Ethan had been her best friend for more years than she could count. Her confidant. She knew the world saw him as some kind of villain, and sure, the guy wasn’t always on the side of the law abiding, but…
He loves me. She knew that with certainty. She was Ethan’s only family, just as he was hers.
He’d paid for her college. Her law school. He’d gotten her away from the nightmare of her past.
But she wasn’t leaving with him.
Her gaze slid to Lex. Lex wasn’t staring at Ethan any longer. Lex’s green stare was on her. He was waiting. Waiting for her to make a choice?
She’d made that choice. “I’m not done.” She should have said something more profound. Lex’s gaze had just widened. Hell. Was she screwing this up? “I’m with Lex.” I’m with Lex. Why did that feel so right to say?
“What?” And Ethan reached out to her again. “Sophie—”
Just that fast—a blink—Lex had Ethan across the room and pinned against the wall. Lex’s arm was locked under Ethan’s jaw as he said, “I told you…don’t touch her. I get that you two are friends. Maybe even some kind of screwed-up family. But Sophie is naked under that sheet and when you get close to her, when you get all handsy, it really pisses me off.”
She pulled the sheet up a bit.
“Didn’t think I was the jealous sort,” Lex continued, his voice still that rough tangle of fury and possession. “Until her.”
Ethan wasn’t fighting, a surprise there. Because she knew he could be a vicious fighter.
And I have no doubt that Lex can be, too. She didn’t want to see what would happen if those two ever really did go after each other. Right then, Lex was just holding Ethan back.
“Get something straight,” Lex demanded as he kept his focus on Ethan. “Sophie is mine. She came to me when the shit got bad in her life. Me, not you. And I’ll do anything she wants. Anything.”
Sophie inched forward. “Don’t hurt him.” She wasn’t sure if that warning was for Ethan or for Lex.
Ethan must have thought the warning was for him. “Loverboy…” Ethan ground out, “is the one choking me.”
Sophie put her hand on Lex’s shoulder. “Let him go.”
He immediately did. Then Lex swung to her. “If you want me sane, please just put on some damn clothes around him. You being naked with him isn’t going to fucking fly with me near. It’s not going to fly, period.”
He really was jealous. She didn’t feel some sort of power surge with that knowledge. She just shook her head. “It’s never been like that with us. It never will be.” She turned from him. Then Sophie realized something important. What she’d felt with Lex the night before, it had never been like that with anyone. Her heart was beating too fast as she said, “Don’t kill each other while I dress, got it? I’ll be right back.”
Then Sophie ran down that hallway as fast as she could.
They might not kill each other before she got back. But hurting each other? That could be a definite possibility.
Chapter Six
He didn’t lunge at Ethan again. Lex was rather proud of his restraint, but he did glare at the asshole. He’d first met Ethan when VJS had been hired to protect Gwen Hawthorne. Pretty Gwen had picked up a very dangerous stalker—and all signs had pointed to that stalker being her ex-lover, Ethan Barclay. With Ethan’s shady reputation, it had been easy enough to imagine the fellow as the bad guy.
And Chance Valentine, well, he sure as hell hadn’t been keen on Ethan. Chance didn’t like it for any other man to get too close to Gwen.
Now I understand how he feels. I probably shouldn’t have given him such a hard time about the way he was twisted in knots over Gwen. I’m just as twisted up for Sophie.
Maybe even more so.
“So...are you planning to glare at me all day?” Ethan asked as he rolled back his shoulders.
“Not all day. Just until Sophie comes back.” He gave Ethan a grim smile. “She went to our bedroom to dress.”
Ethan didn’t take the bait and come at him to attack. The guy just laughed. Annoying, mocking laughter. Then Ethan said, “The fact that she slept with you means you don’t matter, man. Get that in your head. You’re one and done with her.”
His spine snapped up. “You have no clue, do you? Not about her, not really.” She’d cried in his arms and Sophie had broken something in him with her tears. He was different now, he could feel it.
“I know plenty about Sophie.” Ethan’s gaze measured him. “But what I don’t know…that’s you. Why are you pushing so hard to get close to Sophie?”
Was the guy serious? Sophie was beautiful, smart, determined—
“Is this because you and your jerk buddies at VJS want to take me down? Are you still gunning for me after all?”
