Page 87 of Playing With Danger

“You’ll hurt me again,” she whispered.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“I won’t, Soph?—”

“You will,” she asserted. “It’s impossible not to spend time with someone, especially someone you care about, and expect to never hurt their feelings. It happens. It will happen. I will hurt your feelings, you’ll hurt mine. That’s just the way of the world.”

Spend time with someone.

I held onto those words like a lifeline.

Before I could come up with something to say, she beat me to it. “Are you here to go to battle?”

Hell yes, I was.

We were battling it out until I convinced her to forgive my fool ass.

“Yes.”

Sophie immediately untucked her legs, rolled to sit, then finally took her feet. And when she did, she squared up.

Magnificent.

So fucking beautiful in her bravery.

“Right. I’m not leaving.”

“No, baby, you’re not. And if I can state my case and you forgive me I’m never letting you go.”

“I’m not?” She shook her head. “You’re not?”

“Nope. Not ever letting you go.”

That’s when she broke.

This time it wasn’t her hands that were shaking. It was her whole body. I was across the room scooping her into my arms just as her first tear fell.

“Please don’t cry,” I begged. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m such a motherfucker.”

Without warning she pinched the back of my biceps.

Goddamn, that hurt.

“That’s what happens when you call yourself a name,” she growled.

The growl was sexy. The irritation on her face cute. The pinch would’ve also been cute if she hadn’t been trying to tear the skin.

“Copy.”

I remained silent all the way back to the bedroom and waited until I gently deposited her on the bed before I said, “Get comfortable, Sophie, I need to change.”

No way in fuck was I crawling into bed with the filth of my father’s house still lingering on my clothes.

I rushed to change, went to the bathroom to wash my hands, and scrubbed nearly as hard as I did the day I was cleansing the naked woman from my skin. That seemed to be a theme—me always trying to wash someone else’s mess out of my life.

By the time I got back to bed, Sophie was on her side, watching the bathroom door.

Waiting.

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