Tommy has been blowing up my phone all night with intel updates, except there’s not a single fucking piece of usable information in any of it. Every text is just another dead end.
Stretched across Sophie’s couch, I’m wide awake. Sophie’s coffee is coursing through me, adrenaline sparking my nervous system, and I’m listening to the silence so hard the air itself seems loud.
A soft whispering sound keeps drifting in from somewhere at irregular intervals, and it takes me a full minute to place it: Sophie’s sheets, rustling as she shifts in bed.
Why does she keep moving?
Instantly, I get it and almost laugh out loud. The girl’s jacking off. Ha. I stand soundlessly, inching toward her room to hear better. Everything goes so quiet for so long I think she must have heard me, but then a soft moan filters through the thin door.
My chin drops to my chest as I fight to suppress my laughter, but when I hear her whisper my name, breathy and needy, I stop laughing instantly.
FUCK, that’s hot.
I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said I’d bend her over that sink and fuck her ass. Her ass is fucking phenomenal. For about two seconds I debate going in there and helping her finish the job, replacing whatever she’s using with my cock, before I remind myself that we’re in the middle of a God damn war. I need to stay focused.
I can’t think about how it would feel to be inside her. Not imagining those big brown eyes watching me over her shoulder while I rail—
Fuck. Focus.
Sophie’s bed creaks and I retreat to the couch, dropping onto it just as she emerges and heads to the bathroom. When she comes back, she locks eyes with me. Shy and uncertain, she crosses the living room and settles in the corner of the couch, tucking her feet underneath her.
“You’re not sleeping either?” she asks, pulling a blanket over her lap.
I can’t help but smirk. “Did you just fuck yourself thinking about me, princess?”
She turns bright red and shakes her head, glancing away. “Oh my gosh, Vin. Honestly, your mouth is just—”
“You love it. Don’t lie.” I lean toward her, loving the way her pulse jumps in her throat. “Your walls are thin as fuck. You had to know I’d hear you. Were you hoping I’d come in and take over for you?”
When she doesn’t meet my gaze, I sit back. “Alright, princess. Choosing your hand over my dick sounds like a missed opportunity to me, but you do you.”
A scratching sound at the window has me on my feet, gun in hand, and at the door in a heartbeat. Sophie’s staring at me with those big doe eyes, and I motion sharply for her to get down on the ground. She obeys immediately, and I slip out into the night.
I take my time prowling around the building. It’s dilapidated, falling apart, a standalone structure with barely a foot of space between it and the equally shitty buildings flanking it.
Why the fuck does she live in this shithole?
The thought gnaws at me as I check corners, test shadows. As Siena’s cousin, she’s family, and as the head of that family, I can’t have my people living like this: exposed, vulnerable, an easy target. Does nobody fucking get that we’re in the middle of a war?
Then again, this shitty little apartment in a shitty two-story building in a shitty neighborhood in Brooklyn means we’re not exactly on anyone’s radar out here. It’d make a perfect safe house, actually. If Sophie keeps cooking for me like she did tonight, I might just take her up on that offer to stay.
The thought of staying here, eating her food every night, watching that ass of hers in that tiny kitchen—
Nope. Bad for business. Way too close to home. I was joking with Sophie at the party, acting like I was trying to fuck her because I knew she’d say no and that it would piss Siena off. But the truth is, the last thing I need is seeing an angry woman at every family event we both attend for the rest of my life. In fact, I shouldn’t even be here right now.
By the time I’m done scouting the perimeter, finding nothing, I’m angry.
Angry at myself for going to that stupid party against my better judgment. At Matti and Tommy for having their heads so far up their women’s pussies they’re less than useless. At Siena for being a mouthy cunt and commandeering my best friend and brother. At Sophie for—
She’s lying ass up on the floor when I walk through the front door. I swallow back a groan and avert my eyes. I tap her leg with my foot, keeping my gaze anywhere but on those little shorts stretched tight over her big ass.
“Sophie. Go back to bed. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
She rises and brushes herself off. “I can’t sleep knowing you’re awake out here.”
I roll my eyes. “Does nobody fucking listen? Jesus Christ. It’s not fucking safe especially by this big window and the front door.”
She goes quiet, staring at the floor, toying with the drawstring from those tiny pajama shorts that are going to be the death of me.
