Page 47 of Claim

She felt something for me. I saw it growing from that first night. With Maria, I’d ignored it. I refused to do it with Sophia.

“You ignored my first warning, but don’t this one. You don’t want me to care for you. And you most definitely don’t want me to love you.”

She adjusted her stance and set a hand on her hip as if I’d thrown down a dare, and I fucking knew the brat wasn’t going to listen.

“Why is that?”

“Because I’ll want to not only claim you, I’ll want to possess you. No, I will possess you. I will own you. And that freedom you crave so much will disappear.”

“It’s good I don’t have to worry about you loving me. Since you told me, it’s an emotion you can’t feel.”

“Then I guess we understand each other.”

“I think it’s you who doesn’t understand. This.” She gestured between us. “Stays at the club. Don’t come to me like this again. I won’t let you blur the lines because you can’t help yourself. I’m Sophia Morelli. I’m worth so much fucking more than a man’s scraps and a bag of guilt.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sophia

“Lizzy. What are you doing here?” I ask as I step into my living room a little before nine in the evening, the night after the runway show.

The youngest of the Morelli children never dropped in anywhere without an ulterior motive. And of course, the evening I planned to take care of some pressing business, she decided to make her inconvenient visit.

Her scrutinizing gaze took me in, inspecting me from head to toe. Naturally, I gave her the same assessment. She looked overall healthy, except for a few shadows under her eyes, which told me she needed some sleep.

I knew the exhaustion wasn’t from the wild party college scene. Those actions were more or less me. Lizzy was more of an old soul in the body of someone who had just turned twenty. I also saw a loneliness in her that I wished never existed, which I saw reflected in my own eyes when I looked in the mirror each morning.

What I wouldn’t give to shelter her from being a Morelli offspring.

“I was thinking about you all day and decided to come see how things were going in your life.”

Moving into my living room, I sat on the couch across from Lizzy, tucking a foot under my knees. “I’m not buying it. What do you want?”

“Can’t a girl visit her big sister?”

“Ummm.” I tapped a finger on my lower lip. “No. Not you. You’re the text first, then call, then visit because you need something type. What is it that’s bothering you? Spit it out.”

She leaned forward and gave me a death stare. “I want to know what you’re about to do?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I felt it when I woke up this morning. You’re up to something.”

Maybe she had a touch of clairvoyance.

“Well, I had plans tonight to go out, but other than that, nothing special.”

“Then you won’t mind if I tag along?”

“It’s not your kind of scene.”

A scowl formed on her face. “How do you know? I’m not as innocent and naïve as you think I am.”

“It isn’t like that. What I intend to do tonight isn’t exactly—”

Before I could finish, she jumped in, “Are you going to do something illegal?”

For a second, I thought about lying to her, and then I decided to say, “Possibly.”

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