But she’d have been lying to herself if she’d said there wasn’t a sliver of doubt...or maybe fear...worrying its way through her lust-hazed thoughts. And what worried her was the after. She knew exactly what he was offering her here — a hot, decadent one night stand — and while she was ready to dive right in, she couldn’t help but question what this would do to their friendship.
And you can worry about that later, her starved inner wild woman hissed inside her head, shoving the scientist into a room and slamming the door on her sour expression. Right now, all you need to do is say Yes...More...Hurry! And enjoy yourself!
Determined to follow her own advice, she managed a breathless, “I’m with you,” as he kissed his way across the trembling line of her jaw, and she turned her head to give him better access as he tossed the ugly lab coat into the nearest corner. It landed on a small potted tree, and she had to choke back a giggle, her nerves quickly fading beneath the heady burn of desire firing through her. Needing to touch him, she lifted her hands and curled them over his broad shoulders, squeezing the hard, powerful muscles. She could feel his heat through the soft fabric of his shirt, and she dug her nails into him as he fisted one hand in the back of her pinned-up hair and pulled her head back even farther. His incredible mouth was open and hot against the sensitive skin at the side of her throat as he tasted her.
“I want inside you so fucking bad, Soph.”
Mmm...Yes. She loved the idea of taking him deep inside her, where she knew she’d feel the stretch and burn of his penetration. The academic in her had a full understanding of the fact that his impressive size meant her smaller body was going to experience a pinch of pain when his massive Tab B went into her tight Slot A. But the hot-blooded, pleasure-starved woman that also lived in there didn’t give a damn. With each hitching breath, Sophie was pulling more of Chris’s mouthwatering scent into her system, so desperate for him she was actually starting to tremble like someone with a fever. Her lips parted as the big hands he’d placed on her hips started bunching up the fabric of her skirt, and she was about two seconds away from begging him to hurry, when a dog barked outside and someone suddenly knocked on the door, the loud banging reverberating through her head.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” he groaned, tearing his mouth from the sensitive patch of skin just behind her ear. “I hate like hell to do this, but I’ve got to get that.”
Sophie choked back a gasp as he reached for the doorknob, quickly shuffling to the side so that she’d be hidden behind the door when he pulled it open. No way in hell could she face whoever was on the other side right now. She could only imagine what she looked like, with her kiss-swollen mouth, pink face and dazed eyes.
“Sorry, cuz,” she heard a woman say as soon as he opened the door. “I would have kept him but it’s parents’ night at Jase’s school and I’d like to get over there as early as possible.”
“No worries,” Chris replied, and Sophie noticed that he’d pulled the hem of his shirt out of his slacks, no doubt to hide the fact he was hard as steel at the moment. “I should have come straight over when I got home,” he was saying, “but I, uh, got distracted.”
Sophie bit her lip, trying not to laugh, then suddenly yelped when he grabbed her hand and yanked her out from behind the door, trapping her against his side with his arm wrapped firmly around her waist, his hand settling possessively on her hip. In his other hand, he held the leash of a giant black Labrador, the dog’s dark eyes fixed on her as it sat at his feet, tongue lolling out the side of its mouth.
“Karin, this is Sophie. She’s one of the top scientists at Blackwood.”
Chris’s deep voice pulled her attention away from the adorable dog, and she found herself staring up at a tall, beautiful woman who definitely looked like she shared Chris’s impressive gene pool. His cousin smiled, her brown eyes both friendly and familiar.
“Nice distraction,” Karin teased, before winking at Chris.
He laughed. “Busted.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Sophie managed to murmur, knowing her face must be bright pink as she offered the woman her hand.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Karin said, giving her a firm, welcoming handshake.
“Any problems?” Chris asked, tightening his hold on Sophie’s waist.
Karin gave him a tight smile. “Not today.”
His breath released on a soft puff of air, and Sophie could have sworn he sounded relieved. “Good. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
His cousin nodded in agreement, then flashed them both a rueful grin. “Well, I’ll just head off and get out of your way.”
