Chapter 9 #3
“It’s okay,” he mumbled into her hair. “It was just a dream. You’re okay.”
“I’m so sorry, this doesn’t normally happen,” she murmured.
“It’s fine, I’ve got you.” He pressed kisses to the top of her head. “It’s okay.”
She curled further into him, and he did his best to forget how she acted like it was as natural as breathing.
“Are you okay?” He wouldn’t rest easy until she said ‘yes.’
“I was dreaming about my dad,” she muttered after what felt like ages.
“And the day he came back. I just turned seven, and Noah turned five a few months before, so I thought Dad came back for our birthdays. But … it wasn’t for us, like I thought.
Mom told us years later that it was because he needed money.
I was downstairs, and I heard someone in the kitchen.
So, I went to look, and … he was sitting at the table. ”
Her face morphed into something lost in memory, and her eyes welled with tears again.
Brushing his thumbs to her cheeks, he wiped away whatever fell.
“I was so happy,” she whispered. “But then, Mom came in and started yelling, and she made me go away. And that’s when things changed.”
“Changed?”
“In reality, both Noah and I hid in Mom’s room, and we stayed in ignorance until a few years later.
But in the dream, it was like Noah didn’t exist, and I stayed outside the kitchen.
” Sophie’s breath shook. “Suddenly, the yells stopped, so I went in and … both Mom and Dad were gone. I was all alone, and scared, and …”
“Jesus,” James muttered, holding her tighter.
She quieted, scratching a finger down her blanket. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had this dream. But it is the first time where it made me remember that we never mattered to my dad.” She shrugged. “We were just a get-rich-quick scheme that didn’t pan out, so he tossed us.”
James’s jaw clenched.
She sniffled again and swiped violently at her eyes with her palms. “I’m really sorry again; I promise I don’t usually cry at night.”
A boulder fell onto his heart.
She shouldn’t have felt the need to apologize to him for something as simple as feeling.
Wrapping his arms tighter around her, he buried his nose into her hair. Every inhale brought with it the scent of her shampoo.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t apologize for this. You never apologize for this.”
She sniffed and murmured something unintelligible into his shoulder.
Her lips grazing against his skin sent a shudder down his spine. “What was that?”
“Stay with me, please?” Pulling back, her eyes gleamed in the dark. “Don’t leave, too.”
He swore the crack of his heart was audible.
Why would she think she needs to ask unless… He swallowed hard as realization tumbled through him. Unless she’s been left too many times.
Someone who was never really alone but might as well have been.
And don’t I know what that feels like.
Lying back, his arm went around her waist, and he tugged her back against him.
“James,” she mumbled.
He glanced at the top of her head, trying not to think about where they touched. “Yeah?”
Her hands covered his arm. “Thank you.”
A soft sigh reached his ears and he pried his eyes open to hazy sunlight.
Craning his neck, he glimpsed the time on the digital clock sitting sentinel on Sophie’s nightstand. Fuck.
If he wanted to make it, he needed to hurry. But there was a small problem.
During the night, Sophie somehow ended up on her stomach. Her head rested on his chest, her cheek against his bare skin, and she held him like a teddy bear.
He tried not to think too much about how he held her, too, one of his arms wrapped around her waist, his hand resting against her mid-back.
Oh, and great. He slipped his eyes shut in resignation as his hard dick pressed against her hip.
With some effort, he withdrew his hand from her back.
“Sophie,” he whispered, then repeated her name a bit louder.
He had to get up if he wanted to make the meeting.
The client, Fukada Technologies, had just opened a New York office and was seeking art pieces to decorate it.
Unfortunately, the lead decorator was located in Japan, which set the meeting at six a.m.
She didn’t budge and instead let out a sigh that sent blood rushing straight to his cock. She pressed closer to him, and he held back a groan as she shifted against him, wiggling her perfect, rounded ass in the air.
For a moment, he contemplated giving up trying to extricate himself. But no, this meeting was too important for him to miss.
Aside from Gemma somehow getting them back, landing a deal with Fukada would show other potential buyers that Lotus was still a trustworthy business partner—that they could dig themselves out of the trenches.
This was precisely the type of promotion Marilyn wanted.
She had been contacting him biweekly since that first fateful meeting, suggesting new promotional strategies and articles to put out.
He took all of them save for one: leaking a false rumor to a tabloid that he was in a relationship.
According to her, if people were interested in him, they would inevitably want to find out more about him, but he’d drawn the line.
He glanced at Sophie, asleep in his arms. An increase in attention meant nothing if he dragged her down to do it.
“Sophie,” he insisted again. Christ, if she moved anymore, he was going to lose it.
She grumbled and rolled onto her back.
“What time is it?” she mumbled. Her eyes screwed shut, and her brow scrunched.
“Too early, but I have my meeting in half an hour.” He smiled as her nose crinkled adorably. “I just wanted to tell you so you don’t flip when you wake up. Go back to sleep.”
She moaned, draping her arm over her eyes. “Okay, go.”
Her shirt rose with the movement, baring her stomach, and James’s heart dipped.
Deep breaths.
He shifted off the bed, but a hand tethered his wrist. Glancing behind him, he started.
Her hair was a mess, and her clothes wrinkled, but all he could focus on was the fact that early morning sunshine filtered in, making her look like a fallen angel.
Rising onto her knees, she leaned into him. “Thanks for staying.”
His breath stopped as she pressed a kiss to his cheek, her lips lingering a second too long.
Dropping back down, she snuggled into her blankets.
He stood frozen at the edge of the bed, white-hot longing shooting through him.
