16. Orion
16
ORION
T his is not smart, but it seems like an inevitability. It’s clear that Sofia feels it, too. Tension vibrates across my entire body because we’re alone in this room together for the entire night. I don’t have to run out anywhere. She’s not already in bed.
“Should we order dinner in?” I ask. “Or I can go grab something.”
Sofia bites her lip. “Chinese? I know a good place nearby.”
Of course she does. She’s fucking brilliant and observant. Cultured.
“Sounds good.”
She places the order, but I beg off her giving me any money. I can cover it. It might make this feel a little bit more like a date, but I’m already tiptoeing past boundaries that should be kept in place.
But I want Sofia. She knows it. Tonight is going to push me past my restraints, especially when I return with two bags of rice, noodles, and so many options to find her bent over, drying her hair with her towel.
She’s back in those short shorts and the billowy T-shirt. When she straightens, I can see the outlines of her breasts against the loose fabric and the tightening of her nipples.
I suck in a hard breath and blow it out slowly, moving to the table. I am fucked .
Her hair tangles over her shoulder, and her face is bright pink from the shower. I like how she looks freshly scrubbed. She slides into one of the chairs, her bare legs drawn up around her as she grabs one of the cartons I’ve laid out.
“This is a nice end to an intense day.” She uses the cheap chopsticks with ease, and I’m a little jealous as I stab my noodles with a fork.
It’s a struggle to keep my gaze off her, to not stare at the new pieces of her I’m seeing.
“You are such a plebian.” Her voice is harsh, but she’s fighting a smile.
“We didn’t all grow up with your worldly parents, Sofia.”
“Don’t be fooled. I know I’m lucky.” She blinks at me. “What about your parents?”
I shrug. “Been married forty years. Mom’s a nurse. Dad’s a truck driver. I grew up in a pretty normal middle-class household.”
“Don’t knock normal. Sometimes, I wish that’s what I had.” She balances a scoop of fried rice in her chopsticks, and I’m truly baffled when she doesn’t make a mess.
“Really?”
“My parents are awesome. Don’t get me wrong. But sometimes, it would have been nice to have my mom home for more than half the year. I got to travel to see her, but she missed a lot.” Her gaze dips, and I swear this is the first bit of insecurity I’ve ever seen in her.
What types of things did she miss? It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I can already imagine the small, mundane things she didn’t get to witness. The advice a teenage girl would need from her mom. Big stuff, too, like first kisses and boyfriends.
Is that why she’s so self-reliant? So hesitant to ask for help? To trust?
Is that why she seems to overwhelm me so easily? All of that overly organized and controlled, messy chaos?
Am I just a sucker for a woman I shouldn’t want?
We sit in silence for a bit, a movie on in the background. I’ve noticed she likes to have background noise, something she can be distracted by when she needs a moment with her thoughts.
The lack of conversation doesn’t get heavy. We’re past that now, given our long silences on the bus ride here.
When we make a dent in the food, Sofia leans back in her chair, the underside of her leg teasing me with all of that flesh, and I can’t help myself. Reaching forward, I grab her by the toes and tug her foot into my hand.
She startles but doesn’t pull away, watching me warily as I set her foot in my lap and turn back to the television.
Her head falls back as she sinks lower. “How likely do you think it is that Leann will get herself kicked off set again?”
I laugh softly. “I’m eighty-nine percent sure she’ll get herself kicked off the set again.”
Sofia giggles with me. “I don’t know what either of us has done to deserve her, but something good had better be coming our way for having to deal with that girl.”
My hand creeps up her ankle to her calf, squeezing lightly. Her eyelids flutter to half mast, and I feel my control slipping. When I squeeze her again, she lets out a soft huff of breath. I bet she could do with a massage. Some proper taking care of.
It’s not something I have permission to give her. The want to give and take more makes me put her foot down and stand.
She turns to look a question at me.
“I’m going to shower. We should get to bed. Another long day tomorrow.”
Her nod turns her back to the tv, and she pulls her leg back to herself as I retreat.
The shower cleans my skin and hair, but my thoughts only grow dirtier. Every part of me is battling with the possibilities in the room outside that door. The inevitabilities with Sofia that mean confessing things to her that might make her reject me.
I still have to tell her.
If I can consider having what I want with her, Sofia must know how immensely I fucked up. And the scandal that’s followed me here.
Ready to confess, I dress in my pajama pants and half consider not putting a shirt on, but that wouldn’t be fair. Not that her bare legs or the swing of her braless chest make things any easier on me.
She pops into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and I hover, needing to get this off my chest.
When she turns back to me, Sofia startles. My hand catches hers, and relief blasts through me when she doesn’t pull away. She doesn’t resist my leading her back to the edge of my bed, where I sit and stroke her palm and fingertips.
“What’s wrong?” Fucking astute.
It’s difficult to look up into her eyes, but I do it. “Do you know anything about why I transferred here?”
Sofia shakes her head, slowly reaching out to push my hair off my forehead. Her touch rings through me. I nearly redirect and pull her down for a kiss, but she’s looking at me like she wants to know me, and it’s the first time in a long, long time that someone has seen me like Sofia does.
