by Jana Mercy
“An A for first-time efforts. There’s always room for improvement.” She smiled, pulled free from his loose grasp and sank onto the sofa. “Now strip for me.”
“What a slave driver.” He sighed in mock misery. “Next thing you know, you’ll want me shackled.”
“Mmm, now there’s an idea for your costume. Now dance, slave-boy.”
“I thought we’d already established my impressive manhood. Guess I’m going to have to prove myself to you once and for all.”
“Oh, I’m just going to hate that.” Her eyes twinkled.
“Sure, you are.”
“Strip. You need the practice.”
He chuckled, dipped his shoulders with exaggerated movements and would have felt like an absolute idiot except for the turned-on light in Sophia’s violet eyes.
“Work it more,” she rasped. “Run your fingers along the inside of your suspenders.”
Focusing on the growing flame of her hunger with each dip and sway he made, Gray danced, seducing his audience of one. He slipped his hand under the suspenders Sophia insisted he wear with the sleek “black-as-a-moonless-night” slacks, as she called them. She left him shirtless, although she informed him that if this costume worked he’d be wearing a rip-off white dress shirt.
The only thing he wanted to rip off was Sophia’s clothes.
“Gray,” she snapped. “Pay attention.”
“Yes ma’am.” Her eagerness excited him. He grinned and earned a glare.
“I’m serious.” Her expression said otherwise. She enjoyed their play.
“Right. Fingers inside suspenders.” He plucked the black elastic away from his chest. “How’s this?”
“Let go.”
Automatically he did, ignoring the stinging sensation as the strap slapped against his skin.
She flinched. “That’s not what I meant. Now look what you’ve gone and done.”
He cocked a brow when she rose from the sofa once again. Her bare breasts bobbed under her T-shirt. Old Navy had never looked so good.
“Ouch. Did that hurt?”
He started to answer that it hadn’t but she continued talking and he was glad the denial hadn’t tumbled out.
“Guess I’m going to have to kiss and make you all better now.”
“Ow,” he moaned. The upturned corners of her mouth hinted she knew just where he really did hurt and the fact amused her. Bewitching woman.
She bent and dropped a butterfly kiss next to where the strap snapped.
“I hurt here too.” He pointed to beside the other suspender. Her face tilted to smile up at him, then she kissed the indicated spot.
“And here.” His finger tapped the hollow at his throat.
Sophia smiled beguilingly and licked her tongue into the indention. Blood pounded in his brain. And elsewhere.
“Here.” He touched his chin.
Flashing another smile, she straightened and softly caressed his hair-stubbled chin with her mouth.
“And here?” Her sweet breath fanned over his lips.
“Definitely there,” he answered.
Her lips whispered across his, murmuring silent messages of seduction while she caressed, nipped, hypnotized. He was totally under her spell.
“Where else do you hurt, Gray?” Her hands splayed across his chest, burned their imprints into his flesh.
“All over.” It was true. His insides ached with need.
“I’d better get busy before we run out of time. Or the phone rings. Or we die from old age.” Her mouth pressed to him and damn if she didn’t set out to kiss him all over. When her tongue thrust into his navel and mimicked the very actions he wanted to do to her, he almost exploded.
“Sophia.” He clutched her head and held it against his abdomen while, jaw locked, he struggled to rein in his baser instincts.
The tenderness in the way Sophia gazed at him stirred turbulent emotions. She was so full of contradictions. Sophisticated, sexy, giving, demanding, all things wonderfully woman wrapped into one delectable package. Unaccustomed emotion flickered within him but he lumped it under sexual desire for lack of a better description.
“What?” she asked when he didn’t move, barely breathed.
“Just you,” he admitted, wondering if his words held a bittersweet doubled-edged meaning.
“Mmmm, I like the sound of that.” She slid up his body.
Unable to contain the volcanic lust mounting within him, Gray covered her mouth and kissed her until she panted and swooned, as if the floor shifted beneath her feet. Good, ’cause his insides quaked too. He pushed her back onto the sofa.