Chris pulled the Lab back to his side when it tried to jump up on Sophie, its heavy tail whapping against the floor. “Thanks for letting him hang out with you today.”
“No problem.” Looking at Sophie, Karin said, “I hope I’ll see you again.”
She smiled, not knowing what to say. If she agreed, he might think she was assuming this would lead to more than just a hot hook-up. And while that might be something straight out of her dreams, she was too much of a realist to actually believe it would happen.
While Sophie had thought things over during the drive, she’d realized that if Chris were serious about her, he would have done something about it long before now. She wasn’t exactly sure what had gotten into him today — God knew some of the things he’d said to her had sounded incredibly romantic in a raw, possessive kind of way — but she wasn’t going to analyze it to death the way she usually would. Instead, she was going to simply enjoy it while it lasted and soak up as much pleasure from it as she could.
Heck, maybe it was the fortune cookie at work. And if it was, she’d never been so thankful for a little mystical intervention as she was at that precise moment in time.
The sound of him throwing the deadbolt on the front door ripped her from her thoughts, and she blinked him back into focus. “I cannot believe you just did that,” she groaned, her shoulders shaking as she gave a soft, embarrassed laugh.
He shot her a look that she knew was meant to be innocent, though it didn’t come anywhere close. “Did what?”
“Introduced me to someone in your family when I look like I’ve been rolling around in the hay!”
“The hay?” he said, laughing.
She made a flustered gesture with her hand. “You know what I mean.”
“You don’t look like you’ve been rolling around in the hay,” he told her with a smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he swept his gaze from her feet up to her flushed face. “You look beautiful, Soph.”
“Thanks,” she whispered a little dreamily, when she was finally able to find her voice. “I, um, think you’re beautiful, too.”
His smile disappeared as his expression took on a hard, feral edge. He made a rough noise that sounded like an actual growl, and started lowering his head. But the instant his mouth touched hers, the dog nudged his way between them, wriggling with excitement. Chris pulled his head back, his dark gaze suddenly glittering with hunger and humor. “Let me get rid of this guy,” he said in a sexy rumble, tugging the dog away.
“What’s his name?”
“Max.”
“This is Max?” she asked with surprise.
Chris grinned. “What did you expect? A Chihuahua?”
“No. I just...whenever you talked about hanging out at the beach with Max, or going hiking with Max, I thought you were talking about another guy!”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Good thing I never mentioned Max’s habit of peeing on tires. That would have really had you second-guessing my choice in friends.”
She smiled as she reached down and petted the dog’s massive head. “You’re a cutie, aren’t you?”
Max’s tale thumped rapidly against the floor, his excitement palpable.
“Come on, you flirt,” Chris murmured, taking the Lab to the kitchen and shutting him inside. He tossed the leash on to the dark end table, along with his tie, then slid Sophie a hungry, heavy-lidded look.
“Now where were we?” he asked in a low voice, coming toward her.
She caught her lower lip in her teeth, blood pounding in her ears, her heart hammering with both excitement and nerves. But she wasn’t going to let it hold her back, and she was proud of the way her voice barely shook as she told him, “If I recall correctly, you were just about to rip my clothes off.”
“Damn, I’m brilliant,” he drawled huskily, reaching out and grabbing her around the waist.
Another soft laugh fell past her lips as she crashed against his muscular chest. “You don’t have to convince me of that.”
“But I do have to have you.” He placed one big hand on her hip, the other curving around the side of her throat, holding her in place as he claimed her mouth in a scalding kiss that damn near melted her bones, it was so freaking hot.
“I need you naked,” he muttered into her mouth, flicking his tongue across her teeth. “I’m tired of trying to imagine what you look like under all those little cock-teasing outfits you torment me with day after day at work. I want to learn every inch of your bare body. Now, Sophie.”
