Want Me (Dark Obsession 2)

Maybe they should just put everything out in the open. She pulled in a deep breath, hoping it would cool the sudden tension, the fever, that she felt. “You know there’s…something between us.”

He just stared back at her. Did his pupils widen a bit? Maybe so.

“You want me.” There, she’d said it. Just tossed those words out there. All loud and proud.

His smile came again. Half of it, anyway, as his lips hitched a bit. The danger flashed on his face then. “You’re used to men wanting you, aren’t you, Sophie?”

Yes, she was. She was also well versed in using that desire against men. They didn’t care about who she was, not beneath the careful surface she presented to them.

She realized he hadn’t answered her question. That was fine. Maybe it was her turn for some honesty. She put her hands on his chest. Tipped back her head. Even in her heels, she was woefully small compared to him.

The bigger they are…

“I thought you should know,” Sophie said, “that I want you.”

He blinked and she saw shock slide across his face.

Satisfaction trickled through her. His hands lifted, to curl around her shoulders, but Sophie pulled back. “Now, let’s get this over with. The sooner we’re in and out of this place, the better.” Her heels snapped over the sidewalk. It hadn’t snowed in over a week, so she didn’t have to worry about slipping. A plume of cold air appeared before her mouth when she paused to open her door. It took her a few moments to disengage the locks, and she was aware of Lex standing behind her. A strong, silent shadow.

Not like the shadow that loomed over me last night.

Her heartbeat quickened as she pushed open the door. The brownstone’s main door actually led inside into a small foyer. Two other doors were in that foyer, one on the left and one on the right. The brownstone could be split in half and have two perfectly equal living areas. When she’d first purchased the place, she’d had plans to rent out one side of the large dwelling. Only her plans had derailed a bit. She lived in one side of the brownstone, and very slowly, she was working to have the second side renovated.

When she headed for her door, Lex hesitated. She saw him glance toward the other living space. “Nothing is in there but a mess,” Sophie said.

“Maybe…”

As soon as she unlocked her door, Sophie’s alarm immediately started beeping and she punched in her access code. When she turned back around to face Lex, a furrow was between his brows.

“You didn’t have your alarm set last night?”

“Actually, I did.” She always set it now. Thanks to Daniel. “I set it right before I went to bed, but it didn’t go off.”

He slid past her and examined the alarm box.

“It should have gone off,” Sophie muttered. That had been bothering her. “If any windows or doors were disturbed, the alarm should have started shrieking.”

He grunted and looked back at her. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“That my alarm is shit?”

He shook his head. “Maybe he was already inside when you set the alarm.”

Sophie felt her heart stop. “What?” No, that just wasn’t possible. For him to have been inside the house. It-it couldn’t be—

“It makes sense. If he didn’t break in last night, then that means the guy had to already be inside your place. Waiting. Watching.”

Nausea churned within her. “Are you trying to scare me?” Because, if so, his strategy was totally working.

“I’m telling you what I think.” His eyes gleamed at her. “Now are you ready to show me your bedroom?”

She was ready to get out of that place, ASAP. Sophie intended to stay in a nice, wonderfully luxurious hotel while her place was rewired for security. Again. But for the moment, she straightened her shoulders and headed for the stairs. The bottom stair creaked beneath her foot. Before she could take another step, Lex had wrapped his hand around her wrist, stilling her.

He’s so warm.

She hadn’t realized that she was still cold.

“You didn’t hear that squeak last night, did you?”

Had she? Sophie shook her head as she struggled to remember. “I don’t know what woke me up.” Something had, luckily. “One minute, I was asleep, and the next…he was standing right above me.”

He gave a grim nod. “Then it wasn’t the stair that you heard. He was already up in your bedroom. Something in there must have tipped you off.”

She looked down at his hand, still holding her. As a general rule, Sophie wasn’t so much for touching others. But she liked it when Lex touched her.

She rather liked too many things about him.

Because she did, Sophie pulled her hand from his and she headed up the stairs. She was incredibly conscious of him following closely behind her. He made her nervous, and Sophie heard herself start to talk as she quickly said, “I was at the top of the stairs when he caught me. He grabbed for me, but I-I slipped away—I hit the stairs and tumbled down.” That crazy tumble had probably saved her ass. “I rolled down the stairs in a blink and managed to rush out of the house.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t break your neck.”

