The other man shook his head. “I would prefer to wait outside.”
“Fine.” Rourke wasn’t in the mood to argue. If the guy wanted to stand outside in the hallway, that was fine with him. He closed the door before turning to Sophie.
“Don’t even try talking me out of coming with you and Igor,” she advised ruefully.
“Igor?” he repeated quizzically.
“Or Viktor. Or Sacha. Or maybe Anatole.” The flush Sophie could feel warming her cheeks told her—and Rourke?—she wasn’t as impervious to his nakedness as the Russian had been. “As he hasn’t ever introduce himself, I’ve given him a Russian name I think suits him.”
Rourke chuckled. “Which is Igor?”
She shrugged. “I named the other one Aleksandr. I thought those names suited them better than Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”
Rourke’s arms moved about the slenderness of her waist as he pulled her in tightly against him. He wished they had the time to satisfy the answering lust that instantly gleamed in Sophie’s expressive eyes at the feel of Rourke’s erection pressing against her stomach. As they didn’t have the time for anything else, he kissed her long and deeply instead before releasing her.
He might have been Sophie’s first lover—he would also be her last, but that was for him to tell her at another time—but she had proved today that she was more than capable of meeting his sexual demands and making a few of her own.
She was perfect for him.
They were perfect together.
Rourke intended telling Sophie he loved her, and for the two of them to start leading that perfect life together, as soon as they had this situation with her father settled and out of the way.
He kept the surprise out of his expression when the first person he saw, after he and Sophie were shown into the sitting room of Gregori’s villa, was Zachary Tillman. The other man’s wrists and ankles had been secured to what looked like a dining room chair.
Which told Rourke the arrival of this man on the island was the “situation” Gregori had referred to.
Chapter Twelve
“As you can both see,” Gregori Markovic drawled dryly, dressed in a formal shirt unbuttoned at the throat, along with tailored black trousers, “a few hours ago, I was informed of the arrival of an unexpected visitor to the island.”
Sophie’s mouth had gone dry and her throat seized up the moment she saw Zachary Tillman. Not only because he was here at all, but because Markovic had the other man secured in a chair by what looked like plastic zip ties about his wrists and ankles. He looked otherwise unharmed, with no obvious bruising to his face, but Sophie was still uneasy being in the same room with him again.
“The four associates Mr. Tillman brought with him are…waiting in another room,” Gregori dismissed. “Their fate, along with that of their employer, will be decided by the outcome of this conversation.”
Sophie had no doubt those four men waiting in another room would have also been incapacitated. She hoped Jack Henderson was amongst them. He had needed taking down a peg or ten, and being trussed up like a Christmas turkey waiting to go in the oven would be sure to do it!
Rourke strode over to where Tillman sat. “The next time you send one of your men to threaten Sophie, be prepared to expect a visit from me and my brothers.”
The older man shot him a resentful glare. “Her father stole from me.”
“And you threatened a London resident without my permission,” Gregori Markovic bit out tersely. “I have tolerated your other illegal activities, but I will not allow you or your men to threaten a woman in my city.” He glanced at Sophie. “Especially when she is the woman of Rourke Steele, one of my close associates and friends.”
The reassuring smile Gregori gave Sophie was enough to keep her silent on whether or not she considered herself to be the woman of anyone. The smile Rourke was obviously trying to hold back when he glanced at her made that doubly difficult.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Zachary Tillman mumbled.
Gregori’s expression remained uncompromising. “And now that you are?”
“I will, of course, rethink my threat to Miss Hammond.”
Gregori raised his brows. “You will rethink it?”
“Her father stole five million pounds of my money, Gregori.” Tillman’s voice was almost a whine.
“You will address me as Mr. Markovic,” he bit out. “And your money will be repaid to you in full.”
The other man’s expression brightened. “With interest?”
“Without interest,” Gregor drawled. “The only bonus you will receive will be in knowing there will be no further retribution from me for your unacceptable behavior.” He glanced toward the door when it was suddenly opened. “Ah, the last of our guests have arrived.”
Rourke turned in time to see a disgruntled Stephen Hammond and his less than perfectly coiffured girlfriend being hustled into the room by the second of Gregori’s bodyguards, the one Sophie had christened Aleksandr rather than Tweedledee.
Hammond’s face paled the moment he saw who was waiting for him, but the girlfriend seemed oblivious as she clung to her lover’s arm.
“So, we are all going to sit down together in this room.” Gregori Markovic’s cool gaze moved over each person gathered there as he took a seat in one of the armchairs and waited for them to do the same. Rourke sat next to Sophie on one of the couches, and her father and his girlfriend sat on a second one. “Now you will proceed to discuss and settle this situation like the adults you all are.”
He didn’t add or face my wrath, but Rourke was pretty sure that everyone else in the room also heard the Russian’s unspoken warning.
