Some small sense of Sophie’s power came back to her. I can do this. Even though her blood still rushed through her veins much too fast, she worked open the belt on her robe and slowly, oh so very slowly, let it slide off her shoulders, over her breasts, and finally the rest of the way down, where it pooled around her feet. Sophie didn’t have the biggest breasts in the world—in fact, she knew she was on the smallish side—but she took good care of herself, so her belly was trim, and her hips had just enough feminine flare. And, because she liked the sensation, her sex was waxed and as smooth and bare as could be.
In his room, Lucien looked down, and Sophie let herself dream he’d done it as a result of his cock coming to life. She had to believe this would arouse him or she wouldn’t be able to do it. And she had not nearly finished her display this evening.
Don’t stop now, Sophie. Standing at the window, knowing full well Lucien openly watched her, Sophie ran her hands over her face, into her hair, and then stretched her arms above her head. While she rolled her hips in little circles, she moved a hand down her raised arm, and glanced her fingertips over her smooth, freshly washed skin. Surprising warmth suffused Sophie’s body, and a different kind of slow heat grew in her cunt. She closed her eyes, but she could feel Lucien still watching her, and the knowledge tingled her skin with extra life.
Still rolling her hips, Sophie slid her hands down the sides of her body, skimming her breasts along the way as she outlined her shape. She let her fingertips brush across her mound but didn’t push deeper to finger her clit or slit. Her channel clenched, desperately wanting a deeper touch, but Sophie denied herself and Lucien the rawer display. Instead, she grazed her hands over her stomach and back up to her breasts, where she then slid her parted fingers around her nipples and gently squeezed. As she opened her eyes, she noticed the ruby red tips of her breasts poking out from between her digits, and immediate lines of pleasure shot down to her sex. The gentle caressing of her breasts ignited Sophie’s need, but she did not delve down and touch. She bit her lip and continued to tweak her nipples. Each small tug on the cherry red tips stoked the fires within Sophie, sent whips of phantom sensation straight down to her core, and made her clit as pebble hard as her nipples.
Please. Sophie squeezed her thighs together in an attempt to thwart the growing need to touch herself and she switched to rubbing her hands all over her tits with a rougher contact. In her mind, Sophie could see herself on her knees with her breasts held up in offering, and Lucien crying out as he showered his hot release onto her flesh. Yes. Yes. Her sex clenched with pleasure and loss, as if Lucien had just withdrawn from her pussy in order to come on her breasts. A tremor rocked through her, a rumbling from her body conveying that it needed more. Now.
Sophie locked in on Lucien; the man drilled his stare straight back at her. He still held on to the window frame. She could not yet tell if he had an erection hiding beneath his underwear, but his lack of visible response no longer mattered. Sophie had begun this little striptease and dance for Lucien, and just knowing he watched her still turned her on unlike anything she’d experienced in her life. At the same time, Sophie needed something more. She needed to feel him—or something—inside her very soon, or she knew she would scream down the walls of this castle and leave it in a crumbling pile in her wake. She started to shove her hand between her thighs but at the last second yanked away before making first contact.
With one blink, Sophie smiled at the statuelike man across the courtyard. She employed as much devilishness in her smile as he reveled in giving to her and then walked away from the window. If he had no interest, he wouldn’t follow. As she moved past the foot of the bed, Sophie ran her finger over a low bench that butted up against the end and grinned when the long cushion slid to the floor. It didn’t take much effort to drag the bench near to the second window, and thus in Lucien’s sight, if he chose to move. As of yet, this window remained vacant.
Knowing he hadn’t rushed to follow pricked Sophie’s heart, but moisture from her excitement still slicked her thighs, and need still buzzed her entire being. Sophie opened the wardrobe, pulled out the top drawer, removed the false bottom, and once again revealed the many sex toys she’d discovered just one day ago.
I can’t believe I’m really doing this. Sophie’s hand shook, but she ran her fingers over the various accoutrements until she landed on a flesh-colored dildo with a suction-cup base. The moment she withdrew it from its cubby, her heart rate kicked back up, and her sex pulsed in anticipation of what would come next. She grabbed a condom too, pushed the drawer closed, and looked up just in time to see dark-haired, pale-skinned Lucien brace himself in an exact mirror of how he’d displayed himself in the other window.
