Page 36 of Rise of the King (Checkmate 5)

“It’s never too much.” Pulling out, I slide back in until our thighs slam together. Powerless, she drops her face against the comforter until her whimpers are nothing but muted groans.

“Tell me to stop if you need me to stop, Soph. But don’t stop it just because of what you’resupposedto like. If it feels good, enjoy it. You’re allowed to be a naughty girl when it’s just us.” Lifting my left hand, I bring it down over her ass and grit my teeth at the way she crushes my cock. “You’re my naughty girl, aren’t you? For tonight, you’re all mine.”

* * *

We lie on her bed and breathe heavily. Her air is mine, and mine is hers, because neither of us can muster the energy to get up and move.

The only sounds I hear are those of the building’s pipelines clanking when someone flushes downstairs, the heat blowing through the floor vents so I sweat for the first time in months, and our hearts slamming in tandem.

I study Soph’s face, her sharp cheekbones and her dark eyes. Hers are almost black like mine, but when she comes back to earth and focuses on me, a blush rushes to her cheeks. “Shut up!” She turns and hides her face in the covers. “You said you wouldn’t tease.”

“I’m not teasing!” Smiling, I lean over her so my chest rests against her back. I lift a leg over her thighs, and slide my hand over her hip. “I didn’t say a single word.”

“You’re thinking it!”

“I’m not thinking anything.” I press a kiss to the top of her delicate shoulder. “Except maybe next time we put the toy in your pussy and my cock in your ass.”

“Stop!” She throws an elbow back and slams it into my stomach. She winds me, injures me as my aching lungs protest her assault.

“Sophia! You hurt me.” Laughing, I grab her arm when she takes a second swing. “Don’t hurt me, beautiful. I’m so fucking relaxed right now; don’t ruin it.”

“So stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Likethat.”

Laughing, I slide my hand around to the front of her pelvis, and when she stills and her chest fills and stops, I slide my fingers over her clit and grin when she sighs.

“I’m not teasing, Sophia. I’m basking. I haven’t been this relaxed in…” I consider the past few months, come up empty, then I cast my memories back further. “I don’t even know. Forever.” I lean away so she can drop to her back, then I work my fingers between her legs and match that movement with my tongue in her mouth. “You help me relax. So I’ll help you.”

Last time was fast, hot, and bordering on angry. But this time, I swallow her sighs and groan when she lets go and fills my hand. “So beautiful.” I slide my tongue over her bottom lip. “I noticed you too, just so you know. Months ago. Since the first time I saw you in the stairwell.”

Her eyes are closed, her chest lifting and falling. But her lips quirk up into a tiny smile. “Really?”

“Uh-huh. I followed you to that diner. I followed and made myself comfortable being Ginnie’s new regular until I could get my bearings.”

I was injured, dizzy, sick, trying to figure out my new sleep cycle, missing my brother, and trying to wait out the headaches that would haunt me and drill through my brain. Sophia Solomon was sunlight in a dark world and brought my aching brain comfort when little else could. Where everyone else was dark and painful, she was light and easy. Shefeltgood to look at, even if she’d huddle in her coat and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

Back when I first got here, I wasn’t in a place where I could approach a girl – I mean, shit, I’mstillnot in that place. What if Ace calls me up tomorrow, or I get word on whoever’s hunting Kane? What if the danger comes here and hurts Soph? Or what if it takes me away, and I never see her again?

Lying back and staring at the ceiling, I blow out a long breath and pull her naked body against mine. “There are a million reasons I shouldn’t have followed you, Soph. My world is way too dangerous for you, but I followed anyway, because I could see your beauty, even when you covered up with a coat and tried not to be seen.”

With twitching lips, she opens one eye and meets my gaze. “I didn’t realize selling fridges could be a dangerous career.”

“Shut up.” I smack her thigh and swallow her yelp. “I’m so fucking hungry; you have no clue. I need to get up and eat before I die of hunger.”

“Okay.” Rolling to the other side of her bed and the filing cabinet on that side, she yanks the top drawer open and takes a protein bar out. Tossing it at my chest, she grabs one for herself and tears the wrapper open. “I keep protein everywhere. You ever get hungry in my place, just open a drawer and you’ll find something that’ll get you through the worst of it.”

My stomach protests my starvation. I couldn’t see past my hunger for Soph, but now that I’ve satiated that craving, the rest make themselves known. My stomach aches at how empty it is, and the steady hands that demanded Sophia’s attention and obedience just minutes ago now shake from low sugar.

Tearing the wrapper open, I shove the bar in my mouth and bite off half with a grunt. The girl with the trust fund buys the expensive bars, the kind that help you make gains on your jaw just to get through them.

The taste of dark chocolate and berries covers my tongue, and though I have a beautiful – naked – woman right next to me, I groan for food now, and not her. “Jesus, can we order something up? This ain’t gonna be enough.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Standing and chewing on her own bar, she walks across her apartment and stops at her desk. Naked as the day she was born, but not self-conscious about her slim build, she snatches up her phone to dial, stops, and frowns.

“Something up?” I sit up on her bed and rest my head against the wall.

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