by BJ Bentley
By the time Tierney was bathed and tucked into bed, where I knew she’d read for a while before actually falling asleep, Sophie’s SUV was pulling into my driveway. The anticipation was killing me as I watched her park and slowly exit the vehicle. The ache in my balls intensified just watching her bend over to retrieve her overnight bag from the back seat. I knew months ago that there was something special about Sophie. It was the effect she had on me, but even I hadn’t anticipated just how much being with her would consume me. I was madly and irrevocably in love with her. There was no chance of ever going back, even if I wanted to. I should have known. Falling in love with Sophie and not losing myself completely is like striking a match and asking it not to burn. I could either succumb and let it transform me or fight it and let it destroy me. Since I was no fan of the bitter taste of ash, it was really no choice at all.
Chapter 32
Sophie
I could feel Damon’s eyes on me the moment I pulled the keys from the ignition. I took my time exiting the car and getting my overnight bag from the backseat. I even made sure to add a little extra sway to my hips as I ambled up to the door where I knew he was waiting.
I opened my mouth to say something witty or teasing about the way he couldn’t take his eyes off me, but his overly enthusiastic reaction to my arrival meant my mouth was otherwise occupied. Shoved up against the wall beside the front door, I moaned into Damon’s mouth as his hands tangled in my hair and his tongue danced with mine. As usual, Damon’s kiss transported me to an alternate universe where Damon was master of my body, and my only desire was to please him. I didn’t have time to stop and think about how messed up that was because it felt too good.
My hips began to undulate of their own accord, my body seeking that part of Damon that brought it so much pleasure. He ground his pelvis into me, his insistent erection demanding attention, and if it weren’t for Tierney and probably Chloe being somewhere in the house, Damon would very likely already have me naked and mounted on the foyer’s tiled floor.
“I might die if I don’t fuck you right now,” he growled in between pressing kisses to my neck.
“Well, I don’t want to fuck a corpse, so let’s not waste any more time.”
How he managed to toss me over his shoulder and run the up the stairs with me before I could blink, I’ll never know. Setting me down on my feet at the edge of the bed, he ordered me to get naked.
I hesitated.
“Do as you’re told,” he huffed, tearing off his own clothes at warp speed.
“Perhaps I’d like to be...rewarded.” I arched a brow in challenge.
He smirked, and Damon, naked and smirking, was a glorious sight to behold. “I’ll reward you later. Right now, I want you naked and on the bed with your legs spread. I know that pussy is wet and aching for me. Show me.”
It was. So, I did.
***
Afterwards, feeling like jelly, I laid sprawled in Damon’s bed. He, on the other hand, was somehow feeling refreshed. How did one fuck like we just fucked and still stand on two legs? He had to be a cyborg; that was my theory. A regular bionic man.
“You hungry, doll? We just had dinner not too long ago, but I could go back for seconds.”
“Sleep,” I mumbled into my pillow.
“You sure? Chloe made a kickass lasagna.”
“Sleep.”
He crawled across the bed until he was half covering me with his body, his chest hair tickling my back. Nipping at my ear, he murmured, “I’ll let you lick dessert off my cock.”
I failed to stifle the giggle that erupted. “Mm, tempting, but if you don’t let me rest, you’ll be the one fucking a corpse.”
“And, as I’m not into necrophilia, I guess I’ll let you nap for a bit,” he sighed, sounding very put out.
I passed out with a smile on my face, but it only lasted for a couple of hours. Damon woke up the moment I got up to pee and was on me the second I came out of the bathroom. Emotionally and physically wrecked for the second time, I collapsed and let the sandman pull me under.
***
“Do you think you can get some time off in about two weeks?”
“For what?” I asked. “Two weeks is kind of short notice, Damon. Especially for a school district that’s short on substitutes.”
“Noted. I need to be in Los Angeles for the solar panel installation project. It’s only for the weekend, but I want you to go with me.”
I considered the likelihood that I would get a last minute vacation day approved. It wasn’t promising. “I can probably get a day or two off,” I lied. Even though I was annoyed he sprang it on me at the last minute, I really wanted to go. For one, I’d never been to LA, and two, I really wanted to spend the weekend with Damon. Plus, I knew this project was a big deal for him and his company, and I wanted to support him.
We finished drying off, hung our towels to dry, and got dressed for the day ahead. Damon had informed me, while we were in the shower, that Tierney was aware I was there, so I shouldn’t ‘act weird’ when I went downstairs. I’d rolled my eyes at him. I was getting more comfortable with the idea of dating the father of a student, especially since I knew Tierney was just as fond of me as I was of her. I still didn’t want it to be public knowledge. It may not be legally wrong, but ethically...well, it’s not like it was the first time I’d made a questionable choice.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I tossed Damon a wink before calling out, “Good morning, nugget!”
“Morning, Sophie,” Tierney mumbled before jerking her head up in surprise. “I mean, Miss James.”
