Chapter 15 First Time #2
He kissed her. On the couch, the kiss changed again.
Not because Vinny pushed. Because there was nowhere else to pretend the want was about anything casual.
Sophia’s hand went to his jaw. His fingers slid into her hair.
She shifted closer, and he let her. When her knee touched his thigh, his hand tightened once on her hip.
She liked feeling him react. She liked it more than she expected.
That made her bolder. She moved closer again, and he made a rough sound against her mouth.
“Soph,” he whispered.
Her whole body answered to the name, private. Only his here.
She pulled back. “Say it again.”
His eyes opened.
“Soph.”
Soft. A little wrecked. She kissed him harder.
This time, Vinny didn’t stay entirely measured.
He stayed controlled, yes, but his want showed.
In the way his hand spread over her back.
In the way he breathed her name when she shifted against him.
In the way he pulled back and looked at her like holding still was costing him.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked.
Sophia nodded.
“You are so damn beautiful.”
Her breath caught. He looked serious. Not smooth. Not saying it because men said that to women on couches. Saying it because he meant it and didn’t know where else to put the words.
Sophia’s throat tightened. “I don’t always feel that way.”
“I know.” His hand moved to her cheek. “But you are.”
She looked down. He didn’t let the compliment become a demand. He waited. Sophia looked back at him.
“I want…” She stopped.
Vinny’s whole body went still.
“What?”
She looked at his shirt. The top button was open. His throat moved when he swallowed. She could see the edge of his collarbone.
“I want to see you.”
For half a second, he didn’t react. Then his eyes changed.
“Me?”
Sophia laughed nervously. “Yes, you.”
“All right.”
“You look surprised.”
“I am. In a great way. But yes.”
He reached for the hem of his shirt, then stopped. “Is this all right?”
Sophia nodded. He pulled the shirt over his head.
Sophia forgot every intelligent thought she had ever had.
Vinny wasn’t overly muscled like a movie poster.
He was real. Broad shoulders. Strong arms from kitchen work.
A faint line of hair down his stomach. A little scar near one rib.
Warm skin. Human and beautiful in a way that made her want to touch and hide at the same time.
He sat still under her gaze. Not posing.
Waiting. Sophia reached out, then paused.
“Can I?”
His voice was silent. “Yeah.”
Her fingers touched his chest. His eyes closed. That gave her courage. She explored slowly. Shoulder. Collarbone. The scar near his rib.
“What happened?”
“Fell off a bike when I was ten trying to impress a girl.”
Sophia looked up. “Did it work?”
“No. I cried and her brother laughed.”
Sophia laughed softly. He smiled, but his breath wasn’t steady. Her hand moved lower, over his ribs, then back up, learning him by touch the way he learned food and dough and heat. He opened his eyes.
“Sophia.”
She looked at him.
“You are killing me a little.”
Her face warmed, but this time she didn’t pull her hand away.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” His laugh was soft and strained. “Absolutely not.”
She leaned forward and kissed him again with her hand on his bare chest. Vinny’s arm came around her, and the kiss turned deeper, hotter.
His skin was warm under her palm. His hand moved from her back to her hip, then stopped.
Sophia noticed the stop. Every stop. Every question.
It made her brave. She took his hand and moved it higher along her side, over her sweater but closer to the curve of her breast. Vinny pulled back, eyes wide.
“Soph.”
“I want you to touch me.”
The words came out soft. Not weak. He had to fight to answer.
“Where?”
Her body went hot. She looked down, embarrassed.
He kissed her forehead. “You can show me.”
That was easier. Still hard. But easier. Sophia guided his hand over her sweater until his palm covered her breast. They both went still. Her breath caught. His did too. His thumb moved once, gentle, and sensation moved through her so suddenly she gripped his shoulder.
“All right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Still?”
“Yes.”
He touched her slowly, watching her face more than his hand. That should have embarrassed her. It did. But it also made her feel seen in a way that didn’t shrink her. When his mouth found hers again, she leaned into his palm. He groaned softly and dropped his forehead to her shoulder.
“Need a second,” he muttered.
Sophia’s nervous laugh slipped out. “Did I do something wrong?”
He lifted his head fast. “No. God, no. You did something very right.”
“Oh.”
His mouth curved. “Yeah. Oh.”
She loved making him lose words. Maybe too much. He kissed her again, then pulled back.
