Tempting Sophia

by Jessica Prince

  My head started to float, and not just because of the wine. “Dom,” I said softly, his name leaving my lips like a plea. But I wasn’t quite sure what I was pleading for. Did I want him to stop, or keep going?

  “God,” he breathed. “Do you have any fucking clue how much I’ve missed you?”

  I did. Because I missed him just as much. Even when I hated him.

  Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was the great food and surprisingly enjoyable company. Maybe it was because I was lost in the past. But whatever the reason, I found myself doing something incredibly stupid.

  One second I’d been sitting on the other end of the couch.

  The next… I threw myself in Dominic’s arms, devouring his mouth like a woman possessed.

  Chapter Eight

  Sophia

  The power shifted almost the instant my lips landed on Dominic’s. I might have initiated the kiss, but he took control after just one second.

  In the blink of an eye, I was on my back with Dominic’s weight pressing me into the cushions. His tongue forced its way into my mouth at the same time his hips forced their way between my thighs.

  My mouth widened on a moan as the pressure of his massive erection slid across my center. The bolts of pleasure set me off and I lost it, fisting my fingers in his hair to pull him even closer.

  That caused him to growl down my throat, his kiss going from passionate to damn near bruising. And I loved it. My panties were drenched beneath my leggings as he continued to rock against me as our tongues tangled with each other, fighting for dominance. Unsurprisingly, he won. He always won. And I didn’t hate that one bit.

  He wrapped his fingers around my wrists and pinned my arms above my head with one of his big, strong hands as the free one slid down my side. I shivered when his fingertips skated over the side of my breast. I groaned when they continued down my thighs where the hem of my sweater hit and snuck underneath it. I whimpered into his mouth when they changed their direction and honed in on the sensitive naked skin, not stopping until he cupped my breast and scraped his callused thumb across my nipple.

  My hips bucked against his as I sucked in a ragged inhale. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head as he pressed harder and circled his pelvis. Tendrils of heat began to coil low in my belly. Dominic’s lips disengaged from mine and began trailing openmouthed kisses down my neck and collarbone while his thumb stopped rubbing and met his forefinger to pinch instead.

  I hooked my ankles together at the small of his back, holding him close as the heat coiling in my belly grew tighter and tighter.

  “Dom,” I panted, throwing my head back against the cushions. “Oh God.”

  “Am I under your skin yet?” he asked, his mouth a whisper from mine.

  I couldn’t comprehend a single solitary thing. “Huh?”

  “Are you wild for me?”

  I was. I was going absolutely insane for him. But when I opened my eyes and looked into his, I didn’t think he was talking strictly about lust. It was the look he was giving me that made me freeze solid beneath him, and I remembered everything he’d said the night of Lola’s engagement party.

  He seemed oblivious to the sudden change in my demeanor as he continued. “We do this, there’s no going back, baby. I told you I’d make you crave me until you forgot how to live without me, and I meant it. Because in ten years, I’ve never learned how to live without you.”

  My eyes burned and my nose stung unexpectedly as an avalanche of emotions crashed over me, crushing my chest like a two-ton weight. “Dominic,” I started. “I…” had no clue what to say. I’d gone from turned on to the point of desperation to terrified faster than it would’ve taken to dump a bucket of ice water over my head.

  He must have read my turmoil because his eyes squeezed shut and he turned his head to the side, his jaw clamped so tight the muscle twitched. “Shit,” he hissed, that one word filled with so much pain that the burn in my eyes got even worse. When he looked back at me, I wanted to burst into tears. “That’s okay, baby,” he whispered with such deep understanding it shattered me. “I can wait for you.”

  He planted one last chaste kiss on my lips before sitting up. I felt so cold without him on top of me. He took my hand and helped me up, standing from the couch and taking me with him. “Thanks for dinner, baby,” he said, still in a low voice. “Worth every single penny. Would’ve shelled out millions for what you gave me tonight.”

  God, this guy is killing me.

