Page 34 of Mercenary Princess

His words were definitely true. After a moment, she found herself relenting, “Tomorrow night.”

He looked ready to interrogate her, so she moved away from the bed, away from his assessing stare. She had one guard, and Jen needed to sleep at some point. Staying awake an entire night after her shift two nights in a row wasn’t something Sophia could or would ask of her. It wasn’t wise on many levels. Or maybe she just wanted a night to come to her senses and back out. Either way, he didn’t need to know her reasons.

“Tomorrow.” His authoritative tone suggested he knew what she was thinking.

She searched the floor for her underwear before remembering they’d been torn off. Sophia stilled, realizing that this would be her first walk of shame. She’d never shared a bed with a man and been forced to find her way home in her evening wear. She mentally shook her head, feeling only novelty as opposed to the regret she should probably be feeling.

As she slid on her dress, he came up behind her and slowly zipped it up. The action was far more intimate than when he’d taken it off, and she forced herself not to lean into him.

Her hair was in knots. She tried to tame it, but it didn’t cooperate. At one point in the night, they’d showered together, which meant she was the definition of hot mess as she slipped on her high heels. Her mother would be completely scandalized, so it was a good thing her mother wasn’t there to see it.

She saw the communication device on the mantel and headed for it.

“You can leave it here,” he suggested smoothly.

“My guard will need to see that it’s charged,” she countered, feeling a pang of guilt. She hadn’t been lying, but that wasn’t the entire truth, either. The blocker had been used to get his audio and video feeds. Jen wanted to see what the Russian was up to, to see if he was dangerous to Sophia.

Sophia decided she’d rather not know if he was hiding something terrible. The night had been too good to ruin its memory with whatever awful reality potentially lay in those feeds.

He walked her out of the bedroom in only the slacks he’d thrown on. He was so incredibly sexy that she had a hard time focusing on anything but the fit of the material. When they opened the door, she saw Jen sitting at a table with a pile of cash in front of her and three silent Russians around her. “Sorry, boys. Time to get back to work.”

The woman piled up her money with deft efficiency before allowing Ivan to lead the way to the garage.

Jen did a fast sweep of the car before letting Sophia get in. “Were you able to get a signal to the others?” Sophia asked once they were alone.

Jen’s lips flattened for a moment. “Maybe. The fact that nothing blew up was a good sign. Your Russian’s security is top of the line.”

Sophia’s heart rate kicked up a fraction. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing I can put my finger on. Something just felt off, but considering we stayed all night and nothing bad happened, I’m confident the tracker in my heel still transmitted. Cade and Sean must have cooled their heels in their hideout.”

Sophia’s cheeks heated at the knowledge that her nighttime activities weren’t even a little private. At the very least, Cade and Sean knew she’d stayed the night with a potential blackmailer. The fact that Jen hadn’t sounded an alarm would have had the mercenaries either smirking or itching to blow something up. It was a toss-up with Sean in the mix. Cade was the more controlled of the two.

She closed her eyes. If her friends didn’t already know, they would soon enough.

Forde’s insistence on sending men had seemed like overkill because Viktor didn’t have a reputation for hurting women. His past was a bloody one. That was a widely known secret within the underground. But she also knew there were lines he reportedly didn’t cross.

That knowledge had been gasoline to an already-blazing obsession she’d long enjoyed fanning, which was why she seemed to defend a man who’d manipulated her into coming to him.

She didn’t need to look a Jen to know she was scanning the streets as her thumbs drummed on the steering wheel. “Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?”

Sophia sighed and told Jen about her night in broad strokes. Her friend was silent as she absorbed everything Sophia admitted to. Her reasons for believing Viktor sounded flimsy when repeated aloud, but Jen didn’t argue or lecture. “Did you at least get him out of your system?”

Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth only made her feel like a teenager, so she stopped the unconscious gesture. Sophia rolled her neck to ease some of the building tension as they surged through the quiet streets on a meandering route to the house. “Yes and no.”

Jen shot her a look.

“I said I’d come back tomorrow night.”

She could almost feel her friend’s surprise in the stretching silence.

“I think that calls for more details. I was ninety-eight percent sure no man could live up to nearly a decade of expectations. I have to say I’m impressed.”

Sophia snorted indelicately. “I’m surprised you gave him two percent.”

“I gave him one more based on the look in your eye when you told me about the hotel.”

“Well, he blew all expectations out of the water. Your two percent odds be damned.”

---