Lynne Connolly

by The Chemistry Of Evil (Triskelion) (lit)

  He undressed her with agonizing slowness, lingering on every curve, sometimes dropping soft kisses on her skin, sometimes caressing with his hand, or just looking. Sofie lay open to him. “You are beautiful,” he breathed. “Truly beautiful.”

  Sofie gave a short, skeptical laugh. “I thought I was too thin. Archie kept trying to build me up. He said I needed the stamina for all that fieldwork.”

  “I don’t do fieldwork,” Evan reminded her. “And I love your delicate body.” He touched her chin, turned her so she looked at him. “You should believe me, not anybody else.” He bent to give her a kiss that made her arch up to him, hold him close. It was wonderful to be cherished, to be caressed with such single-minded passion. He wanted her— Sofie. She couldn’t doubt that any longer.

  With a few tiny kisses he slid out of her arms, and down her body, kissing and caressing. He lingered at her breasts, taking each nipple into his mouth in turn to curl his tongue around the tips and lick until she moved restlessly under his hands.

  With a sound of appreciation, like a man enjoying a delicious morsel, he continued down her body.

  Sofie wanted to do the same for him. She wanted to caress him, kiss him and learn him, but he had claimed that privilege and was giving her so much pleasure she didn’t want him to stop. “Evan!”

  His mouth touched the curls at the top of her legs and moved on, down to her thighs. Sofie couldn’t stop her groan of disappointment. He looked up, his breath heating her leg. “What is it? Did you want something else, maybe?” His grin told her he knew precisely what she wanted.

  Sofie couldn’t ask. Some men didn’t like it, and she wanted this to be perfect. “It doesn’t matter. This is lovely.”

  “Oh, it matters. What you want, I want. Please, Sofie, tell me.”

  “I want –” Sofie took a breath. “I want you to kiss me – there.”

  “Here?” He eased her legs apart and touched her just inside the lips of her sex.

  “Yes.” Sofie wet her lips that had suddenly gone dry.

  He sank down and buried his head between her thighs.

  At the first touch of his tongue Sofie’s body jerked up in a reflex response. Fire jolted through her body, but his hands held her thighs firmly, and she couldn’t have escaped him, even if she’d wanted to.

  She didn’t want to. He caressed her, bathed her in warmth and wetness, and then drew her clitoris into his mouth.

  “Oh God! Oh, Evan!”

  He chuckled, sending a spurt of hot breath onto her sensitized skin, but didn’t stop. She knew he wouldn’t stop now until she climaxed. It didn’t take long. It usually took Sofie much longer than this, but Evan seemed to know precisely what to do, and he did it. He plunged his tongue deep into her, drew her clitoris into his mouth until she was mindless with need.

  Her orgasm came swift and hot, bursting her body into fragments of sparkling delight, and she opened her mouth and let loose a scream, long and loud.

  Dark hair disheveled, body hard and needy, Evan came back up the bed to her, feeling under the pillow with one hand. He sat back on his haunches and opened the foil packet, one hand on his penis, smoothing the moisture over the head. “It’s yours, Sofie,” he murmured, the devilish whisper reaching right inside her. “In a minute, I’ll give you all of it. Every inch.”

  Sofie reached forward and put her hand over his. Together they put the condom over him, easing it down and then he leaned over her. “I might have to go out for more of these,” he murmured, pushing between her legs, sliding over her in a motion that made her want everything, all of him. Now. “We can manage without bread, but not these. I have a feeling we’ll run out before the night’s over.”

  He entered her on her responsive chuckle. The short laugh abruptly stopped. Sofie arched her back and tilted her hips in an instinctive response, designed to help his entry, but he needed none of it. He pressed into her steadily until he was fully sheathed, watching her response. She let him see her pleasure, trying to put her emotions into her eyes. This was right, as it had never been before, as it could never be with anyone else.

  “Oh God, Sofie, you feel so good!”

  His lips found hers and he entered her with his tongue. She tasted herself on him, and it drove her wild. She met his thrusts, shoulders hard against the pillows, hips almost off the bed.