  “I had a great time,” I told him, meaning every word. If this had been a few years ago—hell, even a few months ago, I’d have told you it wouldn’t have been possible for the two of us to be in the same room with each other, let alone share a meal and actually enjoy it without killing each other. But I’d have been wrong. Tonight was one of the best nights I’d had in damn near a decade. It shocked the hell out of me.

  He smiled down at me sincerely as he kept hold of my hand and led me to the front door. When we reached it, he stopped and turned to me. “You go back to acting like I’m a leper tomorrow and I’m going to be pissed.”

  I laughed, then gave him a mock glare. “Don’t push it,” I warned teasingly before going serious. “I had fun tonight, prior to the whole….” My cheeks heated in a furious blush as I waved my hand toward the couch. “You know.”

  “Oh I know,” he said wickedly. “And personally, that was my favorite part of the evening.”

  I’d enjoyed the hell out of it too. Needless to say, I was going to be giving my vibrator a rigorous workout. But… “That can’t happen again,” I told him, my tone relaying the seriousness of my statement. “It messes with my head, Dom. I can’t… I don’t….” I closed my eyes for a second and steeled my nerves. Saying what I had to say was so much harder than I’d expected. I spent so long despising him for hurting me and fantasizing about this very moment. However, in those fantasies, I was always ripping him to shreds with my words. It was shocking how, when the time actually came, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. “I don’t trust you,” I said on a pained whisper. “I meant what I said about us being civil. And maybe, one day, we can even be friends. But that’s all I can give you.”

  I reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ears, waiting for his response. “I’ll take it.” I let out an audible breath of relief. Unfortunately he wasn’t finished. “For now.” Then he turned, opened my front door, and left with that parting shot.

  Son of a bitch. The man was going to be the death of me.

  I slowly started up the steps to the second floor and silently went about cleaning up what little mess remained from dinner, packing up the leftovers and scrubbing out the dishes by hand instead of piling them in the dishwasher. I needed something to keep my mind off the events that had just unfolded and thought the tedium of washing dishes would do that for me.

  I was wrong.

  Not only couldn’t I stop thinking about what had transpired on my couch, but I had called up everything that had happened that horrible night ten years ago.

  I pictured everything with perfect clarity: how I’d spent what little money I had on a redeye flight from Seattle to New York so I could spend a long weekend with Dom and make up for the huge fight we’d had the day before, and the awful things I’d said; walking into his apartment, praying for a hot shower to wash away the airplane grime, only to come to a screeching halt as the sight of my boyfriend’s bare ass flexing as he pounded into the girl he had bent over the couch penetrated my brain.

  Everything that came after was a blur. I grabbed her by the hair and threw her out of the apartment, buck-ass naked. I punched him in the nose. There was yelling, cursing, crying, more punching. It was a train wreck of epic proportions. I called him a cheater. He shouted that it wasn’t cheating since I broke up with him. The fact that I could smell the bourbon leeching from his pores didn’t help the situation. He was piss-ass drunk. It was surprising he’d even been able to get it up for the slut he’d brought home.

  I pulled m
yself from the memories and looked down to find I’d scrubbed the casserole dish so hard I’d nearly taken off the nonstick coating. With a sigh, I rinsed the dishes and toweled them dry before heading to my wineglass sitting on the kitchen counter next to me. I downed the contents, went about locking up my house for the night, and climbed the stairs to the top floor.

  After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I changed into one of the silky nightgowns I liked to sleep in and crawled into bed. Leaning toward my nightstand, I prepared to set the alarm on my cell and flip off my bedside lamp when I noticed I had three texts waiting for me.

  Unknown number: Sleep well, baby.

  I knew exactly who that was from. My lips tipped into a grin in spite of myself, and I quickly saved his number in my phone, ignoring the voice in my head telling me that I was letting him too close. Then I read the rest of the messages.

  Dominic: Have naughty dreams about me.

  Dominic: God knows I’ll be dreaming about you.

