“He volunteered?” He hadn’t told her that. “I didn’t know…”
“He didn’t want you to know, but I told him I wasn’t about to keep you in the dark. I’ll be honest; I felt better knowing he’d be with you. The connection you to have to one another has to be driving him. If it keeps you safe, that’s all that concerns me.”
“He’s been very kind. He’s also been insufferable, but mostly kind.”
“He knows what’s at stake, Sofie.”
Damn, Ian. Why did you have to do this? Someone else—anyone else—could have
protected me. I could have gone home…
“I know what you’re thinking, Sofia. You couldn’t have come home. We were on our
way out of the country in twelve hours. There was no home to go to.”
No home to go to… The words echoed in her head.
“Oh, my God, Papa. What’s going to happen?”
He paused again. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
Silence dropped between her and her father as the gravity of the situation consumed her.
There was nothing left to say.
“Please give my love to Anna and Mama. I will call again soon.”
“Yes,” her father said sweetly. “Soon. Stay safe during this storm. I will be anxious to hear about it.”
“Good-bye, Papa.”
Once the call ended, Sofie placed the phone gently on the kitchen table. Ian insisted he be the one to protect her. He discouraged her father from letting her go home.
She didn’t know if she should throttle the man or kiss him senseless.
Sofie ran her hand across her chest. The ache for him was so very real. It had never completely gone away, but it had been quieter when they were apart. Now, though? Since they’d been thrown together? She wanted him so badly.
Her heart called for him. It always had. From the first moment she met him in the offices on campus. It was always Ian, with his soul deep, dark eyes, his blazing intelligence, and his sweet smile.
Sofie had been miserable without him. She’d functioned. She’d had a life, such as it was, but she’d never been able to feel the way she had with Ian. Her brother had been angry with her for a very long time, constantly chiding her for being flat and uncaring toward their mother, but it was hard to be happy about anything.
Anna would crawl into her bed at night, holding Sofie while she cried for the man she’d lost. Her sister was the only one who had openly comforted her. Her father was kind to a fault, but he didn’t know what to do for her.
Now after working so hard to stop missing him, Ian threw himself back into her life and more than likely setting her on the path to missing him once again.
Throttling was definitely looking like a good idea. Thinking about what she should say to him, she heard voices in the front hall and then, John called her name.
“Sofie? Want to say goodbye to the old man.”
Goodbye? She walked through the house, leaving the phone in the kitchen and saw John, duffle bag slung over his back, hugging his nephew. He was leaving, now? “Make sure the homestead is still in one piece when I get back.”
Ian slapped Uncle John on the back. “I will. It’s going to be fine. You be careful. Make sure you take breaks, old man.”
John turned and reached out to Sofie. “Come here, Princess.” Sofie walked into his arms and was crushed by his powerful hug but it felt warm, and good…like she was family.
She loved that.
“Don’t be too tough on him, okay?” he whispered in her ear. “He loves you. That’s all that really matters and don’t forget it.
Glancing over at Ian and then back at his uncle, she kissed the elder Stuart on the cheek.
“I’ll remember,” she whispered back. “Be careful, and do as Ian says and don’t drive tired.”
“For you, I’ll take several breaks, okay?”
They walked out the door with John and watched and waved as he put his duffle in the backseat and pulled out of the driveway.
That left Sofie and Ian to deal with the next two days of being together without Ian’s uncle as a buffer. Depending on what she wanted, that could be a good thing, or a very bad one.
The problem was, Sofie wasn’t sure herself.
Ian awoke before the sun and as he lay in his bed, with a hard-on raging, he thought about the woman in the next room whom he’d just dreamed about. It shouldn’t be a surprise—he dreamed about Sofie pretty much every night.
She’d barely said anything after she spoke to her father. He’d learned that her sister was recovering, but that was pretty much it. If she’d been told anything about the fate of her family in Aubonne, she was keeping it to herself. And if that was the case, it meant one thing.