  Warmth blossomed deep inside her body. So soon? She groaned into his mouth, felt him greedily absorb her cries and then he pushed his upper body up and away, thrusting into her wildly, his rhythm secure, the depth of his penetration increasing with every stroke. Sofie felt her body softening and warming for him, the natural flow of her body’s juices encouraging his hard thrusts.

  He lifted his head, eyes open. Sofie kept her eyes open too, staring into his dark, impassioned gaze. A heavy lock of black hair fell across his forehead, but he didn’t notice. He seemed lost in her, his face intent, lines of tension around his sculpted, kissable mouth. As she looked at him his face warmed, the expression in his eyes softened. He lifted one hand and cupped her cheek in a gentle caress. “What are you doing to me?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “Sofie, I swear, nothing has ever felt this good before.” He laughed, a sharp bark of sudden mirth. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”

  “Have you?”

  “You bet.” He swooped down to take her mouth again, lavishing her open lips with licks and deep penetrations of his tongue. Sofie responded, caressing his mouth, pushing her tongue against his to share the caresses, the feeling of belonging. It took her by surprise. She had thought she wanted to spend some time on her own after Archie, but now she couldn’t bear the thought of being without Evan.

  He pulled away and let his body cover hers, still fully inside her. He stopped moving. When she gyrated her hips, he put down a hand to stop her. “If you carry on doing that, I’m not going to be able to control myself,” he murmured. “I don’t want to come just yet, I want to stay inside you forever.”

  “We have all night,” she answered, her lips next to the skin of his shoulder. Without warning she bit, not too hard, but enough to send him jolting above her. Wickedly Sofie nipped at his shoulder and neck, finding a particularly sensitive spot that seemed to make him crazy. It was time she got some of her own back. She lavished attention on it, licking and sucking, crying out at his response, as he increased the speed and depth of his thrusts inside her.

  When she felt the tension coil in her stomach she gave herself up to it, felt the blossoming that filled her with light, and finally broke open in an explosion of intense heat.

  She cried his name, and after the first few cries he joined her, his body convulsing as hers contracted around him.

  Sofie lay quietly accepting him, knowing him. When he’d finished he rolled off her immediately, but kept his arms around her, so she went with him, tumbling across the crumpled sheets to the clean, cool, smoothness on the other side of the bed. Both were out of breath, with more than just physical exertion. It was more than Sofie had expected, more than she’d hoped for, more than she knew.

  Evan was the first to speak. “What was that?” He sounded bewildered, where she was finally sure.

  “Don’t you know?” She smiled, feeling light-hearted and frivolous, but this was dissipated by his next words.

  “Is this love?”

  She turned her head and gazed at him, meeting his eyes. Faltering, she remembered her life’s disappointments. But this was Evan and he deserved an honest answer. “I think it might be.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”

  He lifted the sheets and swung out of bed, heading for the bathroom. He wasn’t away long, and returned to her to slide into bed and take her in his arms. “I haven’t had a huge amount of experience.”

  “Neither have I. I never reached double figures.”

  He laughed, the movement making her breasts move against his chest, his body hair caressing her sensit
ive flesh. “More than me, I’ll bet. I wasted two years in jail when I should have been working my way through the female population of New York. When I came out I seemed to have an attraction for a certain kind of woman, but I didn’t take up many offers.”

  “What sort of woman?”

  “The kind that like rough trade.”

  His voice sounded so bleak Sofie reached out to him instinctively. He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the fingers. “It doesn’t matter. It was interesting, but nothing I care to repeat.”

  “What about in jail?” She couldn’t help but ask, and then wished she’d bitten her tongue out. She didn’t want to know.

  She was surprised when he laughed. She hadn’t expected laughter to come from such a terrible experience.

  “Let’s just say I learned not to bend over in the shower to pick up the soap.” His enjoyment of her shock was catching, and she smiled too. “Someone tried it once. Only once. I fought back and instead of beating me to a bloody pulp, the man decided to teach me to fight. It amused him, I think, to turn a geek into a fighting man. I learned a lot in jail, not all of it bad. I learned how to fight dirty, and that computers didn’t have to be the center of my life. Because I was jailed for hacking, I wasn’t allowed near any form of computer.”

