Andreas gave her a wink and then pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, looking sexy. “This connection we share is special, and I want you to know that I’ve never felt this way before. So instantly in tune to a woman, so adamant about making you mine and knowing that no other men but my brothers and I will have you, will possess you. I know you’ll need time, and you’ll need slow,” he said and gave her one sexy, devious smirk as he let his eyes roam over her breasts then to her lips.
“With you, I’m going to enjoy slow. Real slow,” he said and then plunged his tongue between her lips and kissed her so deeply, with such vigor, that she didn’t think that slow was possible with these emotions. In fact, slow might be highly over rated and might never happen.
* * * *
Andreas pulled out a chair for Sophia to sit at the dinner table. He gave her shoulders a squeeze, and they all gathered around to enjoy a nice dinner together. No one spoke of what had occurred earlier, and Andreas was fine with that. In the back of his mind, he thought about all the ways he would like to torture and kill the two men who had hurt her so badly. A few exchanged glances between his team, his brothers in arms, and he could tell they had her story on their minds.
He tried to focus on the conversation Gideon started about Sophia going out with Frankie and her friends and the positives of making new friends. He, however, thought about the potential danger, and he really wished they were involved in the investigative aspect of this situation. But one glance at Sophia and her sweet angelic face, those big blue eyes, and, of course, her sexy, full figure and he would be sure to take the position of her bodyguard over the limit.
“I would like to, I guess. I mean I should find some sort of job to make some money. It sounded like Jeremy wasn’t sure about whether the investigation and search to find Mateo and Deavan would continue much longer,” she said softly and then took a bite of steak off her fork.
“Jeremy wasn’t certain about that.” Lew stated.
Cerdic mumbled in agreement and then held her gaze.
“I think finding a job and keeping busy, making some new friends and getting used to Treasure Town is a good idea. However, we still need to take precautions. That phone Lew gave you must be on you at all times.”
“I understand that. It will take some time to get used to going off on my own, but the town does seems nice, and so many people know one another.”
“It is a great town. That’s why we decided to retire here after Lew got out on injury,” Gideon said.
Lew cleared his throat and gave Gideon a dirty look, and Gideon shrugged.
“You were injured while serving?” Sophia asked.
“Not a big deal.” He kept eating.
“Sure as shit was a big deal. It’s not every day you’re nearly taken out by a sniper then held prisoner and left to die,” Cerdic added in annoyance.
“Oh my God, you were shot and held prisoner? In like a prison camp? Where? Was it your shoulder or chest?” Sophia asked as she dropped her fork and stared at him.
“What? Why would you say my shoulder or chest?” he asked.
“You favor it. I’ve seen you stretch it out like it gets stiff or sore,” Sophia told Lew, and he just stared at her.
“My chest.”
“You could have died,” she whispered and reached over and covered his hand with hers.
He pulled away and stood up. “No, no way, it wasn’t a big deal.” He walked away to get something in the kitchen.
She looked at the others, and Andreas gave her a sympathetic expression, knowing that Lew didn’t like talking about getting shot. He thought by leaving the room, the subject would be dropped. If Lew pulled away from her like that, how would he expect Sophia to open up to him, or them?
Andreas reached over, took her hand, and brought it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles. “Finish eating. Then we can go onto the deck. It’s a perfect night for star gazing.”
She gave a small smile and then continued eating.
* * * *
As they cleaned up from dinner, the men took every opportunity to touch her, caress her skin, kiss her shoulder or her lips, and she felt so overwhelmed with desire. For the first time in a while her pussy clenched and spasmed with cream, and her heart raced with attraction for these four men. It was so wild. But as the night went on and they talked more and more, she felt as though anything was possible. She enjoyed their company. She liked feeling the center of attention and their desire. She needed it, craved the care and the need to touch. She felt desperate for anything they would give her, and that scared her, too.
So when Lew joined them on the deck and finally came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, she relaxed and just allowed herself to feel.
He kissed her neck and her shoulder. She felt his hand move up over her ribs then to her breast.
