Blind Love Ch. 05

It's been ages since I last posted, and I apologize, but these characters won't leave me, so the story continues.

-----------------------------------------------

Daniel awoke inhaling the scent of flowers, feeling the soft, silken brush of hair against his arm. Confused for a moment, he recalled what had happened. Sophie had kissed him. He had kissed Sophie. And now here he was, laying next to her in bed, holding her gently in his arms.

The joy that flooded through him at this thought was only tempered by the fact that Sophie had seemed so distraught when he and Tom had picked her up. She had been sobbing hysterically, but refused to talk, and had regained her composure in the car. Still, Daniel could hear the fright in her voice, and had picked up on the firm, yet insistent pressure of her hand as it held his, refusing to let him go, clinging to him.

Unconsciously, his arms tightened around her waist, drawing her closer to the protection of his arms. If that bastard had done anything to her...

His thoughts were interrupted by Sophie stirring beside him, and she turned around and snuggled into him, pressing her face into the hollow of his neck and shoulder.

'Mmmm, you smell good,' she murmured, sleepily. Daniel felt his heart skip a beat. Finding her nose, he kissed the tip of it, smiling as he spoke:

'So do you. Your hair smells nice.'

Sophie smiled at him, and though he could not see it, he felt her cheeks curl up, found the indentations of her dimples and ran his finger over them lovingly.

'Aww, thank you,' she said, as she reached up to give him a soft kiss on the lips, which quickly turned passionate. Daniel groaned as Sophie's tongue swept over his lips, teasing them, loving the way she sucked his lower lip between her teeth and nibbled at it, soothing it once she was done. He wound one hand through her hair, her gorgeous, silky hair, and the other found its way to her waist, pulling her in closer until she was on top of him.

Daniel reveled in the feel of her weight on top of him, the way her perfect breasts felt pressed against his chest, and before he could help himself, his hands began to wander, wanting to trace every curve of her body and finally complete his mental picture of what she looked like. Sure, he knew she had curves from hugging her and dancing with her before, but they had just been friends then.

Now he wanted to feel the weight of her breasts in his hands, wanted to feel over the scars he knew she must have from all the roughhousing they had done as kids, slide his hands over her ass and squeeze what he was sure was perfection (he had heard the other guys discuss Sophie and her shapely behind before) and know for himself what others had had the privilege of knowing all along.

However, as his hands began to make their way down her back, tantalizingly close to the dip of her lower back, he felt her freeze, if only momentarily. Acutely conscious of her discomfort even through his lust-induced haze, he stopped his hands from going any further and pulled away.

'Soph, you ok?'

'I was, until a moment ago,' she teased, kissing him lightly as she nuzzled his nose. 'Why'd you stop?'

'Because I felt you stiffen up when my hands started to go a little too low, and I'm sorry for that. I would never, ever do anything to you that would make you uncomfortable, you know that, right?'

Sophie ignored the first part of his remark, but felt relief flooding through her veins at Daniel's promise to her, his words erasing the memory of Mike's hands on her body. She shuddered at that thought, involuntarily, which Daniel noticed, just as he heard the shake in her voice as she whispered 'thank you' into his ear before hugging him tightly.

Daniel knew now beyond a shadow of a doubt that something had clearly happened to upset her, but realized that Sophie was not ready or willing to talk about it yet. And as much as it killed him to do so, he didn't trust himself not to startle her again because kissing her and touching her was every fantasy he'd ever had come to life. Controlling himself past a certain point with her was simply not possible, so he contented himself with holding her close, giving her all the strength and safety she needed as he absentmindedly kissed the top of her head and smoothed her hair with his free hand as they dozed off again.