I grabbed her pants and pulled them off her, then jerked my own off. She quickly pulled her shirt over her head and threw it on the ground before pulling me onto her and opening her legs and bucking her hips into me.

  My already-wet-from-pre-cum cock hit her wet pussy and slid deep in her.

  Holy shit. So that’s what it feels like.

  “Oh God,” she breathed.

  “Sophie, where are your condoms?”

  “I don’t have any left. Where are yours?”

  “In my bag in the front cabin.” The plane began to shake so much I had to grab onto the railing attached to the bottom of the couch.

  “I’m on the pill. I just got checked, and I’m clean. Are you?” She gazed up into my eyes.

  “Yes, I’ve never gone without a condom and get checked every month.”

  “Then don’t worry about it.”

  “Fuuuuck, Sophie!” I shut my eyes for a minute. Nothing had ever felt better than her body wrapping itself around mine. Slick, warm, supple.

  “You feel so good, Phil. Don’t I feel good like this?” she whispered.

  I moaned. “Sophie.”

  “Don’t think,” she whispered, and made the decision for me by grabbing my ass, rocking her hips, and pushing me farther in her.

  I groaned. She was going to ruin my enjoyment of sex going forward. There was no way a condom would ever feel good again. I nuzzled down into her neck. “You’re going to wreck me, Sophie.”

  “You’ve already wrecked me,” she murmured into my ear. Her warm breath sent new little volts down my neck, and her words sent an unfamiliar feeling through my bones. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was.

  Hope. Her words gave me hope that we were something more, and I tried to push it out of my mind.

  My hard shaft rippled across her walls, and she clenched against me.

  “Oh my God, Phil,” she breathed while grabbing my face in her hands and making a tiny O with her mouth.

  I pushed her hair back, and my quivering lip met hers as I breathlessly shoved my tongue against hers.

  Trying to catch my breath, I pushed my forehead against hers, and the plane went into a long patch of turbulence. She dug her fingernails into my ass and pushed me harder into her.

  Obsession. Addiction. Emotions. They all took over, as did my need to know exactly what she’d thought about while we were apart, when she could have found me and didn’t.

  “Tell me what you thought of,” I breathed on her as I locked eyes with her.

  She tried to ignore me and kiss me, but I wouldn’t let her.

  “Tell me,” I said in a stern voice.

  “Your dick.”

  I circled my hips into her hard.

  “Don’t stop!” she breathed, and pulsed on me.

  “What else?”

  “Your tongue.”

  Without hesitation, I tasted her, flicked at her, and took control of her mouth till she was breathless and moaning.

  The turbulence continued, and the rattling of the overhead bins was loud.

  “What else?” I repeated.

  She closed her eyes.

  “What else, Sophie?” I demanded.

  “Your face.” She opened her eyes and grabbed my face with both hands. “I missed your face most of all.”

  My eyes scanned hers as I continued to thrust inside her. “Why did you think of me?”

  She closed her eyes again and swallowed hard.

  “Tell me, Petal.”

  Honest, emotion-filled eyes revealed everything. She wanted to love me, but she couldn’t. She blinked back her tears.

  The need to have her as mine grew at that moment. It spiked through me and tortured me. And then I let it torture her.

  “We’re so fucking good together, Sophie,” I murmured against her lips while still staring into her eyes.

  Her hand turned my cheek, and she dove into my neck, sucking on it hard.

  My balls had already tightened, and her insides throbbed all around me. “I don’t know how much longer—”

  The plane went sideways, and we rolled against the couch. She slid into me hard and started to shatter all over me as I exploded into her, pumping harder than ever before and holding her tight in my arms.

  “Sophie,” I muttered into her neck as she loudly cried out my name.

  The plane leveled out, and I rolled back over her. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her body convulsed hard on me.

  There was another ten minutes or so of hard turbulence. I rolled her on top of me and held her in my arms tightly as she nuzzled into my neck.

  We didn’t speak as my hands caressed her back and I kissed her head several times. When the turbulence was over, the seat belt sign dinged and turned green.

  Sophie quickly sat up, threw my clothes at me, and got dressed.

  I watched her as I pulled my pants on.

  She collected her items that had rolled out of her tote bag, threw them back in, and grabbed my phone that had jammed into the corner of the couch. She turned it back on and handed it to me.

  I sat back on the couch, tilted my head, and stared at her as I reached out for my phone but held her hand. “Sophie?”

  “Everything’s fine.” She blinked back tears, yanked her hand from mine, turned, and walked into the other room.

  It was official: Sophie Cradle had ruined me. But who had ruined her?

  Sophie

  * * *

  As quickly as possible, I walked off the jet and got into the car. Two cars were waiting on the runway, both Phil’s and mine.

  Phil came and got into my car. “You want to tell me what’s happening right now?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine. I told you everything is fine.”

  “Everything is not fine.”

  “It is. Thank you for helping me. I know you went the extra mile. Tom’s lucky to have you. I appreciate it.”

  Phil sat back and glared at me with a disgusted look on his face.

  I sighed. “What now?”

  “So I’m your employee now? Is that it?” he spat at me.

