JAMESON
She stepped back and I couldn’t hold her any longer. I let her go. I didn’t want to restrain her, but I just wished she could feel secure enough to cope with me.
“I don’t have a phone,” she mumbled, lifting her bag. “So…maybe I can use Jules’s to call you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Jesus. That is an eternity, Sophia. Maybe she would call?
I needed to say something. I needed to do something to stop her from running without her feeling controlled. She was an incredible storm, a beautiful wild wind, but Sophia was also so internal, so introverted. She wouldn’t allow a soul to tell her what to do, yet she feared not being supported.
What am I supposed to do? Carry her back into the hotel? Yes. Pick her up like you did during the hurricane, and get her back inside. We can figure it out inside. Figure it out, fight it out…who cares?
“Maybe,” her words barely shook from her mouth, “…don’t follow me.”
“Don’t follow you? Then don’t run! I will always follow you, Sophia. Always. You’re part of me now. I’m part of you. We’re together.”
I couldn’t comprehend Soph’s fear of herself. Soph didn’t need to be prevented from herself. She needed to be protected, cherished, and admired for who she was; exactly who she was, even with the beautiful trauma that shaped her, because of the beautiful trauma that shaped her.
“Are we?”
Damn Thomas. I was going to murder him for putting such doubt in Soph’s mind. I slowly reached for her wrists, wrapping my hands around them while I searched her face for anything that would indicate a settled heart.
“We have been,” I assured her. “Since the moment you walked up the steps at school. From the second you smiled at Olivia and I was standing there. We’ve been together since then. We will be together, Soph…”
Soph wiggled from my hold and raised on her toes to my face. Her left palm cupped my right cheek, radiating its electric warmth into my skin.
“Give me a head start. Please,” she whispered as her soft, warm lips pressed against my cheek, searing her mark onto my soul.
I could feel the pulse drive straight through me, and all I could think of, the only thought I could process, was how my being desired nothing but to consume Sophia Reid.
Both of my palms combed through my hair, fisting knots as I grudgingly watched Soph walk away from me. I stood in the baking sun, squinting to follow the speck that had become her figure, hoping she would turn around.
“Did she leave?” Elizabeth whispered behind me, causing me to jump.
I glared at her, resenting her choice in spouse and irritated she followed us out there. Thomas should be thanking whichever deity he prayed to that he hadn’t come down to get his ass kicked.
“Thanks to your husband.”
Her hand reached for my bicep. “She won’t stay away. Even Thomas knows that.”
I looked at her, impassively observing the pretentious atmosphere surrounding Elizabeth. How overwhelming for Soph. None of this was her.
“Where would she go?”
“What do you care, Elizabeth?”
“I care about you, Jameson. Believe it or not. I know that…I know I told you before it was best for her to let her go, and I still think it would’ve been, but now…your heart is aching, isn’t it?”
“Screw both of you,” I snarled, storming away from her.
I heard Elizabeth follow, her squealing voice demanding as eloquently and politely as possible that I turn around to her. It was pathetic. The last thing she wanted was to cause a scene at the Ritz. You moron. She doesn’t want attention on either of you.
I stopped mid-jog, halfway up the front steps and turned around. She was so close and determined that she practically crashed into my chest.
“Jameson,” she panted, “where are you going? We need to talk about this. You know exactly what Thomas is going to say. He’ll panic that she’s out there, somewhere, with your secret.”
“And you think,” I lowered my voice, aware of the nosy eyes glancing around us as traffic meandered in and out of the front door. “You think Sophia would actually tell someone anything that would put herself at risk? You two are so self-absorbed, Elizabeth. Seriously. If you knew half of what Soph has been through, you might actually realize and accept the fact that I’m in love with her and let us move on. Jesus Christ.”
Wait. What the hell did I just say?
I think Elizabeth’s heart stopped just as quickly as mine did, because she looked at me as though I had just grown a fourth head, covered with horns.
“Ma’am,” an employee approached Elizabeth, tentatively placing his arm on her shoulder to gain her attention, “there’s a phone call for your husband at the front desk and we…we’re unable to forward it to the room.”
“What?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes still stuck on me, probably repeating my admission in her mind like I had been doing since it blurted from my tongue.
“I’ll t-take it for him,” she stuttered, shaking her head. “Jameson, follow me in, honey.” Honey?
“Such formalities, Auntie Liz.” I smiled at Elizabeth, a little too wide and cheerful.
Her eyes quickly narrowed in response before spinning on her heel and entering the lobby. I was slow to follow her, apprehensive to continue creating distance between Soph and me. Soph.
Elizabeth was leaning over the marble counter of the front desk when I finally entered the lobby. It smelled as pungently odorous as when I arrived ninety minutes prior, the stench of chlorine and cleaning supplies filling the crowded space.
“What is it?” I questioned, watching the way her eyes flickered around the room while she listened to the receiver.
“I see,” she whispered in response to her conversation. “No. I don’t know where he is. You see, my husband is in the shower right now. It has been a great ordeal for all of us to go through this hurricane, so he might be a while calling you back. Yes. That’s my number. That’ll be fine.”
“What’s going on?” My arms crossed, frowning at Elizabeth while I waited for her response.
She handed the vacant receiver back to an employee and turned to me, releasing an irritated sigh.
“You need to find Sophia,” she mumbled. “And between you and me, you need to leave.”
“What?”
“I’ll help you. I’ll contact one of Thomas’s friends at the DOJ. I’ll get you a passport, Jameson.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Twenty minutes ago, Thomas was telling me to leave her and now you’re telling me to take her somewhere?”
Elizabeth’s eyes closed, sealing tightly before she glanced at me again. This time, her eyes were drained of emotion.
“That was Celine Pembroke.” Elizabeth took my arm, beginning to guide me toward the front door and out onto the pavement, where I had just watched Soph run away from me. “She’s an associate of Thomas’s. She works for the DOJ.”
“Why did you lie and tell her he was in the shower?”
“That wasn’t a lie. The shower is on,” she pressed. “I don’t know if he’s in it or not. He likes to turn it on when talking on the phone so someone can’t eavesdrop. That’s not important, Jameson. Celine had a message for Thomas. For you, actually.”