Kane, Samantha - Brothers In Arms 4 (35 page)

She was an illusion in the candlelight. An angel sent to comfort, a demon sent to entice. Her white gown was gossamer thin, clinging to her curves lovingly, giving teasing glimpses of long legs and dark, erect nipples, hinting at the warm shadow between her thighs. Her unbound hair tumbled around her shoulders and down her

back, the flame catching streaks of red in its undulating waves. Derek would have, could have imagined her the angel of his imagination, a perfect vision of desire no more real than his fear, if not for the freckles. The freckles dancing across her shoulders and arms from her time in the garden pushed him forcefully into awareness. She was no vision, she was Sophie—flesh and blood and passion, and as Derek stared at those freckles his mouth watered with the need to taste them, to find out if they were as delicious as Ian claimed.

Lust made him weak and he sat and stared and trembled. Desire stole his voice and he watched her walk cautiously across the room to his bedside, all the while crying out a warning in his head to her to stay away. He was wild, out of control. He needed, God how he needed, and she was here.

“Derek, are you all right? I heard you cry out.” She sounded so worried, so

concerned for him. Why? Why did she have to care? It made it so much harder. She moved and a trick of the light made her gown diaphanous, a superfluous mist around her lusciously naked form. Derek had to gasp for breath around the fist that grabbed his gut and made his cock throb.

“Derek,” she cried out softly, leaning toward him in alarm. He shoved his arm out, holding her away with a raised hand.

“Stay away,” he growled, when all he wanted was for her to come closer, close

enough to grab, to throw down, to cover, to devour. His lust for her was clawing its way through his body, eating him alive to get to her.

“It was a nightmare, wasn’t it? Ian said you have them sometimes, like me. Let me help, Derek. How can I help?” She was practically begging. One small, sane corner of his brain wondered if she even knew what she was begging for. “How does Ian help?”

Her last question made Derek laugh, but it wasn’t a happy sound. He wrapped an

arm around his middle and leaned forward to rest his head on the sheets. “Just go, Sophie. Go.” He turned his head to look at her, and her worry made him relent a little.

“I’ll be fine. You just need to…go. Go now, for both our sakes.”

“Derek—”

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“Damn it, Sophie, just do as I tell you! Are you always to be a thorn in my side?

Can’t a man even have a nightmare anymore without you hovering?” His words hurt her, he knew it and was grimly satisfied. He’d wanted to hurt her, to drive her away.

He forgot how hard he’d worked to build up her confidence in the last few weeks, but she reminded him.

“No, no, I won’t go, Derek. Don’t shut me out. Let me help. Ian isn’t here and I…I have to take care of you for him.” She took a hesitant step toward him and he sat up with a curse.

“Ian fucks me blind, Sophie, until I can’t remember my own name much less the

dreams. Is that what you’re offering? If you don’t go, that’s what’s going to happen, Sophie. I’m on the edge right now. It won’t take much to push me over. You need to leave. You need to leave now.”

He watched the emotions fly across her face almost too quickly to catch. There, fright. There, sympathy. There, desire. No, no he must have mistaken that last one.

“Why aren’t you leaving, Sophie?” His voice was a harsh whisper. Every muscle in his body strained toward her, demanding he capture her and take her. He resisted, but for how long? He couldn’t hold out much longer.

“If…if that’s what you need, Derek,” she whispered, and he was lost, lost god damn it.

“Sophie,” was all he said, and he shuddered at the need in his voice, at the relief.

He reached out and hauled her onto the bed, dragging her across his lap. He lay her down in the middle of the bed and rolled over to cover her. She was so small, so fragile, so breakable. He thought of her struggling to get away from that bastard this afternoon and felt the remnants of the boiling rage that had made him want to kill. Remembered her cowering and whimpering on the floor and his touch gentled. “Sophie,” he

whispered and she looked up at him, trust, desire and uncertainty all warring in the gaze of her warm amber eyes. “I will take care of you, Sophie,” he told her softly and he watched those eyes begin to burn. He felt the heat that had almost banked flame to life inside him and he groaned as she parted her legs and cradled him in her thighs.

