Silver Fire (Guardians) (5 page)

“Oh god, I’m close,” the woman whimpered and moaned. “Derek, fuck me, fuck me harder, sooo good, so good, honey.”

Sophie’s mouth parted, her right hand skimmed down the length of her body and fingered the neat curls under the hem of her sleepwear. They were drenched; she was painfully aroused by her voyeurism.

Derek grunted and shifted the woman’s legs higher, her knees almost up to her shoulders and that was when he looked up. His face was obscured in the shadows, but he held his face steady. Sophie had no idea if he was watching her or his eyes were closed but his pumping increased and he emitted a tortured guttural sound. The woman had reached her orgasm and only when Derek’s face shifted again did the moonlight reveal the blackness of his eyes, which snapped Sophie right out of her trance.
 

She turned and quickly made her way back to the kitchen, grabbed the glass of water off the counter, scrambled to her bedroom and shut the door. But not before her ears burned with Derek’s groan of release.

CHAPTER THREE

Sophie did not want to leave the room. She had not slept at all since her early morning escapade and her body was coiled like the proverbial spring ready for a release. If she were alone on the bed, she would have probably touched herself, but lying beside her friend while doing so just smacked of perversion. Sophie tried to reach release in the bathroom, but she couldn’t quite get there either, which added to her overall frustration.

“I smell coffee, why don’t you go ahead to the kitchen and get me a cup,” Beth said as she made her way to the bathroom to shower.
 

“I’ll just wait for you. Your coffee will get cold,” Sophie replied, toweling her hair dry. She thought a cold shower would help, but apparently that only worked on men and had only successfully hardened her nipples into pencil erasers. She was wearing a tank top and no bra, thanks to Beth being a double D to Sophie’s decent B cup. She had a barely-there ass resulting in borrowed cotton shorts hanging loosely around her hips

“What’s wrong with you this morning, you seem so uptight,” Beth observed, flinging her nightie to the floor and getting into the shower. “I’m telling you, girl, you need to get laid!”

You are not wrong
, Sophie thought.

The smell of bacon assailed her nostrils as Sophie and her friend made their way to the kitchen. Derek was at the stove, cast-iron pan on top, delicious strips of pork rendering their fat, and beautifully transforming into fried golden crisps. He briefly glanced up and said, “I hope you girls eat meat. Help yourself to the coffee.”

He poured some batter into the waffle maker.

“Hmm, a man that makes breakfast, what else can you do?” Beth drawled.

A smile played on Derek’s lips as he leveled his gaze at Sophie, who felt electricity pass through her. She quickly averted her gaze. What was wrong with her? Why was she behaving like a besotted school girl in front of this man? She felt herself blushing and quickly turned away to pour herself some coffee. Derek transferred the bacon to a paper-lined tray and said, “Sophie, can you hand me another platter for the waffles. They’re right above the cabinet where you are.”

No, she didn’t want to. But Beth was already sniffing blood, being the investigative journalist that she was. She was watching them closely; she knew that look on her friend’s face.
Damn, Derek.
 

“Oooh, I need to make a call,” Beth announced and disappeared back into the bedroom just when Sophie was about to hand the platter to Derek. Sophie, staring in panic at the direction her friend had taken, failed to notice Derek moving swiftly toward her. His hand snaked out to grab the plate from her hand and with the other, pulled her to him so her back was flushed to his front.

He clamped his right arm around her breasts while his other hand splayed across her belly. Derek lowered his head, his hot breath fanning her ears. “You like watching, Angel?” he whispered thickly.

He did see her
! But Sophie’s first instinct was to deny. “I don’t know...hey!” Derek had clasped her harder, giving her a slight shake.

“Don’t deny it,” Derek rasped. He pushed his hips into her, lowering slightly, so she could feel his hardness. “I’m sorry you had to see that.” His playful tone belied his words. Derek trailed his lips down her jaw, sending shivers down her spine; her already sensitive sex spasmed.
 

“Oh god,” Sophie moaned as intense moisture surged between her thighs. Derek groaned and spun her around, his mouth tentatively brushing hers, teasing her lips open before deepening the kiss. One hand burrowed under her tank top to caress her bare breast, capturing and rolling her nipple expertly between a thumb and forefinger. His other hand purposely slid down her belly, its destination unmistakable. Sophie felt a thrilling heat rub her pulsating core.

