Explosive

by BETH KERY

  The beast in him had fully wakened a moment later. “You taste like sex, Sophie Gable.”

  “Do I?” she whispered next to his lips.

  “You know you do,” Thomas said as they slowly turned on the carpet and Elvis crooned to them. Wise men say only fools rush in, indeed, he thought with a mental roll of his eyes as he considered the lyrics to the song. Unfortunately, foolishness had never before felt remotely this potent.

  “Why do you keep looking at me like that?” he asked after a moment of enjoying the ensnarement of Sophie’s liquid dark eyes. Sometimes, it felt like he was falling into them.

  “I’m planning on seducing you,” she said.

  His lips and his cock twitched in unison. “Nice. But since when does that require planning?”

  She gave him an arch look. He chuckled and kissed the end of her nose.

  “So, how are you planning to do it?” he asked in a conspiratorial whisper near her ear.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. She shifted her head back from his seeking lips and studied him soberly. “I was just going to wing it—”

  Wing away, he thought dazedly when she placed her hand at the back of his head, pushed him down for a kiss that blew him away. It managed to strike him as sweet and voracious, innocent and skilled all at once.

  His entire world collapsed to the feeling of Sophie’s soft, vibrant body in his arms, the seductive movement of her lips and tongue, her delicious, pervading flavor, the prized scent rising off her skin that always perfumed the air after—

  He sealed their kiss. She gave him a startled look when he abruptly started to lift her skirt.

  “What are you doing?” she murmured at the same moment that he dipped two fingers beneath the tiny panties she wore. He grunted in arousal.

  “You’re all creamed up, Sophie,” he rasped as he slid his finger into the juicy crevice between her labia. She inhaled sharply when he flicked at her clit. He smiled down at her. Just like it had last night, when he’d pulled out that big cock she kept in her bedside table, the contrast in Sophie’s fresh, girl-next-door appearance and the evidence of her deep sensuality aroused him monumentally. His eyes widened as he continued to stroke her and he realized just how wet she was.

  “This isn’t just from getting turned on. You just came, didn’t you?” he asked quietly.

  “Thomas. Don’t.” She grabbed his hand and pushed him away, giving him a reprimanding look. “I’m supposed to be seducing you.”

  His smile widened. God, she was amazing. He reached for her hand when she used it to smooth her skirt back over her hips and thighs.

  She gasped in disbelief when he lifted it to his mouth and slid her forefinger into his mouth.

  “Never mind. I have my answer,” he said, his voice sounding garbled while he laved her skin with his tongue. He closed his mouth around her. Her taste inundated his brain and had far-reaching effects on his body. He took one last gentle suck on her finger before he released it, only to capture the second one greedily with his lips. He kissed her knuckles after he’d found every last remnant of her sweet essence.

  “What got you so turned on, Sophie?”

  It wasn’t entirely fair that he’d asked her a question because he wouldn’t allow her to respond. He was too busy devouring her. He couldn’t keep his mouth off hers. Something about tasting her juices on her own fingers had made him go a little nuts.

  A lot nuts.

  He pressed her to him tightly while his hands explored every straight line and curve on her body and his tongue searched avidly for more of her secrets in the depths of her mouth.

  He grunted in dissatisfaction when she backed out of his arms.

  “Thomas, no . . . wait.”

  He paused and took stock of himself as he stared at her and panted lightly.

  “Sorry,” he said after a moment. “I really do turn into an animal around you, don’t I?”

  A tendril of light gold hair fell onto her cheek as she shook her head decisively. “No. It’s not that. I like the way you make love to me. I . . . I love it.” He sensed both her softness and her strength when she met his gaze. “But you always bowl me over. I want to be the one to make love to you.”

  His heartbeat throbbed in his ears in the seconds that followed. “Just tell me one thing.”

  Her elegantly arched brows rose.

  “Is that what you were thinking about when you were touching yourself in that bathroom?”

