Kick Back

by K J

Sophia tipped her head. “Fair enough.” She pulled Cam closer. “You know how you said we get to kiss until I’m ready for more than a fling or just a date or two?”

  “Mm.”

  “I think I’m ready.” Cam pulled away and stared at Sophia. “I think. I mean I have string so there’s that.” Sophia smiled and reached into her pocket, pulling out the string.

  A slow smile started on Cam’s lips. “You kept it?”

  “Of course I did.”

  “And you’re ready to take down that wall?” Cam slid her hand up Sophia’s thigh.

  “Probably never going to totally get rid of it, but yeah, a lot of it is coming down.” Sophia said, biting her lip, as her stomach rolled with tension.

  “Okay.” Cam brought her lips closer to Sophia’s mouth. “I am very happy to hear this news.” She ghosted her lips over Sophia’s. “Doesn’t mean we stop the kissing. Nope.” Then Sophia moaned as Cam pressed her lips hard against her mouth, and she reached for Cam’s face, holding it between her hands. Their tongues slid gently together.

  “Oh God,” Sophia gasped, pulling back so she could gaze into Cam’s brown eyes, which were sparkling with affection and desire. “Oh my God, you’re an amazing kisser.” She cupped Cam’s cheek, running her thumb across the skin.

  Cam grinned, then slid her gaze at the roses. “Good thing we stopped. Your parents are watching, and so are all these other people. They might have had a rather entertaining show if we’d kept going.”

  Sophia held her face and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “No public performances, thank you.” She grinned. “Now, what’s happening this afternoon? Want to come over?” she asked shyly.

  Cam touched her fingertips to Sophia’s bottom lip, and smiled. “Not today.” Then she shook her shoulders and straightened her back. “I’ve got stuff to do for the story for the next few days. And I’ve got to phone a few contacts and send around applications for a new position.” Sophia’s eyebrows lifted and Cam pointed at her face. “Yeah. I told Eddie to shove the job. Probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, resigning before I had another job to go to, but I can be a teeny bit impulsive sometimes.”

  “You?” Sophia stared, her face serious. Cam gave a mock growl, then poked her in the stomach, which made Sophia laugh and draw her into another embrace.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Warmth, its headquarters based in her belly, unfurled throughout Cam’s body as she watched Sophia scooping ice cream into bowls at the kitchen bench. She’d arrived earlier that evening in a flurry of scarf, backpack, and jacket, which she’d dumped near the blue armchair, then kissed Sophia deeply.

  “So, I have news. Hi, by the way. I can’t believe I haven’t actually seen you since Saturday, and what are we, Wednesday? That’s crazy.” Cam bounced on her toes slightly and held Sophia’s hands.

  Sophia leaned forward and halted Cam’s movement with a soft kiss. “Hi yourself,” she murmured. Cam knew her eyes were as equally sparkly and full of life as Sophia’s, and they shared a grin. She released Sophia’s hands, then bent to undo her boots.

  “Okay, so you know I met with Patricia at the Beacon yesterday,” Cam spoke to her shoelaces, then straightened, shifting the boots to the side. Sophia nodded, as a smile, possibly in wonder, definitely in affection, planted itself on her face. Cam ploughed on. “I laid out my whole story. Everything from the very beginning, even my series from The Post.” Cam reached around her body under her shirt, unhooked the bra, slipped her hand into her sleeve, then repeated that action with the other sleeve, and hauled the bra out through the hole. Sophia blinked. Cam tossed the bra at her backpack, so it draped itself like wet spaghetti across the straps. “I know I don’t have a lot going on under this shirt, but I needed to free them from captivity. Anyway, Patricia absolutely loved it, and said that they’ll run it as a two-part story, starting Sunday, which is amazing. And,” she clutched Sophia’s arm, “no pseudonym for me. Nope. Cameron Weathers, senior reporter, thank you very much.” Cam waited for the moment that Sophia realised what she’d said. It didn’t take long.

  “They gave you a job?” Sophia’s eyes and mouth opened, both wide with excitement. “They gave you the senior reporter position. Oh my God.” Sophia wrapped her arms about Cam’s waist and spun her, lifting her off the ground. Cam giggled, enjoying the press of Sophia’s muscular body against her own, her soft straight hair tickling her face, her strong arms holding her in the air. As soon as her feet made contact with the floorboards, Cam grabbed Sophia’s face and kissed her again.

