Chapter 11

At her phone’s jangling, Sophia Dumont slowed while stepping from the bathroom of an upscale hotel suite. The towel she’d been running through her damp hair also slowed, and with the steam from the shower swirling around her, she squinted into the darkness.

“Mon Dieu, who’s calling at this hour?” she grumbled under her breath while stealing across the bedroom to snatch the device from her purse.

Just as she was about to silence it, a pulse hammered her. With a gasp, she staggered backward, and even as the towel dropped to curtain her bare shoulders, she tapped the screen.

“Aiden?” she whispered.

“Hi, Sophie.”

“Where are you?” Once more toweling her hair with one hand, she lowered herself to sit on the cool sheets draping the edge of the bed. “They said you weren’t in the office.”

“At a...” His breath puffed, filling the receiver. “I’m at home ... Uh, staying with a friend.”

“Ah, Gina?”

“No. Well, yes. But not tonight.”

“Oh.”

“Look, I know I’ve got a lot to explain.” He cleared his throat. “And I will, just give me some time. Um, is”—he chuckled quietly—”my wife there?”

At his soft laughter, her heart warmed. The heat grew when she looked over her shoulder at the sleek form huddled beneath the covers. The other woman hadn’t spent a single night in her own room, and both had required copious amounts of coffee to recover from their nightly activities.

“Oui.” She moved the phone closer and whispered a little quieter. “But, um, she’s asleep.”

“Hmm, she taking good care of you, filthy Sophie?”

His laugh was louder, and she couldn’t help grinning as her hand abandoned the towel to wander a breast. At a nail tracing Eva’s bite marks around its still-angry, tight nipple, she whimpered into the receiver. Not yet used to the weird connection, she tried to send him a pulse, telling him exactly how well his ... wife had been treating her.

“Oh, wow. Okay, then.” Another chortle came from the speaker. “Glad that’s, um, working out.”

At the gentle arrival of one more surge from him, she sucked the inside of her cheek. As the fingernail trembled on the achy stem, somehow even tighter, the phone shook in her hand.

“Mon chéri, I also miss you so much,” she murmured, again attempting to mirror what he’d sent.

When a heavy sigh filled the receiver, she froze. Suddenly, the strange contact snapped, leaving her mind to grapple at a steel wall.

“Blaine Hornsby.”

No sooner had the two words tumbled into her brain than her pulse rocketed. After a quick glance at Eva’s sleeping curves, she rose from the bed and walked into the suite’s main room, tugging the door shut behind her.

“W-What about him?”

“Has he—”

“Non! No, he...”

Heart twisting, she gripped the phone and collapsed to a chair by the towering glass doors. After letting one leg dangle over its armrest, she dragged the other wide, displaying her body to anyone in the neighboring building who cared to look. She deserved the inspection. She was a liar.

At Aiden’s quiet sigh, she blinked back tears. Oh, that’s right. He could block her, but that didn’t permit her thoughts to hide from him. To reinforce that fact, the ring’s smoky silhouette winked into existence, sending its wispy tendrils around her mind.

“Yes. Yes, Aiden, he’s been calling,” she whispered.

Nails shaking on her belly, she stared towards the distant blurry windows. At the sudden pulse of warmth, she huffed and focused on the phone. Love? Despite her lying?

“I haven’t forgotten what he did to you, Sophie.”

“I’m sorry, Aiden.”

“You’re mine now, correct?”

“Oui, mon chéri.” She gulped. “But he made me ... He threatened. And Mary’s again with him.”

“Hmm, interesting.” A sigh filled the receiver. “How’s that working out for her?

“Non, you misunderstand. She’s terrified, Aiden.”

With the phone closer to her lips, she huddled as if shadowed figures leaned nearer to watch from the gloom, suddenly both deeper and chillier. Whether Blaine had been perched at the slender Chinese girl’s shoulder when Mary had called, she couldn’t be sure. However, one thing had become quite clear.