  “Yes. In part.” The color in her cheeks became even more vivid, but she held his stare and her voice sounded smooth and even.

  He threw up his hands. “Then I’m all yours. Do whatever you want to me. If it got you that turned on, I’m all for it. The way I’ve been behaving lately, it wouldn’t surprise me if you wanted to be the one to take charge. Probably safer all around,” he added under his breath.

  She stepped toward him. “No. That’s not what I meant. I’m not worried about safety. I was just thinking I’d like to be able to . . . to touch you without interference.”

  “Really?”

  She shook her head in mild exasperation. “Why would that surprise you?”

  He shrugged. “So . . . what do you want me to do?”

  She licked her lower lip. Thomas suspected she did it out of anxiety, but his whole body tightened anyway. Why did he think everything she did was sex distilled?

  “Why don’t you start out by taking off your clothes. And . . . you can lay on the couch, if you like.”

  Thomas stripped with rapid efficiency while the notes to “Puppet on a String” resounded from the speakers and Sophie watched him with dark eyes that shone like moonlight on two deep pools.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The plug seemed to throb in her ass as she watched Thomas remove his shirt with a compelling flex of defined muscle. It surprised her how much the sensation aroused her. Apparently there were sympathetic nerves between her ass and pussy that had never been fully awakened before, because her clit tingled with excitement. It’d felt delicious when Thomas had stroked it just now.

  She inhaled slowly when Thomas dropped his boxer briefs and his long, firm erection sprang free. The buzz of her clit amplified to a burn.

  The silicone plug felt slightly uncomfortable lodged in her body, but the pressure it caused was undeniably arousing. She was surprised to learn the far-flung effects of the plug. The bottoms of her feet felt hot and her breasts were heavy and achy, as if they possessed a mind of their own and were demanding to be touched and fondled. Even the nerves in her mouth seemed to tingle, making her lips feel warm, swollen, and overly sensitive.

  Thomas flung off the last of his clothing and sprawled back on the couch, pulling a pillow beneath his head, and Sophie had to admit . . . maybe it wasn’t just the ass plug that was making her entire body hum with sexual awareness. He lay there—a long stretch of defined muscle and male tumescence—and smiled at her.

  “Okay. I’m ready to play doctor.”

  Sophie snorted with laughter. He joined in her mirth as she walked toward him. It felt so good—so right to laugh with Thomas. His humor had been cloaked by the shadow of his grief. She realized that Thomas Nicasio was meant to laugh. The fact that she’d rarely seen him do it in their short acquaintance caused sadness to stab through her arousal.

  “What?” he asked, still grinning broadly. He must have seen her falter in her mirth.

  “Nothing. I just . . . hold on. I’m going to get something.”

  His eyebrows shot up on his forehead when she returned a few seconds later carrying the bottle of lubricant.

  “You said last night it was a massage oil as well,” Sophie murmured as she knelt beside the couch.

  She glanced up at him from beneath lowered brows as she poured some of the light, silky liquid into her palm. She rubbed her hands together, smearing the oil. Sophie couldn’t help but notice that his cock lurched up from where it rested on his belly when she touched him. He said nothing when she began to smooth her hand
s and curious fingertips over his skin, lightly massaging dense pectoral and shoulder muscles. She watched the progress of her exploration of his body, but she sensed his stare on her face, and knew that he watched her with as much focus as she studied him.

  It felt like a decadent treat, to be able to stroke and caress such a beautiful man without constraint. She discovered a ticklish strip of skin along his right rib. She glanced up when he started and they shared a smile.

  “Would you put your arms above your head, please?” she murmured.

  He did so slowly, holding her stare.

  “You can’t expect me just to lay here for much longer,” he said while she applied more massage oil to her hands and they made a squishy sound as she rubbed them together. The inserted plug in addition to the opportunity to touch Thomas unhindered was making things between her thighs exceptionally wet.

  “I do expect it,” she assured him.

