Page 15 of Deceit
My jaw clenched as my gaze roamed over her frame. Every fucking time Ilaid eyes on her, she elicited the same response from deep inside me: the overwhelming need to claim her as mine.
When I first saw her four years ago, she was stunning. Now, she wasbreathtaking. Her dark brown hair was longer and styled with layersthatfell in soft waves around her beautiful face, making her lookher actual age of twenty-one. Perfectly shaped brows and thick, black lashes framed her aquamarine eyes, and her plump lips glistened under the spotlights. Tonight, she’d opted to wear a sparkling black cocktail dressthatshowcased her petite waist and was cut low enough to reveal the swell of her breasts.
Honestly? Sofia could have worn a damn garbage bag, and she would havelooked sensational.
When the music started, and the first note left her lips, goosebumps coveredmy skin,justlike they had the first time I heard her sing, and the bar around me disappeared.
To saythatI was completely and utterly mesmerized would have been thefucking understatement of the year. I was powerless but to keep my gaze trained on her, unable to look away, especially when it alwaysseemedshe was looking right at me.
As if she was singing for me, and for me alone.
Not only did she have the voice of an angel, but she was a different personwhen she was on the stage. She commanded everyone’s attention,demandedthey heard her with the way she poured her heart and soul into every wordthatleft her mouth. For the duration of a song, she showed who she truly was.
She wasn’t a mafia princess.
She wasn’t a brat who disobeyed orders.
She wasn’t the woman my cousin had spent months pining for after theirfirst encounter.
She was simply Sofia. A vulnerable, broken woman who deserved the worldto see her.
And fuck, did I see her. More than I would ever admit aloud becausethatwould mean betraying Theo’s memory.
He might have only known her for a few hours, but he was instantlybesotted with her.
And so was I.
Obsession must have run in the family because when Kai first saw Riley, hewas besotted, and if Sofia hadn’t turned out to be the seventeen-year-old daughter of our enemy, I had no doubtthatTheo would have stopped at nothing to make Sofia his, like Kai did with Riley.
Not that Theo ever found out who she really was.
The monthsthatfollowed the night at Exotique, he was unbearable.He begged me every night to return to the club in hopes she would turn up, and he nagged me constantly to find out who shereallywas, using my ability to hack into cameras and databases.
I hated Sofia more than ever duringthattime. I told Theo lie after lie, and even though I knew I was hurting him, I dideverythingin my power to make sure her true identity remained a secret.With how obsessed he was with her, I fearedthatif he ever found out who she was, he wouldn’t have given a fuck if claiming Sofia had started World War Three.
At least, that was what I told myself to justify the lies I told him. I always ignored the taunting voice in my head, sneering a truth I didn't want to acknowledge.
If I couldn't have her, neither could Theo.
I wish I could say Theo forgot about her, but he never did. As time passed,he fucked about with other women, but he never let himself develop feelings for them, vowingthatone day he would find the one who stole his heart.
The one who got away.
He never found out that she’d also stolen my heart that night.
Far too soon, the song came to an end, and at the corner of the stage, the next act was preparing to take Sofia's place. Disappointment swamped me.Sometimes, she’d sing more than one song, and I’d get to enjoy her sweet voice for longer. Other nights, like now, she would sing one song and be done, but whenever she finished, it was my cue to leave.
As she smiled at the applauding audience, I stood, and sneaked out the door I came in. As I always did, I hovered in the dark, making sure Sofia made her way to Gus. My gaze swept to where he should have been waiting, my brows furrowing at finding his seat vacant.
I cursed myself. I’d been so entranced by her performancethatI hadn’t seenhim leave. From my periphery, I saw her take the two steps down from the stage, her eyes darting around when she realized Gus was nowhere to be seen.
Fuck sake.
I couldn’t leave her, but I couldn’t risk her seeing me; she’d have questions Ididn’t have answers for.
I scanned the bar, trying to find the idiot, and as Sofia moved to sit on a stool at the bar, I started to pull my phone frommy pocket, intent on calling the cunt to give him a piece of my mind. But I froze when a guy around Sofia’s age approached her, her eyes widening briefly when he spoke.
A growl involuntarily left my chest as jealousy rampaged through me, madeworse when a shy smile lifted her lips, andevenwith the distance between us and the dim lighting of the bar, I could see her cheeks blush.
