The Billionaire's Forbidden Desire (20 page)

Their mouths still fused, he stood, drawing her up with him, and cupped her ass. She wrapped her strong skater’s legs around his waist, and he could feel the damp heat through their clothes. Desire pounded through him, and it was all he could do to not rip their clothes off, shove her up against the wall and have her right there.

He carried her, every step making his cock rub against her folds. Her chest vibrated with a suppressed moan. Heat flushed her cheeks and neck, and her eyes sparkled with excitement and need.

He paused at the stairs. He’d never taken a woman into his bedroom—that was what the guest suite was for. But he didn’t want her where all the other women had been.

He went into the master suite. The dim lights came on at their entrance, and Sophia reached for his shirt buttons.

“Patience,” he muttered.

“I’ve waited long enough.”

“It hasn’t even been half an hour.”

“Wrong. It’s been weeks.” She scraped her teeth over his earlobe. “I made myself come with my fingers after the charity function,” she whispered, lips next to his ear. “But it was nowhere near enough.”

Fuck
. The image of her, naked and writhing while masturbating to him was nearly his undoing.
What a waste
. She should’ve called him. They would’ve had a much more satisfying time together.

He reined himself in. He’d never lost control over a woman, and he didn’t plan to start now, especially not with Sophia. Women were all the same once he’d had them undressed and on their knees with their mouths wrapped around his dick. But somehow Sophia was different. She was the first one to make him want more than easy, uncomplicated sex.

Deliberately, he undid the buttons on her top and let it drop to the floor with a whisper. The skirt was next. She stood before him, so delicious and ready, with nothing but a lacy pink bra and matching panties. Small tremors went through every creamy dip and mound. She was softer and fuller than three years ago, her body ripe.

Unhooking her bra, he kissed her shoulder. Despite her strong muscles and athletic achievements, everything about her was fine and delicate. Her injuries spoke volumes about how fragile she could be.

His lips trailed down her body, his tongue flickering over a pebbled nipple. He pulled down her panties, then pressed his mouth against her hip.

She dug her hands into his hair. “Are you kissing all my owies?”

“Mmm-hmm.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t think anybody has, and every owie deserves a kiss.”

Sophia blinked as a hot lump clogged her throat. Nobody had ever said that to her. She was the girl who got up every time she fell, who pasted on a smile and moved on like nothing had happened. She wasn’t supposed to hurt or shed tears.

But somehow this man, who people said had ice water in his veins, seemed to know what outwardly sympathetic people didn’t.

Her legs grew shaky, and she fell to her knees, bringing their bodies closer. Her small hands cradled his cheeks, and she sought his mouth. Her hard nipples stabbed against his chest, and her fingers undid his shirt buttons, pushing the garment out of the way. Electric shocks went through her body when her hands touched his bare chest. Who would’ve thought that simple skin-to-skin contact could feel this good?

He dragged his hand along the smooth line of her body until his fingers brushed between her legs. She was unbelievably wet and hot down there, but she didn’t feel any shame, not when he looked at her with such naked desire.

His thumb circled over her swollen clit. A small cry tore from her, her teeth biting into her lower lip.

“You’re fucking gorgeous,” he whispered against her jaw line as he peppered it with feathery kisses.

“You make me feel gorgeous. Whole.”

With him, she wasn’t the damaged girl with broken dreams. She was a woman desired, a woman on her way to figuring out the rest of her life.

He picked her up and deposited her in the center of the bed. Impatiently he shrugged out of his shirt. The rest of his clothes received the same careless treatment. He kneeled on the bed and picked her foot up.

Self-consciousness suddenly shot through her. Her feet had gotten better, but they were awful from years of abuse. And she hated the thought of having them compared to his other women, who undoubtedly had soft, well-cared for feet—

Dane pressed a thumb into her instep. “Relax,” he murmured.

Sophia bit back a moan. That felt amazing.

“I like everything about you.”

“You’re such a liar,” she said, her voice breathless. “I’m not blind to my…deficiencies.”

“You’ve done interesting things with your life. It’s no shame your body bears the marks.” He pressed a hot kiss against her not-so-straight ankle.

