One Chance (Hogan Brother's Book 1)

by KL Donn

  Guiding her through more of his home, she was delighted to see so many personal touches throughout while also keeping it sort of…plain. Untouched almost. Like he was waiting for a woman’s flair.

  Nox was trying to see his house through her eyes as she inspected the pictures he’d hung or the few knickknacks he had on shelves. What he saw was kind of sad.

  A home without the warmth.

  His plan had always been to have the home and let his woman do her thing when she moved in. Now, he almost wished he’d put some sort of personal touches other than pictures.

  She didn’t comment, though, and he knew she wouldn’t. His Soph was too polite to tell him he needed color to brighten things up. That his enormous TV wasn’t needed.

  “Have you lived here long?” she asked, and he couldn’t help laughing at her question.

  Pulling her into his embrace, he kissed her lightly, answering, “A few years. It’s a bachelor pad, isn’t it?”

  Her hands smoothing along his sides were more erotic than she probably intended. “A little bit.”

  Leading her to a stool at the breakfast nook, he pulled them each a bottled water from the fridge. Twisting the cap off hers, he handed it to her.

  Both were quiet as they processed their thoughts. He knew he had to tell her about her mother and Braxton showing up, but honestly, he didn’t want the spark in her eyes dimmed more than it had been.

  “Your mother and Braxton showed up,” he finally spat out.

  “Oh.” She stared at him expectantly.

  “I banned your mom from the shop.”

  Shock had her mouth forming the perfect ‘O’ as she said, “She must have loved that.”

  “I think it’s the first time anyone has ever made her do anything.” He smiled, remembering Rebecca’s shock.

  “What did Braxton say?” She sounded worried.

  “Before or after I accused him of wanting to sleep with you?” He smirked. Nox had no doubt any man with eyes wanted between her legs. Her innocence combined with her beauty would have any male drooling. Hell, he had been for days.

  “He does not,” she scoffed. Sophia really had no idea of her attractiveness which made her all that more alluring.

  “Yeah, gorgeous, he does. Aside from that, I think he’s remorseful for the things he said to you, and as much as it galls me to say, I do believe he cares about you.”

  “He has a funny way of showing it,” she mumbled into her water.

  “Which brings us back to what exactly happened today, Soph?” There was more going on than the argument she’d had with Braxton.

  “It’s stupid.” She shrugged it off.

  “I hate that you think you or anything involving you is stupid. Soph, something upset you. Talk to me,” he demanded.

  Sighing, her eyes darted around the room before coming back to land on him as she picked at the label on the bottle. “Dad’s been avoiding me. So I was waiting in his office this morning. Braxton caught me.” Nox watched as she took a few fortifying breaths. “When you dropped me off last night, she was on me.” Soph didn’t have to explain who she was. “She said some things. Really nasty things, and it made me wonder. I had questions only he could answer. Except, when I called out to him this morning, he ignored me. Which isn’t normally like him. I know he’s cold and aloof, but with me, he’s always had a soft spot. Though, the past few years, he’s grown colder. Which makes me wonder if my mother’s claims are true. Maybe I am just that unlovable and useless.” The last few words were spoken so quietly and with so much hurt that his own heart constricted.

  Walking around the bar to her, he pulled her into his arms again. “You’re not, Soph. I wish I could make you see you the way I do, the way Ma does.” Rocking her in his arms, for the first time in his life, he felt helpless. Someone was after her, and yet, he couldn’t help there. Her mother insulted and demeaned her every chance she got, and he still couldn’t help with that, either.

  “It’s fine.” She sniffed into his chest. It really wasn’t fine. They were anything but fine.

  Wanting to get her mind, and his, off her depressing home life, he asked, “Want something to eat? I can’t promise much, but I’m sure I can scrounge up something.” He pulled away to gaze down at her.

  “Yes, please.” Her voice was like cracked glass. Still pretty but slightly broken.

