1941002110 (R) (30 page)

Sophie ate her eggs and toast while he watched. When she was done, he took the tray and set it on the table. Then he got a robe from the closet and brought it over to her.

“Can you stand?”

“I think so.”

He held the robe open and she got out of bed, slipping her arms into the robe and then turning and belting it tight. When she met his gaze again, his eyes glittered with heat.

“Damn,” he said. “Didn’t think helping you into a robe would give me a hard-on, but it definitely does.”

She reached out and put her hand on his chest. He was warm and solid. “I like this, Chase, this playfulness between us. But I have to know what you’re thinking about us. About this.”

“I’m thinking I’ve never felt as alone as I did last night when I watched you walk away from me. And then I’m thinking I’ve never been as scared as when they took you. I would have taken a bullet for you, Sophie. I would have done anything to stop them from hurting you, to prevent you from going through even a moment of terror.”

She cried out and clutched his shirt with both hands then. “Don’t you ever think I’d want you to take a bullet to stop me from being scared. I’d rather be scared, I’d rather know you were still out there, still breathing, still coming for me even while I was afraid for my life than think for even a second that you’d sacrificed yourself to prevent that from happening.”

He tugged her into his arms and held her hard against him then. “Sophie,” he whispered, his lips against her hair. “Goddamn, baby, you kill me. I don’t fucking deserve you.”

She wrapped her arms around him, held him tight. “I… I care so much, Chase. So much it hurts. I can’t stand the idea of your leaving me. Last night, when you said that you could get pussy anywhere—”

“Honey.”

“I nearly died,” she finished. “After everything we’ve been through…”

He rubbed a hand up and down her spine. The other cupped the back of her head and held her against him. “When I didn’t know where you were, I thought I’d fallen into a hole that I would never get out of again.” He took a breath. “A deep, dark hole where nothing good could ever happen. That’s when I knew I couldn’t give you up. That I needed to be with you. Fuck Tyler—and my mom will understand. She’ll have to. And she’ll love you, Sophie… because I do.”

36

 J
esus, he couldn’t believe he’d said that—but it was true. He couldn’t imagine what else this could be, this need to be near her, this overwhelming emotion boiling inside him. This thought that he could never be close enough to her, that possessing her wasn’t nearly the limit of what he wanted from her.

She pushed herself back so she could see his face. “You’re serious.”

“Yeah, I’m serious.”

Her smile trembled at the corners. “I think I love you too.”

“Think?”

She sniffed. “No, I know I do—but I keep expecting I’m going to wake up and find out this was all a crazy dream.” Her fingers curled in his shirt. “Please tell me I’m not dreaming.”

He let his fingers skim over her cheek, her jaw, her neckline. He wanted to go further—so much further—but she’d been through a lot recently. Too much to assume she felt well enough for all the things he wanted to do to her.

“You aren’t dreaming, baby. This is as real as it gets.”

She laughed and hauled him close. “Do you have any idea the kinds of things I want to do to you right now?”

“Honey, you have to take it easy. Androv drugged you, and you’re bound to be feeling the effects—”

“Shower with me. Please. I want to touch you, Chase.”

He let her lead him into the bathroom where she untied the robe and slipped it from her shoulders. It fell in a puddle at her feet and his mouth went dry. So fucking beautiful.

His cock swelled, aching with the need to be inside her. Sophie reached into the shower enclosure and turned on the water. And then she attacked his belt, whipping it open and unbuttoning his jeans. He gave in and ripped his T-shirt over his head with one hand, then dropped the garment as she shoved his jeans and underwear down his hips.

His cock sprang free, and she dropped to her knees, grasping it with both hands. Then she looked up at him, her pretty eyes filled with love and desire, and he knew he wouldn’t last very long if she got her mouth on him.

He tried to reach for her, pull her up, but she shook her head. “No, Chase. I want to taste you. I need to taste you.”

Her pink tongue swirled around the head of his cock, and then she took him into her mouth.

Chase groaned. “Baby, no, can’t do it this way. I want to be in you when I come.”

“Give me a minute,” she said, licking the length of him. “Just a minute.”

He put a hand on her head and somehow resisted the urge to hold her hard while he fucked her mouth. His balls tingled and his spine arched. “Baby, you have to stop. Now.”

But she didn’t stop and he reached down, grabbed her, and yanked her up until he could smash his mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck with a sigh.

“Oh Chase,” she murmured between kisses. “Love you. It’s crazy, but I do.”

“Fuck yeah, baby,” he said, lifting her up with his hands under her ass and then carrying her into the shower. “Love everything about you, Sophie. Every fucking thing.”

Water flowed over their heads, their bodies. Chase set her down and filled his hands with her breasts. Then he licked and sucked her nipples while she clung to him, making desperate little sounds in her throat.

But he wasn’t done with her. He dropped down her body, dropped to his knees—and then he picked up one of her legs and put it over his shoulder. She supported herself against the wall with one hand, the other twisting into his hair.

“Chase, oh my God…” She gasped as he put his mouth on her pussy.

He loved the sounds she made as he swirled his tongue around her clit, the way she rocked against his face when she wanted to direct him right where she needed him, the way her hand tightened in his hair when he teased her too much.

Chase buried his tongue inside her while he worked her with his fingers, and then he sucked on her clit, flicking it with his tongue while he did so.

Sophie came hard. He knew because she swore—and her hand in his hair was almost painful as she kept him right where she wanted him. Her body shuddered and shuddered with her orgasm.

He surged to his feet and took her with him. She squeaked, but then she wrapped her legs around him and he sank her down onto his cock.

He realized right away that something was different. “Oh shit, the condom.”