She turned in his arms, and he held her gaze but kept stroking her breast, her nipple with his thumb. She shivered with desire, and neither said a word, but she touched him, too. She ran her palms up his chest, and when her hand went over the left side, he tightened instinctively.
He pinched her nipple through the blouse. She gasped.
“Feel good?” he whispered. She nodded.
“How about you?” she asked and caressed her palm up and down the left side of his chest then leaned forward. Then she kissed the entire area because she was unsure where the scar exactly was.
He lowered his lips to her cheeks, then lower, in search of her lips and kissed her deeply. He pressed her against the railing and ran his hands along her curves. She lifted her thigh as his palm caressed up higher to her panties, and then his fingers stroked down the crack of her ass. She pulled back and gasped for breath, and so did Lew. His expression was priceless, filled with so much hunger and need she felt faint. So badly she wanted to give into the sensations and let her body be taken by him, but in doing so, it would be exposed to the possibility of pain. They would make love to her together, and they would want to be inside of her together. She didn’t want them to see that “M.” She remembered Deavan’s words as he said her lower back above her ass was a great place to brand her so that when they fucked her together they could look at it and know she belonged to Mateo and him.
She stepped back and tried to calm her breathing.
“Sophia?” Lew said and reached for her. She took his hand and brought it to her chest. She hugged his hand and held it tightly then looked at him and the others.
“I need time. There are things I need to do. I’m not ready to take the chance. I should head back to the house. Thank you for dinner.”
He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. The others did the same, except for Gideon, who took her hand and said he would walk her back.
She hadn’t wanted to leave or to stop the sensations Lew made her feel, but she couldn’t give in and make love to them as long as this sign was on her body and she felt so unable to take care of things herself. Starting tomorrow she was going to make some changes and get her life back. She was going to go out with Frankie, make some friends, and land a job. If she’d learned one thing, she’d learned that, in order to open her heart and love others, she would first need to love herself.
Chapter 5
Sophia Brown closed her eyes as the buzzing of the needle continued to stain her skin. She took nice, easy breaths, her focus solely on getting rid of the damaged flesh she had been forced to live with for the last six months. She exhaled and tried to do the breathing exercises she’d read about online in order to keep the flashbacks at bay. It was crazy what was available on the Internet.
But it was too hard to forget. Too difficult to tamp down the need for closure. There were no bodies. No actual evidence to prove that Mateo and Deavan were dead. Instead, she would have to live with the fear that they were still alive and would seek revenge against the federal agents who’d destroyed their business, brought them down, and made her disappear.
She had no choice. She’d lost her loyalty to Mateo the moment he cheated on her, never mind branded her skin as a show of ownership and control over her life. She remembered that day, as clear as anything, especially the pain.
She cringed as the tattoo needle went over the more delicate part of the scarring. This tattoo artist better be as good as Jeremy had said. She was pissed off that she needed to turn the branded mark, the scar against her skin, into a tramp stamp on her lower back. But the marking was degrading and repulsive, reminding her of a time when she had no control over her life and nothing to look forward to but death. Things were different now. The design she’d picked began under her breast line, scattered along her ribs and around her hipbone, then even lower to her groin and over her hip to her lower back. It was so intricate that it had taken seven separate sessions to complete the masterpiece. But she wanted it done. She wanted to be able to sunbathe and enjoy the fact that she now lived near the beach, worked for a real estate company, and was finally doing well on her own. It was a hell of a lot better than where she’d been eight months ago.
She thought about Cerdic, Andreas, Gideon, and, of course, Lew. Damn Lew and his ultra-commanding, in-charge ways. Just because he’d been his men’s commander in the Navy SEALs didn’t mean he was in charge of her. She tried to ignore them, but who was she kidding? They were the four sexiest men she had ever laid eyes on, and here she was, still suppressing that attraction, still pushing them away. She even lied, and said she didn’t have the same feelings for them they seemed to have for her. Lies, all lies to protect her heart and to move on with her life without the control and manipulation a man would have over her mind, body, and soul.