by Andre, Bella
She wasn’t fooled by the way he referred to her as one of the “guys,” and she didn’t think Smith was, either. The only one with the wool pulled over his eyes right now was Jake, and that was only because he was so desperate to “do the right thing.”
No wonder everyone always said men were stupid. He wouldn’t know the “right thing” if it hit him between the eyes…which she had been more than a little tempted to do with one of her heels when she’d seen him flirting with a couple of the attractive, female wedding guests.
“Sophie and I have it covered, Jake,” Smith replied.
Normally, Smith would have asked about Jake’s pubs. Likewise, Jake was always interested in hearing about whatever movie Smith was filming. Tonight, however, the two men were saying as little as possible to each other.
Sophie thought they were both being utterly ridiculous.
“Okay, then.” Jake nodded in their direction. “Good night.”
He left without hugs or handshakes for either of them, and when the two of them were alone in Marcus’s vineyard, Smith immediately started in with, “I know you don’t want to hear what I have to say, Sophie—”
“Then don’t say it.”
Of course, he had to say it, anyway, just as she’d known he would. “He isn’t the right man for you.”
She glared at her brother. She loved him, but sometimes he could be stubborn and pigheaded…and just plain wrong.
“How can you say that about one of your best friends? You grew up with Jake. We all did.”
“That’s exactly why I can say it.”
Smith reached for her hand and when he made her look at him, with the moon shining down on the only two people left in the vineyard, she didn’t see the movie star everyone else saw. Instead, Sophie saw a father figure who had cared for her—and loved her—every moment of her life.
“You need to let him go, Soph.”
“I know he’s been with a lot of women, but—”
“More than you could ever add up, but what I’m talking about goes way deeper than that.” He ran his free hand through his hair before saying, “He can’t love you back, Soph. He just can’t.”
Smith’s words resounded with a forceful premonition of doom, of pain, of loss. She was almost frightened by the expression on her brother’s face.
His phone rang just then, an urgent beeping that had him cursing and pulling it from his pocket. “Damn it, it’s my director in Australia.”
Smith was executive-producing his new big-budget movie, and she knew it had been nearly impossible for him to carve out these hours for the wedding. And yet, not once all night had he picked up his phone.
He turned his back on her as he told the director, “I can’t talk right now, James. I’m in the middle of something important, and I’ll have to call you back.” He listened for a few more seconds, then added, “You knew what she was like when you hired her. We all warned you. I’m leaving for the airport at first light. I’ll deal with it as soon as I can.”
But by the time Smith had disconnected the call, Sophie was gone.
Seven
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Sophie was standing on the front step of Jake’s Napa Valley rental house, as if he’d conjured her out of thin air.
“I came to see you, Jake. To talk. To figure things out.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth before she whispered, “And to kiss some more.”
Jake had thought about Sophie every second since their kiss among the vines earlier. While he’d worked behind the bar all night, it had been torture watching her dance with an endless stream of men. Even knowing many of them were old family friends didn’t stop the bile from churning in his gut and his hands from balling up into fists. He was an old family friend and look at what he wanted to do to her: rip her clothes off and take her again and again.
Working to ignore the way his body was responding to her nearness, he stepped out onto the front step and closed the door behind him.
“There’s nothing to talk about. Nothing to figure out. And we’re not going to kiss again. Ever.”
She should have run at his harsh tone. Instead, she moved closer. Close enough to mess with whatever brain cells were still functioning in the bloodless zone of his brain.
“Jake, if you’ll just let me come in—”
“I could have been in bed with someone else.”
She couldn’t hide her flinch at his harsh words, at the reminder that he had specifically not chosen to take her to his bed tonight. But instead of backing off, she pushed her shoulders back and her chin up.
“But you aren’t…are you?”
“No.” Damn it, he should have been. That would have showed both of them that all he needed was a warm, willing body, instead of wanting Sophie with an urgency that was nearly driving him insane. “But that doesn’t mean I was waiting for you.”
The corners of her mouth moved up at the words waiting for you. “Stop trying to deny what happened between us, Jake. You’re not going to convince me that our connection isn’t real.”
She was right—the sparks between them had practically set the vineyard on fire. Convincing her he didn’t want her wasn’t going to work. He’d have to make her run a different way.
He’d kill anyone who harmed even one hair on Sophie’s head. Already, he knew it was going to be a very long time before he forgave himself for that kiss…and for what he was about to do to her now.
Just because pushing her away was a necessary evil didn’t mean it wasn’t evil, damn it.
He purposely raked his gaze down her body, lingering on her breasts and hips far longer than he needed to. “You’re too innocent for me, princess. Why don’t you leave before something happens that you’ll regret?”
It was partly that innocence that drew him to her, of course, but she didn’t need to know that. Not when he was on a mission to get her to leave before his control shattered.
But instead of rising to his taunts, she simply smiled at him. “One of the perks of being a librarian is endless access to books.” She licked at her lower lip, slowly, deliberately. “All kinds of books.”
