“Fuck, Sophie,” I groaned, “I’m not mad. You were… fuck, you were incredible.” I lifted my head and kissed her on the temple, cupping her face in my hand. “I just… I really hope you got that out of your system because I think I’d kill the next motherfucker who touched you.”
She choked out a half-surprised, half-relieved laugh. Then her expression grew serious, her eyebrows drawing together. “It was you,” she whispered. “I could only think of you.” She gently kissed me, and breathed her words against my lips. “It was hot and dirty and exciting and wrong. It was everything I thought it would be. But all I wanted was for it to be you.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her against me, her feet dangling above the floor as she hugged me tight and breathed heavily into my shoulder.
“God, Sophie,” I said. I had no other words. Every thought in my brain was twisted together, and I couldn’t make sense of any of it. I could only hold her, feel her clutching me tightly, wanting to believe that all this truly meant something to her.
At long last, I took a few steps towards the bathroom, not releasing her, but carrying her with me.
“We need a shower. I need to wash that fucker’s spunk off you.”
Sophie giggled into my neck, limp like a rag doll in my arms.
“God, please…” she whispered and giggled again. “I only want your spunk on me.”
In the bathroom, I lowered her to the floor and cupped her face in my hands. Her expression grew serious, likely mirroring mine. The words were right there on the tip of my tongue, aching to come out.
I love you.
I froze for a second, trying to wrap my mind around that. It didn’t seem possible. Not for me. Not yet.
Then Sophie leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed me gently, and it was gone. The moment passed.
I began to free the buttons on the front of her dress, for the second time that day. This time, there was a new determination in my touch.
“As hot as this was today, Sophie, I fucking hated that he was touching you.”
Her eyes met mine, and I cupped her jaw tightly.
“I've kind of started to think of these lips as mine.”
I kissed her fiercely sliding my fingertips down her neck to trace her collarbone. I pushed the dress from her shoulders and dropped my hands to her breasts, lifting them and teasing the nipples with my thumbs.
“These beautiful fucking tits,” I said, and kissed her hard again, pinching her nipples to the point of almost pain, “I think they’re mine too.” Her breath started coming in heavy pants, and her groin begin to press up against mine.
My fingertips lowered, down over her stomach to the soft, wet heat between her thighs. “This pussy is mine.” My voice had gotten harsh as she moaned against my lips.
My fingers dipped up inside her center, feeling her squeeze around me, then around to her bottom to the cleft of her ass, just brushing the tight entrance. “And this ass is mine. Don’t think I could bear to watch somebody take you here again, no matter how awesome it feels. I’m a greedy motherfucker.”
I lifted her against me and stepped into the shower and washed all the traces of Justin away. I soaped up her skin and swept over every inch of her, around her curves and inside her heated, wet center. I left her under the hot spray for a moment while I quickly grabbed a condom, then returned to her. I pushed her up against the tiled wall and fucked her hard and fast, biting into her shoulder and marking her, covering the little bites Justin had left on her breasts with my own. Sophie moaned and writhed against me. She met each thrust and clawed at my skin to bring me closer as she came, screaming my name.
Mine.
I wanted her to be mine.
She was all I’d thought about… all day long.
I waited outside Lily’s salon, aching for her. Literally. The thoughts I had about her generally involved a lot of nakedness, and my brain had been in full on porno mode that day. My dick actually hurt. I almost went and rubbed one off in the garage bathroom before I left, thinking she’d probably not appreciate me just attacking her the minute I got her alone.
But, then, I thought, maybe she would.
There she was, stepping outside, quickly rushing through the cool air to my pickup. I climbed out and motioned her around to the driver side. I wanted her ass right beside me.
As she came closer, I caught her face in my hands, only intending to place a light kiss on her soft lips. But at the first touch, she threw her arms around my neck and pulled up closer, tilting her head to deepen the kiss and swirl her tongue through my mouth.
