“Right,” I murmur. “It feels like destiny. I know the D-word sounds really cheesy, but—”
“No,” he growls, raising his hand and touching my face softly.
I turn toward his touch, savoring the feeling of him, tingles dancing across my cheeks and down my throat, spreading to my nipples where they buzz and hum.
“Or yeah, maybe it does,” he says. “But I don’t care how it sounds. I just care that it’s true. Tell me you feel the same. Tell me you want to be the mother of my children.”
I reach up and lay my hand atop his, feeling the ridged surface of his knuckles, moving my hand up to his arm until I’m holding his shoulder. I squeeze onto the solid mass of his muscles, captivated with the strength of him.
He’ll always protect me—us, our children, our family.
“I want it,” I whisper, but then I turn away and stride over to the window.
“Sophia?”
I stare down at the city, glittering in the afternoon sunlight.
“What’s wrong?”
I wheel on him, throwing my hands up.
“You know what’s wrong,” I cry. “You can’t just say all of that, Solomon. You can’t fulfill my …”
I trail off, biting my lip, stopping myself from revealing the truth I’ve always kept private.
I’ve never told anyone, not even Mom, about the secret crush I’ve had on Solomon for years.
He walks over to me, seeming to get bigger and more possessive the closer he gets. When he’s standing over me, I feel so small, so safe, like he’s a bear and any second he’ll wrap his paws around me and pull me close.
I ache to fall against his rock hard body, to squeeze onto his muscles and just relax into the moment.
“Fulfill your what?” he says, a smirk touching his lips.
“Nothing,” I reply.
“Oh, my little dreamer,” he chuckles. “Do you really think you can lie to me? Tell me the truth.”
I sigh and avert my gaze, a blush spreading over my cheeks and making my whole face hot.
My eyes move over the workout station in the corner, the conference table, the tropical-looking plants dotted here and there.
This office is bigger than most apartments, easily.
He started with nothing and he worked his ass off to get here.
He’s the sort of man that would always protect and cherish our family.
“Sophia,” he snaps. “Tell me what you were going to say.”
“Just that I’ve had a crush on you forever,” I snap in return, feisty rage shivering in my words. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a crush on you. It was just a silly little-girl fantasy. That’s all. But now you’re telling me it can be real. We can be real.”
“We can,” he says passionately, moving his hand to touch my face again.
I lean away from him, something quivering and screaming inside of me at the distance.
What the hell are you doing? my womb demands. When your man wants to touch you, you let him.
“Solomon,” I sigh. “You’re talking as if Caitlin doesn’t exist. What do you think she’d say if she knew about this? What do you think she’d do?”
He bites down, causing his jaw to tense and pulse.
“It’s not easy,” he says after a pause. “I’ll grant you that. But it’s not impossible, either.”
“Really? How so?”
“We’ll just have to explain it,” he growls.
He surges forward and wraps his massive, muscular arms around me, squeezing me close. I gasp as our bodies come into a heated collision, his muscles pressing into my breasts, making my nipples hard and tingly with desire.
“We’ll have to tell her that something incredible has happened between us,” he says, leaning down so that his warm breath whispers over me.
My sex tingles and wetness seeps into my panties, making me fidget with need for him.
“And you think she’ll just accept that?” I murmur.
He sighs, bringing his lips to mine.
“I think she’ll have to,” he says. “I can’t forget about this, about you. This need inside of me, Sophia, it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt. I can’t stop thinking about you. I hardly slept last night, obsessing over you.”
He crushes his lips against mine, our tongues magnetizing to each other like they have minds of their own.
Sensation burns and flares around my mouth, traveling deep inside of me and pounding in my belly.
My clit throbs and my lips rub against my panties, screaming to be touched, to be owned like he owned me yesterday.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” I breathe, our faces held close together, our noses tickling.
I smile and giggle despite myself, despite the fact I should be running out of here and forgetting either of us ever said any of this.
“But I don’t think you’re right, Solomon,” I say. “I think you’re being too optimistic.”
He smirks.
“Now that’s the first time I’ve ever been called that.”
“I don’t think I can tell her. Not just like that. Not until …”
I trail off with a sigh.
Solomon leans back, watching, waiting patiently for me to find the right words.
“Not until I know there’s no going back,” I murmur. “Maybe this crazy feeling will pass. Maybe we’ll get over it. Maybe, if we tell her, we’ll be causing her all that pain for no reason.”
His eyes flicker darkly.
His smirk wavers.
“Do you really believe this feeling is just going to go away, Sophia?” he snarls.
“No,” I admit. “I don’t. But I don’t want to tell her and that’s the best I could come up with, okay? So please don’t give me crap about it.”
He laughs dryly and slides his hands down to my hips, grabbing hold of me and pulling me close. I shift against him, opening my legs so I can grind my sex against his thigh, my panties rubbing with relentless starry heat against my lips, clit, and soaked hole.
“You’re such a horny virgin,” he growls. “But …”
“Just for you,” I finish for him.