Suddenly, Jake couldn’t get past the image of Sophie poring over The Kama Sutra, memorizing all those variations on lovemaking with her big brain. It was wrong. So damn wrong.
And yet, his body seemed to think it was impossibly right.
“Reading about sex doesn’t mean a damn thing, princess.” He forced the sneer, hating himself more with every word out of his mouth. “It’s what you’ve done—” he dropped his gaze to her incredible breasts again “—and what you’re willing to do that counts.”
“I’ll do anything.”
Oh, hell, no. That wasn’t what she was supposed to say.
Jake had never been backed into a darker corner. Not even with his drunk father had he felt so helpless, so out of control. He needed to pick the reins back up, rather than let the beauty standing before him keep taking him for a ride they shouldn’t be on in the first place.
“Anything, huh?”
She nodded, but her face was flushing again, a flush that moved down her neck to the soft swell of her breasts rising up above the top of her dress.
“I already told you,” she reminded him in a soft but firm voice, “you’re not going to scare me away, no matter how hard you try. You can’t scare me, because I already know the real you.”
The real him? He’d show her the real him, all right.
“How many times have you been blindfolded? And I’m not talking about Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”
“I know you’re not,” she shot back.
“How many, princess?”
She looked him straight in the eye. “Are you sure you want to know?”
Damn it, he hadn’t seen that coming. Before she could actually give him her answer, and knowing he could barely handle the thought of Sophie in bed with another man, he tried again with something she couldn’t possibly have done.
“What about s
ex in a public place?”
Sweet, nice Sophie Sullivan smiled at him. Actually goddamned smiled as she said, “Define public.”
Jake sucked in a hard breath, feeling like he’d just been punched—repeatedly—in the gut. Still, he had to try one more time, one last-ditch effort to make Sophie see what a mistake she was making with him.
“Okay,” he said as easily as he could between clenched teeth, “so maybe you’ve played around a little bit. But you and I both know what a guy like me needs isn’t something a girl like you wants to give.”
“Wanna bet?”
The last thing he expected was for her to throw the same words back at him that he’d said before he grabbed her and kissed her. He shouldn’t want to do it again, shouldn’t be a heartbeat away from shoving her up against the front door and ripping off that silky dress so that he could make good on showing her he meant every word he’d just said.
“I’m not a soft, gentle lover like the guys you’ve been with before. You make the mistake of taking one step inside this house,” he warned her in a hard voice, “there’s no going back.”
As if in slow motion, Jake watched as Sophie reached for the doorknob, turned it and took that fated step into the house. He was paralyzed. He couldn’t do anything but stare at her as she moved farther into the house, her hips swaying with every step she took. When she reached the living room, while still in full line of sight from the front step, she paused for a moment before turning around to face him.
Her face held hope, desire—and something that looked too much like love—as she reached for the zipper on the side of her dress and began to pull it down.
No.
God, no.
He needed to put a stop to this right now. But instead of barking out an order to stop acting crazy, instead of turning away as if he didn’t care one way or another if she undressed in front of him, he was struck stupid yet again. It was as if she’d cast a spell over him, one he couldn’t break if it meant he missed one single second of her shockingly gorgeous unveiling.
He’d guessed earlier she wasn’t wearing anything under the dress, but he hadn’t ever expected to confirm it in person. In seconds, the dress would fall, and he wouldn’t have a prayer of doing the right thing.
“Sophie,” he said, her name a ragged plea from his lips.
A plea to stop…and a plea to let him finally see all of her.
A plea to leave…and a plea for her to promise she’d never, ever give up on him, no matter what happened.
The zipper came all the way down, and she held the dress in place with steady hands. Her eyes were huge, but he didn’t see fear, didn’t see nerves in them.
Only anticipation.
And a desire strong enough to match the lust eating him up from the inside.
A moment later, she let her dress drop to the wood planked floor and stood before him wearing nothing but a pair of pink heels.
“I’m yours, Jake.”
Eight
“Holy hell, you’re beautiful.”
Jake’s words took the chill away from her naked skin just moments before the front door was slamming shut, and she was in his arms. His mouth covered hers, taking, claiming, branding her with a kiss that blew every other kiss she’d ever had away. His hands cupped her hips, and as the kiss spiraled more and more out of control, he dragged her naked body into his. He trapped her legs between his spread thighs, the thick bulge behind his zipper throbbing and pulsing against her.
She wanted to touch him everywhere, wanted proof that this moment was real and not just a dream she was going to wake up from, frustrated and alone. He was holding her so tightly against him that her forearms were pressed up against his rock-hard chest, but she could splay her hands against him, could rub the pads of her fingers over his chest through the fine cotton of his dress shirt.
But it wasn’t enough for her. Sophie was desperate for more of him, for more of this kiss and the chance to slide her hands up over his shoulders, up his neck, to cup the planes of his beautiful face. When he began to rain kisses over her cheeks, her chin and then into the hollow of her neck, she threaded her fingers into his hair, then arched her head back and pressed her breasts harder into his chest as he pressed kisses to her skin.