At first, it seemed tempers were running a little too high for there to be any conversation between Sophie’s father and Zachary Tillman that didn’t include accusations from both sides. A few cutting words from Gregori, the steely calmness of his voice nevertheless a reminder he expected them to reach an agreement, seemed to calm the situation down, and the conversation became less fraught and confrontational.
Rourke sat back and enjoyed the show. It was like watching two puny kittens matched against a ferocious tiger, with the outcome being inevitable. Gregori would win, no matter what.
No one was more shocked than Sophie when, at the end of an hour’s conversation, her father agreed to return Zachary Tillman’s money. The shortfall, despite Rourke having offered to provide that, was being loaned to her father by Gregori Markovic. Stephen would be paying off that loan by immediately returning to London to begin his employment with the Russian. A move which, Gregori reminded Tillman softly, now put Stephen Hammond and his daughter under the Russian’s protection.
Sophie, who had been worried about her father’s future safety, knew she would never be able to thank Gregori enough for his generosity. Although she would definitely try on the flight back to England.
The only one who still looked completely in the dark at to what was happening was Suzanne, and Sophie was happy to let her father explain the situation fully to his girlfriend once they were all safely away from here. If Suzanne decided not to hang around once she knew her lover was a thief and that there was no longer any money, that was something Stephen would have to accept and emotionally deal with.
Although, Sophie had watched the other woman during the conversation, and Suzanne didn’t seem particularly perturbed by the fact they were making arrangements for them all to return to England in the morning, as long as she could “stay with Stevie.” Sophie had no problems with that situation if Suzanne made her father happy and he did the same for her.
As for her father working for Gregori Markovic…
Rourke had told her the man was mainly a legitimate businessman nowadays, and considering her father had been employed by a criminal for the past fifteen years, working for the Russian definitely seemed like a step up.
Sophie was too relieved to have Gregori resolve the situation for them, without anyone ending up dead, to care who her father worked
for or lived with.
Quite how, once they were back in England, she and Rourke were going to “resolve the situation” which now existed between the two of them, she had no idea.
As it turned out, Rourke’s way of resolving it was to drop her off at her apartment after the long flight back from the Cayman Islands before driving off again. As Sophie was no longer in danger, Rourke had obviously decided she was no longer in need of his protection or that of any of the other Steele Protectors.
Succinctly telling Sophie that “whatever had happened in the Cayman Islands stayed in the Cayman Islands.”
“What the hell—!” Sophie woke up the moment she felt the warmth of a naked body sliding into bed beside her, despite her having been in a deep sleep.
The time difference between the UK and the Cayman Islands had totally messed up her day and evening, to the extent she had found it difficult, once it came time to go to bed, to fall asleep at all and then did so heavily.
Even so, she had no difficulty recognizing the man lying beside her in the bed. “How did you get in here, Rourke?”
“Oh good, you’re awake.” He shifted over her in the bed, and, seconds later, the bedside lamp beside Sophie was switched on. “You’re here. Where else would you expect me to be?” His lips nuzzled against the warmth of her throat. “And no lock on a door is going to stop me from being with you.”
Sophie felt even more disorientated. “But you just dropped me off earlier and then left with barely a word of goodbye.”
“Because I had every intention of coming back once I’d talked to Gregori and sorted out a few things at Steele Protectors.” He lifted his head to frown down at her. “You knew I was coming back, right?”
She gave a rueful grimace. “Wrong.”
“But— Fuck it.” He fell back against the pillows. “I’m as awful at this communication and emotional shit as Atticus is.”
Sophie moved up onto her elbow beside him. “I don’t understand…”
“I realize that.” Rourke sighed deeply. “What happened in the Caymans means you’re mine now, Sophie— No, that came out all wrong too.” He gave a self-disgusted shake of his head. “I love you, Sophie.” One of his hands cupped her cheek as he stared into her eyes. “I’ve loved you for a very long time.”
She moistened her dry lips, wondering if she was still asleep and all this was a dream. If it was, she never wanted to wake up. “You have?”
Rourke nodded. “A couple of years now. I just didn’t think I was the right person for you. Too jaded. Too cynical. Too highly sexed,” he added with a grimace.
Sophie snorted a laugh. “Well, I doubt you’d hear too many woman complaining about the latter.” She chuckled. “So what changed for you to now be telling me how you feel?”
Rourke scowled. “I saw another man put his hand on you at Logan’s wedding, and I wanted to kill him.”
“Do you mean Tillman’s thug?”
His frown darkened. “I didn’t just want to kill him. I wanted to rip him apart before throwing him to the dogs to eat.”
“You don’t have any dogs.” The hope that had started to build inside Sophie the moment she realized Rourke was beside her in bed had now grown to almost uncontainable proportions.
“Fucking pedantic,” he muttered. “In that case, I would have found some damned dogs to feed him to!”