  She felt the tremor in his flesh when she swept her hands down the fascinating diagonal slants at the sides of his torso that ran from just below his armpit to his waist. It did something to her . . . to feel such a strong man tremble with excitement from her touch, to hold his heart between her hands.

  Her gaze flickered down to his erection, which looked firm and delicious. A drop of clear pre-ejaculate beaded at the slit. It shifted on his belly, as though her glance had been a physical caress.

  “Touch me, Sophie,” he murmured.

  She leaned down and inserted a tiny, erect, dark brown nipple between her lips. He groaned roughly and cradled her head in his palm, pressing her to him as she studied the tiny bumps on his nipple with her tongue.

  When she lifted her head a moment later, Thomas didn’t appear to like her absence.

  “Come back,” he demanded, reaching for her.

  Sophie laughed softly. “I will. Put your hands back above your head first.”

  He did so, albeit with a scowl.

  She felt the tension rise in his muscles as she continued to explore his body with curious fingertips. She molded his strong, hard thigh muscles in her hands while her gaze remained fixed on his full testicles and swollen cock. Everything between her legs, from her clit to her pussy, from her perineum to her ass sizzled with sexual energy.

  He grabbed her wrist when she slid her hand partially beneath him and palmed a tight buttock. His other hand captured her free hand. Their gazes held as he placed her palm on his teeming cock. He folded his hand above hers and guided her motions, lifting the heavy column of flesh off his abdomen.

  For several taut, delicious moments, they stared at one another as he moved her lubricated hand up and down the length of his cock. Sophie felt the air burn in her lungs. He looked magnificent at that moment, his muscles tight with arousal and gleaming from the oil, his dark green eyes pinning her with a fierce, feral stare.

  “I’m not very good at giving up control,” he rasped.

  “I didn’t want you to give up control. This isn’t about that,” she whispered. She clamped her thighs together tight, trying to alleviate a pinch of arousal, when he began to move her hand more rapidly over his cock.

  “What is it about then?”

  “I wanted to show you that I trust that you won’t lose control.” She placed another lubricated hand beneath the one that already fisted his penis and moved it in unison with the other, jacking him more thoroughly. He hissed in pleasure. “I want you to believe it; I want you to trust in yourself again. You’re grief-stricken, Thomas. Not dangerous.”

  A muscle flinched in his cheek. “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because. I am,” she stated, knowing what she said wasn’t logical, but that it made perfect sense to her, nonetheless. She released his cock. “I’m going to undress,” she explained when he kept her hand clutched in his, unwilling for her to stop touching him.

  He let go of her reluctantly.

  She stood and grabbed the hem of her T-shirt, glancing out the large window that looked out on the yard and lake, assuring herself there were no unexpected spectators. She felt slightly feverish, she realized, as she shrugged out of the shirt and let it drop to the carpet. Her skin was overly sensitive and prickly.

  Things felt positively molten between her thighs.

  She panted lightly as she pushed the print skirt off her hips and stood before Thomas wearing only a skimpy pair of pink silk panties. His nostrils flared as he examined her and his gaze predictably stuck on her breasts. Sophie had a long history of becoming annoyed when men stared at her chest instead of her face, but Thomas’s gaze was different.

  It made her feel beautiful.

  And because he’d given her that, she returned the gift by cradling her breasts in her hands and making him an offering of her aching nipples.

  He growled low in his throat and lowered his arms, extending them toward her.

  “Come here.” This time, his low command wasn’t something she was even faintly interested in disobeying.

  She winced as she straddled his lap and the pressure of the butt plug amplified. Thomas didn’t seem to notice, though. He was too busy staring at her breasts and leaning up from his pillow.

  She cried out shakily when he surrounded a nipple with his hot mouth. Her cheeks felt so hot. Her clit and the soles of her feet burned in sympathy with her nipple. She laced her fingers through his thick hair and held him to her, her facial muscles clenching tight when the need inside of her grew so sharp, it verged on pain.

