Her eyes morphed into a cold bluish-gray. “We are three blocks from a MAX station. I’ll take the train in.”
He still held on.
“Let me go.”
“No. I’ll only let go if you let me take you home.”
She stared hard at him, the battle of wills continuing silently. Only, she broke much sooner than he expected, raising her hand to wipe her eyes as she looked away.
…
“You’re reading too much into it, Sophie. I hardly fit in any car unless I get the seats moved. And the car’s not for me, it’s for you.”
She shrugged and hugged her knees tighter to her chest. She knew he was right, knew she was overanalyzing the situation. But she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want something he couldn’t be a part of.
Somewhere along the way, she’d crossed a line, no longer able to keep him solidly in her fantasies. She’d felt it as the lines blurred, but they were completely obliterated now. She’d fallen for the reality of him, the light and the dark, confidence and sense of humor. “Most women would be ecstatic to get a car. I thought you’d be over the moon.”
“I’m not most women,” she mumbled. She’d been excited for one brief, fleeting moment, until she’d seen him arranging a life for her without him in it.
His poor car was taking a beating. He wove the Corvette in and out of traffic as they made their way back across the river. Her neck ached from all the times he hit the brakes and downshifted quickly. She laid her forehead against her knees and tried to relax.
She tried to concentrate on her breathing. But all she could hear was his—slow and rough and angry. She nearly choked as she pulled oxygen into her lungs. She was being an ungrateful little brat, and she knew it. A polite thank-you would have been her normal reaction. She just hadn’t expected him to start planning her life without him in it. Not that he’d given her much reason to expect it. At every turn, he had told her there could be nothing between them. But damn if that noble streak didn’t make him even sexier. That, and the vulnerability she’d sensed when she’d broken the news about the financial debacle. And those gifts—guessing her favorite chocolate truffle, remembering what she’d said about fruit…he’d even picked out the car because of some off-hand comment she’d made. He gave a woman hope without even meaning to.
She turned her head and rested her cheek on her knees. She could just make out his profile, backlit by the streetlights. His jaw was set so hard his teeth must ache.
“Thank you for the oranges.” The meekness in her voice disappointed her. She was blowing this big time. This was fast becoming a situation she would regret later, but she didn’t have a clue how to fix it.
“You’re welcome,” he said purposefully. “See, it’s not too hard,” he muttered under his breath.
“I didn’t ask for you to buy me a car, David.” She cursed the tears prickling her eyelids. She would not cry again.
“I was trying to say thank you. I never guessed it would turn into a disaster.” He jerked the car sharply into the driveway of her apartment.
She searched for a way to turn the whole thing around. He wouldn’t look at her and kept his hands on the steering wheel. She swallowed hard, choking down something that felt like pride. “Come upstairs with me. I want to show you something.”
“Not tonight. Let’s forget this whole thing happened.”
“I just want you to see something. I want you to understand.”
He whipped his head around, his gaze pinning her in her seat. “Do you know how many women would love to get a car for helping a friend out?”
He had no clue. “Then you’ll have no problem getting rid of it.” She snarled across the seat. Blood pounded in her ears. He just didn’t get it. And from the way his hands were squeezing the life out of the steering wheel, he had no intention of trying to figure it out. She leaned over and twisted the keys from the ignition.
“Hey!” He swiped for the keys as she scrambled from the car.
She took the stairs two at a time, hoping it might make up for his long-legged advantage. He’d proven earlier that running from him was a logistical impossibility. Panting, she had her key in the lock when his hands came down on either side of her. “Give me the keys, Sophie.”
Smiling wickedly, she spun beneath him, holding out her keys. “You want to do the honors? “
“I’m not in the mood for games.” Her stomach caught at the feel of his breath against her face, fast and shallow. If only he were breathing like that because of her, and not because he’d gone up the stairs in only three long strides.
Reaching her hand behind her, she turned the doorknob and swung the door open. She caught David’s hand as it slipped from the opening door and tugged him inside. “I want to show you something, to explain.”
She pulled him through the dark living room, past the kitchen, into the hallway. She pulled him through another doorway and hit the lights.
The light from the lamps covered with red silk scarves on the bedside tables reflected off the full-length mirrors nailed to the wall. The room was completely taken up by an enormous bed. Two tiny bedside tables flanked it. The white down duvet and piles of pillows seemed to shimmer in the dim lighting.
He peered down at her, his eyebrows knit together. Before he could speak, Sophie braced herself and pushed him as hard as she could. “Lie down.”
Startled, he tumbled backward. The only place to fall was onto the bed. He scrambled up to his elbows. “Sophie,” he hissed as she bounced onto the bed beside him.
“This will be over much faster if you do as I say. Lie down,” she commanded, scooting to the opposite side of the bed.
“Whatever game you’re playing—”
She shoved him down on the mattress and pulled his legs up onto it.
“There,” Sophie said triumphantly. “See?”
He lay on his back against the pillows and crossed his arms across his chest.
“What is it I’m supposed to be seeing?” David’s nostrils flared as he ground his teeth together.
