Want Me (Dark Obsession 2)

Lex had gone completely still at her touch. But now, his head turned and he looked back at her. Anger flashed on his face, but then, as he stared at her, shock rippled across his expression. “Sophie…”

He turned toward her, and she made a mindless growl of anger.

“Sophie.” He put his hand under her chin. “Are you crying for me?”

And she was. Sophie blinked, stunned to realize that her eyes had filled with tears. Those tears slid down her cheeks, cooling the flushed skin. The tears wouldn’t stop. They just kept coming.

She didn’t often cry for herself. But seeing that Lex had been hurt, that he’d been a victim, it had cut her right to the core.

“No, sweetheart, no.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled Sophie closer to him. “That was a long time ago.”

Her breath was hitching. Her heart—breaking. “Who?”

His body stiffened, but his hold just tightened on her. “Who broke your bones? Who kept sending you to the hospital?”

She closed her eyes. “My father.” And her mother hadn’t stopped him. She’d just watched, with eyes that were weary. With a gaze long dead. She watched. Then, each time, when Sophie had come home from the hospital, her mother had sat on Sophie’s bed. Voice sad, she’d said, “You shouldn’t make him angry. I don’t make him angry anymore. It’s just you, Sophie. You have to stop being so bad. When the police come, don’t be bad. Be a good girl.”

A good girl didn’t tell on her father. A good girl pretended she’d fallen again and again. At soccer practice. At ballet. In gym. Anywhere. Everywhere.

His hand stroked her hair. “My mother left me when I was just a baby. I never knew her. I think she was running away from him.”

But she left you there?

“All of my memories of him…” Lex spoke softly and he kept stroking her hair. “They involve his fists or his belts. I know he had to be good. No one is always evil, right?”

Sophie wasn’t so sure of that. Her tears still weren’t stopping.

“The marks he left on me couldn’t be explained away by a fall.” Still, he stroked her hair, so carefully. “So when I was six, people came and they took me away from him.”

People. Child services.

“I never saw the bastard again. I never wanted to see him.”

When she closed her eyes, she saw her father. Not the enraged man he’d been, spittle flying from his mouth as he yelled at her.

But…her last image. Him on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. Her mother beside him, with that big hole between her eyes.

Sophie shuddered. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

“No one hurts me now.”

She believed that.

“And no one will hurt you.”

Her breath heaved out once more, then she pushed against his chest. His hold eased and she tipped back her head, staring up at him. She and Lex were far more alike than she’d originally realized. Survivors.

He’d grown from that past of pain and become a soldier. A protector. Not a monster.

And she…

Sophie wasn’t sure what she was.

“The past only hurts us if we let it,” Lex told her, voice gruff. “I buried that shit. It’s not me, not anymore.”

“I couldn’t get away.” Why was she telling him this? She’d never even told Ethan all the painful details. As if not talking meant it didn’t happen to me. “I tried to run away—three times—but he’d find me each time. And when he brought me back home, he just hurt me more.” Her right leg always ached in the evenings because she didn’t think it had healed properly. “He’d keep me locked up, in the basement.” That fucking basement that she hated. “And it was so dark there. If I screamed for help, he’d just come and hurt me again.” Her words came, faster and faster. “He’d tell my friends I was sick. He’d send a note to the school. They all just thought I was ill. No one ever checked on me back then.” No, that wasn’t true. “Ethan would check. He fought with my father once.”

“Sophie…”

“But when Ethan left, I had to pay the price.” The tears were still coming, like a dam had been opened within her. “I asked him never to confront my dad again. I-I didn’t think I’d survive if he did.”

“Your father was one sick son of a bitch.”

Yes. “He was a man who liked total control.” No, more than that. “He was a twisted bastard who enjoyed hurting those who were weaker.” First her mother, and then, when Sophie had come along…me.

She kept her gaze on Lex. “You aren’t anything like your father.” She’d never felt fear of Lex. Sure, he had plenty of power, but when she was with him, she felt protected. Safe. Not threatened.

“And you’re nothing like yours.”

A sob broke from her.

“Sophie, you are tearing out my heart.” He pulled her close again and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “What can I do to make it better? What can I do?”

Nothing. Because her monster was dead. And his was in the past.

She wrapped her arms around him. “I wish I could take away the pain you had.” He was such a good man, at his core. He hadn’t deserved what happened to him.

“Sweetheart, I’d give my soul to take away yours.”

Her heart stopped. He actually sounded as if he meant those words. Impossible, of course, but—

A loud pounding echoed through the house.

“What the hell?” Lex muttered and he pulled away. “Sounds like someone’s at the front door.”

She felt cold, too exposed, as he hurried toward the bedroom door. Sophie grabbed the sheet, needing it now.

Lex jerked on a pair of jeans. “Stay here, Sophie. I’ll take care of this.” He hurried from the room.

Who could be at his door that early? Dev? His other partner, Chance Valentine? She swiped her hand over her face, trying to get rid of those tears. She felt hollowed out on the inside, her heart raw, her emotions all over the place. This just wouldn’t do. She never broke apart. She couldn’t afford to do it.

But seeing the scars on Lex’s back, realizing that he’d been a victim, just as she had…that had changed everything for her. Lex wasn’t someone to be used and discarded. He was so much more.

“What are you doing here?” Lex’s angry voice carried easily to her because he’d left the bedroom door open.

“I need to see Sophie.” And that voice—a voice just as angry, just as deep—it had her stumbling toward the bedroom door. Ethan Barclay. If Ethan had tracked her to Lex’s place, then that could not be a good sign.

“Too fucking bad,” Lex snarled back. “Sophie is busy right now.”

/>

Crap. She needed clothes, right then. Her frantic gaze flew around the room. Where had she dropped that bag?

“So why don’t you just haul your ass out,” Lex’s fierce voice continued. “And I’ll get her to call you later.” Then he swore. “Hell, how did you even find my place? How did you know she was with me?”

Based on that lethal tone, she didn’t have time to dress. She kept that sheet around her and sprinted through the bedroom door.

“I know everything about Sophie,” Ethan said, his voice far too knowing.

She ran down the hallway. She could see those two men—big, fierce, and looking as if they were about to come to blows at any second.

“Not everything,” Lex threw right back.

No, Ethan didn’t know everything, but he thought he did.

“You slept with her, huh?” Ethan drawled. “Then I guess she’s done with you now.”

Lex surged toward Ethan. Ethan jumped right toward Lex.

“Stop!” Sophie yelled. They stilled.

She kept running until she was close enough to grab Ethan’s arm. Then she jerked him away from Lex and toward her. “What are you doing here?”

His golden eyes—only Ethan had eyes that color—glared down at her. “I was worried about you. You weren’t home. I heard buzz about an attack…” His hands closed around her shoulders. “You should have come to me.”

Once, Ethan’s face had been eerily close to perfect. Before Daniel Duvato got hold of him. Now, Ethan’s high cheekbones were marked. A long, still angry red scar went down his left cheek and another sliced down his right. His dark hair was longer than before, and it looked as if he’d been running his fingers through the tousled mane.

“She came to me,” Lex said, stepping forward. “Now get your hands off her.”

Ethan didn’t. She knew Ethan wasn’t used to following orders.

“Get. Them. Off.” Lex advanced more, closing the last of the distance between them. “You’re in my house, asshole, and Sophie is—”

Ethan dropped his hands and turned to face Lex. “What? She’s yours?” He laughed, the sound mocking. “Don’t kid yourself. It’s obvious Sophie had her fun with you, but I know her. She’s done now.” He inclined his head toward Sophie. “Let’s go. We have things to discuss in private.”