Yes, she knew that. “I’m lucky he didn’t kill me,” she retorted flatly.

Silence. The thick, uncomfortable kind.

She didn’t pause at the landing. She could almost see that SOB standing there, lunging for her. Beneath her coat, Sophie was sure that she had goose bumps rising on her body. She hated being afraid. Fear made her remember her past, and Sophie couldn’t stand going back to those terrible days.

She opened her bedroom door. Stepped inside. Light filtered through her thin curtains. The room was just as she’d left it that morning. The four-poster bed was fixed. Her books were perfectly arranged on her shelves. No clutter was out on her dresser or her chest and—

“You like being organized, don’t you?” Lex murmured.

No, actually, she didn’t.

For an instant, the lid she kept closed on her memories vibrated and she heard a familiar roar in her head. “Sophie, I’ve told you too many damn times…clean up your mess!” Her hand lifted, brushing over her cheek, as she remembered the blow that always followed that refrain. She swallowed back the memory. “My father thought it was always important to keep a clean home.”

But he was long gone. So why did she keep letting him haunt her? Sophie’s hand moved to rub at the back of her neck as she felt the tension thicken there.

“Nice bed,” Lex murmured.

Yes, it was. Her gaze cut toward him, but Lex wasn’t looking at her. He was carefully walking around her bedroom, moving slowly on the hardwood. There were no creaks beneath his feet. The boards in her room had never creaked.

So that didn’t wake me.

He paused in front of her closet. His fingers lifted, curled around the knob, and when he opened the door, the hinges gave a low, long squeak.

For an instant, her heart seemed to freeze. No, no, the intruder couldn’t have been inside the whole time. That was…worse, somehow, than him breaking in and coming straight to attack her. The idea that he might have been in her home, watching her all along, when she thought she was safe—no!

Lex turned on the light in her closet. She found herself creeping toward him. It was a big, walk-in closet. Shelves for her shoes were on the right. All of her clothes were carefully arranged on the left, put in order by garment type. So neat. So perfect.

Why do I still do that? She shouldn’t be letting a ghost control her. Rage built within Sophie, twisting with her fear, and she wanted to grab those clothes and toss them onto the floor.

Instead, she held her body perfectly still.

Lex started pushing her clothes to the side, examining the wall behind them.

She cleared her throat. “You don’t really think he’s still here, do you?” He’d better not be.

Lex paused in front of a small door, one that had been concealed by her clothes. The door onl

y rose halfway up the wall.

“That’s attic access,” she said quickly. “Storage space.”

He opened that little door. A yawning darkness waited inside. Lex stared into that darkness, then said, “It would have been easy enough for him to wait in there, then come out when he knew you were asleep.”

Her cheeks burned red hot, then turned icy cold. Inside with me, the whole time?

Lex crouched and headed into that darkness.

“No!” Sophie grabbed him. “Let’s call the cops, let’s—”

“This is why you hired me.” His voice was low. So confident. Too confident. “If the bastard is still here, I can handle him.”

His fingers slid over her cheek in just the briefest of caresses, warming her cold skin. And then he turned away and slipped through that narrow opening.

Hell. She went in right behind him.

***

Sophie had been a busy woman.

He stared at her house. At the car that didn’t belong near her curb.

He’d known that she could come back, sooner or later. He just hadn’t realized she wouldn’t be coming alone. She was in the house now, with that blond guy who’d touched her far too intimately. What were they doing? Who was he?

Sophie, if you’re scared, come to me.

She’d misunderstood last night. Her fear had been so strong. Too strong. She hadn’t listened to him. He hadn’t been there to hurt her. He’d just needed to make sure she was all right.

Sophie made the wrong choices in life. She always had. She lived too dangerously.

She picked the wrong lovers. Men who were twisted, no good.

She trusted the wrong friends. Friends who would leave her if they ever found out her dark secrets.

She needed him, so very much. And she didn’t even realize it.

But that was okay. Soon enough, she would. He knew it was time he stepped from the shadows. Her near-death had terrified him far too much. Now was his time of action.

Sophie would soon appreciate all he’d done for her. She’d be overwhelmed. She’d forget the lovers—those fools who should never have been with her—and she’d turn to him.

Finally.

He stared at the brownstone.

But…

Who is that blond bastard with my Sophie?

***