  “I only found out this afternoon, and since I knew I was coming over, I thought I’d tell you in person.” There was another shared smile, then Sophia led Cam to the couch, and Cam snuggled under Sophia’s arm, her hand draped across Sophia’s knee. “I don’t officially start until Monday, but I need to liaise with her because I’m adding to the story all the time.” She popped her head up. “Like today. Oh my God. Tal said she’d give me first go at developments in the investigation. Well, they arrested Dominic and Helena today, and Dominic will probably spill everything about the three board members, and the police have started an inquiry into Schimmager, which is so good.” She cupped Sophia’s face. “This is good, sweetheart. This’ll bring closure.”

  Sophia rubbed her cheek against Cam’s palm. “It will. I love that you got your dream job. I love that those bastards are getting what they deserve. Hopefully it’ll help everyone’s healing process.” She blinked slowly, focusing on Cam’s face, and the blue in Sophia’s eyes deepened so much that Cam felt like diving in and floating. The moment turned into a minute, then Sophia jerked. “Uh. Do you want some ice cream? It’s kind of my go-to dessert. I’m actually an eight-year-old kid inside this body.”

  Cam winked. “Mm. You’re not, but yes, I’d love some ice cream.” And that’s where she was, sitting on the couch, admiring her…friend? Yes. Girlfriend? Please as she puttered about the kitchen. A smile teased the corner of Sophia’s mouth, as she handed the bowl to Cam and joined her on the couch.

  “It’s vanilla, because we decided there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have chocolate topping, because plain ice cream is a sacrilege.” Sophia gazed at Cam seriously. Cam, about to plunge her spoon into the bowl, held the stare, then nodded slowly.

  “Okay. Duly noted.”

  Sophia laughed. “I’m too intense, aren’t I?” She spooned ice cream into her mouth, and Cam’s body hummed as she watched the spoon pulled softly from Sophia’s lips.

  Cam shoved some ice cream into her own mouth and swallowed. “No, you’re not too intense. Yes, you have intensity, but it’s more a focus, or a commitment. It’s very attractive.” She spooned in another mouthful as Sophia’s cheeks tinged pink. “I’m too flippant sometimes. So we’re a good balance.” They sat companionably, bodies touching along their thighs, hips, shoulders, and finished their dessert. Then with their bowls out of the way on the coffee table, Cam tucked her body into Sophia’s again and sighed. Sophia’s arm curled around the back of Cam’s shoulders and her fingertips played at Cam’s upper arm, her nails scratching at the fabric of her shirt. Cam gave a delicious involuntary shiver, and Sophia’s fingers stilled.

  “I felt that,” she murmured.

  “Hmm.”

  There was a pause.

  “Can I make it happen again?”

  Cam held her breath, and Sophia’s fingers resumed stroking. Cam couldn’t help the quiet gasp, chased by a soft moan, from popping out of her mouth. Sophia’s voice, a purr, rumbled from her throat. “I like that response as well.” When Cam pulled away, she took in the incredible sight of Sophia’s face flushed with desire, her eyes impossibly dark.

  “I like the way you look at me,” Cam whispered.

  “How do I look at you?”

  “Like I’m fascinating.” A smile lifted her lips as she spoke. “Like I’m important. Like I’m attractive.” She ran a fingertip over Sophia’s eyebrow. “Like I’m already perfect and don’t need to be improved.” She tr
aced her cheekbone and jaw. “You look at me like you want me.”

  Their eyes engaged in a very intimate, very heated conversation for a moment, then Sophia reached for Cam’s glasses and gently placed them on the coffee table. She held Cam’s gaze. “Yes, that’s exactly how I look at you,” she murmured, and bent her head to Cam’s mouth, stopping just before their skin touched. Sophia’s breath teased her lips and she couldn’t inhale fast enough. Then, with a tiny push, their mouths connected. Cam slid her tongue forward and met Sophia’s, and her stomach clenched in response. Goosebumps broke out all over her body, despite the temperature of her skin rising and rising. She needed to be closer, so without taking her lips away, Cam manoeuvred her body so she straddled Sophia’s lap. Sophia hummed in approval, and when Cam finally pulled away, gasping for air, she marvelled at the glorious sight of Sophia in complete disarray. Her breath ragged and quick. Her eyes glazed. Then it was Cam’s turn to tumble into chaos, as Sophia slid her hands under Cam’s shirt and smoothed tiny spirals with her fingertips up, up and up Cam’s torso, so that Cam hissed in pleasure, then moaned.

