Page 31 of Playing With Danger

“I do. So if you weren’t calling to tell me your mother’s coming over for an uninvited chat why are you calling?”

“Last night I forgot to say thank you.”

I stood there for a second that led to two then three before I allowed the fullness of her gratitude to hit. It wasn’t the words, it was the way she said them. The sincerity that was tinged with vulnerability. She wanted me to know me keeping her safe meant something to her and she wanted it to mean something to me, too. Not a cop doing his job, but as a man who would look after her.

My first inclination was to make an indifferent comment that wouldn’t give any indication how much her gratitude meant to me. A simple, ‘no problem’ or ‘it’s my job.’ However, as ever with Sophie I felt that unexplainable draw. A connection that had felt predestined now just felt real and absolute.

“My pleasure, baby.”

“Well…I should… let you get back to your shower.”

I felt myself smile at her sudden shyness.

“Didn’t think you had that in you.”

“Had what in me?”

There was a hint of affront sneaking into her tone. She thought I was making fun of her thanking me.

“You being shy.”

“I’m not shy.”

“No shit. I got that when you stood in the bathroom wide-eyed while I was buck-assed naked instead of turning around or leaving. But I knew before that when you groped me at the grocery store saying you didn’t mean to do it when we both know you did.”

“I didn’t grope you at the store. I turned and you were standing in my personal space. It’s not my fault you have a huge chest and it got in the way when I was pulling my phone away from my ear.”

“We’ll agree to disagree.”

“I’d argue that but my mother’s knocking on the door.”

Well, fuck. I thought I’d have time to get to her place before her mother showed. Either she lived close or Sophie had waited a while before she called me.

“I’ll let you go, Soph, but only after I remind you, you don’t have to take anyone’s shit. Not even your mother’s.”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t like the defeat I heard only a little less than I liked her facing off with her mother without someone at her back.

“See you soon, baby.”

Before she could respond I disconnected the call on my watch and finished my shower.

By the time I got to Sophie’s my hair was still damp and only twenty minutes had elapsed. But when she opened the door the hurt in her eyes said twenty minutes was twenty minutes too long for her to be alone with her mother.

“What are you doing here?” she softly asked, then peeked over her shoulder before turning back to me whispering, “My mother’s here.”

My hand went to her chest, I gave her a gentle shove back into the apartment and walked in.

“Valentine?”

“No.”

“No?”

I gave a long, assessing look and found I’d been wrong. In the twenty minutes since her mother had been in her home, she was hurt and angry.

That shit was not on.

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