Chapter 20 #2
“Then”—Sofia angles her hips so I slip partly inside her—“we should.”
So we do.
I sink into her, unprotected with a woman for the very first time.
And it’s everything.
Not just how it feels as I move inside her—the drag of her bare skin against mine—though it’s beyond amazing.
Not just the sensation of her inner walls rippling around me without any barriers to dull it.
But knowing she trusts me.
“I’ve never done this with anyone,” Sofia whispers. “You’re my first. Again.”
“Soph.” I kiss her forehead, feeling unexpectedly close to tears. “So are you.”
Then I lift Sofia high and pull her down again, filling her completely.
And we move.
Faster.
Harder.
Clinging to each other desperately.
With each thrust, Sofia moans louder. Her cheeks flush. Her breasts bounce as our bodies collide.
As she rushes closer to the edge, I watch her, memorizing each perfect detail.
And when we finally finish, one right after the other, my seed pulsing deep inside her, I’m seized by an absolute certainty.
I’ll do anything to keep her.
Once the aftershocks have subsided, I carry Sofia into the bathroom and turn on the shower. While I wait for the water to heat, I tell her, “After we shower, there’s someplace we need to go.”
Her forehead creases. “You don’t want to have a lazy night at home?”
“Normally, yes,” I reply. “But tonight, I have something else planned. Something I hope you’ll like.”
“Oh, okay.” She smiles. “And when we get back, maybe we could do the wall thing again?”
Though I just came harder than I ever have before, my dick twitches. “I think that could be arranged.”
Maybe I should have used a blindfold.
Not that it would keep Sofia from quizzing me about our destination, but it would help with the surprise.
I thought about a blindfold when I initially planned this, but then I worried it might end up triggering her.
Though it’s been two weeks since the incident with Subway Asshole, as Sofia calls him, her anxiety about leaving the apartment hasn’t gotten better yet.
So I thought if she could see where she was going, she’d feel more comfortable.
Subway Asshole. It’s fitting. Or as I refer to him privately, a Dead Man, if he even thinks about bothering Sofia again.
He won’t, I’m sure. First, because he’s going to be in prison for a while.
And when he gets out, he knows I’ll be watching him.
“I run a security company,” I told him on the sidewalk that day, “so I can find you anywhere. And I can kill a man in seconds. That’s not a threat.
That’s a promise. Remember that the next time you think about hurting a woman again. ”
“Are we meeting with the realtor?” Sofia asks. She turns her gaze from the window to look at me. “Or are we having dinner out?”
“What makes you think we’re meeting with the realtor?”
She arches her brows in her classic are you trying to ask a dumb question expression. “Because we’ve been looking at places on the Upper West Side. And that’s where we’re driving.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I retort. “Lots of things are in this area. And anyway—” I kiss her cheek. “It’s a surprise. The point of surprises is you don’t know what they are until they’re happening.”
Sofia humphs. Then she leans forward and asks Kurt, our driver for the night, “Kurt. Can you tell me where we’re going?”
He glances at her in the rearview mirror. With a smile, he says, “Sorry, Sofia. It’s a surprise.”
“I’ll bake cookies,” she replies cagily. “You liked those salted caramel ones I made last week, didn’t you?”
“Kurt,” I interject in a warning tone. “Don’t let her sway you with offers of cookies.”
“He is the boss,” Kurt tells Sofia. “And we’re almost there, so you’ll know soon.” He pauses. “Will you still make cookies, though?”
Another result of the altercation with Subway Asshole is that Sofia’s plans for her new office space got shifted to the back burner.
She’s still been in contact with her existing clients, but she admitted to me that she’s a little nervous about setting up an office on her own in the city.
“I’ll get past it,” she told me. “But I’m not sure if I’m ready yet. ”
In truth, I’m in no hurry for Sofia to spend her days alone in an office where anyone could come in and bother her.
I’ve broached the idea of having her join the investigative department at Fox & Falcon instead, but she’s still undecided.
“I like meeting with the clients,” she explained.