  “Oh! Oh, yum.” Cam rolled her head back and arched her body towards Sophia, who leaned forward and rubbed her cheek into Cam’s chest. Then the room rushed around them as Sophia found Cam’s breasts, rolling her hands so that her knuckles slid across Cam’s nipples, then turning back to cup her breasts. “Oh. Yes, Soph,” Cam panted, her breathing shallow, catching randomly in her throat as Sophia’s fingers smoothed and played.

  “So soft,” Sophia breathed, as she leaned forward to kiss along Cam’s jaw, her hands continuing to tease.

  Cam felt her body rocking forward in response. Oh God. There was nothing tentative in Sophia’s touch. She knew exactly the effect she was having, even if the noises coming from Cam hadn’t told her. Sophia’s thumbnails skated over Cam’s nipples and she jerked.

  “Oh Soph. That’s…yes.” Sophia kissed her way down Cam’s neck, licking her skin on the return journey. Cam clutched at Sophia’s shoulders, as her body continued to rock. “Yes. God, ye—what?”

  Sophia had stilled her hands, sliding them out from Cam’s shirt, only to grasp the hem and lift it over Cam’s head, laying it on the cushion beside her. Her gaze travelled across Cam’s torso, and she could feel the appraisal as if Sophia’s hands had returned to her skin. A fresh outbreak of goosebumps ignited all over her body. Sophia looked up, with the same expression of wonder from earlier. “You’re stunning, Cam,” she breathed. “So beautiful.” Sophia lowered her gaze, and her eyes roamed over Cam’s breasts. She bit her lip softly. “I didn’t get a chance to see last time.” Cam smiled, put her finger under Sophia’s chin, and lifted her head.

  “Neither did I, superstar,” she said huskily, then smiled as Sophia inhaled quickly when Cam’s hands tugged at her shirt and pulled it over her head. Cam tossed the shirt to the side, revelling in the naked torso in front of her. No bra. Oh dear God. Her hands trembled as she waterfalled her fingers up and down Sophia’s chest, delivering a little flick over her nipples with each sweep. “You are gorgeous.” Sophia’s abdominal muscles were rock hard, twitching with sensual stimulation. Cam knew athletic bodies and arousal, but this was Sophia, who was vulnerable, and soft, and hard, and courageous, and she was glorious. God, Cam wanted her. She leaned in and placed a string of kisses along Sophia’s clavicle then straight up the side of her neck, venturing to her throat as Sophia rolled her head to the side with a groan. Her hands grasped Cam’s waist, tugging her closer, flush against Sophia’s jeans button, which then rubbed on the seam of Cam’s jeans, pushing it into her clit.

  “Oh!”

  Sophia reached for Cam’s face, her eyes darting from Cam’s eyes to her mouth and back to her eyes. The expression of wonderment had returned. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again. “I want this so much,” she croaked.

  Cam smiled. “I know. Me too.”

  Sophia’s eyes darted about again. Cam brought her hands to Sophia’s face, pausing until she looked at her. “Are you okay? Are you ready for this? For us?”

  Sophia rested her cheek into Cam’s hand. “I think so?” The moment grew as Cam studied her, reading the shopping list of emotions playing in Sophia’s eyes.

  Finally, Cam collected Sophia’s hands and held them to her chest. “Do you trust me?” she whispered.

  Sophia nodded quickly, surely. “Yes.”

  “Okay.” Cam climbed off Sophia’s lap, grabbed her hand, and pulled her upright in the same motion. “Come with me.” She turned, still holding Sophia’s hand, then looked over her shoulder. Sophia eyes were wide, and Cam let a slow smile drift onto her lips. “Come on.” She led them past the furniture, snagging her scarf from the armchair on passing, then down the hall to the bedroom, and stopped Sophia in the doorway. Cam let her gaze roam across Sophia’s torso, her tight breasts, her musculature, her strong facial features, and felt the hot response in her own body. The wet response. The wanting. Oh dear God.

  “Do you want to give me all of you?” she said, stepping into Sophia’s space, their breasts touching each other’s skin. Jesus.

  Sophia nodded, her pupils so dilated that the blue was overwhelmed. “Yes,” she said shakily. “You’re so beautiful, Cam.” She danced her fingers across Cam’s waist and stomach, which caused mutual shudders.