He had had a few one-night stands since breaking up with his ex, but they were all flings with girls who were more interested in his last name than him.
But with Sophie …
His heart pounded stronger for her than it had for any of his exes, and it scared him.
It scared him shitless.
She didn’t want anything serious between them and he understood her reasoning behind that. But every day, he waded deeper into her, and he had no intention of turning around before the water submerged his head.
Forcing himself to lift from the bed, he quickly went through the motions of getting dressed and taking a freezing shower.
Satisfied he looked presentable, he ambled back into Noah’s room, firing up his laptop.
The hour flew by as he negotiated and talked up Lotus, the smooth Japanese syllables flowing off his tongue.
At the end of the call, he hung up with high hopes.
The preliminary meeting had gone far better than he expected, given Fukada’s previous skepticism. The decorator wound up setting a secondary meeting, and James foresaw a hefty check.
Someone knocked on the door and Sophie appeared, damp hair fanning out behind her shoulders.
A mid-thigh length pastel sundress adhered to her curves, and his heart squeezed.
“Damn, you really do know Japanese,” she remarked. “And here I thought maybe you were lying.”
He tilted his head, pushing back from the desk. “Why would I be lying?”
“I don’t know, I guess I was just trying to make up something to wrap my head around the fact you know eleven languages. Like ten was any less mind-boggling.” She shrugged. “Was this one of the ones you learned for fun?”
Snickering, he followed her out and down the stairs. “No. As I’m sure you're aware, Tian Corporation conducts a significant amount of business in East Asia. My dad wanted my brother and me to be well-versed in whatever business environment we were in over there.”
He fell into silence to avoid saying something that would make him look like a pompous ass.
Wandering into the kitchen, she stuck some bread in the toaster, chuckling to herself.
“What?” he asked. Maybe he hadn’t made the right choice not to say anything.
“Nothing, I … it’s just damn impressive. How did you not get overwhelmed learning all of them?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t learn them all at once, but I also have an easy time with languages.”
“So hypothetically, if I were to ask you to speak a language in a sexy context, would you?” she mused.
“What did you have in mind?” he asked, switching to Italian.
“That better have been hot, or we’re going to have a problem.”
Stepping up to her, he rested his hands on either side of her body. Bending so his mouth was level with her ear, he murmured, “I meant what I said last night, by the way.”
She went perfectly still. “About asking?”
He nodded. “Wherever and whenever, Sophie.”
Although that wasn’t quite true, and his heart wrenched.
“Consider this me asking.” She smiled like she saw the truth, too. “You know, I really should see Lotus’s offices. For research purposes.”
“I have to go pick up some papers,” he murmured, sliding his hand down her curves. “So, a pitstop wouldn’t be unwarranted. I can give you a … private tour.”
She sucked in a breath. “I see. And if I—”
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he resisted the urge to throw it across the room.
Sophie pressed her hips against him. “You should get that.”
He groaned. “They can wait.”
The buzzing ceased, then started right back up again, and he sighed. He stepped back, answering his phone. “Hello?”
“Mec, I’ve decided. Can you ask Sophie for her friend’s number? The one I saw her with last time.” Luc sounded far too energetic for the morning.
“Ask her yourself.” James tapped Sophie’s shoulder and passed her the phone.
Pulling the toast from the toaster, he set the plate of them on the table, along with the jam jar Sophie handed him.
“You are?” she asked.
He glanced over his shoulder and tilted his head. “Put it on speaker.”
She waved him off and hummed. “Alright … just be careful how you do it. Chloe doesn’t have the best trust in the people she’s dated, and she’s been hurt one too many times.”
She rattled off a string of numbers, rapping her nails on the counter.
He frowned, mouth opening to ask questions. But she mimed a mouth pinching and he shut up.
“Right, I gotta go. Good luck,” she said before hanging up and passing the phone back. “Did Luc tell you beforehand that he was planning on asking Chloe out?”
“This morning was the first time I heard,” James said. “Listen, it’ll be fine. Luc’s a good guy, and—”
“That’s what Chloe thought about her last ex, too,” Sophie interrupted. “And he cheated on her.”
James’s eyes widened, his hand curling into a fist. He wasn’t exactly the poster child for “the perfect person”, but as far as he was concerned, there was a special place in Hell for cheaters.
“But from what I’ve seen after getting to know Luc more these past weeks, I can tell he’d rather walk into traffic.” A smile touched Sophie’s lips and she crossed her arms.
James chuckled. “You got that right. Luc’s … had his own trials and tribulations with cheating. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
James’s phone buzzed in his hand, and he glanced down, swiping open the text from Jackie.
Got the name of the guy who used to work at Cross. Damien Torrence.
James schooled himself.
That was quick
Yes, well, I have my ways.
He snorted.
Thanks
Anytime. And remember, don’t do anything rash.
James gritted his teeth. Like hell, he wouldn’t.
This was his company, the one he built from the ground up. He was lucky that they generated so much revenue so quickly and carved out a place for themselves. It provided a stable place for employees like Jackie and their other team members.
But Torrence obviously hadn’t thought much about that when he leaked the news about his former boss to the government.
“Sorry, I need to make a call,” he said.
Striding back upstairs to Noah’s room, he shut the door behind him, dialing the number of a friend who worked at a different security company than Torrence’s.
James could only blame his pride for holding him back from contacting his friend. He hadn’t wanted to get anyone else outside of Lotus involved, but now he had no choice.
“Hello?” his friend greeted.
“Hey, it’s me,” James said. “Sorry to bother you on a Sunday, but I need a favor.”