The wind blew, snowflakes blustering down from the rooftops and covering us in a chilly dusting of snow. Sophie gave a little squeal that made me laugh as I turned her by the shoulders and helped her into the truck. Helped her as in I put my hand on her ass and more or less goosed her as she climbed in. It was effective. In more ways than one. As I climbed in beside her, she leaned up and bit my earlobe.
“Take me home, Bran,” she said with a throaty groan.
Two hours later, we lay in my bed, tucked into the warm flannel sheets eating a pizza we’d just had delivered. Dinner in bed. Naked dinner. Best dinner ever.
I took a sip of my beer, tilting the bottle to Sophie in an offering.
“You know,” she said, setting down her pizza to take the bottle, “I’d never once tried beer before I met you.” Her other hand was holding the dark sheets up to her naked breasts, and I was trying to figure out how to convince her to lay back so I could pour it over her and drink it off her skin. She took a sip as she smiled, then another. “I kind of like it. I wasn’t too sure at first.”
“Well, it’s probably a little different than your everyday fine wine.”
“I actually kind of like cheap wine,” she chuckled. “My parents frowned upon me drinking much of anything because they knew I had no taste. So much of it was just so… similar. I couldn’t really tell much difference, so they generally made me stick to nonalcoholic things. Plus, my mother was always on me about calories.”
“Wine was never really my thing,” I chuckled. “I tried the dirt cheap stuff when I was younger, like Mad Dog and Boone’s Farm, but it was pretty fruity. I always kinda went straight for the hard stuff. And then Denny turned me on to Jameson. But I do like a good cold beer.”
“You sound like an old man,” Sophie laughed as she wiped her fingertips off with a napkin. “When you were younger?”
“Well, I was pretty young when I started drinking, really,” I admitted. “Even by small-town Montana standards. Not long after my mom died, I fell into kind of a rough crowd, most of whom had parents with well-stocked liquor cabinets.”
Slightly wary of becoming too serious, I took the last bite of crust, and closed up the pizza box, reaching over to set it on my dresser. I figured I’d just toss the rest in the morning. Sophie watched me closely, quietly.
“How old were you when your mom died?” she finally asked in a soft, gentle voice.
So much for not getting serious. I lay back on the bed, my head against the pillows, and pulled her down to rest her head on my chest. “I’d just turned twelve.” My throat suddenly felt tight. I’d never really talked about it much, with anyone. Not even Mira or my grampa. Not Denny. But for some reason, I couldn’t seem to stop from telling Sophie.
“That’s pretty young,” she whispered. Her fingertips trailed across my collar bone and my shoulder. Down my arm.
“Yeah, I guess,” I tried to shrug it off. “She’d only been sick for a few months. It was a pretty aggressive cancer. She’d fought it. The cancer had fought harder. She was barely diagnosed and then she was dying.” Sophie didn’t say anything. She just… held me, as pussy-ish as that sounds.
I turned to look down at her and pressed a quick, soft kiss against her forehead. “After that, it was kinda like my sister felt the urge to take over our mom’s role, like her purpose in life was to tell me what to do. It only got worse when my grampa died. When he left me his
shop.”
Sophie rose up over me, scooting up a little to brush a lock of hair out of my eyes. She didn’t really say anything, just listened as I spoke.
“Mira and I were really the only family he had left. She had just gotten married, so he left his house to her. It made total sense since she’s older than me. A lot more stable than me. But then that crazy old man went and left me his garage. I was just barely twenty-three at the time. Even now, a year later, I don’t feel like I have any business running that place. I honestly wonder at the wisdom in leaving his life’s work in the hands of someone like me.”
“He must have seen something in you, Bran,” she murmured. “Maybe something you still don’t see in yourself.”
I gave a derisive snort and shook my head. “I told Mira I was just gonna sell it.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t, since you still have it.”