Sophie had trouble containing her smile at his disgruntled expression. “I don’t think I would have felt in the least seduced by knowing you had ripped another man apart and fed him to a group of hungry canines.”
Rourke frowned at her. “I’m making the first declaration of love of my life here, and you’re mocking me?”
Her eyes narrowed. “And last.”
“What?”
“And last declaration of love of your life,” Sophie stated firmly so there would be no misunderstanding. “I’m a possessive woman when it comes to you, Rourke.” She placed her hand against the naked warmth of his chest, absolutely thrilled at learning that heart was beating just for her.
His arms moved about her waist. “You are?”
Sophie had never before seen the slightest glimmer of uncertainty in any of Rourke’s words or actions, but she saw it now in his hopeful expression. “I love you too, Rourke. I’ve loved you almost since the first day I came to work at Steele Protectors.”
He stilled. “Why not the first day?”
She chuckled. “Because I didn’t meet you until my second day of working there.”
Rourke’s brow cleared. “Okay.” His gaze sharpened. “You really love me?”
“For almost three years now,” she confirmed.
“Damn.”
Sophie’s eyed him ruefully. “You don’t want me to love you?”
“Hell, yes, I want you to love me.” His arms tightened about her possessively. “I love you so much, it utterly consumes me.”
“I love you too.” Sophie lowered her head and kissed him lingeringly before moving back to look at him. “But I don’t understand why you swore just now when I told you how I feel about you.”
He chuckled. “Because my business earlier at Steele Protectors was to get all the brothers together and inform them we will both be absent from the office for the next two weeks.”
“We will?”
“I told them I needed the time off to seduce you into falling in love with me.”
Her brows rose. “You thought two weeks might do it?”
He glowered. “I think someone is going to get their arse spanked again if they don’t stop teasing me!”
“And you think that threat is going to act as a deterrent to my continuing?”
Rourke burst out laughing. “We really are so physically well matched!” He sobered as he rolled over and pinned her to the bed beneath him. “I love you very much, Sophie. I wish now I hadn’t wasted so much fucking time thinking I’m not good enough for you.”
“You are more than good enough for me.”
He looked at her searchingly. “I’m not too dark and intense for you?”
“I love your dark intensity,” she reassured. “I always knew it was there, and I fell in love with you anyway. I love you even more now that the two of us have made love.”
Rourke’s heart, that organ he had been convinced had nothing to do with falling in love, seemed to expand and grow so much, it threatened to burst from his chest. Filled with love for Sophie? It would seem to be the case. “Enough to marry me?” he prompted huskily.
“Yes.”
His eyes widened at her complete lack of hesitation. “Yes?”
She gave a choked and emotional laugh. “Yes!”
Rourke gave her a long, hard, and devouring kiss before lifting his head to stare into her eyes for several long seconds. “Do you want a big wedding like August and Logan’s?”
Sophie grimaced. “Considering the father of the bride is currently working off a debt with the head of the Russian bratva in London, I think the less fuss the better.”
“I’m pretty sure Gregori would let your father have a day off so he can attend his daughter’s wedding.”
“I don’t want any of that.” Sophie shook her head. “If we’re getting married— When we get married,” she amended at Rourke’s warning glance. “I would like it to just be the two of us and the witnesses. The latter can be two people brought in off the street for all I care.”
“Or Atticus and Jenna?”
“If that’s what you would like, yes.”
“This week?”
“Is that possible?”
“Oh yes.”
“Then yes, this week.” She honestly didn’t care when they got married or who attended as long as at the end of it, she and Rourke were husband and wife.
My God, do dreams like this one really come true?
The fierce love gleaming in Rourke’s possessive gaze said that, yes, they really did.
“I. Love. You.” Sophie kissed him in between each word. “I love you so very, very muc
h, Rourke, and I would be honored to become your wife.”
He grinned. “And I’m going to love being your husband. Wow.” He looked slightly dazed. “I’m going to be your husband, Sophie.”
She smiled brightly. “And I’m going to become your wife.”
His grin widened. “Sophie Steele.”
She chuckled. “Wife of Rourke Steele.”
Rourke sobered. “I promise to love, protect, and cherish only you always, Sophie.”
“Then could you start now so that all this nakedness doesn’t go to waste?” she teased.
He let out a triumphant laugh. “I intend to make love with and to you all night long!”
She smiled. “I intend to do the same to and with you.”
“I think I could get used to having you agree with me all the time,” he mused.
“I shouldn’t,” Sophie advised. “I very much doubt that my own plans are always going to be so compatible with yours.”
The two of them chuckled together before they both fell silent and began to put their words into actions.
The two of them were married four days later, with Atticus and Jenna as their witnesses. Afterward, Sophie and Rourke Steele left the country on Gregori Markovic’s private jet for a two-week honeymoon at an undisclosed destination.
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