Page 77 of While You Sleep

“How would you know?” he asked.

There was no sarcasm in his voice, he was genuinely curious. “Do I need to list the reasons?” I answered, surprised he’d need to ask.

“Do you want it to be true?” Again, there was nothing but curiosity there. My brother was as confounded by the concept of love as I was.

I sipped my drink again, feeling exposed in a way I couldn’t ever remember feeling in front of my brother, and that was saying a lot after the shit we’d been through, especially as children. Yes, when she’d said those words to me, it pleased me, I couldn’t deny it. But if Sophia loved me, then she never would have left that night. I wouldn’t have to lock her away to keep her because she would have chosen me. “What I want doesn’t matter.”

“You obviously want her or she wouldn’t be locked in one of your rooms.”

“Why are we talking about this?” I said, frustration filling me.

“What if she’s telling the truth, Cillian? What if she never wanted to leave you, what if she loves you and you have her locked up like a prisoner? Way I see it, you have two choices…you’ll either have to leave her locked up for the rest of her life, or figure out a way to trust her.” Declan stood. “If she does love you and you insist on treating her like a prisoner, I’m not sure how much longer she’ll feel that way. You’ll have her, but you would have lost her as well.”

“And what do you know about it?” I asked and sat back.

“Fuck all.” He shook his head. “Just the idea that someone could love one of us…I don’t know, I find it…interesting. I guess I’d like to see it.” He shrugged. “Whatever. Listen to me, or don’t.”

Yeah, my brother was as fucked up as I was.

I got what he was saying, but if I let her out of the room and she ran, I’d lose her anyway. This way she was still mine. She belonged to me.

No, I couldn’t let her out of that room. I’d convinced myself that Sophia saw me differently than everyone else. But I’d been wrong.

Yes, I’d thought about killing Brennan, but I’d decided quickly not to act on it. There was no need, he was weak. It had only been a matter of time before his men chose to follow me. I’d never expected him to try anything like he had.

He hadn’t realized who he was up against, though. He saw me like Seamus did. As if the only thing I had to offer of any value was my ability to kill without conscience.

Apparently, Sophia felt the same way.

She didn’t see me, she saw the things I’d done. She saw the monster.

A monster she enjoyed fucking and nothing more.

Declan left, and I headed upstairs, undoing my tie as I walked.

If that’s what she wanted, if that’s who she saw when she looked at me, then that’s who she’d get—

Sophia screamed and the fear in her voice lifted the hair on the back of my neck.

I ran for her room, shoved open the door—and I stopped in my tracks, my heart smacking against the back of my ribs. Sophia was arched against the mattress, her legs squeezed together. Her hands over her head as if held there, her nipples tight and straining against her top.

She moaned, the same way she did when I touched her, my name tumbling from her lips, then her body started moving, like it did when I fucked her. I’d seen only a little of this, once when I’d visited her at her apartment, but it was nothing like this.

Because before, she’d been a virgin. Now her body, and her dreams, knew exactly what it was like to be fucked.

“Yes,” she whimpered as her legs thrusted wide as if by invisible hands. “Yes, please…” she moaned. “Please…please, fuck me.”

I stalked to the bed, eating up the sight of her. I hadn’t seen her in days, avoiding her like a fucking coward, and now, seeing her like this as she rocked against the mattress, as if being taken by the monster, by me, I felt like an addict getting a hit of my favorite drug.

She’d told me her fantasy, what she wanted me to do the next time I saw her like this. Did she still? She was my prisoner now, maybe I should walk away, but I couldn’t. I wanted her despite her traitorous actions, and by the way my name kept falling from her lips, she still wanted me as well.

Dragging back the sheet, I looked down at her, finding it hard to breathe. Jesus fucking Christ, she was straining, her hips moving as if I was already between her thighs.

I quickly undressed and carefully climbed onto the bed.

She was in her usual pj’s, and I bunched the shirt and lifted it, revealing her nipples, darker now and tight as fuck. Then hooking my fingers down the sides of her shorts and panties, I slid them down, moving her legs carefully so as not to wake her, and tossed them aside. Her legs instantly parted again, and I groaned at the sight of her pussy, fucking dripping and swollen, her clit begging for attention.

I moved between her spread thighs and almost came when she cried out, her pussy spasming, her juices sliding out and down the crack of her ass. She was coming.

---