I was. I shattered as he put more pressure against my clit. Waves of relief washed over me, drowning me at the same time I felt like I was soaring. That band of tension snapped. The anxiety and racing need to come were over.
Trembling under his touch, I curled up. I hugged him. Needing something to ground myself as I shivered and shook from the exquisite and sharp pleasure that shocked me, I sucked in deep lungfuls of air and tightened my arms around him.
Before I could fully catch my breath, he leaned up and looked down at me. The smugness in his smirk was like a switch. Instead of gazing up at him with something softer, I hardened into a defensive regret.
That wasn’t my first orgasm. I was a virgin, only twenty-one and not allowed to have much of a life because of my uncle, but I had pleasured myself before. He wasn’t the first man to please me with his touches.
But it was the first time I could witness the self-satisfied smile of a man who’d taken something I wasn’t ready to give.
He hadn’t done that out of any real affection. Out of love.
If he had, he wouldn’t be looking at me like this, like he’d “won” this game. That he was the victor to prove to me how easily I could be putty in his hands.
It didn’tmeananything, and in the crux of this heated moment, I was let down with the realization of how badly I’d wanted it to matter. To mean something to him beyond a physical challenge.
Tears stung at the corners of my eyes and I damned my weakness. I scorned myself for caving at all, because now that I had experienced such a high, such a bliss from him, I felt cheapened in knowing it was just fun and games to him, just scratching an itch.
No woman wanted to be something to conquer. I didn’t care for the reminder that the men in my life would always lord over me or try to.
“Get off.” I shoved at him, eager to escape.
Ashamed and hating myself for how quickly he could persuade me to lose sight of my reason for being here, I pushed up and scrambled off the table as I tugged my skirt back down to cover myself.
Sticky cream coated my thighs, and I closed my eyes at the physical reminder of how far I’d already fallen to his ploys. How far I’d failed in doing what I could to care for my cousin.
“Sofia—”
I flung my hand up, unable to speak to him or hear a single word of his excuses and cunning teases.
Without a look back, I hurried out of the dining room with my shame and regret trailing after me.
9
ANDRE
The next morning came after a long night of lousy sleep. Although I’d made Sofia come, I bet she’d only allowed herself to feel good about it for a few seconds. In a twisted sense of annoyance, I got up and hoped that she’d struggled to sleep well too.
Why do you have to fight me?
Why are you being so difficult?
As I got dressed in casual, comfortable clothes for a day in my home office, when I was still technically on leave for the minor injuries I’d sustained over two weeks ago, I tried my best to ignore the memories of Sofia’s pussy squeezing my fingers as I played with her on the dining room table. Then while I walked down to the kitchen for breakfast, I dismissed the sounds of her sexy-as-fuck moans and whimpers that kept replaying in my mind. Passing the dining room was a test of my control. I scowled. When she looked like she was tearing up, it had cut a deep chasm in my fucking chest. I’d gotten up to approach her and comfort her, not exactly intending to go so far in showingher how good we’d fit together. How much wecouldmake sense when we gave up denying this tension and chemistry between us.
How long will you push me away?
She wasn’t impervious to me. Her sweet, reluctant orgasm was proof of it. Now, we were just playing on another level of repressed attraction.
Will she try to hide from me now?
I sipped the coffee I'd brewed.
Would she go so far as to quit and escape?
I furrowed my brow at the possibility.
If you run, I’ll track you down, sweetheart. Try me. I will.
Looking for her wasn’t on the schedule, though. Because after I brought my coffee to my office, where she was supposed to meet me in five minutes, I saw that the door was already open.