“Just for me,” he affirms. “And don’t you ever fucking forget it.”
He moves his hands around to my ass, squeezing and massaging so that even more shivering pleasure moves over my body, urging me into deeper and deeper ecstasy.
I keep rubbing my center against his thigh, biting my lip to stop a moan from escaping.
“What do you propose, hmm?” he growls, his smirk sharp and ironic. “To prove that you really want to be with me?”
I laugh, but the sound comes out strangled with desire.
“Aren’t I proving that already?”
He steps back, a wide step that leaves a hollow feeling in my chest.
“I can’t do this,” he says, his voice husky.
For a second, the floor feels as if it opens and swallows me up.
Anxiety swirls around my belly, tightening it.
I imagine his smirk turning into a vicious leer, his eyes dancing with bullying light instead of sizzling lust.
I imagine him throwing his head back and laughing.
Did you really think I’d want you, you silly girl?
“Why?” I whimper.
“Sophia, what’s wrong?”
I try for a laugh, but it can’t hide the fact that tears have appeared in my eyes, shimmering and threatening to pour down my cheeks.
“I have a conference call in five minutes,” he says, stepping forward and brushing his thumb along my cheek. I shiver at his touch. “And I know if I let us carry on, I won’t be able to resist going even further with you. I’ll have you naked on that desk. You’re too goddamn magnetic. What did you think, Sophia?”
“That this was all some twisted trick,” I moan, hating how melodramatic my voice sounds. “Jeez, I think maybe I need to calm down a little.”
His lips twitch into a near-smile, the closest I’ve ever seen him to graduatin
g from a smirk. He smooths his thumb over my cheek again and then leans forward, kissing me with surprising tenderness on the forehead.
“It shows how much you care about us,” he says, his voice trembling as though he’s holding himself back from another kiss. “Let me take you out tonight, Sophia. You say you want proof that we can’t just forget about this. Let me take you someplace befitting a queen. Let me treat you like what you are—my woman, forever. And then, afterward, we’ll both know how impossible it’ll be for us to ever walk away.”
I know how impossible it is already, and so does he, but neither of us mentions that.
We don’t mention Caitlin again, either.
Instead, we just sink into each other. I wrap my arms around his torso and grab onto the back of his suit jacket.
I squeeze on and feel the irrepressible strength of him beneath the fabric.
It’s a strength that tells me I’ll always be safe, always be protected, no matter what happens.
We both know that neither of us can walk away from this.
But am I going to say no to dinner with Solomon Sky, the man I’ve dreamed of sharing a meal with my entire life?
Hell, no.
CHAPTER TEN
Solomon
I stand with my hands behind my back, gazing down at the city as the moon makes it glitter blue. Since Sophia left my office the day has felt ridiculously long, as though time lengthened to torture me, making the minutes feel like hours as I wait to see her.
I turn back to the restaurant, deserted and empty except for a single table in the middle of the hardwood floor.
A chandelier sits above our table, casting down glowing orange light.
I’ve had rose petals littered all over the floor, a candle burning in the center of the table, next to a vase containing a single rose.
I smirk as my eyes flit over the scene, struggling to believe that I arranged all this.
In all my life, I’ve never done anything romantic.
I’ve never wanted to.
But now I’ve found the woman of my dreams – the woman I can never turn away from – and I know I can’t imagine not treating her right.
Tension twists in my chest when my mind skirts close to Caitlin.
I want to tell her right now, get it over with before Sophia and I grow into something we can’t control.
As if you haven’t already grown into that, a voice snarls in my mind.
It’s true.
The second I laid eyes on her in my office, I knew that I’d never be able to watch her grow and flourish in the arms of another man.
That’s my right—to be with her for the rest of our lives, to watch as she becomes the woman I know she can be, the mother I know she’s going to be.
I walk over to the table and adjust a piece of cutlery, making sure it’s aligned with the rest of the pieces.
Everything has to be perfect for my woman.
Perfect, that is until the beast inside of me snaps my self-restraint in half and I sweep the table clear. Lifting her onto the table and pushing her legs open with my knee, growling like the animal I am, and then driving myself deep inside of her, pounding her until the table buckles and collapses and she’s left cradled in my arms.
I let out a deep, shivering breath.
I need to wait, for her, for my sweet virgin to be ready.
Finally, the private elevator to the restaurant beeps and opens.
I stare as my woman walks into the room, my blood pumping hotter and hotter around my body each moment.
She’s wearing a tight fitting red dress, a dress I had delivered to her desk earlier today.
It makes her body look as curvy and thick and gorgeous as I knew it would.
Her breasts strain against the fabric, her subtle – yet mind-fucking – cleavage causing my manhood to ache and flood with tension.
Her hair cascades down to her shoulders, her eyes framed with elegant makeup. Her heels are a matching red and her legs are bare, juicy looking, making me want to skip dinner and indulge in the succulence of her flesh instead.
She stops at the edge of the table, aiming a shaky smile at me.
“Evening, sir,” she says.
