Page 123 of Cold Mercy

She turns back to Elizabeth, then back to me again, like she’s calculating how much truth to give.

“More than two years,” she says. “I haven't been with anyone,” she breathes out, steady and simple.

I don't need to check her face for a lie, because I know it’s the truth. I know because if any man had tried to walk through her front door after dark in the last three months, I would have put him in the hospital. I made damn sure her bed stayed empty because I couldn't stand the thought of anyone else taking the place I was too much of a coward to claim.

My heartbeat stutters.

“But honestly?” she adds, lifting her chin just a little. “I almost managed it today, but the guy chickened out.” Her eyes cut slowly to mine. “I guess I was too hot for him to handle.”

She takes a sip from her mug as if she didn’t just detonate the whole goddamn circle.

Holy fuck. James elbows me hard enough to jolt my ribs.

“Knew something was wrong with that smile,” he whispers.

I don’t take my eyes off her. Sophia finally looks back to Elizabeth, bored and sharp all at once.

“Satisfied now?”

Elizabeth is practically vibrating with joy. “You have no idea how satisfied.”

Everyone laughs, but the sound barely registers over the fact that I can hardly breathe.

Sophia smirks, and I’m one second away from dragging her into the dark and demanding who the hell she thought she was ‘too hot to handle’ for.

Because God help me… I know the answer.

But I sit there, staring at her through the fire, and all I can think is…

If I’d known back in that room…If I’d known she was thinking that, wanting that…

Fuck, she never would’ve made it to this bonfire.

She wouldn't have made it to this bonfire. I would have locked the door, ripped that fucking towel off her myself, and pinned her to the bed. I would have buried myself so deep inside her she wouldn't have been able to breathe my name, let alone walk. I would have marked every inch of her skin, claimed her so completely that the thought of another man even looking at her would have been a fucking joke.

I would have kept her there until sunrise, pinned under my hands, breathless, begging, unraveling beneath me. I would have made her so fucking mine.

Instead, she’s sitting across from me like some prize someone else gets to admire, laughing into her mug while I sit here, blood boiling, pretending I’m not losing my fucking mind.

She thinks she was too hot to handle? Christ.

If she knew what she does to me, how close I was to breaking when she took off that top. How bad I wanted to drop to my knees in that room and taste every inch of her until she was shaking, she wouldn't be smiling. She’d be running. Or maybe she'd be on her knees too.

CHAPTER 31

SOPHIA

Maybe I went a little overboard…again. Maybe I went very fucking overboard.I just wanted, for once, to flip the script, to lead somebody on instead of being the idiot who gets attached. Play the game instead of being played.

Well, mission accomplished.

I just wanted to get under his skin, and it worked a little too fucking well. The problem is… it worked on me too.

It’s not even about the whole almost three years without sex thing. It’s not like I suddenly woke up with the libido of a sailor on shore leave. I want sex, sure, I’m human, but unfortunately my hormones decided to be patriotic to one very specific last name: Reed.

Great, amazing. Fantastic choice, body. Ten out of ten.

And as much as I loathe him for what he did last night in that room…?