But a pit suddenly twisted in her stomach, sending the dreaded yet familiar bitterness up her throat. Her body froze, overwhelming the warmth and turning her skin cold and clammy. Derek pulled back in time to see the rejection in her eyes.

“What the fuck?” Derek whispered as she jerked herself away. “Sophie...” She shook her head, biting her lower lip to keep it from trembling. Derek had turned her on like no other man since Adam, but the problem remained the same; she still couldn’t bear another man’s touch.

The waffle machine beeped, and Sophie took that opportunity to run back into the guest room. She heard Derek curse and saw him grab what looked like a tong to take the waffles out before they burned.

***

Derek fumed as Sophie avoided his eyes all through breakfast. He had never, in his entire life, had a woman reject him after kissing him. He knew he had moved too fast; it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she wasn’t like his usual women. Sophie Leroux was going to give him a complex if he did not turn this around. But she refused to address him directly and only talked to Beth, even if her reporter friend pointedly tried to bring him into the conversation, she would smartly deflect and talk of something else that did not concern him—like the man Stephen Parker was currently dating. At least she seemed to enjoy the waffles and bacon. But maybe she was stuffing her mouth full so she wouldn’t have to talk to him.

“All right you two,” Beth said, obviously having had enough. “What happened? The tension is so thick, it’s like breathing through a pillow.”

“You can’t breathe through a pillow,” Sophie informed her friend.
 

Beth rolled her eyes. “Sophie, quit being a literal nerd for a minute. So what the fuck happened?”

“Sophie watched me have sex last night,” Derek stated bluntly.

“Fuck, Lockwood,” Beth exclaimed, half in awe, half in disdain.
 

“You said it.” Derek smirked.

“Where’s the woman?”

“They come. I make them come. They leave.”

By now, Sophie was burying her face in her hands, but Beth looked like a dog with a bone. “So that’s why my girl here is feeling as tense as a violin string this morning?”

“Beth!”

“And then what happened?”

“I kissed Sophie earlier. And she—was—gone. I could have taken her right on the kitchen counter, but when I felt her up, she bolted.” Derek stared at Sophie who looked up and glared at him.

“Did it ever occur to you, Lockwood, that some women might be repulsed by you?” Sophie fired back. “After all, you’ve had your penis, and god knows your tongue, marinating in some other woman’s...some other woman’s—”

“Vagina,” Beth supplied dryly.

“Thank you. Some other woman’s vagina and I don’t want any of your appendages anywhere near my...my—”

“Vagina,” Beth finished for her again.

“Right,” Sophie huffed. “So get over yourself. Why are you smiling?”

“Because you look so damned cute, Angel,” Derek said, grinning. She did. He also knew she was lying about the reason she did a 180 on him after he had kissed her.

“Wait, how did you watch him have sex?”

Sophie related what had happened.

“Aha,” Beth said shrewdly. “So you just walked up casually to an open door emitting rutting noises?” The reporter turned to Derek. “And why were you having sex with the doors open?”

Derek’s brows furrowed. “It’s my goddamned condo, I can have sex in the living room if I want.”

“Not when you have promised to protect me,” Sophie argued. “What if that woman was an assassin?”

“Yeah, right, as if Layla would know two weeks in advance that a hit on you would fail and you would be staying with me that night,” Derek shot back. The truth was, Derek had forgotten that he had an appointment with Layla the night before. The woman showed up at 11:30 p.m., and they had been going for round three when he saw Sophie, standing outside his room, looking like a blonde angel, the slim curves of her body achingly visible through that damned transparent nightie she was wearing. And she was touching herself while watching him have sex, taking him over the edge. He had not come so hard in a long time. He had his dick sheathed in another woman, and was watching another fondle herself. This was nothing new for him with all the threesomes he’d had, so what had changed?

“Wait, Layla Robinson? Senator Robinson’s daughter?” Beth asked curiously.

Derek felt his lips thin.
Damned reporter
.

“Sophie, you really need to get over your hang-up and have Lockwood here tap your sweet ass,” Beth said with glee.
 

“What hang-up?”
 

