“White or green?” I ask sceptically, raising a brow. “For anoutdoorsyfeel?”
She rolls her eyes. “You asked. This cabin has such a homey vibe to it, but it’s not shown in the kitchen, which is the heart of the home. Also, the living room. It’s bare and isn’t fun at all. It isn’tyou.”
There’s something about those words that cut right into me. And I don’t want to think about them. Instead, I shake my head. “You don’t know much about me anymore, Angel. I’m not the same man I used to be.”
She looks at me then, a firm tilt to her lips, strength in her eyes that makes me tense. “You’ve always been a hero in my eyes. Handsome, kind of imposing. But always a hero.Myhero.”
My breathing comes faster, heart pounding. “Soph, you don’t have to?—”
“Have to what?” she asks, cocking her head. “Tell the truth? I’ve spent enough time around you, and all your friends, to know what kind of man you are, Noah. What I just said was entirely truthful.”
I clench my jaw as I look away from her. “I’m not that man, not anymore. You have no idea who I am.”
“If you weren’t,” she says, rising from her chair and circling the table to stand in front of me, “you wouldn’t have saved me the other day.”
I can’t help it; all I can smell is her, all I see isher. This saving grace, the reason I’m alive. A shiver courses through my body as I run my eyes up her body, taking in her soft stomach, the swells of her breast. “Sophia...”
She gently shakes her head. “You could have left me, but you didn’t. You could have called it into the station or to the rescue team and left, but you didn’t. Whether you want to believe it or not, you’re stillmyhero.”
I rest my hand on her hip. “I would have never abandoned you in the storm, ever. No matter what, and that’s for purely selfish reasons. Not because I’m some hero, not because I’m the same man I was before the fire. Bringing you here...”My other hand goes to her waist. “Bringing you here was for me. Because ever since I woke up in that hospital bed and found you sitting beside me, I knew what you would be to me.”
She shudders as I guide her onto my lap, which she doesn’t protest.
“You can tell me to stop, Sophia,” I whisper, though desperately, I hope she doesn’t. “You could tell me to leave the cabin and brave the storm, and I would do it, because that’s the power you have over me.”
Sophia eyes me for a moment before gently cupping my cheek. I go still, not moving as she lowers her head and brushes her lips against mine. Every wall I’ve built to keep people out comes crashing down with that one touch.
I groan deeply before pulling her flush against me and bringing our mouths together in a real kiss. Our lips move, hungry for one another, our tongues dancing to the crashing beat of our hearts. Each time her tongue swipes mine, I have to stop from rocking my hips against hers. I’m harder than steel now, especially with her warm heat hovering over me.
I move one of my hands to her thigh before trailing it up the side of her body to cup her neck and deepen the kiss. The movement seems to give Sophia what she wants, because she grinds into me, pussy rocking against my cock.
Any more, and I’ll finish in my pants.
It’s been a long fucking time.
I break the kiss with a gasp and rest my forehead against hers. “You have all the power, Sophia,” I whisper. “You have all the control.”
I just hope she knows how much of that she wields over me.
SIX
SOPHIA
His kiss was like the lighting of a match. That first strike against the box and the moment it takes, fire licking at the stick and burning bright.
I have the chance to let it go, to drop it and wait for the explosion of heat I know is coming.
Or I could douse it so I don’t get burned.
I’m not sure of either option as I watch him make dinner from the hallway. Our kiss still hangs heavy in the air between us, a kind of tension I’m not sure I can push through. His words, the power they have over me, replay inside my head. Over and over again, an echo of what I know I’ve dreamed could happen between us, and worry over the reality.
You have all the power, Sophia. You have all the control.
To think I have all the power…it’s hard to believe, especially when I’ve coasted by so easily for so long. I’ve never had the power in any relationship I’ve had. And to think, Noah believes I might have any sort of control…
It’s both laughable yet somehow empowering.
It also goes against everything I thought I knew. Everything I thought I could ever have or want is close enough that I can taste it.
