Making His Move (2 page)

“I want to ask you something, Sophie.”

“Okay,” she murmured, chewing on her lower lip. What the hell was happening here? She cringed when the horrible thought that he might be getting ready to tell her that he’d noticed her crush, but just didn’t see her that way, spilled into her mind. When he didn’t say anything, she finally whispered, “Are you going to tell...”

Her voice trailed off with a gasp when she caught the smoldering look in his chocolate gaze. And not the tasteless stuff, either. No, Chris’s eyes were the deep, rich color of pure Swiss cocoa, all warm and intoxicating, like he wanted to eat her alive. God help her, no one had ever looked at her quite like
that
before. It was even more delicious than the way she imagined him looking at her in her fantasies, and a powerful punch of lust slammed into her belly, causing a breathy sound of need to wheeze past her lips. She licked their dry surface, surprised when those brown eyes narrowed, following the nervous action like a hawk eyeing its prey. “I’ve been fighting this for what feels like forever,” he rasped into the heavy silence.

Her eyes widened. “Uh…” She shifted nervously beneath his stare. “Fighting what?” she asked lamely, feeling as if she’d slipped into some kind of alternate reality. Chris was looking at her as if he were actually interested, which meant this was the perfect time to let him know she was interested, too. To do a little harmless flirting. Heck, if Lila Carne were standing in her place, she’d probably already be on her knees, his erection halfway down her throat by now.

That is, if he had an erection. Did he? Was he hard? As hard and as hot as the look that was burning in those beautiful eyes?

She wished she had the guts to just do it. To just drop her startled gaze and check him out. And if he
was
hard, she wished she had the nerve to drop down on her knees and do exactly what Lila would be doing if she were the one standing in that elevator with him.

The only problem was that Sophie was about as good at flirting as she was at skateboarding. And the only time she’d ever tried to ride her older brother’s skateboard had ended with a trip to the ER and a cast on her left arm for two months.

But then, she’d never, in all her life, wanted —
needed
— to take a risk as badly as she wanted to take this man. She was so freaking tempted she could taste it.

She watched, fascinated, as a glimmer of pure, unadulterated hunger seemed to spark deeper within his gaze, setting the brown to a roiling, molten glow. “Can’t you guess?”

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head.

“Soph, we need to talk about this.” The hint of a dare played there in that warm, private stare. It was almost as if he
knew
her little secret, and the idea sent an exhilarating shot of panic down her spine.

Oh, God, did she actually
want
him to know? Could there honestly be a chance that he felt the same? That he wanted her as badly as the look in his eyes seemed to be saying he did?

The instant that crazy thought slammed into her head, she thought
No... No, of course not!
That was ridiculous. Despite how he was acting, she’d be a fool to think he was into someone as awkward as she was. Yeah, she had talents. But that was at work. They didn’t pertain to hot, sexy studs who made her ache for things she didn’t believe she could ever have — even for just one hot, incredible night. The way she felt about him was obviously making her imagination run wild. Heck, for all she knew, she’d hit her head when she tripped in the hallway and she was dreaming this entire thing!

When she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to make it hurt and didn’t suddenly wake up, a shocked Sophie assumed it actually
was
happening. But her courage was in shreds. “I’m not sure what you think we need to talk about, Riley, but I need to get back to the lab,” she murmured, so disappointed in herself she wanted to scream.

A slow, slightly crooked grin transformed his rugged good looks into something outrageously sinful. Flustered, she started to drop her gaze again, when he said, “Fuck work for the moment, Soph. I want to talk about
us
. About you and me.”

That jerked her eyes back up to his, unsure how they’d finally found the courage to wander down below his belt to the tempting, mouthwatering bulge at his groin.
Jesus
. Only Chris Riley could manage to look that sinful in gray pinstripe, crisp white dress shirt, and dark maroon silk tie. She knew he dressed so well because he wanted people to think he was more than just a gorgeous face and muscular bod. There were always going to be small-minded people who would take one look at him and assume he was nothing more than a dumb jock or a surf bum. But they couldn’t have been further from the truth.

And right then, at that very moment, his business attire wasn’t doing anything to dull his raw sex appeal and intensity. He could have been wearing barbarian fur and he wouldn’t have looked more primitively sexual than he did standing across from her in the quiet elevator, the front of his slacks straining over a shockingly full erection. The sight had sizzling licks of lust rushing through her veins, her heartbeat pounding to a heavy, hypnotic rhythm.

