Page 14 of The Runaway Heiress
“You’re so wet. So ready.” He whispered in her ear just before taking the sensitive lobe between his teeth, causing her intimate muscles to tighten deliciously.
Shewasready, more than ready. Sophie felt wanton as she bent her knees to put her feet flat on the bed so she could open her legs wider. His finger left her and then she felt that foreign part of him touching her. He flexed forward and pushed the head inside, just past the tight opening. The delicious heaviness of him there, hot and throbbing, parting her, made her arch to take him in farther. But he moved slowly, priming her with a few easy, shallow thrusts that stoked the tension inside her and made her moan to be filled.
Gray held back. And instead of taking her like she wanted, he raised himself on an elbow above her and moved his hand back to where they were barely joined and stroked her there. The pad of his thumb moved over the tender, distended flesh in a steady rhythm that slowly increased with her arousal. Sophie panted as her universe narrowed to that touch occasionally emphasized by the inadvertent jerk of his hips. She watched as a telling bead of sweat formed on his brow and lazily trickled down to his cheekbone, and wanted to lick it from his skin, before her eyes closed, too far gone in her own pleasure to think of anything except his touch. Then the tremors began. Starting slowly at the precious spot where his thumb worked and moving their way out through her whole body. She groaned when the first wave crested and held on tight as others came and washed over her.
Unable to hold back anymore, Gray sheathed himself completely inside her in a deep thrust, forcing the delicate tissue of her channel apart to accept his size. Sophie stiffened and made a noise low in her throat, her nails biting into his shoulders to stay him. He tried to hold back, to allow her untried body to get used to the feel of him, his whole body shaking with the effort, but he failed miserably. His fingertips bit into the soft flesh of her buttocks to hold her still for him as his hips grinded against her, unwilling to obey the commands of his mind.
She was so tight and hot wrapped around him, he only wanted to pound into her in a mindless fervor of abandon. And then she moved. A simple shift of position, probably, but his body took it as submission and before he could get a grip on his passion, he pulled back and pushed into her. A single, deep, mind-numbing in its intensity thrust that was in no way gentle and in all ways the raw hunger he was afraid to unleash on her.
“Shit, Sophie.” He started to pull away from her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Gray.” From beneath him, her voice penetrated his consciousness and summoned his gaze to hers. “Don’t leave!” She grabbed him desperately. “Please.”
He didn’t breathe as he looked down at her, hardly able to believe that he was hearing her correctly. That despite the pain he had caused her, she still wanted him. There was no fear on her face. She wanted him. To prove it she grabbed his hips and pulled him back into her.
“More.”
And then her hips were arching up to him, attempting to set a rhythm and he was lost. He fell over her then, resting on his forearms, aware of her slim, delicate body beneath him. His hands were trembling as he fisted them in the sheet on either side of her. Slowly and with infinite gentleness, he pushed into her again, his gaze locked on her face until he was fully seatedwithin her. Her passage was so incredibly tight he was sure he’d hurt her, but her eyes were heavy-lidded and glazed with passion when they met his. He pulled out of her almost completely, and smiled when her fingernails bit into his hips to pull him back. He obliged and tenderly thrust into her again.
“Please, Gray.” Her hips rose, asking for more friction.
It was all the encouragement he needed. He drove into her then without restraint, giving into the madness of their passion, watching in awe as her face changed with each stroke. Finally her hoarse cry filled the room and he watched her come apart, felt her come apart, as she contracted around his shaft. Only then did he bury his face in her neck and hold her tight until his own groan of pleasure tore itself from his lips. He barely managed to pull out of her before spilling his seed.
He fell onto her then, limp and sated, and sure that she had taken some part of his soul.
Long moments passed in silence as their breathing returned to normal. Sophie relished the way his body felt, completely relaxed and calm, on top of her. But he stirred then and shifted so the bulk of him lay beside her, a heavy thigh still positioned between hers and his shoulder still covering most of her torso. The air in the room was so warm their skin glistened in the meager lamp light, but it didn’t matter. She savored him and the slick feel of his skin on hers.
“Are you okay?”
Sophie opened her eyes to see him raised slightly, gaze roving her face in search of damage. As if any damage he’d caused would be visible on her face, she mused. “Wonderful, mon coeur.” Her fingertips caressed his cheek and he reflexively turned to press a kiss to the center of her palm.
Her other hand came up to stroke his shoulder and then down to trace lightly over the tattoo, overwhelmed by her need to touch him, to somehow be closer to him even though they hadjust completed an act that brought them as close as two people could physically be.
“Is it always this way?” she whispered, hoping he didn’t need clarification because she wasn’t quite sure how to express the complex feelings of longing and completeness she felt.
When his gaze met hers again the solemnity was back but there was something else. And when he whispered “never” Sophie’s breath caught in her throat. She realized, more than anything else, she wanted to see him look at her like that every day for the rest of her life. But there were so many things in the way.
“I’m sorry if I made you do something you didn’t want to,” she blurted out.
He laughed. A soft exhalation of air that caused prickles of pleasure to dance across her skin where it touched as he bent and placed a kiss on her shoulder, her chest, her neck, just before his lips brushed across hers. “Did it feel like you had an unwilling man between your thighs?”
Her cheeks pinkened. “No. I meant…” Her voice faded. It didn’t seem right to mention her uncle, Anton, and Gray’s profession. Those things had no place in the room with them anymore.
But he knew.
“We have tonight, Sophie.” And he kissed her again. A slow, deep, wet kiss that made that part of her start to ache again. When he pulled back there was a devious glint in his eyes that promised to make good use of the hours ahead.
Chapter Nine
Some time later, Gray lay with Sophie curled against his chest. One hand gripped her hip in a mildly possessive touch while the fingers of his other hand were threaded with hers. The pose seemed so natural, it scared the hell out of him.
She’d just finished telling him about her childhood. The ranch, her parents, her brother, and how happy they’d been. Perfectly idyllic until LaSalle had come and convinced her father to mine their land. She didn’t mention that part but Sinclair had told him about his suspicions. When the mine began showing profit, her parents had been killed in an accident that LaSalle had almost certainly arranged. He wondered if she knew about that. The thought of Sophie at her uncle’s mercy filled him with a rage that bordered on uncontrollable. He wanted to protect her no matter the cost.
She rose up to look down at their clasped hands. He swallowed hard at the smile she bestowed on him. Her heart was reflected in that smile, and it made him ache because he had no idea how to keep that heart from breaking come morning. He hadno idea how he would let her go, for that matter, so he pushed the thought from his mind and squeezed her close. They had tonight.
“Any regrets?” Her voice was as soft as the lighting.
“Never.” He couldn’t stop himself from smiling back. Even he was surprised at how true it was. No matter what happened, he would remember this night with her for the rest of his life.