“Oh,” she gasped at his sudden movement but then her pupils dilated with pleasure when she saw what he was doing.
Eyes locked with hers, Gray slipped first one, then the other suspender from his shoulders. With mind-boggling ease he flicked the snap of his pants and painstakingly inched the zipper down.
“Mmmm,” she practically purred. He decided right then and there he liked the sound of Sophia’s purr. Liked it a lot.
With gentle bumps of his hips, his pants dropped to the floor. Sophia’s purr mutated into a strangled groan as she stared at his naked assets.
She’d set out a thong for him to wear.
He didn’t wear thongs. Absolutely no strings of material up his crack. Not now. Not ever.
“You are so not going to wear nothing under your pants on Saturday night.” She informed him with a saucy shake of her head.
“Aw and here I was planning to give the ladies a treat like no other.”
“Over my dead body.”
He chuckled and shook one leg in the way Elvis had demonstrated to them both earlier in the afternoon. His pants remained bunched at his ankles. Uhm, maybe he should have kicked off his black, slick bottomed shoes first. No matter, he remedied the problem and stepped out of the dark material.
“Hmmm,” Sophia mused from where she sat on the sofa.
Walking toward her, he fumbled with the condom package he retrieved from his pants pocket. He rolled the rubber over his erection.
“Now that’s a costume a woman could get into.”
He pried her legs apart and stood between her spread thighs. “I’m going to get into you, Sophia Walker. So deep you aren’t going to be able to see straight.”
“Promises, promises. Let me see some action and maybe I’ll believe you,” she mocked but he saw her quick swallow, felt the quiver in her knees pressing against his legs. The heated anticipation in her gaze and her uninhibited arousal intensified the thudding of his heart.
He stripped the pair of tie-string shorts off her in one swift jerk. Looping her knees, he pulled her bottom to the edge of the vinyl sofa. Her moist heat rubbed against his leg.
Need racked him. Damn, he’d meant to tease her senseless and here he was the one losing his senses, his control.
“You ready?” he asked, knowing the answer but wanting to hear her say the words.
She clenched her thighs around his legs and nodded. “Drowning.”
Gray pressed forward, Sophia’s ankles draped over his shoulders and he rammed into her dripping body. He drove inside. In so deep he’d never surface again. Was sure he’d never want to. Drowning, she’d said. He understood.
Barely, he contained his natural urge to pummel her with raw animal power. Barely.
Deeper and deeper. Back and forth in gut-wrenching madness while he pounded his hardness into her sweet, moist softness.
“Gray.” She panted his name. Her muscles quivered around his throbbing cock. Over and over her body contracted, pulsated around him until his ironclad willpower slipped.
A fresh wave of sweat dampened his body.
He cursed when his balls tightened. He held still, hoping to prolong the moment.
Refusing to let him restrain his release, she demanded verbally and with her body that he forget control, demanded he take her hard and fast.
“Now,” she cried, riding his cock while an orgasm rocked her.
“Don’t hold back, Gray,” she begged. “Now.”
Teeth clenched, muscles scrunched, he threw his head back and lost himself.
Hard. Fast. Deep.
“Sophia,” he gasped and came, knowing he’d never look at the world quite the same way ever again.
* * * * *
Gray mixed another fruity concoction and ignored the flirty brunette while she waited on her drink. Apparently, she thought she was the cause of his goofy grin.
Hell, he couldn’t quit smiling.
He’d never had sex on red vinyl before but had sure as hell enjoyed the experience. Had enjoyed everything about his afternoon with Sophia. Such a sweet contradiction.
Sophisticated sexiness.
He couldn’t wait to try out some of the contraptions in Madame G’s bedroom. A room Sophia had refused to let him enter even after their amazing debut on the sofa. But when he’d broken into the apartment shortly after he moved in, he scoped out the entire place and Madame G had some wild-looking equipment in her room.
