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  “Yes,” she gasped.

  “You are hot. Look at you.”

  Her chin rose and she stared defiantly at him. He stood, needing to show her that he was bigger and stronger and she couldn’t defy him. But her gaze didn’t change. She wasn’t scared. That knowledge jacked his lust into overdrive. She liked it like this.

  He curved his hand around the back of her neck and gripped her skull to hold her still as he slipped his fingers over her mound. His fingertips slid along her folds and she jerked against his hold, but he didn’t let her move.

  “You’re a nice girl who likes to have dirty sex, aren’t you, Sophie?”

  She didn’t answer this time. She only closed her eyes and nodded, so Alex kept stroking her. Lightly, so lightly, until she was whimpering with need. She wanted more, but he didn’t give more than that, just the lightest stroke of his fingertips over her clit. God, she was slick and soft. He could touch her like this forever.

  But that wouldn’t go over well with her, apparently.

  He resisted the way her hips pushed toward him. “Please,” she finally begged, her hand reaching to cover his.

  “You didn’t answer me,” he murmured, ducking his mouth close to her ear.

  “Yes! Yes, I like it.”

  “Mmm. Good.” But he didn’t give her what she wanted. Instead he kissed her cheek, her ear, her jaw. When he got to her mouth, her lips parted eagerly for him.

  He took her mouth but pulled his hand free from her grip. Sophie growled in frustration, but she opened wider for his tongue. He kissed her deep and long, reaching back to unclip her bra and slide it off her arms. She let it drop.

  Alex raised his head to look down at her. God, she was a treat. A beautiful, precious treat. She made his hands shake and his heart pound. Heart pounding even harder, he kept one hand at the nape of her neck and, with the other, reached down to unbuckle his belt. He opened the button of his jeans and unzipped them.

  “Show me what else you like,” he said quietly, remembering how eagerly she’d sucked at his thumb that first night.

  Her heavy eyes slid down his chest and focused on his open jeans. Her breath tore past her parted lips as she panted. Finally, she whispered, “Yes,” and she went to her knees.

  Despite that he’d told her to, Alex had a brief moment of thankful disbelief, but he recovered quickly and dragged off his T-shirt.

  “Oh,” she breathed, looking up at him as she put her hands to his bare stomach. Her hands smoothed up to his chest, brushing over the hair, shaping the muscles. Then her touch moved down again, down his belly, past his navel, and then to the band of his briefs. The heel of her hand brushed his cock, and Alex held his breath to keep from moaning. But it was in vain. She tugged his briefs lower and her fingers closed around his cock and Alex moaned in near pain. He loved her hands on him. Loved her touch. Loved the sight of her on her knees and staring at him like her mouth was watering.

  “Show me,” he murmured as she drew him free.

  Sophie nodded and glanced up at him with a little lick of her lips that made his nerves jump. Yes, he thought, just like that. That little pink tongue and those wet lips. On him. Around him.

  She stroked him first, her fist working slowly up and down his shaft as she watched. His vision narrowed to nothing but that. Her hand on him, her face eagerly watching.

  She squeezed harder, and a little drop of pre-come formed. Sophie hummed, and then she licked it. Slowly. Sweetly. She cleaned the head of his cock and then flashed him a small, wicked smile.

  Dark pleasure washed over him, soaking into his muscles like heat. When her tongue swirled around him, that heat turned to fire that traveled up his nerves.

  Her mouth closed over him then, enveloping him in warmth that shocked him even though he’d been waiting. Fuck, he felt like he’d been waiting his whole life for that sweet draw of her mouth on his cock.

  She took him in slowly, her mouth sliding up and down. Her fist kept the same rhythm, so that by the time she’d taken half of him into her throat, it felt like she was swallowing all of him. Alex groaned and watched the beautiful sight past a haze of lust.

  But he wanted more, more, even as he went nearly dizzy from the pleasure. More.

  “Touch yourself,” he rasped.

