Jack’s voice was low as he tried not to disturb a snoozing Lily who was lying between them, propped up on pillows with the blanket covering them all.
‘I still can’t believe she roped us into getting the sofa bed out just to watch the film.’ Sophia didn’t look at him as she said it; her eyes were fixed on the TV screen and not on the proximity of his. It was too snug, too easy, lying like this with the lights down low, the TV playing a movie she could remember nothing of, and all in her own domain.
It was easy to forget who Jack was. From the moment he’d got on all fours at the party and rolled around with the kids, taken a slop of cream to the nose with his unmanly drink and cosied up on her ancient sofa with her well-worn tartan blanket, she had lost sight of what was real. Because she didn’t just want him, she realised; she wanted so much more.
‘I think I was too busy worrying about her upcoming birthday I’d have agreed to anything.’
Now she looked at him and saw the lines of concern creasing his face as the colours of the TV danced over them. ‘You’re really worried about it?’
‘It’s not just today. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you’ve said, about her having no base and being unable to set down roots or make real friends of her own.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She felt guilty even though she knew she’d been right to raise it. ‘But I think it’s important for her to have all that, although I know it makes things difficult for you.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Have you thought more about speaking to her grandmother?’
He sent her a quick look and sighed. ‘Yes. I have. And I will. It won’t be easy, but I think it’s worth a shot.’
‘From what you’ve said she’ll likely have aunts and uncles close to her own age, family that she can play with, grow up with.’
‘That would mean coming back to the UK.’
‘And you’re not ready for that?’
He worked his shoulders into the pillow behind him, under the pretence of getting comfortable, but she had the feeling it was more to mask the pain of what that thought brought.
‘It’s not going to be a quick fix though; it’s not going to help with the imminent arrival of her birthday.’
‘No, I guess not. Do you have to go to Tokyo? Perhaps you could stay longer...’ She couldn’t stop the spark of hope, the idea of having them around longer too appealing to ignore.
‘You could borrow Noah and his friends?’ She gave a teasing smile. ‘They’d love to see you again, I’m sure.’
He laughed, the sound sending a shiver of delight through her. ‘It’s an idea... I just wish things were different.’
He went quiet, his eyes distant, and she reached over to place a reassuring hand on his above the blanket. ‘It seems to me that you’re on the right track though. This time next year things could be very different for her.’
He gave her a small smile. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what?’
‘For making me see sense.’
She laughed softly. ‘I didn’t do anything.’
Their eyes caught and she felt that connection between them sizzle to life. ‘You’ve done more than you could possibly know.’
Her lips parted as she tried to take in air, to cope with the warmth spreading through her body. ‘I’m glad I could help.’
‘Me too.’ He looked to Lily between them. ‘I’d best get her to bed.’
She nodded, removing her hand to look down at his sleeping daughter, who had the brochure of Iceland open and pressed into her chest. ‘She’s beautiful.’
‘You both are.’
‘Jack...’ She shook her head, half brushing off his remark, half treasuring it as she picked the brochure up and climbed off the bed.
‘Just speaking the truth.’
She couldn’t stop the smile that touched her lips or the way his words turned her insides to a soft, gooey mess as she took the brochure and the empties into the kitchen and placed them on the counter. It felt so surreal having them here...and at the same time so right. She’d never thought herself lonely before, but when they left she just knew it would be different.
She lifted the brochure Lily had loved so much and flicked it open to the double-page spread, placing it down on the counter and tracing her fingers over the see-through dome, the bed with the family of three sitting upon it gazing up at Aurora and the stars.
‘She’s out for the count,’ Jack said, walking back into the room. ‘Didn’t even murmur when I tucked her in.’
Sophia didn’t look up. She was too lost in the image beneath her fingers and the idea that was forming.
‘I know what you can do for her birthday,’ she rushed out in whispered excitement. ‘And she’ll love every second. And you won’t need an instant family or instant friends to do it.’
She sensed him frown. ‘What?’
She slid the brochure across the counter to him and tapped a finger on the picture of the dome. ‘This!’
He laughed. ‘It’s a great idea, but surely it’ll be fully booked by now.’
‘The resort is new. I only have the brochure because I’m in the industry. They’re running some special launch stays prior to their grand opening. I could put in a call, see what there is?’
‘I don’t know...’
‘You saw how much she loved it and you know how much she loves the stars. Even if you don’t see the northern lights, she’d be in her element with the snow, the waterfalls, the amazing scenery... She’d love it all.’
He ran a hand through his hair as he looked down at the brochure and then grinned. ‘You’re right, of course you are.’
‘I’m always right,’ she teased, looking up into his eyes and realising how much closer she’d stepped as she’d worked on convincing him.
‘Is that so?’ He turned into her, his hands reaching for her waist, and she had no desire to pull away. This was what she wanted. What she needed.
She leaned into him, her ‘Yes...’ a whisper, a plea, as he bowed his head and she tilted her own back. His lips brushed over her own, her sharp inhale a striking contrast to the softness of his mouth and its coaxing pressure.