  I jerked my head at him. “I didn’t say that.”

  He shook his head and pursed his lips together. “Have a great day, Sophie.” He threw me one last disgusted glare, got out, and shut the door.

  Shit.

  Phil didn't deserve to be treated unfairly, but things had gotten too intense, and I needed to stop it.

  I should never have made him tell me how he tried to fuck me out of his system. I had been playing with fire, and I knew it. But I couldn’t help myself.

  And I pushed him inside me without a condom because I needed to feel him… I needed all of him. The only other man I had ever let in me without a condom was Eric—and, to be honest, he had just been a boy—and that was a teenage mistake we’d made.

  Phil wasn’t a boy. He was a man. His admission to me that I’d haunted him over the few months we were apart told me that he wanted me as much as I wanted him.

  And I craved him. I desperately craved him.

  All I had to do was look at him and my body started to singe. But it had gone beyond physical. He would care about me as much as I let him, and I needed to stop letting him.

  Phil didn’t do relationships normally, but if I told him I wanted more, he would give it to me. I’d seen it on the jet. Yes, I’d opened Pandora’s box when I pushed him to tell me how he thought about me when he was with other women. And I couldn’t handle a real relationship. I’d had one of those once, and the pain almost left me for dead myself.

  When Ethan’s brother Eric killed himself, my soul was ripped out of me. It took me a few years to even look at anyone else, and even longer to let them touch me. But I eventually discovered if I didn’t get close, then I could appear normal.

  I’m anything but normal.

  Yep, I was fucked up, and Phil didn’t need to be brought into my crazy world. The best thing he could do would be to forget about me.

  I sat in the car and pushed my head back against the headrest, closing my eyes. From now on it was going to be pure business with Phil, and that was it.

  I couldn’t afford another heartbreak. I wouldn’t survive it this time.

  6

  Phil

  * * *

  The rest of the day I spent working and trying not to think about Sophie. I threw myself into sorting out the security issues and was back and forth with phone calls from London, but the more I tried to not think about her, the more she popped up in my mind.

  Nighttime came. No one knew we were back. I decided to go over to Club D and meet up with everyone. The plans were made before I headed off to Toronto, and now that the concert was canceled and I was back in town, I was able to go.

  Blowing off steam was my number one priority. But I needed to get out of the house before that party started, so I decided to go hang out with the gang first.

  I was over Sophie’s hot-and-cold games. This is exactly why I don’t do relationships. Work gave me enough issues to deal with, and I didn’t need more drama.

  It’s why my way of blowing off steam was ideal. I could go, get what I needed, and not have to deal with any drama or mind-game bullshit.

  Sophie had made me tell her all the things I’d thought about when I was apart from her. It messed with my head. And I made her admit to me that she wanted me as much as I wanted her.

  It should have been good.

  It should have been a step forward for both of us.

  But not with Sophie. Nope. She was, once again, acting like I was nothing to her.

  I took a shower, got dressed, and headed out. It wasn’t that long before I was in the club, drinking a beer with the guys. When I first got there, they wanted to know why I wasn’t still in Toronto. I told them that the concert was canceled and quickly changed the subject. Ethan and Tom both looked at me funny. I ignored their looks, pounded back my beer, and grabbed another one.

  Ethan pulled me aside. “Everything okay with Soph?”

  “Why don’t you ask her that.” I took another sip of beer.

  “Phil, I did ask her that.”

  I shrugged. “Then why are you talking to me about this?”

  Ethan looked worried. “I texted her to see how things were going, and she told me she was getting ready to go on stage.”

  My head snapped. “What?”

  Ethan held up the text. It was from a few hours earlier.

  I shook my head. “The concert is canceled. When I left her, she was in her car on the way back to her place.”

  “Did something happen between you two?”

  I laughed. “Once again, I have no fucking clue. And honestly, I don’t give a shit anymore.”

  Ethan peered at me but didn’t say anything.

  I held up my hands in frustration. “What?”

  “Did she tell you anything about her past relationships?”

  I assumed he was talking about the dumb guys she told me she dated so she wouldn’t have to feel. “I know all about her ‘let’s not feel’ relationships.”

  “Did she tell you—” Ethan stopped talking and glared across the room.

  A bad feeling surged through me, and I turned to where his eyes were looking.

  A very drunk Sophie stood against the wall with a guy I had never seen before who had his tongue down her throat, and his hand was moving up her mini-dress.

  Her bodyguards stood outside the room looking guilty, but had obviously been told to stay outside and not interfere. Isaac nervously glanced at me.

  She gazed over at me and caught my eye, then started kissing him harder.

  Tom walked over and stood next to me, staring between Sophie and me and waiting for my reaction. His fists were balled at his sides.

  She looked over while he sucked on her neck and fixated on my eyes.

  The guy clearly was willing to fuck her right up against the wall, in front of everyone.

  “She’s all yours, Ethan.” I patted him on the back and turned and walked over to the bar to get another drink.

  She wasn’t my problem. We weren’t in a relationship, so she could do whatever or whomever she wanted.

  And you said you’re done with her, anyway. Then why does it hurt so bad?

  Claire walked over to me and softly said, “Phil, you okay?”