  An intense pulsing sensation built between my thighs as I read. Damn, I was in so much trouble.

  Me: Leave me alone, stalker. Trying to sleep.

  His response came within seconds.

  Dominic: What are you wearing? Please God, tell me it’s something sexy.

  I knew I shouldn’t text back, I knew it. But common sense had taken a vacation.

  Me: Bad Dom! Go to sleep.

  Dominic: Send me a pic of yours and I’ll send you a pic of mine.

  Oh shit. I was suddenly breathing heavily at the thought of a dick pic from Dominic Abbatelli. I knew it wasn’t what men liked to hear, but he had the prettiest dick I’d ever seen. I still remembered exactly what every inch looked like, felt like, and every man since him had come up short. I needed to put an end this conversation, and fast.

  Me: Good night, Dom.

  I closed out of my texts, set my alarm, dropped the phone on my nightstand, and turned out the light before collapsing back in my bed. I stared up at my ceiling for an eternity, searching for sleep, before finally caving to my body’s needs.

  “Son of a bitch,” I growled to myself.

  Then I rolled over, yanked open my bedside drawer, and pulled out my battery-operated boyfriend.

  Two orgasms later, I still wasn’t satisfied.

  Chapter Nine

  Dominic

  Fuck! She was putting herself out there for other men.

  Granted, it was all for work, and she didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in really getting to know any of the potential men she was going to be chatting with, but still.

  That put a serious fucking crimp in my plan to win her back. If she actually hit it off with one of those pricks, I was screwed. On top of that, I was rock-hard and desperate to bury my cock in Sophia’s tight heat. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this up. I’d never needed someone so bad in my life. I was losing my goddamned mind.

  Needless to say I was in a pissy mood by the time I made it back to my shitty apartment. My cell began ringing from inside my pocket, and when I pulled it out and looked at the name on the screen, that pissy mood deteriorated even more.

  I didn’t want to answer, but I knew if I didn’t she’d just blow up my phone all goddamned night. “What?” I barked.

  “Nice,” she bit out. “Is that any way to talk to your future stepmother?” Chelsea Addler, my father’s latest bimbo and fuck toy, hissed through the line.

  I let out a loud bark of laughter before replying. “Bitch, if you think my old man’s ever going to put a ring on your finger, you’re not just stupid, you’re delusional.” He’d been with her longer than any of the others who came before, I’d give her that, but there was no way in hell Roberto Abbatelli was going to propose to her. For Christ’s sake, he was cheating on her with at least two other women that I knew of.

  “You know, two years ago you never would’ve been so rude to me,” she purred into the phone, attempting to sound seductive.

  My free hand clenched into a tight fist, and my skin prickled in disgust at her insinuation.

  “Two years ago I picked you up at a club because I thought you looked good and spent one night fucking you. I had no clue at the time that you were also banging my father or I wouldn’t have touched you with a ten-foot pole.”

  She tsked at me before pouting, “Words hurt, Dominic. I thought we had a fantastic night together.”

  “Then that makes one of us,” I replied. “The promise of you didn’t live up to reality. Never had such a bad fuck in all my life. It’s a goddamn miracle my cock didn’t freeze and snap off the instant I thrust inside you. I can still feel the chill when I think back on that night.” And that was the fucking truth. Chelsea would go down in history as the most frigid bitch I’d ever stuck my dick in. There were plenty of things I’d done in my life that I regretted, but she was easily in the top three. I nearly hurled when I found out she was screwing my father at the same time and had sought me out in an attempt to put both Abbatelli men on her hook. Fuck that.

  “I’d be a lot nicer to me if I were you,” she warned, all sultriness having melted from her tone, revealing her true ice queen nature. “You don’t want to see what happens when I get angry.”

  I chuckled at her pathetic attempt at a threat. “What are you going to do? Tell my father you cheated on him with me? Go right ahead. The old man would kick you to the curb faster than a flaming bag of shit. At least then I could give him my sympathies for spending years fucking such a cold, dead fish.”

