she was naked in the head.
“Understood,” he said before he closed the door firmly shut. He heard the lock click, and that made him smile a bit.
Fifteen minutes later, she knocked on his door. “Okay. Your turn.”
He got himself in and out of the bathroom as fast as possible. He popped a couple of painkillers into his mouth and then waited impatiently for them to knock him out. He tossed and turned; he tried to find a comfortable way to position his leg, but he never found it. Instead, he lay on his back with his hands folded behind his head, and imagined Sophia in her bed. It took all of his willpower not to cross to her room and pull her into his arms.
God, he loved her.
God, he wanted her.
But she loved Dan. In her eyes, he would always be second best to his twin. He knew that. Had always known it. Now, he would just have to continue to live with it.
Sophia wasn’t having any better luck sleeping than Luke. It was almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep at this stage of the pregnancy game. She had three pillows jammed along her back for support, and one pillow jammed between her legs to keep her knees from digging into each other. Little Danny had decided, for some unknown reason, to change his position the minute she lay down to go to sleep. He had seemed perfectly content in his original position the entire night, but once she closed her eyes, he stuffed his feet up under her rib cage and started to spin around. It felt as if he was trying to make a break for it!
So, when Ranger started crying at the top of his lungs, she was awake to hear it. She sighed heavily and rolled herself out of bed. The wood floor was cold on her bare feet as she quietly made her way to the door. She opened the door, stepped outside of her room and bumped right into a nearly naked Luke. The only thing the man had on was tight white boxer briefs. She hoped that her expression didn’t change as her eyes flitted up and down the length of him.
The frame was the same as Daniel’s, yes. But this build was all Luke. His body was lean and muscular from years of fighting and surviving. Her eyes settled on the bandage that encircled Luke’s sculpted thigh before she swung them back up to Luke’s face. At that moment, she was genuinely grateful for the dim light in the hall. She had no doubt that her face was stained bright red with a blush.
“I’ll get him,” Luke said. “You go back to bed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I got it.”
Sophia removed herself quickly back to her room. The racing of her heart, she suspected, had absolutely nothing to do with her husband and everything to do with Luke. And she hated it. What kind of woman would bury her husband, carry his child and then respond physically to another man?
“A seriously disturbed one,” Sophia scolded herself as she pounded the pillows behind her, squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to fall asleep.
Luke was having his own issues. Ranger was curled up in a ball next to his ear on the pillow, happily purring his fool head off. Luke, on the other hand, was wide awake and fully aroused. Seeing Sophia in her nightgown, her long silky hair spilling over her shoulders and onto her breasts, made blood flow rapidly into parts of his body that had no business waking up. But she had just looked so damned sexy in her modest cotton nightgown with the light from the stairs revealing the outline of her shapely legs. Even the bulge of her pregnant belly was a turn-on.
“God... You’re sick, man,” Luke said to himself. He balled his hands into a fist and waited for the arousal to ebb. He had no business horn-dogging after Sophia. No business at all! Luke felt like hitting something, so he pounded the mattress with his fists. Why hadn’t the pills kicked in? Only sleep would annihilate the vulnerable, sensual image of Sophia fresh out of bed that was now scorched into his brain. Sleep couldn’t get here soon enough. Not by a long shot.
Chapter Three
Luke woke up the next morning feeling hungover from the meds. He had managed to sleep off and on, but for the most part, he had tossed and turned all night. He couldn’t get his leg comfortable and he couldn’t get Sophia out of his mind. Being so close to her, without Dan as a buffer, was not something he had been prepared to handle. She made him feel out of control. He didn’t like it.
“Square yourself away, marine. Real quick,” Luke said to his reflection before he flipped open the hinged bathroom mirror and looked for a razor in the medicine cabinet. He knew he’d find one; his mom was always prepared. What he wasn’t expecting to find was a neatly organized row of Sophia’s favorite fragrances.
The first time he had ever laid eyes on Sophia, she was working behind a fragrance counter in a local department store. She had been talking with a customer, a perfume bottle loosely held in her hand. Her hair was swept up into a haphazard twist and her lovely face was completely devoid of makeup. The sight of her throwing her head back as she laughed stopped him in his tracks. She laughed without reservation; her positive energy sucked him in. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. In an instant, he was crazy, head over heels for her, and he had been ever since.
Luke glanced over at the adjoining bathroom door that led to Sophia’s bedroom. He had heard her moving around a couple of hours ago, so he knew she was already downstairs. He reached over and checked to make sure the door was locked before he pulled the first fragrance bottle down.
“Stalker,” Luke said quietly to himself with a self-effacing half smile. He popped the top off the first bottle and brought it up to his nose. The minute the perfume reached his senses, he thought “Sophia.” To Luke, Sophia always smelled like something he wanted to eat. She never wore the same fragrance two days in a row, but she did have a lineup of favorites, and Luke recognized them all.
One by one, Luke spent a moment with each of Sophia’s fragrances. Each one conjured up a memory of Sophia. From Luke’s vantage point, Dan had won the ultimate prize the day he married her. Luke snapped the top onto the last bottle and got back to the business of shaving the stubble off his face. He moved his head side to side and checked out the goatee that was taking shape. A couple of days more and it might actually look like something. He wondered if Sophia would like him with it. The minute that thought crossed his mind, he gripped each side of the sink, dropped his head and shook it.
Unacceptable, Brand!
The sooner he got back to his life in the corps, the better off he’d be. He didn’t make sense in civilian clothes. He sure as hell didn’t make sense when he was around Sophia; he needed to figure out a way to shove his feelings back into place. He had been doing it for years; it should be second nature. But it wasn’t. Keeping his heart closed to Sophia was like trying to stop his lungs from wanting to take in air. Whenever she was near him, he had an overwhelming urge to hold her face in his hands, look into those sweet hazel-green eyes and tell her that he loved her. That he had always loved her. Which would, of course, be the worst mistake of his life. His confession would freak Sophia out, and any plans he had to play a big role in his nephew’s life would get eighty-sixed. He couldn’t risk that happening. He just couldn’t risk it.
Luke stared down his own image in the mirror. “Maintain your military bearing, marine. That’s all you have to do. Maintain your military bearing.”
Luke pushed himself away from the sink and headed downstairs. Sophia smiled at him in greeting. She was on the phone; she mouthed the name “Tyler” and raised her eyebrows at him. He shook his head. There were five kids in the Brand clan, including him. Tyler was the middle child; he was sandwiched between two sets