Sophie’s heart skipped a beat. She tried to tell herself it happened as a result of wanting that fake dick inside her right now more than just about anything and not because Lucien hadn’t been able to stay away. Either reason, or due to both, had her pussy creaming, readying her body for a filling.
At the bench, Sophie stuck the dildo onto the center of the wood, where it suctioned and stuck strait up. Once again, the sight of it shimmered awareness just under her skin and made her core temperature heat. More aware of Lucien now than ever, Sophie opened the condom packet and folded to her knees. Once there, with the slender silicone cock rearing proud in front of her, Sophie placed the rubber between her teeth. Using her lips and tongue, she proceeded to roll the protection on the firm, jutting toy. The artificial taste of sweet apples from the condom brought her taste buds to life, but Sophie didn’t care about that. While rolling on that latex, she let that faux prick fill her mouth as much as she could and hoped like heck Lucien could imagine his penis pushing past her lips in just the same way. Saliva poured into Sophie’s mouth on that thought, and she moaned as she let the fake cock slip from her mouth. She wished Lucien could hear her moan so that he would know how much the idea of his cock taking over her mouth turned her on.
Trembling only a little bit, Sophie stood up, shifted, and straddled the bench, right over the fake prick. Poised with only inches separating the head of the dildo from her nether lips, Sophie looked up at Lucien and locked in on his stare. His rigid stance only made her wetter. Not wanting to block his view, Sophie reached back, clutched the edge of the bench in her hands for support, and lowered herself, inch by tiny inch, until the dildo split her pussy lips and the head slipped inside.
Ohhh God. That smallest pierce of penetration spurred a delicious spasm all the way through Sophie’s channel and sparked a soft contraction. Too much already. As Sophie bit her lip and pushed down another inch, she reminded herself that she hadn’t used a sex toy in this manner in a very long time. She had a little vibrator at home, and it didn’t take more than a minute of that buzz on her clit to make her come sharp and fast. Sophie couldn’t even remember the last time she’d spread her legs for a full penetration. Last boyfriend. The truth slammed Sophie for a loop. Almost two years ago.
She hissed and bore down on another inch of the dildo, even as her sex fought accepting the modest thickness and length of this fake cock. If she couldn’t take this, then how could she ever imagine opening herself to Lucien’s fucking? The second Sophie thought Lucien’s name, her pussy fluttered as if in welcome, and the rest of the cock slipped into her body. Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes. Sophie moaned low and deep and automatically rocked herself over the invasion, letting its length touch all along her vaginal walls. And when she moved a second time, she did it while staring at Lucien leaning against his window, but let the thought that he was somehow also beneath her into her mind. Gasping in response, Sophie began to ride his cock.
Across the way, Lucien’s visage never cracked; he didn’t move a muscle. For the moment, Sophie didn’t care. Her body quickly heated to a point of critical mass, and her only thought was to give it relief. Sophie switched her hold to in front of her and began thrusting herself onto the dildo again and again and again with short, concentrated bursts and worked the firm sh
aft in and out of her cunt repeatedly. Halfway folded over the bench, Sophie squeezed her fingers around the edge of the wood in time with each punch down of her hips, a move that pushed the toy into her body to the hilt and had her gritting her teeth with each deep taking. Blood raced through her at breakneck speed, and all of it flooded right into Sophie’s core. Her clit pulsed with need, her breasts swelled with a hunger for Lucien’s touch, and every nerve ending in her body clawed for complete physical contact.
Her hair drying and falling around her face, Sophie reared upright and took hold of her breasts, desperate to assuage her body’s internal cries. She twisted her nipples and then tugged until she distended the dark red tips but succeeded only in increasing the itch deep inside her that needed scratching. Switching to gripping the bench with one hand, Sophie shoved her other hand between her legs, right to her clit. Unable to stop bouncing up and down on that dildo—she knew in her gut if she didn’t have that deep slide in her pussy, she would expire—Sophie looked right at Lucien and swore the man nodded. Oh God, yes.
