Jilted Read online

  “I’m good to go now,” Jamie said.

  “Let me drive you home,” David said. “Nico and I came in separate cars.”

  “Does your car have a heater?” Sara asked. “I imagine it’s like a refrigerator in there.” She hiccuped.

  “What?” David asked.

  “She’s just kidding,” Jamie said. “We’d love a ride home.”

  “We accept.”

  David offered his arm to Sara. “Let me help you.”

  Sara tilted her head and looked across the restaurant to the front. “It’s so far to the door.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” David said.

  Sara took his arm, and the two of them headed toward the entrance.

  Jamie patted Nico’s shoulder on the way out and whispered in his ear. “Don’t let her leave with him tonight.”

  He waited until they were out of earshot before he turned to Sophie. “It’s time for us to go, too.”

  “You go ahead,” Jad said. “Sophie and I are staying.”

  “Like I said, we don’t know you. I don’t feel comfortable leaving my friend to ride home with a stranger.” He tried to keep the threatening tone from his voice but was failing miserably.

  “It’s okay, Jad,” Sophie said. “I should probably go.”

  The conspiratorial look they shared made his temperature rise at least another ten degrees.

  “Whatever you want,” Jad said.

  He reached the boiling point when Sophie leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the dance and for understanding.”

  “My pleasure.” Jad pretended to tip his hat.

  This guy practically begged to be punched.

  “Come on, Soph.” Nico held out his hand. “We’re going home.”

  She sucked in her bottom lip and stared at him with those giant eyes as though she wasn’t sure what he’d just said.

  “Take my hand.” He reached out to her. “You’re a little drunk, and I don’t want you falling.”

  “I am a tiny bit tipsy, so that’s the only reason I’ll accept your offer.” She placed her hand in his, and he led her through the crowd and through the front doors.

  He almost wept with relief when they stepped into the cool night air. If he’d stayed indoors for another second, he might have unleashed on the man.

  Sophie jerked away from him, then leaned over at the waist as if she might be sick.

  “You okay?” Was she drunker than he thought? Then he realized she was silently laughing so hard that her whole body shook. “What in the hell is so funny?”

  She straightened. Her eye makeup was smudged from hysterically laughing. “You, Nico. You’re funny. Funny and aggravating and so stupid sometimes I just don’t even know what to say anymore.” Clutching her bag to her chest, she lifted her face to the sky. “If you’re going to drive me home, let’s just get it over with. The sooner I can get away from you the better.” She started walking toward the parking lot, and he had no choice but to follow her.

  20

  Sophie

  * * *

  Sophie stared out Nico’s car window all the way back to Judi’s. Her thoughts looped round and round. Jad’s plan had worked. Maybe too well. Nico was jealous and he was mad. She didn’t care. She was mad right back. The trick was to stay mad. There was no way she was backing down from this fight. He was acting like a big fat jerk. The vehicle lurched to a stop in front of his bungalow. With his hands still on the steering wheel, he stared out the front window.

  “What were you doing there with that jackass?” Nico asked through clenched teeth. “Please tell me you didn’t meet him there on purpose.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and concentrated on shooting a hole through his brain. “Do you really think you get to be jealous?”

  “I’m not jealous. I’m concerned over your judgment. He could be a serial killer for all we know.”

  She barked out a laugh. “That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. He’s a firefighter.”

  “That means nothing. You have no idea what he’s like other than he seems like a stalker.”

  “You’re so full of it, and you’re so jealous.”

  “I swear to God, Sophie, every time I turn around some jerk’s all over you.”

  “Then why don’t you do something about it instead of just getting mad and acting like an ass?”

  His head snapped backward as if she’d smacked him in the nose. When his gaze returned to her, his eyes glittered with an intensity that almost scared her. “I’ve been trying to be a good guy. How can you not see that?”

  “I don’t even know what that means.” She stared at her lap. She would not cry. Not here in front of him.

  His voice was husky. “Soph, I’m sorry. You’ve made me into a crazy person.”

  “I’ve not done one thing to you except love you with all my heart. Your crazy came along way before me.”

  He hung his head. “It’s true.”

  “Maybe everyone’s right. If you don’t want me, maybe I should be with one of the guys who does.” She fluttered her hand in the direction of the brewery. “Jad’s nice. He’s a hero who saves cats from trees.”

  He jerked upright to glare at her. “Dammit, Sophie, don’t mess with me.”

  “I’m not messing with you.” She swiped at the one stupid, betraying tear that leaked out of her eye. “You’re the one messing with me. Just leave me alone.” She yanked open the door and practically hurled herself out of the car, then headed across the driveway toward the front door. By the time she reached the steps, she heard the driver’s-side door open and slam shut.

  “Sophie, do not walk away from me.”

  She really wanted to give him the finger but having never actually flipped someone off, she thought better of it and continued up the stairs.

