Chapter Nine
Xander tossed his keys on the kitchen counter. “I still say you cheated.”
“Are all cage fighters sore losers?” Sophie trailed into the apartment behind him and closed the door. “Or just British ones, specifically?”
“You had an unfair advantage,” he grumbled. “I should have been given a two-game handicap.”
“If you’re bringing in bowling rules, then I’m incorporating golf.” She pulled out her small, square piece of paper from her shorts and held it up between her first and middle fingers. “I would have taken a mulligan on the ring toss game. You know, the one where you insisted you didn’t jostle me on purpose to make me miss?”
He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and extracted his own folded paper. “It wasn’t my fault. I told you it was that pissed wanker that bumped into me.”
“He was probably mad because he knew you were ruining my game.”
“He wasn’t mad,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “He was pissed. Drunk.”
Sophie held her hand out and he took her square that had her reward written on it. “Then why didn’t you say ‘drunk’? Geez, you Brits sure know how to murder the English language.”
Had she not laughed just then, he would have put her over his knee and spanked her for daring such a remark. “Notice the name of the language is actually English and not American.”
Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “Semantics. Are you going to open that up, or what?”
Was he, indeed. Though the entire idea of the challenge was all for fun, Xander could admit to himself that he’d wanted to win for more than just bragging rights and ego’s sake. He wanted what was written on his paper. Badly. But he’d get it eventually. After the kisses they’d shared earlier at the carnival, he knew it was only a matter of time.
“I’ll open it,” he said, then held out his. “After you read mine.”
Her eyes locked on the white square. She licked her lips, and in his peripheral vision he noted that her fingernails started playing over the pad of her thumb. She was nervous. Rightfully so, considering what she narrowly escaped. Because even though they’d had a breakthrough in their physical relationship today—he couldn’t be happier she’d opened the door for kissing—Xander had no misconceptions that they were on the same page.
She flicked her eyes up to his. “Why do you want me to read yours?”
He shrugged, feigning indifference. “Seems only right you should know what you’re beating me out of.”
Squaring her shoulders—ever his brave girl—she opened the paper, unfolding it the required four times. He watched her eyes grow wide and heard her breath catch in her throat. He couldn’t have stopped his wicked grin if he’d wanted to.
“Read it.”
“I already did.”
“Out loud.” He pinned her with a look that brooked no argument and backed it up by crossing his arms over his chest. “I want to hear you say it. If I can’t have the actions, then at least give me the satisfaction of watching your lips wrap around my words.”
“But—”
“Sophie.” He bit out her name in a sharp command before he could think better of it. His need to take control stemmed from the hard-on he’d been sporting all bloody day thanks to this woman, and now he braced himself for her hackles to raise in response.
When she lowered her eyes to the creased paper, she may as well have just kicked him in the sternum and knocked the wind out of him.
Sophie submitted to a command.
Strong-willed, take-no-shit, feminist-to-the-bitter-end Sophie. Could she actually be hiding a submissive side behind all her bravado and spunk? Just the possibility had him nearly coming undone in his pants like an untried lad.
She cleared her throat then did as he’d asked. “It says, ‘I’m going to toss you on my bed, strip you naked, and make you come no less than three times in as many ways, with my name branded on your lips.’ There,” she said, her sassiness gathering back under her. “Are you happy now?”
“I am, thank you.” His lips twisted in a smirk. “O’course, I’d be happier if I’d won the competition, but fair is fair.”
“Fair is fair,” she repeated. “And I won.”
“You won,” he said with a nod of deference. “Let’s see if it’ll be your laundry I’m doing, or maybe spit shining your precious shoe babies.” Uncrossing his arms, he held up her paper.
“Actually, I’m perfectly happy with your acknowledgment of my win, so we can forget the silly bet thing. I won’t hold you to it.”
At first Xan thought she was trying to be the bigger person and save him from some horrible task. Until she attempted to snatch the note away from him. Unfortunately for her, his well-honed instincts demanded he block any sudden movement coming at him, and his reflexes could take hers on at half speed. While pissed. He caught her wrist with one hand and held the note farther away from her. She’d just tipped her hand.
Sophie didn’t want him to open her note.
“That’s sweet of you, but a man never welches on a bet. I never have, and I’m not about to start now,” he said as he started to unfold its many creases.