He grabbed a fistful of her soft hair and she gasped as her head arched back. Her reaction was the straw that broke his restraint. He thrust against her, trying to find her heat through the sheets and her nightgown as he buried his face in her neck, seeking that fragrance that was uniquely her, the scent that had been tantalizing and tormenting him for weeks. When he found it, he had to taste it and he licked it from her freckles, shoving the material of her gown out of the way.

Derek chased the flavor all across her shoulders and started down her chest, but again the cursed gown got in his way. He reared back and Sophie squealed in surprise.

She had been running her hands all over his back and sides when he was on top of her.

Now she lay shocked as he grabbed the edges of her nightgown and with a swift pull tore it open from neck to hem. He peeled back the material to expose her and he watched a shudder move through her. A quick glance at her face showed her response to be from desire, not fear. The thrill of her reaction shot through him and he felt his 175

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cock begin to leak. Christ, he hadn’t wanted a woman this badly since that first time with Dolores.

He put his hands on her stomach, spanning it so his thumbs rested over her navel and his smallest fingers curved around her sides. The feel of such intimate flesh against his hands made Derek close his eyes as a wave of longing crashed over him. She was soft and smooth, so different from Ian. His touch was firm, not gentle as he ran his hands up her torso to her breasts. He stopped just below them, so his hands were pushing them high until her nipples stood straight up, hard and flushed with desire.

She had glorious nipples, large and a soft brown that showed her blush to perfection and complemented her creamy skin and delightful freckles. He brushed his thumbs over them and she whimpered. At the sight of the freckles on the full globes of her breasts, Derek couldn’t stop himself from leaning over and ravenously sucking a nipple into his mouth.

God, he’d forgotten the taste of a woman, the sight and sounds and flavors of a woman’s passion. Was there any other woman who tasted like Sophie? She was sweet and earthy, like eating fresh-picked fruit, a juicy burst of flavor and texture. Sophie arched her back and moaned as he drew deeply on her breast, pressing her nipple between his tongue and the roof of his mouth to explore its texture and shape. Derek was straddling her hips, and he pushed both hands under her back to wrap his arms around her tightly, pulling her torso up and off the bed, bending to hold her breast captive in his mouth. He fed on her sweet flesh as she lay limply in his embrace, her arms flung out, hands resting on the bed, her head falling back. She was his, her utter trust and complete surrender pushing him into an almost violent state of arousal.

Derek moved one arm up Sophie’s back and again grabbed a handful of her hair.

He pushed her head up and Sophie’s eyes fluttered open. They locked on Derek’s as he lifted his head from her breast, and he saw his own desire mirrored there. He yanked her closer, until their lips were almost touching. He wanted to kiss her with a painful intensity. He wanted to see if her mouth tasted like the rest of her, wanted the heat and the wet of it, wanted to breathe her air into his lungs until he was full of her, and it scared the hell out of him. He knew in that moment he mustn’t ever kiss Sophie. Some remnant of self-preservation told him that to do so would be the end of him. Sophie slowly raised her arms and rested her hands on his biceps, massaging them gently. The lightning of her tender touch shocked him. He pulled away, determined to make this about sex, about satisfaction, even about comfort, but not about he and Sophie. They were just a man and a woman satisfying one another—there was no

Derek, no Sophie, no future.

Roughly Derek grabbed Sophie’s upper arms and pulled her up. “On your knees,”

he ordered her, his voice harsh. He could see her confusion, but also her acquiescence.

She struggled to her knees without a word of protest and Derek knew she’d do

whatever he asked of her. She trusted him, and he hated himself because he wasn’t worthy of it. Sophie saw something in his face and with a tender look reached up to touch his cheek. “Derek?” she whispered. He jerked away and pushed on her right arm 176

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to spin her around, pulling her ruined nightgown off her arms in the process. “Derek?”

This time her voice was louder, startled.

“Put your hands up on the wall.” He made his voice flat, almost impersonal. He

could fuck her without losing himself. He had to. He had to learn how to, because Ian was right. He couldn’t stay out of their bed forever. He had to prove to himself he could fuck Sophie without loving her. He didn’t love her, he wouldn’t.

