Authors: Cristin Harber
“Overachiever.”
Finally, a smile. A real one. God, it felt good to see such an unguarded moment.
“Okay, overachiever. I’ll give you that.”
He laughed, taking a step closer. “Do
you
need a countdown?”
“No.” Her eyes raked across his chest. He’d had more than his share of females eyeball-fuck him over the years, but her focus was different—less on him and more on what he’d inked on his body. “Do they all mean something?”
He nodded.
“Maybe you’ll tell me sometime.”
Maybe he would share his secrets. Of course he would. Most of them. He nodded again.
“You sure about that? Looks like I just asked for your firstborn.”
“For you, yes.” He took her small hand in his, appreciating the delicate softness that he remembered from their first night together. How long had he appreciated her from afar? So many times, he’d thought she would be this gentle, this giving, yet remain fierce.
“Thanks.” She leaned against him, her shirt still in place, and Javier wrapped an arm around her back. Their eyes held one another as their bodies did. He could feel her breathe, see her pupils react, and absolutely sense that she felt what he did.
With no words to share, he walked her into the small, steamy bathroom and shut the door. The humid warmth engulfed them, and he took the hem of her shirt in hand. “One, two—”
“Three.”
“Three.” Javier lifted it over her head and dropped it to the floor. Underneath that plain-Jane shirt was heaven. Her curves made his mouth water, and the curve of her neck made him groan. Javier stepped close, resting his palms on her bare shoulders and letting them drift down her biceps. Soft skin; strong woman. Not fragile or frail but the very definition of beauty. He breathed her in, and the faded scent of her shampoo pulled him closer. Forget that she’d been through hell that day—he couldn’t wait to comfort her and hear her sound the way he felt.
His lips touched her neck, his tongue sliding along in a wet kiss. And she did moan, that simple, perfect noise that made his erection stand and reach for her. Javier flicked her earlobe with his tongue. He tugged it with his teeth. Sophia stepped closer, her hands firmly on his stomach, searching and gripping, scratching and exploring. When her fingernails flexed into his skin, he breathed softly into the shell of her ear. “I promise you.”
“Hmm?” she purred, letting him nuzzle her neck.
Javier went back to her ear. “The only thing you’ll remember about today is how you’re about to feel.”
She sank against him, nodding. “I’d like that.”
His hands went down, tangling their fingers together. He squeezed their handhold, kissed her neck, and smoothed his palms up her back to the strap of her bra. Sliding it from her, Javier held her out, memorizing the sheer sexiness, the absolute perfection that stood in front of him. There was never a woman he’d dreamt of more than her. “God, you are beautiful.”
She blushed and turned her head, but he caught her chin and directed her to face him again.
“Beautiful.”
Her eyes brimmed, but she blinked it away. “Thank you.”
His palms ran lightly down her arms, over the hairs that stood on end and the goose bumps that appeared despite the steamy warmth. Then they rested on the waist of her pants. His fingertips drifted from her side and across her stomach as she sighed, shutting her eyes.
“Like when you make that noise.”
“I like everything about you.” She let her head hang back as though it lolled on its own.
“Good.” He unfastened the button. “Eyes on me.”
Sophia languidly rolled her head back, but her eyes were a dark contrast to the lazy move. They were on fire. Just like he was.
“Good girl.”
“Mmm.”
Javier smoothed his knuckles from the loose-hanging pants over her stomach. Her skin prickled under his touch, and Sophia swayed ever so slightly into him.
“That noise too.”
“Promise I’ll come up with some new ones to make for you.”
He laughed—actually, from the bottom of his soul,
laughed
. And so did she. That was the thing about her that no other woman had. Yeah, she was sexy, but she had more… dimension to her. Sex wasn’t just sex. It was for her, and him, to get those sounds, those sighs and whispers. That could keep him wanting her again and again.
He didn’t do things like that. Just like he never fell asleep with a woman. Or put a woman’s safety ahead of his PC intentions.
Her hand covered his on her stomach, pushing south. He took the cue and took charge, lowering the zipper and sliding them down along with her panties.
“You got me naked, Javier.” A playful smile tugged on her mouth. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Killing me.” Taking her hand, he jerked her close. “One second sweet, the next, not so.”
“I’m a puzzle.”
No kidding. At the moment, they both were. He turned her head to lightly kiss her temple then kissed her lips, sliding his tongue down her neck. “I’ll enjoy figuring you out.”
“Out of your pants, baby.”
He laughed. Again. “Bossy.”
Then he ditched the pants and pulled her into the hot stream of the shower. Sophia wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself close to kiss him. It was more like a charge than a kiss. Her mouth opened to his, her tongue lashing, and their hunger bled together. His hands skimmed her water-slicked body. The pert tips of her breasts brushed his chest.
Sophia arched against the water, letting her lips hover as her dripping eyelashes fluttered with his. “We feel good together.”
Amen, they did. Such a natural connection. Brushing her hair away from his target zone, he focused on kissing the neck that would be his undoing.
“That feels even better,” she murmured and wriggled.
Again, he agreed, his erection pressing between them. Their bodies clung together as water fell. His palms roamed her wet back, smoothing up and down, cupping and squeezing her ass.
Cristo
, making love to this woman felt right.
“I’m starting to forget about today.” She dropped her head back.
“Just what I’d thought.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Now, my plan.” He turned his attention to her chest, massaging her perked breasts and gently rubbing the nipples that colored his fantasies.
