Lady Sophia's Lover (Bow Street Runners #2)(56)

“I want something else.” He slid much lower, trailing kisses along her body until his shoulders lodged between her thighs.

Sophia felt his lips descend to the inside of her thigh. Suddenly realizing what he meant to do, she jerked and struggled upward to a half-sitting position. “Wait,” she gasped, catching his dark head in her hands. “Wait. Not there.”

His hand moved along the outside of her leg in a soothing stroke. “Haven’t you done that before?”

“Of course not—I didn’t even imagine that someone would—” She stopped and regarded him with a perplexed frown. “I doubt that Anthony even knew about such a thing.”

Laughter rumbled in his chest, and he kissed her knee. “I wanted to do this to you the first day we met.”

“You did?” she asked in complete astonishment.

“Right there in my office. I wanted to throw you across my desk and put my head under your skirts.”

“No,” Sophia said skeptically, unable to believe that beneath his remote exterior, he could have been thinking such a thing. “But you were so dignified!”

“As dignified as a man with a full-blown cockstand could be.”

“Truly? But how—” She gasped as his head dropped between her thighs once more. “Oh, Ross, wait—”

“After tonight,” came his velvety murmur, “you’re going to forget all about Anthony.”

She felt his fingers pressing her swollen folds open, his tongue touching the delicate peak between them. Her elbows collapsed, and she felt back to the mattress with a groan, staring blindly into the darkness. Oh, God, he was licking her, in long, sinuous laps that made her body quiver with desperate excitement.

She could not stop the motion of her hips, rising upward in repeated surges. His hands slid beneath her, guiding her rhythm while his tongue strummed, bathed, flirted. Just as the sensations coalesced in an unendurable peak, Ross lifted his head and levered his body over hers.

“Oh, God,” Sophia whimpered, left suspended on the brink of cl**ax. “Please, please—”

He entered her with a deep flex of his hips. Sophia cried out, her muscles instinctively grasping at the gentle but relentless intrusion. She was stretched tight, unable to take any more. Desperately she struggled to accommodate him, but it seemed impossible.

His mouth brushed over hers, and he whispered, “Easy. I won’t hurt you. Relax, sweetheart.” His hand slid between their bodies and she felt him stroke her while he pressed forward in slow nudges, his every movement careful and easy. Each plunge of his shaft drew a moan from her throat, and she bit her lip to hold in the sounds. Suddenly he was all the way inside her, gliding full and deep, burying every inch of his sex.

He withdrew almost to the head of his shaft, then submerged the entire length with excruciating slowness, his chest hair teasing her ni**les, his flat stomach brushing over hers. She writhed upward, her h*ps pushing into his long, pleasuring thrusts until she begged frantically, “Please don’t be gentle, don’t, don’t, do it harder, please—”

His mouth covered hers, muffling her cries. Her body shook with violent spasms, gripping the hard organ inside her until Ross let out a groan and seized her h*ps with both hands, spending his own passion.

As her body continued to twitch and jerk with delight, Ross cradled her in his arms and kissed her again. Filled with his tongue and his sex, she felt another wave of sensation roll over her, and she moaned and shivered with a second cl**ax.

After a long time Ross moved onto his side, taking care not to crush her. Sophia stretched luxuriously against him. “Ross…” she murmured drowsily. “I want to tell you something. Perhaps you won’t believe me, but it’s true.”

“Yes?”

“I couldn’t have gone through with it.”

“You mean, breaking my heart? Yes, I know that.”

“You do?”

He smoothed the reckless profusion of her hair and spread it over his chest. “It’s not in your nature to hurt anyone. You could never have brought yourself to betray me.”

Sophia was astonished by his belief in her. “How can you be so certain?”

“You are very easy to read.” He played lightly with the lobe of her ear. “I’ve known for a while that you cared for me. But I wasn’t certain how much until yesterday morning, when you saw me after we’d been apart for a week. Your face showed everything.”

Perturbed by the revelation, Sophia sat up and leaned over him, her bare br**sts half concealed by the wild locks of her hair. “If I am so transparent, then what am I thinking now?”

Ross studied her for a moment, and a slow smile curved his lips. “You’re wondering how soon I’m going to make love to you again.” Before she could reply, he pulled her farther atop his body, settling her legs on either side of his hips. To her astonishment, his sex stirred into vibrant life, springing hard against her vulnerable flesh. “And this is your answer,” he murmured, pulling her head down to his.

Exhausted by the tumultuous weekend, Sophia cuddled on Ross’s lap and dozed for most of the carriage ride back to London. Staring at the sleeping face on his shoulder, Ross marveled at the momentous change that had taken place in his life. He had become so accustomed to solitude that he had forgotten what it was like to need someone this way. Now all the desires that he had suppressed for so long—for sex, for affection and companionship—had been freed with a vengeance. It troubled him that Sophia had such power over him, a power that he himself had given her. God help him when she realized it. Yet he could not bear to withhold anything from her.