I smiled at her. “It’s okay to call me Sophie outside of school. But it’s always Miss James in class, okay?”
“Okay.” She smiled back at me, looking relieved. “Can I ride with you?”
“To school?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” I shook my head and intended to let her down easy, but Damon beat me to it.
“Hey, baby girl. We need to talk about this anyway. People can’t know that Sophie and I are together, okay?”
“Okay, but why?”
“Well, we don’t want it to look like she’s giving you any kind of special treatment because she’s dating your dad. It wouldn’t look good for you or for her.”
“Oh, okay.” She shrugged, clearly accepting Damon’s explanation as logical and therefore sensical.
“So, Chloe will continue to take you to school and pick you up for now. And that also means you can’t act any differently toward Sophie in class than you do now. Got it?” He punctuated his question with a finger to the tip of her nose, the way that people tend to do to their cats.
“Got it.”
Chapter 33
Damon
We landed in LA under blue skies and the ever-watchful eye of the paparazzi. Even with a security detail, which was more for Sophie’s sake than mine, and tinted windows in our rented SUV, we couldn’t escape the overreaching presence of telephoto lenses.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured into Sophie’s hair.
She stood in the living room of our penthouse suite overlooking the Pacific. I stood behind her, wrapping my arms around her and silently cursing the idiot who’d shoved his camera in her face when we’d arrived in the lobby. She didn’t respond to my apology verbally, but she did slide one hand up my forearm and give me a reassuring squeeze. At least she wasn’t totally holding it against me.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” While she stared out over the ocean, I took in her reflection in the glass. Her expression was pensive, and I wanted to reach up and smooth out the frown lines between her eyes.
It took her several beats to answer me. “I didn’t think this through.”
“Think what through?”
“What it means to be with you,” she said softly.
The back of my neck suddenly felt tight. “What does it mean?”
“An invasion of privacy. Being under a microscope.”
“No, doll.”
I wrapped my arms tighter. “We talked about that, remember? They don’t pay much attention to me unless it’s a big event.”
“This is a big event.”
I sighed, not liking where she was going. “Yes, it is.”
“And celebrity love lives are always gossip rag fodder.”
“I’d hardly call myself a celebrity,” I scoffed.
She rolled her eyes, and yeah, even I knew that wasn’t exactly true. “It’s a lot to process.”
“Not really. Do you love me?”
She chewed her bottom lip, and her non-answer cut me to the quick. I dropped my arms and stepped back.
“Damon-”
“No, Sophie, it’s fine. Look, let’s just relax for a bit, and we’ll order up some lunch, okay?” I attempted a smile but failed miserably.
The frown lines between her eyes deepened, and her voice was soft and hesitant. “Um, okay.”
I left her standing in the living room while I went into the small office area and shut the door. The fact that Sophie still couldn’t tell me how she felt sent a dull knife through my heart, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, it was obvious the incident with the photographer downstairs had rattled her to the point that she was having second thoughts. I couldn’t let her break things off. I wouldn’t. I just didn’t know what the fuck I was supposed to do about it.
Sometime later there was a soft knock on the door. I pulled my blank gaze away from the mountain view as Sophie stuck in her head in.
“Lunch is here. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I just ordered something I knew you liked,” she explained when I did nothing but blink at her.
I looked at the time on my phone and realized that nearly two hours had gone by. “I’m sorry, doll. I got distracted.”
“It’s fine.” Her smile was wobbly, and I felt that dull ache in my chest once again.
I stood, crossing the room and pulling the door the rest of the way open. “Do you want to talk?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not now. Let’s just enjoy the weekend, okay? We’ll talk when we get home.”
I could live with that. For now. It gave me time to pull a plan out of my ass, so that by the time we got back to Portland I’d have convinced her to stay with me.
We ate the caprese salad and seafood pita pockets that Sophie had ordered. Once the food was gone, we sipped sparkling water while Sophie asked questions about the ceremony the next day. I told her about how I was going to give a short speech on the benefits of alternative energy and what we hoped to accomplish with this project and future projects that we hoped to develop in the near future. Roy Tanaka would say a few short words on behalf of his company, and there’d be an unveiling of one of the panels we planned to install. Though it didn’t need to be said, I also warned her that there would be all kinds of press present, both legitimate journalists and more like the paparazzi we’d already encountered. She seemed to reluctantly accept it. Or, at least, she wasn’t backing out of attending. That had to count for something, and I was desperate to take whatever I could get.
“Do you want to do some sightseeing? Shopping?”
“Oh, uh, that’s okay.”
“Sophie?” I waited until I had her eyes. “Trust me.” I held up my phone, texting instructions to someone I knew I could trust.
Within thirty minutes, we had disguises and an escape route.
***
The sun was setting over the Pacific when we finally stumbled back into our hotel suite. Our laughter was interspersed with grunts of pain as we toed the shoes off our aching feet. Groans of relief accompanied the flight of our souvenir shop snapbacks across the room. We both scratched our itchy heads, vowing to never again touch the hats with ‘City of Angels’ emblazoned across the fronts.