And then—oh, God, how long had she waited for this moment?—she felt his mouth move lower, and lower still, until his tongue curled over the tip of one breast.
She’d never felt anything like this, had never known what it was to step inside a bolt of lightning and become light and flames and heat. The explosions started deep in her belly, down low where everything was throbbing with arousal, waiting for Jake’s savage possession.
She’d been so nervous as she’d gotten into her car and driven to the house she knew Jake had rented for the weekend, but she hadn’t let herself falter. Not even when her legs had been trembling so hard as she walked up to the front door that she’d had to brace herself for a moment with both of her hands on either side of it.
It’s now or never, Sophie, was what she’d reminded herself.
And, oh, as she gasped his name, was she ever glad she’d chosen now.
Jake moved one of his hands from her hip to cup and tease the other breast, just as he slid his other hand between her legs. She dropped her gaze down to his dark head, only to find that he was looking up at her, too, and in that instant that their gazes connected, Sophie lost hold of the thin thread that had been holding her together.
Her eyes fluttered closed as she came apart against him, her hips instinctively rocking into his hand as she rode the shockingly unexpected climax. His sensual touch, the warmth of his fingers in her most intimate place even as he moved his mouth to her other breast, his stubble scratching against her chest in the most deliciously rough way, sent her spiraling off even higher, from a prelude of pleasure to an encore that came out of nowhere and seemed to just go on and on.
Her legs would have buckled if not for Jake slipping one arm beneath her knees and the other around her rib cage as he lifted her off the floor. He didn’t give her any time to think as his mouth came down over hers again, his tongue thrusting against hers. And as he carried her through the living room and down the hall, she felt so incredibly sexy, naked with only her heels on in his strong arms.
She heard him kick open a door, and the next thing she knew he was lowering her onto a soft velvet bed covering. His mouth still over hers, she realized he wasn’t kissing her anymore, that he was taking her wrists in one of his large hands and lifting her arms above her head, holding them firmly in place. Holding her right where he wanted her.
She’d been bluffing out on the front steps, of course. She hadn’t ever been blindfolded, hadn’t had public sex. Not because she was afraid to do those things, but because she’d never had the right man to do them with.
Until tonight.
Until Jake.
She tried to wrap her legs around him, wanted him to take her, to make her his, but he wouldn’t let her lead, instead using his body to still hers beneath his.
Held deliciously captive beneath his strong muscles, she watched his beautiful mouth say the words, “Let me love you.” His mouth moved to her earlobe as he licked at the skin behind it before biting into the sensitive flesh. “I just want to love you.”
Love.
He wanted to love her.
Her muscles melted like butter beneath the sweet stroke of his free hand down the side of her body, from breast to waist and hips to thigh, and she opened up for him again, for the perfect slide of his hand between her legs.
He raised his head to look down at her as he cupped her, his heat melding with hers until she didn’t know where she ended and he began. Sophie had to arch her hips up into his hand, searching all over again for that pleasure he’d given her mere minutes ago.
“That’s it,” he urged her as she rocked against his hand while she tried so desperately to take herself back over that incredibly high peak. Her inner muscles clenched and pulled at his f
ingers as he thrust them into her, sometimes fast, sometimes excruciatingly slow.
“Please, Jake,” she begged him, the plea falling from her lips unbidden.
“Anything,” he vowed. “Anything for you.”
And then his mouth was back on her breasts oh-too-briefly before he was moving lower, kissing and biting at the skin stretched taut over her stomach. Somewhere in her head she knew what was going to happen, that he was going to put his mouth between her legs and taste her. Of course she’d fantasized about what it would be like to be so intimate with Jake, but she’d never actually believed it would happen.
His hands moved to her inner thighs, gently pushing them apart. “Show me how beautiful you are. Let me taste your sweetness.”
No one had ever talked to her like this during sex, like he was a starving man and she was a feast laid out before him.
“Beautiful.” He breathed out against her aroused flesh and a shiver took her over. “So damned beautiful.” And then he was lowering his head down, then down farther still, until he was covering her, breaking her apart one slow swipe of his tongue at a time.
She should have been prepared for her climax this time, should have known it would send her reeling, should have been able to take it in and hold on to the feelings of extreme pleasure to mine later in her memories. But she didn’t have a prayer as his stubble rubbed over her slick and damp curls. He sucked her aroused flesh between his lips, and as he tugged at the incredibly sensitive ball of nerves, her limbs shook and her heart pounded so hard it nearly jumped through her ribs and skin as she came for him. Her cry of pleasure sounded through the bedroom, the tall ceilings and large glass windows echoing it back.
When the currents of pleasure finally subsided, never leaving her completely, Sophie knew a deeper exhaustion—and satisfaction—than she’d ever had in her life. Her eyes were heavy, so heavy that even as the mattress shifted beneath Jake’s weight, she couldn’t quite manage to open them to see what he was doing.
Soon, she felt the bed move again and knew he was back with her. She reached for him, her eyes still closed. But when he grabbed her hands in his and lowered his mouth to them instead of letting her touch him, she had to push her eyelids open.
