Page 88 of Trying Sophie

My eyes flicked between his, searching for assurance that we weren’t doing something we’d regret. Staring back at me was a vulnerability that matched my own.

“It’s never been like this,” he confided, settling his hands on either side of my face. “I’ve never gone bare before.”

“Me neither,” I told him, fear and excitement coursing through my veins.

I’d heard people talk about moments in their lives where time stood still, but I’d never understood what they meant. But being with Declan like this, I finally got it.

A thousand thoughts barreled through my mind, with another thousand chasing after them. What was growing between us wasn’t casual and I wouldn’t be able to just walk away from it. This moment wasn’t just about our bodies being laid bare; our hearts were on the line as well. We walked a razor’s edge and we both knew it.

“I …” he began, our eyes locked, before he trailed off. “This …” he started again, unable to complete the thought.

Not that I could have either.

“Fuck,” he growled, claiming my mouth with a possessive kiss as he drove into me.

“Fuck,” he repeated, almost angrily, as he pushed me onto my back and pumped into me with excruciatingly slow and measured strokes. Then, changing tempo, he thrust harder and faster, matching the cadence of his breathing.

He’d told me this is how he’d wanted it, but the urgency and intensity with which he fucked me was overwhelming. I thought I’d understood what Declan had meant, but the way he rode me was entirely outside my scope of experience.

“Fuck,” he snarled against my neck, biting me and then sucking my flesh into his mouth to ease the sting.

“Fuck,” he groaned again when he drew my nipple into his mouth and grazed the sensitive tip with his teeth.

“Fuck,” he bit out when he did the same to the other one.

Every cell of my body was consumed by him; every part of me belonging to him. He was nowhere and everywhere all at once. My hips rising to meet his rapid thrusts, I kissed his neck, and when I skimmed my teeth over his skin as he’d done to me, he shuddered and growled my name.

When I felt the beginnings of an epic orgasm bloom in my belly, I tried to capture Declan’s gaze so he could see what he did to me, but he wouldn’t look at me. Pressing my palm to his cheek, I tried to guide his face to mine, but with his jaw clenched, he held firm.

Declan swore again, and then, pulling out of me, flipped me onto my stomach. Wrapping his muscled arm around my front, he lifted me onto all fours before plunging into me with one driving thrust. My body bucked with each plunge of his cock into my wet, desperate pussy.

“Down,” he commanded, the heel of his palm pressing into the curve of my spine.

My arms collapsed and I dropped back onto my stomach. He ached over me, and zeroed in on my clit, stroking me insistently as his thrusts grew progressively more measured. Held captive beneath him, the only thing I could do was let him use my body the way he saw fit.

The blanket clenched tight in my fists, I screwed my eyes shut as his relentless pounding pushed me closer and closer to the brink.

“Come, damn you,” Declan demanded, his voice hoarse with exertion, as his teeth clamped down on my shoulder and his fingers danced over my clit with speed and force.

“Fuuuuuuuuuck,” I wailed as my entire body seized with a jarring, pulsing climax that robbed me of breath.

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,” Declan chanted above me in the seconds just before his own orgasm blew through him.

With a roar, his body jerked violently, and he convulsed while he emptied his cock into me. He collapsed, trapping me beneath him, as oxygen sawed in and out of his chest. I lay beneath him trying to catch my own breath, wondering what had just happened.

One minute he had been sweet and tender, and the next it was like a switch had flipped and he fucked me like an animal. Is that what he’d meant when he said that’s the way he needed it? Not that I necessarily minded since my orgasm had been intense and satisfying. When he’d flipped me over and shoved his cock into me, it had felt amazing, his dominance something I enjoyed more than I thought possible. But I missed the connection we’d had when I rode him, our bodies chest to chest, our breaths mingling. If I couldn’t have that with him too …

Suddenly, Declan rolled away and stood. Without a word or a backward glance, he retreated to the bathroom and shut the door, leaving me cold and naked and feeling hallowed out and alone. And now, despite everything he’d said about his feelings for me, I was ashamed too. I felt like I could have been anyone. That it wasn’t Sophie he wanted as much as it was my body he craved, a wet, warm place to lose himself for a time. Much as I wanted to believe I meant something to Declan—that this meant something to him—I worried I’d been wrong. That I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book.

Tears of rejection stung the back of my throat, and when I heard the shower running from behind the closed door my fight or flight instincts kicked in. I wasn’t sure which propelled me forward, but I was up and out of the bed in a flash. Spying his t-shirt on the floor, I cleaned myself up and tossed it in the corner.

That’ll teach him, I thought as it landed with a whoosh.

Collecting my clothes from around the room, I jerkily pulled them on and set my appearance to rights. I’d just finished zipping up my boots when Declan sauntered out of the bathroom, a robe draped loosely around his body. His eyes flicked to the bed and seeing me no longer there, he quickly searched the suite. When he saw me, his lips lifted in a sexy smirk before realization dawned. His smile dimmed and his eyes turning cautious.

My arms crossed over my chest, I stood immobile. I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry I chanted in my head as I swallowed around the lump in my throat and cast my eyes upward.

“Sophie?”

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