by Thorne, Elle
It seemed every reason for going on the cruise had been flipped on its head. She’d come on the cruise to avoid facing an imaginary bull and had found herself directly in front of its horns.
“No.” She bit her lip. “I think I need to get home. Clear the air. Do what I need to do then get on with my life.”
Without Niko.
The thought saddened her, but she had enough to take care of. She had a baby on the way.
“When do I get to meet the rest of the family?” Niko asked.
What the hell? She whirled around and faced him. “What do you mean?”
“The rest of the Tiero family.” Niko’s tone indicated he thought there was nothing strange about his comment.
“You’re not meeting the rest of the family. You’re not meeting anyone. Why should you?” That was all she needed, a constant reminder of his deception.
“He’s claiming the baby,” Rafe said.
As if that made everything okay.
Sophie yanked a pair of capris and a blouse from the suitcase. She subtly pulled her bra and panties out and tucked them between the capris and blouse.
“I’m going to get dressed.” She walked toward the restroom. “When I get back, I’m going downstairs. You’re going to introduce me to Jax. Then we’re getting on the boat, and you’re taking me to Rome. Or Athens. Or wherever there’s a damned airport. Then I’m flying back to Dallas. That’s my home now.”
“Sophie…” Niko started.
“No.” She cut him off and closed the door with a firm pull. Then she locked it.
* * *
“What the hell did you do to her?” Rafe asked Niko as they headed to the lobby.
Niko shook his head. He didn’t want to say anything. What could he say?
I had sex with her, but I hadn’t told her anything about me.
For some twisted reason, Niko completely understood where Sophie was coming from. He didn’t blame her, but he couldn’t tell that to his heart. Or his panther.
“So, about the baby’s father…” Rafe began.
Niko stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “I’m the baby’s father. I don’t ever want to hear you or anyone else say different, unless it comes directly from Sophie.”
Rafe looked him in the eye, took his measure. “Understood.” He nodded. “She’s a stubborn one. She’s not going to come around.”
“I know.” Niko frowned. “But that doesn’t change anything.”
They resumed walking toward the lobby.
“So, who were the kidnappers?” he asked Rafe.
“Evidently, a group that’s recently moved into the Mediterranean area. They were working off the western coast of Mexico for a while. Then they moved up here.”
“And the ones we left on the island?”
“The authorities are aware. I’m indifferent as to whether they arrive at the island in a timely manner. Those bastards can die, for all I care.”
“Agreed.”
“So, what are we going to do about my sister?”
“I have a plan, if you’re willing.”
“You bet. She’s hardheaded. She needs something more than subtlety.”
“I can do direct. I can do it really well.”
“Somehow, I have no doubt about that.”
“Why are you willing to help me?”
“Because I love my baby sister. I know you love her. And my tiger says she’s your fated mate.”
“Your tiger’s right.”
“I’m happy for her, especially now that I have my own happiness.”
“Don’t be prematurely happy. She’s a tough one.”
“I owe you a check,” Rafe said. “You’ve done more than any bodyguard would have.”
Niko shook his head. “I wish I’d done some things differently.”
“Come meet Jax. Don’t worry so much. It’ll work out. I have no doubt.”
Then why, Niko wondered, was doubt sitting so heavy on him?
* * *
Niko told Rafe his plan.
Rafe agreed to it, though it was risky and likely to set Sophie off. He said he was glad he wasn’t going to be there to face her wrath.
Jax had listened in to all of that. “Don’t you dare ever try that kind of shit with me,” she said to Rafe.
He smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
Niko gazed at the attractive ebony-haired female, glowing with love for her mate. She had two different colors of polish on her toenails, crimson lips, and eyes for Rafe and no other.
Rafe was a lucky man. Niko hoped one day Sophie would look at him in that way.
He felt her before he saw her. A surge of power coursed through him.
Sophie.
She strode across the lobby.
Niko’s heart ached, watching her walk down the dimly lit hallway. Her blonde hair, the first thing he’d noticed on her—okay, that was a lie; it was her ass, but her hair was second—gleamed in the dim lighting, catching the flickering candle’s glow, reflecting it.
He held his breath, appraising her glorious silhouette, a body made to be worshiped by man…one man.
Him.
She carried herself the same way she had when she was in her tigress form, with the self-assurance and cockiness he’d come to appreciate. He loved her stubborn, headstrong ways. He let his breath out slowly. He had one shot left.
Sophie’s face glowed with happiness for Rafe’s newfound love. Her devotion to her brother was clear; she even seemed to have forgiven his interference by hiring Niko.
So, why is she so damned mad at me? Even after all this?
Jax and Sophie embraced and took to each other with an ease that spoke of the love they shared for Rafe.
It was a poignant moment for Niko. He didn’t have a family. Not really. No siblings. No one he was close to, other than Gavin.
“Ready to go?” Rafe said to the ladies, glancing at Niko.