  Walking to his fridge, he opened it and realized he had pretty much nothing of substance. “I need to shop more,” he muttered. “The choices are eggs and cheese or cheese and eggs?” He flicked a smile over his shoulder to see her watching him.

  “I’m allergic to eggs.”

  Color him shocked. “Seriously?”

  Red tinged her cheeks. “Yes.”

  “Okay then, how about pizza?”

  Her nose had wrinkled before she answered. “Not a fan.”

  His jaw dropped open. “You’re shittin’ me?” She shook her head. Well, balls. “Why not?”

  Shrugging, she told him, “I’m not a fan of feta cheese, and that’s all the cook would use at home. Something about it not being real pizza without it.”

  He couldn’t help the laugh that exploded from him.

  “Oh baby, have no fear, I’ll take care of you.”

  “If you say so.” She side-eyed him while he ordered the deep dish he liked.

  Hanging up, he told her, “Half cheese, half pepperoni and bacon. I’ll make a pizza lover out of you yet.” She gave him a disarming smile, full of indulgence. “Come with me, we’ll get you something more comfortable to wear.” He held out a hand for her to take. His idea being completely selfish. He only wanted to see her in his clothes.

  They sat, they ate pizza, they laughed. Lord did he make Sophia laugh. She couldn’t remember the last time if ever, she’d spent an evening relaxing with someone just for the sake of kinship. Lennox understood her in ways she didn’t understand herself.

  As the sun set and the clock chimed eleven p.m., she knew she couldn’t keep him up any longer to avoid her nightmares.

  “If you show me where the linens are, I can make a bed on the sofa?” she asked him shyly, not wanting to intrude.

  A look entered his eyes she couldn’t decipher as he grabbed her hand, making her choose between following him or losing the limb. He led her up the stairs, past the bedrooms, and into his room. She stood dumbfounded in the doorway.

  When he started peeling his clothes from his body, she was torn between wanting to see the rippling flesh underneath the straining Henley he wore and her modesty. Modesty won as she saw him unbuckling his jeans. Her eyes slammed shut, and her head turned away, his chuckle meeting her ears.

  “What’s so funny?”

  It took a moment for him to answer. “You,” his voice was soft in her ear, “trying not to look.” His voice…like smooth velvet.

  “I…I didn’t want to overstep.” Did she have to sound so naïve?

  She felt the warmth of his hands seep through the shirt and shorts he’d given her to wear earlier as he encircled her waist. The hold was intimate, sensual, as he pressed her entire body against his own. There wasn’t a single inch of space between them as they swayed back and forth. He didn’t push for more than what she was giving, but he didn’t back off either. She had a feeling he wouldn’t.

  “What,” she had to clear her throat to get her question out, “what are you doing, Lennox?” Was that her voice? Soft and sexy.

  “I love the way you purr my name, sweet Sophia.” His murmured words did something to her. They were full of heat and a deep-seated need she didn’t understand.

  His hands began roaming her body, heating her from the outside into her core. Her body felt lightweight, her mind was heady with erotic thoughts as his lips slowly kissed along her neck.

  Spinning her in his arms, their mouths crashed together like fuses. His grip on her hips was harsh as he dominated every thought in her mind. Her body came alive for him, her breasts felt heavy with the need to be touched while her sex pulsed
with a desire to be worshipped. It was startling to realize she wanted all these sexual things she’d never even thought of before. As the back of her legs met the mattress and she stumbled, he pulled her further into his body, as if the mere thought of losing any contact with her was abysmal.

  When his hands roamed further down her body, she lit up. Gone was any hesitation. In its place were complete obedience and a passion so intense she almost couldn’t breathe. Her leg hitched onto his hip of its own volition while she tried to attach her body to his. With his hands on her ass, he started rocking her back and forth on his thigh, the friction against her core enough to send so much pleasure coursing through her body that she saw stars behind her lids.

  Before she knew what was happening, her body exploded into an array of fireworks. She was tense yet limp. Hot but shivering. Her cries of rapture were captured by his lips as he slowly brought her back from what she presumed was an orgasm.

