Love in the Limelight Volume Two: Seduced on the Red CarpetLovers Premiere

by Ann Christopher

  “No.” He tossed her a wink and then shut the door. A few minutes later they were on the road and cruising down the highway.

  When it became clear where Ram was taking her, a fresh wave of tears filled her eyes. “I don’t believe it.”

  Ram reached over, took her hand and kissed it. “Are you upset?”

  Sofia shook her head as she stared at her old childhood home. The white three-story mansion nestled on a grassy knoll looked exactly as she had remembered. In a lot of ways it was as if time had just stood still. For years she kept promising herself to come by the old estate, but always allowed herself to get caught up with work or some other social function. A part of her also believed that the memories would be too painful, but now that she was standing there she couldn’t stop smiling. Only belatedly did she realize that the lights were still on.

  “Does someone live here?”

  “Not exactly.” Ram climbed out of the car and rushed to the other side to help her out.

  Taking his hand, Sofia looked up into Ram’s soulful eyes and felt like she was stepping out of his car and into a dream. Again, she wondered at the magic he seemed to be able to cast over her at will. How she had been able to fight it as long as she had would probably be a mystery to her for the rest of her life. But right now, at this moment, she just allowed it to consume her.

  “Our table awaits,” he said.

  Sofia cocked a curious smile, but floated along beside him as he escorted her around the house. Once they made it to the backyard her gaze immediately zoomed to the large oak tree where she and Ramell used to steal childhood kisses. Tonight, a round linen-covered table with two flickering candles sat beneath it. Next to it a single waiter and a violinist awaited them.

  “Oh, my God.” Sofia clutched a hand over her heart and a fresh wave of tears threatened to ruin her makeup. She glanced to her left and met Ram’s gaze again. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Believe me, it pales next to you.” He leaned over for another kiss. Each time he did it was as if heaven had momentarily touched down on earth. When their lips pulled apart, he escorted her the rest of the way to their waiting table. He’d pulled a few strings to get Patina to cater this evening. It was Sofia’s favorite restaurant according to her sister. And he made sure to have her favorite meal prepared. “I can’t believe that you went to all this trouble,” she said as he pulled out her chair.

  “It was no trouble at all. I wanted to do this.” When she sat, he brushed his lips lightly against her shoulders. When her soft skin trembled beneath his touch, his chest swelled with love and his confidence soared. He took his seat and allowed the stirring music from the violin and the evening’s cool breeze to wrap around them while their waiter busied himself removing their silver trays.

  “You’re quite the romantic,” Sofia said, blushing.

  “I hope you don’t mind.”

  She shrugged shyly. “I guess there are worse things in the world.”

  Ram couldn’t stop looking at her. He could sit there all night watching the evening’s gentle breeze play with her hair. Between the candlelight and the moonlight, she looked like she’d just descended from heaven.

  “Stop.” She shook her head, looking uncharacteristically shy.

  “Stop what?”

  “Stop looking at me like that.”

  He laughed. “And just how am I looking at you?”

  Her cheeks stained red as she shook her head. “You’re making me self-conscious.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t help it. I’ve never had a wife before.”

  Her eyes met his again, but something flickered in them that scared him for a moment. “What is it?” he asked, wanting to tackle any problem head-on.

  “Well, I guess…I’m wondering, what are we doing? It’s not like we really meant to get married, right?”

  The question shaved a few inches off of his smile.

  “I mean when I started receiving all those calls and Uncle Jacob seemed so happy…I couldn’t bring myself to tell them…”

  “Tell them what?” His voice dropped as he prepared for her to say something that was going to tear him apart.

  “I couldn’t tell them the truth.”

  He sat silently during a few bars from the violin before he could bring himself to ask. “And what is the truth, Sofia?”

  Her eyes started shimmering with tears while she tried to find the right words. “That’s just it. Our truth is complicated.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. “Not on my end.” Ram reached across the table and took her hand. “My truth is that I’m thrilled that we’re married. I love that you have my last name because I have loved you my whole life. And I have a sneaking suspicion that you feel the same way about me. I just never understood why you insisted on fighting it.”

  In a flash, Sofia remembered poking her head into her father’s study and seeing him enraged and yelling and hurling accusations at Ram’s father. A lump swelled in the center of her throat while her gaze lowered to where his hand held hers. Their fingers looked so perfect entwined together. “It’s so complicated.”

  “So complicated that you can’t even tell me?”

  The only other person Sofia had ever shared what she’d seen and heard that night with was her sister, Rachel. And now her new husband was asking and she didn’t know how to go about repeating those words to him. It was his father, after all, and as far as she knew they were very close.

  “You know…maybe it’s just best to kind of leave it in the past,” she decided. “Tonight…we should be celebrating our first date.” She chuckled, hoping to lighten the mood.

  He smiled. “Moving forward, I guess what I need to know is whether we’re seriously going to give this marriage a try—or is this some kind of charade we’re just putting on for family and friends because…what? Because we don’t know how to tell them that we got drunk and did something wild and spontaneous?”

  She blinked.

  “Do you want an annulment?” he asked. “Tell me now because I don’t do charades.” And there it was. His cards laid out on the table.

