“Come here,” I tell her, setting Daisy on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” She shuffles her feet, not looking at me.

“Come here, Sophie,” I repeat more firmly this time. I hold out my hand, and she finally walks to me, her steps slow and unsure.

“I feel like something’s wrong,” she whispers, searching my face when my hand wraps around hers pulls her to me.

“We need to talk.”

“Oh no,” she whispers.

I pick her up, placing her on the counter, where I stand between her legs, not giving her any room to run when I say what I have to say. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.” She nods, her hands balling into fists on her thighs.

“I had your background ran a few months ago. And again yesterday.”

“What?” she breathes, her eyes widening.

“You won’t open up to me, Sophie.”

“I cannot believe you did that!”

“You didn’t give me much choice,” I say calmly.

“I didn’t?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.

“No, you didn’t,” I growl.

“You can’t just force me to talk to you.” She pushes my chest.

“I’m not forcing you,” I argue, not budging.

“You had my background ran, you jerk. What do you call that?”

“I needed to know what I’m dealing with,” I explain.

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to deal with it anymore!” she yells, shoving my chest, trying to get off the counter.

“Stop.” I grab her wrists, bringing them around her back and caging her in. “No more bullshit, Sophie. Talk to me. I need you to tell me what happened,” I say, softening my voice.

“I think it’s stupid,” she says quietly, her body finally sagging against mine.

“What?” I ask surprised.

“Now that I’ve been going to my group and hearing stories from other women who have really been hurt, my story seems stupid,” she says quietly.

“It’s not stupid.” I pick her up off the counter, and her legs wrap around my h*ps as I carry her down the hall to my room.

“What are you doing?” she asks as I lay her on the bed then climb in next to her.

“We’re going to talk. You’re going to tell me what happened,” I state.

“You know, I really don’t like it when you completely ignore what I tell you.”

“Okay, baby. Talk to me,” I tell her, adjusting her so that we’re face to face.

“Gahhhh, you’re so annoying,” she whines.

“Talk, Soph.”

“Fine.” She sighs, closing her eyes.

I listen quietly, running my hand through her hair as she tells me everything I already learned from her police report. Hearing it from her mouth has me ready to kill someone, and by the time she’s done talking, I have mentally planned my trip to Seattle.

“So, you see, it’s really not that bad,” she says, looking up at me.

I know it could have been much worse, but I also know that what happened to her changed the course of her life even more than it had already when she lost her mother. And even if she doesn’t want to admit it, I know that the loss of her mom when she was so young has a lot to do with her avoiding any type of relationship with people.

“Sophie, what happened to you was bad,” I confirm.

“Not as bad as it could have been,” she says softly. “I always knew it could have been worse, but I never understood to what extreme. After hearing what happened to some of the women in my group, I understand now, and I’m even more thankful. I hate that I’ve been so weak.”

“You did what you had to do to protect yourself.”

“I didn’t though. I hid out in my house, afraid to meet new people or even date.”

“You moved to another state all alone,” I remind her.

“Only because I wanted to buy a house.”

“You can say you did it because you wanted to buy a house, but I think you did it because you were ready to change your life. You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for.”

“I don’t know,” she mumbles, nervously playing with the pocket of my T-shirt.

“I do. Look at how you are with me.”

“You’re sweet.” She smiles, running her fingers along my jaw.

I’m glad she sees me that way; I never want her to be afraid of me “You tryin’ to ruin my street cred?”

She doesn’t answer. She just looks down at Daisy, who’s now cuddled up between us. When her eyes come up, mine narrow on her.

“What?” She smiles.

“You tryin’ to say my dog isn’t badass?”

“Um…” She starts to laugh, “I never said anything like that.”

“You said it all with your eyes.”

“I didn’t. I swear!” She laughs, and I run a finger down the center of her face, feeling my eyes go soft before leaning in to kiss her.

“You are a lot stronger than you think, and that’s why, tomorrow, we’re going to my parents’ house.”

“I can’t,” she says, and I’m done talking about this.

I roll her to her back, pinning her underneath me. Her chest begins rising and falling rapidly, and I slide to the side, keeping her hands where they are with one on mine. My eyes stay locked on hers as I slowly slide my T-shirt she’s wearing up until her tits are exposed. I have been gradually teaching her about sex. When I take her for the first time, I want her to know what to expect. I never want her to be afraid of me for any reason.

“Jesus,” I whisper, looking at her tits—large, over a handful, ni**les firm and dark pink. I lean forward, pulling first one then the other into my mouth, licking and biting. Her body starts wiggling under mine, her moans becoming louder, her nails digging into my scalp. “You want me to make you come?” I ask, biting down on her nipple while pinching her other one.

“Yes,” she moans, her head pressing back into the pillow, her body arching.

I squeeze her breast before running my palm down her stomach along the edge of her shorts and dipping under, my fingers meeting smooth skin the whole way. Knowing she is completely bare has me gritting my teeth. I slide one finger over her clit, circling as I watch her face; her eyes pop open and meet mine. She looks gorgeous like this—her face flushed, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, her br**sts quickly rising and falling. Sliding one finger lower, I enter her slowly, studying her expression. She’s so tight and wet that my already-hard dick jumps, wanting to see for itself what she would feel like wrapped around it.

“Oh God, Nico,” she moans, her eyes closing again.

I start to move my finger a little quicker, and then I add another one, using my thumb to press and roll her clit. When I suck her nipple into my mouth, she cries out as her pu**y pulls my fingers deeper, her body grinding down on my hand before shaking and going limp.

