All of Me (All Series Book 2) (10 page)

Floating

Standing in her bedroom now, Sophia pulled Phil down for a kiss. Tasting the wine on his lips, she opened her mouth under his, searching for more of the sweetness. Her hands roamed up his arms, over his strong shoulders and around his neck. Even in her four-inch heels she had to reach up higher.

He lifted his head, moving his lips over hers. Little soft pecks, then across her jaw, over her cheek and to her ear. “Are you sure?”

A nervous giggle escaped her. He shifted back and looked at her, confused. “Sorry. Yes. You wouldn’t be here right now if I weren’t. Stop worrying about my rules. Phil, I don’t know how many times I need to tell you. They don’t matter with you.”

She finally got through to him. He lowered his mouth to hers again, his hands sliding up and down her back, around her waist, then trailing up her back again. Threading his fingers into her hair, he held her head and devoured her with a speed and urgency that reminded her of their last night together—their only night together.

Her hands went to his waist and she started to pull his shirt from his pants, but he stopped and removed his hands from her hair and placed them over hers, stopping her progress. “Slow down. We’ve got all night,” he reminded her.

Dropping her hands, she stepped back and lowered her eyes when his hands went to the belt at her waist and expertly unfastened it, then slid it through the loops to drop to the floor. Running the back of his hand over her cheek, he whispered, “I know I’ve said before how beautiful you are, but it’s more than your looks. It’s more than your personality. It’s just you. Every part of you is so beautiful.”

Never in a million years did she think she would hear those words. Or hear them from Phil. If she ever heard them, she figured they would have been practiced words, smooth words from a smooth-talking man, not Phil. Because she actually believed them from him. The shy gentle architect who didn’t always have much to say, but what he said had meaning. “Show me how beautiful you think I am.”

“How beautiful I
know
you are.”

His hands went to the back of her dress, and lowered the zipper. He watched it drop to the floor in a heap. She stepped out of it and slid off her shoes, leaving her standing in a white silk and lace thong and a matching bra barely covering her chest. Enough to lift and hold and show off some very generous cleavage. Cleavage he seemed to be mesmerized by.

She felt her nipples tighten. It was difficult for her body not to react to his gaze burning through to her soul, the intensity of it almost too much to handle.

He extended a hand and ran a fingertip gently across the lace edging, watching the chills take over her body, forming goose bumps on her skin and cooling the heat within. Pulling her close, he moved his hand around back and undid the clasp, then dragged the straps off her shoulders and down her arms, leaving her bare to his eyes.

Before she knew what he was about, he had her in his arms and was carrying her to the bed, laying her down and stepping back. Making quick work of his own clothing, he was soon naked and she was free to let her eyes wander down the length of his body.

So tall and lean, not a bit of fat on him. Muscles, but in a perfectly proportioned way. Not an overly built gym body at all, but rather someone who took very good care of himself and didn’t need to show off. She caught his glance at the bedside counter, where she had already laid out a few condoms. He smiled appreciatively.

Crawling up the bed from the bottom, he made his way toward her. His hands sliding up her legs, over her hips, under her breasts, cupping her, squeezing her, feeling every part of her he could. Lowering his mouth, the tip of his tongue swirled around a nipple, then drew her in, covering more of her, then back to the tip. Licking, sucking, blowing on it gently, then nipping her not so gently.

Endlessly he played with her. One breast then the other, until she didn’t think she could take another minute of it. Squirming under him, she pleaded desperately, “Phil, please.”

He chuckled lightly, but moved down her waist, over her hips and pushed her thong off, tossing it to the floor. Settling between her legs, that magic mouth of his went to work.

Slowly, like a flame trying to come to life in a snow bank, it flickered, built up more, gathered some strength and shone bright. She was floating now, the smoke rising from the flame, circling around her body, ready to rise higher. Only she didn’t want to finish this way. Not tonight, not this time.

She grabbed at his shoulders. “Stop, Phil.”

He looked up, startled. “Am I hurting you?”

“No. Not at all.” Embarrassed, she looked away, then pushed the mortification aside, and told him plainly, “I don’t want to finish that way.”

“Why?” he asked, his hands still moving over her, keeping the flame ignited.

Some of that heat rose up her chest and into her face, but she continued on, and honestly told him, “Because if I finish at all, I can’t ever get there a second time. And I really want you inside of me. I really want to finish that way.”

He moved up her body, covered her mouth with his and kissed her senseless, to the point her mortification subsided. “Not only will you finish that way, but also around me. You have my word.”

Shaking her head, she refused to believe him. It had never happened before. But he ignored her and moved back down between her legs, then built that flame up like a torch. He had her floating higher than before, until all at once she came crashing down, crying out his name again and again.