  Sofia drew a deep breath while her head started to spin.

  “It simple,” he said. “Do you want to stay married to me?”

  Chapter 13

  In an instant Sofia was transported back to that last time they were in this backyard, Ramell standing in front of her with a bundle of wild daisies and asking her if she would marry him. And just like then, her stomach filled with butterflies while her heart skipped around in her chest. He stared at her with the same intensity, the same confidence and the same amount of love.

  “I honestly don’t know,” she whispered and then slowly bobbed her head. “I guess we could give it a try—for the time being.”

  Ram tossed down his linen napkin and jumped up from the table. He walked over to Sofia’s seat, pulled her up and crushed his mouth against hers. Holding any stream of conscious thought was impossible so she didn’t even bother to try. She just floated around in an endless abyss of desire.

  “You don’t know how happy you just made me,” he whispered, coming up for air. “I’ve waited my whole life to hear you say those words…soberly.” They laughed while he continued to cup her face. “I promise you that you won’t regret this.” He kissed her again and swirled her in time to the music.

  “I have another surprise for you,” Ram said softly.

  Sofia pulled back. “Really? I don’t know if my heart can take any more surprises.”

  “Just one more.” He gently turned her around so that she faced the back of her old home. “I was thinking about that conversation we had about whether we should live at your place or mine.”

  “I thought you said—”

  “I bought this house,” he announced.

  Sofia’s mouth opened and remained like that for a long moment before she finally asked, “What?”

  “I bought this house today.” He lowered his arms to her waist while he waited for her response. At the sou
nd of a soft sniffle, he jerked toward her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Shaking her head, Sofia placed a hand over her mouth while silent tears rolled down her face.

  “We don’t have to move here,” Ram said, desperate to fix the situation. “My place is fine. Or we can live at your place. I don’t care. I’ll live wherever you want to live.”

  Sofia spun toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “No. It’s okay. I love it. It’s just so overwhelming. Thank you.” She sobbed gently against his chest before lifting her head up and receiving the kiss she sought. This time her lips were salted with tears.

  “Would you like to go inside?” he asked.

  She quickly nodded and then grasped his hand before they took off in the direction of the back doors. Of course none of the old furniture was there, but the house still felt like home with the rented modern furniture. “It’s so…perfect.”

  They strolled through the house while recalling different childhood stories. Like when they used to make chocolate chip cookies or colored Easter eggs with Sofia’s mother. Upstairs, she stopped at what used to be Rachel’s baby room and then her room. She touched the walls where her mother used to mark how tall she was growing.

  “I don’t know why I haven’t visited this house more often,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I kept telling myself I would but…”

  “Too busy?”

  She glanced over at him. “No lectures this evening.”

  He surrendered by tossing up his hands. “Agreed.”

  They continued their stroll until they reached the master bedroom. Sofia’s heart contracted because she remembered so many nights that she had run to this room for the comfort of her father’s arms to protect her from bad storms or nightmares. But like the rest of the house, her parents’ old furniture was gone and in its place a California King four-poster bed with royal blue silk sheets sat like a regal throne toward the back of the room. She stepped farther into the room while Ramell hung back.

  Sofia glanced at the walls, the windows, the crown molding—but her gaze kept creeping toward the bed. “Can I ask you a question?”

  Ramell cleared his throat. “Of course you can.”

  “It’s about our, um, wedding night.”

  “All right.” He leaned against the door frame. “I hope I can help.”

  “Do you know whether we…you know?”

  His brows hiked while a different kind of smile inched across his lips. “Did we make love?”

  “Well…I know that you said something about first and second base.”

  “Don’t forget about third,” he said.

  Sofia swallowed. “Remind me what third base is again.”

  Within the blink of an eye, the flirtation in his gaze transformed into something primal—hungry. “Third base is when I lay you down and start kissing you from the heel of your foot, up to the back of your calf—where you’re ticklish by the way—then up the inside of your thighs. I watch you quiver for a while and then I travel further up while I peel your panties from your hips and then spread you legs open so I can…enjoy the taste of your inner beauty.”

  Hit with a sudden heat wave, Sofia’s knees started to wobble. Her mind had replayed the images in her head while he talked. “So it wasn’t a dream,” she whispered.

  Ram locked gazes as he shook his head. “No. It was paradise.”

  She licked her lips. “Can you take me there again?”

  With a moan, he strolled across the room. When their bodies connected, he was fire to her dynamite. Sofia felt as if she was being devoured. Ram’s hot mouth latched on to her pearled nipples while his large hands spread her silken legs open. She tilted her head back as far she could against the pillows in hopes of tugging in a few streams of oxygen. It worked for a few seconds but then she decided to take her chances with the fire by leaning forward so she could rain kisses against the top of Ram’s head.

  He continued to nibble and suck while slowly working a finger through the soft, wet V between her legs.

  “Oooooh,” Sofia sighed and lifted her hips to allow Ram to slide a second finger into her smooth flesh. Her world spun as he rotated his fingers until he could hear her body’s juices start to make smacking noises. By then his head was directly over her soft, springy curls and he wasted no time unrolling his long tongue to taste the honey within.

