Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole Page B

sensitive skin of her neck down to her thin bra. He licked through the lacy fabric she had worn with him in mind, as if some delinquent part of her had hoped he’d see it. Well, he was seeing it now, and tasting it too. He lapped at her sensitive tips, swirling his tongue around and grabbing her nipple between his teeth, even as his fingers groped their way into her drawers and massaged her sensitive nub.
    “Oh,” she breathed quietly. She felt more than that little sound, but her training was kicking in, even when she should be wild and free. She even had to sin like a lady.
    Ivan glanced up at her and shook his head with a glint in his eye that didn’t bode well for her.
    “None of that dormouse stuff, Sofronia.” His voice was rough and his hand picked up the pace to match. Callused fingertips pressed harder against that slit of pleasure, and a remarkable feeling flowed through Sofie, like all of the pain and sadness and happiness that she had bottled up over the years was suddenly pushing to get out all at once.
    “Ivan!” Her voice was louder than she’d spoken in years, and when he sucked at her neck and curled a finger inside of her, she broke and let out a cry that even the lead in the choir couldn’t have matched. Pleasure pulsed and pulsed through her body, divine and unrepentant. Her voice echoed around the gym as she sagged back against the post and simply let herself feel for once.
    “Good to know those pipes are still working.” He kissed the hollow of her neck as he rebuttoned her blouse, and a different kind of thrill went through her, one she had never experienced. Not during that fumbling childhood kiss with David or on the double dates she went on with Henrietta. She felt like part of a duo, two people who could change things…together.
    They’d just climbed down from the ring when the front door swung open and an older black man with the body of someone half his age walked in.
    His eyes widened at the sight of Sofie, and the powerful togetherness she felt started to fade as every horrible thing the man could be thinking ran through her mind. Then he smiled. “Is this the lady who’s had you distracted during your sparring matches all week?”
    Sofie looked at Ivan and was shocked to see he was blushing. Blushing, after all, that talk in the ring. “Jack, Sofie. Sofie, Jack,” he said.
    “Nice to meet you, young lady. And I know that pretty face is familiar for a reason.”
    He handed her the morning paper. There she was, sitting primly at the Special K counter, surrounded by a mob of angry men. It seemed that her years of training had one benefit: she looked like a perfect lady, her rigidness making the men around her look even more like barbarians. David and Henrietta appeared to be studying in the midst of the melee, but Ivan was regarding her with an adoring grin. She’d seen men look at women like that before, but that Ivan was regarding her in such a way for everyone to see…
    “Oh dear Lord,” she said. She could already hear her father going on about how she’d humiliated him, how his job was in jeopardy, and the other things he’d listed as he’d guilted her the night before. But something else caught her eye. NASH LEADS NASHVILLE RIDERS, a headline beside the picture screamed. Sofie clutched the paper, reading excitedly.
    “The rides aren’t over,” she said, looking at Ivan. “Students are leaving from Nashville and encouraging others to ride to Mississippi. They believe that if the rides stop because of the incidents in Anniston and Birmingham, the blow to the movement will be hard to recover from.” Sofie again felt the sense of unity that was a newfound thing for her—she wasn’t the only one who felt that way. These young people in Nashville and others around the country were going to get on buses and head to Mississippi, and she was going to join them. She felt that sense of purpose flow through her again.
    “Now, a lunch counter is one thing, but getting on