His hand paused mid-action of placing the glass in front of the brunette.
He could clearly see the red satin covered heart-shaped bed, could see the stripper-pole near the foot of the bed, the black leather straps attached to it. The leather and chain contraption that hung from the ceiling he’d not taken time to figure out exactly how one used—although his imagination could come up with a few interesting ideas. Ideas all starring Sophia.
Hell, sex with Sophia surpassed his wildest fantasies. Period. He had a feeling it didn’t matter if they were in a sexy boudoir or in a plain, white cotton covered bed. Either way she’d rock his world.
“Ahem,” the brunette cleared her throat, reminding him he withheld her drink. “As good as you are to look at, honey, I’m thirsty.”
Gray grinned, accepted her generous waistband-tucked tip without a single grimace and leaned against the bar.
“Pour me a beer. Whatever you have on draft.” A familiar redhead slid her curvy derrière onto one of the man’s hand barstool.
“Yes ma’am.” Seconds later, Gray set the frosty mug in front of one of his female coworkers, Joey.
“Here,” she handed him a ten and winked. “Keep the change.”
“Thanks.” Knowing the bill would contain whatever message Lawrence wanted him to know, Gray turned to walk away but she stretched forward.
“Have to admit, you’re looking mighty fine in that getup, Erickson.”
“We aim to please.” He shot her a teasing glance. “I know you, red?”
“I hate it when you call me that.” She rolled her eyes. “And, of course, you know me. I’ve been coming in here two, sometimes three nights a week since you started.”
“Why? You interested in me?”
She pinned him with her narrowed grass green gaze but laughter spilled from her painted red lips, creating a conflicting image. “Not in a long, long time, you bastard.”
Remorse hit him. “I’m sorry, Joey.”
Her smile slipped but only for a second before she pulled her tough mask back into place. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. Her words weren’t pleasant but then he hadn’t expected them to be. “Cut the crap, Erickson, before I cut off your balls and serve them for breakfast.”
Gray stared at her, holding his face rigid. Anyone looking their way would think she was flirting. She wasn’t.
“What the hell are you doing here, Joey?” he demanded in a low growl, not sure he really wanted to know.
She forced another flirty smile, then slanted over the bar again. “You know the answer to that. This isn’t funny and you’re drawing unnecessary attention to us. If you’re trying to tell me you want back in my pants, forget it. Been there, done that and won’t be going on that ride again. Now tell me, do you have anything on the old bat yet?”
Back in her pants? Not hardly. He’d been the one to end their relationship.
Gray ran his gaze over her. Long curly red hair, big green eyes that weren’t as immune to him as she professed and a body that attested to long hours in the gym. Nothing soft about Joey. She was tough and wanted the world to know it. A sexy package for sure. But he didn’t feel the slightest bit of desire. Odd as in the past, Joey always got his juices flowing. Too bad she also got too attached for his comfort level and he ended things before their working relationship became strained.
Sensing he was being watched, he looked up. Sophia perched in the doorway to a backstage entrance. Her eyes darkened but she averted her gaze before he had time to reassure her with a smile. “Shit.”
“Who is she?” Joey asked with the aplomb that she had every right to know.
“Why do you want to know?”
She looked upward as if it were all she could do to keep from wrapping her hands around his throat. “She’s the tight-ass niece you told me about last week?”
Silence grew thick with tension.
“You’re sleeping with her.” It wasn’t a question. A look of satisfaction curled her glossy red lips. “Still using the same old tricks, I see. Good. Maybe screwing you will loosen her tongue in more ways than one. Use her to find out whatever you can.”
A cold knot formed in his stomach. He was using Sophia.
This afternoon, well, he had used her. To satisfy his sexual itch. To satisfy the ache she caused deep within him. Not that she had. He yearned for her even more now that he knew the heights she brought him to. Use her? Yeah, he had but hell if he liked hearing someone else say it.
