Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 18

Holy Shit…

If Sophia had thought that Neil was hot before in his security guard uniform, she clearly had no idea that he had been, in fact, roasting – No! Scorching! underneath that uniform all along.

He was like the Sun God reincarnated!

Or maybe Sophia had just never seen a shirtless and ripped beyond her imaginings, attractive male body before. Except for in her dreams, of course. Of this body before her now. But even her dreams had been a sad excuse for what he looked like in real life.

Either way, there was no denying the effect it had on her. On her skin as it prickled. On her heart as it pounded with the speed and fury of a hummingbird. On her breathing – umm, what breathing? And on her core temperature as it heated to an unbearable fever.

Goddess, how could you have been this cruel to me? Sophia wondered as she watched Neil swimming in the lake. The way his arm strokes flowed as though they were part of the body of water, slicing gracefully through the dark liquid. He moved so fast, but at the same time made the minimal splashes and ripples on the reflective surface there.

Why!? Sophia pleaded as she admired his powerful tanned back. The long muscles on either side of his spine stood out like smooth mountains. Rippling muscles with each stroke his arms took. Even the way his shoulder blades gracefully moved over and against those long muscles made it impossible for her to even blink for a fraction of a second.

She didn’t want to miss a single fucking moment of this magnificent specimen in front of her. If only he knew the kind of thoughts she was having of him…

As though he picked up on her staring at him, he stopped swimming and came to a standstill, floating with only his head sticking out and with his arms moving slowly to keep him afloat.

At first he looked questioningly toward the shoreline, but almost immediately caught her sitting on the dock there, with her legs hanging off the side.

“Sophia?” he said, starting to swim toward her with bewilderment on his handsome face, making the frown between his dark, thick brows deepen. Somehow it made him impossibly more attractive. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“Who said I was looking for you?” Sophia surprised herself with the wit in her voice. It even sounded brighter and clearer than it had just a while ago when she’d spoken to Scott.

He also seemed to be taken aback. Either by her teasing tone or by her voice not muffled by embarrassment or pain. Or both. But his sexy frown only deepened more as he closed the watery space between them, and pulled himself up to the dock next to her.

Those biceps! She watched how those obviously strong muscles there flexed with the action of pulling and pushing the weight of his body up out of the water.

Why did the Goddess give her dreams of this body, this perfect male body, and that kind face, smoldering eyes, and enticing lips if she couldn’t have them?

It was like showing a kid a chocolate bar, making them think they’re going to get to eat it, but then suddenly rip it away the moment they want to take a bite out of it.

That was what the cruel, cruel Goddess did to her, Sophia thought as she looked at Neil. He was her chocolate bar, and she so badly wanted to take a bite. A lick. Anything.

Why give me such dreams if you didn’t make us mates? Are you truly condemning me to wanting something I can’t have?

Well, that’s been done to her for so long, she should not have been surprised by it happening anymore. Everything she so badly wanted in life, she was denied. So she really should stop hoping for anything different to happen.

He was looking at her, those bronze eyes heated as he regarded her sitting next to him there, but as though an off switch had been flipped, the warmth there vacated his gaze within an instant, and he even looked away from her. He much rather seemed to prefer watching the lake.

Sophia tried to ignore how it made her feel hollow in her chest. Instead, she dipped her gaze to his ridiculously colorful swimming trunks to distract herself from that feeling as she heard him take a breath to start saying something.

“I also used to prefer coming out into nature than taking boring classes,” Neil said, his voice filled with amusement, but there was no smile, nor any spark in his eyes as they flitted over to her, but immediately looked back ahead of him again.

Other than Sophia being surprised and relieved at the same time about him not reprimanding her for skipping school, instead he related to her, she realized at that moment that it was another quality about him that she liked.

Not once in the time that she’d known him – a very short time, though it felt like so much longer – had he ever treated her like a child. He was barely three years older than her after all, but some of the teachers his age at the school had treated them like children, just because they were still in school.

Not Neil. He was different. He was different from anyone else she’d ever known.

“Orange is not my color, I know,” he said, and Sophia looked at him confusedly. “My bright Hawaiian swimming trunks.” He pointed to it and eyed her as she looked down at them again.

He’d noticed her staring at them. She blushed at being caught obviously ogling his pants. Though it really had been just to marvel at the bright color of them on him.

“Scott got them for me as a joke,” he said with affection, and as Sophia looked into his eyes, the corresponding emotion was there.

She couldn’t help but feel a little hurt that his eyes would go empty when he looked at her, but be filled with sentiment when he thought of his friend. Though, she also didn’t know why she expected anything more in any case.

She was the one with the crush here. He was just a kind and attentive person, she learned over this small period of time and few interactions she’d had with him. But that was where it stopped.

“He’s trying to get me off black,” he snorted. “I hate it, but figured I always swim alone, so no harm in wearing something this ridiculous then.”

Sophia found herself admiring his smile. Those lips so familiar to her, as if they were her own.

As though he noticed where her eyes were resting, he instantly got uncomfortable, he cleared his throat and shifted an inch further away from her.

As if that shook Sophia from her embarrassing stupor, she only felt that hollowness spreading through her whole body. He seemed to be brooding about something as he stared out over the lake, still not wanting to look at her.

Sophia on the other hand got giddy and suddenly unable to stand the awkward silence between them now, but horrified, she didn’t know what to say to him. If he even wanted to be spoken to, as he seemed more content just sitting there – not looking at, or speaking to her.

“I hugged a tree on my way here,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

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