Page 51 of When You Are Mine

Seeing Kerris was more dangerous than anything he had done over the last year. He dropped his forehead to the tile wall of the shower, swallowing against the pain of her living with Cam as his wife.

“Nice butt.” A pair of pale, slim arms slid around his chest. Fingers twisted and pulled at his nipples.

Behind him, Sofie wore only a mischievous grin. Even naked and sliding to her knees in front of him—nothing.

“Sofie, get up.” He tugged her arm as gently as he could, pulling her to her feet.

She fell back to her knees, reaching for him again, that wicked, who’s-a-bad-girl gleam still in her eyes.

“I said get up.” His voice was sharp, like the water pinging against the shower wall. He closed his eyes against the hurt he’d caused on her face. “I mean, not this morning, Sof. I’m still upset about finding…”

“Lynda,” she supplied helpfully, standing up to reach for her shampoo and lathering her long hair. “We didn’t actually have a threesome, so chill.”

He hated this intimacy with her. The fact that they were having a conversation in his shower. That her shampoo sat proudly beside his body wash as if it belonged there. Her underwear nestled by his boxers in the top drawer. Her shoes sat under his bed. And he had no one to blame but himself.

“Sof, we need to talk.”

“Okay, so talk.”

“No, not that kind of talk. A real, grown-up talk.”

“Can we talk on the plane?” She rinsed the shampoo from her hair, blocking one of his showerheads. “Are we on the Bennett plane?”

“No. Dad has it in Hong Kong.” Walsh tried to keep his tone even. He really did. “I don’t remember inviting you to go with me to North Carolina.”

“Walsh, we’re together.” Her hands slowed their lathering. “I don’t need an invitation, do I? And Trish can get me on the flight easily enough.”

“I want to go alone.” He stepped out of the shower, as much to get away from her as to get dressed.

“I bet you do,” she said, low enough for the water to almost drown her out.

“What’d you say?” He reached for a fluffy towel and glanced back at her, still in the shower.

“I can understand you wanting to go alone.” Sofie amended what Walsh knew he had heard. “I just have a little break before I have to be in Paris, so I thought we could spend it together. Besides, I haven’t seen your family in ages. Not since the wedding.”

He dried off and got dressed, barely paying attention to what he put on or tossed into the personalized Louis Vuitton luggage his mother had given him a few Christmases ago. Not seeing his mother had been the hardest part of staying away from Rivermont. Guilt settled hot and heavy in his chest.

This was the first year since his parents’ divorce that he’d spent so little time with her. Even though his father had insisted on custody when he was growing up, wanting him to have a New York private school education, Walsh saw his mother several times each month, and spent every summer with her, traipsing all over the world to Walsh Foundation camps and orphanages.

“I love your Pegase.” Sofie entered the bedroom and eyed his roll-on. She slipped on a silk robe from his closet.

“I’m taking that with me,” Walsh lied, extending a hand for the black silk robe he rarely wore.

“Oh, I…I’ve never seen you wear it, so I thought it was okay.” She handed it to him and slipped on one of his T-shirts instead, inhaling. “You always smell so good, babe.”

“Thanks.” Every word reminded him how deep her feelings went, and how much this breakup would hurt her. They had been friends and he had screwed it up with sex.

“Look, Sof, I need to go, but we really have to talk when I get back.”

“Well, I was gonna drive you to the airport.” Sofie scrambled to slip on the designer jeans she’d worn last night. “Lemme just find my keys. I know they’re somewhere around here.”

“Don’t bother.” He slapped his watch on. “Pierce is taking me.”

“Who’s Pierce?” She paused in her search for the keys.

“My dad’s driver.”

“Oh, well, I um, guess I’ll see you when I get back from Paris.” She deflated like yesterday’s party balloon. “If you don’t mind, I’m gonna hang here for a little bit then.”

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