  “God damn that was beautiful,” he murmured as their gazes clashed together. His eyes full of heat and need.

  Without thought, she realized they were swaying back and forth as if in tune to a song only they could hear. By the time he’d stopped moving their bodies side to side, he had her in his bed. The implication was clear.

  Or so she thought.

  “You’ll sleep in here,” he paused until she fixed her eyes on him, “with me.” He must have seen the stricken look in her stare. “We aren’t going to do anything but sleep, Soph. That was phenomenal.” His gaze roamed her body. “We’ll go slow from now on. I just can’t have you in my house and not in my bed. It’s not possible.”

  It was oddly sweet.

  “Okay,” she managed to say through a tight throat.

  His smile was worth all of her nerves, lighting up his entire face. Producing the sexy dimple in his one cheek she had lusted over before.

  Relaxing in the bed, she had expected him to go around to the other side. She was wrong. He scooted in right behind her, wrapping his entire frame around hers. She was cocooned in his muscles, encased in his legs, melting into his embrace.

  She felt…

  Home.

  It’s not what we have in life, but who we have in our life that matters.

  “So, things with Soph, they’re real, huh?” Loch asked Nox as they lowered the engine of the Chevelle onto the chassis.

  Sophia had spent the past two nights at his place. The first day she’d been nervous about coming into work with him, not wanting to be a burden. When he’d set her to work answering phones and making appointments with Mac, she’d been a nervous wreck. When he told her that morning he was putting her name in the books as an employee, she’d pitched a fit. She hadn’t been impressed when he laughed at her either. After he had explained to her that she needed something on her resume, she’d quieted down.

  He liked the idea of her being only a few feet away from where he was working so he could see her whenever he wanted.

  Before Nox could answer his brother, he overheard the comment, “Sure wish I could bring a piece of tail to work with me. Bang her whenever I like,” followed by bouts of laughter as Joey and one of the new painters, Asher, he’d hired walked past him.

  Asher wasn’t shocked to see him, it’s as though he’d expected Joey to hang himself. When Joey saw the storm brewing on Nox’s face, he paled. “What’s that, Joe?” he asked, not moving from his position bent over the hood of the car. His

  white-knuckled grip on the wrench in his hand might have been threatening.

  “Uh, nothing, boss,” he stuttered.

  “Sounded to me like you’re either jealous or degrading my woman. Whatcha think, Loch?” He continued tightening a bolt; otherwise, he’d be smacking the fool upside his head.

  “You don’t wanna know what I think. Chances are the thought would have you doing something reckless and landing your ass in jail.” Loch’s laughter wasn’t appreciated.

  “You’re probably right.” He flicked a look to his brother before standing to his full height. “I think it’s a bit of both, and Joey, this’ll be your last warning. She’s off limits. For anything, to everyone. She’s mine, and she damn sure ain’t going nowhere. Got it?” Joey nodded and went to walk off when he warned the man, “One more slip up, Joe, and you’ll be fired. She’s now a full-time employee here. Sexual harassment is a real thing.”

  The man paled again before scurrying off to do what he’d been assigned that morning already.

  “Sorry, boss,” Asher said before walking away. He was a quiet one, lets people hang themselves when necessary. Did what he was told and didn’t bitch, so Nox believed him when he said it.

  “I’ll take that as a yes then.” Loch laughed as he wiped his hands clean of grease.

  “Take it as a hell yes.”

  They got back to putting the engine in as the shop quieted down. Some days, he couldn’t believe the amount of drama coming from grown ass men, but then he remembered most of the guys were young.

  “What do you mean she’s not coming home?” Braxton listened as Rebecca kept up her screeching while he and Anthony tried to explain that Sophia likely wasn’t coming back.

  He couldn’t get a solid read on the woman and that, more than anything else, bugged him. She ran hot and cold. She conveyed the right amount of distress as she listened to them, but the emotion was missing from her eyes.