  I smiled at her. “Yep.”

  She scanned my eyes.

  I turned away from her and looked back at Sophie. She was giggling and pushing her hand on his so he wouldn't pull her dress up, but she was intoxicated, and he overpowered her.

  “That’s it,” Ethan grumbled. He went over to her and pulled the guy off her.

  “Ethan, stop!” she screamed.

  The guy didn’t know what was happening and started to recover, but Tom was quickly by his side. The guy looked up to see Ethan and Tom towering over him. “I’ll see you later, Carlotta.” He scurried out of the room.

  “Ethan, what the fuck!” Sophie yelled at him.

  Ethan grabbed her, threw her over his shoulder, walked to the couch, and sat her down. She tried to get up, and he sat down next to her and held her down. “Claire, grab some water,” he yelled.

  Claire motioned to the bartender for a bottle of water.

  Sophie started to punch Ethan in the stomach and kick him.

  “Stop it! You’re drunk, Sophie!”

  “So what!” She took her fist and punched him in the gut.

  “Stop hitting me!”

  “You’re not in charge of me!” She slapped him across the face.

  The slap didn’t faze Ethan. “Maybe I should be!” he growled at her.

  “Let me go!” She punched him again. This time she got his shoulder.

  “No! Why are you doing this?”

  “You know why!” she shouted, and tried to kick him again as tears fell down her face.

  He took his legs and threw them on top of hers so she couldn’t move, and grabbed her wrists and held them above her head. He got right in her face. “Sophie, stop it!”

  “I can’t. It hurts too bad.” A river of tears fell as her face crumpled in pain.

  He grabbed her and pulled her into his chest, and she started to sob.

  “Why did he do it, E? Why?” she sobbed.

  He stroked her head and started to cry himself. “I don’t know, Soph. I just don’t know.”

  She cried into his chest. “It won’t stop hurting.”

  “I know.”

  “I can’t breathe. Every time I try to breathe, I can’t.”

  “Shh.” Ethan closed his eyes and rubbed her back as more tears fell down his face.

  “I just want it to stop hurting,” she sobbed.

  “I know, but this isn’t the way.”

  “It’s my fault.”

  “Shh. It’s not your fault. He did it.”

  “No, it’s my fault. I didn’t pick up the phone.”

  “That’s not your fault,” Ethan said sternly.

  “It was. He’d still be alive,” she cried.

  “No, he wouldn’t. He would have done it a different day.”

  “I hate him for what he did,” she sobbed.

  More tears flew out of Ethan's eyes. “I hate him for what he did, too.”

  “I loved him. Why couldn’t it be enough?” Her chest was heaving with emotion through her tears.

  “No amount of love could save him, Soph. It’s not your fault,” Ethan reiterated.

  She continued to sob in his arms as her body violently shook with emotion.

  My heart broke as I blinked back my own tears. I didn’t know what was happening, but she was in so much pain, and I didn’t know why. Ethan was, too.

  Claire put her hand on my arm to steady herself. Her other hand was over her mouth, and she had tears streaming down her face.

  Silence, except for the pounding of music outside the room and Sophie’s sobs and Ethan’s “shh’s” filling the room. I realized everyone had tears in their eyes as they glanced between Sophie, Ethan, Claire, and myself.

  I gotta get her out of here.

  I walked over to Tom. “Have my driver pull up in the alley and tell D to clear a path. Inform her bodyguards. No one is to be in the hall.”

  He nodded and wiped his face.

  I walked over to the couch, knelt down in front of her, and pulled her out of Ethan’s arms and into mine.

  “Phil, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she cried.

  “Shh.” I pulled her into me.

  “You should stay away from me,” she sobbed.

  “Shh.”

  “I’m so tired,” she sobbed.

  Pulling her into my chest, I whispered, “Shh. Let me take you home, Petal.”

  I let her cry on me a bit and picked her up. She buried her face in my neck and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I didn’t look at anyone except Tom, who nodded to me that everything was arranged. I made a beeline for the door, and he followed me out to Derek’s private elevator and put in the key. As I pushed the button, Sophie let out another shaky sob and tears started flying down her face again.

  My heart was ripped open once more, and I stared at Tom’s tear-filled blue eyes until the doors closed. We got to the ground level, and I carried her into the alley where the cars were waiting.

  Once we got inside the car, we didn’t say anything. I gave my driver her address. She lay in my arms, curled into my neck with fresh tears popping up every so often.

  When we got to her building, I carried her through it, and the bodyguards unlocked the door into her penthouse. I took her right into her bedroom. She had calmed down and was no longer crying, and I put her on the bed.

  “I’ll be right back. I’m just going to go grab some water.” I kissed her head and went out to the kitchen to grab some bottles of water and brought them back to her bedroom, then set them down on her nightstand.

  I went into her closet and found some pajamas, came back out and undressed, then dressed her. Her face was covered in black streaks, so I walked into her bathroom and found some makeup wipes. I wet a washcloth and went back out to the bed and wiped her face, then I took the makeup wipes and removed the black mascara that had run down her face.

  She grabbed my hands and let out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve—”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26