Page 31 of Size Doesn't Matter

“Soph, wait.” Tears streaked down Anna’s cheeks.

“No.” She shook her head and backed away from the table, away from them. Away from him. “Last night was a mistake. All of it was a huge fucking mistake that I have no intention of repeating,” she said, then turned on her heel, headed for the door.

A mistake?No. Jack didn’t make mistakes.

Suddenly, his anger at his brother—and at himself—his disappointment and his desperation, and the sharp panic that he’d never see her again all collided in that moment, and he slammed his palm on the table. “Sophie, stop,” he said, rising to his feet, the command whipping out of him before he could think better of it. His heart beat a little faster when she obeyed.

Good girl.

Stalking towards her, he stopped when his chest was only a hair’s breadth from her back and the front of his trousers brushed against her shapely arse. Keeping his voice low as he spoke, he let his words caress the shell of her ear. “I know you don’t mean what you said. You don’t think we made a mistake any more than I do.”

“You really don’t want to know what I’m thinking right now,” she snarled, turning slowly to face him once more, her beautiful eyes spitting fire, her proud chin thrust forward, leading the charge of her defiance.

He slid his hands over her hips, tightening his grip when she tried to escape him again. He was desperate to make her stay. “If you want that job so badly, I will make sure it’s yours. I will—”

“You really don’t get it, do you,” she said, cutting him off. “Un-fucking-believable.” That scoffing laugh bubbled out of her again as she looked at him like he was stupid. “And you know what?” she added, knocking his hands away from her and backing towards the door. “Iambeginning to see the family resemblance.” She waved a hand between him and Ethan. “You’re both arseholes!”

Then she yanked open the door and disappeared through it, slamming it shut as she left.

Jack felt like he’d been punched in the chest.

Sophie was gone.

She was upset—furious—and she was gone.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he swore, giving the word a lengthy life as he pushed out a long, slow breath. “Fuuuck.” Then he looked at his brother and his hand fell to his side, clenched in a fist. “I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

“Oh God. What have we done?” Anna said, her cheeks wet with tears and a shell-shocked expression on her face. “She’s never going to speak to me again.”

Ethan stood and pulled her into his arms, rubbed soothing circles on her back as she sobbed on his shoulder. “Shhh, come on now. It’ll be all right. This is Sophie we’re talking about,” he said, pulling back and brushing his thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away her tears and giving her a sympathetic smile. “She’s one of the most forgiving people I’ve ever known, and you’re her best friend. Of course she’ll talk to you again.” Then he looked at Jack. “You want my advice?”

“Not really,” he said drily, knowing his brother would ignore him.

Ethan smirked. “Give her a couple of days to unpack everything and work through her feelings, then give her a call and ask her out properly. She won’t stay mad forever.”

Jack hated that Ethan knew that about her, that he knew Sophie better than him, but before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door.

“Sophie.” The tightness in his chest suddenly eased as he rushed to let her in. But instead of finding his lover, he was faced with a young man carrying several large brown paper bags with the hotel’s restaurant logo printed on them.

“Room service for you, sir,” he said with a smile, holding out the bags.

Sticking his head into the hallway and looking left and right, Jack bit back his disappointment.

Sophie was well and truly gone.

“Sir? Youdidorder room service, didn’t you?”

He’d intended to, but then Ethan and Anna had barged in and ruined his day. “No.”

“Yes,” his brother said, appearing beside him to take the bags. “I ordered food for everyone. Figured we might be here a while.”

Jack left Ethan to deal with the food while he stalked back to the bathroom and shut himself away for a moment. He needed to think.

The woman who’d made his cold heart flicker to life again had left him floundering, wishing he’d never agreed to go to that damn party in the first place. He was a creature who lived in the shadows, and he never should have ventured into the light.

Staring into the mirror, Jack scrubbed a hand down his face. “What the fuck was I thinking?”

Sophie Bennett was pure sunshine.

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