His eyes held hers, waiting for a response. “What about us?” she yelped, inwardly scowling at the ridiculous sound. Geez, what was it with her today? She should be acting like “Sophie the Sex Goddess”, not squeaking like a friggin’ mouse.

He dropped his bag and took a step forward, then another, quickly closing in on her. All the wonderful little details came into sharper focus, from the small, jagged scar at his temple to the slight bump on the bridge of his nose, as if it’d been broken at some point. He didn’t stop until he was standing right in front of her, his broad, well-muscled shoulders dimming the bright glare of fluorescent light from overhead. “Do you really not know what I’m getting at, Soph?”

“Uh...I, um...” she stammered, while his rich, earthy, masculine scent messed with her head. It was like something you would smell in the wild, fresh and clean and entirely too addicting for her own good.

He slowly shook his head, his hot gaze following the soft curve of her chin, trailing up the line of her jaw, across what she knew must be a pink cheek, to land on the curling wisps of light brown hair at her temples, more than a few strands slipping free of her messy bun. It seemed unusually warm in the elevator and her skin was beginning to feel damp, though she suspected that had more to do with the fever building inside her than it did with the actual temperature.

The corner of his mouth twitched as he stared down at her, the look in his eyes somehow as tender as it was intense. “Take a deep breath, honey. You don’t need to be so nervous.”

She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, trying to focus on what he was saying through the haze of desire clouding her senses. Was it going steamy in the tiny elevator, or was she about to combust?

“Do you have any idea how fucking sexy it is when you lick your lips like that? How crazy it drives me?” He cupped the right side of her jaw, the thrilling touch of his skin against her own electric, the metal of his ring cold against her feverish warmth. A barrage of potent sexual images invaded her mind, stealing through her system, nearly bringing Sophie to her knees. Using his thumb, he outlined the shape of her mouth, then pressed against the center of her lower lip, testing its fullness. “Yeah, I can’t stay away from
this
. Not for another second.”

“Riley?” she moaned, licking her bottom lip again. When the tip of her tongue grazed his thumb, he visibly shuddered.

“Jesus,” he growled, already lowering his head. “Use my goddamn name, Soph.” And then his mouth was on hers, hot and so blissfully skilled, his tongue thrusting past her lips to rub against her own, and her heart jerked so sharply she nearly died. She got lost in the beautiful, mind-drugging place where she took in his breath for her own, his warm lips and his tongue claiming her mouth in ways that were exquisitely sinful...explicit. Startled and feeling completely inept in the face of his experience, she struggled against it as strongly as she longed to surrender, to give in, and as if he sensed her internal battle, his kiss became nearly violent in its power, ruthlessly demanding her submission.

God help her, she was ready to give it. Ready to crawl up his big, beautiful body and let him teach her everything she needed to know to make him like it. To keep him coming back for more. For as much as he was willing to give her.

But then, the next thing Sophie knew, he was ripping that wicked mouth away from hers, the low, guttural sound on his lips burning through her, leaving her melting between her trembling thighs.

“Chris?” she whispered, using his name for the first time when his dark gaze locked hard with hers.

“Listen,” he said roughly, caressing her cheek as he pulled back with a ragged, audible breath. “We’ve skirted around this thing between us for long enough, and now I... Christ, I can’t keep my hands off you. So I’m just going to put it out there. Do you want me, Sophie?”

W
ith his blood pounding in his ears, Chris waited for Sophie to answer him, knowing damn well that he needed to come clean with her
now
, before this thing between them went any further. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it when there was a chance she might run. And after wanting her for the past four months, fighting the attraction every goddamn day, it’d fucking kill him if she ran.

Those big light brown eyes swallowed her face, giving everything away — her shock, as well as her powerful arousal. “What?” she croaked in a throaty voice, looking past him as if seeking a route of escape within the cramped interior of the elevator. Or maybe she thought there was a secret cameraman getting ready to jump out of the wall, as if this were all some sort of set-up. It would have pissed him off, if he didn’t know how shy she was. Not to mention cautious around men. He just wished she had more faith in him than that.

