Page 15 of Diesel
“This one’s for my sister.”
Sophie’s eyes softened.“Was she older or younger?”
“Younger.By two years.”His voice went rough, and he cleared his throat.“She was smart.Loud.Way too trusting.”
“She’s gone?”
Diesel nodded once.
“I’m sorry,” Sophie said, voice low.“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He stared down at his half-empty plate.“She got into trouble.I should’ve been there.I wasn’t.That’s all.”
Sophie didn’t push.She just reached across the table and gently touched the back of his hand.The contact seared through him.He looked at her, at the kindness and sadness in her eyes, and he felt something shift.Something dangerous.Sophie saw too much.
“I don’t do the whole talk-about-feelings thing,” he said, pulling his hand away a little more abruptly than he meant to.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“I just need you to understand,” he said, standing now, needing space, air, anything.“I’m not the guy who makes pancakes and sticks around for coffee in the morning.”
Sophie blinked.“Okay.”
“I’m here to keep you safe.Nothing else,” he reminded her.
Her expression flickered.“I didn’t ask for anything else.”
However, unspoken things, unsaid wants hung there, heavy in the space between them.He could feel the thread pulling tighter.His chest burned with the effort of denying it.
“I should get back to the shop,” he muttered.
“Right.”She stood too, clearing her plate.“I’ll be there in an hour.”
He gave her a sharp nod, grabbed his jacket, and left.
Outside, the cool morning air hit him like a slap.Diesel leaned against the side of his truck, breathing hard, fists clenched.
He was in deep and every instinct screamed at him to get the hell out.Too bad all he could think about was the way she’d looked in the kitchen.The way her voice had wrapped around him like warmth.The way he hadn’t wanted to leave that couch, not really.
He was here to protect her, he reminded himself, but he already knew the truth.Diesel was falling hard for her.
