Sophia...

As I carefully drive into Lapley Law Firm, I just know that my little red Ford Ka is going to look so very inferior when I park up beside all of the BMW's, Audi's, Mercedes and the Range Rovers that I see just coming into view. The property itself is a beautifully large victorian detached house, obviously now turned into business premises, but being built with traditional Cotswold stone and its six attractively deep casement windows, make for a truly impressive frontage.

During the short drive here, I honestly kept doubting whether I really should. But because this place is only on the outskirts of Cirencester, I really didn't have enough time to talk myself out of coming to see Cade. And now that I am here, standing on the gravelled ground, my nerves have unfortunately taken a firm hold of me. Clutching the wicker picnic basket tightly between my slightly shaking hands, I inhale a deep breath for courage and start slowly walking towards the just as impressive oak front door with its decorative brass lock plate and sanctuary knocker. I don't use the knocker, I just quickly admire it before stepping inside. As I nervously do enter, I start looking left to right, trying to spot where reception might be. My searching eyes then widen, appreciating the beautiful curved staircase right in front of me that has been so carefully restored. Just as I am staring at the stunning staircase, it is then that I see on the whitest of painted walls, Cade's name so proudly engraved on a large brass plaque. His name sits just under his mother's name, Margaret Lapley. And it is then, that I truly start to feel completely out of my depth by being here. As I quietly begin to panic, I notice that reception is the room to the left of me. It's shiny black door beckons me, but I'm now wondering whether I should be here at all?

This is one of your stupidest ideas ever!

You can't just drop by unannounced.

He is probably too busy to see you.

He probably won't want to see you.

Do you really want to see him?

My harassing thoughts pierce themselves into my panicked brain, making my panic become stronger and stronger. Just as I'm about to turn and anxiously leave, someone breezes out of that very door, muttering an obligatory apology to me as they hurriedly bypass me. Now the door is wide open, the prim receptionist suddenly becomes aware of my very awkward looking presence. "Good morning, can I help you?" The member of staff is both polite and professional. Not exactly warm, but as personable as she needs to be.

"Would I be able to see Cade Lapley, please?"

Glancing down at the picnic basket in my arms, she quickly asks. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, no I don't." My nerves are getting stronger, but I still try to remain outwardly relaxed and calm.

With tightly pursed lips, the tone of the stiff receptionist quickly changes. "I see." She obviously puts a lot of effort into her strait-laced librarian look, because not a single hair is out of place on her smooth and chic high chignon. "Without an appointment, I'm afraid you won't be able to see him." She tries to sound apologetic, but her indifferent brown eyes tell me otherwise.

"I know that this is a big ask, but please would you just let him know that I am here?" Regardless of the growing nerves, I am still here. So I figure that actually means something. I have already come this far. I now just need to do what I came here to do. And once I have done that, I can swiftly leave.

Still, the po-faced receptionist shakes her head with a really hard frown. "Mr Lapley is very busy, he doesn't see anyone without an appointment." Okaaaaaay, she's getting just a teensy bit over zealous with that anyone in her rather snotty reply.

Undeterred, I refuse to back down so easily. "I know he is a very busy man, but would you try anyway?" I force a smile in her snooty direction, probably a little too forced.

With an over dramatic sigh, the frustrated receptionist suddenly picks up the receiver to the phone beside her. "What's your name?" She huffily asks, throwing me an eye roll as well.

Not reacting to her rudeness, I quickly answer. "Sophia Hale from Heaven Scent." I say that, just because if I said it was Sophia Hale, Cade might not remember me right away. I know he knows my first name, but I never gave him my second name, and he definitely knows my shop. I figured that the more information he has, the more likely he will see me and save me from the embarrassment of being turned away by his rude little receptionist.

"Morning, Mr Lapley, I am so sorry to bother you." Miss Prim and Proper throws me a thoroughly unimpressed glance my way before carrying on with her grovelling. "I have Sophia Hale from Heaven Scent here to see you. I did try to tell her that you were too busy but..." She suddenly stops, then starts to profusely stammer. "Oh. Right. Oh...okay. Yes. Yes. Okay, Mr Lapley." Carefully placing down the receiver, the receptionist quickly walks around to my side of her high reception desk. "Mr Lapley has requested for me to show you to his office." Now it's very much her turn to force out a smile.

With huge relief washing away some of my nerves, I cheerily answer. "Great, thank you." Then I follow her up the gorgeously curved stairway and along a really lengthy corridor. I am still feeling stupidly nervous, but I also feel excited. I'm just so glad that Cade has agreed to see me, the humiliation would have just been too much if he had said no.

