‘Here we go.’ He stood up holding the green bottle triumphantly up in the air. He looked down at her, motioning for her to move over with a jerk of his head. She did as she was told.
He sat down next to her and angled her shoulder away from him so she was facing the wall and he was behind her.
‘Do you mind?’ It was almost a whisper.
His hands were gentle, his palms laying warm and heavy on her shoulder, and so she said ‘not at all’ before she had a chance to register how heavy the air had suddenly got. He lifted her top away from her back and she felt her body tense at the anticipation of his touch. The gel was cool and soothing. She let out an involuntary sigh at the relief. His hand stilled, fingertips grazing her waist tenderly, and she could hear his breath in her ears, ragged.
She was not really surprised when she felt his lips, soft and parted, against her neck. Shewassurprised by how easily she melted into him, her head falling to the side to give him better access. He groaned and she knew that there was no turning back. It was a siren call and her body responded eagerly.
She turned to face him, his gaze dragging slowly from where they were trained on her neck until their eyes met. She could see her own want reflected back at her in those pools of clouded green. He slowly, deliberately raised his palm to her cheek, their breathing matching pace. His fingers curled around the back of her head, thumb stroking jaw. The seconds seemed to crawl. His mouth felt agonisingly far. She couldn’t bear it anymore and just as it occurred to her that this was definitely a bad idea, they crashed into each other, the tension between them suddenly igniting.
He tasted divine. She could not get enough of him in her mouth. She was grabbing him, his shoulders, his hair, and she could hear herself, panting like an animal. She was not quite able to orientate herself, but she noted that there was movement and then she was on her back, pulling the weight of him on top of her.
He pulled away suddenly, hovering over her, his brow furrowed. ‘Sofia, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help...’ His voice trailed off as she reached up and guided his face back to hers. She heard a whimper as their lips met again, then realised it was from her.
‘I want this,’ she breathed into his ear, and he moaned into her neck. Her mind was fuzzing, drifting in and out of sensations all over her body. His tongue hot on her neck, his hands grasping at her hips, his pressing hardness against her. She was aware of the twinge in the pit of her stomach, telling her she was hungry, that she was ready, that she wanted to be full.We are wearing too manyclothes,she thought, with a flash of urgent clarity. She pulled at his shirt, fumbling with the buttons, and he pulled himself away, kneeling over her. He smiled softly as he tossed his shirt to the side and pulled hers over her head, laying a soft kiss on her shoulder. He left goose bumps and a pang of something else, the tenderness knocking the breath out of her momentarily.
She was up on her elbows admiring him, more freely than she already had, allowing her eyes to linger on the lines of his shoulders, the ridges of his toned stomach, and then dropping to the bulge of his trousers, the twinge turning to something more like a throbbing. When she looked back up at him, he smiled again, but there was something more carnal in it this time. He deftly snaked his hand around her back and unclasped her bra. Firmly he pushed her shoulder back down into the mattress and slipped the straps down her arms, the black lace going the same way as his shirt.
He sighed in appreciation, casting his eyes over her as she had, and then his hands followed. Her breath caught in her throat as his thumb brushed over her nipples, and he bit his lip as he watched her respond to his touch.
‘You really are something else,’ he breathed, lowering himself down to take the hard tip he had summoned with his hand into his mouth. She could only moan in response, pleasure washing over her. She didn’t think she had ever had her body react this way to somebody before; she felt as if he was all over her, smothered in him.
When he began trailing kisses down her stomach, she was worried she might forget how to breathe. He let out a soft sigh of appreciation as he slid her pyjama shorts down her legs to find she wasn’t wearing anything underneath, then glanced up at her, a question marred with want in his eyes. She nodded, a silent pact of desire.
He took his time, caressing the inside of her thighs, placing soft kisses everywhere apart from where the aching was: her belly button, her pelvic bones, the crease at the top of her leg. She arched her back, partly in protest, partly in desperation. Finally, his tongue found her and she gasped. He groaned into her, the vibrations concentrating all her focus to the point of her, his teeth gently enclosing and tugging, his tongue dancing until her vision began to blur. She could hear her heart in her ears, faster and faster as he tapped into the rhythm of her quickening breaths. Momentarily she was aware of his hands creeping up to her breasts, and the feel of her fingernails clawing at the back of his head, and then she was falling into the darkness in the back of her eyelids. The room went silent as she reached the very lightest ends of herself and then collapsed into the warmest depths.