She kissed him. “It’s okay. I have an implant… I guess I hoped when I moved to New York, I might have a bit more sex in my life. Didn’t happen until you.”

“I’m glad you didn’t get freaky with anyone else,” he said softly. And then his heart melted as he thought about how much she trusted him. “I never go ungloved, Sophie. You need to know that. I’m good.”

“I know you are, baby,” she said. “Now please, for the love of everything, make me come again.”

He pushed her back against the wall and started moving inside her, slow at first. “You’re going to come all right,” he said. “But with me this time.”

“I’ll try. Don’t make me wait though.”

He snorted. “Not sure
I
can wait, honey.”

He moved faster, pistoning his hips, driving up into her. He was so deep into her, so hard against her, that he thought nothing could ever be more perfect than this. Yeah, they were fucking—but they were also making love. He’d never done that before. And yeah, it was different somehow. Better. The best ever.

“Sophie, baby, come for me.”

She threw her head back, her neck arching—and then she let go, moaning loud and long. Chase followed, coming harder than he ever had in his life as he shot himself into her. It felt fucking fantastic. Amazing. He pressed his face to her throat, breathed her in.

When he straightened, Sophie opened her eyes and smiled. And his world lit up.

“I love you,” she said simply, and the gravity of that statement nearly took him to his knees.

“I love you too, Soph.”

He set her on her feet and she clung to him. “If you want to wait to tell your mother and Tyler, I’m fine with that.”

He gently pulled her head back by the rope of her wet hair. “We’re not waiting to tell anyone. I’m not hiding from anyone.” He frowned as he thought of something. “But Sophie, baby, I can’t move to wherever you are. I’m a soldier, and I have a commitment. It’s not like quitting a job and finding another one. Uncle Sam owns my ass for a few years yet.”

“Then I guess I’m moving here. Like you said, there are acting opportunities in DC. And even if there aren’t, I don’t care. We’ll figure it out.”

He lowered his mouth to hers, kissed her gently. “Yeah, we will.”

T
WO WEEKS LATER
…

“
W
ELL
, that certainly explains a lot,” Gina Domenico was saying to Chase as he strummed a guitar while she stood beside him and crossed her arms. “Damn, I thought you looked familiar from time to time… but I would have never guessed you were Tyler Nash’s son.”

Sophie smiled at the way Chase shrugged and kept on strumming. He was good on a guitar and he had a good voice too. He’d apparently never treated his teammates to his singing ability because, it turned out, he sounded a little too much like a certain blues musician. When he’d opened his mouth tonight at Buddy’s Bar, more than one of them had stopped and gaped at him.

Sophie was standing at a bar table with Evie, who’d been so kind to her the night she’d returned from Paris, and Victoria, Olivia, Georgie, Lucky, Grace, and Emily—who, it turned out, was Victoria’s sister. She was still trying to understand how all these women fit with the men, meaning who was whose, but she knew she’d get it eventually.

Plus she liked them. They were all so sweet. Including Gina, who was about a hundred times more famous than Tyler. Tyler was a well-known guitarist and vocalist in the blues world. That was nothing compared to mainstream pop.

When Sophie had emerged from Hawk and Gina’s guest room two weeks ago, freshly in love and stunned at that turn of events, Gina had hugged her and promptly tried to mother her. It was rather amusing considering they were close in age, but with two young children underfoot, mothering people was just sort of natural to the superstar.

Buddy’s was raucous and fun, a real let-down-your-hair kind of place. Everyone drank beer or wine or soda, and they ordered all kinds of fried things like chicken wings, burgers, fries, mushrooms, and cheese sticks. The worst kind of food but also some of the best tasting.

Sophie took it easy, but she ate. Chase grinned over at her from where he sat strumming the guitar. He’d even fed her a cheese stick with sauce. Considering all the sex they’d been having, she figured she could afford a few cheese sticks here and there.

“So there’s still no word on who killed Grigori Androv?” Olivia asked, pushing a platinum-blond lock of hair behind her ear.

“No, but his closest friend who grew up with him in an orphanage inherits everything, including Zoprava.” Victoria shook her head. “Plenty of motive there.”

Sophie sipped her beer and quietly agreed. Sergei Turov had put on a good show, but she figured it had to be a show. He’d cried on the news, vowed to find whoever had harmed his friend. He blamed shadowy military organizations, foreign governments, and rival software firms.

He had an airtight alibi for Grigori’s murder, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t ordered it done.

“Well, he wasn’t a nice man,” Evie said, her hand resting over her belly. She barely had a bump but apparently she was pregnant. Emily had a bump as well, but even smaller. “He snatched Sophie and would have sold her to the highest bidder if y’all hadn’t stopped him.”

She said the
y’all
for Victoria who, it turned out, was one of the team. So was Lucky, except she and her husband had been flying home when everything went down and they’d missed the excitement.

Georgie looked at Sophie as she nibbled on a fried mushroom. “How did your parents take the news of you and Chase?”

These women had embraced her as one of their own. Whether she wanted besties or not, she seemed to have them. Oddly enough, she liked it even if she was still getting used to it. These people were genuine—unlike the people she’d grown up with in LA, the people who ran in her parents’ circles.

“They were surprised,” she said. “But what can they say? We’re adults.”

That was the easy way of putting it. Tyler had been a bit pissed, but that’s because he’d made it about him. Specifically, that Chase didn’t care about her and was just nailing her to get back at him.

That had nearly earned him a punch in the throat, judging by the look on Chase’s face at the time, but he’d refrained. For her sake, she knew. They’d left California that night—and then he’d told her on the plane that if she wanted to spend any holidays with Tyler and her mother, she just needed to tell him which ones and they’d work it out. He’d be there by her side if he wasn’t on a mission and to hell with Tyler’s bullshit.