  Over the past few days, he’d had a friend digging into her background, financials, and movements. What he’d come up with so far, he didn’t like. He had no doubt she was bat shit crazy, he just wasn’t prepared for how crazy she could really be. When he’d gotten the rap sheet from when she’d been arrested and charged with stalking at sixteen, he hadn’t been shocked. What did surprise him was that the charges were dropped. Not because the accuser had died or mysteriously vanished either, simply dropped.

  Rebecca’s family wasn’t wealthy, so he didn’t see them paying it away. It had to be something else. He just couldn’t figure out what.

  “Why isn’t she coming home?” the woman yelled again, this time throwing a crystal vase across the room.

  “Rebecca, you need to calm down.” Anthony tried to reason with her.

  When Brax got a really good look into her eyes, her pupils were dilated, nearly blacking out the whites of her eyes.

  “Are you high?” he asked in disbelief. She was a drunk, sure, but he’d never seen evidence of drug abuse.

  The rage-filled look she shot his way before launching another vase in his direction gave him the answer he’d suspected as he ducked.

  “Anthony, you need to handle this,” he warned the man. The woman was clearly off her rocker now.

  “What do you care if she’s here or not? You don’t even like the girl.” His boss confronted his wife.

  If he thought she was mad before, she was damn near explosive now.

  “She is my child. Whether I like her or not is of no consequence.”

  “Right, so she should take your mental abuse and roll with it?” Brax asked her.

  Soph was a sweet girl dealt some shitty fucking parents. He was glad she was taking a stand, though, he suspected it had more to do with Hogan running roughshod over her.

  “She ruined my life!” Rebecca screamed.

  “How’s that now?” Brax asked, knowing that unless he taunted her, he wasn’t going to get the answers they would all need. He was only about eighty percent sure she was the one behind the threats.

  “She was born!” Rebecca snapped as if the answer was so obvious.

  “Your delusional, Rebecca,” Anthony snarled at her. Showing the first signs of emotion he had seen since arriving on the scene.

  “You couldn’t keep it in your pants,” she snarled at her husband. “We would have been fine without a child.”

  “It was your idea!” Anthony yelled back at her.

  Color him intrigued.

  Dirty secrets were beginning to be revealed.

  Sophia had been nervous at first when Lennox had
suggested she work in his shop. What did she know about cars? When he said she was going to answer the phones, she’d relaxed a little more, thinking, how hard could it possibly be?

  Turned out people only cared that you worked in a shop and not that you had no knowledge of the industry. She’d had one man yell at her for working in a man’s world. Another laughed at her incompetence, and a woman told her she’d catch on.

  By the time lunch came around, she was exhausted and would be too happy to never answer another phone again. She’d kept that to herself, though, and Lennox was helping her out. She needed something on her resume. She couldn’t quit after only two days.

  As the clock struck twelve, Lennox walked through the shop door looking sexy as she’d ever seen him. A huge smile on his face as he laughed at something Lochlan said. That dimple she kept noticing made an appearance, and his beautiful blue eyes sparkled with a happiness she envied.

  The fact he wore only a muscle shirt and had grease stains all over his body had nothing to do with the squirming she was doing behind the large front desk. Or so she kept telling herself.

  “How’s it going, good lookin’?” he asked, leaning on the desktop in front of her.

  “Oh, you know, kicking ass and taking names.” She smiled at her lame joke when he laughed. Straight from the belly and up his chest laughter. Full of life. “It wasn’t that funny.” Her mouth twisted to the side as she waited for him to calm down.

  “Hearing you swear is funny as shit, Soph,” he said, tracing her hand with a finger on the desk.

  “He’s right,” Lochlan chimed in.

  Looking between the two men, their similarities were so noticeable. If she weren’t falling for Nox, she’d think they were twins. Same sandy brown hair, same dark blue eyes, crooked jaws, cleft chins. Their father must have had strong genes because where they were both hard and light, their mother was soft and darker, except for her gray hair, of course.

  “Ready for a break?” Nox asked, pulling her around the front of the desk and into his arms.