard the way Mick had replied. Again.
“It’s just that...I know it’s not my place but don’t you think...”
“Spit it out man.”
“You don’t think she would want to change? You know, get dressed up fancy?”
“What’s wrong with what she’s wearing?” he asked in clipped tones. The other man was skating on thin ice and he was about to fall. Hard.
“Nothing, nothing,” Mick was quick to reassure. “You don’t think she’d like to wear a dress or something instead of denim? Take her somewhere really nice and treat her like a princess.”
“I suppose you’re right,” he acknowledged with a barely perceptible nod as he wondered if she would have anything acceptable in her suitcases. She’d come for a budget holiday not dinner at the four seasons.
He gave Mick some instructions and then opened the car door and sat down next to an agitated Sophie. It was amazing how he’d slipped back into being-the-boss mode when he really hadn’t noticed slipping out if it.
“What the hell was that all about?” she asked him.
“We’re going out for dinner.”
“We don’t need to. We can get room service.”
“No, we need to go out,” Brandan said. If they stayed in they wouldn’t eat, they wouldn’t have a chance with what his body wanted from her. It would be a repeat of the night before. He hardened immediately thinking about her delectable curves snuggled against him.
“Do you have a dress?”
“I think so...where are we going?”
“Somewhere nice and expensive where you can be waited on and spoilt and pampered.”
“You’ve already done so much, spent so much today,” she reminded him. He’d paid for everything so far from brunch to the amusement park fees and the chocolate ice cream she’d wanted.
“Well you can pay for dinner,” he teased. “Sophie?” he asked when she didn’t reply to his teasing.
“I’m still here.”
“Cheer up, it’s all going to work out alright.”
“I know, it’s not that.”
“What is it then?”
“I can’t pay for dinner,” she told him, embarrassed.
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” Why would she make such a big deal out of a little joke?
“I don’t have any money.” She said it so quietly he nearly missed her words.
“I’m paying for dinner,” he told her.
“I know but I’m serious, I don’t even have two dollars in my purse.”
“You have money in the bank.” He knew she did, Gloria put several thousand dollars in her account yesterday.
“Maybe. I haven’t been able to check it.”
“Sophie what’s this about?”
“It’s nothing. I guess I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”
Brandan lifted her from the seat next to him onto his lap in a movement so swift she barely had time to brace herself.
“What are you doing?” She laughed and put her arms around his neck.
“Trying to make you forget about everything but me,” he said, nuzzling her neck.
“You can’t do that,” she said breathlessly as he placed open mouthed kisses down her neck to her collarbone.
“I can try.”
~
“How did you meet your wife?” Sophie asked as she sipped her wine, the flavour sharp and tangy on her tongue. She almost wished she wasn’t drinking it though. Now she couldn’t taste Brandan on her lips.
They were sitting in a dark corner of an expensive French restaurant. Candles flickered each time a black and white clad waiter whisked past, but the ambience was exactly what she needed. Several times Sophie tried—unsuccessfully—to pronounce the name over the door before giving up.
“Ex-wife,” Brandan pointed out.
“Fair enough then, ex-wife.”
“It certainly isn’t some grand romantic story,” he told her.
“Well I want to hear it anyway, romantic or not.”
“All right. I was at a function put together by her father for some charity.” He took a huge gulp of wine to fortify his nerves. He shouldn’t even be telling her, he didn’t want to re-live a moment he wished he could have back.
“Because you’re such a charitable kind of guy?” Sophie laughed.
“I’ll have you know I donate millions to charities every year.” He was proud to give back to the less fortunate.
“What charity were you supporting that night?” she asked with what sounded like a cheeky grin.
“What does it matter?”
“If you’re the philanthropist you seem to believe you are then surely you would know what event you were at?”
“Are you teasing me?” he asked incredulously. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had teased him like this, played with him.
“Maybe.”
“Do you want to hear the story or not?”
“Yes, I do, I apologise, please go on.”
“Well as I said I was at this function for...the Starlight Foundation and-”
“You just made that up,” Sophie accused.
“I did not,” he replied adamantly.
“You did, you paused and then you just added the first charity you could think of. Come to think of it, it’s an Australian charity.”
“You obviously don’t want to hear the story if you’re going to keep interrupting me.”
“I do, I do. I won’t do it again.” She had to try so hard to stop laughing and keep quiet she kind of snorted.
