Chapter 248

As Natalie leaned her chin on Sofia’s shoulder, her breath tickling her ear, Sofia tried to calm her racing heart. Natalie’s hands ran slowly down her waist, to her hips, then the sides of her thighs, lingering there.

“Get it over with?” Natalie murmured. “Now that’s just being mean. You’re telling me you haven’t been looking forward to this?”

There was a laugh in Natalie’s voice, subdued, as if she could read straight through Sofia’s facade and found it highly amusing. And that probably was the case, as mortifying as the realization was.

“Anticipating it, perhaps,” Sofia said, trying to keep her voice even. “And not in the way you’ve been.”

“Oh?” Natalie’s hands wandered forward, to rest on Sofia’s lower stomach. Even so far from anything important, it immediately set her skin tingling. Or maybe not tingling. That was too mild a way to describe the sensation. More like, on fire. “And in what way do you think I’ve been anticipating this?”

Sofia didn’t reply, feigning indignation with a sniff, though the reality was she’d simply grown too flustered to find a proper response. Even in the best of cases, verbally sparring with Natalie was difficult, much less in a scenario like this one.

“Are you suggesting that I’ve been lusting after you, Sofia?” Natalie asked, her lips touching Sofia’s ear—that damn amusement even more obvious in her tone. “That I’ve been imagining all the ways I’ll have you writhing on the bed tonight? Well, you’d be right.” She chuckled lowly, the warm air from the laughter tickling her ear. “But I’ve gotta ask, then. How have you been anticipating it? I thought we were on the same page.”

Sofia swallowed. She ignored the question, because she had no good answer—she hadn’t known where she was going with it in the first place—and to deflect, instead asked, “So. What do you have planned tonight?”

Natalie snorted. “You know what.” Her hands returned to their adventure up and down Sofia’s sides, stopping whenever her thumbs brushed against her breasts, making just enough contact to be felt, then retreating. “Or do you mean the lead-up? Because you’re right, I’m not so rude I’ll just throw you on the bed and claim my prize.”

Her fingers wandered, abruptly, to the front of Sofia’s pants, fiddling with the button there.

“Though I will admit, I’m a bit tempted. A bit eager to get going.” She popped Sofia’s pants open and ran her thumbs along the inside, loosening its fit. “I’ve got a feeling you don’t need all that much foreplay, anyway. So maybe I should just get straight to it.”

It was growing harder to think by the second. Sofia kept her gaze firmly locked on the window, gazing out across Tarenhelm’s landscape, aware of how hard she was breathing, and how relatively composed Natalie was.

And damn her for that. Couldn’t her words come a little less evenly? It was unfair how outmatched she was, in this arena.

“What about the collar?” Sofia managed to ask. “Should I put it on?”

Natalie’s toying around with her waistband stilled briefly, before she continued. “The collar?” she asked. “I don’t think we’ll need it tonight. I’m not going to be ordering you around.” She nuzzled into Sofia’s neck and breathed in. “I just want to get my fill of you, if that’s fine.”

If that was fine?

If that was fine?

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Natalie should be bossing her around, making it extremely clear that she was using both the bet and the collar to her advantage. Using Sofia as was her right, under the terms of their agreement. She wasn’t supposed to ask if it was fine.

The mental defenses Sofia had built up for this encounter were woefully underdeveloped even for the dynamic that had already been established, much less this ... softer approach. Being bossed around and humiliated, Sofia could excuse as being a part of the bet, and therefore she could take refuge from the embarrassment, in a way.