She rolled to her side and propped herself up on her elbow. “Comfortable?”
He turned his head and narrowed his eyes. “If I say yes, can I have my keys?”
“How are your feet?”
“What?” he asked, looking down to the bottom of the bed. She smiled as the pieces slowly fell into place. He sat up, turning his head from side to side as he surveyed the bed. “Where did you get this?”
She pulled her legs beneath her as she sat up. “Getting it in here was quite a task, I assure you.”
David lay down again and marveled. “I didn’t know they made beds this long.”
“They’re in my backpack, the front pocket.”
“What?” He wiggled his feet and smiled.
“Your keys.”
He made no move to leave. Instead, he closed his eyes. She lay down, propping herself on her elbow so she could watch him. Here. In the bed she dreamed of having him in. She wanted to touch him, but she didn’t dare push her luck.
“I don’t want anything you won’t fit in.” She whispered the words so as not to betray the tumble of emotions she felt.
“When did you get it?”
“Last year, after my mom died and I sold the house. It really helped my fantasy life. You wouldn’t believe the limits a twin bed puts on a girl’s dreams.” She was babbling, definitely not sexy. Not when she finally had him in her bed.
“Is that when it started?” he said without opening his eyes.
She was surprised his question didn’t ruffle her. “What? My fantasies about you?”
She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
“No, that goes way back. Back to when Daphne and Craig first started dating. He has always talked you up to her. I was sold, but Daphne… Well, she’s never been good at sharing.”
He laughed. She hoped he was starting to relax. “I became your fantasy and her nightmare.”
Sophie lay back
on the pillows. “I never thought of it like that. I always thought we fit, like kindred spirits, you know?”
“That’s crazy. We’re total opposites.”
“Only physically. You know that family comes first. Think about what happened with your dad. Your instinct was to protect him before anything else. You take care of everyone before yourself. I get that—hell, I do that. Not everyone respects obligation.”
“You keep coming on to me because you see a chance to live out your fantasies.” Once he spoke the words, he turned his head to face her. They were in such an intimate position anything but honesty was unthinkable.
“At first. But it’s more than that now. I’m comfortable with you in a way I can’t even explain. I feel safe, and it makes me bolder. It gives me the courage to say things I’d usually stifle, to do things I normally wouldn’t dare.”
“Is it me, or your fantasy of me?”
She moved closer and pressed her forehead to his. “It’s definitely you.” She closed her eyes. Slowly, she focused her breathing to match his. She was almost dizzy from the masculine pheromones permeating the air, her lungs, her bed.
“I don’t want to hurt you. We can’t do this, Sophie,” he whispered. “I don’t want the things you want. I don’t want you to regret it.”
“I’ll regret never making love to you.”
“I’m not getting married, Sophie. I’m not having kids. I’m not cut out for it. You’ll be great at it. You’ve waited this long. You should wait for that.”
Sophie pursed her lips together as she weighed his words. “I waited for you.”
She hated the tremor in her voice, hated the weakness of the admission. But, oh, how she loved his reaction.
…
David’s body responded instinctively to her words. Sophie had laid herself open before him in a painfully honest way. He moved closer, finding her mouth and taking it. He didn’t have the words to tell her how she moved him, how he was finding it impossible to think of anything but her, how he actually understood why she had gotten so crazy about the car.
He knew kissing her would cure the ache in his gut that ate at him whenever she wasn’t around. He claimed her lips with a desperate demand. Her mouth answered back, fulfilling his needs, making him groan as she rolled closer. She yielded beside him, opening to welcome him with a tender, silken demand of her own.
Rational thought was extinguished by a torrential need to possess—an entirely new sensation he found both strange and completely irresistible. Her breathing was as uneven as his, her mouth unrelenting, her kiss urgent. He swallowed her pleading sigh and realized she was no more in control of the moment than he was.
If they both lost control, he knew exactly where this would lead. He tried to stay in check. One of them needed to be able to think, to rise above such carnal desires. Trying to pull away, he rolled onto his back. He hadn’t meant to encourage her, but she rolled right along with him. Now she was on top of him, her dark curls falling forward, framing them in their own world.
They were both adults, obviously consenting. She was warm and willing, and with her legs straddling him, she had to know just how much he wanted her.
The groan erupting from his own throat startled him to reality. He cursed every part of his psyche that couldn’t be the man she wanted him to be. How wonderful life could be if he could just trust himself to be who she thought he was. But he wasn’t, and he couldn’t. He knew that as well as he knew he couldn’t walk away. Not now.
He needed to push her further, to make her call it off. It would be easier on her if it were her idea.
“Show me,” he whispered, trying to get a handle on his ragged vocal cords.
“What?” Sophie breathed against his mouth.
“Show me what you like.”
In answer, she ground her hips against him, teasing the ridge of him nestled beneath her.
He groaned again, raising a hand to her hip to still her. He would never be able to hold back if she did that even once more. “No.” He brushed the hair from her eyes as she stared down at him. “Show me.”
Her eyes sparked with realization. “You want me to…while you… I don’t think so.”
