Hot Protector(32)

Fuck, those were some gorgeous eyes.

Her hair was loose and curly, and he found himself wanting to spear his fingers into it to see if it was as soft as it looked. Wanting to see if her lips were as soft as they looked.

“Whoa,” Dex said, and Chase glanced over at him. He was currently staring at Sophie with his eyes bugged out.

For some reason, that raised Chase’s hackles. A fierce wave of possession slammed through him. It was all he could do not to go over and shove Sophie behind him, hiding her from Dex’s gaze.

“Hi,” she said in that sweet voice of hers, and Chase felt a knot form in his gut.

Dex strode over and put his hand out. Sophie took it and smiled.

“I’m Dex Davidson,” he said, his voice pitched low and filled with intent.

“I’m Sophie,” she replied. She shot a look at Chase, and he gritted his teeth and smiled as she turned back to Dex. “Nice to meet you, Dex.”

Her voice was all breathy sexiness, and Chase thought for a minute he wasn’t going to be able to suck in any air. If he toppled over right here, what would they think?

Dex lifted her hand to his lips—and that was the end of that.

“Knock it off,” Chase growled as he strode over and took Sophie’s hand from Dex’s grasp.

Dex let his gaze slide between them for a second before he laughed. “Sorry, man. Hawk said it wasn’t like that, but I see he’s wrong.”

Chase dropped Sophie’s hand. “He’s not wrong—but she’s my stepsister. I’m being brotherly here and protecting her from a player like you.”

He felt foolish even saying it, especially since he didn’t have any brotherly feelings toward Sophie and never had, but shit. What else was he going to say?

The look of amusement didn’t leave Dex’s face. “You sure about that?”

“I’ve seen you in action. Hell yeah, I’m sure. Sophie’s too sweet for a guy like you.”

“Not quite what I meant, Fiddler. But you go on deluding yourself if it helps you.”

Chase was ready to throw down over that statement until Sophie rolled her eyes. “If you two don’t mind, I think there are more serious issues to discuss than if I’m too sweet for someone or not. Right?”





15


The guy named Dex was smoking hot, but he didn’t make Sophie’s pulse trip the way Chase did. When he’d flirted and held her hand, she’d felt kind of stunned and then kind of pleased, but she’d never felt a spark of excitement the way she did when Chase touched her.

Which was all kinds of fucked up, she supposed. It didn’t matter that they weren’t raised together or weren’t really a family in any way. The reality was that in the eyes of the world they had a familial relationship. Her adoptive parent was his biological parent. No amount of explaining they weren’t raised together would ever make her attraction to him seem less than weird to anyone looking at them from the outside.

But for some crazy reason, that made it even more exciting. Illicit.

Oh God, what was wrong with her?

Chase looked pissed but she wasn’t sure if it was at her or Dex. But then he shrugged and sauntered over to the table where he picked up a bag.

“Hawk brought you some shoes,” he said, tossing the bag to her.

She caught it and peered inside. A pair of black leather boots with silver buckles and a definite motorcycle vibe sat inside the bag. She took them out and sat down on the couch to put them on. They had that worn-leather look of boots that had been broken in over years. She slid them on and zipped them. They fit perfectly, and they were completely her style.

“Wow,” she said, peering at Hawk. “I’m amazed.”

He laughed. “You shouldn’t be. A few taps of a keyboard and my IT guy pulled up your shopping history off your credit card. Sizes, styles, you name it.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Seriously, you hacked my credit card?”

“Yep.”

A chill went through her then. She looked at Chase. “I used my credit card to mail the package.”

“We saw that,” Hawk said before Chase could answer. “The address you sent it to isn’t in the credit card file, only the amount and the place you charged it. Androv can get that information, but he’ll have to hack the carrier’s database to get the address. We’ll make that difficult for his people, but they will break through eventually.”

“There was a tracking number,” she said, and the guys exchanged a look.

“Yeah,” Hawk said. “That’s a bit problematic—but we’ll keep him out as long as we can.”

“He’ll hack the carrier,” Chase said. “Depending on how good his guys are, we’re living on borrowed time here. We need to get to Paris and intercept that package before they do. They’re going to know the address and delivery date soon enough.”