“No, I sure didn’t. She came completely unglued, raked me over the coals with how much our mom and grampa wanted me to have a good life. She totally guilted me into keeping it, wasn’t about to let me back out. She was on a super bossy roll and can be kinda intimidating when she does that.”
Sophie smiled. “She cares about you.”
“Yeah, I guess she does.” I suddenly felt guilty for complaining about Mira, realizing that Sophie would have given damn near anything for that kind of relationship as a kid. “I’d, um…” I murmured in a thick voice as I lightly brushed her bangs back from her eyes, “I’d like you to meet her.”
It was a pretty hefty implication. I’d never ever even once taken a chick to meet my sister, and there was no doubt in my mind exactly what I was asking. When that tender look reflected in Sophie’s eyes, when a flicker of sweet belonging flashed, I could see that she understood it, too.
“I’d like that,” she murmured, just the faintest catch in her voice. Then she leaned up to kiss me tenderly, and we soon had forgotten everything but the two of us.
The Copperline was packed and the band belted out one song after another. Lily had just dragged Sophie off to the bathroom with her as I headed to the back door to let in some fresh, cool winter air. It was hot as fuck in the bar. All those bodies and the bright stage lights had the band sweating to the point where they were looking a little worse for the wear.
I propped the door open and took a deep breath, looking out into the dark night. The temperature hovered just below freezing and a cloud of steamy air swirled around with the cold as I stood there for a moment. Above the banging band, though, I heard female voices through the bathroom door.
“Well of course he was going to sleep with you,” one girl said, maybe Laura. “You’re a novelty. You’re hot and you’re rich. Why wouldn’t he want a taste of that?”
“Yeah,” came another, this one sounded like Pauline, I think, “but do you really think he’ll change for you? Do you really think you’re that special? Because underneath all that money and behind that pretty face, you’re just a little slut like the rest of us.”
“Fuck off,” I clearly heard Lily spit back at them, “you two are just jealous that he wants Sophie and not you.”
Laura snorted. “He just wants her because she’s pretty and rich and unattainable.”
I shoved open the door so hard it crashed up against the wall. Sophie stood behind Lily, her face white as a sheet. Her earlier buoyant mood had evaporated into a dismal presence.
“What the fuck are you going on about?” I growled at Laura and Pauline. Lily was in full mother bear mode, right up in Pauline’s face.
Laura shrank back at my glowering appearance. “Brannon,” she gasped.
Sophie gave me a disconcerted look. This clearly wasn’t the first time this sort of conversation had gone down. I thought back to the drunken girls’ night out and Sophie’s perceptions back then. I should have guessed that these two were the culprits.
Sophie’s eyes suddenly looked wary and doubtful. She had her mask back in place. Her protection from everyone and everything, including me.
Fuck.
“Lily, get her out to my truck.”
“Come on, girl,” Lily murmured and ushered Sophie out of the restroom, heading towards the back door rather than back down the hallway to the bar.
I rounded on Pauline and Laura. “Leave her the fuck alone.”
“You were so much more fun before she showed up, Brannon,” Laura shot back. “What the fuck does she have that I don’t? Or Pauline? Or Ruth?”
“Class,” I growled in response. “Not because she’s got money, but she’s got integrity. She’s got a fucking conscience and a fucking heart. So leave her the fuck alone.”
With that, I followed Sophie and Lily outside.
“They’re just jealous, Sophie,” Lily was saying.
Sophie stood by my pickup, rubbing her bare arms in the cold winter night. I pulled off the flannel shirt I wore over my cotton tee and tucked it around her shoulders.
“Soph, don’t listen to them,” I murmured against the top of her head as I pulled her close. “I made the mistake of sleeping with Laura a while back. She’s just pissed that I didn’t want more from her.”
Lily nudged my arm and arched her eyebrow up at me. “I’m not sure admitting you slept with that bitch is really gonna help, Brannon.”
“Well, I’d fucking undo it if I could,” I snapped. “Jesus, I’m sorry, Soph. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she murmured quietly. “I’m alright.”