"Here is Mr Lapley's office." I am coolly told, just as the receptionist gently knocks on the prestige door.

Her knock is promptly answered with an authoritative and deep. "Come in."

With the door being courteously opened for me, I am soon standing just inside of the office, with Cade Lapley gloriously waiting for me beside his huge work desk with a wary little smile sat upon his very handsome face. My nerves quickly return, so I just as quickly say. "Thank you for seeing me, Cade."

Ever the gentleman, Cade graciously nods. "No problem, please come in." Which I do, stepping a little further into his very spacious office. "Jennifer, can you ensure that I'm not to be disturbed, please?" he asks his loyal member of staff, with not as much as a smile offered to her.

"Of course, Mr Lapley." Jennifer's eyes flick up to mine as she saunters right past me, now wondering who the hell I am before she carefully closes the door behind her.

Now all alone, we both stand watching each other. I remain where I am. Cade remains where he is. Uncertainty hovering in the silent space between us. "I've brought you lunch...and some other goodies. It's my way of saying thank you for buying me and my friends dinner last night." I'm speaking in an overly bright manner, really wanting to diminish the awkwardness that can still unfortunately be felt between us as I show him the reason why I am holding a picnic basket with my very nervy fingers.

One of Cade's eyebrows rises with sudden interest. "You've brought me lunch?"

Nodding with a far more relaxed smile, I am all too keen to reply back to him. "I owe you, after you so kindly paid for my birthday meal."

Cade softly smirks, sinking both his hands into his trouser pockets as he stands tall beside his desk. "You don't owe me anything, Sophia."

"I know, but I wanted to do this for you."

"Why?" I feel like his one word question is literally catapulted my way, kind of knocking me off balance for a second. With a gentle stare, he wills me to answer him from where he still stands.

With the basket suddenly starting to feel very heavy in my arms, I walk a few steps to put it down on a nearby little occasional table; talking as I do. "You were really sweet last night, I just wanted to do something nice for you."

"But why?" Cade is persistent, pushing for a deeper reason.

The burn of my embarrassment stings across my cheeks, knowing that he's wanting more from me. "I just needed to thank you, that's all." My voice is quietly casual as I try not to become too defensive in his intimidating presence. Cade is wanting to be told something that I barely understand myself. After seeing him last night, I had this overwhelming compulsion to see him again. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but I just really needed to see him.

The doubtful nod and his condescending smile, intimidates me even more. With his hands still deep in his pockets, he tilts his head with some scepticism before beginning to slowly walk towards me. With each strong stride, the harder my heart thumps against my chest.

I have always found him to be cunningly charming, and that cunning charm of his is literally emanating from every part of him as he comes determinedly closer. Stopping right in front of me, he removes his left hand from out of his trouser pocket and takes a strand of my long hair between his inquisitive fingers. "Tell me why you are really here, Sophia?" The way in which he talks to me, it's like he is using the sweetest charms of seduction to coax the stubborn truth from out of me.

"I...I wanted...I just wanted to see you." The unexpected closeness of him, renders me incapable of speaking without embarrassingly stammering.

A pleased smile starts reaching the far corners of his shapely mouth as he continues to wrap my hair around his slow moving fingers. "Tell me why?" His voice is now just a deep whisper. His eyes now darkly excited.

He knows exactly why I am here,

I know exactly why I am here.

There's a spark that still exists between us.

Together, we are ignitable.

It was there the very first time that I met Cade.

It was there last night.

And it's here now.

I don't need to understand it in order to know that it exists.

I only need to know that I have acted upon it.

Which is why I feel ready to tell Cade the delicious truth. "Something is happening here." I stare up at him, our bodies almost touching as I increasingly feel the need to explain. "I wasn't ready before, but I think I am ready now."

"You only think you are ready?" Cade quietly asks, his face now achingly near to mine.

"You and me, we couldn't be more different." I'm not just telling him that, I'm also asking him whether it's enough for us to not take this any further than we already have.

Cade deeply stares back at me, unblinking, with just a wry grin just beginning to creep across his confident mouth. "That is what makes us all the more interesting." Then he says nothing more, leaving the next move very much up to me.

I think I want this man. I am beginning to like his unpredictability and his arrogant charm. He can be so very sweet yet so sinfully audacious. And our chemistry? Well that just can't be ignored, either. "We are certainly that." I eventually agree with a soft laugh, lowering my eyes away from him as a silly coyness overtakes me.

Cade gently lifts my chin, tenderly balancing it on his middle finger. "What does your being here actually mean, Sophia? What do you want me to do?"