Her heart knocked against its ribcage. How could he talk to her like this? He was the last one she’d expected to say something so sweet. Knowing how he hated lies and pretenses, she knew he meant everything.

He showed the same tender, sexy care to her other leg, then slowly moved upward, her ankles resting on his shoulders, then her knees, licking and loving every inch of her along the way.

Her nerves jittered in anticipation.

His breath fanned over her clit, and she bit her lower lip. She didn’t dare move or make any sound lest this was a dream. This might be the part where she woke up.

He covered her with his mouth and her body surged with pleasure. Before she could muffle herself with a hand, he gripped her wrists.

“Let me hear you,” he said, then pulled her clit into his mouth.

She was completely exposed, her legs wide apart. His wicked mouth and tongue moved along her dripping flesh, lapping up every drop. Her hands twisted around the sheets underneath. She couldn’t stop her breathless whimpers.

“Please—”

“Don’t waste your hands,” he said. “Play with your tits. Make yourself feel even better.”

Heat suffused her face and torso, and at first she didn’t move. But when he merely waited while gently breathing over her, she couldn’t help herself. She cupped her breasts, kneading them. “Dane…”

“Pinch your nipples,” he ordered as he pushed a finger into her. When she hesitated, he stopped, making her cry out in protest. “Show me how you pleasure your body. Now.”

* * *

Dane held himself back. The sweet taste of her on his tongue was urging him to go back down on her, but he wanted to see how she’d made herself come that night.

It was her birthday, for fuck’s sake, and he should just give her everything now, but he was a selfish bastard.

She squeezed her breasts, then pinched the tips with her forefinger and thumb. The nipples reddened, and when she let go, they stayed tightly puckered.

Her dark and lust-glazed eyes made his blood boil. Unable to wait even a moment longer, he devoured her flesh. A delicious gasp from her parted lips drove him forward, and he fucked her with his tongue while using a slick finger to press against her tight rosette.

She let out a sharp cry, her back arching. Her muscles contracted tightly around him. Blood pounded in his cock, so hard he could have used it to hammer railroad spikes.

She pulled him up for a kiss, gripping him with desperation. “I want to feel you inside me,” she whispered. “
Now
. I feel like I’ve waited forever.”

When she arched and twisted in wanton invitation, he couldn’t hold back. He put on a condom and sank into her swollen, juicy depths. She trembled around him, her inner muscles like a slick fist around his cock.

He cursed under his breath. “You feel amazing.”

“So do you.”

His control slipped. All he wanted to do was pound into her, rut like an animal. But she deserved so much better. He held back and pulled her nipple into his mouth, trapping and suckling it. She whimpered, then cried out.

“Please,” she begged. “I want you so much.”

Damn it. He squeezed his eyes shut as the tight reins of self-control snapped. He’d meant to go slowly, steadily, so their breaths mingled and bodies glided along each other until they went crazy. But he couldn’t resist her impassioned urging.

He pulled out until only the tip of his cock remained, then slammed into her, hilting himself. He watched carefully, making sure he wasn’t hurting her—he was so much larger—but she merely clutched him and met his thrust with a sharp inhalation that he knew wasn’t from pain.

All right
.

He drove into her over and over again, angling himself to make sure he hit her most sensitive spots. He wanted to make her come with a hard, primal fucking, with his dick buried deep inside her. He wanted her to become addicted to him, just like he was to her. He couldn’t even pretend he’d been doing things for a reason other than his desire for her.

Even with her under him and crying out with pleasure, he wasn’t fully satisfied. He wanted her in ways that made his heart twist, like there was a shard digging into it.

A strong climax gripped her, and she shattered in his arms, her inner muscles milking him. He was so damn close; all he had to do was let go, but he couldn’t. He wanted to see her come again.

Before she could descend from her high, he increased the speed and depth of his thrusts, angling up so he rubbed her G-spot every time. When another orgasm crashed through her, he finally emptied himself inside her.

Even as physical fulfillment burned through him, another kind of hunger gnawed in his gut. And he knew he’d finally done something he’d sworn never to do—want someone’s heart.