But it wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay.
“Why don’t you two go on and head home,” Lily suggested, smoothing Sophie’s hair back from her face. “I’ll tell the guys what happened, so they’re not wondering where you are.”
“Thanks, Lily,” I nodded.
Lily gave me a sympathetic smile and looked back at Sophie. “Don’t let those bitches make you feel bad, Sophie. You’re the one who’s wrapped in his arms right now.”
Sophie didn’t totally seem convinced, but she did press a little closer, seeking my warmth and my strength.
That was something, anyway.
“You’ve never stayed at my place,” Sophie said quietly as we hit the edge of Ophir. “Do you want to?” She sat leaned up against me in the center of the pickup’s bench seat, but her gaze was off in the distance, looking out the passenger side window at the world passing us by.
This seemed a bit of a strange request. Sophie didn’t even like her apartment. The one time I’d been inside, that much had been painfully clear. She wasn’t even remotely comfortable there, which is probably why we always stayed at my place.
“Sure,” I replied cautiously, “I guess.”
She laid her head down on my shoulder.
“You okay, baby?” I asked.
“I’m fine, Bran,” she said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been slapped upside the head with something like that…” Her voice trailed off, and she took a deep breath. “I don’t want to think about it. I just want to forget it all, to be in your arms. I like that reality a lot better than the real one.”
“Soph—”
She turned more towards me, arching to softly kiss my neck as her hand drifted down between my legs. “Please, Bran,” she whispered, “I don’t want to talk. I just want to go home so you can make me feel free.”
So I did.
I didn’t push her to talk. Maybe I should have. It would have maybe helped me open up, too. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Quite honestly, all of this shit, the way I was starting to feel about her, made me uneasy. And the longer we let it ride, the more precarious things became. The more opportunity for things to really get all fucked up.
So I pushed it from my mind, refusing to see the fragile cracks that were forming in our little glass bubble. I refused to acknowledge that there might be anything but now, this reality.
We got to her apartment, and she led me to her bedroom, coolly decorated with the same chic décor that had none of Sophie’s personality whatsoever. Without a word, she stripped
me down and sank to her knees before me.
And then I ceased to think of anything but her sweet mouth. Her bright crystalline eyes as she looked up at me, her lips wrapped around my cock. Her dark lashes that fanned out over her cheeks when she closed her eyes.
Everything about her was beautiful. Inside and out. Real and passionate, even when she was holding back…
Like she was now.
I jerked back from her, grabbing a condom from my wallet with one hand and pulling her to stand with the other. Everything seemed dangerously perilous, on the verge of total collapse, and that made me edgy. I roughly pushed her back down onto the bed. I’d make her react. I’d make her scream for me.
Feeding off the same uncertain energy, Sophie wiggled out of her dress as I slipped the condom on and stood over her. Her teal satin bra and little matching panties made her skin seem pearly white, soft and smooth. And as much as I wanted to soak in the image and keep it forever in my mind, my raging body needed her like it needed fucking air.
I pushed the crotch of her panties to the side and surged into her, hard and abrupt. She gasped at the sudden intrusion, but her hips rose to meet mine. Her fingers tangled into the bed cover as she lay below me, and I pulled her legs tight against my ribs, jerking her closer to where I stood by her bed. Slamming into her with furious strokes.
Like I could fuck her into believing in me.
In the end, it undid me first. I lost total control of my mouth for a second.
“I love you.” The words left my throat before I’d even realized it, and my voice was harsh was passion. Caught up with the imminence of my release.
She stopped immediately, frozen solid below me.
“What?” she whispered.
I froze as well. My mind whirled with the implications of what I’d just said.
Oh fuck.
I told her I loved her.
As much as my mind instantly rebelled against the thought, I knew right then that I couldn’t deny it any longer, not even to myself. There was an intense emotional pull. Stronger than anything I’d ever known.
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