The words kept tumbling out of her mouth even as the first raindrops hit the tops of our heads. “I didn’t think about the contract or you or what you wanted.” She swallowed deeply. “It’s over. In a minute, you’re going to walk away and anything that we’ve agreed to earlier today will mean nothing.”
When she finished, she continued to blink from the raindrops.
I took in her beautiful face before I rested my palms on her cheeks. She trembled and I couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss her lips. “I’m right here. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m mad, I will admit, but I don’t give a fuck about what they think. I walked out of there because I was worried about you, not them.”
Uncertainty touched her eyes so I silenced her doubts when I kissed her again. She tasted like sake. A savory dry taste. My tongue darted out briefly to brush against hers and the moment the tips of our tongues touched I couldn’t get enough of her. If I had to, I’d kiss her all night until she didn’t have any doubts. No matter how much our clothes became soaked or who passed by. Her hands snaked up my back. My lips trailed up to her chin, tasting the rain before I turned to look at her again.
“Do you remember the offer you kept making me?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I think I’d like those drinks tonight, Mr. Quinn,” she whispered.
We didn’t say anything to each other as we walked across the street to my apartment, but I kept glancing at her. The way her wet hair clung to her scalp was so sexy. As the elevator rode up, I couldn’t help looking at the way her nipples poked out of her dress or the way her chest rose and fell. There was no way in fucking hell I wanted those drinks. I wanted Sophie. I wanted her in my bed underneath me and I wanted her crying out my name.
By the time she woke up the next morning, she’d have absolutely no doubts that I was the man who wanted her and that I was the man who wanted to be with her tonight.
Once we were inside the apartment, the storm really began to pick up and lights flashed outside the drawn curtains. We stood there in the middle of the living room staring at each other.
“Whatever happened to that drink, Mr. Quinn?”
“What would you like to drink?”
“I’d say water,” she touched her damp curls, “but I’ve had plenty of that so far. How about some of the green tea I left in your fridge?”
I slowly smiled. “Where did you find that stuff? It tastes awful.”
I shifted to fetch her a drink, but her arms snaked around my waist to hold me close. She pressed her cheek against my shoulder blade and sighed. Her body warmed my back and feelings I thought I’d suppressed since Rosalie passed away rose to the surface. How long ago had I felt longing and inner peace? Years, unfortunately. Tonight wasn’t just about me or what I wanted. I placed my hand over hers.
“No drink?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Your clothes are soaked through, you should take them off.”
“And I’m sure you’d like to be the one to take them off.” She added space between us I didn’t like so I turned to face her.
“I have an IUD,” she said. “Have you got condoms?”
I nodded, glad to get that business out of the way.
I moved left as she moved to the right—almost as if we circled each other.
“Take off your shoes,” I said.
She did it slowly and I did the same.
“So no pretenses?” she asked.
I shook my head. “We could do some elaborate talk. I could tell you something romantic about what you’d like to do to me, but we both know why we’re here. There’s something you need and I want to give it to you.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Please…give it to me.”
A fire spread through my bones just hearing those bold words from her. Her hands rose to undo a button, but I stopped her by scooping her up in my arms. No more conversation. We needed to use our mouths in other ways. I took two steps at a time up to the second floor. By the time I got to the top, our mouths met again. The kisses were hungry. Feverish. She didn’t even give me time to place her on the bed—she ripped my shirt open and tossed what was left to the side. Her blouse got the same treatment as I threw it over the railing and the shirt sailed down to the floor.
Next, I unbuckled her cuffs. Waiting was damn near impossible for me, but I waited to see if she’d protest. She didn’t. I wanted to see her without a stitch of clothing on.
“I can’t wait to taste you,” I whispered.
Slow down, Xav.
I hungered for her more than I should have. Over and over again, I tried to slow down as I sampled the skin along her neck, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to touch her everywhere. Watch every reaction she made.
My tongue swirled along the sensitive points until I encountered her collarbone. Her scent was ever so sweet and delicious, urging me to descend until I encountered her bra. That came off, too.
I made quick work of her panties and soon enough Sophie stood before me. Beautiful, elegant, and sexy. Her pert pink nipples would get my attention soon enough. I lowered my head, taking as much as I could into my mouth. She moaned with each hard suck.
My hands were everywhere, reaching to touch and sample every curve. She was mine tonight. I could take my time and explore every inch of her.
She tried to reach for me to unbutton my belt, but I would have none of that. “Please let me,” she begged.
“Don’t move an inch.” There was no need to rush and I wanted to see her come first. I pushed her back onto the bed and covered her body with mine. Damn, she felt so good. I ran my tongue along the underside of her breast, my nose gently brushing against her. Every shiver she experienced made me want to do more. Like dip my tongue in her navel.
Like dip my tongue in her pussy.