Limply she lay in a heap on the bed. Drained completely, her eyes closed to her surroundings, taking inventory of what just happened. The intensity of it, the heat and the pain, all mixed together for the best experience of her life. There was no way she could go on.

“Don’t you dare go to sleep on me,” he said softly, kissing her neck, his tongue coming out to tease under her ear.

“I won’t,” she replied, letting out a little breath.

“Open your eyes,” he commanded. “We aren’t nearly done yet.”

“Okay,” she said on a sigh, forcing her eyes open, looking into his dark stare. She watched as he moved back down her body and went to work again.

She didn’t think it was possible. There was no way she could feel what she just felt again. No way a flame, let alone a flicker could build, but it did. His mouth, his hands, his fingers, all moved over her, around her and in her in a way that had her floating above and looking down again.

All too soon he stopped, grabbed the condom and readied himself, then moved up her body and slid inside. Her body arched against his of its own accord. A puppet, and he was pulling all the strings.

Picking up speed, slowing down, moving in and out, changing it up, watching her reaching—she couldn’t take another minute of it. The pleasure was so great, it was almost painful, but she couldn’t seem to let it go. Everything was bunched up and coiled tight.

“You are going to come for me. I’m going to keep this up until you let go and I can feel those gorgeous muscles of yours squeezing me tight.”

Her eyes flew open. His words, his actions, everything about tonight all collided into one. Without warning, she plummeted back down to the ground, her body shaking and craving and wanting so much of him. He had given her everything and more in that moment.

In a frenzied motion, he picked up speed, her nerve endings exploding a second time, his body drawing more and more out of her, until all at once, he was still, breathing heavily, while she felt every pulse of his body inside of her.

Content, relaxed and sedated, she fell into an exhausted sleep.

***

The next morning, Phil rolled over and watched Sophia sleeping soundly next to him. He hadn’t lied when he said every part of her was beautiful. She was just about perfect in every sense of the word.

He pushed back the embarrassment of the words that had tumbled out of his mouth in the heat of the moment last night. He never expected he could say those things to her. Didn’t even know he had it in him to romanticize like he did. But something about last night, something about her, brought something out of him he never knew existed.

Alarmed when she stopped him, he had worried about what was wrong. What she told him was a shock. What kind of sick bastard left a woman wanting for more? Only focused on his own pleasure and not hers?

He ran his hand down her side and hips, flashbacks of their first night together flooded his brain. He didn’t want a reminder of that night, no more than she did. Or rather, the morning after. Too many bad memories mixed in with too many good ones. He needed to wipe out the bad.

Rather than wake her and start all over again like he wanted to, he let her sleep.

Tossing back the covers, he made his way to the bathroom and took a quick shower, then dressed in his clothes from last night. He hadn’t thought he would be spending the night and didn’t want to be too presumptuous by bringing a change of clothes.

Rummaging around in her cabinets, he found a spare toothbrush and figured she wouldn’t mind. Quietly making his way to the kitchen, he started coffee and pulled out some eggs. He wasn’t much of a cook, but he could manage eggs and toast fine.

With breakfast done, he started to look around for a tray to bring it all in, only to be brought up short seeing her standing in the kitchen wearing shorts and a T-shirt, her hair wet and tucked behind her ears. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No. I heard you get out of bed but decided to lie there longer and take inventory of my body,” she said mischievously. She walked toward him, gave him a chaste kiss on the lips and looked over his shoulder at the breakfast. “Looks good.”

Embarrassed, he dipped his head down. “I wanted to surprise you, but I couldn’t find a tray.”

“No problem. The kitchen is just as good.”

She reached for a cup and poured her coffee while he took note of the way she made it. “You look rested,” he said, for lack of better conversation. He couldn’t figure out why he felt so awkward right now. It made no sense to him.

She let out a laugh. “I had the best sleep aid imaginable last night.”

Just like that, the awkwardness was gone. “The best, huh?”

“You even need to ask that?” she said, astonished.

His face softened. “No. No remnants of the last time?”

She walked over to him and placed her palm on his cheek. “Not in the bad sense of the word. No. That night was a good night, Phil. The morning after, it was scary, but it worked out fine, I would say. Don’t you agree?”

Feeling like he did at that moment, standing in her kitchen, her hand on his face, the look in her eyes—yeah, it worked out fine. “Absolutely.”

You’re Back

“You look a little light in the loafers this morning,” Alec said to Phil Monday morning.

Phil arched his eyebrow and shook his head. “Really. That’s the best you could come up with?”

“Sorry,” Alec replied. “I’m not on my game this morning. Seriously though, that one threw me for a loop. How could I have missed it?”

Phil shrugged and nodded his head to his office door for Alec to shut and give them privacy. “Everyone was supposed to miss it. I guess you aren’t as smart as you thought you were since you didn’t pick up on it.”