“Okay, I possess a burning hatred for that hat, but I’m definitely keeping this bomb-ass shirt.” Sophie had both thumbs pointed at her bright orange shirt with a retro logo on it declaring that she was ‘feelin’ beachy.’ “And, you definitely need to keep that one.”
I looked down at my bright red t-shirt declaring me a Venice Beach lifeguard and wondered why on earth I would keep it since I’d never wear it again.
“I’m totally having a lifeguard fantasy right now,” she said dreamily.
Note to self: buy ten more lifeguard t-shirts.
Peeling off the rest of our clothes, we entered a shower large enough for fifteen people and washed the grime and sweat we’d accumulated throughout the day. At some point during our rinse cycle, I found myself bending Sophie over the bench that ran along one wall. I don’t know where I found the energy, but something about Sophie covered in soap suds was invigorating.
Wrapped in plush hotel robes, we managed to make our way to the bedroom where we both fell face-first into the down comforter.
“I had fun today,” Sophie whispered.
“I’m glad. I had fun, too.”
“I’m going to hurt so bad tomorrow.” What should have been a complaint was said with a wistful smile, like she was relishing the idea of being sore because it would be a reminder of the day we spent together.
I felt myself fall just a little bit further in love with her, if that was even at all possible. I rolled to the side of the bed, groaning as I went, and reached for the phone on the desk. I pushed the button that would connect me to the hotel spa and waited while it rang.
“Hello, and thank you for calling Tranquil Waters, how may I help you?” a lyrical voice answered.
“Hello, I was wondering if you had anyone available for a massage in the penthouse?”
“Certainly, sir. One moment, please.”
Some soothing zen-like music filtered over the line while I waited for someone to pick up the line.
“Okay, sir, I have Matthew available, and he can be at your door in fifteen minutes. Does that suit you?”
My eyes darted to Sophie, who laid quietly, watching me. “Do you have any females available?” Sophie’s eyes widened comically as I spoke.
“I’m sorry, sir, but it’s only Matthew at the moment. Annalise will be available first thing in the morning, if you’d rather wait.”
“No, no thank you. Thank you, anyway.”
“Very well. Have a good evening, sir.”
I looked at Sophie. “Sorry, no masseuses available.” I shrugged. “Guess I’ll have to give you a massage myself.” I waggled my eyebrows at her.
“Did you seriously just refuse to let me have a massage because you didn’t want a man to touch me?”
“I’m not refusing you anything. I said I’d give you a massage.”
“You’re unbelievable,” she huffed, but there was no real fire behind it.
I shrugged again. “I’m feeling territorial.”
“Why don’t you just pee on me, then?”
“You’re so kinky.”
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
***
The crowd that turned out for the unveiling ceremony was massive. Sophie and I stood under an awning along with Roy Tanaka and his wife, Marilyn. The sun shone down over the crowd, and as sweltering as it was in the shade, I wouldn’t want to be in the crowd of university faculty, students, and various members of the press.
One of the university’s staff members stepped under the awning. “Five minutes, Mr. Hatch.”
I nodded and absently tugged at the tie that was knotted at my throat. It was hotter than Satan’s asshole, and I was going to sweat through my suit before I ever made it to the podium.
“Stop fidgeting; you’ll wrinkle.” Sophie’s chastisement made me smirk. I’d said those same words to her that morning when I’d hiked her silk sheath dress up over her hips and fucked her bent over the penthouse’s dining room table.
I drank down half a bottle of water before handing it off to her when the staff member who was keeping time gave me the go sign. I strode up to the podium to applause so thunderous, I feared my eardrums might burst. I waved to the crowd and flashed them my best smile. I was there to t
alk about the advances in solar power, but I was going to do it with charm and charisma. It was show time.
“Thank you! Thank you! Please.” I waved my hands, palms down, to signal to the crowd that I’d appreciate their silence. “Thank you for having me today. My name is Damon Hatch, and I’m going to tell you a little story. Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to know what made things go. Now, most little boys have a fascination with trains, and I was no different. Except for the fact that it wasn’t the trains themselves that fascinated me. It was the steam engine. How did hot air make a several thousand ton train move down the track? Now, granted, steam engines were a bit before my time, but I also had a fascination with old westerns.” I paused to flash my smile again, giving the crowd a moment to picture young Damon who loved trains and cowboys and charming the pants off my fanbase.
“Over the years, we’ve graduated from steam, fueled by coal, to a combination of diesel and electric. We’ve made incredible strides in both engineering and alternative forms of energy, and it’s my deepest wish and brightest hope that we continue to make these strides. I believe in a society that operates at its most efficient without destroying the planet that gives it life. And that’s why we’re here today. With the invaluable help of the Tanaka Corporation,” I paused, sweeping my arm out to indicate Roy Tanaka, who stood several feet off to the side, “Hatchling Tech is proud to bring these advances in alternative energy straight to you.”