She smiled. “They don’t make men like you very often anymore. Go and tell that woman how you feel. And I’ll find me a man, don’t you worry.”

I had no doubt she would. Leaving her, I headed outside to hail a cab. Five minutes later, I was on my way to Sophia’s house. It was the last place I wanted to go, but, fuck, it was the one place I was beginning to think I needed to be.

* * *

Her wary eyes narrowed on me. “What are you doing here, Griff? It’s late and I thought we covered everything yesterday.”

“I thought we’d covered everything, too. Turns out I’m not done. It seems you’re the only thing I can think of at the moment, and at a time of year I usually reserve for other thoughts, it’s confused the fuck out of me that you can so easily steal their place.”

She didn’t say anything straight away, and I began to think she was going to turn me away. But then she said softly, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Every now and then you bare a piece of your soul to me and it makes me want to know more about you. It makes me want to know everything.”

I sucked in a breath. Don’t say that. “Can I come in?” I placed one foot inside her house, willing her to say yes.

She made my fucking night when she took a step back and ushered me in. I didn’t give her a chance to change her mind, and strode in towards her kitchen. When I reached my destination, I turned to look at her. Jesus, she was something else. Dressed in a pair of those denim shorts that killed me every-fucking-time and a white almost see-through t-shirt, with her hair pulled up in a ponytail and her face free of makeup, she was easily the most beautiful woman I had ever met.

Moving past me into the kitchen, she grabbed a glass out of a cupboard and poured herself a drink of water. Resting her back against the kitchen counter and one foot on the other, she sipped her drink and said, “So, you came to talk or to screw me?”

Fuck.

Straight to the point.

I rubbed the back of my neck and frowned. “I don’t really know.”

She stared at me for a long minute before placing her drink on the counter and moving to where I stood. Taking my face in her hands, she brushed her lips across mine, and fuck if my dick didn’t react straight away. Her touch was like a lightning bolt through me, lighting every nerve ending on fire.

I groaned into her mouth. I knew I should stop her, but I couldn’t. This woman had crawled under my skin and I was helpless to stop my need for her. I slid one hand around her neck and gripped her there while my other hand moved to hold the back of her head. Deepening the kiss, my tongue found hers and I kissed her in a way I hadn’t kissed a woman in a long time.

Fuck knew how long we kissed for. It was both heaven and hell for me - a constant push and pull of needs. All I wanted to do was take her body and bend it to give me what I desired – what I needed – but I refused to break her, so I denied myself.

She ended the kiss, and stared into my eyes. “You wanna talk about the thoughts you usually reserve for this time of year?”

“No.”

“Well, there’s your answer, handsome. It seems you came here to screw me.”

I still had hold of her, and I moved one of my hands to grip her ponytail. Yanking it back, I bent my mouth to her neck and sucked her hard enough that I was almost biting her. The moan that escaped her lips only encouraged me, and while I was fighting my urges as hard as I could, I lost my battle for a moment. My teeth sunk into her skin and I marked her neck.

When I was finished, I lifted my face and loosened my grip on her hair slightly. “You don’t do one-night stands, sweetheart, so it seems we have a small problem there.”

Her eyes watched me for a beat, and next minute, she had her hands on my jeans and had undone the button and was sliding the zip down.

Fuck.

“Careful,” I warned. “Once you signal your move, there’s no going back.”

She took hold of my cock and gripped me firmly before moving her hand up and down my length. “I’m breaking my one-night-stand rule for one night, and I’m trusting you to make it worth my while.”

“Jesus,” I muttered, not convinced this was the right thing, but knowing there was no way I could stop now even if I wanted to.

Ah, fuck it. I moved my hands to her ass and lifted her into my arms. “Which way to your bedroom?”

As she placed her arms around my neck to hold on, she said, “Down the hall and to your left. It’s the room at the end of the hallway.”

Without wasting anymore time, I strode down the hall and found her bedroom. She had a room that matched her personality exactly. Classy with mostly white throughout, and a touch of black here and there. She also had one of those tables women sit at to apply their makeup, and I took in the jewellery and perfume that covered it. Hell, I already knew Sophia loved perfume – she always smelled fucking amazing.

I placed her on the floor next to the bed, and let my gaze travel over her body. “Have you got any idea what those shorts do to a man?” I asked as I reached out to undo them.

“They’re comfortable,” she said, as if she was justifying her choice.

I flicked the button undone and pulled the zip down before stripping them off her. “Much more comfortable now,” I said as I took in the strip of lace covering her pussy.

My dick jerked and I restrained myself from tearing that piece of lace in half. Instead, I lifted her shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor before reaching around to undo her bra. As much as it would have been fun to drag this part out, she and I had been dancing around each other for too many days now, and I struggled to even go this slowly.