His mouth parts. “This has been going on the entire time you’ve been back?”
“Yes, but seeing that car and this picture… I don’t know what to do now.”
“You let me handle this.”
My eyes sting. “I don’t want to run again.”
“You’re not running.” He stands and rounds the table slowly, giving me time to pull away. When I don’t, he cups the side of my neck, his thumb brushing my jaw. “Not again.”
The touch undoes me. “Logan…”
“Please, Sophie. The thought of you leaving again… The first time killed your family and?—”
“And…?”
“Me,” he admits. “I handled everything wrong. If I could do it over… I wouldn’t have turned you down. I thought I was doing what was right. I only hurt you. And that hurt me. I’m… sorry.”
I close the distance and kiss him.
It’s not gentle. It’s ten years of wanting and hurting. His hand tightens in my hair as he kisses me back, deep and hungry, as if he’s been waiting just as long. A low sound rumbles in his chest. I feel it everywhere.
I pull back first, breathing hard. His eyes are darker, almost black.
“Any regrets?” I whisper.
“None.” His thumb traces the corner of my mouth. “Not a single one.”
“Thank you,” I say. “For driving me home. For this.”
He rests his forehead against mine, then steps back. “You’ll be okay alone tonight?”
I get the feeling he’s asking if he could stay. A kiss was one thing. Anything more feels like too much, too fast. “Yeah. Go home, and we can talk tomorrow.”
A muscle moves in his jaw. “Lock both deadbolts. Call if you need me. “
“I will.”
He leaves.
I lock the door, rest my forehead against the wood, and touch my lips.
Tomorrow will be a new day. I have no idea what it’ll bring with Logan or whoever took that photo. But for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel completely alone.
four
. . .
Logan
Fucking idiot.That’s what I am.
I walk back to the station, get in my truck, and grip the steering wheel until my fingers ache. My lips tingle from Sophie’s kiss. Ten years. Ten fucking wasted years for doing what I thought was honorable because she was so young.
I slap the steering wheel once, hard, and drive.
We could’ve been married by now. Had kids. Instead, some asshole criminal is following her because I sent her running all those years ago.
I should’ve taken what she offered at nineteen and never looked back. I wanted to when she came home after her freshman year of college, no longer a girl but a young woman with generous curves, warm eyes, and a soft smile that made it hard to breathe. But she was still so young with three more years of school, and she was the Wilde princess. Jesse, Mason, and Eli made it clear: no one messed with Sophie.
