And those secrets might just be worth dying for.
Or killing for?
Sophie licked her lips. “I’ll call Lex.” Even though he made her too nervous, too aware.
She’d call him. She’d use him.
Because she had no intention of being anyone’s victim ever again.
Chapter One
A man wasn’t supposed to look at a woman and instantly need her. Instantly want her. Instantly imagine her naked and moaning his name.
A man was supposed to be civilized. He was supposed to keep his control.
He wasn’t supposed to salivate.
But when Sophie Sarantos strolled into Lex Jensen’s office, his control started to splinter. Maybe it was her high heels. Little black spikes that screamed sex appeal. Maybe it was the perfect expanse of her legs, revealed so well in that pencil skirt she wore. Maybe it was her breasts, nice and firm and pushing against the front of her blouse.
Or maybe it was her face—sheer fucking perfection. Heart-shaped, with sharp, fantastic cheekbones. Her lips were full and currently painted a sleek, wet red. And her eyes—no other woman in the world had eyes like she did. A shade of blue that he’d once thought shouldn’t be legal. Blue eyes that looked at him and seemed to stare straight into his battered soul.
“Thanks for seeing me,” Sophie said.
His cock jerked. The woman’s voice is made for sin. He had started to imagine that voice, late at night. Whispering his name.
Get your shit under control, man! She’s a client! Or, at least, a potential one. Lex kept his position behind his desk and motioned to the chair across from him. “Why don’t you take a seat?”
“I prefer to stand.”
He almost smiled. Of course Sophie would say that. Of course she’d start pacing a bit angrily—nervously?—in front of his desk. The first time he’d met her, he’d been aware of the energy bubbling just beneath her surface. He’d heard others talk about Sophie having ice in her veins. He didn’t buy that story for even a minute. She was barely contained fire—fire that was building inside and waiting to explode.
She headed toward the window that looked out over the busy DC street. “Protection. Discrete. Assured. That’s what you offer here, right?”
He lifted a brow. “We think of it as the save-your-ass-protection type.” His gaze slid to her ass. Such a very nice one it was. But he made himself lift his gaze once more. She wasn’t there for him to ogle her. She was there because— “You got someone who needs protection?” His mind slid through the possibilities. Maybe she had a client who’d pissed someone off. Sophie was one of the best defense attorneys in the area. The more high profile the case, the more likely it was that she’d be in the courtroom. He could easily see her clients needing some—
“I’m the one who needs the protection.” She turned toward him. “Me. I’d be the client who needs that ‘save-your-ass-protection’ that you just mentioned.”
Anger sliced through him. A hot, savage blade of fury. “You?” He stalked from around his desk even as the muscles in his body hardened. “Why? What the hell is going on?” Sophie wasn’t supposed to be in danger. He’d saved her weeks before. Pulled her out of that gas-filled brownstone. Lex had held her limp body in his arms and felt things—hell, things he had no business feeling. Emotions that he absolutely did not want to analyze. They’d been too dark. Too disturbing.
I wanted to kill the bastard who’d hurt her.
“How much is your fee?” Sophie asked.
“What?” He shook his head and kept closing in on her. “Screw the fee. Tell me what’s going on.”
But she reached into her handbag—a sleek, expensive little number—and drew out a checkbook.
“Sophie…” Lex growled her name.
She had the checkbook in hand and she was scrawling fast. He reached for her.
She slapped a check in his hand. “Ten thousand dollars. Let’s call that a retainer fee. You’re working for me now.”
His eyes narrowed. The woman was getting under his skin. Before she could pull her hand away from his, he curled his fingers around hers, crushing the check between them. “Why don’t you start,” he managed from between clenched teeth, “by just telling me what the fuck is going on?”
Sophie’s brilliant blue gaze searched his. “I think I need some ‘save-your-ass- protection’ from you,” she whispered. “And now that you’re working for me, legally, well, I feel safer telling you certain things.”
His temples began to throb.
“It would really help,” Sophie continued, pausing to bite her lower lip, “if you signed a non-disclosure agreement. Do you think—”
He yanked her up against him. His right hand kept hers trapped while his left wrapped around her waist. Sophie was a delicate woman. Small. Fragile. He kept forgetting that because of the furious energy that filled the air when he was near her. He had to be careful with Sophie. Had to remember that she was breakable.
He never wanted to break her.
“Screw a non-disclosure agreement,” he told her bluntly. “At VJS Protection, our loyalty is to the client. One hundred percent. You need protection? Then, sweetheart, I guarantee you’ll have it.”
She was still biting her lip. He wanted to bite. He wanted to taste. He wanted to make her moan for him.
And, sooner or later, he’d do all of those things.
But now…
&n
bsp; “Who is after you, Sophie? Tell me who the bastard is, and I’ll take care of him.” Because it enraged him to think of anyone hurting her.
“That’s the problem,” Sophie told him quietly as she stopped nibbling that lip. “I don’t know who he is. I need you to find out. I need you to stop him. And I need you to make sure I stay safe until he can’t reach me any longer.”
Sophie was scared. He hadn’t seen the fear before, but now, he could feel it in the slight tremble of her body. Such a faint tremble, but she was flush against him, so there was no missing it. No missing the quiver of her lower lip. The hitch in her breathing.
His rage built higher.
Sophie shouldn’t be afraid.
“Let me go,” she told him.
Lex caught himself shaking his head. His fingers had tightened on her. But he wasn’t supposed to do that. He definitely wasn’t supposed to get all possessive and protective with a client.
But I am.
He forced himself to take a deep breath, and when he did, her scent sank into him. Strawberries. Sweet damn strawberries.
The woman was going to drive him utterly insane.
His fingers slipped away from her. He took a step back and shoved her check into his pocket. Then Lex crossed his arms over his chest—the better to stop touching her—and he locked his glare on Sophie. “I can’t help you, not unless I know exactly what is going on.”
Her gaze slid away from his. “I woke up last night to find a man standing over me.”
What. The. Fuck? He took a quick step toward her, but then caught himself.
“He grabbed me. He was…wearing gloves. He put one hand over my mouth.” Her hand lifted and touched her lips, as if she were remembering the attack. “My alarms didn’t go off. All those stupid, fancy alarms I had installed after Daniel’s attack—they were utterly useless. I woke up because…well, I heard him, I guess. I opened my eyes, and he was just there.”
Every part of his body burned with rage. “What did he do to you?” Now that he looked at her more closely, he could see that her makeup was a bit heavier than what she’d worn before. Her cheek…was that a bruise there? Yes, shit, it was. High on her cheekbone.