He ground his teeth to keep from defending Sophia’s honor. He couldn’t. Joey would latch onto anything he said like a dog with a bone. Green eyes narrowed suspiciously. Her smile faded at his continued silence. What did she see on his face? Whatever it was she apparently didn’t approve.
“You know, something about you is different.” A look of skepticism passed over her face. “I can’t put my finger on it, nor can I believe I’m saying this to you, you, ice-cold Erickson, for Christ’s sake but don’t let her pretty little face keep you from doing what you’re really here to do. And just for the record, it ain’t her. Her warming your bed is just an added bonus.”
She picked up her mug. Chugging the contents in one long guzzle, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand in a most unladylike way and slapped the glass down on the bar top.
“If you screw this up, I’ll kick your ass.” With that she weaved her way through the throng of squealing women waving money in the air while they tried to catch the current stripper’s attention.
Gray raked his fingers through his hair and took a quick glance at the money Joey tucked into his waistband. Lawrence wanted Joey backstage. Damn. She would be part of the backup team on Saturday night and would need to be as familiar with the place and employees as possible. How was he supposed to get her backstage without raising suspicions? Somehow he didn’t think Sophia would go for him bringing Joey backstage under the guise of a quickie.
He glanced to Sophia. His gaze collided with tumultuous violet eyes. Immediately she turned toward where Fireman Freddie dangled his hose this way and that way on stage. From the look on her face, Freddie wasn’t the only one who’d be putting out fires tonight.
Sophia was pissed and he expected her anger to grow by leaps and bounds when he brought Joey backstage.
Chapter Eight
Who was the redheaded woman and why did Gray look as guilty as sin?
Sophia stared unseeingly at the hunky fireman starting more fires than he was putting out based upon the audience’s squeals of delight.
Tears pricked her eyes. Tears of jealousy.
And fear?
Despite the make-her-toes-curl sex from this afternoon Gray was a mystery. He sure acted familiarly with the redhead. Did he know her? Maybe she was someone from his past. Had they had something going prior to Sophia arriving on the scene?
Arriving on the scene? Ha, for all she knew, they could still be involved.
The woman had a body that would make Lara Croft drool with
envy. And she exuded self-confidence. Bet she didn’t make a bumbling mess of almost everything she attempted.
Raw emotion clenched Sophia’s insides. Both nauseating and fearful. She didn’t want to feel this way. Never had she felt any jealousy over Nate and they’d been engaged. Yet, she felt wildly possessive of Gray.
He was hers. Not that he knew it or would say the same but darn it, a man who could make a woman orgasm like there was no tomorrow deserved to be held on to.
So who was the redhead?
The only way to know was to ask. Smiling, she visited with one group of ladies and then the next. Methodically she made her way closer and closer to the redhead’s rambunctious table.
“Hello, ladies. I’m the manager on duty tonight. Are you having a good time?”
“Oh yes.” A pudgy brunette waved her hands excitedly, squealing for the stripper to make his way in her direction. “A grand time.”
“Good.” She turned to the redhead, hoped she wasn’t too obvious and wondered if the woman worked as a personal trainer. Maybe to some country music star. Or at one of the many gyms Sophia saw advertised around town. She’d never seen a woman so tough, yet so undeniably feminine. Except maybe on television.
“And you?” she asked, staring into amused green eyes rimmed with lashes so impossibly thick they appeared fake but weren’t.
“Splendid.” A wry humor snaked through the word. She could be showing sarcasm or she could be having the time of her life.
“Anything I can do to make your evening more enjoyable, just let me know.”
“Will do.” The woman leaned back in her seat, watching Sophia closely. Her calculating eyes took on a shiny gleam. “There is one thing.”
Sophia’s breath caught. She wasn’t going to like this. “Yes?”
“The bartender.” The woman wrapped a red curl around her finger, drawing out the suspense of what she might ask. Sophia’s lungs threatened to explode from lack of oxygen while she waited. “He’s not available, is he?”
The curl sprang free, its recoil simulating the emotional boomerang firing within Sophia.