“I’m pretty smart. Especially when it comes to you. When did this start?”

“When did what start? Our relationship, officially? Just this last week,” Phil said looking at his computer and reading his emails, not wanting Alec to see his guilty face. He hated lying, but it was the truth. Their relationship didn’t officially start until the last week.

“Bull. I’m not asking when you two decided to tell everyone. I want to know when you started to feel something for her. Has it been all along, for years—since you first met her?”

“I never cheated on Linda,” Phil rushed out. “I don’t want people to think that.”

“Relax, Phil. No one is going to think that. No one that knows you. That isn’t what I asked. I asked when you started to feel something for her.”

Seeing no way out of it and really wanting to talk to someone about it, he confessed. “Since the day I met her. There was something there. A click, I don’t know. I can’t explain it. It grew over time. Regardless, nothing ever happened.”

“Is that what caused you to break it off with Linda, when you found out Sophia was moving here?”

“No,” Phil stated firmly. “Things hadn’t been good for a long time with Linda and me.” He wasn’t saying any more. It was no one’s business. “When I finally decided things were over with Linda, I was relieved, to be honest. But I can’t say I wasn’t thrilled that Sophia was moving closer. Or that I might have a chance with her.”

“I don’t understand. I always knew there were things going on with you and Linda that you didn’t want anyone to know. I minded my own business when maybe I shouldn’t have. I wish I’d asked more. Especially when I saw how unhappy you were the last few years.”

“Don’t worry about it, Alec,” Phil said calmly. “It’s over. Lessons learned. Bottom line is, between you and me, this thing with Sophia—it was always in the back of my mind. I tried not to let it fog up my judgment with Linda. And maybe because I worried about that, I gave Linda more chances than I should have. Regardless, it’s not about Linda anymore. It’s not even about me. It’s about Sophia.”

“What does that mean?”

“For someone who thinks he’s so smart, you ask a lot of questions.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “Just answer me.”

“It means that I’ve sat back for years thinking I could never have her. Having to listen to Kaitlin talk about her and the men she dated, her lifestyle, everything going on in her life. How different she was from me, or who I was normally drawn to. All the while I wondered why I couldn’t be happy with what I had and forget about Sophia.”

“Maybe because what you had was a mean-spirited bitch,” Alec replied with a snort.

Leave it to Alec to be blunt. And truthful. “You’re right. Everyone was right with their thoughts, but I can’t go back and change anything. I can only go forward. It’s important to me that no one thinks Sophia caused my breakup. She didn’t. She absolutely had nothing to do with it.”

“Nothing?” Alec asked slyly.

“Maybe a little, but not enough. The deal is, if Sophia were the main reason for the breakup, I would have done it years ago, but I didn’t. It was a coincidence that her promotion coincided with the breakup. I don’t want my relationship with Sophia to start off on the wrong foot.”

“How’s that?”

“I don’t want people to look at her as a cause. Or to judge her that way, or me. I want to move on with my life and move on with her. We’ve both waited long enough.”

“Excuse me?” Alec asked, startled. “Both of you?”

“It doesn’t matter, Alec. Nothing inappropriate ever happened. But there has always been something there, something simmering below the surface. Time, chance and circumstance kept us apart. All those things are working in our favor now. I’m taking advantage of it.”

Alec tipped back in his chair, studying his twin. “Phil, no one is going to think anything other than wonder why you stayed with Linda as long as you did. And everyone is going to be thrilled that you found someone else. I promise you that.”

“I hope so. She deserves to be put first. Not to be looked at with disdain or as the woman who caused a rift in my past relationship. I don’t want anything to come in the way of my future with her.”

Alec nodded. “Can I ask you something?”

“Haven’t you been asking me questions for the last ten minutes?” Phil asked, dryly.

“Sophia’s the one, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know,” Phil said. He hoped she was, but his reasoning wasn’t the best right now, so he was afraid to rely on it.

“Yeah, you do. Why didn’t you commit to Linda after that first year?”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Come on, Phil,” Alec said impatiently. “We all saw her change after that first year. You two were old enough. At that age, after a year you normally know if she’s the one or not. She wasn’t, but you kept trying, and that was commendable. I guess. We all know you. You wanted to give her every shot possible. More than anyone else would have. You’ve done it before,” Alec reminded him when Phil raised his eyebrows. “But how did you know Linda wasn’t the one?”

Phil understood what Alec was saying. Deep down he always knew Linda wasn’t the one, but he tried. He wanted to make it work, and so he tried harder. Maybe too hard. Alec was right. Phil was always the one that held on and tried harder in his relationships. He wanted what his parents had, and that want sometimes overrode his decisions. “I don’t know. I guess looking back, I just did.”

“You weren’t all the way there, were you?”

