Page 232 of Secret Heir For The Billionaire Twin

“Yes, Tamara.”

“Fine,” she sighs and we end the call.

I look at the leather handles curled over my hand. After the way Sophie rushed out this morning, returning it myself is practical.

That is the explanation I give myself.

It has nothing to do with the way she looked at me before she left. Nothing to do with the fact that the morning after finally getting her back into my arms, she disappeared through another door before I understood what was happening.

My phone vibrates several minutes later. Tamara has sent the address.

West Los Angeles.

I read it twice. Then I set Sophie’s bag beside my own and head downstairs for the first meeting of the day.

***

By the time I reach Los Angeles, the day has turned warm and clear, the storm several hundred miles behind me.

Sophie’s townhouse sits on a quiet residential street lined with trimmed hedges, mature trees, and cars parked neatly along the curb. It is exactly the kind of place I would expect her to choose: polished without being ostentatious, private without feeling isolated.

I park near the front and glance once at the address Tamara sent me, then at the leather bag on the passenger seat. For most of the drive, I have told myself this is nothing more than returning something Sophie needs for work.

The explanation sounds thinner now that I am standing outside her home. I take the bag and walk toward the front door. There is no reason for my pulse to change when I press the bell, but It does anyway.

Several seconds pass before I hear movement inside.

Then the door opens.

Sophie stops.

Her hair is pulled into a loose knot, and she is wearing jeans and a soft gray sweater instead of anything I have seen her wear during the assignment. She looks younger like this. Less polished. More familiar.

Her eyes drop immediately to the bag in my hand, then back to me.

“Julian?”

“Hi.”

She looks past me toward the street before meeting my eyes again.

“What are you doing here?”

I lift the bag slightly.

“You left this.”

For a moment, she only stares at it.

“I thought they were going to send it?”

“I was already in California.”

Sophie’s brows rise.

“Northern California.”

“I had business down here.”