  Her gaze flew up to meet his. She drew back in surprise until only her lips touched him.

  Alex eased her fingers free and fisted himself. He slipped his other hand into her hair. “Touch yourself,” he repeated.

  She did as he asked, her hand disappearing between her thighs even as her mouth opened. She let him ease her back onto his cock, and took him as deep as she had before. Her moan hummed through his shaft.

  “Fuck,” he groaned as she pulled at him with her mouth. It was all pressure and wetness and heat and the sight of her mouth stretching wide around his cock.

  She moaned again, shifting on her knees, and he knew this was getting her off. “Show me,” he said. “Show me how much you like it.” He palmed her head and eased deeper into her throat. She didn’t resist at all.

  The pleasure was weight inside him. Weight and tension that drew his whole world down to where her tongue slid up and down around his wet shaft. Alex watched. He watched himself disappear into her mouth over and over. Watched the way his rough fingers clutched at her smooth red hair. And beyond all that, the pretty pink tips of her breasts and her hand disappearing between her legs.

  She jerked back and Alex let her. His cock slid free of her mouth, the air a sudden cold grip around him. Sophie threw her head back and cried out, the muscles of her neck tight as she came, her hips spasming against her own hand. Her cry went hoarse, and then faded to a whimper. Alex squeezed his cock hard, determined to hold back his own orgasm for a few more moments.

  Her eyes opened, dazed and heavy when she looked up at him. Her mouth was red and wet. Her cheeks pink with a blush that had nothing to do with shame.

  “Good,” he whispered.

  She nodded. Yes, she was very good and she knew it. A nice girl who liked it hard and wet and filthy.

  “Now open your mouth.” She did as he asked, just as he’d known she would. Alex slid his cock between her lips and cupped her head with both hands. He pushed in as deep as he could. She didn’t pull away. She braced her hands on his hips and she let him fuck her that way. Slowly, carefully, her mouth the most perfect thing he’d ever felt. And when he finally came, the world collapsing into that drawn-out moment of climax, she swallowed every drop.

  His head dropped, too heavy for his neck to support anymore, and he watched in shock as she drew back just enough to lick his cock clean. He shuddered at the swipe of her tongue against oversensitive flesh, but he didn’t stop her. He’d never do that.

  When she finally sat back on her haunches, Alex let his legs give way and he collapsed onto the couch. “Holy shit,” he breathed, dropping his head back for a moment to catch his breath. Once the room stopped spinning, he tugged his jeans up, then reached down to pull Sophie onto the couch.

  When he drew her close, she curled onto his lap, her body fitting into his like she’d always been there. He couldn’t move. He never wanted to move. Her fingers spread over his bare chest and her cheek was warm against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back, marveling at the softness.

  “Are my hands too rough?” he asked, worried that the slide of his fingers over such perfect skin might annoy her. But she shook her head and sank a little more deeply into him.

  He didn’t feel much like a loner right then. It felt nice here with her. Comfortable and warm. He wondered how late it was and didn’t particularly care. He just tucked her head under his chin and closed his eyes. “Sophie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You open to me crashing here tonight?”

  She nodded and Alex sighe
d. He didn’t want to move, much less get on his bike and ride through the cold night to his dreary hotel room.

  But apparently Sophie wasn’t as ruined as he was, because a few minutes later, she stretched and sat up. “I’m going to take a shower. There’s beer in the fridge, I think.”

  “Thanks.”

  She stood as if her legs weren’t weak at all, but Alex didn’t take offense. Instead, he took the opportunity to watch her move nearly naked around the couch, picking up clothing as she went. Her little round ass made his mouth water.

  She caught him watching as she walked out the room and flashed a smile over her naked shoulder.

  “I should’ve taken a fucking picture,” he muttered to himself. He’d like to remember that sly look forever.

  He must’ve dozed for a moment, because he snapped awake when he heard the pipes whoosh to life on the other side of the wall. After sex like that, he could’ve just tipped right over and slept on the couch for eight hours, but he didn’t want her thinking she’d ruined him, even if she had. A man had his pride, after all. Plus, a cold beer sounded damn good.