“What does that mean?” Phil asked, baffled.

“All the way invested. After a year, you should know if you are in all the way. If you’re willing to put everything into it or not. You really weren’t, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t,” Phil said solemnly. “And it wasn’t fair to either of us to keep it going. I lost a lot of my life along the way, but I can’t change it or take it back.”

“But you know now, don’t you? Even if you say you don’t, I think you
do
know,” Alec said.

Phil blinked, thought for a second, and realized Alec was right. He always knew if he ever had a chance with Sophia, he wouldn’t blow it. Because she was the one. But he couldn’t say it out loud. Not even to himself. He didn’t want to scare her away or ruin any chance he had. He had to take it slow. “Think you’re so smart, don’t you?” Phil said instead.

“Older brothers always are.”

Phil snorted. “By two minutes.”

“Two minutes is still two minutes.” Alec stood up, walked to the door, and stopped before he opened it. “Phil, I’m glad you’re back.”

“I didn’t know I went anywhere,” he said, tossing a stress ball at Alec’s head.

Alec shifted to the side and quickly caught it one-handed. “Yeah, you did. We all knew. But you’re back now, and we’re all happy. If we didn’t all love Sophia before, we do even more now. So don’t blow this.”

Phil watched Alec’s retreating back, cursing him for being so smart. For years Phil felt like a part of him was lost, and he hated that his family saw it.

As for Sophia, he finally had his opportunity and he knew enough about her life to know what he needed to do. There was no chance he was blowing this.

***

“So how was your date on Saturday?” Kaitlin asked with a huge smile covering her face.

“Don’t you have to go to work today?” Sophia asked from behind her desk. She wasn’t about to give any details on her night with Phil. She knew they used to talk about men, but that was before she was sleeping with Kaitlin’s brother. It was too awkward now.

“Nope. I’m going shopping for cribs with my mom today. Want to go with us?”

“I would love to, but I’ve got too much work to do. Ryan didn’t want to go?”

“He has too much going on. Plus we narrowed down what we wanted, but I want to look at the colors of the wood before I make a final decision. Once we know for sure what the sex of the babies is, we can finalize things more. It will be nice to have a day with Mom.” Kaitlin rested her hands on her belly. “We’re all really happy, you know.”

Sophia glanced up from her computer quickly, her eyes softening. “I know. I’m so excited about the twins. I can’t wait to get my hands on them.”

Kaitlin chuckled. “I meant you and Phil. We’re all really happy about you and Phil.”

“I’m happy, too,” Sophia said, then turned her computer monitor around. “Look.”

Kaitlin looked at the picture of her brother smiling on Sophia’s screen and gasped.

“What?” Sophia said, turning the screen quickly back to her. She didn’t see anything wrong on her computer.

“Sophia, how long has this been going on?”

“What? I told you, just the last week. I mean we’ve always danced around each other, you know that. You said you saw it yourself.”

“Yeah. But that is different than having a picture of him on your computer a week after you told us you started dating. And don’t think I don’t know you avoided my question on how many dates you’ve been on.”

Crap. She didn’t think it would be that easy to brush Kaitlin off. But she really didn’t want Kaitlin or anyone to know what happened the night of the wedding.

Though honestly, she didn’t know why it was such a secret. She and Phil were both single so they hadn’t done anything wrong. Only Kaitlin knew how Sophia felt about being the first woman someone dated after they’d gotten out of a relationship. And she didn’t want Kaitlin to remind her that she was Phil’s first since Linda.

“It’s different and you know it. I’ve known Phil for over five years.”

“True,” Kaitlin said thoughtfully. “You aren’t afraid about being the first person he has dated since the breakup?”

Sophia sighed. “Yeah, I am. But there isn’t much I can do about it. It’s been close to eight months since they split. I’m not worried about him carrying a torch for her now.”

Kaitlin snorted. “I don’t think he carried a torch for her when they were dating.”

“Right,” Sophia said. “Regardless, he’s had enough time in my eyes. It seems right, now. We deserve a chance, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely. I’m thrilled. I couldn’t be happier. Two of my favorite people in the world are together. We’re all happy, Sophia. We truly are. But I can’t help but worry too.”

“Are you afraid I’m going to break Phil’s heart?” she asked, teasing.

“No. I’m afraid he might break yours.”

Where did that come from? Then she remembered how much Kaitlin knew about her life, and the men she dated, and the things she looked for. Though, even Kaitlin didn’t know the one thing Sophia truly wanted out of a man. “I think my heart is safe.”

Besides, Sophia was going in with her eyes wide open. She’d been half in love with Phil for years, but she was holding that second half back. Just in case. She was too afraid to set herself up for failure.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Kaitlin said shaking her head. “I said the same thing about Ryan in the beginning, too.”