Slowly she floated back to the surface, opening her eyes. She was surprised by how light the room was. He was grinning at her when she could finally focus on his face again. Her breathing still felt laboured. ‘Did you enjoy yourself?’ Sofia still wasn’t in possession of all of her faculties, so she nodded lazily. She pulled him in for a kiss, tasting herself on his mouth. She was still feeling hungry.
She pushed him back and he looked confused. She found herself relishing her power takeover as she looked him dead in the eye and said evenly, ‘It’s my turn now.’
He looked a little taken aback, and then his eyes twinkled devilishly. ‘You’re the boss, Harlow.’
She rolled on top of him and began to unbuckle his belt. His eyes were trained on her hands as she pulled down his boxers and took him in her palm. He was rock hard and heavy. He threw his head back as she stroked him, slowly. She was in charge now. When he looked up at her, she thought she might come again just from the want in his eyes.
‘Ride me,’ he said. It was meant to be an order, but it sounded more like a plea. She smiled coyly as she ignored him and continued her work, keeping her pace torturously steady. He let out a low moan, and she could feel it reverberating through her, setting off something primal, which shattered her momentary composure. She needed him inside her. When she lowered herself onto his stiffness, she was submerged once more. The thrumming of her desire overriding her senses until it was just him, the sound of him, the smell of him, the feel of him sliding in and out of her.
The crescendo started again as he grabbed her arse, thrusting up into her, hard. The build was relentless. Each second she came closer to the release without reaching it, she worried she couldn’t handle any more. And then, the walls of her mind came crashing down again and she was sure she wasn’t alone in the ecstatic darkness. She forced herself to open her eyes and caught him, eyes shut, brow furrowed in euphoria, his lips parted in a silent prayer. He looked beautiful, she thought.
Chapter Thirty
Jack
When she collapsed on top of him, they lay panting for some time, wrapped up in each other. He stroked her hair and was struck by how comfortable he felt, lying there naked with her, like he had done it a thousand times before. If he was being honest with himself, he knew deep down that they were indulging in a fantasy, but right now he couldn’t quite make a dent in the bliss he was feeling.
‘We could have done that ages ago, if you’d let me,’ Jack said softly.
‘Oh yeah? Jumped my bones after I caught you raiding my fridge?’ She looked up at him playfully. ‘To be honest, even through my strawberry rage those eyes of yours might have persuaded me to do some very unsanitary things in my kitchen.’
‘Oh I was taken long before that – the moment I spotted you across the bar in Amalfi.’ He paused, unsure of whether he wanted to reveal himself. ‘I thought, I’m going to buy that girl a drink, and she’s going to wake up in my bed tomorrow.’
‘Well that kind of thinking is exactly why I didn’t.’ He chuckled, thinking she was teasing him. But when he looked down her expression was sombre, her eyes glossy with something like sadness. He was taken aback and chastised himself for ruining the moment. His concerned look prompted an explanation. Sofia looked away, and he fought the urge to take her by the chin to force her to look at him. She sighed as if gearing up for an unpleasant chore.
‘At the restaurant, there was this guy I worked with.’ There was silence and he felt she needed encouragement.
‘I’m listening,’ he said, apprehensive of what she was going to say next. Did she have a boyfriend she’d never mentioned? He realised he’d never even asked her. He tried to get a handle on the unexpected rush of panic he felt.
‘I slept with him. It was after a night out and I don’t really remember much of it. It wasn’t, like, dodgy.’ She didn’t sound completely convinced, thought Jack. ‘Like, I wanted it to happen, but then he did the same thing with someone else at work, and I’m not so sure that she did.’ Sofia seemed to be wrestling with something. Jack waited, hoping the silence would draw her out. ‘That’s when the drinking was quite bad, and for a while afterwards. That’s part of the reason I stopped.’