With the small move from Lucien, something Sophie clung to as approval and permission, she rode the heck out of the fake cock and whipped her fingers over her exposed pearl of need. A little more, a little more, a little more, and a little smack against her supersensitized clit—yes, yes, yes, right there, right there, right there, fuck me, Lucien—and Sophie screamed. Orgasm slammed into her faster and harder than a bullet train and hurled her spinning into her release. Deep, squeezing pleasure contracted in Sophie’s cunt and grabbed hold of that fake cock as if it had nectar it needed to milk. Millions of tiny explosives at the end of each nerve ending in Sophie’s body burst at the same time, and a great shudder worked its way through her right to her core. She held on to the bench with both hands as the tremors rolled through her, and she didn’t let go until every last contraction holding on to the dildo still buried inside her finally released.
Sophie’s heart pounded in the aftermath of coming, but never once through the entire wave had she torn her attention from Lucien. She still didn’t look away now. She smiled as she studied him from top to bottom. As she looked, the bubble inside her, the one full of fear and uncertainty, popped.
Right then, without so much as acknowledging her, Lucien shifted upright and drew his curtains closed. White covered his window, and a moment later, the glow burning through the material was doused, leaving only darkness behind.
Still, even as Sophie gasped while lifting herself off the dildo, she continued to grin. She remembered one thing that had made what she’d done okay. Lucien might not have thrown his head back and come all over his window, but Sophie hadn’t missed the fat head of his cock sticking out from his underwear by the end of her little display. She’d made him hard, whether he chose to show it and take care of it in front of her or not.
Mission accomplished.
Lucien paced away from the window, his hands clenched into fists. No. No. No. He willed his raging erection to dwindle. Don’t let her beat you. You are in control.
In response, Lucien’s balls rolled in his sac, and his dick leaked a sheen of early ejaculate onto his belly. He groaned while fighting the drive in his arm to move his hand over his cock. Images of Sophie on the other side of two windows still burned in his brain, though, as if he had not pulled his curtain at all. Just as much as Sophie’s image, wild in the throes of pleasure while driving herself down onto that dildo, filled Lucien’s thoughts, he remembered her throwing herself behind the wall when he’d looked up at her, and then the sweet-and-innocent-as-hell sexiness when she gathered her courage and put herself on display.
Fuck. That piece of bravery had pushed Lucien to half hard, right from the start. Then she’d started playing with him. Christ. The voyeur in Lucien had responded to a display from Sophie he would categorize as chaste with a deeper level of arousal than when watching the most erotic sex acts in his old clubs. Shit, his dick still throbbed and reared in his underwear, demanding relief.
The picture of Sophie, naked, wild, and sweetly beautiful, infected his mind and body worse than the most potent alcohol in existence. She’d ridden that fake cock as if it had blood and a pulse coursing through it. With every push down of her pussy onto that length, Lucien had grown stiffer with need. Shit. Shit. Shit. Growling low, unable to fight the rigidity in his penis, Lucien pushed his hand in his underwear and stroked his heated shaft.
Yeesss. Bracing his back against the wall, right by the window, Lucien hissed and rubbed his cock again. Every nerve ending in Lucien’s dick cried out for the slick clutch of Sophie’s body. Giving in, he spit in his hands, dived into his underwear again, and jerked himself off stroke after stroke after stroke, never giving his cock a reprieve from his touch. His balls grew heavier with every rough touch, but Lucien kept his hands away from his sac, wanting this to be all about the feel of coming from the sensation of Sophie’s snug, welcoming channel clutching his cock. Jesus. From the way she’d visibly struggled at first to get that small dildo inside her, he knew her cunt would practically strangle his length with fist-tight spasms.
Just like that, Lucien’s nuts sucked up against his body. Fucking shit. Lucien punched his hips forward and imagined plunging into Sophie with raw aggression. So good. So fucking good. Drilling the back of his head into the wall, Lucien dragged his hands up and down his rigid shaft one, two, three more times, and then shouted roughly as orgasm roared all the way through his frame. Holding his dick, Lucien gritted his teeth through each sharp wave of release and watched himself shoot cum all over the floor, all the while wishing like hell he could spill himself deep in the hold of Sophie’s body.