“Holy cow,” she breathes, opening her eyes.

I lean forward to kiss her, my fingers still between her legs moving in slow stokes. I gently pull my fingers out before bringing them to my mouth, licking them clean and kissing her once again.

“You’re f**king beautiful, baby, but watching you get off is mind-blowing.”

Her head comes forward, her face going into my neck. I hold her for a few minutes, just enjoying her smell and the way she feels tucked next to me.

“I need to eat.” I watch her eyes heat. “Food, baby,” I tell her, smiling before fixing her shirt and pulling her out of bed.

“But…I want to touch you,” she says, tugging against my hand that’s pulling her towards the kitchen.

“You will, just not tonight,” I tell her, fighting my body for control.

“Why not?”

“I need to eat, and then tomorrow, we’re gonna have a busy day when I introduce you to my family, so we’ll need a good night’s sleep.”

“I’m not ready,” she whimpers, and I just shake my head, guiding her down the hall.

“I’m done talking about this. You’re going to meet my family,” I state.

“But—”

“No buts, baby. It’s past time.” I lead her into the kitchen, where I heat the food she left out for me for the second time. She watches quietly; I can see the wheels in her head spinning. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“I can’t meet your family,” she says quietly.

“Yes, you can, and you are going to.”

“What if I have a breakdown or something?”

“I’ll be there with you,” I say, looking her straight in the eyes.

“Your family will think I’m nuts.” She shakes her head.

“They’re nuts, so they won’t even notice that you’re nuts.”

“I’m not nuts. Don’t say that.” She smacks my arm.

I grab her hand, bringing it to my mouth and kissing it. “Sophie, relax. They will love you,” I say soothingly.

“How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

We sit in the kitchen while I eat and she watches me closely. When I finish, we go back to my room. She gets into bed, while I make quick work in the shower before pulling on a pair of sweats and climbing into bed with her.

“It will be okay,” I reassure her, kissing the top of her head and pulling her closer to me.

“Okay,” she says quietly.

I listen to her breathing even out before I follow her to sleep.

When I wake up, the sun is just starting to shine through the window. I look around, seeing that Sophie isn’t in bed; I listen, trying to see if I can hear her somewhere in the house.

“Soph?” I call, and nothing. I feel my eyebrows draw together, and I sit up in bed. “Soph?” I call again, and this time, Daisy comes into the room. That’s when I know she took off.

Getting out of bed, I walk into the kitchen. The house is quiet; her bag, which was on the bar last night, is now gone, along with her keys.

“Fuck,” I whisper, running my hands down my face. I can’t believe I slept through her leaving. I have always been a light sleeper, and the one time that shit would have come in handy, I f**king slept like the dead.

I walk back to the room, pick up my phone, and hit dial on her number. When it goes right to voicemail, my blood pressure starts to rise. “Call me back,” I demand then toss my phone on the bed before pulling a pair of jeans, a shirt, and boots on. Once dressed, I head to the kitchen, feed Daisy and grab the keys for my bike, go to my garage and pull the tarp off my Harley, and hop on before using my feet to back it out of the driveway.

I stop at her house first, knowing full-well she won’t be here. I get off my bike and let myself inside using the key she gave me a few weeks ago. She’s had a key to my place almost from the start. After our first run-in with my neighbor, Sophie decided she should be the one watching Daisy when I go out of town. I’m cool with that; Deb is harmless, but still. If it makes Sophie feel more secure, I am down with it.

I walk into her house, seeing that everything’s the same as it always is. She keeps her place in order, except for her bedroom, which, as usual, has clothes and shoes scattered all over the place. I look around, trying to gauge if she’s been back here since leaving my house. Her overnight bag is on the bed, and I take a few steps and open it up. The first thing I see is my shirt. I shake my head, digging around for a few more seconds. Not finding anything helpful, I shove everything back inside before heading out to search around town.

The longer I look, the more pissed I become. I have called her on and off all day, and she hasn’t answered or returned my calls. The more hours that pass without hearing from her, the more tightly wound and worried I become. When I left her place this morning, I placed a piece of tape on the edge of the door to let me know if she returned home, and so far, she hasn’t. I decide to go home and feed Daisy before going back to Sophie’s to camp out until she gets there.

I look at the clock on the wall when the front door opens. It’s after three in the morning. I sit forward on the couch, watching as she puts her bag down near the door then kicks off her shoes so they go flying towards her room. When she finally sees me, she screams out and backs up into her closed door, holding her chest. I notice that her eyes are red and puffy. Knowing that she has been crying all day about some dumb shit she talked herself into only pisses me off more.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, pushing a hand through her hair.

“What am I doing here? Is that really the question you want to f**king ask me right now?” My eyebrows come together.

“Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we should see each other anymore,” she says as I stand.

“You don’t think we should see each other anymore,” I repeat, walking towards her in measured steps.

“That’s what I just said. I just… I just don’t think this is working out,” she stutters, looking past me, probably wondering if she could make it if she bolts.

My eyes narrow on her before I reply. “You’re mine, Sophie. I don’t give a f**k what you think or what the excuse is you try to give me, but you are mine.” I let out a growl as I press her into the wall. I’m so pissed I can’t even see straight. “You snuck out of my bed then out of the house. Do you know how worried I’ve been?”

“You shouldn’t have been,” she says shakily.

“I shouldn’t be worried about my woman when she sneaks out of my bed and is gone until three in the morning?”