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He had not even realized he was gripping her hand. He loosened his hold and grunted, “Go on.”
“He kissed me. He begged me to kiss him back and to love him. I did not want him inside me.” Sophie closed her eyes briefly. “I distracted him by pretending I was responding to him. He was about to take me when I stabbed him. It was too sick, everything was so sick.”
It was. Derek felt bile rise to his throat at the thought that Bishop had nearly violated Sophie in the worst possible way. He had a hunch something like that had happened, but actually hearing her tell the story was too much for him to hold in. Derek stood up—at first he just paced around the living room to get a grip on his fury, but even Sophie’s soothing voice was not enough to calm the raging inferno of anger inside him. He punched the wall twice, putting two holes into the dry wall. He stopped only when Sophie ran to him and embraced him from behind, telling him in that sweet, melodious voice of hers that:she was fine, she was fine.That she was with him now.
Derek snapped back to the present and sighed again. Yes, that was slick, Lockwood, he berated himself. Sophie had been comforting him last night when he should have been tending to her. Sophie wasn’t one who liked cuddling much in bed, but feeling the need to soothe him, she let him hold her all night. They were a tangle of limbs, her leg in between his, her face buried under his chin, her front flushed with his. When she pulled away this morning, he heard her groan when they were all sweaty in between.
“Sophie’s all mama hen,” Stephen interrupted his thoughts. “Quite a role reversal.”
“Yeah.”
“How are you holding up?”
Derek snorted. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”
“Uh-huh,” Stephen replied, eyeing him shrewdly. “Our Sophie has been through a lot. When I saw you at the hospital, you looked like a man who had been to hell and back. You’re not looking much better today. Less dark circles under your eyes, but something is still bugging you. Heck, Sophie looks more refreshed than you do.”
“Some issues I need to deal with on my own,” Derek replied gruffly.
“You’re blaming yourself for what happened?”
Derek did not answer.
“Or is being with Sophie too complicated for you?”
“Fuck no. Hell no,” Derek said with conviction. “Stephen, I’m an overprotective son of a bitch and if someone I care about gets kidnapped, molested and almost raped, that fucks with my head and it’ll take me some time to get over it, but I will. I’m having difficulty adjusting to a situation where I can’t be as easygoing as I used to be. With Sophie, nothing is easy. She’s damned complicated, not only in her past, but her life is shit right now. But I’m willing to work for it, work for making her life less complicated, slay her demons—”
“Have you told her you love her?”
“No.” Derek huffed in irritation. Was that how he appeared to everyone? A lovesick fool? “Not any good time lately after everything that had gone down.”
“I don’t know, Derek,” Stephen replied sagely. “Maybe now is the best time to tell her.”
17
Derek waitedin the car while Sophie ran into the DC Tattler building where Beth worked. It had been a week since he got her back. Most of Sophie’s focus was getting Beth back to normal, and it had not taken long for the feisty reporter to return to work. Maybe now Sophie could give him some attention. Not that he was complaining. Sophie was in his bed every night and after that blowup he had a few days ago where he redecorated the wall of his condo, they had eased into a companionable relationship. Oh, there was plenty of sexual tension, and he had a feeling they were each waiting for the other to make the first move, but Derek wanted Sophie to have the power to dictate when they had sex again. The choice had been taken from her once and had been nearly taken away from her again—Derek was giving her control.
The truth was, even without sex, Derek enjoyed being with Sophie immensely. He loved her intelligence, he loved teasing her—she was easily flustered especially when he and Beth devolved into their less than politically correct conversations. He loved how her gray eyes squinted at him when she was annoyed at him.
He.
Just.
Loved.
Her.
And he loved how she would cuddle up to him so trustingly now, just folding her svelte frame on his lap and snuggling close.
Yes, he was not easygoing when it came to Sophie. He had never felt so ferociously protective of anyone in his life. He didn’t know if it was because of all the danger she had inadvertently embroiled herself in or because he had found someone he wanted to keep forever. He was afraid of anything that would hurt her or take her from him. He knew he was being irrational, but he had seen this behavior before in the way Jack was with Maia, and Derek completely understood it now.
He tapped the steering wheel impatiently. He felt uneasy whenever she was out of his sight. He knew this paranoia would eventually fade, but her kidnapping was still too recent and there was still the matter of the zee bombs. He had stopped at AGS a couple of times this week whenever Sophie was visiting with Beth, and she had not wanted him around. Viktor had told him they identified the location of the zee bombs along with the intended targets and were very close to having a strategy in place. The CIA was assembling a team of Guardians and their own paramilitary. Derek was going in as a specialist, working with the person assigned to deactivate the bomb. Tactical exercises should begin in the next week or so.
The CIA had caught chatter that the attack would be imminent in the next two weeks. Damian Stoltz was purposely appearing in public events in Johannesburg to throw off their spooks and show that he was business as usual and had not done anything warranting suspicion. But there were intercepted transmissions that indicated that yes, the bombing would be happening soon.
The passenger door opened as Sophie got into the SUV.
“Beth all good?”
