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Damn it. Zach hadn’t meant to go all territorial, but he didn’t want any other man’s arms around his Sophie.
His Sophie. She wasn’t his. She’d been his for a night and he’d let her in, knowing that he wouldn’t give her what she deserved. He was a selfish prick, but he wouldn’t have changed that night for anything.
“Looks like my brother is staking his claim,” Braxton pretended to whisper to Sophie as he eased her back onto her feet with a loud kiss to her lips. He threw Zach a lopsided grin.
Sophie winced, but Braxton kept his arm around her as he jerked his attention back to her face. “You good?”
Hesitating a second too long, Zach stepped forward and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Go sand that wall,” he told Braxton. “I’ll be back.”
Braxton raised a brow as if to silently say Told you so, but Zach didn’t care. He knew Sophie was exhausted and her hip was obviously giving her fits.
“I can walk,” she informed him. “I just needed a second because I stepped wrong. That’s all.”
That’s all. She had to deal with intermittent pain, and he couldn’t ignore it or pretend everything was okay.
Once they reached the front door, he turned to face her, gripping her waist with both hands. He loved the feel of her beneath his touch. She might not come to his bed again, but that wouldn’t stop him from touching her. He’d already passed over that friendship threshold, and he intended to take full advantage.
“Go home.” Zach tipped his head down to look her in the eyes. “Get some rest.”
A faint smile spread across her face. “I have work. I have a showing in an hour and a closing at the end of the day at the bank. I’m too busy, but your concern touches me. Sometimes I wonder how much you care.”
He cared. More than he should.
Kissing her softly on her forehead, Zach stepped back, physically and emotionally. There was no other option.
“After you’re off work, go home and rest. Don’t worry about this place and don’t worry about the grants. Everything will work out, but you working yourself to death won’t help any of us.”
A hint of a smile flitted around the corner of her lips. “You need me. Admit it.”
If only she knew how much. He couldn’t even fully wrap his mind around the extent to which he needed her.
“Liam’s due here in a day or so,” he told her. “So we’ll have all hands on deck for a while. You better rest up while you can.”
When he turned to walk away, she called his name. He froze, glancing over his shoulder. The sight of her radiant smile had his breath catching in his throat, a bad tightening around his chest. Damn it. What was he going to do with all these feelings he had zero control over? He had no clue where to put them all, because dumping them on anyone was impossible.
“Thank you for doing this,” she told him. “Chelsea would love seeing her brothers coming together and working as a team. I know a women’s resort isn’t your ideal project and the renovations are just the beginning, but . . . thanks.”
He tried not to think too much beyond the renovations, because if he started focusing on chemical peels and hot stone whatevers, he’d run away and never look back.
Zach nodded and headed back toward the bathroom. He needed to make sure Sophie took care of herself, because she would put everything ahead of her own needs. She would do all she could for Chelsea’s dream to come true; that’s what made Sophie so special. She didn’t care that her parents had frowned upon the Monroe kids, she didn’t care that she had a prosperous business to keep running, and she didn’t care that she would be working closely with a man she’d fallen in love with.
Zach stopped in the hallway and placed his hand on the wall. He needed support. She’d never come out and said she loved him, but he’d seen it in her eyes when they’d been in his bed. The woman couldn’t mask her emotions. Now he just needed to figure out how to keep from hurting her . . . again.
But more so, he needed to figure out how to stop from falling in love with her.
* * *
Surprisingly, her hip wasn’t killing her tonight. After the day she’d had, she’d managed to get through the showing, another unscheduled showing, and a closing, all without the accustomed annoyance.
Still, she was nearly crawling from sheer exhaustion by the time she pulled into her drive. When she spotted the familiar truck parked in her spot, her heart did a little flip. What was he doing here? She couldn’t ignore the flutter of nerves in her belly . . . nerves she’d never experienced with any other man. Not that there had been many, but these nerves had Zach’s name all over them. They always had.
She pulled in behind him and grabbed her bag. By the time she let herself in the back door, she was smiling. Somehow he’d let himself in, but she wasn’t questioning or complaining because her house smelled amazing.
“I have no clue what you’re making, but I’ve never been so happy to have a trespasser.”
Turning from the stove, Zach held a wooden spoon in one hand and had some type of red sauce in his beard. Sophie laughed, hung her bag on the post by the back door, and crossed the tiled floor.
“Sampling the goods?” she asked, reaching up to swipe her finger over the coarse hair.