  A second later, he was on her. “Listen to me.” His eyes filled as he looked down at her. “I’m the one who ran into a burning building for you while the firemen took their sweet time to get there. I’m the one who would have died for you. I’d do it again. A thousand fires. A thousand nights. Over and over to make sure you’re safe. Don’t ever forget that.” Then, without warning, he lifted her off her feet and into his arms.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She tried to wriggle free, but his grip was like that of a drowning man.

  He stormed across the driveway. “I’m taking you inside and doing what I should have done months ago.”

  What was that? What did he mean?

  He opened the door to his bungalow with one hand and charged inside. Breathing hard, he crossed through the living room and into the bedroom. Jen, clearly startled out of her slumber, looked up at them from her bed.

  “Stay put,” Nico said to Jen.

  Jen wagged her tail and did as he asked.

  He tossed Sophie on the bed. She bounced slightly. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

  He shut the bedroom door, then sat next to her, gently pinning her arms to her sides. “Soph, I need to say this to you even though I’m terrified of every single thing about you. I love you so much it hurts. It’s bigger than anything I’ve ever felt before. I’ve acted like an idiot, and I’m so sorry.”

  “You. Love. Me?” A boundless surge of joy flooded her. Was this happening? Was her dream unfolding before her eyes?

  “Yes, I love you. I’ve been an idiot, and it’s all because I’m so afraid to let you in and give you the power to crush me. Being away from you makes me ill. My life without you is like living without sunshine. You make me want to be brave. I’ve decided it’s worth the risk. I want you by my side for the rest of my life.”

  “Nico, really?”

  “Yes, really.” He lay beside her and looked into her eyes. “I’ve loved you since the first time you smiled at me. The thought of you going to France and not coming back was awful. I don’t want to live without you.”

  “I don’t want to live without you,” she said.

&nb
sp; “I’m sorry I’ve acted so ridiculous. At first, I was simply trying to do the right thing. I thought you were too young for me. But as time went on, I realized there was more to it. More to me that I haven’t told you.”

  “I know you were, but you were totally wrong about what that should be. The right thing is for us to be together.”

  “I know that now,” he said. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I was trying to tell you all this last night, but you left before I could get the words out. When I saw you with Jad, I lost all reason.”

  “All is forgiven.” She stroked his cheekbone and let herself fall into the pools of his eyes. He loved her. She’d begun to doubt that he was the one, but being here with him like this, she knew. She knew with utter certainty. This was him. The one she’d known from the time she was a little girl was out here waiting for her. “You can spend the rest of your life making it up to me.”

  “Do you mean that?” he asked. “Do you really want me for the rest of your life?”

  “It’s what I’ve wanted from the first.” She held his face in her hands. “I told you the truth. When I was eight years old I had a terrible fever, and the vision of you and Jen came to me. Only you guys were standing in a field of sunflowers. Which is sort of weird, but I think that was just a symbol for your profession.”

  “The whole thing’s weird,” he said.

  “I’m weird.”

  “The world according to Sophie is weird but wonderful.”

  “I’m glad you’re finally understanding that,” she said.

  “Soph, I want to go to France with you. I want to kiss you on a bridge overlooking the Seine. Will you let me?”

  The vulnerability in his voice and eyes touched her heart in a whole new way. “I would love nothing more. What about work?”

  “I talked to the guys about it at dinner, and they said they could spare me for a few weeks. All in the name of love.”

  “That’s really sweet,” Sophie said.

  “They’re your fan club. They’ve thought all along I was being stupid.”

  “The path to love isn’t always a straight line. It hasn’t been for any of the Wolves.”

  Her breath caught as he kissed her with new tenderness.

  “When I thought you might be trapped upstairs when that fire broke out was the single most terrifying moment of my life,” he said. “The thought of losing you made me brave. I realized that if I could run into a burning building to save you, surely I could risk you leaving me someday.”

  “I’m not going to leave. You can always count on me. Today and every single tomorrow.”

  Tears swam in his eyes. “Besides Trey, I’ve never had someone in my life who truly supported me or understood me. Growing up, my parents’ love was conditional. Or at least it seemed that way to me. With Addie, I thought I’d found the woman who would love me for me, but she loved someone else. It’s been unfathomable to me that you would feel this way about me forever. I didn’t trust it. But no matter how I tried to convince you that we were all wrong, you never gave up on me. You never wavered. I saw that finally.” His cheeks were wet now. Sophie dried them as best she could with her hand. “No one has ever loved me the way you do. I don’t really get it, but I finally decided to stop questioning it and be thankful.”

  “Judi told me that the way to make you see that we’re meant to be was to offer unconditional love to counteract your parents’ conditional love. She was right.”

  “She figured that out pretty quickly, didn’t she?” His lips twitched into a half smile.

  “When I think about the little boy who simply wanted to be loved…I don’t know how to say it…how sorry I am.”

  He scrunched his eyes closed as his chest rose and fell.

  “You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t still hurt,” she said. “Not with me.”

  When he opened his eyes, the pain that reflected from them pierced through her. “Soph, there’s something I haven’t told you about my parents. I tried so hard to get them to like me. But they couldn’t. It never made sense to me. Maybe if my brother hadn’t been born or if they’d gotten me as a newborn, things would’ve been different.”