  Melodic moans rolled off of Sofia’s lips and seemed to blend effortlessly with the violin that still played outside their window. She closed her eyes, surprised by just how much her body was trembling. It was like an earthquake that didn’t have an end in sight. She gave up her quest for oxygen and welcomed the idea of death by pleasure as her first orgasm started to churn at the base of her body.

  Unbelievably, Ramell’s tongue sank deeper, hitting the G-spot that supplied all her body’s honey. His tongue flicked, rotated and flicked again, causing Sofia to clamp her hands around Ram’s head. She was both pushing him away and locking him in place at the same time.

  Then, an explosion. She tried to scream out but her voice failed. Her toes balled like fists and her knees squeezed Ram’s head like a nutcracker. While waves of euphoria washed over her, Ram struggled to pry her legs back open. When he finally succeeded, he climbed back up her body and chuckled against her neck. “Remind me to strap you down next time.”

  Before her aftershocks had fully subsided, Ram brought her back to the brink again by working in one, two and then three fingers into her slick honey pot.

  When she started to thrash again, Ram’s mouth made its way back to her breasts. “Oooh, Ram,” she recited. Each time she said his name, he picked up the pace until his entire hand was as wet as she was.

  The pleasure was too much, too intense. Just when her second orgasm was about to slam into her, she lifted her hips high to give Ram better access. Next thing she knew she was hitting her head hard against the headboard and trying to escape Ram’s wicked fingers. “Wait. Please,” she begged. “I need to catch my breath.”

  “Is that right?”

  Panting, Sofia could tell that his ego was swelling out of control. She put on her best sexy smile and then brushed his hands from between her legs. “All right, Mr. Jordan. Your head game is on point.” She rolled him onto his back. “But you’re not the only one with skills, you know.”

  Ramell laughed. “Careful now. The last time you started bragging, you left a brother hanging.”

  Sofia frowned. “What?”

  “You fell asleep kissing my stomach.”

  Embarrassment heated her face. “No. I didn’t.”

  “I’m afraid so.” He laughed and drew her in for a kiss. “It’s okay, baby. The kissing was nice. The cold shower was another story.”

  She pushed him back down onto the bed. “Well, there won’t be any cold showers tonight.” Sofia climbed on top and straddled Ram’s trim hips. Gazing down at him, he looked like a chocolate deity and she definitely had a sweet tooth. Lowering her head, Sofia slowly and deliberately ran her tongue over his chest.

  “Ooh. Now that’s nice,” he said, folding his hands behind his head so he could watch her work her magic. And it was a sort of magic, that the way his body tingled wherever her tongue roamed. When she glazed over one of his hard nipples, a thin sigh seeped out of his chest and he grew even harder.

  Sofia floated down his body like a feather. For a brief moment her open legs and pink pearl brushed against his iron-hard erection, and despite the momentary pleasure, she kept moving down until his thick and mountainous length stood tall before her face.

  “Oh, my goodness,” she moaned, staring in awe. Curious, she wrapped one hand around him and smiled when she saw that her fingers just barely made it around the base.

  “You sure you know what you’re doing down there, sweetheart?”

  Sofia’s brows jumped at the challenge. She immediately rolled out her tongue and then slowly dragged it up and then down his straining flesh. The muscle quivered and jumped. When it did,
it bounced against Sofia’s lips. Laughing, she tried again. Her tongue went up and down, soliciting a moan and then a hiss from Ramell. To push him over the edge, she opened and relaxed her jaw so she could sink her mouth over the fat, mushroom-shaped head. She sank down as far as she could, held him and then squeezed the muscles in the back of her throat.

  Ram called out to the Almighty and then raked his fingers through her long hair.

  She released him, bobbed her head up and then sank back down before he had a chance to catch his breath. He hissed, groaned and then latched his hand on the back of her head as she now set a steady but maddening pace. Periodically she would stop, squeeze and then bob again.

  Words of love, lust and a few things in between tumbled out of his mouth. Chances were he didn’t know what he was saying. And now that the shoe was on the other foot, he was having a hard time trying to lie still. He was going to come and he didn’t want that.

  “Okay, baby. You can stop,” he half begged while he attempted to pull her up.

  She warded off his hands for as long as she could, but when it was clear that he was seconds from exploding, Ram reached down and pried her off of him. Sofia came away laughing.

  “Ah. So you think that’s funny?” He pinned her beneath him and then smothered kisses against the crook of her neck while his wet erection slapped against her core. “I know how to make you serious,” he said.

  “Do you now?” She giggled and squirmed.

  “Uh-huh,” he said seductively, his hardness rubbing against her spot without his help. “Now that I have educated you about reaching third base, what do you say we take this on home?”

  Instead of answering, Sofia reached down in between their bodies and grabbed hold of him and guided him directly into her silky walls. It was a bold maneuver, but the minute Ram started to sink into her body, her eyes widened and her body started to tense at his length and width. The combination of pain and pleasure caused pearl-size tears to form and roll from the corners of her eyes.

  Ram stopped. “Are you okay, baby? You need me to stop?”