He took a deep breath, struggling to stay in control. They probably only had a handful of seconds before one of the guys on his security team used the intercom to make sure everything was okay, considering he’d had the elevator in lockdown for nearly a minute now. He needed this thing settled between them before they reached the lobby and she was able to run and hide. “You heard me, Sophie.”

“I’m not... I don’t, uh... I mean, I’m so confused.”

“Jesus,” he groaned with a choked laugh, “just answer the question.”

A small frown formed between her delicate brows, her expression as wary as it was puzzled. “What’s this really all about?”

He took her slim hand in his much larger one and studied the fine tracery of veins beneath her fragile skin, stroking a pale blue line with his thumb. “I’ve been fighting the desire to ask you out since meeting you, Soph.”

“But —
why
? Why fight it?” she whispered, sounding breathless with disbelief. “If you wanted to ask me out, why didn’t you?”

Tension crept through his muscles, and though he managed a lopsided grin, he had a feeling it looked strained. Giving her only part of the truth, he said, “I know there were some crazy rumors going around about me right from the first day I started at Blackwood, and I was worried you’d turn me down because you believed them. I wanted to give you time to get to know
me
— not the reputation. Because whatever you might have heard, Soph, it’s mostly bullshit. I’m
not
a playboy. And despite the fact that I’m not a genius like you and most of the others, I’m also not a moron who has more muscles than brains.”

A flash of fiery anger lit her expression, sparking within those big brown eyes. “I never thought you were. I can’t even imagine who could know you and still think something like that.”

His chest got this weird melting sensation right in the middle — one he strongly suspected had been nurturing its roots since he’d met the intriguing, delectable little Sophie Ward. “Your boss, for one. He looks at me like I’m nothing more than a beach bum. And a few of your co-workers.”

She scowled. “You know how I feel about Dr. Hastings and a lot of the guys in my lab. They’re assholes to anyone they can’t intimidate,” she muttered, sniffing with disdain. “And their Rogaine isn’t working. It makes them bitchy.”

A deep, rumbling laugh surged up from his chest, and he shook his head, thinking she was too damn cute for words. And so innocently sexy, he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to keep himself together. He could tell by the way she was staring up at him that his hunger was carved into the hard-edged angles of his face, burning in his eyes. He gently brushed a wayward lock of hair back from her flushed cheek, tucking the errant strand behind the small shell of her ear. “So you don’t see me as the resident idiot stud of the institute?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Of course not. I’ve never given you any reason to think such a ridiculous thing.”

“You assumed that just because Lila shoved her breasts in my face, I was going to pounce on her,” he pointed out, trailing his fingertips from her ear down the tender side of her throat. He cupped the slender column in his palm and brushed his thumb across the base, seeking out her racing pulse beneath the delicate skin. “So what am I meant to think?”

Sophie swallowed, licked her lips, and spoke in a breathless rush. “I wasn’t... didn’t... I was just... I mean...” She closed her eyes, a frustrated breath escaping her mouth.

“Just tell me this. Have you ever thought about me, Soph?” His voice was low, hypnotic and seductively rough, a light rasp to the deeper tone that made her shiver.
He has a voice made for sex
, she thought, trembling as arousal thrummed through her starved system.
A voice made for seduction
. Only, she didn’t need to be seduced. Just having the magnificent male near was all it would ever take to make her pulse stutter, her body readying itself in a flash of heat and swelling, aching need.

Her eyes popped back open as he moved closer, crowding her against the wall of the elevator, burning her with his male-scented heat. They weren’t touching except for the weight of his hand at the side of her throat, but she could feel the masculine, sharp-edged force of him along the entire length of her body, like the invisible energy between two drawn magnets pulling them closer. She closed her eyes again before he could see the obvious answer there, not knowing where to go from here.

“Have you ever thought about me touching you?” he rasped in her ear, a feral edge to the quiet words that had her breath quickening. “Ever laid in bed at night and imagined what it would be like to have me licking you between your legs while you spread them wide for me? What it would feel like to have me eating out your sweet little pussy, unable to get enough of it?” She gasped at both the words and the images they were invoking, and she could have sworn she felt him smile as he ran his lips over the edge of her ear. “You can tell me, Soph. Do you think about what it’d be like to have me burying my cock in your beautiful little body and fucking you until neither one of us can move?”

Oh...my...freaking...God
. She moaned deep in her chest, unable to believe he’d even thought those things about her, much less said them to her.