  She drew a sharp breath. “That must have hurt.”

  The warmth in his eyes was more than desire. It held tenderness. “Only at first. I switched my college studies to literature and learned how to fight. It probably saved me from being a pale, nerdy geek for the rest of my life. Not that I’ve anything against geeks.”

  She chuckled, spreading her hand over his taut stomach, feeling the muscles tense and relax to her touch. “At Tintagel, when you called yourself a geek no one believed you.”

  He smiled. “People rarely do. I found the gym ate away a lot of hours, and I could do exercises in the cell. It’s good for the brain, or so they tell me.”

  “I know what it’s good for,” she murmured, sliding her hand over his firm stomach.

  He watched her, his expression turning intent. “Sofie?”

  “Yes?”

  “Let’s call it love. For now, anyway.”

  Sofie didn’t allow the casual-seeming words to block his real meaning. His eyes said it, his embrace held it. He meant it. “Lets.” So did she.

  She slid her hand slowly down her body and grasped him, reveling in his gasp of pleasure.

  “On the other hand you can call it what you like, as long as you don’t stop doing that.” He fell back against the pillows.

  Sofie pushed the skin down his already hardening cock, feeling the miracle of his response. She’d never felt this happy before, never been able to express herself so freely with her body. Evan made her feel safe and wanted.

  Watching his face, she sat up and let the sheets fall off her body. She loved the look in his eyes, the dark appreciation gleaming in their depths. She wanted to show off for him, display herself for his pleasure. It gave her a sense of power new to her experience.

  Lifting one leg she straddled his body, taking her time, letting him see whatever he wanted to see. His gaze roved over her body like a lick of flame, heating where it touched and settled on her crotch. “Beautiful,” he murmured.

  She didn’t contradict him. If he thought she was beautiful, then she must be. “So are you,” she answered, settling on his abdomen. Leaning forward she ran her hands over his chest and flat stomach, pausing to tweak his nipples. He drew a breath in sharply between his teeth. He liked that, then. She rolled them, bent down to take one in her mouth and flick her tongue around the tips. His low groan told her he enjoyed it. She rolled her hips, allowing her wetness to come into contact with his lower stomach, and laughed low in her throat when he moaned louder. “Sofie, where did you learn this?” He gasped. “Never mind. I don’t care.”

  “I didn’t learn it. I’m making it up as I go along. Just like a storyteller.” She let her breath heat him, then blew cold air on the wet nipple, pleased when it puckered and peaked for her.

  “Tell me another story,” he whispered, his voice a dark temptation. “I love your stories.” Sofie smiled against his skin and lifted up again, to bathe in his heated gaze. She slid her hands up her body, shaping her waist and lifting her breasts slightly, before letting them fall again. She’d always felt her breasts were too small to interest a man, but she was proved wrong now. Evan reached up, but she inched back, teasing him, and came into contact with his erection, rearing up behind her. She lifted up and let it through to the front of her body, leaning against his raised knees. It gave her a chance to examine what had brought her so much pleasure half an hour before. She brushed the very tip with the end of her finger and felt the soft, hot skin pulse. It seemed to strain for her touch, unashamedly begging for attention.

  Sofie gave it. Smoothing her hands up and down his length she watched Evan moan softly, and close his eyes. When she leant over and tasted him he murmured her name. She lifted her head. “Watch me, Evan. I won’t do it until you watch me.”

  She had never felt so wicked as she did when he opened his dark eyes, his gaze molten and devouring. She licked him. He responded with a moan. She bent and opened her mouth over him.

  “Ah, Sofie love, you’ll kill me!”

  She heard him but concentrated on learning him with her tongue, running it over the head, as though he was a particularly delicious ice-cream cone. Then she sucked and felt his backside surge up off the bed. She pushed him back down.

