Looking for Trouble

“Thanks, pumpkin. You take good care of me.” He came over to give her a kiss on the crown of her head, then headed for the back door. “I’ll see you next week.”

“Bye, Daddy.”

Sophie tried to ignore the embarrassing amount of pride she felt at his words. She did take good care of him. She’d been doing it since she was five, and she’d be doing it until she was sixty. He needed her. She was never going to walk away from that.

With the house quiet now, Sophie was done with the bookkeeping in no time. Next week it’d be time to take stock of supplies and order in anything they needed for winter, but today’s work was pretty simple. She tidied up the desk and headed to the kitchen to throw some meat and veggies into the slow cooker. She wouldn’t be around to make gravy, but she set out a jar of premade. That man loved gravy. Hopefully, he’d clean up the leftovers with a few slices of buttered bread while no one was looking and put a few pounds on his skinny frame by next week.

Once she’d tidied up, Sophie went to her dad’s room, gathered up his dirty clothes and started a load of wash. She ignored her brother’s closed door. He’d have to learn to fend for himself if he was ever going to live on his own someday. But he probably never would. He’d gotten too used to being taken care of, and Sophie knew she had to take a lot of the blame for that. Something else to feel guilty about.

Speaking of...even the thought of the word guilt led her back to Alex Bishop.

Would she see him again? He’d seemed awfully sure that she would. And he’d been right about one thing. She did want more. A lot more.

She wanted to be near him, wanted to feel the way her skin prickled at the very sight of him. And the way she felt small and submissive when his big hands touched her. God, the man had gorgeous hands. And arms. And tattoos.

She wanted to lick him. Wanted to fuck him. She wanted to call and keep lying about who she was so she could see him again and do everything they hadn’t done yet.

She was a terrible person, but she tried her best to keep it to herself. It didn’t matter as long as no one knew, as long as no one was hurt. But this had the potential to hurt Alex, herself and both of their families.

Not worth the hot sex, she scolded herself. But the terrible person inside her disagreed. Strongly.

She checked over the house one more time before leaving, slamming the door in the hopes that her brother would get his lazy butt out of bed. But by the time she got into her car and started for home, she wasn’t thinking about her brother. She was thinking about Alex. Again.

With her car window rolled down, the wind reminded her of the cool air against her body the night before. Just the ride on his bike had been a turn-on. The feel of his body guiding the beast beneath them, the way he’d fitted between her knees, the scent of his leather coat, the rumble of the engine. Then the speed. The power. The wind. The shimmering, sizzling knowledge that the ride was dangerous. Even deadly. It had all added up to the most arousing experience she’d had in years.

And then he’d slipped his hand over her thigh. The same bolt of pure animal lust she’d felt at that touch speared through her right now.

Sophie squirmed, then squeezed her thighs together, catching the pleasure between her legs and squeezing it tighter.

That first touch had been a rush, but then an even larger pleasure had pulsed through her, growing bigger and bigger as his hand slid higher and higher. The knowledge that he’d touch bare skin, that he’d know, that he’d find out. She wasn’t what people thought she was. She wasn’t a shy, modest local girl afraid to venture far from home. She was naughty. She was wicked. And she loved it.

His hand had finally found the top of her stocking. He’d discovered that secret. And unlike most men, he hadn’t missed a beat. One touch of her wickedly bare thigh, and Alex had pulled the bike over to discover whether or not she meant it. She did. She always did.

Sophie squeezed her thighs together again, gasping at the shock of that sweet pleasure.

God.

She could deny anything she wanted, but he saw the truth.

Sophie bit her lip, trying to bite back her need, but it didn’t work. She wanted to see him again. He’d touched her exactly the way she needed to be touched. He was right. She needed more.

She slowed the car to a stop at the side of the road and calmly withdrew a tube of lip balm from her purse. She smoothed it over her abused bottom lip, then stared at herself in the mirror. Her face looked calm, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright with an excitement she recognized.

She had to tell Alex the truth, but as she slipped her sunglasses on and pulled back onto the narrow dirt road, she could no longer pretend that she regretted the lie.

CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_cb1b92a0-1f1c-513d-9030-d050dea336d9)

ALEX TURNED HIS phone on, confirmed that only his brother had called—four times—then switched it off. The only calls he was interested in taking were about work or a certain naughty librarian. But she hadn’t called. Not that he was surprised. He’d seen that in the stubborn way she’d said “Good evening,” when she’d gotten off his bike. He’d watched until she got inside her house. She hadn’t looked back once.

Fuck, she was hot.

He knew he’d have to see his family today. He’d considered meeting them for dinner the night before, but then he’d seen Sophie, and he’d decided not to screw up a good evening. He’d see them on his terms, on his time, and first he wanted another glimpse of Sophie.

She only lived a few doors down from his mother, so he parked his bike in front of his mom’s and walked toward Sophie’s little place. She might not be home. She might not want to see him. But Alex still felt a smile try to tug at his mouth as he approached.

The smile finally won out when he spotted Sophie before he even got to her house. She was working in the flower beds along the front of her house, and looked even more prim than she usually did. Instead of a dress, today she wore khaki capris and little white sneakers and a flowered button-down shirt that almost hid her slim curves. But he knew them now. There was no hiding them. Especially when she bent over and he caught sight of the perfect rounds of her ass.

Damn. He wanted to see her just like that, except naked and begging.

But for now he stepped onto her front walk, avoiding her carefully tended lawn because he thought she wouldn’t like him grinding it down with his big boots. Even in September, her grass was just starting to lose its green.

Her head rose when his boot caught a rock and kicked it toward the front stairs.

“Oh!” The trowel dropped from her hands as she stood. “Alex.”

He liked the pink that rushed to her cheeks. “Sophie,” he said softly, and her cheeks turned crimson, as if her name was something intimate.

“Um, hi,” she stammered. Her eyes darted toward his mother’s house, then back to him. “Did you come to talk?”

He leaned against the front porch banister and looked her up and down from behind his sunglasses. No one would guess in a million years that this innocent-looking woman had come like an animal last night.

She swallowed hard. “You’re intimidating with those glasses on.”

“Am I?” he asked.

“Yes. I can’t see your eyes, and your mouth always looks so serious.”

He liked making her nervous, but he still slipped off his glasses. “Better?”

“Yes,” she said, but she still licked her lips and glanced down the street again. “Alex, I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. Unless you’re about to pretend you can’t see me again.”

“I can’t.”

“Come on. It’ll be fun.” He lowered his voice and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’ll be fun, Sophie?”

The color had begun to fade from her cheeks, but they blazed red again. Alex let his gaze sweep down her body and let her see him do it. Her pretty mouth parted as she drew in a quick breath. But she still shook her head.

“I really can’t. There’s something I didn’t tell you.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “This is a little early for ‘We need to talk,’ isn’t it?”

But the way she worried her bottom lip let him know she was serious. And just like that, he knew what it was. Why she played so coy. Why she’d met him in secret. Why she didn’t want to go out again.

She was seeing someone else. She was taken.

Alex didn’t particularly care.