One Chance (Hogan Brothers 1)

Her eyes closed of their own volition when his hands roamed up her arms and across her chest. Pulling her much smaller frame back into him, he gripped her shirt in both fists, whipping it over her head before she was aware of it happening.

“Open your eyes,” he hissed into her ear.

She struggled to do as he commanded, knowing it would be her nude body in the mirror rather than his. “Open ‘em, Soph.” His hands tightened around the ribs where he held her.

When she finally gave in, the heat of his gaze as he met hers stole her breath. An intense fervor of passion blazed back at her. He didn’t care that she wasn’t a tight, compact package. His hands grazed her ribs as she shivered in his embrace. He loved every plush curve of her body.

When she was about to say something, the doorbell rang, startling them from their intimate moment. His hands gripped her belly, forcing her further back into him as he placed a kiss on her shoulder. “I’ll go get that.” The air left the room with him.

She could breathe again, only she didn’t think she wanted to. When Lennox held her, it was the only time anything made sense to her. She made sense. The feelings he brought forth in her were so real and turbulent she didn’t think she’d be able to function without them any longer.

Lennox was an addiction she didn’t know existed.

Sophia left Nox breathless more often than not for so many different reasons. The uninhibited passion she had locked away inside of her was his favorite, though. The way she’d come apart for him when they’d made love still left his mind blown. She had a fire deep inside. An inferno so consuming that he knew he would fight to keep it stoked for the rest of his life.

Leaving her naked in the bathroom so he could answer the door left him frustrated on so many levels. The primary annoyance right now was the erection he was trying to convince to disappear as he slowly made his way to the door.

Just as he opened it, a fist nearly came crashing down on his face. “Jesus Christ,” he cursed, seeing Levi, once again, beaten to shit. “What the fuck is going on, Levi?” He had caught his little brother’s pain-filled form before he collapsed in the doorway.

“I can’t, Nox.” The grief in the other man’s voice was soul deep. Whatever was going on with his life, Nox recognized that the younger man still had some working out to do.

“You can’t keep showing up like this, bro. Has Ma seen you?”

“Haven’t been there since the weekend.” His voice was scratchy like he’d been smoking a pack a day for twenty years.

“Oh my gosh!” Sophia’s shocked voice had them both spinning to face her. “What happened? Are you okay?” He watched, fascinated as her motherly instincts kicked in while she fussed over Levi.

“I’m fine, Soph,” he wheezed out, nearly doubling over in pain.

“Sit your ass down before you fall down,” Nox told him.

“I’ll go make coffee and get ice.” Sophia skittered off.

“Why are you so bitchy?” Levi asked him as he sat on the couch.

Nox levelled him with a look that only another man would ever understand.

“Sorry, man.”

Sitting beside him, Nox struggled with how to handle this situation. He needed to know what was going on with his brother, but he didn’t want to push so hard that Levi started pushing back.

“Tell me you have things under control, at least?”

He shrugged. A fucking shrug.

If the man didn’t look so damn beat up, Nox would have kicked his ass.

“You got someone to talk to? Something, Levi.”

“Yeah, I got someone,” he answered quietly as Soph came into the room with a bag of ice. Worry etched every line of her face.

She had enough shit to worry about, she didn’t need to worry about his dip-shitted brother, too. As soon as she walked out of the room after handing him the ice pack, he told Levi, “She’s got enough on her plate.”

“I know.”

“Don’t fucking make her worry about you, too,” Nox warned, punching his shoulder hard enough to have him cowering away.

“Fuck, man, I got it.”