Ethan was delusional.
“I never hurt Gwen,” Ethan continued, “so you damn well better not have plans to hurt Sophie.”
He didn’t lunge at the guy. Didn’t shove his forearm against Ethan’s throat again. But Lex could feel the fury pouring through him. “Hurting Sophie is the last thing I intend. I told you already, she came to me.”
“And Sophie always comes to me!” Now Ethan was almost yelling as his control fractured. “I’m the one there for her! The one she can count on, the one—”
“Not this time.” Just saying those words filled Lex with a savage satisfaction. Whatever Sophie and Ethan had, this time… “She came to me.”
Ethan’s golden eyes glittered. “Sophie—”
“—is back,” Sophie called as she hurried into the room. She was bouncing a bit as she tried to shove on one of her high heels. The woman had dressed in real record time. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders and her face—free of makeup—was gorgeous. But…
He could see the faint tear marks on her cheeks.
Ethan was frowning at her now. Seeming to get a real look at Sophie. The guy stalked forward and his eyes narrowed on her face. “What did he do?” Before, Ethan’s voice had been hard with fury. Now, it was soft. Deadly. “Just tell me, and I’ll make it all better.”
Alarm flashed on Sophie’s face, then her hands immediately rose to scrub her cheeks. “Nothing! No, Lex didn’t do anything to me!”
Giving a guttural growl, Ethan whirled to face Lex.
But Sophie grabbed his arm and yanked him back toward her. “Nothing!” Sophie said again. “Look, I hired him to protect me, all right?”
So much for keeping that secret. Maybe she didn’t keep anything from Ethan.
That jealousy was back, pouring like acid through Lex’s veins.
“Someone broke into my home,” Sophie said. She was still holding onto Ethan’s arm. “A jerk with a knife. He said that he was there to make sure I was all right, but I didn’t buy that bull.”
“Because of the fucking knife.” Ethan’s voice was still that quiet menace.
“He told me that he was going to kill Daniel Duvato.”
Ethan blinked.
“I couldn’t come to you. I-I was worried…” Her voice dropped and her hand slipped away from Ethan. “About what you might do.”
“Sophie…”
“Lex is working on this case.” She nodded firmly. “He’s got this. VJS has this.”
Lex rather liked the confident way she said that.
“You don’t have to swoop in for the rescue, Ethan. I’m okay.”
Damn straight she was.
But Lex noticed that Sophie hadn’t mentioned the near accident in front of the courthouse. Since she didn’t mention it, neither did he. He wanted Sophie to know he could keep her secrets, too.
“I didn’t come here to rush to your rescue.” Ethan’s lips thinned. “I need you to come to mine.”
“What?” When Sophie shook her head, her hair slid over her shoulders in a gleaming black curtain.
“Daniel Duvato,” Ethan spat out that name. “He’s fucking trouble that I should have ended long ago.”
Lex’s stare drifted between them. He was
pretty sure Ethan had just threatened to kill Daniel.
“A cop who owes me…that cop let me know that Daniel is planning to make a deal with the ADA. Seems they had a chat last night, and Daniel wants to see me locked in a cell right next to his.”
“That’s not happening,” Sophie said immediately.
Lex kept quiet, just listening and taking in as much as he could.
“I don’t know what kind of evidence the guy thinks he has on me—”
“He worked with you for years,” Sophie said.
Years of secrets. Of crimes?
Sophie’s gaze cut to Lex. She blinked and a mask seemed to fall, veiling some of the brilliance of her eyes. “Ethan is my client.”
Lex was sure that been handy in the past, especially if Sophie saw Ethan’s less-than-legal activities.
Sophie gaze a quick nod. “I need to get down to the station right away. I’ll talk with Clark and figure out just what the hell is going on.” She started a determined stride toward the door.
Lex stepped in her path. “You mean we’ll be going down there.”
“Lex—”
“What are you planning, Sophie? A little sit-down with Daniel Duvato?” He threw that out there because suspicion had knotted his gut.
She didn’t so much as blink. “If necessary. No deal will be made. Ethan isn’t going to be incriminated.”
“Then maybe Ethan shouldn’t have broken the damn law!”
She flinched.