“Shit, you know what I just remembered? I left the thing…on—in my office—and I need to turn it off or—”
Xander glanced up to see her walking toward the front door. “Hold it, Sophie. Don’t take another step.”
She froze in place, gripping the handle, the other hand braced on the wall next to the door. Whatever she’d written on her paper had her bolting. Which meant either she regretted what she asked for, or it made her nervous.
Xander unfolded the paper and read the three words scrawled in her slanted lefty handwriting. His mouth ran dry as the desert air and his pulse jackhammered just beneath the surface of his skin. But he couldn’t get ahead of himself. Not yet.
He moved until he stood directly behind her then placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her until her back pressed against the door. Her eyes were closed and Xander took advantage of the moment to admire her beauty.
“I have two questions, Sophie, and I expect you to answer me honestly.” He wished he could see her eyes to tell for himself, but if she needed to borrow courage from the darkness, then he’d allow it. “When you wrote this, did you think it was a possibility that I might write something like I did?”
She dragged her lower lip between her teeth and worked it over until it was swollen and bright red. As sexy as it was, he’d rather be the one doing the biting, and it wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “Yes or no, Sophie.”
Keeping her eyes closed, she released a shaky sigh. “Yes.”
He took a couple of slow breaths and fisted his hands at his sides to keep himself from touching her. One more answer. The only one he truly needed. “And now that you’ve read what I wanted, have you had second thoughts?”
Blessedly, her lashes lifted to reveal the endless depths of her dark eyes. Her chest moved in time with his and he wondered if their hearts beat together as well. He wanted to touch her in the worst way, but not until she answered his question. And depending on her answer, maybe not even then.
“Sophie,” he tried again, “do you regret writing what you did?”
She spoke in a whisper so soft, he only knew the word by the shape of her lips when she said it. “No.”
Xander closed the last of the space that separated them. This close, she was forced to tip her head up to meet his eyes. His fingers flexed at his sides, open and shut, like a gunslinger preparing for a high noon showdown. Why wasn’t he giving her what she’d asked for? He didn’t have to hold himself back any longer. She’d all but used a starting gun to signal the start of what he intended to be an all-night marathon, and fuck the sprint.
But hearing her read his words a few minutes ago had been like audible porn, and now he wanted to hear her speak her own. “Tell me what your paper said. Let me hear those three little words straight from your berry-ripe lips. Because the second you tell me, I’m going to give you exactly what you want.”
At last, she said them, soft as a feather yet undeniably laced with her desire. “Whatever you wrote.”
…
Sophie seriously questioned her actions from when she’d written those three words on that scrap of paper. The only thing that made any sense was that her libido’s subconscious (if there was such a thing) had temporarily taken over the part of her brain that makes judgment calls. She’d known damn well that Xander would write something sexual on his paper. By writing what she did, she’d ensured that whatever he conjured up would happen whether she won or not.
“Tell me what your paper said,” he ordered, his voice deep and gravelly, sending shivers through her. “Let me hear those three little words straight from your berry-ripe lips. Because the second you tell me, I’m going to give you exactly what you want.”
Her mouth was dry, making swallowing a challenge worthy of the Olympics. Biting the bullet, she held his gaze and managed a quiet rasp for his demand. “Whatever you wrote.”
A pure feral hunger flashed in his eyes a split second before Xander pounced. His hands grabbed the sides of her head, his body pinned her against the door, and his mouth descended on hers. He skipped over any closed-lips nonsense and parted them with a sweep of his tongue. Raw and savage, his invasion never let up and she was only too happy to be invaded.
Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on her toes, trying to get as close to him as possible. Suddenly she couldn’t survive without having a physical connection to him. Like now that she knew how amazing it felt to have that hot electricity coursing through her veins, she never wanted it to leave.
Xander moved his hands down her neck, over her shoulders and sides, then finally crossed behind her. With a growl, he tightened his arms around the middle of her back and lifted straight up. She wrapped her legs around his waist, then rocked her pelvis to grind along his hard cock straining beneath his jeans.
His mouth wrenched away from her. Sophie stared at him in question as she panted for air like she just crossed the finish line of a marathon. “Do that again before I’m seated inside you and you’ll be feeling the sting of my hand on your arse, sweets.” Spinning on his heel, he stalked toward the bedroom. “Then again, I might do it anyway just to see your lily-white backside pink with my mark.”
