Cayden
A few hours later found Cayden back at the exact same spot he’d been in before everything that had happened in the past two days. At the hotel bar, drinking bourbon by himself. After Sophie had been released from the hospital, they'd caught a cab back to the hotel. Sophie had rushed to her room with the hurried explanation that she desperately needed a shower and he hadn't seen her since.
A hundred times since then, he'd thought about going up there, knocking on the door just to make sure she was okay. That was all. No other reason. None. Nada. Definitely not because he couldn’t get the image of Sophie Stone naked and wet in the shower out of his head and he hoped to see if real life lived up to what he was imagining.
I really should check on her, he thought to himself, again. Cayden was about to do just that when none other but the star of all his recent fantasies walked into the bar, making a beeline straight towards him.
She was wearing a dress that skimmed her thighs beautifully. It was odd to him because besides last night he'd only ever seen her in those tasteful suits she wore to work. As she drew near, he could see that her long, glossy brown hair was still damp from her shower and it had his body tightening even more as all his shower fantasies swarmed back. Really Cayden? Get a hold of yourself, he chastised himself as Sophie drew near.
“I’m starving.” She said, not looking at all like she’d just gotten knocked in the head with a large rock and then spent a day and a half in a hospital. Sophie smiled at him, and his heart hitched painfully in his chest. "Let's go grab a bite to eat."
“I don’t know, Sophie, you should probably be resting.”
“Come on. Harry said he's striking the articles because of what happened, so we have a free night on the paper's credit card.” Her smile widened into a grin that he couldn’t say no to.
"Fine," Cayden said with a sigh. He wasn't used to women charming him into doing something. It was usually the other way around. But then again, everything seemed backward when it came to Sophie.
He threw a bill on the bar for his drink. Less than twenty minutes later they were sitting at a corner booth in a dimly lit restaurant and, Cayden was surprised to discover, he was enjoying himself.
As their food arrived, the conversation turned to their past and Cayden was surprised again to find that they had more in common than he realized.
“So, your parents didn’t want you to be a journalist?” He asked, sitting forward as he took a bite of pasta.
“Are you kidding me?” Sophie said as she reached for another French fry. “My parents hate my job.”
"Mine too." Cayden admitted, "But why? It doesn't make sense. You're a great reporter."
“I know! They think it’s too dangerous. And this little fiasco will just give them more fuel to throw at me.” Sophie gestured to her head, a reminder of what had happened so recently. She leaned forward. “What about you? Why did your parents not want you to be a journalist?”
"Oh, it’s not just a journalist, per se. They’d hate any profession that didn’t revolve around the all mighty football." He said. It was the first time he'd ever really talked about his strained relationship with his parents, but it came easy with Sophie. "I played football all through high school and college. They had this big dream of me going on to play pro. Make the money. Live the lifestyle. But I tore my ACL. Twice."
“Ouch. Yeah, that would end anybody’s football career,” Sophie said, wincing in sympathy.
“Well, my folks didn’t think it was a good enough reason to quit. My father always said if I was healthy enough to walk then I was healthy enough to play.”
“Jesus. That’s a little intense.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I think you made the right choice. You’re a great journalist and an amazing writer." Sophie's gray eyes met his across the table, and he felt something shift inside him at her words.
The rest of the dinner came and went, and they spent long hours talking about their past, their different paths that brought them both to the same place. It wasn't until they were in the cab headed back to the hotel that Cayden realized it had been the first time in as long as he could remember having a real, in depth conversation with any of the women he went out with. Hell, with anybody at all.
By the time they arrived back at the hotel, it was already late. Cayden knew he was making a mistake. As he walked through the hotel lobby with her, his eyes watched the room as he hovered protectively over her. He stayed on the elevator with her, passing up his own floor, telling himself all the while that he just wanted to make sure she made it to her room safely.
When they were finally standing in front of her door, Sophie paused, turning to him with those big gray eyes of her and watched how they softened on his, glowing with an inner light that he damn well knew spelled trouble. And even still he couldn't make himself turn and walk away.
“Thank you again, Cayden, for everything you did for me. For saving me.” Sophie said softly, staring up at him and for a moment he felt like was drowning. Like all the air had been sucked out of the hotel hallway.
Sophie reached out and took his hand in hers, and he couldn't stop the grimace as a jolt of pain shot through him from his bruised knuckles.
"What? What happened? Are you alright?" She must have noticed, but before he could shrug it off as nothing, she had grabbed his hand and was holding it up to her face. Her eyes widened on the scrapes and bruises scattered across the top of his right hand.
“It was nothing.”
“Nothing? Cayden, did you get into a fight or something while I was in the hospital?”
"Not…exactly." He tried to shrug it off, but it was obvious she wasn't going to let it go. Damn reporters. “While we were waiting for the ambulance I found the guy who threw that rock at you.”
“He didn’t throw it at me," Sophie corrected, "He threw it at a cop, and my head was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
“Well, whatever his intentions were, he still hurt you,” Cayden growled, irritated at her defense of the man, “When I found him I may have roughed him up a little before turning him over to the cops.”
“A little? Looks more like you beat him to a bloody pulp, judging by the state of your knuckles.”
Cayden just shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell her it was closer to the truth than his description of events. She didn’t need to know that.
Sophie muttered something under her breath, too quiet for him to catch anything but 'knight in shining armor'. The rest of her words were lost, but he'd already heard enough to make him uncomfortable. The last thing he needed was for Sophie to start believing he was a good guy. He was a lot of things, but knight in shining armor definitely wasn't one of them. He didn't slay dragons, he didn't steal from the rich and give to the poor and he sure as hell didn't rescue damsels in distress. You sure about that?
Cayden tried to shrug off the inner voice, ignoring the question as he stared down at Sophie. Her gray eyes looked enormous behind her glasses. Just walk away, he told himself. Turn around and walk away. But even with those words echoing in his head he couldn’t stop himself from taking that final step closer to her. Couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and pulling her tight against him and angling his lips over hers.
It was different, this kiss. It was gentle and edged with a tenderness that made Cayden want to push her away and pull her closer all at the same time. For a brief second, he tried to resist, but the feeling of Sophie melting against him had any chance at leaving flying straight out of the window.
Passion and desire all twined together with an unfamiliar sweetness as the kiss deepened and Cayden was already desperate for another taste, but after a moment it was Sophie who pulled away. She looked up at him through a fringe of dark lashes, and he felt a pang of regret, knowing that she was about to say goodnight.
“Sophie, I–.”
“Wait, Cayden,” She cut him off with a hand to his lips as she opened the door behind her and took a step back into the room, “Do you want to come inside?”
Her hesitant question had butterflies beating wildly in his chest, but he didn't wait to follow her into the room. His answer was a devilish, lop sided grin that he wasn't even aware of.
“Hell yes.”