“You, too,” she gasped, spreading her hands over his hard shoulders. She stroked across the powerful musculature, down to his strong arms, squeezing the hard weight of his biceps. She wanted to grab the front sides of his shirt and rip it until buttons were pinging all over the floor, but he pulled away before she could try out the movie-inspired move.
With wide eyes, Sophie watched Chris drop down on his knees in front of her. Keeping his head lowered, he slipped her ballet flats off her feet and tossed them aside. Then his head lifted a little and he roughly attacked the slim buttons at the side of her skirt, his big hands shaking a bit with what felt like need, for her, and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world.
Seconds later, her skirt joined her shoes, and Chris’s big hands were reaching up under the hem of her blush-colored blouse and snagging the top of her tights, wrenching them down and off. Suddenly, she was standing in front of him wearing nothing more than her bra, fitted blouse and tiny scrap of panties that had a telling wet spot on the front.
“Oh, Christ,” he groaned, gripping her hips and shoving his face against her crotch, his harsh exhalations fanning against the wet satin. Heart pounding so hard it hurt, Sophie pushed her fingers into his thick hair, her hands and legs trembling as he pulled in a deep, ragged breath. The sexy sound rumbling up from his chest told her how much he liked her scent, the way his hands squeezed her hips making her feel feminine and soft. A quick flick of his tongue across the damp satin, followed by a primitive growl, and then he was moving back to his feet, his expression tight with need as he stared down at her.
His lips parted, some kind of shadow briefly moving across his piercing gaze, and for an awful moment, Sophie thought he was going to tell her something...something crushing. But he ended up kissing her instead, and by the time he pulled back and started attacking the buttons on his white dress shirt, she was too focused on watching him bare that incredible body to be worried about that “off” look he’d given her. When he pulled the shirt off those broad shoulders and dropped it on the floor, she couldn’t keep from reaching out and running her fingertips over the elaborate ink scrolled over both of his arms and shoulders, the dark designs mixed with brilliant hues of color. She’d noticed the intricate tattoos whenever he’d come into work in his running clothes or rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirts, and Sophie thought they were not only sexy, but gorgeous, as well.
“You like the ink?” he asked, sounding surprised by the revelation.
She lifted her shy gaze to his smoldering one. “Not always. I mean, not on everyone who has them. But I think your tattoos are beautiful.”
He gave her one of those sexy grins that never failed to make her hot, his hands busy pulling the pins out of her hair as he told her, “Mom gave me the jewelry, and my dad gave me the ink. He owns a parlor in Encinitas, and my mom’s gallery is right next door. She doesn’t surf, but she’s happy to sit on the beach and watch my old man and me in the afternoons sometimes, after they both close up shop. We try to go out together at least once a week.”
She blinked with surprise. Not over the fact that his dad was a surfing tattoo artist, but that his parents were still so much a part of his life. “That’s incredible. You’re so lucky.”
His brows lifted with interest. “Yeah?”
Nodding, she said, “You obviously have parents who care about you. That’s really special, Chris.”
He cocked his head a bit to the side, studying her eyes. “What are your parents like?”
It took everything she had not to scowl. “Um, my family isn’t all that...close. To be honest, I haven’t talked to my parents or my brother since last Christmas.”
“Seriously? What’s their problem?”
She gave an uncomfortable shrug. “Oh, they’re fine. Just busy with their careers.” And then, before she could stop, she heard herself saying, “My parents are both big on being a part of what they consider the ‘right’ social scene. To say they’re disappointed in me is putting it lightly.”
“Disappointed that you’re smart and beautiful and have a kickass career? Not to mention sweet and funny and one of the most incredible women I’ve ever met?”
Warmth filled her chest, but she knew he was just trying to make her feel good. “I’m hardly all of that,” she said with an embarrassed laugh. “But it’s sweet of you to say so.”
He smirked as he shook his head. “You don’t take compliments well, do you, Soph?”
“No, not really.”
He shook his head again and pulled her closer. “We’re going to have to change that.”
“We are?”
