Chapter Twenty-Five Sophie #3
Clearly Luke felt the same, something electric crackling in the night air between them. The gentle lap of water against the wooden pilings seemed to echo Sophie’s heartbeat—too fast, too loud.
“There’s a part of the lake that you can go to at night and it feels like there’s nothing else around you,” he said, voice husky. “Let’s go there before heading back? But first, I might just put this one in the cabin.”
Sophie watched as Luke gently carried a still-sleeping Coral down into the boat’s small cabin, tucking her onto a cushioned bench inside.
When he returned to the deck, his large arms were loaded with throws.
He wrapped one around her shoulders then took her hand, helping her walk toward the front of the boat.
When he released her hand to start the engine, Sophie felt the loss of contact like a physical thing.
The motor hummed to life, a quiet purr rather than the roar she’d expected.
Luke handled the controls with an easy confidence, guiding them away from the dock with barely a ripple.
As they glided into open water, the air between them seemed to compress, as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the atmosphere, replaced by something far more combustible.
They glided farther from shore, the town lights growing smaller.
Then, as they rounded a small peninsula, even those vanished.
The darkness enveloped them completely, creating the strangest sensation, like they were no longer on a lake at all but suspended somewhere between earth and sky.
It was disorienting and magical at once, as though they’d slipped into some in-between place where normal rules ceased to exist.
Without another word, Luke cut the engine, letting them drift in the perfect stillness. He then joined her on the bench, hand on her knee. The sudden silence was deafening, broken only by the quiet lapping of water against the hull.
Luke seemed deep in thought. Distracted.
“You okay?” she asked him. “You’ve gone all broody.”
“Not brooding,” he said, voice rough. “Thinking.”
“Dangerous pastime. What are you thinking about, Captain?”
He turned to her, his handsome face deadly serious. “I’m thinking,” he said slowly, “that seeing you in that pretty dress all night has been driving me crazy.”
Good. That was entirely the point, Sophie thought smugly.
She grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward her. The kiss that followed was full of longing and the desire that had been simmering between them all evening.
“God, you’re so fucking beautiful,” Luke growled against her lips, his hands already working at the cloth belt of her dress.
The darkness made everything feel dreamlike as Luke’s hands mapped her skin, as if she were floating on more than just water. Right, so this is what all those romance novels were going on about. I get it now.
“You’re overthinking, Bennett,” Luke murmured against her throat, somehow reading her mind. “I can practically hear the commentary running in your head.”
Rude. Accurate, but rude. “Can’t help it,” Sophie gasped as his mouth found that spot just below her ear. “It’s a character flaw. I once wrote a mental grocery list during—Oh God, do that again.”
Luke’s laugh was low and wicked. “Pay attention, Bennett.”
“Oh, I am,” Sophie said as she pushed him back against the bench and kissed his neck, working her way down. “In fact, I intend to do very thorough research. You know how I am about being methodical.”
She dropped to her knees in front of him, the soft sway of the boat adding to the intimate moment.
As she unbuckled his belt, she peered up at him through her lashes.
His hair was thoroughly mussed from her fingers, falling across his forehead in a way that made him look younger, less guarded.
Those blue eyes were heavy-lidded now and focused entirely on her.
His chest rose and fell more rapidly now, the forest-green shirt stretched taut across muscles that flexed as he shifted slightly in the seat above her.
The way he was sprawled there, one hand along the bank of the seat while the other stroked her hair, made him look perfectly in control even as she could see his careful composure starting to fray at the edges.
She paused. “Unless you object to my research methods, Captain?”
Luke tangled his fingers in her hair, his response lost in a groan that echoed across the still water.
I’ll take that as approval, Sophie decided as she unbuttoned his jeans and slipped her hand inside, finding him hard and ready for her.
She gently pulled out his full length and kissed the tip, hearing him take in a sharp breath.
Then she slowly opened her lips, drawing him into her mouth, stroking her tongue over his length as she did.
He groaned, thrusting his hips slightly so he nudged at the back of her throat.
Sophie took her time, savoring the way he responded to her lips, her tongue, her hand working the base of him, the ever-more urgent sounds that escaped him mixing with the gentle lap of water against the hull.
Just as Luke seemed to be on the brink of surrendering to her completely, he pulled her up, his mouth capturing hers.
“Any more of that and I’ll lose all control.
” A deliciously wicked smile spread across his face as he leaned back, both arms across the back of the seat as he looked down at her, his erection huge.
“I want to see you in the moonlight. Clothes off, Bennett,” he instructed in a firm voice that aroused her even more.
“Well, if I’m going to have to remove my clothes, so are you, Rhodes.”
He stood up and Sophie watched, transfixed, as his hands worked the buttons of his shirt.
The moonlight revealed him in pieces—first the hollow of his throat where she could see his pulse beating, then the expanse of chest that rose and fell with each careful breath.
But it was the smaller details that caught her attention the most: the fine hair on his forearms. The way his fingers caressed the buttons of his shirt; fingers that she knew could build bookshelves just as well as they worked on her most sensitive parts.
He pushed his jeans down, stepping out of them with a gentle grace that made Sophie’s heart soar. Shadows pooled around him, the whole view like an intimate and breathtakingly beautiful painting.
This is what desire is supposed to feel like, Sophie thought, taking in the sight of him standing there, completely himself, completely majestic in a way that was uniquely him.
And the way he watched her, she could see he felt the same.
He sat on the bench, sprawled and fully naked. He looked like a giant or a very naked lake God, all muscles and hardness.
He reached out and pulled her toward him, burying his face between her breasts and breathing her in. “God, you smell good,” he said, his hand circling her waist then finding her buttocks, his palms enveloping each cheek.
He hitched her right leg up, looking into her eyes now, and helped her place her other leg on the other side of him. She hovered above him, feeling his erection nudge at her. She had to take a moment, the anticipation of having him inside her again almost too much.
“Ready?” he whispered.
She nodded and lowered herself onto him slowly, his cock, hot and swollen, pressing at her entrance then filling her completely.
She leaned down to kiss him, their foreheads touching as they found their rhythm.
Every sensation was heightened: the feel of the salt air on her skin, the sound of the waves against the hull, the sweet taste of Luke’s lips against hers, his intense blue eyes traveling over her body, her breasts, observing her as though she were something sacred.
“Look at me,” Luke murmured, and when Sophie met his gaze, she saw herself reflected in his eyes. Not the cautious woman she’d always been, but someone wild and free and his.
They moved together, faster now, chasing something just out of reach. Sophie felt herself shattering in the best possible way, every wall she’d built crumbling under the weight of Luke’s touch, his gaze, the way he whispered her name over and over as he came.
Afterward, she collapsed against his chest, still trembling, still trying to catch her breath. Luke’s arms came around her immediately, holding her close as their heartbeats slowly returned to normal.
“That was…” she started, then found she had no words.
“Perfect,” Luke finished quietly, pressing a kiss to her hair.
Sophie smiled against his chest. “I was going to say ‘considerably better than my usual Monday evening’ but I suppose perfect works, too.”
His chest shook with quiet laughter. “There’s my girl.”
My girl, Sophie thought with a flutter in her stomach.
Yes, I rather like the sound of that.