  The truth to what he was saying felt like a boulder had dropped onto her chest. “Nico, were you adopted?”

  “They don’t know I know. All my life, I couldn’t figure out why they loved my brother and not me. I was the easier kid, always compliant, whereas my brother was a hellion. Ironically, Addie was the one who convinced me that I might be adopted. She didn’t think any natural parents could act the way they did. We sent in for a DNA test. My father was a zero match. My mother was at twenty-five percent. Which means she’s my aunt. I haven’t asked my parents for the truth yet, but I have every reason to believe that my mother’s younger sister is my real mother. She committed suicide at age fourteen.”

  “Oh, Nico. I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry. How come you haven’t told me about this until now? Or Mrs. Coventry? Of all people, we would understand.”

  “Only Addie knows. I haven’t told anyone else. Not even Trey. I haven’t known how to talk about it. The whole thing seems so unreal. Until I get the courage to confront them, I’ll never know how everything went down. I don’t know if I want to. When I think about a fourteen-year-old girl giving birth and then ending her life, my heart breaks. How bad must her home life have been? Maybe they forced her to give me to her sister and her husband. Maybe that’s what caused her to kill herself. My grandparents were wealthy. Maybe they forced them to take me in exchange for money. Who knows where my real father is? Was she raped? Was it a boyfriend? Did he ever know about me?”

  “We can find try to find him.”

  He moved his arm over his eyes, as if he wanted to hide. “What if he’s a monster? What if that’s what I come from?”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to know? Whatever we find, you’re not a monster.” She peeled his arm away from his face. “You’re a kind, good man. The very best person. I wouldn’t love you so much if that weren’t true.”

  “What if what we find makes you not want to be with me?”

  “Nothing will ever cause that to happen,” Sophie said. “Not anything. But you have to face this. Confront your parents. Find out the truth. I’ll go with you. I’ll be there every step of the way.”

  “You’d do that for me?” His eyes searched hers.

  “I’d walk to the ends of the earth for you. I’d run into a burning building for you. Again and again to make sure you were safe. I’m your family now. It’s you and me forever. No matter what we find, we’ll have a home in each other.”

  “They never loved me, Soph. I always knew it, but I never knew why. I was a burden to them.”

  He buried his face in her hair and sobbed. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. His heart pounded against her chest as the little boy in him wept. The rejection and criticism—the coldness where there should have been warmth—had forced the hurt child to hide deep inside him. On the outside he’d appeared whole, but he wasn’t. He was broken. Like so many others, he was broken. She was not. She was whole. She was made to love him, to reach the places he’d never been touched. He was a virgin of a kind, too. He’d never been loved properly.

  He hadn’t believed she could love him because he didn’t know what it felt like to be sheltered by the people who love you. Protected and nurtured as she’d been. Even Hugh, from afar, had loved her so much that he left behind his words for her. Her real mother in heaven had been her guardian angel, always by her side, steering her in the right directions. Micky and Rhona had loved her every day of her life as though she was their miracle. They were the reason she was whole. But this beautiful man had been denied the only thing that will keep a person truly alive. Love.

  “You’ll never have to feel this way again,” she whispered. “I’m going to love you so hard you’ll understand what it’s like to have a family. I’ll never let you go one day without feeling my love.”

  “I don’t think a m
an ever loved a woman as much as I love you.”

  “All men in love think that,” she said. “I’m glad it’s me you feel that way about.”

  He raised his head from her hair and kissed her. For the next few minutes, she forgot everything but the feel of his hands and mouth and body.

  “Is this how it is?” she asked, panting, desperate to have her clothes off. “Does it always feel like this?

  “You mean sex?”

  She nodded, feeling shy suddenly. “You know I don’t know anything.”

  He brushed her hair away from her neck and nibbled on the skin above her collarbone. “We can wait to go the next level if you’re not ready.”

  She tugged at his button of his jeans. “Undress me. I’ve waited long enough.” She gasped as his hands unclasped her bra in one quick flip of his thumb and finger.

  “I’ll be gentle, but it might be unpleasant. I promise the second time will be better.”

  “As long as there’s a next time, I’m good,” she said.

  21

  Nico

  * * *

  In his bed, Nico held Sophie in his arms and stroked her hair. They were both damp from the physical exertion of their second encounter. The first time had been a bit rushed, albeit satisfying. They’d waited so long to be together that it was a heated, intense exchange that had left them breathless. They’d fallen asleep curled together like two cats, with him promising it would be better next time. When they woke in the early morning, he took his time, savoring her. While the birds chirped outside the window and Jen slept in her bed, his world expanded. This was what it felt like to make love to his soulmate.

  Now, she brought his free hand to her mouth and kissed his fingers one by one. “Do you think I scared Jen with all that noise I made?”

  He laughed, ridiculously pleased with himself for the sounds he evoked from her. “You were kind of loud.”

  She smacked him playfully on the chest, then hid her face in his neck. “Don’t talk about it.”