When I parted her thighs, I met no resistance. I trailed kisses along her hip bones, growing hungrier and hungrier as I approached her sex. I hovered over the seam along her lips. Just watching her quiver down there was amazing. It was as if she was a rope, stretched taut and waiting to be released. Gently I sampled her. A lick here. A teasing suck there. Her thighs clenched around me and she moaned. When she got close, I pulled back.
“Please, Xavier,” she begged.
She’d come soon enough, but she wasn’t ready yet.
I inserted two fingers into her wet channel. Her pussy pulsated against my fingers. Her back arched and she cried out my name.
With one hand on her stomach and the other holding her legs open so that I could taste her, I could feel the trembling of her stomach muscles. The contracting and clenching, in time with the soft moans from between her lips. She was getting close again, practically ready to come, but then she reached for me.
“Xavier…”
I pulled her hands away. “I told you not to move.”
I got up. From my drawer I pulled out two silk ties. These would be nice enough to do the job I wanted.
“Up against the headboard,” I said.
She quickly complied, scooting upward while she watched me. She seemed so small near such a huge bedpost. From the first day I met her, I imagined seeing her like this.
Gently, I tied each of her wrists to the headboard.
“Does it hurt, sweetheart?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No…”
I had to take a step back to see how beautiful she was. With the added distance between us, I could see the feverish pitch in her eyes. The tension in her limbs as if she reached for me. She waited to be possessed.
You could have her like this forever if you opened up and let her love you.
But I didn’t need forever. Life wasn’t a guaranteed thing, and yet, as I approached her again, I couldn’t shake the need to want forever with Sophie.
She kept perfectly still with each step I took to the bed. Her gaze never wavered. Silence in the room stretched out as I crept along her body, feeling her twitch when our bodies came in contact. I couldn’t resist smil
ing at her while my nose drifted over her clit.
“Please…”
If I pressed her there, she’d come. “Please what? What do you want me to do to you, Sophie?”
She squirmed, her hips bucking toward my hand.
“Tell me,” I asked again.
“I need you. I want you.”
“And who is going to make you come?”
“You will.”
I discarded the rest of my clothes. The condom went on next.
She waited patiently without words.
So I gave her what she needed and caressed from the soft skin below her breasts to the firm muscles on her slim legs. She shuddered beneath me and the ties flexed as she pulled at them to reach for me. All the while, I watched her face and enjoyed the way her legs wrapped around my hips as if she never wanted me to leave.
I watched her face while I slid into her warmth, taking in the molten heat of her eyes and passionate way her fingernails bit into my shoulder blades. This was where I truly wanted to be, over her, inside her, feeling her heart race as quickly as mine.
Sophie
Never would I have imagined myself being tied up in Xavier’s bed.
And yet, once he was inside me, I didn’t want this feeling to end. The tension in my clit spread everywhere. Much faster than I was ready for. Tighter and tighter. The delicious stretch along my rib cage up to my arms only intensified.
My climax came fast and hard.
But he kept going, filling me again and again. All I could do to hold on to him was wrap my legs around his hips and accept what he gave me.
Delicious pleasure coursed up my spine, drenching me with his sweat as he filled my body again and again. He nibbled my neck while I tasted the salty sweat on his skin.
As he climaxed, his harsh cries of pleasure warmed my skin and I loved feeling the heaviness of his body on mine.
Using his elbows, he propped himself up, but his forehead continue to rest in the crook of my neck. Moments like this I wanted to reach out and run my fingers through his hair, but with my arms bound all I could do was imagine it.
Soon enough, though, he reached for my wrists and untied me. The delicious burn in the muscles along my arms felt good.
“You all right?” he asked me.
“I think you know the answer to that question.” I was probably smiling like a fool.
He chuckled and briefly his head lowered to kiss my nose. My face was warm. Even after what happened he knew how to make me feel special. “I don’t know why I waited so long to do this to you.”
I knew very well why it took us so long to do this. We both had doubts, and just like him, this was new territory for me. With Sato everything had been private from the get go. With Xavier there were no boundaries.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“So did you actually have plans to give me that drink?”
With a devilish grin, he left the bed. I watched his ass as he made his way down the stairs. I stretched out under the covers, enjoying this moment. I only had a second to briefly close my eyes before I heard him coming back up the steps. Even with the dim light from a lamp downstairs, I could make out his beautiful form. His walk was so graceful, so self-assured. Without a stitch of clothing on I could make out every single muscle. Xavier Quinn was a beautiful specimen.
But as he got closer to the bed, I noticed something in particular. There was a scar along his kneecap. On such a perfect body it wasn’t hard to miss such a thing. What had happened to him? Was he in an accident of some kind? As he got closer, I couldn’t see any other scars and the line was perfectly straight. Almost as if it was cut from surgery. Had something happened to his knee a long time ago?
I took the bottle of water he offered with a smile. “What happened to you?”
I reached out and brushed my fingertips against his knee.
He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He turned away as if that would be the only answer I’d get. I tried to broach the subject further, but he ran his hands from my arm over the curve of my hip and down my leg.