“Promises, promises.” What? What the hell did she say that for? Spending so much time with her kinky friends must be rubbing off on her.
“Oh, baby, you have no idea the promises I’d like to make to you. Things that would show you what it’s like to be pushed beyond your comfort zone.”
When he reached the foot of his gigantic bed, he tossed her into the middle of it. She mini-bounced before settling onto the mattress. So far he was sticking with the script, which meant next was making her come three times in as many ways. Jesus God, was she even capable of something like that? She’d never come more than once per session, not even with herself.
“I like my comfort zone just fine,” she said. Admittedly, her argument didn’t hold much conviction, but whatever. “It’s comfortable. Hence, its apt name.”
He answered with a noncommittal grunt, whatever that meant. “Take your clothes off, Sophie. Unwrap my prize for me, nice and slow.”
She hoped he didn’t notice the trembling in her hands as she followed his command. Acting like a damn virgin on prom night, it was humiliating. She’d always owned her sexuality, exuding confidence and never afraid of taking the lead with previous lovers.
But this man—this alpha male—affected her in ways she didn’t understand. And not only on a physical level. Sometimes all it took was a thoughtful gesture or a sincere compliment to coax old hopes from the shadows. Like he was tugging on the frayed edges of her fairy tale ending to free it from where she’d shoved it in the dark corner of her discarded dreams.
Xander raked his heated stare down her almost-naked body, leaving sensations behind as though it was his fingers doing the roaming. Only her white lace boy short panties remained. As her thumbs hooked into the waistband, he held a hand up. “Leave them. I swear I’ve never seen anything fucking sexier in my life. If I could arrange it, I’d make it so you never wore anything more than lacy knickers.”
Sophie pulled her knees up, dragging her painted toes along the down comforter, and gave him a coy smile. “I’m sure my male customers at the bakery would appreciate me baring my…assets, as I handed them bags of frosted confections.”
Thunder rolled over his face and its low rumble escaped between clenched teeth. “Over my dead body.”
Something pinged in her brain that his reaction was way too proprietary for their casual—and phony—arrangement. But then he started disrobing and she was too busy to analyze anything. Her eyes hyper-focused on him as he reached up and back between his shoulder blades with one hand and yanked his shirt up and over his head before tossing it to the floor.
Oh hell. She’d never get tired of seeing him shirtless. All hills and valleys, ropey muscles, and raised veins. It inspired a tongue to do some serious topographical exploring.
Xander made quick work of the rest of his clothes until he stood before her completely naked. Sucking her bottom lip in, she finally dropped her gaze to the part of his anatomy she’d been fantasizing about for months. Her eyes widened and she pushed up on her hands to brace herself on her arms and see if the different angle diminished its size. It didn’t.
“Jesus Christ, Xander. I don’t know whether I should try to have sex with that thing—and I emphasize try—or use it roll out dough.”
He let out a hearty laugh and put a knee on the bed. She wanted to see the amusement on his face—he was so gorgeous in full-happy mode—but she couldn’t drag her gaze away from the thick erection jutting out from his body, homing in on its target like a heat-seeking missile.
Sophie laughed with him despite her insistence that she wasn’t joking. “What the hell am I supposed to do with that weapon of mass vagina destruction?”
“Now you’re just trying to play to my ego,” he said with a wicked grin as he knelt at the foot of the bed. “I promise that the only thing I’ll be destroying is your desire for any other man in your bed.”
“Oh,” she squeaked. Hypnotized by his dark blue eyes, she said, “Suppose that’s fine, then.”
Damn, he was breathtaking. She’d never seen a body like his. Such perfection carved from flesh and bone didn’t seem possible, and yet the proof was currently crawling up the bed to her like a predatory lion. A very well-hung lion.
His hands circled her ankles and pulled her legs straight and out to the sides before continuing to climb over her. Lying on her back she looked up at him, feeling like a wounded gazelle waiting to be mauled. But in the best of ways.
She squirmed from the anticipation and realized he had her stretched and pinned down with the weight of his leg over hers. Vulnerable and on display, completely at his mercy. If he had any wish to offer her said mercy. From the look in his eyes, she guessed that he didn’t.