His heart swelled and he smiled. “As I was saying, I was at this event and I had to use the facilities, I’d already drunk far too much of the exceptional champagne on offer so I went in search of the men’s room. I found myself in a bedroom when I took a wrong turn. I was blinded by the pink fluffy decor and I was stupidly standing there looking at the outrageous bedroom when Olivia walked out of the connecting bathroom wearing the smallest towel possible.”
Sophie was laughing again. “Was the towel pink too?”
“I’m serious, that’s exactly how we met.”
“Did she throw you out?” Sophie asked between giggles, her eyes watering.
“Ah, not exactly.”
“Well what did she do?”
“Well let’s just say she wasn’t backward in coming forward.” He drank down the last of wine and then held the crystal out for her to refill, tapping the glass bottom on the table.
“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, filling his glass to the top with a crisp white to accompany the lobster tortellini placed before them on the smooth tablecloth.
“She dropped the towel and went about getting dressed as though I wasn’t there.”
“Maybe she didn’t see you and you were loitering in the doorway like some kind of pervert?” Sophie suggested.
“Oh no, she
knew I was there.” He gulped down more wine. He didn’t want to have to tell this little innocent that his not so innocent ex-wife had jumped him then and there. He should have known better than to marry a women he’d had up against a door seconds after meeting. Well, technically they still hadn’t met. That didn’t come until after she’d made her grand entrance, dressed in more than a towel, introduced as the host’s daughter.
The calculating gleam in her eye as she held her hand out for him to shake was unmistakable and should have been his first warning. She’d known exactly who he was. Brandan had so admired her tenacity, among other things, that he’d asked to see her again. The rest as they say is history.
“How did you meet Max?” he asked. It was only fair if he was spilling his secrets she should do the same. Not for one second did he worry that once he was gone she would tell his sordid stories to the paparazzi. Funny, he’d never felt so comfortable around a woman before, except for his sister.
“At school. He was a year above me and I thought he was the cutest boy ever.” Sophie sighed wistfully.
“You were high school sweethearts?”
“Yep, never apart. We would talk all day at school between classes and then nearly every night on the phone as well. My brother and my parents told me he wasn’t good enough for me and that when I left school I would meet the man of my dreams but I didn’t want to listen. I wanted him and he was there.”
“The more they told you not to see him the more you did?” Brandan guessed.
“Something like that. I suppose I lived with my head in the clouds for a few years because before I knew it I had my dream of being an airline hostess, we were married and living together, I had the perfect life.”
“Until?” he prompted.
“Until the subject of babies kept coming up and Max sabotaged the birth control. I got pregnant and here we are.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds coming from the other diners and the clink and scrape of cutlery against crockery. He regretted bringing it up now. He shouldn’t have asked. He didn’t want to wreck the night. He wracked his brain trying to think of a safe subject they could talk about without destroying the ambience.
“Hawaii,” she said suddenly.
“Hawaii?”
“You asked me if there was anywhere I would go to try to forget about my troubles.”
“And you think Hawaii would be the place to do it?” He would have thought somewhere quiet and secluded would be better. He pictured her curled up in front of an open fire with a good book or watching a chick-flick, not running around in skimpy bikinis in one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world.
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”
Brandan threw his head back and laughed. Pure unchecked humour. Sophie really was the most refreshing woman he’d ever had the pleasure of spending time with. Likening her to spring rain was an understatement. Surely somewhere inside of her was the guile and deceit born naturally to members of her sex but he’d yet to glimpse it. It almost seemed as if in her naïveté she was somehow missing the coquettish, brazen behaviour, even the shamelessness attributed to most women was missing from her. She was pure innocence. Almost.
Thinking of Hawaii made him wonder if she was trying to give him a subtle hint that she wanted to stay with him or was she angling for an all expenses paid trip on her own? An island getaway would be the perfect place to find a fling or a brief affair or even a new love but was it really the place you would want to dwell on your past and try to make your future right and secure? He hoped it was the first option, he wouldn’t mind seeing her in her little bikini but it would be on a private tropical island where he and only he would get to enjoy the view.
If he got to see anything again.
“Why so quiet?” she asked, obviously seeing his lips thin into a flat line.
“I don’t like Hawaii,” he replied simply.
“You don’t have to. It’s all about me, remember?”
“Am I coming on your trip?” he asked. He shouldn’t push her but he needed to know if she was thinking about her future with or without him.
“Do you want to come?” she asked after a brief hesitation.
“A holiday sounds like an excellent plan after the events of the last few days but that doesn’t answer my question.” He put his arm around the back of her chair, his finger stroking circles on her bicep.
“What was the question?” she murmured, distracted.
“Do you want me to come on this holiday of yours to Hawaii?”