  He drew on her demandingly, amplifying the growing pressure swelling in her body. She shifted her hips and captured his penis between her thighs. She ground her pussy down on the stiff pillar.

  “Use your teeth,” she begged.

  She felt his teeth on the tender flesh. She cried out as her body shook in orgasm.

  A moment later, she opened her eyelids, only to see Thomas leaning back on the pillow. He looked a little incredulous.

  And a lot aroused.

  “What’s got you so primed, Sophie?”

  She licked her upper lip and pressed down on his solid chest with her hands, steadying herself as she stood next to the couch. She kept her eyes averted as she pulled her panties down her legs.

  She turned her back to him.

  Even as aroused as she was, it still was one of the hardest things she’d ever done to expose herself to him in these circumstances. She peered over her shoulder when he didn’t respond immediately. As she would have guessed, his gaze was glued to the base of the black plug that was wedged between her ass cheeks.

  If he’d appeared a little incredulous before by the evidence of her wild arousal, he looked downright stunned now.

  “Where did you get that?” he asked as he slowly sat up from his reclining position.

  “I bought it this morning,” Sophie whispered. She turned, feeling both vulnerable and aroused at the impact of his scorching stare. Her ass throbbed around the plug and her clit answered with a pinch of pleasure. She was really going to have to check out her medical books on the nervous system to discover why ass stimulation could have such amazing effects on the body—

  “Why?” Thomas asked sharply. He stood slowly, his long, unfolding body, stiff, glistening cock and feral expression seeming a bit intimidating. He stepped toward her. “Why the hell did you do that, Sophie?” He came closer, so that their bodies were just inches apart; the moist tip of his cock head almost kissed her bare hip.

  “Sophie?”

  She jerked her gaze off his erection.

  “Why?”

  She swallowed convulsively. Was it her imagination, or was he asking why she’d uncharacteristically walked into an adult sex shop and bought a butt plug or why she was doing this with him . . . sheltering him, having wild sex with him . . . falling in love?

  She held his stare and took a steadying breath. “I did it because I wanted to.”

  He leaned down over her until Sophie drowned in the depths of green eyes flecked with fire. She felt emotion swell in her chest, like subterran
ean water finding an outlet and surging wildly to the surface.

  “You wanted to what?”

  “I wanted you to trust yourself again.” When his stare just continued to bore through her, she added in a whisper, “I wanted to give myself to you, Thomas.”

  “Sophie,” he hissed. He shut his eyelids for a moment, his facial muscles going rigid. She felt his cock flick up against her hip, dabbing her skin with warm moisture. His eyes opened, but he avoided her gaze as he turned and grabbed the bottle of lubricant. He reached for her hand blindly and led her toward the hallway and her bedroom.

  Sophie had to hurry to keep up with his long-legged stride. A mixture of anxious anticipation and wild arousal caused her blood to pump wildly in her veins and her ass to pulse around the inserted plug, creating a low level, pleasurable burn all along her cunt.

  She was breathless by the time he pulled her into the bedroom.

  “Get on the bed on your hands and knees,” he rasped. She crawled onto the mattress. “No. Move a little farther up on the bed.”

  His rigid expression and taut orders didn’t offend her. She sensed the edge of his excitement like a sharp file scraping gently across her sensitive skin. When she settled in position, he flipped open her bedside table and took out the vibrator and control box. She watched him, as she panted in excitement, while he lubed up his straining erection, his actions rapid and perfunctory . . . like he meant business.

  She moaned softly, her arousal mounting exponentially at the sight of him readying himself. He crawled behind her on the bed, bringing the vibrator and control panel with him.

  “Put the vibrator on your clit while I try to get inside you. It’ll help,” he added gruffly when she turned to look at him. His gaze snagged on hers.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she replied with emphasis.

  He tried to smile, but his muscles appeared to be too tight to cooperate.

  “Just tell me to stop at any time if you get too uncomfortable. Okay?”