Where are you my sweet Sophia?
Burning your friend’s house down didn’t draw you out like I hoped it would. Do you not care about your friend Sophia? Does she mean so little that you won’t just turn yourself over to me?
No matter.
I have other plans for this fucking city that should do the trick. Soon, you’ll be begging me to take you away. You won’t need anyone.
Not your brother. Not your friends. Not even those firefighters I know you cling to.
They aren’t your forever, Sophia.
But I will be.
Darren
I’d stayed at the gym as long as I could, giving Sophia and Alice the girl time I knew they needed. But it was pure torture.
The entire time all I could think about was how fucking hot and bothered Sophia had gotten me earlier in the morning. Any guy would’ve probably flipped shit smelling their best friend’s scent on his girl after she got out of the shower. If anything though, it turned me the hell on seeing how satisfied and happy she was.
Sophia glowed brighter than any fire I’d ever fought and burned twice as hot. And I wanted to be consumed by it all.
I decided on the ride home that it was time I wined and dined my girl, so I could be the one to put that smile on her face. Alice’s car was gone thankfully and the boys wouldn’t be home til morning.
Tonight, Sophia was all mine.
When I walked in, she was sitting on the couch in the living room with her back to the arm of the couch and a book perched in her lap. She must’ve been pretty engrossed in it too because she didn’t look up once when I closed the door and shrugged off my shoes.
I leaned against the door and just watched her, loving how her brows would pinch in the middle as her eyes flicked across the pages. Occasionally, she’d bite her lip just a little and take a slow deep breath in and out. Whatever she was reading had to be good for her to be looking so impacted by it.
I couldn’t take it anymore and walked over. She’d finally noticed my arrival, but before she could say anything I swooped in, picking her up bridal style and spinning us so I sat on the couch. She ended up cradled in my lap, a look of surprise on her face.
“Whatcha reading?” Curiosity clawed at me.
She cleared her throat and moved a bookmark to her page before closing it. “A romance book.”
I raised a brow and smirked. “What kind of romance book?”
She laughed nervously. “Well, I found out there’s a lot of books out there that have similar relationships to what we’re in. So I picked one and started reading it.”
“Oh really? How many lovers does this one have?” I asked, tapping her book.
A light shade of pink entered her cheeks. “Three. And they’re vampires who steal her away to their castle so they can make her fall in love with them.”
I chuckled, loving how shy she was getting explaining this to me. Now I knew why her breath kept hitching while reading. I didn’t blame her though. Men had porn, women had books. Whatever worked.
“Vampires huh? Sounds interesting. And does she fall in love with them?”
Sophia shrugged. “No idea. I’m still reading.” She paused for a moment. “So, what should we do for dinner tonight? I could make tacos?”
Knowing exactly what she was doing, I took her not so subtle subject change. Which was fine since I’d already figured out where I wanted to take her tonight.
“Actually, I wanna take you on a date tonight. Would that be okay?”
Her smile grew. “Of course. Where are we going?”
“For now, I’ll only tell you there is dinner involved, the rest is a surprise. We have that family BBQ to go to tomorrow, sometime after the boys get home, so I wanna do something nice, just the two of us before I have to share you again.”
“I’m totally okay with that idea.” She leaned forward and pressed a soft, sweet kiss to my lips before pulling away. It wasn’t enough though.