"I'm not sure." I so stupidly say. I can't seem to fight this. Nor do I want to. I want him. I really do want him, but I'm afraid to make the huge and scary leap.

Sensing that, Cade drops his persuasive charm and starts talking from the heart. "It's really easy for me to forget many people, but I can't seem to forget you." His thumb begins caressing my chin. "Please don't ask me to forget you, Sophia?" The confidence from his voice is quickly replaced with a soft-edged pleading as his thumb continues to stroke my skin.

Closing my eyes, I savour his delicate touch. I savour how it feels. I savour how he makes me feel. With my eyes softly shut, it's like I am experiencing a beautiful epiphany. A Cade epiphany. Slowly lifting my eyelids, it's now my turn to talk from the heart. "You...you are beginning to run through my veins. I don't think I could walk away, even if I tried." My scary truth is out. Wonderfully and so bravely out.

Cade blinks with a relieved smile and then takes hold of my hands between his warm and soft fingers. "I have an opening statement that I really need to prepare, but can I see you tonight?"

Grinning from one elated ear to the other, I nod with such enthusiasm. "I would love to see you tonight." My own fingers now wrap themselves around his. "I'll leave my basket of goodies with you, though...you still need to eat."

Cade laughs, peeping over my shoulder at the picnic basket. "I suppose I could have a quick bite to eat." He sweetly relents.

"Are you sure you really have time?" I excitedly ask, letting go of his tender hold on me as I turn to grab the basket from off the small table.

Again, Cade laughs. "I'll just make some time."

"Well, I didn't know what you'd like...so I have brought focaccia, crackers, cheese, ham, grapes, olives." I start eagerly lifting out some of the freshly prepared food, feeling pleasantly happy. "Oh, and this." Holding up a bottle of Grant's whisky, I show it to Cade. "I know you can't drink it now, but I bought it to say thank you about my birthday."

Standing close to my side, Cade pulls on the belt loops of my skinny jeans. "You honestly didn't have to do all of this for me, Sophia. I would have been just as happy to see only you." Now perching himself on the edge of his desk, he brings me snuggly against him. Smiling down at me, I enjoy being in his strong and tight arms as he quietly declares. "I'm just glad you are here." He then starts bringing his mouth rejoicingly nearer to mine, hesitating slightly, wondering whether it's actually okay to now kiss me. But I want his mouth. I want his exciting kiss. So I reach around the back of his neck and bring our lips impatiently together. I have instigated our tender kiss, but oh my, Cade is most definitely now taking sumptuous control of it. Our mouths move salaciously slow and our tongues tantalisingly taste one another as our bodies are pleasurably pressed together. Our breathing becomes more unsteady and erratic, being sucked into a rapturous vortex of us—a consuming lockdown of lips.

Ignitable we are.

Ignited are we.

As Cade starts to thrillingly trail the tip of his hot tongue across my compliant neck, my fingers dig into his shirted arms as I teasingly nibble on his earlobe. Pushing his groin against me, I mewl at the firmness of his arousal that strains against his trousers. We are gloriously getting carried away. It wasn't exactly my plan to have abandoned sex on Cade's walnut desk when I first came here, but I will if he is game. And judging by what I can so temptingly feel, he is absolutely game for some daring desk sex. This is sexually the right kind of wrong. I think Cade himself, is my right kind of wrong. Wrong or right. I honestly couldn't care. Being with him, feels insanely good. It feels recklessly right. With Cade's exploring hands slipping under my baggy jumper, I immerse my fingers in his dark hair when he huskily asks me something. "Tell me if this doesn't feel right?" Not even waiting for my answer, he kisses me again.

Slow. Deep. Intense.

Cade doesn't need a reply, because he knows there's no reply to actually give. He knows just as much as I do, that this feels deliriously right. As I kiss his neck, I breathe in all that he is. The scent of him is just that, him. An highly arousing aroma of aftershave and freshly washed warm skin—mhmm!

"You smell so good." I dizzily declare between hungry little kisses all around his throat. Making out has never been so deliciously good. I love making out with this incredibly sexy man. In this horny and wildly heated moment, everything has quickly become Cade. He strips my conscience bare and everything becomes him. Insatiably turned on, I begin to naughtily nip his neck and his strong jawline as I start undoing his shirt.

"I have wanted you so much." Cade lowly whispers, caressing my back with his excited fingers as he gives me full access to his softly rumbling throat.