“Thanks, Beth,” Sophie said sarcastically. “For your big mouth.”

“What happened to you?” Derek asked, concern washing over him as she got more agitated.

“Forced seduction by a twenty-six-year old pervert on a sixteen-year old Sophie. That’s what happened.”

Sophie shot out of her chair, her eyes flashing angrily. “Adam was not a pervert! He did not force me. Shut up!” She ran from the kitchen and slammed into the guest room.

Derek was speechless.

“Damn it,” Beth muttered, standing up to go after her friend. Derek stopped her.

“She looked like...” Derek trailed off. He was deeply troubled by how Sophie’s demeanor had changed dramatically.

“—like she was sixteen again? Yeah, happens every damn time whenever she has her Adam Carter meltdowns,” Beth sighed.
 

“What exactly happened with Adam Carter?”

Beth looked at Derek contemplatively, as if weighing what to tell him.

“I need to know what happened to her, so I can help her.”

“You look sincere enough,” Beth replied, suddenly serious. “Adam Carter abducted Sophie in Georgetown when she was sixteen. According to some of her friends, he had been stalking her. Before she was able to file a restraining order on him, he took her. Disappeared for three months.” Beth paused when Derek cursed.

“Go on,” Derek prodded brusquely.

“Sophie hasn’t told me all the details,” Beth said carefully. “But I did my own digging. Her mother used all her resources to find her. Besides, Theresa Cassidy had enough clout in DC so her daughter’s case wouldn’t get shoved under cold cases. The authorities tracked them down to a remote cabin. God, when they busted in, they had just had sex. Sophie was devastated when they dragged the fucker away.”

“Classic Stockholm.”

“Yup.” The reporter nodded. “The problem was, she was highly impressionable at that age and she believed herself to be deeply in love with him. So much so that she lashed out at her mother and cut off all communication with her afterward. Up to now Adam has had a hold on Sophie—reaching out from his fucking grave.”

“She doesn’t want another man to touch her?”

“Subconsciously,” Beth clarified. “She feels nauseous whenever she gets intimate with other men.”

“I’m trying hard to believe this, but are you telling me she has not had sex in—”

“Thirteen years,” the reporter cut in tersely. They both remained silent for a beat before Beth added. “There’s also something else.”

Derek stiffened at the reporter’s grave tone.

“There was evidence Adam used bondage and dominance to condition Sophie—”

The rage exploded out of him. “Fuck! That sick fucker!”

“The investigators found a slew of—”

“I get the picture,” Derek said abruptly. “I’ve done those things, but there’s an unwritten rule where participation should be consensual. There’s a level of trust. And damn it, not ever with a minor.”

 
Derek felt Beth’s eyes bore into him. “I’m telling you this, Lockwood, because I think you’re a wild card. Sophie responds to you. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I don’t know. What I do know is I wouldn’t want her to escape one hell only to get trapped in another.” She paused, before adding, “You can’t handle her complications, walk away now. Because if you fuck her over, I’ll cut up your balls and feed them to my cat.”

Derek leaned back in his chair.
Christ
, did he want to go through the wringer? Because that was what it would be like with Sophie. He was already feeling those blasted chest twitches whenever she was around. He did not do complicated.

***

All three agreed on an unspoken truce. Beth left to go interview one of her sources for an exposé she was running on a prominent political figure in Washington. Sophie frequently worried about her friend. A bloodhound when on the scent of a story, Beth had her own fair share of death threats.

“A penny,” Derek said softly, casting a glance at her. They were driving to AGS headquarters to introduce her to her new security detail.
 

“I was thinking about Beth, how I was so mad at her this morning,” she mumbled.
 

“She was only trying to help.”

“Help, why is that helping?” Sophie asked.

Derek angled his eyes at her. “You know, no twenty-six-year old man should seduce a sixteen-year old virgin.”

“I am not discussing this with you, Mr. Lockwood,” Sophie said coldly. “We are business partners, nothing more. Our episode this morning did not happen, is that understood? ”

The air turned frosty in the silver Escalade. She chanced a look at Derek and noticed a muscle ticking in his clenched jaw, his eyes narrowing as he kept his gaze on the road. He had been remarkably easy-going for the most part, even after she had given him blue balls this morning, but this time she could have pushed him too far.