at the apex of every thrust. Nothing but raw, primal lust.
There was some dark part of her that thrilled at being at his mercy, unable to do anything but take him pounding into her while she arched helplessly beneath. She tightened, shivered, every push of his hips sending her closer to the edge of some unknown precipice. His thrusts turned wild, Phenex’s head falling back as he began to lose himself. And seeing him like that, seeing him let go, was all it took to give Sofia that final push and send her flying into the darkness.
She cried out as she came, clenching around him as something deep inside exploded into thousands of shimmering sparks. Again. And then again, each burst nearly as intense as the last. Phenex growled, then slammed into her one final time before he found his own climax, coming with an inhuman roar.
When the intensity finally began to ebb, Phenex threaded his fingers through Sofia’s and dropped his forehead to touch hers. It was sweet, gentle, and all the more potent for the way he didn’t even try to find words. He didn’t need them, Sofia thought, her heart pounding against his chest.
For right now, simple feeling was enough.
For right now, he was perfect.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m fine. No, really. No, I haven’t been abducted. Especially not by aliens. Amy���”
Sofia looked at the ceiling, her cell phone pressed against her ear, and tried to figure out a good way to explain to her roommate where she was without actually, well, telling her where she was. So far, it wasn’t going well.
“Look,” Amy said, every bit of her concern coming through loud and clear. “I’m glad you met somebody interesting, Sofia. Nobody deserves that more than you. But basically moving in with a guy after only knowing him a few days? Don’t you think that’s kind of fast? It’s just not like you at all.”
Sofia cringed. She’d wanted to catch her friend before she got back to DC and discovered a closed-up, unused apartment that hopefully didn’t smell of barbecued vampires. Amy still had a few days left in her unexpected vacation, and she’d sounded really relaxed and happy at first, but unfortunately that didn’t mean she was any more apt to buy the story Sofia was peddling.
So much for making sure Amy didn’t worry.
“I didn’t say I moved in with him. I just said I probably won’t be around much. We’re…having fun.” She tried to make her tone carefree, like everything was great and this was no big deal. Which might have worked, if Amy hadn’t actually known her so well.
“Sofia, sweetie, I’m being serious. Are you on drugs?”
“What? No!” She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it in horror. Drugs? She was that bad a liar? She pressed her lips together and sighed. Of course she was. Resigned, she put the phone back against her ear.
“Amy, you’re always telling me I need to be more spontaneous. I finally decide to have a crazy love affair, and you decide I’m on something. Come on.”
There was a gusty sigh from somewhere in Virginia. “You have a point. You’re just always so responsible that this seems kind of…well, like you said, crazy, I guess. First Sara, now you. She called me, too, you know. And she really is living with some guy now. She’s out of the apartment at the end of the month.”
Sofia frowned. “Sara called you?”
“Mmm. Finally. Seems like I’m the last to know everything anymore.” Amy sounded so unhappy that Sofia started to regret calling at all. But what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just vanish like Sara had…though the fact that only Amy had gotten a call when Sofia had been the one to save her from being sucked dry rankled.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sofia said firmly. “You’re going to see me. This isn’t permanent.” All of a sudden, she knew exactly the right thing to say. “Amy, honestly…he’s a musician.”
Her friend’s burst of laughter told Sofia that she’d finally succeeded in easing Amy’s mind. Not all the way, probably, but enough that she wouldn’t be calling the cops and worrying she’d be found in a ditch somewhere.
“Oh my God. Is he famous? He is, isn’t he? He’d have to be to finally get you to walk on the wild side like this.”
“Yeah, kind of,” Sofia agreed. It wasn’t exactly a lie, either. Phenex might not be famous by name, but his kind had plenty of notoriety. In religious circles,