“Yeah,” he breathed against her lips, rubbing his mouth over hers, while his big hands pushed into the heavy fall of her hair. “Just as soon as I’ve fucked your beautiful little brains out and convinced you there’s not a ‘sweet’ thing about me.”
She couldn’t help but smile, taking the initiative this time and kissing him back with every bit of craving she’d been bottling up from the moment she’d met him. His lips were firm but soft, his taste warm and rich and masculine, making her want to drown in him.
While Sophie held the sides of his strong throat and tangled her tongue with his, she could feel Chris’s hands working between them as he undid his belt and opened his slacks. He kicked his shoes off, and she broke away from the kiss to look down, wanting to watch as he shoved his slacks down his powerful thighs and calves, along with a pair of tight black boxers. He bent forward, obscuring her view as he pulled his socks off, then stood up, and she damn near swallowed her tongue when she got her first look at him completely naked.
Holy...freaking...moly.
His cock was...yeah, it was impressive. She’d never imagined this part of a man could be beautiful, but Chris’s hard-on was definitely a thing of wonder. Long and thick, with a heavy, fleshy head and ropy veins beneath the tight stretch of skin, he looked even bigger than he’d felt inside his slacks. And he’d felt big. As in how-the-hell-is-he-ever-going-to-fit-inside-me big.
While she just stood there and stared, probably drooling a little, he opened the condom he’d taken from his wallet before dropping his slacks on the floor. She bit her lip as she watched him open the foil square, then sheath his heavy cock in the latex. The head was so big the weight of it pulled the rigid stalk away from his body, her breath catching as it thumped against her stomach. She was still just standing there, head tilted forward, staring like someone in a trance, when he pushed one hand into her hair at her nape, pulling her head back until she was staring up at him, while his other hand settled on her hip, his long fingers digging into her skin.
“I don’t want to fall on you like a raving madman,” he said in a low voice, his fingers flexing against her. “I want to keep getting to know you even better than I already do, Soph. I swear I do. But I don’t think I can wait another second to get inside you.”
“Then don’t.”
The next thing she knew, his hands were under her bottom, the muscles in his arms flexing beneath the tight stretch of his colorful skin as he easily lifted her up, pressing her against the front of his body, his big cock sandwiched between them. His mouth found hers as he carried her the few feet to the sofa, the rawness of his kiss making her toes curl as he perched her on the sofa’s padded leather arm, his hips forcing her legs to spread for him as he pushed between them. His tongue swept across the roof of her mouth, and then he nipped the fleshy pad of her lower lip, before asking, “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Yes.” Gripping on to his strong shoulders, she pulled back until she could look him in the eye, and said, “Just promise me that this won’t change things. I want you so much, Chris, but...but it would kill me to lose your friendship.”
“Shh, baby, that’s not gonna happen.”
“How do you know?”
He gripped the back of her neck again, his other hand stroking up the inside of her thigh, higher...and higher. When he reached the crotch of her panties, he cupped her plump, satin-covered sex, and growled, “I won’t let it happen because you mean too much to me, Soph.”
She gave a low moan that cracked with emotion, and he made another rough, guttural sound as he lowered her to the sofa, coming down over her as he pressed her into the leather cushions that were suddenly beneath her back. She felt cocooned in warmth, despite the air-conditioned chill in the condo, his sharp-edged male energy wrapping around her like a blistering wave of heat, scorching her sensitive skin. He was hot, and so wonderfully hard, trapping her there beneath his magnificent body, and she loved it. She desperately wanted to feel him pushed beyond control, into a place that was primal and fierce and wild.
He rubbed her satin-covered sex with one hand, while the other fisted in her hair, holding her still as he kissed her in every way imaginable, his head angling from side to side. His tongue was so wickedly skilled that she didn’t want to think about how he had come to know so much about kissing...or to be so freaking good at it. Then she mentally scowled, knowing damn well that she didn’t have any right to be jealous.
Making His Move Page 4