  The power of having Evan Howell helpless under her assault intoxicated Sofie. She glanced up at him, saw him watching her avidly. Concentrating on his pleasure, on her pleasure in it, she worked him, pulling and caressing, touching. Her hand curved around his balls and she caressed them, felt them move in the sac. She squeezed gently, synchronizing the movements of mouth and hands, working him, driving him to cry out for mercy.

  He didn’t actually use those words, but when she heard his hoarse cry and felt the balls tighten she pulled away and would have risen up, taken him inside, but he stopped her with one hand on her thigh. He held a foil packet. Sighing, she took it and tore it open.

  She enjoyed smoothing the soft rubber over his form, though she regretted the necessity. Wet from her mouth, it was an easy job, and she took a little more time over it than she needed to.

  By that time he’d regained a little of his control. His gaze was less wild, more controlled. When she lifted up this time she did it with his aid, his hands around her waist. She paused just before taking him in, considering his beauty, and her desire.

  Arousing him had had a similar effect on her. She hadn’t known having a man watch her would make her so wet, so needy. Now she only needed one thing. His body in hers.

  With one firm plunge she took him in, calling his name. She slid forward so he could touch her breasts, caress them and play with them as she had played with his nipples earlier. Pushing herself into his hands gave her the leverage to work him as she wanted to, drive herself towards the light. He seemed to reach her inner G-spot without effort, caressing and rubbing against it. Sofie hadn’t been sure where it was an hour ago, but now she thought Evan might be able to find it every time. The feeling grew, became almost too much to bear, and his murmurs of encouragement, his hands on her body only drove her on to find her own fulfillment in him. On him.

  Hearing only his words, and their bodies coming together wetly, violently, Sofie shuddered, Evan buried deep inside her. He gripped her hips and forced her down onto him, making her squirm in pleasure. The squirming increased the delight forming deep inside, deeper than her womb, deeper than anyone else had ever reached. “I can’t stand it,” she gasped.

  “Oh yes you can,” he answered, pushing impossibly deeper.

  With one keening cry, Sofie came apart. Her world shattered, her body dissolved into a small, damp patch on the sheets.

  Evan held her steady, held her secure, worked inside her until her contractions ceased, turning into
satiated delight. She opened her eyes.

  He still watched her, his eyes blazing with want. “I have never in my life seen anything so erotic,” he whispered. “I have never wanted anyone more, wanted to see anyone explode like that before. Come for me again, Sofie. Come until you fall asleep in my arms, on my body, until you forget everybody but me.”

  It was too much. The feeling built and burst, Sofie no longer sure who was doing what to whom. She threw back her head and let her cry of fulfillment fill the large room with echoes, letting everything go in the sheer moment of release.

  She felt his body convulse, jackknifing off the bed, only his hands holding her safe. Crying out in his turn, his bass groans joining with her higher cries, they strained together and achieved their peak.

  Sofie fell forward and Evan caught her, settling her on his body, where for now at least, she belonged. She felt herself sliding into sleep, unable to stop the descent. Exhausted from the day, and from the bout of energetic lovemaking, lulled by his low murmurs, Sofie fell asleep.

  *

  When she awoke it was to the gentle drift of his hands. Smiling muggily she asked him, “How long was I asleep?”

  “An hour, maybe two,” he said. “Sit up. Have something to eat.”

  When she sat he threw a shirt over her shoulders and pulled up the sheets. Incredibly, after preening for him so shamelessly earlier she felt shy, and he must have discerned it. He was gloriously naked, and must have been awake for some time, for a tray of snacks stood on a small table next to the bed.

  He slid into bed next to her. “I meant to feed you, bathe you and perhaps make gentle love to you when we got home,” he confessed. “Not to take you in quite such a firestorm.” He kissed the end of her nose. “I was incredibly selfish. I’m sorry.”

  “If that’s selfishness, I don’t mind it in the least,” she said. She leaned back against the pillows, more at ease now. “I needed something like that, though I didn’t expect it. The Museum scared me so much, I needed to be taken out of it, and I can’t think of a better way.”