Just as I eagerly reach the final button to Cade's smart shirt, his office door is heard opening from behind me, followed by a loud and disgruntled female voice. "Cade?! Tobias and Dawn are waiting! Jennifer said you weren't to be..." The angry woman's tirade soon comes to an abrupt end, on account of her walking in on the very inappropriate sight of both Cade and I getting slightly hot and bothered on the edge of his desk.

Literally freezing in his arms, I quickly bury my face between his neck and shoulder—too mortified to turn around. "Mother, that door is there for a very valid reason." Pulling the back of my jumper right down to cover me up, Cade addresses his mother in a candid and blunt way. "It would seem that some people just aren't capable of using the manners that they were supposedly born with." With me still hiding and frozen against him, Cade doesn't seem embarrassed at all. He holds me where I am because he knows I need him to and because he still has a slight erection.

"Once you have removed that tick from your neck, please be ready for Tobias and Dawn."

Tensing up to his mother's insult, Cade snaps. "I won't be long. Now close the door behind you." There is clear and direct anger in his deep and warning voice, enough for his mother to not even challenge him. All that follows is this horrible and uncomfortable pause before she does exactly what he asked her to do, only she does it with a thunderous slam. She has certainly made her point. She's not happy.

I honestly could die standing up. The humiliation is just awful. As I shamefully lift my head and slowly draw back, Cade holds me by my waist. "I'm so sorry, we'll have to wrap this up until later."

Breathing in a long breath of fresh air, I look at Cade with a quivery smile and raised brows. "A tick?"

Shaking his head, obviously still a little bit peeved as he starts doing up his shirt, he glumly remarks. "That was actually mother being remarkably pleasant."

Smirking, I watch his rather delicious chest get more covered up, one shirt button at a time. "In that case, I think I've made quite a good impression on your mum." The joke slips out, although I will actually be cringing about this for days and days.

Tugging gently on my jumper, Cade brings me closer. "The only person you need to make a good impression with, is me." Then wrapping his arms right around my body, he kisses my head before standing right up to tuck his shirt smartly back into his trousers. "Which you already have, by the way." He promptly smirks before giving me a quick yet firm kiss to my lips. "If you come to my place for seven, we can have this lot, then." He taps the picnic basket, still bestowing me with one of his confident smiles.

"Are you and your mother always like that with each other?" I can't help but ask, remembering the distant tone in both of their voices.

Putting what food I had got out of the basket, Cade is carefully putting it back. "Like what?"

Tilting my head with an unsure shrug, I try to put into words what I mean. "I don't know. I just didn't think there was much niceness between the two of you, that's all."

"There isn't." Cade flippantly tells me, completely unbothered by what I've just said. "Mother and I simply tolerate one another. I'm her only son and she gave birth to me. That's as far as our relationship goes. Please don't take to heart what she said about you, Sophia. She doesn't like anyone, not even me." He says it so very casually, but it deeply bothers me that Cade would think that his own mother doesn't like him. And what bothers me even more, is that I shockingly heard it for myself. "Let me walk you down." Taking hold of my hand with his, Cade is sweetly by my side as we both make a dignified exit from out of his office, down the stairs and out of the beautiful building. Once we get to my car, he seems reluctant to let go. Bringing the back of my hand up to his gladsome lips, he delicately kisses it before holding it against his chest. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Smiling at him warmly, I love the attention he is giving to me and my hand. "Okay." My smile becomes naturally wide, with tiny tingles of pleasure being spread from my arm and to every other place in my very happy body. "I'll see you later." I gladly say. Just as I'm about to pull my hand away, Cade leans down to kiss me. This kiss is feverishly featherlight. Delectably dainty. As his velveteen lips move perfectly with mine, I feel as though my feet are no longer touching the ground. That's when I feel Cade's hands adoringly cradling my face, like he knows I am about to float away at any moment. My eyes are closed, closed with the bliss from his captivating kiss. As it comes to a dreamy end, Cade hugs me tightly, sighing hard into my hair. And it is during that enraptured embrace, that I feel the coldest of eyes upon us. There in a window, stands Margaret Lapley. Scornfully still, she just stares. It's a stare that is malignant and baleful. Holding Cade close, I hold him closer still; deflecting the chilling gaze that his mother so icily targets us with. When I had joked with Cade about making a good impression on his mum, I realise now that that was just probably wishful thinking on my part. It would seem I have certainly made some kind of an impression on her, but judging by the totally repugnant stare, it's truly an awful one.

***SO, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS, MY LOVELIES? ARE YOU ENJOYING IGNITABLE? IT HAS TO BE SAID, I LOOOOOOVED WRITING THIS CHAPTER***