CHAPTER NINE
HERHOUSE.
In her head, to go to Matias’s house would have been a complete declaration of defeat. Within the confines of her own four walls, however, she could kid herself that she was still in control, even though she had lost it in his arms and even thoughshe wanted to carry on losing it.
If I sleep with him, she thought, then it would bea conscious decision. It wouldn’t mean that she had lost all control and it certainly didn’t mean that she would marry him. She would never trust him again. How could she? She would never jeopardise Eric’s privacy because she’d made another mistake, but...
She wanted Matias so badly. He was in her system like a virus and she wanted to be cleared of that virus because it was driving her round the bend.
He reached out to link his fingers lightly through hers in the car. They barely spoke but the electricity between them could have set a forest ablaze. His mobile phone rang several times. He ignored it. Looking at his strong, sharp profile, the lean contours of his beautiful face, Sophie wondered what was going through his head. He didn’t love her but he still fancied her. He’d told her that there was no need for her to keep trying to prove to him that she was no gold-digger, but deep down she knew that he would always believe her culpable of trying to get him to sink money into her father’s dying company and invest in a man who had turned out to be a thief. He had no idea that Eric existed and so would never understand why she had done what she had, and she could never tell him about her brother because family loyalty was more powerful than anything else.
But whatever the situation, he was right. A fire burned between them and what were they to do about it?
Having never invested in the crazy notion that lust was something that couldn’t be tamed, Sophie was realising just how far off the mark she’d been with her orderly, smug little homilies.
It was after four-thirty by the time they made it to her house. Sophie thought it was serendipity that Julie was out on a job, setting up with an assistant they had hired, for a lavish dinner party in Dulwich.
Compared to the glorious setting of the house they had just seen, her two up, two down, squashed in the middle of an uninspiring row of terraced lookalikes, was a shock to the system. She’d vigorously defended her little place but now she felt that she could see it through Matias’s eyes. Poky, cramped, unsatisfactory.
She turned to find him looking at her with a veiled expression as he quietly shut the door behind them. Shivers of anticipation raced up and down her spine.
‘Empty house?’ he asked, walking very slowly towards her, and Sophie nodded.
‘Julie’s on a job. She won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. Matias... I’m glad about the house... This place would really not have been suitable for a baby. I mean, of course, it would have worked if there were no other option but...’
‘Shh.’ He placed one finger over her lips and her heart sped up. ‘Don’t talk.’ He was directly in front of her now and he bent his head and kissed her. A long, lingering, gentle kiss that made her weak at the knees. ‘Much as I enjoy the sound of you telling me that I was right, there’s more, a lot more, I want to enjoy right now.’ He cupped the back of her neck and carried on kissing her, taking it long and slow and feeling a kick of satisfaction as her body yielded to his, moulding bit by bit to his hard length until they were pressed together, entwined.
Without warning, he lifted her off her feet and Sophie gasped and clung to him as he made his way up the narrow staircase.
He’d seen enough of her place to know that finding her bedroom wasn’t going to require in-depth navigation skills. The place was tiny. He doubted there were more than two bedrooms and he was proved right, finding hers with no trouble at all as it was at the top of the stairs.
Cheerful colours tried to make the most of a space that could barely contain the bed, the chest of drawers and the wardrobe that were crammed into it. Two posters tried to attract the eye away from the view outside of other terraced houses and beyond that a railway line.
He set her down on the bed and she promptly pushed herself up onto her elbows to look at him as he drew the curtains together, shutting out the weak sunlight and plunging the room into subdued tones of grey and sepia.
‘It’s been too long,’ he intoned with a slow, possessive smile that ratcheted up her spiralling excitement.
He was standing with his back to the window and he remained there for a few seconds, just staring at her, before walking towards the bed, ridding himself of clothes on the way.
He was sheer masculine, powerful beauty in motion and he took her breath away.
She was frankly amazed that she had been able to withstand his potent sex appeal for as long as she had, but then today was the first time he had yanked that monster out of the cupboard and forced her to confront it.
She half closed her eyes, watching as, down to his boxers, he stood by the side of the bed and gazed down at her.
Tentatively, she reached out and ran the tips of her fingers across the washboard hardness of his flat stomach.
He was wired for her. His erection was prominent under the boxers, which didn’t remain on for longer than necessary.
‘I don’t have to tell you how much I want this,’ Matias said gruffly. ‘The evidence is right in front of you.’
Sophie gave a soft little whimper and sat up straighter, angling her body so that she could lick the shaft of his pulsing erection.
She tasted him like someone savouring an exquisite delicacy. Her tongue flicked and touched, her mouth closed over him and she sucked while, with her hand, she enjoyed the familiar feel of his hardness. His taste was an aphrodisiac.
She felt as if somewhere, in the back of her mind, she had stored the memory of the noises he made when she did this, his deep, guttural grunts. His fingers clasped in her hair were familiar. She wanted him so badly she was melting for him and wanted nothing more than to fling off all her clothes so that he could take her.
Reading her mind and knowing that if he didn’t watch it, he would come right now, in her mouth, Matias reluctantly separated her from him. When he glanced down, his shaft was slick and wet and he had to clench his fists to control the urge to put her right back there, have her take him across the finishing line with her hands and her mouth.