“We can stay here,” he said. “We can stop. We can keep kissing. We can move slower than slow.”
Sophia looked toward the dark hallway that led to his bedroom. Her heart pounded. She was scared. Not of him. Of the size of what she wanted.
“I think I want more,” she said.
Vinny stopped breathing.
She kept going before she lost the words. “I don’t know if I want everything tonight until I know. But I want to go with you.”
His face shifted through want and restraint and something almost tender enough to hurt.
“Bedroom?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He stood first and held out his hand. She took it.
His bedroom was cleaner than it probably normally was.
Sophia could tell because one corner of the closet door didn’t close all the way and a piece of mail peeked out from under it.
The bed was made. The comforter was navy.
The lamp on the nightstand was already on low, which meant he had hoped and prepared but had still given her every chance not to come here.
He had listened to at least that part. Her nerves rose again.
Vinny shut the bedroom door but didn’t latch it.
Sophia noticed. She noticed. He stood near the bed, shirtless, gentle, waiting.
“You can change your mind,” he said.
“I know.”
“Now. Later. In five minutes. In the middle. After.”
“I know.”
“I’m saying it because I need you to know I mean it.”
Sophia walked to him.
“I do.”
She kissed him. It was her answer. The next minutes came in pieces. His hands at her waist. Her fingers at the buttons of her sweater. Vinny’s breath catching when she undid the first one herself.
His voice low and rough. “Sophia, you don’t have to—”
“I know.”
She undid the second. Then the third. Her hands shook. He covered them with his, not stopping her, just steadying.
“Slow,” he said.
She nodded. Slow. Together, they got the sweater open.
She let it slide from her shoulders onto the floor.
She wore a simple cream bra underneath, nothing fancy, because she hadn’t planned this by dressing like someone else.
Vinny looked at her like simple had ruined him.
Her arms crossed over herself before she could stop them. He looked back at her face immediately.
“Hey.”
She swallowed.
“Too far?”
“No.” She laughed once, breathless and embarrassed. “I just got very aware of my body.”
His mouth softened.
“Yeah,” he said. “And I really like it.”
She rolled her eyes because she needed somewhere to put the nervousness. “You have to say that.”
“I really don’t.” He stepped closer, then stopped. “Can I?”
She lowered her arms. Not all the way at first. Then all the way.
“Yes.”
His hands touched her shoulders first. Then her arms. Then her waist. Warm, steady, not greedy. He kissed her like he had all night, asking without words. When his mouth moved to her jaw, then her neck, Sophia gripped his arms and made another sound she didn’t recognize. Vinny stilled.
She whispered, “Don’t stop.”
He made a sound against her skin and kept going.
Not fast or too much. But enough that the room blurred at the edges.
He kissed the top of her breast above the bra, then looked up.
She nodded before he asked. His mouth moved over fabric, gentle at first, then firmer when she arched toward him without meaning to.
“Vinny,” she whispered.
He lifted his head. “Too far?”
“No.”
Her hands went to his hair again. This time she knew what it did to him. His eyes darkened.
“You are learning dangerous things,” he said.
“Better.”
The word came out more confident than she felt. Vinny stared at her.
Then laughed softly, stunned and warm. “Yeah. Clear.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and drew her between his knees.
Not pulling. Guiding. She went because she wanted to.
Standing there while he looked up at her made her feel less slight than she expected.
Tall, almost. Powerful in a terrifying way.
She touched his face. He turned his head and kissed her palm.
Her heart twisted. Something moved between them that felt deeper than heat.
She wasn’t ready to name it. He unclasped her bra only after she nodded.
When it slipped away, Sophia closed her eyes. Vinny didn’t touch her right away.
“Sophia,” he said.
She opened her eyes. His face was open. A little wrecked. Entirely hers in that moment.
“You are beautiful,” he said.
No joke and no smoothness. Just truth. She believed him for almost three whole seconds.
That felt huge. Then his mouth found her skin, and belief became harder and easier at the same time.
Sophia learned the weight of his hands. The scrape of his jaw.
The way her own body answered before her brain had finished asking.
She learned that wanting could be shy and bold at the same time.
She learned that Vinny saying her name against her skin felt nothing like anyone making her brief.
She felt seen and still safe. When they lay back on the bed, he kept part of his weight off her until she tugged him closer.