I make a deep rumbling noise from my chest, fighting the urge to jump over the table and bring my hand down in an owner’s spank on that plump ass of hers.
She tilts her head at me, a flutter of insecurity entering her expression.
“You look incredible,” I say, forcing the words past my choked desire. “I knew you’d look good in that dress, but fucking hell, Sophia.”
“Really?” she says, her face lighting up with glorious light.
It’s the same way she’s going to smile when I make her a mother.
“Really,” I breathe huskily. “In fact, it’s pretty difficult not to tear it off you right now.”
I walk around the table and pull her chair out, nodding down.
She giggles and drops into the seat, shifting with me as I help her to push the chair in.
“What’s so funny?” I ask, moving around to my seat.
“It’s not funny, exactly,” she says. “It’s just that I’ve dreamed of this so many times. The rose petals, and the candle, and everything … It’s just perfect, Solomon.”
“I’m glad I can satisfy my little dreamer,” I smirk, threading my hand between the vase and the candle and take her hand.
She squeezes onto me, sending tingles up my forearm and into my chest, pounding into my heart.
“Satisfy?” she murmurs. “I don’t think that quite does it justice.”
She looks around at the vast emptiness.
“It’s very private, too,” she notes.
I can almost hear her adding, That’s good because then nobody will report back to Caitlin.
But she decides to remain silent about that, and even if it’s unfair, I’m damn glad.
Tonight is about me and my woman.
I believe that Caitlin will understand when she finally knows the full extent of what Sophia and I are becoming.
I just hope I can convince Sophia of that fact soon.
“Of course it’s private,” I say. “I don’t want anybody else seeing how incredible you look in that dress. Jesus, Sophia. My mouth is watering right now. And not for the food.”
Her cheeks glow in the candlelight as she picks up her menu and starts scanning it.
I withdraw my hand and do the same.
“Shall I order us some champagne to start?” I ask. “Non-alcoholic, of course.”
She grins. “Yeah, that sounds really nice.”
I reach under the table and press a button.
A moment later, a waiter opens the door from the kitchen and strides across the cavernous room, his footsteps clicking on the hardwood floor. They get louder and louder until he’s standing next to the table, smiling politely down at us.
I scan his eyes for any sign that he’s checking my woman out, but thankfully – for his safety – he keeps his gaze on her face.
“A bottle of your finest non-alcoholic champagne,” I tell him.
“Of course, Mr. Sky,” he says, inclining his head and then returning to the kitchen.
“Wow, secret buttons,” Sophia smiles. “Have you got any more tricks up your sleeve?”
I smirk. “You’ll just have to hang around long enough to find out.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Solomon,” she murmurs.
Even if I should, I imagine her adding afterward, a phantom sentence on her lips.
“Good,” I growl. “Because I’d chase you to the ends of the earth if I had to. I’d never stop chasing you. You belong to me.”
“Always,” she moans, shifting in her seat.
My smirk widens, and my balls tighten even more in their need to explode inside of her, to fill her with my seed until she’s overflowing with it.
She’s getting horny now, I can tell by the way she shifts in her seat.
My little virgin really is insatiabl
e.
“We can cancel dinner,” I tell her fiercely. “I can take you to the best hotel in town right now.”
“I want it, Solomon,” she murmurs. “But—”
She pauses.
But Caitlin, she was going to say.
“Do you think maybe we can have our date?”
“Of course,” I tell her. “You can’t blame a man for trying when you’re wearing that dress, Sophia.”
She bites her lip and I let out another snarling noise.
I can’t help myself.
“Do you have any idea how sexy you look when you do that?” I growl.
“When I do what?” she asks.
“Bite your lip like that.”
She laughs, a sweet, musical sound that goes right to my core.
“I didn’t even know I was doing it,” she says.
“That just means you’re sexy without even trying,” I smirk.
Our conversation is interrupted when the waiter emerges with our champagne. I watch Sophia as he lays down the glasses and starts the pour, tracking her smile and letting it infuse me with soothing warmth.
It’s a smile that says she’s never experienced anything like this before, and she loves it. She’s been waiting her whole life for somebody to treat her like the princess she is.
I’m just so glad no other man ever saw how special she is.
I lift my flute once the waiter has left us.
“To us,” I declare.
“To us,” she toasts in return, and we bring our glasses together and clink them.
She sips, and then quickly puts the glass down and clasps onto her belly.
“That’s really—uh—bubbly,” she murmurs. “It’s …”
She clasps her hand over her mouth as a small burp escapes, and then stares at me wide-eyed as though she’s terrified, as though she’s just flipped the table over or started a fire. The pain in her expression shimmers and she moves in her chair as if she’s going to leave.
“I’m so sorry,” she says.
I bolt to my feet, moving with such savage conviction that she flinches.
Walking around the table, I kneel down and cradle her face in my hands. I lean up and kiss her softly on the cheek, tasting the warmth of her skin, her sweat, her.
“Sophia,” I say. “I don’t want you for some idealized version of what you think you need to be. I want you. You burped. It’s not the end of the world.”
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