Page 39 of For Better or for Ransom

They were standing one in front of the other at the very entrance of the apartment, still trying to catch their breaths, and shamelessly checking the other one out. Sol had to admit, they looked smoking hot in their underwear. But they looked even better naked.

The whole not being able to say a single thing, and ask her how she wanted it, and talk dirty to her, wasn’t to Luke’s predilection. But he loved being dared—and when things spiced up.

Still with her determined, sexy face on, she looked at the boxer briefs he was wearing, signaling for him to take them off. He couldn’t repress the smile but was quick to obey. With the sexiest of grins on his face, his features demanded that she do the same.

She was about to comply when she had the weirdest sensation. She was reminded of the first time they’d made love together—of the temporary insecurity she’d felt that night right before getting completely naked in front of him. It had been perhaps understandable that first time, but Sol didn’t know what was going on now. Not that she was good with numbers or anything, but he’d probably seen her naked hundreds of times. Yet, the way Luke was looking at her or even the fact that he’d called her bella, had somehow brought that memory—that feeling.

She brushed everything aside. She was set on just worrying about the very immediate present. She stripped and the look in Luke’s face erased any insecurity she’d harvested. He wanted her.

She took his left hand and guided him to their bedroom. She was somehow feeling traditional all of a sudden, and instead of her initial urge to have Luke fuck her on the kitchen counter or against the entrance wall, she’d decided they needed the bed.

Luke followed her but he wasn’t exactly the conforming type waiting for her to dictate the whole evening. He pushed her back against the bedroom wall, and started an unhurried, almost sedative descent of his lips on her body. He slowly trailed her neck, collarbone, and breasts—most inconveniently skipping her nipples. He continued licking and caressing her waist, stomach, and most mercifully the bone of her hip. But of course he was going to kiss her everywhere but where she most needed it. He wanted her to ask for it—to break her own rule of no words that night while they fucked. Bastard.

She moaned in frustration while his tongue tracked one of her inner thighs.

He fucking laughed.

He was on his knees not for the reasons she needed him to be, but just trying very hard at making her fail at her own game. He wanted to play dirty? Sol knew how to do that too.

She fell to her knees, looked at him with the most charged of stares, and descended with her lips glued to his body. When she took him in her mouth, he gasped.

For a few minutes, she’d decided she’d won. He was at her mercy.

But had she?

“Cara…” Luke’s sexiest drawl took her out of the indulgence before her.

She directed her eyes at his again, this time in warning. He’d better shut up.

Luke’s hands, that had been on Sol’s hair and caressing her body, shot up in the air, feigning innocence. He also took advantage of her attention and took his eyes to the bed.

She sighed, anticipating a particularly pleasant seduction game that night. But she also knew there would be a constant battle to see who was running the show. To prove she was indeed still the one in charge, she gave his cock one last, long, generous stroke of her tongue. Then took his hand, dragged him to bed, and pushed him so that his back hit the mattress.

She hadn’t finished seating herself on top of him, and he was already flipping them. Her back was against the mattress now. Sol’s protesting sounds quickly turned into a completely different type of groaning as Luke mercifully did a repeat of his mouth journey down her body, finally giving Sol what she’d been craving the first time. He bit her nipples with an intensity that had her screaming.

They’d come a long way as lovers. At the beginning of their relationship, he’d have requested her desired level of intensity before trying something that threaded the line between pain and pleasure. That night he’d simply read her.

When his mouth reached her clit and her hands went to his hair, she felt she’d win the battle.

But he had to prove to her again how much of an adept teaser he was. He licked and lapped her, brought her to the very edge, and stopped. Bastard.

Sol’s head snapped up, her eyes looking for his. He had a fucking grin on his face. Then he shrugged his shoulders as if asking: Now what, cara?

She heard herself groaning in ire. She was about to concede and tell him exactly what it was that she needed him to do to her, but he knew exactly what that was. Of course he did.

And impatient as she was, Sol Novo wasn’t a woman who gave up easily. Not when she guessed the reward would be absolutely worth it. They were so far gone that night, that even if she allowed him to talk, Luke wouldn’t press any issues before making sure both of them were thoroughly spent and sated. But she was particularly liking that game of communicating through stares, catching the other one by surprise, and fighting for control.

So she took the offensive again.

With her hands still in Luke’s hair, she dragged his face back to hers and kissed him. The kiss hit her differently than in the elevator. Not only she could taste herself on his tongue, something that had always turned her on, they were now naked and entwined in a pile of needy limbs and sweaty skin.

With her lips still glued to his, she turned under his body, making him move with her. She curled on her side, her back against his chest, and reached behind her for his cock, aiming his head at her entrance and positioning her leg on top of his hip to give him better access.

The vibrations of his chuckle spread through her nape and shoulders. But even as she was arching her back, he didn’t immediately push into her. Bastard.

Her frustrated and practically agonic moan had him complying. At the first sensation of him inside her, she sighed, relieved. His breath was ragged as he was pushing into her with more intensity in each thrust. She wasn’t sure how much she’d be able to hold, the first hints of an orgasm teasing her, when he reasserted his control.

He grabbed her waist, pushing her breasts against the mattress in a delicious friction of her nipples on the firm surface, as his hand splayed on her back. He lifted her ass, a leg between hers making more room for his body. Sol was about to break her own self-imposed rule of silence, pleading for him to go harder, but didn’t have to do it. His body rammed against her in an unrelenting rhythm that had her panting. When one of his hands began to work her clit, she exploded.