With a bit of bite to his voice, he said, “Answer me, Sophie.”

She sank her teeth into her lower lip and somehow managed to give him a jerky nod, and it was all the permission he apparently needed. Before Sophie knew what hit her, Chris had her trapped against the wall with his tall, hard body, fitting them together as if the clothes between them were no more substantial than tissue. His big hands grabbed hold of her ass, lifting her up until his hips were wedged between her trembling legs, her lab coat and skirt rising up high on her thighs as they parted for him. The instant she felt the massive, shocking length of his rock-hard erection rubbing against her cleft, her already damp panties became soaked with moisture.

“The security camera,” she panted, clutching at his broad shoulders, wondering if only an idiot would remind him. And it was with an uncomfortable shock of awareness that she realized she would actually let him — if he pushed it — do whatever he wanted to her beneath that watching, intrusive lens.

“
Fuck
,” Chris growled, burying his hot face against the side of her throat. His thoughts fractured as he breathed in needy lungfuls of her scent, his open mouth rubbing against the petal-soft warmth of her skin. Her sweet little ass fit in his hands like she’d been made for him, the feel of her slender body pressed against his somehow even better than he’d imagined it would be. He knew damn well that this wasn’t the place to be on the verge of completely losing his control, but he couldn’t pull away from her. Christ, he couldn’t even stop stroking his dick against the tender cushion of her pussy, the thought of how good it was going to feel when all these fucking clothes were no longer between them making him sweat.

Forcing himself to lift his head and look her in the eye, he half expected her to pull away in fear or slap his face for being all over her like this. Hell, she was a class act, a real lady, and he was nothing but a ruthless son of a bitch who’d never really understood what it felt like to lose himself over a woman — until Sophie. He had a pain-in-the-ass ex to prove the fact that he could be a completely heartless bastard. But as he let her slide down to the floor and shifted back a few inches to give her a little space, Sophie didn’t shove him away or slap him. She didn’t even open her eyes. She simply moaned — and the soft, delicious sound sent him right over the edge.

Hoping like crazy that he wasn’t about to embarrass the hell out of her, Chris backed up a few feet and slammed his hand against the intercom button on the control panel. A second later, he heard one of the guards over the speaker ask, “You okay, boss? We were just getting ready to check on you.”

Keeping his heavy-lidded gaze locked hard on Sophie, who was slumped against the wall, flushed and wide-eyed now, he said, “I’m fine. But I need you to cut the sound and video on elevator three.”

“Uh...you sure? I...”

“I want it done now, Jackson.”

“Yes, sir.”

He waited a few seconds, then took a step toward her again. “It’s okay, Soph. You don’t have to look scared. I would never hurt you or pressure you into anything. You tell me to stop, and I swear to God I will back off.”

“I know that,” she whispered. “And I’m not afraid. I just...I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on. Yesterday you treated me like nothing more than a friend. We spent our time together talking about the next season of Homeland and football. And now...” Her voice trailed off, her slender throat working as she swallowed.

Shoving a hand back through his hair, Chris struggled to find the right thing to say, hoping she would believe him. “I know this seems like it’s coming out of nowhere, but it’s not. I’ve wanted you for months.
Months
, Soph. I’ve wanted you so goddamn bad — but the more I got to know you, the more worried I got about scaring you off. And before that, before I started to hope that you might be interested in me too, I thought you’d probably just tell me to go to hell. But I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the first time I set eyes on you at that damn introduction luncheon, and I was rock-hard under the table the entire two hours, watching the way you ate and sipped your wine and smiled and tried to keep everyone from noticing how real and beautiful and incredible you are. But I saw it,” he said on a hard exhalation of air, “and I’ve seen more every damn day until I feel like I’m gonna go out of my fucking mind if I don’t have you.”

She blinked up at him, eyes wide and bright. “You want sex?” she asked carefully, as if needing to clarify what he was saying, and it brought an unexpected smile to his face.

“Hell, yes, I want sex,” he said in a near growl, suddenly reaching out to release the stop button, allowing the elevator to quietly makes its descent to the first floor. He didn’t trust himself to keep her within the confined space a moment longer, without taking her right there, and he couldn’t risk it. Not when there was a chance someone in the security office might get curious and switch the video back on.