“Yes,” she replied with a moan as he placed his hand on her cheek and showered her with small kisses along her jaw.
“Yes what?” he prompted. He wasn’t sure if she consented to his ministrations or that yes, she did want him to go with her.
“I want you,” she practically purred.
“Good enough for me,” he growled.
Minutes later he blindly signed the check and they were in the limo. Brandan had told Mick to raise the privacy screen and drive around until he was told to stop. He needed to have her now otherwise he was going to burst.
He didn’t care that Mick knew what they were doing, didn’t care that their sex would be rough and awkward on a seat in the back of a limo where probably hundreds of couples had gone before them. He could only think about driving himself deep into her honeyed depths and finding the release he craved. If they waited until they returned to the hotel they would still make love but it wouldn’t be fuelled by urgency and lust and that’s what he wanted, needed. Now.
“Come and sit on my lap,” he commanded as the car started to move.
Brandan could feel her on the seat next to him but without sight it would be futile to try to lift her and settle her exactly where he wanted, better for her to come of her own accord. He also wanted to see how she would sit on his lap.
Sophie sidled closer so their thighs were touching.
“On my lap,” he bit out through clenched teeth. He was starting to hurt.
“I’m fine here,” she said, embarrassment colouring her voice.
“I’m not.” Awkward or not he pulled her to him so she faced him sitting on his thighs, straddling his legs.
“Brandan, are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” he replied as he grasped her head between his hands and pulled her lips to his, effectively silencing her uncertainty. He kissed her thoroughly, with all of his heart and soul. He bombarded her senses, tried to knock down her barriers so he could have a chance at claiming her heart.
His hands moved from her face to trail down her arms to her legs. His fingertips glided over her soft skin down to her ankles where he slipped her strappy heels off. They fell to the floor with twin thuds. He worked his way back up to the hem of her dress, it helped that her current position already had the material bunched right up as he inched his way ever closer to his ultimate destination.
“What colour is your dress?” he asked, breaking the kiss, his voice husky.
“Black.”
Brandan’s heart stopped beating as his fingertips drifted higher. He barely had enough breath to ask, “Don’t you normally wear underwear under your little black dresses?”
Chapter Nineteen
“I was feeling wild.” Sophie blushed furiously, her cheeks and neck on fire.
The halter strapped dress had never seen the light of day before. Sophie wasn’t even sure why it had gone into her suitcase in the first place. She’d stood there in her closet staring at it for a full twenty minutes before throwing it in with the rest of her clothes before catching her flight. Maybe she’d been secretly dreaming about needing it. Now she was very, very happy she’d brought it. Truth be told, she’d never felt sexy enough to wear it. Until today.
When she’d goodbye to Brandan to get ready for the night ahead, she’d gone into her room to find something to wear and the dress had practically jumped right out at her. It was a garment designed
to wear without a bra with its smooth lines and deep plunging V in the front and the back. She’d stripped right down intending to change her underwear to something sheer and lacy but when the dress slid over her skin like silk it had just felt so right to leave her underwear on the bed and close the door behind her.
She was the kind of person who couldn’t even sleep without underwear so to leave the suite and sit next to him in the limo and then next to him at dinner she didn’t know how she hadn’t spontaneously combusted. It was a good thing he couldn’t see because he would have known straight away that something was up and they never would have left the hotel.
“Are you feeling wild now?” Brandan asked, his hands tightening on the twin globes of her derriere as he pulled her closer.
Now was definitely the time to throw off her inhibitions and be a different person for a night. One moment in time where she could forget how she was supposed to act and do what she wanted without thought, without shame or embarrassment. Being in the car was almost like being in a different reality where shame and embarrassment had no place.
She reached between their bodies and closed one of her hands around his guiding it to the nest of curls between her legs.
“Do I feel wild?” she asked as she stroked his finger along her slick folds.
His groan would have been heard halfway across the country as he took her lips with his, his tongue plunging into her mouth at the same time his finger plunged into her warmth. Sophie answered him with some tongue play of her own as she ground her hips down onto his hand trying to get closer. She undid the buttons of his shirt and shoved it back to reveal his chest and stomach. She wanted so desperately to feel his skin against hers.
“Lift your dress all the way up,” he panted, undoing his pants and freeing his stiff and ready cock from the confines of his now very tight dress slacks. Sophie raised herself up as she inched her hem higher. Brandan was ready for her. As she lowered herself, half naked and equally ready, he guided his dick to her opening and then with both hands grasping her hips he impaled her in one smooth, glorious movement.
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