“Please?” he asked, kissing her softly as her eyes drifted closed. She’d never be able to, and he’d be able to walk away without hurting her.
“What?” They fluttered open again, dark in their desire. “Why?”
“So I can see what you like.” He tried to focus, to calm himself. Pushing her past her boundaries had to work. He couldn’t think of another way. Especially since he was having a hard time remembering why what she wanted would be a bad thing. He rolled her onto her back and sat up.
She propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him. “What are you going to do?”
“Watch you.” He scooted to the foot of the bed, wishing the room were big enough for a chair. He needed distance.
“From way down there?” she teased, her eyes gleaming.
His grin faltered. She was considering it. If she went through with it, there was no other way out. “I can’t promise I’ll stay here.”
She frowned, her bravado failing. “I don’t think I can.”
“Why not?”
“You want me to make a list?”
“I already told you what I want you to do.” He winked.
She sighed in defeat. “I don’t think I can relax with you watching me. And if I can’t relax, I won’t be able to climax.”
“Then we could never sleep together.”
“No!” She sprung up to a sitting position. “I mean, that’s different. We’d both be naked, both be vulnerable. This way it’s just me.”
He bit his cheek, pondering which argument to use.
“Maybe if you were naked.”
“What?” he choked, noticing the gleam in her eyes.
“To provide visual stimulation. And that way, you’ll be ready to join in.”
David’s breath caught. A trap. And he’d run right into it.
…
He’d severely underestimated his ability to hold back. He had to remind himself to breathe. His mouth was completely dry, his stomach in knots. He was actually glad he had compromised and taken his shirt off, because he was sweating. He was sitting on his goddamn hands to keep from touching her.
Thankfully, she’d closed her eyes. When she’d been watching him, he had wanted to scream, groan, devour her. What had he been thinking? Asking her to do what he had been doing every night in his dreams since that first class? And that was all before he’d seen her naked.
He’d known she was beautiful, had felt those amazing curves for himself, but always through the safety of clothes. Bare, the woman was downright lethal. And those hands…those tiny hands that wielded so much power.
Her strokes were light and feathery at first, tracing up and down while her other hand kneaded one ripe breast. Her breasts had felt amazing pressed against him through clothes, but in person they were absolutely perfect.
This was such a bad idea. He should end it now, while he still had some blood left in his brain. But he couldn’t move, mesmerized by the show. Then she dipped a finger inside, spreading the glistening liquid she found across her inner lips, pressing harder as she moved from side to side. He didn’t know where to look as she concentrated on her nipple, pulling at the tip while she gnawed her bottom lip.
She picked up speed, the circles of her fingers getting smaller and smaller until they focused on the tight bud of her sex. Her shallow breathing grew rapid as she neared her peak. She rolled her hips, finding all the best positions to intensify her pleasure
Her head fell back, lips parted. He didn’t even want to breathe, didn’t want to hear any sound but the gasping of her breath. “Amazing,” he whispered, unsure if he’d said it aloud.
…
She smiled. “If you liked that, you should see me with Bob.”
He stiffened, lurching forward as if he might be sick. Exactly the reaction she wa
s hoping for.
She placed her still wet fingers against his arm, shooting him a devilish grin. “BOB—battery operated boyfriend. You wouldn’t believe how many batteries I’ve gone through lately.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he lifted her hand from his arm, brought her fingers to his mouth, and inhaled. She trembled as if the air he breathed was coming directly from her own lungs.
She was amazed by her own power, and more aroused than she had ever been. She fought against the drowsiness that always followed climax for her, not wanting to miss what happened next.
For once, nothing felt forced or awkward. The fear that usually grabbed at her belly was flooded by waves of wanting. Excitement began to make her giddy.
You’re in control here, she chanted in her head. Stay focused, and you’ll finally get everything you want.
He placed one of her fingers against his tongue, closed his lips around it, and sucked deeply. She felt her belly go concave as every fiber of her being focused on his mouth. Heat pooled once again in her stomach as he repeated the act on a second finger. No way was this happening to her again. She closed her eyes and tried to regain control over her body.
“Sophie, look at me,” he whispered across her skin.
She felt her muscles clenching, so close. No way. He had barely touched her.
“Look at me or I’ll stop.”
Her eyes flashed open. “No,” she pleaded. She reached out and grabbed his hands, pulling him forward as she fell back on the pillows.
“Sophie, wait.” He held himself above her, shadowing her body with his presence.
She ran her hands along the hard lines of his arms. There’d never been more beautiful biceps.
“We can’t.”
“Oh, but we can,” she said, sliding her hands across the rigid planes of his chest, down the ripples of his abdomen, straight to his belt.
His hand formed a vice over hers. Locking her gaze, he shook his head. “I don’t have any condoms.”
“It’s fine. I’m on the pill.” She smiled, proud of refuting his argument so quickly.
He pulled her hand from his pants and stretched it over her head. “What? Why?”
Now if this wasn’t a mood breaker. “So I only have to deal with PMS four times a year. But it comes in handy right about now, don’t you think?”
Compromising Positions (Invested in Love) Page 10