“There’s so many other things we could be doing,” he remarked. “I’d rather be looking at you. I’d rather be inside you.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. “I can’t think of a reason to tell you no…”
Sophie
The morning after amazing sex is the best. There’s nothing better than waking up with someone beside you. You’re sore. You’re exhausted. But you don’t care because the one who made you that way is next to you. That was how I felt when I woke up next to Xavier. I wrapped my arms around him and ran my nose across his hard pecs.
I could do this every hour of the day if it were possible. His skin was so smooth, and if I put my nose in just the right place and I drew in a deep breath, I caught a lingering smell of his cologne.
All the while, he seemed to quietly sleep and let me stare at him.
Then a flicker of fear touched my stomach.
Don’t get too attached to him. Don’t fall in love with him, Sophie.
But repeating that to myself over and over again didn’t work. This felt so right: lying next to him, enjoying having his body next to mine. I’d been alone for so damn long and I wanted to bottle this moment so that I could sample it at night after he left.
A thought came to mind that I could leave the bed right now and just walk away. Once I talked to him later, there’d be no messy breakup. No awkward moments between us. Just two adults making the decision to part ways, but a lot of things were easier said than done.
Eventually, I settled back into his arms and drifted back to sleep again. After countless nights of getting no more than three to four hours of sleep, somehow I slept until noon.
It was bliss.
By the time I did get up to shower, my muscles protested every move, but the pain was good and I welcomed it. Xavier didn’t wake when I left the bed. He just rolled over in his sleep and murmured softly. I reached over and ran my fingers through his hair. Even if things ended between us today, I still had enough memories to last me for a long time to come.
Chapter 16
Xavier
Sophie was in the shower by the time I got up. Damn, I thought I practically lived in the shower, but she had me beat. Just thinking about her standing in the water running a bar of soap over her perfect tits made my dick hard in anticipation for round two. Or was that round five? Ehh, who’s counting?
She probably hadn’t been in there for too long. I could still help soap her down before she got out…
I leaned out of the bed and noticed something on the end table. The leather cuffs I’d taken off of Sophie’s wrists sat next to my watch. I picked one of them up. I’d never really seen them up close before.
They seemed so simple. A bit worn, but the leather was still tough. Why did she like these so much? I’d never tied up a woman using something like this so I only had a vague idea why she liked them. On closer examination, I spotted small letters branded on the inside. They seemed so tiny. Far too tiny to be the brand name. The leather wasn’t cheap and the craftsmanship was fine, but when I looked on the outside I didn’t see a manufacturer label.
Now that I studied them, I saw these weren’t letters, but Asian symbols. Maybe Chinese or Japanese. Naturally, I had no idea what they meant, yet the two symbols were on both the left and the right wrist cuffs. Was that the name of the manufacturer? Or someone’s name? The idea that Sophie wore something with another man’s name bothered me.
She came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around herself. Sophie made a face when she saw what I was holding. “What are you doing with those?”
“They look pretty cool. I’ve rarely seen you not wearing them.” She plucked them from my hands, but that wouldn’t end my curiosity. “There’s something carved into the leather. Is that Japanese?”
She feigned lack of interest. “It’s nothing.”
I paused for a moment, staring her down, and she stared right back at me. “That�
��s it?”
The slight curve of the side of her lip was mesmerizing. “Yep.”
Sophie
By the time Xavier had finished his shower, I’d already prepared a spinach omelet for him with some coffee.
When I darted my head into his bathroom to tell him, I almost had to dart back out.
Steam had filled the room and the mirrors were fogged up. Xavier stood under the shower with his eyes shut. I could only make out his profile through the glass. From his long legs to the curve of his perfect ass. He turned briefly to reveal his wide back. Warmth touched my cheeks and my stomach quivered as I remembered what he did to me last night. The temptation to discard my clothes and join him seemed like a good idea, but I remained where I stood.
Don’t get too close. That doesn’t belong to you, Sophie. You lived in the moment and got what you needed. Time to go.
I sucked in a deep breath and took in the scent of his soap. Enticing and spicy. All male.
So am I borrowing him for a little while? I asked myself. Seemed like a simple enough question and rationalizing the situation as if he was a bicycle or a cup of sugar made me giggle.
’Cause if he was a motorbike, he offered a nice hard ride.
“I’m leaving now,” I managed to call out. “I made you some breakfast.”
The door to the shower opened and he peered around it. Water dripped down his forehead and my eyes followed the trail down his chest. When my gaze came back up, the dark look in his eyes told me I’d been caught staring.
“So soon?” He ran his tongue along his bottom lip. I wanted to be that lip.
Somehow, I found the ability to form coherent words. “Yeah, I need to check in with Jesse,” I bet my assistant has everything covered…
He nodded. “There’s plenty of room in here.”
This was the part where I was supposed to close the door, but I didn’t. Drinking him in seemed far more appealing.
“Come here.” He beckoned me with his outstretched hand, but I still had a bit of resolve left.
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