“Getting to know them. And I enjoy going out on jobs. I’m not sure I’d be happy sitting behind a desk all day. ”
So, while she’s trying to decide her next steps, she’s been splitting her time between part-time research for F & F and baking enough cookies to keep my entire staff fed for a month, which my employees are over the moon about.
“I’ll make cookies,” Sofia promises. “Even if you won’t tell me where we’re going.”
Kurt slows as he makes a right turn onto W 104th Street. Sofia perks up. Glancing back out the window, she says, “Oh, did the realtor find another property around here? It’s so nice, being this close to Central Park.”
I take her hand in mine and give it a little squeeze. “You really liked the brownstone we saw, didn’t you?”
More than liked, really. From the moment we stepped inside the brownstone on Manhattan Ave, Sofia fell in love with it.
And I couldn’t blame her. The four-story brownstone had everything we wanted—bright rooms with tons of light, original brick fireplaces, a huge kitchen with large windows and plenty of room for plants, and an enclosed outdoor space with a patio and good-sized patch of grass.
And, most importantly, it could be modified to meet my security requirements.
That’s why I want a brownstone this time. No more condos with doormen who can betray me. No more ventilation systems intruders can sneak through. I want my own property so I can control who comes and goes at all times.
Sofia squeezes my hand in return. “I did like it, but we’ll find something else. I mean, there’s nothing we can do if the seller changes his mind.”
“Maybe,” I reply vaguely.
“Nico…”
“We’re here,” Kurt announces as he pulls to a stop. Turning around in his seat, he adds, “I’ll be right outside. Just text me when you’re ready to leave, and I’ll be ready.”
Sofia peers out the window. Her hand tightens around mine. “Nico. Why are we at a brownstone that’s not for sale anymore?”
I wait to answer while Kurt hops out of the car, scans our surroundings, then opens the back door.
I get out before Sofia so I can check the street again, and once I’m satisfied it’s safe, I reach my hand out to help her out of the car.
Once I have her tucked safely against my side, I say, “I thought we could take a look at it again.”
“Nico…” Her voice rises with suspicion. “What’s going on here?”
At the front door, I punch in the security code and lead Sofia inside.
My heart kicks into high gear, thrumming crazily.
Doubting thoughts swirl madly in my head.
What if this is a bad idea?
What if she doesn’t like the brownstone as much as I thought?
What if she’s mad I made this decision without her?
What if—
“Nico.” Puzzlement replaces suspicion as Sofia looks around at the now-empty living room. “There was furniture the last time we came here.”
“I know.” I tug her further into the room. Then I face her and take both of her hands. “But when someone sells their home, they usually take the furniture with them. And—” My heart thumps hard. “While he would have included it in the sale, I thought you’d want to pick out your own.”
Her eyes go big. “But… He changed his mind. He didn’t want to sell anymore.”
“I changed his mind back.”
That’s the thing about money. If you offer enough, it can usually change people’s minds about most things. And in this case, it was buying Sofia the home she liked best.
“Wait.” She drops my hands and spins around. “You bought this place?”
“We did. It would be ours. Not mine. Unless you don’t really like it. If you’d rather, I could put it back on the market and we can keep looking.”
“You convinced him? How much—”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is whether you like it. Whether this is the place you’d like to live.”
Sofia stares at me for a few seconds. Then she flings herself at me. “Yes! Of course I like it. I love it! But are you sure? It’s so expen—”
I silence her with a kiss. When we break apart, I say, “All I care about is if you’re happy here, Soph.”
She looks around the room again, her eyes wide with wonder this time. “It’s perfect.”
Phew.
My heart begins to slow to a more normal rhythm. “Okay. In that case, the house is ours. We’ll need to add some security, buy furniture, of course, but we should be able to move in a couple of weeks.”
Releasing her hands, I go to the corner of the room, where several boxes are stacked in a pile. I pick up the pile and bring it over to Sofia. “This is the next part of the surprise. Take these into the bedroom and open them. Then meet me in the rec room downstairs.”
She looks at the boxes piled in her arms. “Okay…”
“Just go,” I urge. “You’ll understand soon.”