  Alex forced his exhausted muscles to work and got to his feet. He fastened his jeans and grabbed a beer from the fridge and downed half of it within seconds. He hadn’t thought the night could get better, but the ice-cold beer was a perfect cap to the hottest blow job he’d ever had.

  Smiling, Alex wandered the room to try to get a feel for Sophie, but everything here clearly belonged to her great-uncle...unless Sophie was an outdoorsy vampire who’d won the Snake River Fly Fishing Championship of 1963. He’d have to ask her about it later.

  Still, he took in the old photographs and Western fiction and moved around the room, if only because he knew he’d fall asleep if he sat down again. The kitten jumped up and followed him.

  He recognized a lot of the places in the photographs. They came from the same place, he and Sophie. The same place, the same circumstances, the same defining event. Funny that they’d turned out so differently. She took care of people. He cut them loose. She was a dreamer. He kept moving and didn’t dream about anything.

  He was almost done with his circle of the room when he saw the open boxes near the small dining table. One box was filled with large photo albums of some kind. The other was overflowing with paper and scissors and tape and various sparkly things. On the table, one of the albums was open. He could see pictures.

  Alex glanced toward the bedroom, feeling guilty, but it wasn’t exactly snooping if the thing was open, so he stepped forward and looked.

  The picture wasn’t a photo; it was a postcard of a beach. Glittery script spelled out FLORIDA in green letters and ended in a colorful beach umbrella. The other side of the album featured a postcard of an alligator sunning itself in a swamp. Facts about the Everglades were printed out on paper shaped liked an orange.

  Alex blinked and turned the page, only to find more postcards. These were from New York. The next page was different, though. This was a brochure for camping in national parks. Not at a campground, though. This was the chance to spend the night in an old fire tower, two hundred feet above the forest. Nothing decorated this page except pale green shading that disappeared halfway up the paper.

  Another page was a postcard from a cave in West Virginia. Colored lights lit up the stalactites, making them glow. A trail of sparkly jewels swept across the page above it.

  Alex glanced at the box full of albums and counted at least six. Were they all the same? Places she wanted to go, things she wanted to do? Why was she making these scrapbooks instead of just getting in her car and going to Florida or West Virginia or any other place she could drive to?

  Just as he was reaching to draw another book from the box, the water shut off and he jerked his hand back. Looking at an album on the table was one thing, but digging through boxes was a whole other. She’d said he could spend the night, not investigate her life.

  Alex finished his beer and went to set it by the sink and grab another. By the time she came out, wearing a little pink nightgown that ended just beneath her ass, Alex was dead tired.

  “Want to watch TV in bed?” she asked, her voice sounding almost hesitant in a way that made him grin.

  “Hell, yes,” he answered. He toed off his boots while she turned off lights, then stripped down to his briefs and joined her in bed. It wasn’t very big, so they had to stay close. He wrapped his arm around her and she snuggled close.

  “Thanks for letting me crash,” he said.

  She smiled up at him. “No problem. I wanted more later anyway.”

  More. All right. Then he didn’t need to ask if he’d been too rough or demanding. She wanted more. He’d do his best to give it.

  They settled in as if they’d always fit together. Alex fell asleep to the sound of her laughter and the faint flicker of the TV playing against his eyelids. Despite the old bed and the television playing, it felt nothing like falling asleep in a hotel room. Nothing at all.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “HEY, GIRL!” LAUREN called through the front window. “I brought cinnamon rolls!”

  Sophie froze and stared bug-eyed at the front door. The blinds were drawn over the window next to it, thank God, but Lauren knew Sophie was home. Her car was under the carport. Shit.

  Alex was still in the shower. She could probably get rid of Lauren in a few minutes. And at least she’d showered and dressed after she’d climbed off Alex that morning.

