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“He hasn’t,” Sophia interjected, tears streaming down her face. “Mark, he hasn’t.”
Mark turned on Sophia, and even though I knew he’d never physically hurt her, the instinct to protect her and my baby, roared into place from somewhere previously unknown. I shifted and angled my body so that I was between them, Sophia safely behind my back.
“Look, I get that you’re hurt and betrayed and shocked and god knows what else,” I said. “That’s why I let you take a shot at me. I’ll let you have however many more later, but right now, you’re upsetting Sophia, and that’s the last thing that she needs. So, you need to get out. Go.”
I didn’t have the first idea what Sophia needed, but I was sure that it wasn’t her brother shouting about how her life was ruined. I pointed to the door, and although Mark looked like he wanted nothing more than to clock me again, his gaze flickered to Sophia sobbing on the bed. With a final shake of his head, he spun on his heel and stalked out of the room.
Sobbing women were not my thing. Not at all. But knowing what to do came to me naturally with Sophia. I walked over to her bed, sank down next to her, pulled her into my lap, and let her cry into my chest. Her warm tears were soaking my shirt, but I didn’t mind.
She cried so hard that she hiccuped a few times, but I didn’t interrupt her. I just let her get it out. An indeterminable amount of time later, her sobs finally subsided, and her body stilled. I wondered if she’d fallen asleep, but when I pulled away slightly to look down at her, her eyes were wide open.
“What’s going on in your head?” I asked her. At least my mouth was working properly again.
She was quiet for another few beats. Then she released a deep sigh and met my eyes with hers. “Honestly? I don’t know. My mind’s racing so fast that I can’t grab hold of any thought. You?”
“Same.”
Sophia smiled sadly. “I’m sorry. If there was a way I could slow it down for you, I would.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about, but I might know how I can slow both of our minds for a while.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, then she raised one of her eyebrows. “Surely, you can’t mean what I think you mean?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.” Before she could argue, I leaned down and kissed her. Hard.
Chapter Twelve
Sophia
He was insane. Certifiably insane. But as soon as Brett’s lips touched mine, that familiar zooming out of the world thing happened, and kissing him was the only thing I could focus on.
True to his word, he kissed me so deeply and so fiercely that I finally managed to catch a thought and hang onto it. It wasn’t a particularly productive one, however. It was blatantly sexual.
If his hardening underneath my ass was anything to go by, he’d had the same one. I shifted in his lap so that I was straddling him, threading my hands into his hair and kissing him like my life depended on it.
His hair was thick and soft as I scrunched it with my fingers, and he tasted like a strange mix of spearmint and rich coffee. With his muscular arms around me and strong chest against mine, it felt like everything was actually going to be okay. Like I could breathe properly for the first time since those words had popped up on that screen.
It was going to be okay. We were going to get through this. I was safe here in the circle of his arms. So long as he stayed, I would be fine. We were so in sync that at the same time the thought hit, he broke the kiss to look deep into my eyes.
“I’m going to be here for you, Soph. I promise. For you and the baby. I’m not going anywhere.”
There was a funny pressing feeling in my heart, and the words popped out of mouth before I’d had so much as a split second to process them. “I love you.”
As soon as they were out, I knew with everything in me that they were true. I also wished that I could’ve taken them back and said them at a more appropriate time. Or maybe not said them at all, for a long, long time.
Early afternoon light shone softly through the windows, illuminating Brett like a gentle spotlight. His gray eyes widened, and some unnamed emotion passed through them as he let my words wash over him. Whether it was a positive or a negative emotion remained to be seen.
A part of me knew that I was kidding myself. Brett wasn’t the kind of guy who would fall in love. Much less with a girl like me. Yet, I couldn’t help but hang onto the tiny shard of hope that was blooming in my chest because he was still there, still holding me, still hard underneath me.
His mouth opened and closed a few times, like he was trying and failing to say something. Then the impossible happened. Brett’s lips spread into a wondrously beautiful smile, both dimples digging deep into his cheeks, and whatever was in his eyes changed.
Unless I was very much mistaken, the feeling that was lighting them up and shining out at me looked very much like—
“I love you, too,” he said.
An excited little squeak that I was by no means in control of popped out. “You do?”
His arms tightened around me, and he bumped his nose to mine. “I do.”