* * *

When Dane returned to bed after cleaning up in the bathroom, Sophia curled around him, wrapping him in her arms and resting her head over his heart. He generally didn’t care for women clinging to him after sex, but somehow it was okay—even enjoyable—with Sophia.

He pulled her closer; she pressed a kiss to his chest. His heart was still beating too fast. Or maybe it was the effect of having her near him like this. He’d assumed that she was like a splinter under his fingernail—something that nagged at his attention but would be easy enough to get rid of. Now he knew that wasn’t true.

“Do you want to go on a getaway this weekend? We can stay until the end of the next week,” he asked, drawing a sheet over them. His calendar was full for the coming week, but he didn’t give a damn. He wanted to go away, just her and him, with no one else in the way.

“Mmm, sounds nice.” She looked up at him. “Where?”

“Paris, maybe?”

The skin between her eyebrows furrowed, and she lowered her eyes. But then she laughed. “We can’t go that far. Don’t you have to go to Mark’s wedding?”

“They don’t want me there, trust me.”

“Who said that? Mark or Hilary?”

He frowned. “Oh, they’re
saying
they want me there, but trust me, they don’t. Paris is vastly more entertaining. Food. Culture. History.” He paused. “Romance,” he added, with an exaggerated French accent.

She giggled. “Come on. You can’t skip your brother’s wedding.”

“Sure I can. They’re used to it.”

“How many weddings have you skipped?”

“No actual weddings so far, but I don’t bother to attend most of the family stuff. They don’t expect me to show these days.”

“That’s sad,” Sophia said quietly. “I don’t have siblings, but if I did, I’d spend as much time as I could with them.”

“Forget siblings.” He kissed her, trying to drag her mind away from his family. “You. Me. Paris. Didn’t you say you wanted to travel? I don’t think you’ve had much time to do that over the last three years.”

“No, but I’ve been to Paris already. I don’t really want to go back.”

He had an odd feeling she hadn’t meant to say the last part. “Why not?”

She sighed. “That’s where I had the car accident that ended my competitive career.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.” She forced a smile.

“Wanna talk about it?” The question slipped from him before he could think it through. He never invited women to talk about their problems. He never cared, never wanted to know.

She was quiet for so long, he thought she didn’t. And strangely enough it bothered him that she didn’t want to talk about it.

“The Trophée Éric Bompard. It’s a skating competition, one of the top ones. Usually happens in the fall, and that year it was in early November. I entered and I won. It was thrilling because it was the first competition of the Olympic season, and it was important to start on the right foot. Afterwards, I was on my way to the airport. The cabbie was speeding. I think he was impatient because I told him I was running late and I’d promised him a big tip if he could get me there fast. I didn’t want to miss my flight home. Then we were hit by some rich guy in a red Lamborghini, which was also speeding from what I understand. I don’t really remember…everything after the accident is sort of hazy.”

Dane’s mouth went dry. “Did you say a red Lamborghini?”

She nodded. “I saw it. It T-boned the taxi.”

“Jesus.” Apprehension cut through him. He’d been driving a red Lamborghini when he’d gotten into his accident in Paris.

Five million dollars. Nobody paid that kind of money unless it was death or something similar. But five million could’ve been the price for killing her Olympic dream.

Stop jumping to conclusions
, he told himself. It could’ve been some other driver. He wasn’t the only person in Paris who had a red Lamborghini. It could all just have been a coincidence.

“Hey, it’s okay.” She forced a smile. “It was a long time ago.”

“How long?” he asked, unable to help himself.

“Seven years.”

He swallowed, light-headed. It couldn’t possibly be…

“I don’t really think about it,” she added.

Not much more than him, undoubtedly.

He shook himself and spooned her, kissing her shoulder. “Get some sleep. We still have to get up early tomorrow.”

“Shouldn’t we call or something? Let them know we aren’t coming home?”

The last thing he wanted to do was call Al. “They’re used to me doing whatever I want. We’re fine.”

She nodded, stretched, and soon drifted to sleep. When he was sure she was dead to the world, he slipped out of bed.