Divorced Heiress Married Her Brother’s Friend

Chapter 5 Hidden Messages

LIAM’S POV

I heard the click of her door as Sophia closed it. Biting back words, I took the torturous steps back to my apartment, my d**k throbbing painfully against the constraints of my pants.

I wrestled hard with the thought to retrace my steps and take away that cloud of gloom hovering around her. I needed to see her back to her usual zone, her beaming smile illuminating the room once more.

I needed to hold her in my arms and show her what she really meant to me, devote every hour before sunlight worshipping every inch of her beautiful body.

Appreciate what that opportunistic parasite had taken for granted.

However, I wondered what that would speak of me. Taking advantage of her in her lows? Even Julian would have my head if he smelled any relationship with his sister outside the protection I promised.

I stepped into my apartment, almost identical with Sophia’s, with exception to the decor in mine.

Structural wise, there was no telling them apart but it brought back images of her standing at the door with those breathtaking eyes looking up at me in surprise.

The image of her face sat in front of my head, refusing to budge.

There lied a longing when she gazed at me. I shook my head to clear out that thought for it was a deceit of my own imagination. Nothing more.

I was going insane with the direction this sort of longing led to.

A cold shower was what I needed before I did something out of bounds by storming back out to her apartment and taking her against the floor of her living room.

My journey to the bathroom was a difficult walk, thanks to the hardness between my legs that disallowed free movement.

Images of her at the club, in that little dress, dancing her pain away with all cares thrown to the wind. If I had walked up to her earlier...

I reached for the bottle of body wash, squirting some on my palm and without thinking, brought it down on my painfully swollen d**k for relief.

Less than an hour after, I laid on my bed clad in briefs with my belly facing the ceiling. My phone had gone off right after I sent a reply to her message so I plugged it in and laid back in bed.

That was a chance to get my thoughts in order and find a way to deplete this consuming lust hardening my body like rock.

There was no difference in the state of my s****l health. If anything, the cold shower amplified the hunger I felt for Sophia.

Even worse, texting her.

Was I wrong to feel the way I felt for her? Was it too early perhaps? Of course it was, you dimwit! She had not even gone through her divorce yet and here I was, thirsting after her like a starved man.

Perhaps it was not such a wise decision to want to be around her for her welfare knowing how wary she would be of men. Not to mention someone with a reputation like mine.

A while later, I saw that my phone was fully recharged. I found myself turning it on in anticipation of her replies. Sliding immediately to my inbox, indeed like I expected, there was one message notification from her.

When I clicked on it to reveal what the message read, I discovered it was a deleted text. I itched to know what she regretted sending so bad that she deleted it.

"What was that you deleted?" I typed with quick fingers.

"If only my phone hadn’t gone off at the wrong time." I muttered as I looked at my phone, waiting for her response to come in.

As I placed my phone next to me, I recalled the moment when Sophia had called Julian to disclose what went down with Maxwell.

Julian and I were hanging out when he received that call. Of course as his best friend, I was no stranger to Julian’s anger but that day, it was as though a stranger possessed him.

If Maxwell was anywhere within Julian’s view, the latter would have made sure to send him rightfully where he belonged - in the fiery flames of hell.

Seeing his pain, hearing Sophia’s voice of anguish as she broke the news, I quickly hatched a plan of my own, one to help Sophia in the way I knew how to.

I had the apartments prepared and proposed my plans to Julian which was standing in as a protective barrier between her and men who might want to take advantage of her vulnerability.

He was physically unavailable for that anyway. He could entrust his little sister into my hands where she would be better cared for, loved and all her needs taken care of.

Fine, my reasons might be selfish, still it was fair to me. Sophia had always been the woman of my dreams.

Ever since I found her on that cool evening, With deft fingers gripping the slender handle of the brush, she moved her wrist as the bristles glid across the surface in a gentle caress.

The words on my tongue died as I watched this woman work her magic in front of a plain canvas, bringing light and life to it in a matter of minutes.

She moved with purpose, swirling and swooping the brush in a symphony of motion.

She paused to take a step back in admiration of her handwork. I watched as her eyes narrowed down, mind focused before she resumed the waltz of her brush.

Julian spotted me first and called out my name. "Took you long enough." He said. "Sophia meet Liam. Liam meet Sophia, my baby sister."

She turned her head, her eyes holding me captive, her smile rendering me immobile and reducing me to a mumbling fool.

"Oh, hi there."

From that moment onwards, I knew I was in trouble.

I started secretly orchestrating chance encounters with Sophia. On the day I was ready with gifts to confess my feelings, Julian caught me and dealt me a fatal blow.

He told me that Sophia would never like someone like me—she despised all men from high society. She felt that love from the wealthy was just an exchange of interests, an unspeakable conspiracy. She longed for simple, pure love, and Julian would steadfastly guard Sophia’s ideals.

I didn’t blame her for arriving at this conclusion. She was right. However, humans only pursue what benefits them, for one reason—this trait has been absorbed into our veins since ancient times. Whether legal or not, it is our inescapable quality.

Although I admired her, I soon decided not to reveal my feelings. I turned my confession ceremony into a prank—only then would Julian believe that I hadn’t fallen for Sophia.

Paying little to no attention when she spoke to me, helped to pose a façade that I wanted her to see.

It didn’t do so much when her back was turned to me because that was the time my entire gaze became pinned on her. I drank in every detail of the contours and soft edges of her body, ingrained them in my memory for recollection purposes.

I burned with a passion to witness the day I finally revealed what I felt for her.I will prove to her that the kind of love she desires, I can provide as well.

So imagine the devastation when I learned about her marriage to some dude called Maxwell. Maxwell who?

I had never experienced heartbreak until that exact moment. I felt foolish to have waived all chances to talk to her until on the day of her wedding where I sent my congratulations.

Was I happy for her? In all frankness, no. But she made her choice and was not forced. That logic alone calmed me.

Did I have a choice? No. She already stated her grievances against men like me. Who was I to make decisions when her family also had little say in that regard?

Coming back to the present, I had been given a second chance to reclaim what I had so foolishly thrown away in the past.

I lost her to Maxwell once. I could not afford to lose her to anyone else or for her to fall for any more lies. It would take Hercules himself to move me from my hard resolve.

I would protect her fiercely with all of my being, damning the consequences, baring my mind to her and making known my intentions to Julian.

It was tricky but it was a thoroughly thought plan. Convincing Julian that I needed to start a new business in the city was the first step. It was in the same zone as Sophia and from there, the second step was birthed: Sophia’s welfare.

After much persuasion, he entrusted her into my waiting arms, making me promise to treat her like a sister which I hastily agreed to. What I didn’t disclose, however, was that I wanted to treat Sophia as more than just a sister...

...I wanted her as my wife.