  “And you do trust me?” Cam whispered, her hands alive across the muscles defined in Sophia’s lower back.

  “Yes.” Sophia dipped her head to kiss Cam’s neck.

  “Then take your clothes off, Soph.” With a small backwards step onto the corner of the blue rug that spread across the bedroom floor like the world had been turned upside-down, she proceeded to remove her own, looking up when she was naked to find Sophia slipping out of her jeans and undies. Cam’s mouth went dry. Sophia was a spectacular work of art, and Cam was overcome with a desperate need to have Sophia over her, under her, inside her. She took a very deep breath and relinquished the scarf. “Put it on. Fold it so it’s not as wide, but enough so you can’t see.”

  Sophia contemplated the material, twisting it nervously in her fingers, then cast her gaze at Cam, letting them roam across Cam’s body, her mouth falling open, driven by lust. “Jesus, Cam,” she breathed. “You’re beautiful.”

  Cam smiled in acknowledgement and whispered. “Trust me.” Then she breathed very carefully as Sophia closed her eyes, twisted the scarf, placed it flat over her eyes, and reached behind her head to tie it into a knot. She slowly lowered her arms, her body tense with anticipation. Cam paused as affection, desire, lust, and need surged erratically through her, cresting and crashing onto the shores at the ends of her nerves. Oh Soph, I think I’ve fallen for you. She stepped forward and ran her hands over Sophia’s shoulders, relishing the soft skin, then smoothed her palms down Sophia’s arms to her hands. Sophia’s breath quickened near her ear.

  “You know what I love about these old terrace houses?” Cam mused quietly, as she lifted Sophia’s arms and placed her hands high up on either side of the doorjamb. “Hold onto the wood,” she whispered at Sophia’s mouth, then she licked her bottom lip, enjoying the quick hitch in Sophia’s breath. “I love these old places because they have narrow doorways.” She skimmed her fingertips over the outside of Sophia’s thighs, watching the muscles twitch. “Brace your feet against the wood down the bottom.” Once Sophia was arranged in the X-shape she wanted, Cam stepped back.

  Beginning at Sophia’s throat, she slowly ran her index finger down the centre of her torso. Sophia shuddered, and Cam bit her lip. “You are wonderful, and I want you just as much. I want all of you. And I think,” she drew figure-eights on Sophia’s stomach, tracing the lines of muscle, “the only way to do that is to turn your brain off.” Her finger drew lazy circles around each breast and Sophia’s breathing became rapid.

  “Cam…?”

  “Yes?” Cam purred.

  “I…”

  “I know. I want you to feel, because you seem to let go
when you feel. Perhaps it’s my voice.” She leaned into Sophia’s ear, and whispered. “Apparently my voice does things to you.”

  Sophia grunted, the sound expelled through a tight throat.

  Cam whispered. “So for now, I want you to hold—”

  ***

  “—on.”

  Sophia gasped. She hadn’t really been able to speak while Cam was preparing her for whatever incredible experience she had in mind. It was all just a haze of desire, and want, and a need to touch Cam’s exquisite form, with her soft curves and small, high breasts. Sophia took stock of her trembling body as she stood in her X-formation in the doorway. All her remaining senses had expanded with the removal of sight. She could feel the wood, the edges biting into the palms of her hands, the paint more tactile than she remembered, the outsides of her feet pressed into the same wood where it met the floorboards, her toes gripping the varnish. Her body thrummed with tension and she knew from past experience that her muscles would be standing out in stark relief under her skin. Cam’s voice curled into her oversensitive ears, and she gasped. Jesus Christ.

  “How do you feel, Soph?”

  Like I’m going to fly apart. “Vulnerable,” she whispered.

  “Not in control?” Cam’s voice made her swallow. It made her skin ignite. It made her grip tighten on the wood.

  “Not at all.”

  “Okay. You don’t have to be in control, sweetheart. Just feel.”

  Sophia knew that Cam’s fingers still cupped her breasts, but her skin was now so on fire that she couldn’t be sure. Then Cam’s thumbs flicked once, a single guitar strum, over her nipples and Sophia jerked. Her lips parted. She couldn’t see Cam’s gaze but she knew Cam’s eyes were roaming her body. The gaze was heavy, flaring hotly across her skin and tingles sprung to life in her clit. Sophia’s blood did not throb. It surged like a current. The wet heat pooling in her sex was completely improbable. This was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced and nothing had really happened yet. God.