Denial of his need for a pure, honest connection rocked through Lucien with just as much power as his orgasm had. That denial had him shoving away from the wall before the deepest seeds of pure joy could settle inside him. He had a job to do, and he could never forget it. He had let himself get caught up in the alluring innocence of Sophie Emerson, but he had to remember the more crucial piece of information that had come out of this night: Sophie wanted to play. Lucien had not scared her away. She had pushed herself out of her comfort zone and right into Lucien’s plan.
Lucien moved across his bedroom, pausing next to his dresser and the picture of a sandy-haired kid smiling up at him.
I haven’t forgotten about you. His throat catching, Lucien fingered the photo and reclaimed his resolve.
Time to set the stage for phase two.
Chapter Six
Brilliant morning light twinkled across the floor of Sophie’s bedroom, drawing her completely out of her slumber. After not having slept much her first night at Ravenstoke, she’d crashed hard last night and not twitched even once until a few minutes ago.
You slept the sleep of a well-sated woman. As she rolled onto her back to stretch, Sophie released something between a chuckle and a groan. While in reality she’d had only a dildo inside her, she still couldn’t shake the sensation that Lucien had been in the bedroom with her the whole way. Her very arousal itself and the ache to take care of it, not to mention the bold manner in which she’d pushed herself to come, wouldn’t even have existed if not for Lucien. He’d been at the heart of the whole episode. You did it completely for him.
“Oh God.” Sophie covered her face as if Lucien stood in her room, judging her right now. She considered herself an independent woman; she shouldn’t want to make herself a sexual entity for a man. Especially when she had to have a professional relationship with said man. After what she’d done last night, he would never take her seriously. She not only wasn’t sure she’d get the story of Raven Island and its castle for her station anymore, but she also began to wonder if a real story even existed. More than likely, she’d let Lucien manipulate her right from Magnus’s first phone call. Dang it. She hated playing into stereotypes. Not only the chauvinistic ones of a woman’s inability to act professionally in a work environment, but of being young and blonde too, and thus those in power shouldn’t have to take
her seriously at all.
Different paths showed themselves in Sophie’s mind. Down one road, she could put the story on the back burner, or even let it fall to the wayside, and focus entirely on why Lucien had brought her here. Down that first road, she would let go of her fear about the choices she would have to make to achieve that goal and how they might get in the way of her credibility as a producer. The second lane meant apologizing for what she’d done last night and assuring Lucien nothing else of a sexual nature would happen with her again. She would have to essentially abandon discovering Lucien’s reasons for luring her to Raven Island and focus purely and diligently on getting his agreement for the story. Either way she chose, she could not pursue one without severely compromising, or even entirely letting go of, the other.
No way. Sophie jolted straight up in bed. Her very being rejected giving up. Smarter than she looked or people gave her credit for, Sophie would figure out a way to achieve both goals. If she couldn’t get one step ahead of Lucien, then she at least needed to stay on par with him, swing for swing, and keep him off his game.
Bursting with new adrenaline, Sophie hopped out of bed. As she moved past the window, she came to a halt with a softly uttered “wow.” No wonder the light streaming in through the windows shone so bright. The sun steadily rose high into the sky, but a layer of freshly fallen snow blanketed the courtyard below, and more fat, beautiful flakes continued to fall. None of the angry storm from two nights ago or the dreary, wet darkness of yesterday remained. Spectacular brightness beamed through the window into Sophie and sank into her skin, warming her under the long-sleeved tee and panties.
As she rubbed her arms, Sophie belatedly jerked her focus up to Lucien’s window. Too much sunlight reflected off the glass, and she could not tell if anyone lurked beyond. Her stomach sank; she couldn’t identify if the sensation came from disappointment or relief. A quick glance at the clock on her nightstand told her it was 8:00 a.m., and she figured a guy like Lucien would already be hard at work. He struck her as someone who rarely slept at all but most definitely never slept in. Why she thought she knew that about him when in truth she didn’t know much about him at all, Sophie didn’t know. More of her gut coming into play, she suspected. And that instinct hadn’t been wrong about Owen.
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