“I’m starting to wonder if maybe you don’t come from a long line of witches, Sophie Caldwell.” His left hand, the only free one between the two of them, settled on her neck and moved lower to plump and knead her breasts, avoiding her nipples completely. The ass. “You’ve definitely got me under some sort of spell. I’ve never been so hard for a woman before. Never wanted a woman with such intensity before. What have you done to me?”
“Nothing you haven’t already done to me,” she whispered.
Leaning in, he captured her mouth. This kiss was slower, but no less intense. Xander’s tongue pressed and licked on hers. Sometimes it traced the underside of her top lip and over her teeth. Sometimes it retreated so he could bite at her fuller lower lip. Each quick sting released a lightning bolt that shot straight to her clit and made her hips push up against his leg.
At last, he used his fingers to give her light flicks to her sensitive nipples, then rolled the tight nubs. The sensations were too much. She broke their kiss, her head tilting back into the mattress as her shoulder blades pulled together to arch her breasts higher. It was begging and pleading in its basest form. Her body contorting to offer itself to the man slowly devouring her, bit by bit.
Xander trailed openmouthed kisses down her arched throat, then blessedly closed his lips around a nipple and proceeded to alternate between bestowing reverent worship and delicious torture on each breast. Suckling, swirling, flicking, nipping. She loved it all, as was evident by the warmth seeping from her panties. And the knot in her belly grew tighter every minute, bringing her closer and closer to that ultimate release…but still so far away.
Drawing back, he studied his handiwork with smug satisfaction. “Look at your nipples, Soph. Absolute perfection. All swollen and cherry red. Your lips are the same,” he said as he used his thumb to lightly press on the center of her lower lip. “Now I’m going to do the same thing to your pink pussy. I’ve been dying to do this for months.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
He narrowed his eyes at her challenge. “Keep your hands where they are, love. They move, I stop. Understand?”
Sophie nodded. Hell, she’d agree to just about anything right now, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Although, if she had to guess, Xander knew exactly the kind of affect he had using his many talents. She certainly wasn’t the first, or probably even the hundredth, to experience them, nor would she be the last.
Jealousy flared to life then died out like it was never there, like a piece of flash paper in a magician’s trick. The flame lived for only a few moments, but that was more than long enough to leave behind a burn. What really surprised her was that it wasn’t the thought of his past conquests that bothered her. It was the thought of the women he would do these things with after they were no longer in the messed up situation. She had no right to any feelings of jealousy, and yet she wanted to claw the eyes out of any woman Xander tried to bed in the future.
Fortunately, he never saw her conflicting emotions because he was too focused on positioning himself between her legs. And before her brain could fire off another round of analyzing strange feelings, Xander ran his nose up her damp panties. All brain functions shut down as she heard him inhale deeply from the bottom all the way to where her clit was nestled safely in her swollen lips.
“Fuck, Soph, you smell so good. It’s driving me mad.” His mouth pressed against her center and blew through her panties. Hot breath bathed her pussy, which answered with a rush of wet warmth. Her hips tipped up of their own volition to press herself more firmly against his face. A silent request he didn’t deny her. Thank Christ.
Rough hands gripped her ass and held her to him as he licked and sucked her through the lace. Waves of desire ebbed and flowed from her sex out. Rushing past her stomach and over her breasts, up her neck and the base of her skull.
“More, Xander,” she panted. “Give me more.”
“I’ve got plenty more to give you,” he said, pulling the lace crotch until it sank between her folds and rubbed on her clit. “Patience, sweetheart.”
“I’ve never been real good with that particular virt— Uhnnn… God, that feels so good.”
Xander licked and sucked on each of her fleshy lips while keeping a pulsing pressure on her clit with gentle tugs of her underwear. Just as the shock of that move started to fade, he pulled the whole panel off to the side to give him full access. And he took full advantage, wasting no time before diving in.
“Mmmmm…” He stiffened his tongue and swiped it from bottom to the top like he was trying to drink every bit of her down. The euphoric look on his face as he stared at her from between her legs made her dizzy. “Perfection, baby. You taste so fucking good. I could eat you all day.”
Butterflies kicked up in her belly. She’d never been made to feel so sexy, so sensual before. A girl could get used to that kind of treatment if she wasn’t careful.