‘Sophia...’ He parted her lips with his tongue, brushing against hers with teasing intent. As if he was savouring her, exploring her, drawing her out, the inner desire that she’d never known existed until now, until him.
She raised her fingers to his chest and felt his warmth, the hard muscle beneath his jumper, and travelled higher still until her hands were in his hair, holding him to her as he took the same journey over her body.
She was aching, an incessant, thudding pang spreading through her lower belly that promised so much pleasure.
He broke from her mouth to travel along her jawline, his stubble teasing the same path, his tongue, his teeth—oh, yes. She clung to his head, her own arching back as he brushed against her ear, his lips teasing with his words. ‘Never have I wanted someone like I want you.’
‘Take me then, Jack, please,’ she sighed against him, her breasts pressing into his chest, her leg hooking around him to draw him closer, to hold him near. ‘I need you.’
And he needed her too. She could feel his hardness pressing urgently against her, could feel his desire rising with her own, his breath as short. He came back to her mouth, this time hungry, his tongue plundering, and she was ready, willing, waiting. She gave it back to him in return, leaving him in no doubt as to how much she wanted this.
He grabbed her by the hips and lifted her onto the counter, wrapped her legs around himself as he came back to claim her lips.
‘This is crazy,’ he rasped against her. ‘Crazy and out of control.’
‘Crazy but so good.’ She pulled his lips back to hers, her hands dropping to the hem of his jumper as she tugged it over his head and leaned back. She had to see him. She needed to.
His dark skin glowed in the light of her kitchen, the sheen of perspiration reflecting in the light, his short breaths rippling his pecs. ‘You’re beautiful.’
He gave a gentle scoff. ‘I’m a man.’
‘So?’ She looked up into his blazing greys, so dilated with desire, and the next words came out gruff with her own need. ‘You’re still beautiful.’
And then she was kissing him again, feeling his hot hands on her bare skin as they slipped beneath her jumper, her nerve-endings coming alive, savouring every sweep of his hands, every light brush of his fingers as they smoothed beneath the band of her bra. She was losing her mind—it was the only way to describe the intense rush of feeling inside her.
‘I want you, Sophia.’ He yanked the jumper over her head, her hair tumbling around her bare shoulders as he threw her jumper to the side.
‘I want you too.’
He lifted her from the counter and walked her to the sofa bed, easing her down before stretching out beside her, his mouth hot against her lips, her neck. Her hands raked down his back as he travelled over her skin, making her writhe and plead. ‘Please, Jack, please.’
She wanted to say more, so much more. She wanted to say, Be my first, wanted him to know what that meant to her, but he already knew. Just as she knew the reminder would stop him, as it had before, and so she clamped down on her bottom lip and told him with her body what she wanted.
‘Come with us, Sophia—come with us to Iceland.’
Her eyes shot open and she gazed down at him, hardly daring to believe the question and knowing at the same time that she couldn’t. The thought, the idea of being surrounded by her fear, by the past, by the snow... She shook her head and shifted beneath him to remind him of her body, of what she wanted in that moment. What he so wanted too.
‘You can’t ask me that, Jack. Don’t ask me that.’
He raised himself up over her, his elbows planted either side of her body to bear his weight. ‘Why not?’
‘Because I can’t. We can’t.’
He kissed her until she was breathless, panting. ‘Why?’
‘We don’t even know they’ll be available for her birthday yet.’
‘That doesn’t matter. They will be available at some point and I want you to come.’
She shook her head, the emotions clawing at her throat and her chest, making it hard to breathe. ‘We both know this has to end and that the longer we spend together with Lily, the more likely it is that she will become attached too.’
His eyes were so serious now as they blazed into hers. The ‘too’ spoke volumes; it told him that fear protected her own heart, but did it protect his, as well?
‘That’s not the whole truth, is it?’ he pressed, probing for more, probing for her to admit that she feared being faced with her past. All it took was one harmless-looking snowflake, the ice forming over her windshield, and the shivers would start.
‘It’s enough.’
He shook his head, one hand stroking her cheek and catching a tear she hadn’t known was there. ‘You need to stop living in fear of your past, Sophia.’
He kissed her to soften his words and she clamped her eyes shut over the rising swell of emotion within. ‘You’ve taught me that; you’ve made me realise that avoiding a base, avoiding London, is running from it. And by doing it, Lily has suffered.’
She kept her eyes closed as the tears refused to stop. He was right. She’d been a hypocrite to tell him the same and not realise it was exactly how she’d been behaving all along.
‘Come with us. Not because I ask you, not because it would make Lily happy to have you there... Come because you want to. Come because you are ready to move on from it.’
She nodded, her eyes still clamped shut.
‘Look at me, Sophia.’
Slowly she did as he asked, her hands coming up to gently stroke his back. ‘Come because you want to be with us.’
She wet her lips as she stared up into his eyes. She saw so much—so much that she could almost believe, almost convince herself that it wasn’t just her falling hard and fast. It was him too. And that was what had her kissing him so hard that she could barely breathe and he reciprocated, his arms slipping around her as he rolled her on top of him.