“More than ready,” Sophie said.
Chapter Sixteen
Sophie steadied herself against the vessel’s abrupt movement. She’d left Rafe and Jax at the wheel and gone below deck to get sunscreen from her suitcase. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the only reason.
She wiped away a tear that had escaped.
Niko had been on the dock, probably waiting for her to change her mind, but she hadn’t. She couldn’t. Of all the people she’d met in her life, Niko was the one who could hurt her the most. She’d figured that out after they’d had sex. She’d known immediately afterward that her feelings for him were too strong. Then, when she’d found out he’d piled lie upon lie, she knew she couldn’t let him in any more than she already had.
The best cure for pain was prevention. She’d prevent him from ever being able to hurt her by keeping him out of her life.
The boat’s engine roared, and she was jarred by another sudden jerk forward. Then there was a burst of speed, and she could feel the vessel’s movement as it cut through the water.
She should go up and sit with Jax while Rafe took them back to Athens, but all she wanted to do was mope down here. She’d agreed to go to Rome, if only for a day or two.
Rafe had told her Astra and Kane were in town. Astra had trained with Doc, and Rafe had said Astra could give Sophia a quick examination, just to be sure—to make certain the baby was okay.
Suck it up.
She couldn’t suck it up, no matter how many times she told herself to do that.
She climbed up, her heart as heavy as if the anchor weighed it down.
She looked for Jax. She wasn’t where she’d been sitting before Sophie went below. Maybe she was with Rafe.
She turned the corner.
What the fuck?
Niko.
Her tigress released a loud, happy roar in her head.
Sophie wanted to clap her hands over her ears the sound was so loud, drowning out the boat’s engine. Drowning out the sounds of the world. It reverberated in her mind.
His back was to her as he guided the bo
at away from land. The island they’d left was a small entity afloat on a beautiful, crystalline sea of blue.
Where the hell are Rafe and Jax?
She stormed toward him and tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around.
“Turn it off.” She raised her voice above the sound of the motor.
Nothing.
“Now.”
He reached down and shut the engine off. The boat slid to a stop, rocking gently. Around them there was nothing but silence. The silence was deafening.
Niko’s face was hard.
She drank him in. She took in the broad shoulders, the wide chest, the high cheekbones in a tan face, full lips that had kissed her so perfectly. Full lips she wished could have done so much more than just kiss her.
He was here. And he was interfering with what she wanted.
“Where’s my brother?”
“He took another ride.”
“Bullshit.” Fury took hold of her, fury because she couldn’t control where they were going, fury because she had no options.
Niko had decided, and he’d implemented his decision.
And her wishes were shit.
“Take me back, then.”
“I can’t do that.”
“The hell you can’t.” She reached for the keys—not that she knew how to steer this thing or even turn it on, but she’d figure it out. By damn she would.
Quicker than she’d anticipated and before she could react, he’d snatched the keys out and tossed them overboard.
He crossed his arms over his chest, tendons on his forearms popping. “I won’t let you do what you’re doing.”
She stared at the keys. They didn’t have a float on them to keep them from sinking. They grew smaller and more difficult to see as they descended into the depths. Shock silenced her for a moment.
Then she asked, “So, what is it that I’m doing?”
“Throwing something away because you’re afraid of it.”
“I am not afraid.” She refrained from stomping on the deck, though that was exactly what she wanted to do.
“Yeah. You’re very afraid.” Niko surveyed the horizon, the gleam of his panther flaring in his eyes, an amber glow deep in some place she wasn’t sure she could ever go.
“Who the hell are you to say that about me?” Anger made her pulse race. Anger and something else, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
“I’m the mirror image of you. That’s who.” His gaze pinned her.
What made him think he knew her? “What is that supposed to mean?”
“If you look deep down inside, I think you’ll find the answer.”
“I don’t want the answer, I want—”
“You want safety. You don’t want anyone to hurt you.”
Tears burned her eyes, but she wouldn’t allow them to come out. “So what if I do?” she demanded. She wanted him out of her head.
“If you don’t take a chance—”
“You had a chance. You lied.”
“I didn’t know the stakes.”
* * *
Niko couldn’t keep sparring with her. It wasn’t easy to keep this up. It tore him up inside, and it wasn’t fair to stress her out this way, to make the baby pay for their conflict.
“What do you mean, you didn’t know the stakes?” She pushed her hair out of her face and turned toward the wind.
It was time for him to own his shortcomings and fears. “I’ve never felt like this before. Never had so much to lose.”
She whirled away from him, but just before she did, a wave of emotion flashed across her features. He couldn’t peg it because she gave him her back so quickly, he didn’t have enough time to really focus on it.
“No.” Her voice was muffled.
No? No what? “What are you saying?”
“I can’t have you in my life.”
Niko felt an acute sting sharper than the pain when he’d been shot. He’d taken rounds to his chest, and that had nothing on the pain her words had caused.