Don’t ruin this by thinking. Not yet.
His motions were unhurried and thorough, worshipping every inch multiple times over in different patterns to keep her guessing. He used his lips, his tongue, his knuckles, and his fingers to explore and play. All she could do was writhe as much as he allowed her to. Oh yeah. And beg. She did a lot of that, too.
Xander closed his lips over her clit and sucked in time with her heartbeat. She panted faster the higher he pulled her toward her climax. So close. Almost…just a little more pressure… Sophie grabbed his head as her orgasm exploded behind her eyes.
“That was one,” he said.
Before she even fully pieced herself back together and realized that he actually meant to give her no less than three orgasms, he started on the next one. Again, he worked his tongue and lips over her clit, but this time added to his oral assault by working in the middle two fingers of one hand.
“OhmyGod-ohmyGod-ohmyGod,” she keened, thrusting her hips in time with his fingers.
“Mmm, so perfect, baby. The way you taste, the way you look, the way you squeeze around my fingers as they fuck you. Come for me, come on.”
“Gonna…yes, I…Xander!”
This time he eased her down until she settled back to Ground Zero before smugly announcing, “That’s two.”
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” she said as he crawled up her body. “So your secret dies with me?”
“What secret would that be, gorgeous?” He paused to lavish attention on her breasts, almost distracting her in the process.
“The fact that I beat you in carnival games.” When he lifted his head to laugh, she made her move. She swept his legs and pushed on his chest. In a flash, he was on his back with her straddling his hips.
“That may be one of the hottest things a woman’s ever done to me in bed.”
“You’re not the only one with moves.” Giving him a wicked smirk, she reached into the nightstand drawer for a condom.
“Ah, been snooping, I see.”
“What? I would never,” she said with feigned innocence. “I was simply looking for the bible.”
“Were you expecting mini shampoos in the bathroom as well?” His chuckle died off as his eyes zeroed in on her fingers unwrapping the condom before wrapping him in record time.
“Ready, set, go, big guy.”
“All right then,” he said, his voice husky as he wrapped those big hands around her hips. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Grabbing his thick erection, she guided it to her entrance and slowly—so fucking slowly—began working herself on him with tiny pulses, then moving on to shallow strokes that gained him a few inches of depth.
“Fuck, baby,” he growled. “You’re so damn tight.”
“Gee, Gigantor, I wonder”—gasp—“why.”
Finally, she’d swallowed him to the hilt and not a spare breath of space was left unfilled by him. Unable to continue the torture of moving slow, Sophie placed her hands on his chest and rocked her hips. Her slick arousal coated him and allowed her to pick up speed, riding up and down his big cock, the friction a delicious attack on the millions of nerves he rubbed against.
“Fuck me, that feels so fucking fantastic.” Xander lifted one hand and stuck his thumb in her mouth. She wrapped her lips around its base and sucked. “That’s right, baby, take what you need from me. Ride me until you come so hard my dick will be feeling your pussy squeezing it for a week.”
She’d already been so close, but his filthy words and the way his thumb invaded her mouth like it was his to do what he wanted with, pushed her over the edge. Throwing her head back just as she felt him come undone inside her, Sophie screamed his name until she ran out of breath, then continued to rock on him gently as the shockwaves of her climax began to ebb.
Minutes later, they lay in a sweaty heap in the middle of the bed, Sophie’s head resting on his chest, their legs and arms entangled.
“A lion,” she said.
“What about a lion?”
“You asked me what kind of cat I thought I’d be, and I chose a black panther.” The image of his golden body stalking her up the bed flooded her mind. “But you…I think you’re a lion. Majestic, fierce, loyal…” Sophie rested her chin on the hand resting on his chin so she could meet his gaze. “And under the right touch, turns into a big pussy cat.”
His eyes grew round. “A pussy cat, you say? I think you just wounded my manhood.” Sophie laughed as he rolled her over and settled himself at the juncture of her legs. “You can’t be spouting off things like that, you’ll hurt his feelings.”
“Maybe I should kiss him and make it all better,” she said, biting the corner of her lip.
“I think that would be best,” he played, his face serious but for the twinkle in his beautiful blue eyes. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”
And they spent the rest of the night alternating between finding reasons to apologize to each other’s bodies and excuses as to why they needed just one more roll in the sheets.