“I like the way you think. Everything about you…”
“You—” He nipped at her neck. “Too.” Everything except her job. He liked what she thought and how she reacted, how she seemed quiet, almost shy sometimes, but in the bedroom or in front of someone who needed help, she roared to life. He liked the sounds she made when she came, and he loved the way she said
baby
and watched him when he was intent on diving into her pants.
Sophia moaned for more.
“There are so many things to like about you, paixão. Too many to count.” His stubble-covered cheek brushed under her jaw as he went for her ear, and Sophia whimpered, almost buckling into him. “You like that, huh?”
“Uh-huh. Yes. Please.”
“Good to know.” He was making a mental checklist of what got her going, even though he was probably leaving the next day. If only tomorrow would never come and they could stay hidden in this room. Maybe one day in the future everything would be different.
But then he’d fail his Delta team and his sister. He’d give up on his life’s mission—to destroy the PC—and where would that leave him? With nothing. No purpose. Or a lost, abandoned purpose—
“Hey, you okay?” Sophia inched back.
He blinked, brought back to the moment. No. He wasn’t okay. “Of course, why?”
“You growled or something.” She bit her lip. “I think.”
He didn’t want to leave Sophia. Simple. Didn’t want to abandon his goals over just a girl. But he’d be stupid to call Sophia just a girl when she was anything but that. “It was nothing.”
To distract her—and him—he slipped his hand between her legs and listened to her gasp as he circled her clit, sliding deep to stroke into her pussy. When he added a second finger, her pant turned to a groan. She rocked against his palm. “Such a good girl,
coração
.”
He kissed her neck, leaning to her breast, and ran his tongue against her dark-pink, pebbled nipple. So sweet and beautiful. She arched when he sucked, riding his hand as he dropped to his knees.
“Javier.”
He hushed her, kissing her stomach and moving his hands to her hips, on a mission to taste her. She backed against the shower wall, hands splayed against the tiles as though she needed to grip them. He kissed her mound, nuzzling his chin against her folds. She arched her back, and he flicked his tongue against her. Water streamed over them as he urged her legs wider, lapping against her seam. Javier put a hand on her ass cheek and tossed her opposite leg over his shoulder. “Paixão.”
“What does that mean?” She moaned, flexing her hips.
“Just a word that makes me think of you.” It meant passion. Everything about her was passionate in some way—from how she tasted to how she fucked to why he wanted to spend the night wrapped in her arms, her body safe against his.
“God.” Her hands left the wall and knotted in his hair.
Javier thrust his tongue inside her body and worked her clit with his fingertips. She bucked against him and rode his kisses as if she might die if she stopped.
“Please… Javier.” She moaned and moved. Gasping, her words were lost in the cascading fall of the shower. Making her beg—that was his paradise. Sweet God, never let her stop.
Sophia’s leg clamped on his back, and she pulled her other leg onto his shoulders. His forearm supported her weight. Her tightening orgasm started on his tongue. She moaned and thrashed, and he owned every sound, every ripple of her sweetness until she clawed into his hair, bucking against his mouth, and promised it was the world’s greatest orgasm.
Damn. He was done for this gatinha.
***
The hum in Sophia’s head rivaled the most intense fall she’d ever had. Her mind blanked, her muscles relaxed, and the soothing massage of hot water, mixed with Javier’s dangerously careful lips, gently ran across the inside of her thigh. “Spent” didn’t begin to describe her state of mind.
“Hungry” did. She was hungry for him, for this, them, together.
Sex was sex. Except with him, it was like
whoa
. It wasn’t just another level of amazing; it was as though he redefined the galaxy of her understanding. The man’s tongue was intense and everything she wanted and needed and craved—all with him on his knees in front of her.
Despite the hold he had on her, Javier dominated from the floor. But there wasn’t a question of who was in charge, of who made her feel this way.
Sophia wanted to thank him, to promise him the world if he could make her fly like that again. Javier’s strong hands ran up her sides as he blocked the water, standing over her, his erection jutting between them, and she tingled at just the thought of penetration.
“What?” he asked.
How could she put into words the visceral hope of feeling the silk of his shaft—the amazing, breath-stealing spearing of his cock? “You. Just…
you
.”
“I want inside your body,” he promised against her lips.
She kissed him, tasting herself, tasting him, opening her mouth as his tongue probed inside. “I want you there too.”
“I don’t have a condom.”
A shot by her ob-gyn four times a year said she didn’t have to use a condom, at least to keep from getting pregnant. But his words made her take pause. Why did he say it as an open-ended question but without asking? Maybe it was an excuse for not wanting her to cling to him any more than she already was.
“My loss,” she said because that was the safe response, one that let him know exactly what she wanted while still putting some distance between him and the truth.
“Sophia.” He cupped her chin, guiding her gaze to his. “I’d never hurt you.”
“I know.”
“Are you on the pill?”
Her mouth hinged open at the straightforwardness. “Well, yes.” Basically. “Birth control.”
“Trust me to be safe for you?”
Oh, God. Him, skin to skin. “Yes.”
“Are you safe for me?”
She nodded. “Even with my ex-fiancé, we used condoms.”
“I always have too.”
“He was a cheater. Josh. My ex.”
“I know who Josh is. And that he cheated on you.”
A nauseous feeling at the memory made her itch to forget Josh and scream because he’d been brought into her moment with Javier. Josh might not have left her with any physical reminder of his cheating, but the mental recaps popped up at the absolute worst times.
Javier’s thumbs swept across her damp cheeks. “So, yes?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
He kissed her lips, letting his tongue guide him to her ear. He bit her earlobe. “You’re going to let me. Inside your body. Me in you. Nothing between us.”