He pressed her away just long enough to ask, ‘Is that a yes?’
‘Yes, Jack, it’s a yes.’
* * *
He didn’t know what to think, didn’t know how to be rational about this, to talk himself down from what he was about to do. The truth was he wasn’t capable of clear thought. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anyone, and it felt so right, so natural, so impossible to resist.
He rolled her back underneath him and kissed her, the emotion taking hold of his heart and driving every move he made. He was caught up in her, in what she brought to both him and Lily. And he wanted more. More sense of family, of belonging. He could feel the shift underway inside him, the beginnings of hope for a future, the possibility that maybe he could love her as she deserved and accept such love in return.
That was why he’d pleaded with her to come to Iceland. He knew the magnitude of what it meant for her personally to face her fear, and he knew he wanted to be right by her side when she took that leap.
He didn’t know what the future held, but he knew that this was what they both wanted.
He deepened his kiss, one hand smoothing down her front to find the button of her jeans as his other stroked through her hair. He stripped her layer by layer, himself too, with the sense that it wasn’t just their bodies being exposed but their hearts too.
You do this and you can’t go back. You do this and you’re promising more.
He bowed his head, his eyes shut tightly against her naked beauty. ‘Sophia...’
He dragged in air, fighting for control over his desire. She answered him with her hands in his hair pulling him to her lips, her bare legs wrapping around his lower body, urging him closer. ‘Please, Jack.’
He could hear the lust thickening her voice, the lust and so much more...
‘Jack?’
He lifted his head, opened his eyes to see hers glistening back at him in the low light of the TV and his heart pulsed in his chest.
‘Are you sure? There can be no going back, no...’
She released his hair, smoothing her palms around to his cheeks. ‘Yes, Jack, I want it to be you.’
His breath rasped out of him, a bittersweet happiness choking up his throat. He moved away to seek out his jeans, his wallet, and the protection he had there. He took it out, sheathing himself, all the while feeling her eyes on him, the strength of her need, the sense that this was right, that this was what they both wanted keeping him moving.
He came back to her, their gazes locked together, a thousand words passing between them as he moved slowly, merging their bodies, surrounding himself in her. He wanted to say so much, promise so much...but it was all he could do to control this, to keep it slow.
He felt her resistance, felt her stiffen beneath him and the tension locking her legs tightly around him. He stilled, sweeping his hand over her hair, his nose brushing against hers as he whispered, ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’
Her eyes glistened further as she shook her head, her legs drawing him in. ‘You won’t, Jack. You’re not.’
She kissed him—kissed him until he could think of nothing but claiming her heart as she had his, forcing out the guilt that tried to break in anew.
You won’t hurt her... You won’t hurt her... You won’t...
* * *
Sophia clutched her glass of water to her chest and stared at the kitchen clock. Three a.m. glared back at her. Three a.m. and there was a gorgeous naked man asleep in her sofa bed and she was sitting at her breakfast bar, freshly showered with her PJs on and wishing she could climb straight back in with him.
Hence why she w
as looking at the clock and not at him. Because the temptation was too great and the risk that she would fall asleep again, only to have Lily wander in and find them, was too high.
It was bad enough she’d fallen asleep the first time, bad enough that they both had, but it had been blissful in the aftermath and she had been too content to move. As had he apparently.
And when she’d woken up to Jack’s arm locked around her middle and the initial shock of being in bed with a man had passed, she’d found herself cocooned in his body warmth, soothed by his gentle snore, his scent, and she hadn’t wanted to move. She’d let the night play back to her, along with the soreness of what they had shared, and her whole body had flushed with reignited heat and a strange bashfulness.
She’d been torn between staying and showering, and in the end it had been the thought that Lily could wake up that had spurred her into moving. It was one thing for Jack to wake and see her in that tangled mess, but not Lily. She wasn’t sure where this turn in their relationship had left them, but she knew it wasn’t in a solid enough place for Lily to learn of it.
Tomorrow—no, later today—they could talk. They could agree how they should be for Lily’s sake and—
‘Elena!’
She almost dropped her glass as he cried out. She looked back to the bed, to where he writhed and rolled, his arm flinging out, his face creased up in pain as his chest heaved.
She put the glass down and shot across the room, reaching out for him as she lowered herself to the bed. It didn’t matter that it was another woman he called for, another woman who haunted his dreams; she was the one who could be there for him.
She cradled his head against her hip and gently shushed him, her fingers stroking through his hair, thankful that his features started to relax and his breathing settled.
She looked up to the hallway, to where her bedroom door lay, and knew it was useless now; she was his captive whether he intended her to be or not.
‘Elena... Elena...’ He writhed against her, his dead wife’s name on his lips, and though she didn’t want it to, her heart ached anyway. Was this how it was for him every night, Elena haunting his dreams? Or had what they’d shared triggered it?
Tempted by the Tycoon's Proposal Page 11