Once Sofia is upstairs, I rush down to the lower level and grab the garment bag I brought over earlier. I quickly change into my tux and check the mirror above the fireplace to fix my tie. Then I hurry around the expansive rec room, flicking on lights and lighting candles.
Just as I turn on the music—a playlist of love songs and instrumental jazz—I hear the soft click of shoes on the stairs.
Straightening, I turn towards them.
My heart leaps.
Sofia descends the stairs like a vision plucked straight from my dreams.
She’s wearing the dress I picked out for her, emerald green silk that clings to her curves and throws off glints of gold as she moves.
Matching emerald earrings sparkle against her dark, glossy hair.
And around her neck is the necklace I had custom made for her—a platinum S embedded with tiny emeralds and diamonds.
“Soph.” My throat goes thick. “You look beautiful.”
Midway down the stairs, she freezes. Her mouth falls open in a tiny O of surprise. “Nico.”
I hurry over to the stairs and help her the rest of the way down. “I wanted to do something special,” I explain. “And then I thought of this…”
Sofia bites her lip as she looks around the room.
Her gaze sweeps across the candles set on the accent tables on either side of the fireplace.
Then she looks up at the dozens of gold balloons covering the ceiling.
From there, she turns her attention to the dining table in one corner, set with two place settings, wine glasses, and a vase of red roses at the center.
And finally, she looks at the sign hung above the fireplace—the one that says in black and gold lettering, Senior Ball.
“Nico.” She turns to me with tears in her eyes. “What—”
“We never got our senior ball,” I explain. “And I know it’s late, but I thought… maybe we could still have it. Together.”
Sofia blinks. Sniffles.
“I remember you wanted a green dress,” I add, “but I didn’t think you’d want the exact same one. So I picked this one out. I thought it would look beautiful on you. And it does.”
“Nico.” Her voice wobbles. “Our senior ball. I was so excited for it.”
“Did I mess up? Was this a bad idea? I didn’t want to make you sad.”
“Sad?” She steps forward and wraps her arms around me. “Maybe a little. For what we lost. But it makes me happy, knowing that we found our way back to each other.”
“Are you sure?” I brush a tear from her cheek. “You’re crying.”
Sofia makes an annoyed face. “I need to stop doing that. But.” She puts her hand on my cheek. “If I am crying, which I’m not admitting to, they would be happy tears. Not sad ones.”
“So you like it? The dress? And I thought we could dance, and have dinner, and then maybe we could try that wall thing again?”
“I love it. All of it.” She touches her earrings, and then her necklace. “But, Nico. You didn’t have to buy this, too.”
“I wanted to. And the necklace… Well, it’s not just jewelry.”
“It’s not?”
“Not quite.” I flip the S over and lightly tap the tiny indentation on the back. “This necklace has a GPS tracker in it. And this button, you can push it if you’re ever in trouble. It’ll set off an alert at Fox & Falcon, and notify me. So I—we—can find you right away.”
Her brow furrows as she looks down at the necklace. “A tracker?”
“Not that I’d track you all the time. That’s not what it’s for. Just emergencies. I’m not saying there will be, but—”
“Better safe than sorry,” Sofia finishes. Then she looks up at me and smiles. “I’m not upset. I think it’s a great idea. And it’ll definitely make me feel safer.”
“Good.” I cup her cheek. “Anything I can do to help, I will.”
“Nico.” Her hand covers mine. “You do.” She stops to look around the room again. “And this… it’s perfect. I’d rather have our senior ball this way. Just you and me.”
“Ah, Soph. That’s how I want it, too.”
As the song changes, I pull Sofia to me, resting one hand on her hip and taking her hand in my other. Then I start moving to the music. After a beat, Sofia leans against me and follows my lead.
“I love you, Nico,” she says softly. “So much. And no matter what it took to get here, it was worth it.”
Love surges through me, so powerful it steals my breath.
“I love you, too, Soph.” I kiss the top of her head. “And I promise, I’m never letting you go again.”