Free Unlikely by Sylvie Fox Page B

bedroom before she lost her nerve. The only light in the sparsely furnished room came from a long horizontal window over the bed and a low wattage fixture near the closet. Brightly colored Indian print scarves tented the overhead light, as well as her bedside lamps. She turned on the lights, throwing the area into stark red relief. The reds and purples set the scene for seduction.
    She expected him to kiss her again, needing him to take charge. Sophie wanted to lose herself in that kiss’s potential. It would be one hundred times easier than having to think about what she was doing and with whom. Most people were carried away during sex. At least, that’s the way the steamy erotic novels she sometimes read portrayed it. With the two men she had ever been with, she was awkwardly self-conscious during the entire act, and it was happening again. She hadn’t drank enough to slip into obliviousness.
    Instead of kissing her, Ryan surprised her by slowly unlatching the hooks of the overalls and allowing the bib and straps to fall from her body to a blue heap on the floor. She stepped from the pool of tie dyed cotton, clad only in her sports bra and discount store white cotton briefs that covered everything and left a whole lot to the imagination. If Ryan noticed the incongruity between her undergarments and the loud, revealing clothes she usually wore, he didn’t say a thing.
    “You okay, Sunflower?” Ryan asked, gently pushing her blue hair away from her face.
    Sophie nodded and hesitantly reached out to touch him. She stroked his fine, silky hair, traced her finger down his corded neck, and ran her hands lightly down the back of his shirt feeling his muscles bunch slightly at her touch. It floored her that she could get this kind of reaction from him.
    “I think you have too many clothes on,” she whispered in the deepening darkness.
    Faster than the blink of an eye, Ryan was out of his t-shirt and jeans. He dropped a condom onto the wrinkled bedcovers.
    “Sure of yourself, huh?” Sophie whispered, very thankful that she didn’t have to reveal the seventy-two pack of condoms in her bedside drawer —or the fact that the box was hermetically sealed in its original cellophane.
    “Just hopeful,” he said. “Very hopeful.” In the dim light of the closet bulb, she could see his erection barely jutting from the open placket of his underwear. He wore boxers. She should have guessed. Ryan seemed like a starched cotton boxer kind of guy. He pulled her closer so they were mostly skin-to-skin and kissed her. Finally. Any thoughts of underwear choice left her mind.
    He teased her lips with his, at first hesitant, then with growing pressure as she leaned into him more heavily. As he sought and gained access with his tongue, she ran her hands along his smooth back and muscular arms. It felt like heaven, being held by him. It had been so long since she had shared a good kiss with a man, the kind that made her tingle everywhere. Ryan pulled her even closer and his hands strayed to her briefs. He slipped his warm palms under the elastic waist and cupped her small round bottom, bringing her into close contact with his penis, which bobbed gently as if beckoning her.
    Ryan eased the panties from her thighs, shucked his own undergarments, and left them in a pool on the floor with their other clothes. He pulled her gently to lie down on the slightly mussed bedcovers, deftly sliding the condom under a pillow. “I think it’s you who has on too many clothes now.” He gingerly eased the tight-fitting blue elastic bra over her breasts and head, leaving them both bare from head to toe. Reflexively, Sophie moved her arms across her breasts.
    “You’re beautiful. There’s no need to hide yourself from me,” Ryan said, lifting her arm away from her chest.
    Sophie’s face warmed and she was glad that he couldn’t see her blush in the darkness. “But I take after my father, up top. My boobs are too small and my nipples too large…”