Page 23 of Baby Surprise for my Brother's Best Friend

She goes quiet. Not from fear. But because she gets it now.

Still, she doesn’t back down. “Then why the hell are you provoking them?”

I look at her. Really look at her. “Because he came toyou. That’s not business. That’s personal.”

The room vibrates with silence.

Our argument slams into a wall, neither of us can push through, and what’s left behind is heat. Thick. Breathless. Alive.

Sophie’s chest rises and falls, her eyes locked on mine, both of us breathing like we just went ten rounds.

We’re standing too close, close enough I can see the flecks of gold in her eyes. Close enough I can smell her perfume, sharp and addictive.

“Are you always this bossy,dolcezza?” My voice is low, the kind of low that drags against skin like silk and sin.

“Only when idiots put me in impossible positions.”

A beat passes.

Another.

I should walk away. I should do a hundred smart things.

Instead, I let my eyes drop, trace the shape of her lips, the flush rising along her throat, the tremble in her fingers that doesn’t match the fire in her glare.

She sees it. Feels it.

But neither of us moves.

The pull is magnetic. Dangerous.

I inch forward, just enough to see if she’ll flinch.

She doesn’t. If anything, she leans in.

My mouth is a breath from hers.

And then… she steps back.

And I do, too.

The moment fractures.

The tension doesn’t disappear. It coils, tight and waiting.

I turn, jaw tight, every nerve in my body screaming to go back and close that distance. But I don’t.

Not yet.

She watches me leave, eyes unreadable.

But I know she feels it, too.

The echo of something we almost did.

Something we’re both still thinking about.

I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling like it might have the answers I’m too stubborn to admit I need.

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