09

Thorne's POV

I couldn't focus.

The papers were spread across my desk, numbers and reports blurring together into meaningless shapes. I'd been staring at the same page for an hour and I hadn't absorbed a single word.

I leaned back in my chair rubbing my eyes with the heels of my palms.

The clock on the wall read 2:07 AM.

I'd been in my study for hours, trying to get work done or rather distract myself.

It wasn't working.

Nothing was working.

I hadn't been able to finish half of what I needed to do not since that night. Not since I'd seen her walk into that club, all wide eyes and trembling lips, looking like she was drowning and desperate for someone to pull her under.

I'd had one-night stands before.

Plenty of them but none of them were like her, none of them made me feel like I was losing my mind and haunted me the way she did.

Sophia.

Just thinking her name sent a jolt through me. I could still feel her skin beneath my hands. Still taste her on my lips.

Still hear those soft little sounds she made when I touched her.

I'd told her it was a mistake.

I'd told her it meant nothing.

I'd told her we were going to bury it and never speak of it again.

I'd lied.

Every single word was a lie because it wasn't nothing It was everything. It was the most alive I'd felt in years and I hated myself for it.

She was eighteen, she was my wife's daughter and was my student.

I had no right to want her but God, I did.

I wanted her so badly it was consuming me. Every time I saw her, every time I smelled that faint vanilla scent she wore, every time I heard her voice I lost a little more of my control.

That outbreak she had in my office, I almost lost it.

I wanted to pull her into my arms and fuck her until she forgot her own name and tell her the truth that I hadn't stopped thinking about her either.

That I'd never wanted anyone the way I wanted her.

But I didn't.

Because I couldn’t, I had too much to lose and she deserved better than a man who would destroy her life just to satisfy his own selfish desires.

I hissed in frustration as I stood up from my desk and walked to the door. Maybe a glass of whiskey would help and numb the ache in my chest enough to let me sleep.

I stepped into the hallway the house was silent, the darkness thick and heavy.

I passed by Sophia's room.

And then I heard it.

A sound that was soft and muffled.

I stopped.

It came again. A quiet moan, breathless and Needy.

My blood ran hot.

It was coming from her room.

I shouldn't have stopped I shouldn't have listened. I should have walked away and gone back to my study and pretended I hadn't heard anything but I couldn't move.

My hand reached for the door handle before I could stop myself It swung open silently.

And then I saw her.

She was lying on the bed, her head thrown back, her hair spread across the pillow like a dark halo. The sheets were tangled around her legs, and her hand was between them, moving in slow, desperate circles.

She was touching herself.

And she was beautiful.

Her lips were parted as her chest rising and falling with each ragged breath. Soft little sounds escaped her throat, sounds that made my cock throb painfully against my zipper.

She hadn't noticed me.

She was lost in her own world chasing something I knew she wasn't going to find.

Not alone.

I watched her frozen in the doorway, my heart pounding so loud trying to fight back my dirty desires.

She’s my stepdaughter.

She’s a forbidden fruit that I should never taste ever again.

She arched her back, a low moan escaping her lips. Her fingers moving fast, desperate and frantic.

"Thorne..."

My name.

She said my fucking name.

I gripped the doorframe so hard my knuckles went white.

She was thinking about me while touching herself.

I should have left.

I should have closed the door and walked away but I didn't.

I couldn't.

And when her eyes fluttered open and locked onto mine, I knew there was no going back.