“I was almost fired for an inappropriate relationship with one of my students.”
I expect her to step away in disgust, but her touch smooths through my hair again, down around my ear.
“Tell me what happened.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Her knee comes up beside my hip, inching her closer. My hands automatically brace the backs of her legs. So much smooth skin, hot under my touch.
Does she even know how tempting she is?
“Marielle used to come out to my favorite bar on occasion. I’d seen her there before she was one of my students. And she wasn’t some eighteen-year-old, either. She was in her forties, going back to school to change her career. It was nice to have an adult perspective in a freshman class.”
The mixed feelings swirl in my chest. I’m still not sure what to feel about the entire situation.
“I’m sure it was.” Not a reprimand. Sofia strokes the sensitive skin behind my ear.
I almost want to purr and sink my face into her stomach. “She came out to the bar one night while she was in my class. I did my best to keep it professional, but I was already half drunk by the time she sat next to me…”
Sofia’s grip in my hair tightens as if she knows the way my story goes. She probably knows the deal already, but remembering how Marielle slid her hand over my knee and up my thigh, the heat of it as I stood and stepped away. But she met me back at the bathrooms. Before I knew what she was doing, she had my fly open and sank to her knees.
I gave up the fight by the time she had me in her mouth.
“It’s hard to say she seduced me, but that’s what it felt like. She set me up, taking advantage of how much I drank, then she used it against me when she didn’t earn an A on her final project.” The stand off in my office, which started in hushed tones, turned into all-out screeching accusations that garnered too much attention.
Sofia sighs, dipping her nose to the top of my head and surrounding me in her scent—something soft and sweet and solely Sofia.
“No wonder you’re skittish around Leann.”
That rips a laugh out of me. “Yeah.”
She tips my head back. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
As bad as I felt about it at the time, I’m coming to terms with the fact that it put me in Sofia’s path. Reaching up, I trace the soft curve of her chin and jaw.
Reading my mind, she dips lower and brushes her mouth across mine. My grip on her tightens.
Our mouths separate the barest inch, giving me the space to say her name. It’s a question, a plea, and a declaration.
I lift to kiss her again, solidly and a bit frenzied. She sinks into me, colliding more solidly against my chest. I feel her everywhere, warm and soft and mesmerizing. The soft noise in the back of her throat spurs me on. I’m squeezing her curves, lifting her other knee so that she’s straddling me.
Fuck, I’m hard already. I never respond this way. This fast. This goddamn hard.
Her mouth opens under the pressure of my own, and I sweep in, tasting her more fully, showing her my intentions.
I’m desperate for her.
Gathering her in my arms, I lift us both and drag her under me on the bed and show her exactly how she affects me.
Sofia’s thighs squeeze my hips, her feet locking behind my waist as I lean into her. The low moan vibrating across my tongue has my hips swiveling. My own groan has me propping myself on my hands to watch her chest heave under me. Her lips are perfectly pink and swollen from my mouth.
I dip to brush my nose against hers, almost teasing. “You’re a fucking goddess.”
Her laugh is breathy, and her hands explore my chest and back through the thin T-shirt. I really wish I hadn’t put it on now, craving her skin against mine.
I lift up, tearing my shirt off over my head before leaning back over her. The feel of her gaze down my body, followed by the trail of her fingertips and palms, has me shivering.
When I dip to kiss her again, my hands search for the soft skin of her waist under her shirt. I feel like a damned teenager, unsure of how much of her I can have. I want everything. Every piece. Every inch.
Kisses trailing down her neck and shoulder have her arching back to give me better access.
And her nails… I groan against her skin as those sharp talons drag themselves down my back.
“I want to feel your mouth everywhere.” Her hoarse whisper turns me into a beast, needy and wonton.
Lifting her shirt higher, I sink lower, spreading my mouth along her soft stomach, inching higher and higher until she huffs, pushes me back, and pulls her shirt off herself.
My mouth waters, and I descend on her breasts with my mouth and hands the moment her back hits the duvet. God, her needy noises surround me with all of the daydreams I’ve been consumed by these last few weeks.
Sofia latches her legs around my hips again, grinding us together. Her hand is tight in my hair as I lavish attention to her pinkening skin. Sucking and nibbling one nipple tears a needy whine from her mouth before she yanks me back by my hair.
“Tell me you have condoms.”
I groan in defeat. “I don’t, but there’s plenty else I can do to satisfy you.”
“Have you been tested?”
I pause, taking the moment seriously. “Yes.”
She nods. “I’m on the pill. And damn it, Orion, I want you.”
Her hips roll to accentuate her point.
My lids flutter as I press against her small movements. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Her voice practically hisses.
It takes two quick tugs to pull her shorts free and drop my pajama pants, and I’m on top of her again, sliding between those gloriously long, bare legs. A breath shudders out of me as I press us together, the long curve of my hard cock cupped by her hot folds.
Shifting under me drags me through her folds deliciously, and after a few slow, tender thrusts, I rear back to take her properly.
Sofia’s gasp as I slide into her wet, hot pussy has me trembling. Fuck, I don’t want this to end. I’m finally home .