Sophie complied, facing the wall beside the bed and placing her hands next to her shoulders. Derek moved directly behind her and spread her legs apart with a knee until she was wide open. Her breathing grew uneven and he could feel her heartbeat

thrumming faster. Her excitement escalated his. He moved her hands until they were high over her head, still pressed against the wall. “Leave them there,” he told her, and inwardly cursed the raspy tremor in his voice. Sophie nodded silently and leaned back just enough to touch the curve of her upper back to his chest. He wanted to push her away, to break that contact, but he couldn’t. As far as arousing touches went, it was nearly innocent, but it was the emotions behind her movement that made him tremble.

He could sense her need to connect with him, to feel him. He realized with frustration that no matter what he tried to make this encounter, for Sophie it was about the two of them. For Sophie it
was
about her and Derek.

He leaned in then and rested his mouth against the soft, sweet curve of her

shoulder where it met her neck—that mysterious spot where a person’s smell seemed to be concentrated, the unique essence of their physical self. Derek wanted to roll around in that smell, to coat himself with Sophie and in turn mark her with his scent. He shook his head with a wry chuckle and licked the spot until Sophie shivered. With a feeling of inevitability, Derek slid his hand from her hip and down the slope of her stomach until he met the wiry thatch of pubic hair that had been a mere shadow under her gown. He burrowed his fingers in it, and when he felt how wet she was he moaned out loud. She was dripping, the lips of her cunt swollen and hot and throbbing. “Christ,” he

murmured. “God damn it, Sophie. God damn you. Is this for me? Tell me this is for me.” He slid a finger into her and felt his neck and shoulders tense at how tight and hot she was. Jesus, no wonder Ian fucked her night and day.

“Derek,” Sophie murmured, and he wasn’t sure if she was answering his question

or responding to the invasion of his finger. He pulled it out and she moaned.

Derek bent his knees until he could maneuver his cock between her legs. He didn’t thrust into her. Instead he slid forward, using his cock to caress the lips of her cunt until the head bumped into her hard little clit. He cupped his penis in his hand and pressed it against her and held her open with two fingers so she would feel his cock in the slippery valleys hidden there and fucked back and forth, torturing them both. “God damn you, Sophie,” he murmured, kissing her shoulder. “Fuck me, Sophie, fuck me now.”

If Sophie hadn’t been nearly insensible with lust, she would have laughed. No love poems and gentle words from Derek. He fucked liked he did everything else, with 177

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curses and commands. God, she wanted him. She hadn’t thought it was possible to feel like this with anyone but Ian. It shocked and thrilled and horrified her. She couldn’t control the shiver that shook her whole body as he fucked his cock against her slippery, swollen folds again. Derek’s cock, Derek’s hard body bracing her from behind, Derek’s breath hot and heavy on her cheek. She was lost in Derek, surrounded by him. He was so big, so male. His arms enfolded her and she felt like she was melting into his heat.

Sophie’s fingers curled into the wall as Derek spread the lips of her vagina wider and pressed his cock against her at the same time he circled her clitoris with a finger.

She loved what he was doing to her. Loved his rough handling and how vulnerable he made her feel, imprisoned between his body and the wall. She wouldn’t move her

hands, she couldn’t, not until he told her to. It was unbearably exciting to be under Derek’s control.

“Damn it,” Derek growled, and Sophie literally felt the gush of warm liquid

between her legs. Derek groaned and rubbed his cock in the new juice of her. “You like this? You want it?” Derek hadn’t lost the growl and she shivered. “I’m going to give it to you now.” He pulled away suddenly and grabbed Sophie’s arm, pushing her down on the bed.

She landed on her side and Derek gave her no time to roll over. He picked up her top leg and lifted it, straddling her other leg. He moved forward, bending the leg he held until he could get close enough to push his cock into her. As the tip of his cock penetrated her, Derek cursed again, and Sophie flung one arm out to clutch the

bedsheets, twisting her torso so she faced Derek while her hips and legs remained to the side. It should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. The position let Derek penetrate deep as he hugged her leg around his middle, her thigh pressed to his stomach. He felt…different than Ian, not as big, but hard and hot and just…wonderful. He pushed in deeper and Sophie felt her swollen channel part for him and then spasm around him, trying to hold him and suck him deeper. She gasped and it ended on a moan as Derek gripped her thigh hard enough to leave bruises and thrust fast and hard until he was all the way inside her, so deep she knew he could go no farther.