She sighs, seeming to steel herself for whatever is coming next. “It was good. Great, even.” She pauses, as if to collect her thoughts. “They want me. They aren’t considering anyone else. I don’t know if they were before, but they aren’t now.”
My heart clenches, a curious mixture of love and pride and dread all winding up inside me. “Of course they aren’t. There’s no better person than you. They would be crazy to look at anyone else. So, what happens now?”
“They invited me out to California, to tour the office, meet the rest of the team. Get the lay of the land, they said.” She shrugs. “They thought seeing the office would help me make a decision.”
I nod, even though I have to will my hands not to shake at the thought of her leaving even for a couple of days. Because this could be the trip that takes her away from me, and my brain doesn’t know how to process that reality.
Not about me, I remind myself. “That makes total sense. When do they want you to come out?”
Her hands flex in mine, a sad sort of smile curving her lips. “That’s the thing. Apparently, these are very important people with very full calendars that involve all kinds of international travel, and there is literally only one day that works for them in the next month.”
Somehow, I know what she’s going to say before she even says it, and I hate it times a million. “It’s April tenth, isn’t it?”
Sophie smiles a little, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah.They want to fly me out on the ninth and have me spend the day in the office on the tenth. I tried to get them to agree to another day. Literally any other day. But they had zero flexibility, and Jesus, you should see these guys when they want you to do something. They give you a choice, but they aren’t actually giving you a choice, you know? And they did it in such a non-asshole way I can’t even get mad and step up onto my feminist soapbox about men who dare to explain things to me. Instead, I’m just sad. It’s birthday night. The first one we wouldn’t be together for in fifteen years.” She shakes her head. “I don’t think I can do it.”
Setting my own roiling emotions aside, I pick Sophie up and settle her onto my lap, pressing a kiss to her head when she curls into me, lingering there, trying to memorize the smell of her shampoo, the way she feels in my arms, the feel of her fingers as they trace circles on my chest. “You have to do it,” I say, running my hand up and down her arm. “We’ll celebrate both our birthdays when you get back and make it the best birthday night of our lives. I swear we will. We’ll turn back the calendar and pretend it’s the tenth no matter what the date is, and no one will be able to tell us any differently. But first you have to go and see what it’s all about. Not just because they didn’t give you a choice. Because this is a huge opportunity for you, and you deserve absolutely everything. Maybe you’ll hate it and then your decision will be made.”Please hate it, I think in a silent plea. “But either way, you have to go out there and see.”
Sophie is silent for a beat before she shifts in my lap, rising to straddle me, her legs bracketing my thighs and her eyes boring into mine. The air between us grows heavy and thick, my heart thudding in my chest as I study the face I know as well as I know my own. The face I know, without one single doubt, I will love for the rest of my days. “I love you,” she says again, her words quiet and intense. “I thought I knew what it meant to love you, but it turns out I didn’t know anything at all.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
TYLER
Emotions simmering too close to the surface for words, I thread my fingers into Sophie’s hair and bring her mouth to mine, teasing her lips open with my tongue and diving inside to taste her. Electricity fizzes and pops under my skin as Sophie sighs into me, her hands dropping down to push under my shirt, dance up my sides. I hiss when her fingers graze my nipples. Suck in a sharp breath when she slides them down my torso to rest right at my waist. Groan when she stops there and goes no further.
“Sophie,” I murmur against her lips, my voice a plea. For what, I’m not sure.
To love me forever. To let me love her. To stay. To please, please just stay.
“What do you need?” she asks, her thumbs dipping just below my waistband, moving back and forth in a maddening sweep. “Tell me, Ty. Tell me exactly what you need. I want to give it to you.”
Shit.
“Touch me,” I practically beg, sliding one of my arms aroundher waist to lock her tighter against me, my hips rolling involuntarily as she settles over my cock, pleasure humming in my veins. “Fuck. Just…fuck,” I bite out when she grinds down over me. “Take my cock out. Touch it. Stroke it. Fuck it. Jesus. Anything.”
Sophie pulls back, sly look in her eyes. “I didn’t hear you put suck it on that list.”
I drop my head back and groan up at the sky, my brain immediately filled with the image of Sophie on her knees, perfect lips stretched around my dick. “Major oversight,” I manage as she leans in and kisses my neck, my throat, reaching down and tugging up my shirt, stripping it completely off and tossing it aside as she continues her journey south. “That should have been at the top of my list.”
“It should’ve been,” Sophie agrees, pressing a line of kisses over my chest and then lower, mapping my abs with lips and teeth and tongue until I’m practically vibrating, wondering if it’s possible to come entirely untouched, just from the feel of her lips on my skin. Sliding down to her knees between my spread legs, Sophie gives me a wicked grin, and I feel like maybe I’m about to find out. “I can’t wait to feel your cock in my throat.”
“Motherfucker,” I mutter, my dick going hard as steel.
I reach over and grab one of the pillows stacked on the side of the couch. “Stand up a sec, baby.”
Sophie looks from me to the pillow and rolls her eyes. “I’m not made of glass.”
Standing from the couch, I lean down and grip her jaw, forcing her to look up at me. “Of course you’re not. You’re the strongest, most amazing person I know. But Sophie, the way I want you is not normal. It’s impossibly huge and utterly uncontrollable, and when those pretty lips stretch around my cock, I’m positive I’m going to have to fuck that gorgeous throat, and I’m not entirely sure I’m going to be nice about it.”
Sophie’s eyes flash, and she reaches down and strips off her sweater, leaving her in a hot-pink lace bra that is going to be the star of every dream I have for the rest of my life. My entire bodytightens, my cock straining behind my sweatpants, as if it can’t wait to get to her.
Me fucking either.
She takes the pillow and shoves it under her knees, locking eyes with me. “Who said I want you to be nice?”
And then, in one single move, she yanks down my sweatpants enough to free my cock and immediately sucks me into her warm, wet mouth, her tongue flicking the sensitive groove below my tip. I go instantly lightheaded.
“Holy fuck,” I pant, her words still swirling around my brain as my hands fly down to grab her hair. I gather it up and move it away from her face, wrapping it around my fist. I don’t want anything getting in the way of this view.