  Sophie tiptoed toward the door, even as she wondered why the hell she was tiptoeing.

  “Hi!” She meant to keep Lauren in the doorway, but Sophie had never kept her out before and Lauren just walked on in without an invitation. Sophie had never had to keep her out before. She didn’t bring men home. She didn’t let them hang out and raise suspicions. She went to their hotel rooms instead.

  “Here,” Lauren said, holding out the tray.

  “Your mom is still here?” Sophie asked, taking the tray of cinnamon rolls. They were still warm and she moaned as the scent finally hit her.

  “You don’t think I made cinnamon rolls from scratch, do you? Mom is baking and I figured you could use some cheering up.”

  “Buying my emotions with sugar. You know me well.”

  “Yeah, it was a really brutal quest for the truth. Anyway, it’s in the paper.”

  This time her moan had nothing to do with deliciousness. “The lawsuit?”

  “Yes. Your copy was in the drive. I left it on the porch in case you wanted to ignore it for a while.”

  “God, I wish I could. Maybe there was a freak windstorm that blew most of the newspapers away before people could read them.”

  Lauren nodded. “Maybe. But I added an extra couple of cinnamon rolls just in case that doesn’t work out.”

  “Okay. I’ll just stay home and stuff myself. It’ll help. Thank you.”

  “Hang in there,” she said, pulling Sophie into a quick hug. “Jake and I are taking my mom up to Yellowstone before she has to leave, so text me if anything else comes up. But it’ll be over soon.”

  That’s what Sophie had thought, too. She’d been wrong. It would never be over. But she smiled and said, “See you tomorrow,” as she led Lauren back to the door.

  Lauren opened the door and Sophie was finally starting to relax when an awful silence fell over the house. She hadn’t thought an absence of sound could ring in your ears, but ring it did. Alex had turned off the shower.

  Lauren froze. Her eyes flew toward the far wall. The shower door squeaked.

  “Anyway!” Sophie sang, as if that would distract her friend. Strangely, her ploy didn’t work.

  Lauren’s gaze began to stutter over different parts of the room. The man’s T-shirt crumpled on the couch? Check. The empty beer bottles next to the sink? Check. The bedroom door opening to reveal a big, naked, tatto
oed beast of a man wearing nothing but a white towel around his waist? Oh, fuck yes, that was probably a big check mark, too.

  “Oh, shit,” Lauren murmured. “I guess that’s better than a cinnamon roll.”

  Alex just raised his eyebrows.

  Sophie thought she might die right there, but her heart kept rebelliously beating on. “All right,” she squeaked. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Lauren whispered, then tore her gaze off Alex to look at Sophie. “Sure.” She widened her eyes as if she could convey a hundred questions with that one gesture.

  Sophie jerked her head toward the door, but before she left, Lauren took the opportunity to ogle Alex one more time. Once she’d looked her fill, she backed outside. “Bye!”

  Alex raised one hand in farewell. Sophie slammed the door. The silence rang in her ears again. It must have been ringing for Lauren, too, because Sophie didn’t hear her footsteps head down the stairs for quite a while.

  “Coworker?” Alex finally asked in the quiet.

  Sophie turned and leaned weakly against the door. “Yes.”

  “Damn. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, then cleared her throat. “She’s a friend, so...”

  “So she won’t tell everyone in town?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Good. I don’t want to fuck things up for you.”

  She managed a smile at that. “That’s sweet.”

  “You have a strange idea of sweet.”

  She relaxed a little and laughed. It would be fine. Lauren might give Sophie shit for years, but she wouldn’t tell anyone else. And there was an upside. Now Sophie had someone to talk to. Because she had so much to tell.

  Just looking at him standing there was enough to inspire hours of conversation, and Lauren had seen it, too. Yeah, this might get her through a few long, cold winters.

  She pushed off the door and walked toward him. “Need something?” she asked.

  Alex groaned. “I had to crawl to the shower. Are you trying to prove your superiority? I give. Uncle.”