roused nipple. His lips roamed the length of her throat, tasting, biting and murmuring his approval as she let out a low groan of pleasure as he pushed up her sweater. She had only the thin barrier of her bra between her flesh and his as Max suckled one of her nipples into the heat of his mouth.
‘White or cream?’ he murmured seconds later as his kissed his way across to its twin.
‘Cream.’ Sophie didn’t even pretend not to understand him.
‘Are you wearing a matching thong?’
‘Yes.’
‘I need to see that!’ Max groaned, heat having coursed through his body, his arousal hot and pulsing, just visualising Sophie in a thong.
His gaze held hers as he moved slowly down her body until he knelt between her parted thighs. He unfastened the button and zip of her trousers before folding the material back, his breath catching in his throat, mouth going dry, as he revealed the scrap of cream lace covering the neatly trimmed thatch of curls between her thighs.
‘You’re beautiful, Sophie,’ he murmured huskily as he sat back to slide her trousers down to her thighs, able to see the thong more clearly now—a small triangle of lace which barely covered those fiery red curls, with an inch-wide band of lace about her waist.
‘Turn over,’ he encouraged throatily even as he shifted sideways to allow the movement. ‘Please, Sophie,’ he urged gruffly as she hesitated.
Sophie’s cheeks were as fiery red as her curls as she allowed Max to remove her trousers completely before she rolled onto her front, looking back over her shoulder as she heard Max’s indrawn breath.
‘You have the most gorgeous bottom, Sophie,’ he complimented even as his hands moved to caress it.
‘Max …’ It was Sophie’s turn to gasp, her fingers clenching, nails biting into the cushion beneath her, as she now felt the cool touch of Max’s lips against the heat of her skin.
‘Beautiful,’ he murmured admiringly, his breath a hot caress against her flesh as he kissed the base of her spine. ‘Can I—? What the hell?’ He gave a sudden harsh cry.
Sophie was too lost in her pleasurable euphoria to realise what had happened at first, and then it took her a minute or so to realise that Henry had chosen that moment to show himself by launching himself onto Max’s back.
Claws out, no doubt!
SOPHIE WAS SITTING on the edge of the sofa, still struggling to pull her trousers back on and fasten them by the time Max had located and flicked on the light switch. He stood looking searchingly around the room for whatever it was that had attacked him, green eyes narrowing as he located the black cat sitting on the back of one of the armchairs. The cat’s back arched as he gave a disapproving hiss in the direction of their late-night visitor.
‘Bad cat, Henry,’ Sophie scolded, fully dressed again now as she moved to shoo him off the chair and he ran and hid beneath the coffee table.
‘Henry is a cat?’ Max exploded disbelievingly.
Sophie froze as she realised her mistake. A mistake that could cost her dearly. Could cost Sally dearly too, if Max made the connection between them at last.
‘Sophie?’ Max prompted harshly.
She gave a pained wince, feeling the colour drain from her cheeks as she slowly turned to face Max and instantly saw that the indulgent lover of a few minutes ago had been replaced with the cold and arrogant Max Hamilton, billionaire CEO and owner of Hamilton Enterprises.
‘I’m waiting for an answer, Sophie.’ The softness of his tone sounded even more dangerous than his previously harsh one.
She moistened her lips before speaking. ‘I’m … I’m cat-sitting for … for a friend while she’s away over Christmas.’
‘That wasn’t what I asked!’ There was no sign of so much as a crack in Max’s icy veneer.
Sophie swallowed before confirming heavily, ‘Yes, Henry is a cat.’
‘And you deliberately let me think—’
‘I never lied to you.’
‘You lied by omission! ‘
‘You assumed Henry was a man.’
‘And you allowed me to continue to assume it.’ ‘Yes.’ She sighed at the cold accusation in his tone.
‘Why?’
‘I just … I thought it best … It just seemed the wisest thing to do, in the circumstances!’
Those arctic green eyes narrowed to icy slits. ‘And what circumstances are those? Damn it; why couldn’t you have just told me that Henry was a cat and be done with—’ He broke off, becoming very still as he now eyed Sophie speculatively. ‘What’s your friend’s name?’ he prompted softly.
Yep, there was definitely going to be trouble, Sophie acknowledged with another wince, in all probability for both Sally and herself.
‘Answer me, Sophie!’ Max snapped harshly.
‘This is all my fault. Sally had absolutely nothing to do with it.’ She rushed into speech. ‘She—We—I thought it best if you didn’t know of the connection, then if anything went wrong, if I made a mess of things, there would be no comeback on Sally.’
Max continued to look at her coldly. ‘What connection would that be?’
Trust Max to have latched onto that part of her statement!
Just one glance at the cold implacability of Max’s expression and those icily glittering green eyes was enough to warn Sophie against even attempting to continue to deceive him about her family connection to Sally. Any further prevarication really wasn’t an option when he was already so angry. And it could result in her getting Sally fired from her job as Max’s PA. If that hadn’t happened already, as far as Max was concerned.
Her gaze lowered from meeting his piercing green one. ‘Sally is my cousin.’
‘Your cousin?’ he repeated softly.
‘She and my Aunt Rachel and Uncle William are the only relatives I have, yes,’ Sophie confirmed huskily.
‘In that case, why didn’t you go to Canada and spend Christmas with them?’
‘I wasn’t … I didn’t feel up to travelling all that way yet, let alone—I offered to look after Henry instead,’ she stated firmly.
Max continued to look at the top of Sophie’s bent head for several long seconds before he turned away abruptly. He moved to stand in front of one of the windows, his clenched fists thrust into the pockets of his trousers as he absorbed, and tried to make sense of, this conversation.
Sophie
