Power Play (The Raptors #2)

Prologue

MURPHY

It starts with a kiss.

Not a sweet, rom-com, fade-to-black kiss either.

No, it’s a full-throttle, back-against-a-door, heat-in-your-bones kind of kiss, the kind you don’t come back from the same. The kind that ruins you for anyone else. The kind that, unfortunately, happens between me and my best mate’s girlfriend’s best friend.

Sophie bloody Hart.

Sophie with the eyes that see too much and the mouth that never stops. Sophie who insults me for fun and steals my hoodies and smells like coconut and chaos. Sophie who has, until now, existed in my life as a background flame; bright, inconvenient, and completely untouchable.

Until tonight.

Until we both stayed behind after Dylan’s birthday at the pub. Until she challenged me to a game of darts I had no intention of winning. Until she downed the last of her drink, licked her lips, and said, “I bet you wouldn’t kiss me even if I asked.”

Spoiler alert; I kissed her.

And now we’re here. Breathing hard and merely inches apart. My hand still tangled in her hair and her fingers curled into the collar of my shirt as though she’s holding on for dear life.

“What was that?” she whispers.

“I don’t know,” I answer, honest for once in my life.

Because I don’t. I don’t know what it means. I don’t know what comes next. I just know that if I walk away now, I’ll never sleep again.

Sophie’s eyes narrow. Calculating. She’s already building her next joke, her next wall.

So, I kiss her again before she can finish the thought.

And that’s when I know.

This wasn’t a mistake.

This was the beginning.