“Then I guess I won’t trouble you.” He took the lifeboat off the hanger.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave me here. I don’t have any way to go anywhere. I’ll float into some rocks or something.”
“Your brother will be here to check on us shortly. He’ll take you home.”
“What are you going to do?”
Was that panic frosting her words?
“Do you care?” He picked the lifeboat up on one side, ready to toss it overboard.
“Wait.” She put her hand on his, stopping him from moving. “Of course I care. I do.” Then, gently, she rubbed her belly.
Was she okay? Was the baby? He waited, not wanting to interrupt her or push her.
“Is Pappas really your last name? What do you do?”
“It is. I freelance now.”
“And before now?”
War. I saw the worst of humanity. The very horrible things mankind and shifter kind can do to each other.
He wasn’t going to share that ugliness with her. She didn’t need to have that touching her soul the way it had stained his.
“I was a soldier. With Gavin.”
She appraised him as if she was trying to figure something out.
He felt the battle within her and took her hand. “Why do you not listen to your tigress?”
“She’s far braver than I am. Too brave. Too quick to jump in.”
“You have to believe. Sometimes. In someone. In something.” He ran a hand over his head. The sun beat down on him, warming his body, though his heart felt like ice had been thrown on it. “Are you going to teach the baby not to believe?”
“Nicole.”
“What?” He stared at her.
“Her name. It’s Nicole.”
He paused. “But…you’re naming her after me?”
“She’s yours, right?” Sophie’s lower lip trembled. She bit down on it. “You said so.”
“I did. And I meant it. She’ll need a father—a daddy. Doesn’t every little girl need someone who dotes on her completely?”
Sophie looked far off into the distance then nodded. “Every little girl does. Even big girls do.”
“Was what I did so unforgivable? Why do you push me away so hard?”
“Because you have the capacity to hurt me.”
“I won’t. Ever.” He tilted her head, making her face him. “Listen to your tigress, Sophie.”
Chapter Seventeen
Just like that, Sophie believed him. She had to take a risk. And she believed in her tigress.
She couldn’t keep running away from things every time they became a little bit difficult. And no one was going to fix this for her. If she wanted Niko, she’d have to put her heart at risk.
Her tigress roared at her because she knew there was no risk in this man with a panther inside him.
Everything he was, good or bad, fit perfectly with her own traits. It was as if he had been designed for her.
It couldn’t be this easy. She didn’t believe that. “There’s one thing—”
His lips closed in, swooping down like an eagle taking its prey. The air was trapped in her lungs. In her chest, a moan began, a whisper of a whimper.
His tongue drove in, branding, claiming.
She returned the kiss, her passion fueled by his untamed panther wanting to claim the wildness within her tigress.
She pulled away, breathless. “So my brother is coming?”
His voice was equally husky, equally tormented by desire. “He’s supposed to. Why?”
“I’d hate for him to interrupt anything.”
He smiled, that sexy, crooked little smile she’d come to love. “There’s one thing… Something I need to tell you.”
“I thought there’d be honesty between us. That you wouldn’t hurt me.”
“You’ll appreciate this. And it’s not dishonest. It’s a contingency plan.”
“So, what is it?”
“See that flag up there?” Niko pointed to a white flag overhead.
Sophie looked up.
“If we don’t want to be disturbed, we replace it with a red one.”
She scowled at him but only halfway so. “You were pretty sure of yourself.”
“Your brother’s idea, actually. I was pretty sure I’d be swimming back to the island.”
“You didn’t have faith in us?”
Niko pushed her chin up with his fingertip. “I had faith that you’re one hardheaded woman.”
“You’ll pay for that. You get diaper duty for the first week.”
“As long as her first word is Daddy.” He pulled her close.
* * *
“Is that how it is?” A glimmer of amusement shone in her eyes.
He took a red flag out of a box, pulled the white one down, and replaced it.
“Now…” He took her hand in his. “I think I owe you a little something.”
The scent of her—a heady aroma, sweet, with a hint of saltiness—filled his lungs, teasing his palate with a suggestion of her flavor. He dropped into an abyss of desire, hungry for her, thirsty for her heart. The sensation rolled over him in waves. This woman was his. Had always been meant to be his.
He reached for her sundress and pulled it over her head. She stood before him, feet planted shoulder-width apart, arms by her sides, a full-figured goddess, magnificent in the sunlight. Her pink bra showcased her breasts, so full they were overflowing the lace fabric.
One thought ran though his mind. No, two.
Damn. And delicious.
Her white cotton panties clung to her mound, teasing him with the outline of the bounty within.
“Take it off.” His voice was husky, his panther making the request, though it seemed more a demand.
She reached behind her; one snap and the fabric hung loose, cups clinging to the treasures within.
Niko pulled the fabric off, releasing her from the bondage, setting her free to be pleasured.
The hell with the panties. He unsheathed a claw and drew it across the fabric on both hips.