  Her menacing tone sent a shiver down my spine as she said, “I wonder what your pretty little radio host would think of you fucking your dad’s girlfriend. I met her a few months back, at that auction. I’m not sure what you see in her, Dominic. She’s not even that pretty.”

  “You don’t even think about her. You hear me?” I growled in warning. “Stay the hell away from her. If I find out you so much as breathed her air, I’ll bury you. You have my fucking word. I won’t stop until I’ve ruined you.”

  “Ooh,” she cooed. “Someone’s touchy.” Her laughter was like nails on a chalkboard. “Did I touch a nerve? I get what I want, Dominic. And things have a tendency to go bad for the person standing in my way.”

  “And what exactly is it you want?” I spat between clenched teeth.

  “You.”

  “You mean my money.”

  I didn’t need to see her to know she was shrugging. “Tomato, tomahto,” she replied casually. “Just remember what I said. And you might want to make sure your precious little Sophia doesn’t become an obstacle.”

  I was officially done with this conversation. I’d already given her more time than she deserved. “Fuck off,” I hissed right before disconnecting the call and tossing my phone onto the couch like it had burned me. I’d spent ten years living without the one thing I wanted most, and I wasn’t going to let the past, or some raving, spoiled bitch come between me and her.

  Chelsea could go to hell. I wasn’t letting her win.

  “Good morning, big brother.”

  It might have been a good morning if that goddamn conversation with Chelsea the night before hadn’t plagued me with worry all night long, and if I wasn’t still suffering from a permanent state of arousal because of Sophia. I looked up from my desk to find my sister sauntering into my office. She plopped down in one of the chairs across from me like she had all the time in the world.

  “What brings you by, shorty?” I asked, leaning back in my chair and resting my arms behind my head. “I know you aren’t here just for me. Let me guess. Grayson was your first stop?”

  She lifted a brow and smiled. “Well, he is my fiancé. And there are benefits to working just floors away from each other.”

  My hands shot out in front of me to silence her. “Nope! I don’t need to know. I don’t want to know. You’re my little sister and he’s my boss. Please, for the sake of my sanity, just… don’t. Last thing I need is to get canned for beating him bloody in the office.”

 
; Lola snorted and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “All right. I’ll spare your sensitive ears.”

  “Appreciated,” I mumbled drily, picking up a pen on my desk and spinning it between my fingers as I watched her. “So what really brings you by?” I was curious to see if Sophia had confessed to her friends about our evening together. If she had, that meant she was going to them for advice. That was definitely a point in my favor. If she hadn’t, then I still had some work to do.

  “Can’t a girl just want to visit her brother every once in a while?”

  “Sure she can,” I shrugged. “If that girl isn’t a conniving little sneak always up to no good.”

  She gasped and opened her mouth, prepared to object, but wisely changed her mind at the look on my face. “Fine,” she grumbled. “You’re no fun. Truth is I’m here for a reason.”

  “The suspense is killing me,” I deadpanned.

  She glared but finally started talking. “I’m not sure if you heard, but the show is putting on a contest soon.”

  She wasn’t there to grill me about my evening with her best friend but to rub salt in an open wound, not that she’d know that was the effect her words had on me. “Oh?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

  My sister seemed hesitant to continue. “Yeah. The winner… well, the winner gets a date—maybe even more than one—with Sophia. The whole purpose of the contest is to prove that something solid could come from two people getting to know each other without looks being involved. It’s to see if she can spark a connection with any of the five men she chooses from the application process.”

  I sat in silence, scrutinizing Lola for several seconds before finally asking, “And you’re telling me this because…?”

  She released a frustrated huff and slapped her arms down on the arms of the chair. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked in exasperation. “Dom, I want you and her together more than anything. I’d kill to have Soph as a legit member of the family. But after the bullshit you pulled, I’m more concerned with her finding someone who makes her happy. That’s why I came up with the idea of this contest in the first place. And one of these guys might actually be the one to do that.”