Recaptured Dreams (2 page)

She didn’t know Xavier Cain, but the ripple of excitement from those few moments made her wonder what knowing him
would
feel like.

“I don’t care much for this line,” Sophia whispered to Anne Marie, trying to change the subject. “It’s too boring.”

Anne Marie laughed. “Some designers think boring
is
fashion.”

As the last model rounded the corner and headed backstage, Sophia turned her head and was pinned in her seat. Xavier sat like a prowling cat on the other side of the stage, his eyes narrowed on her. She nudged Anne Marie and angled her head in his direction.

“There he is again,” Sophia said.

“Who?”

“
Him.
The XS designer.”

“What is he doing?” Anne Marie squinted across the bright runway. “Oh my…”

“What?”

“Yes—that’s him all right, and he’s staring at you…again,” Anne Marie replied. “He must see something he likes.”

Sophia frowned. “He does not.”

“We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we, darling?”

Sophia was entranced each time she was caught in his gaze. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her, and every time she broke her own stare during the model procession, she found it quickly wandering back to him. Each time she looked into his eyes, her chest restricted with shallow breaths and her body went hot. Sweet Lord, how could a man’s stare make her feel so female?

Sophia didn’t remember anything she’d seen during the last half of the show; she’d been too distracted to care. When the lights came up, she expected Xavier to still be sitting in his seat. For that matter, she almost expected him to leap across the runway in her direction after the way he’d been looking at her. Instead, her brow furrowed as she spied him racing toward the exit ahead of the crowd. Had she been imagining his attention? Had the lights played trick on her?

Through the bustle of people, Anne Marie and Sophia eventually also made their way toward and out the door.

“I’ll have to remember this experience the next time I have a fight with Mother.” Sophia laughed as she stepped out of the tent, into the pleasantly mild air. Sophia always enjoyed the warmer winter days a London February could occasionally produce.

“Yes, it’s definitely been entertaining.” Anne Marie smiled at her. “I’ll go arrange for the car and pop back straight away.”

With a nod, Sophia watched Anne Marie walk toward the valet.

“Wait.”

A hand curled around her arm, and before Sophia could turn to look, she was whirled around into Xavier’s arms. Her heart stopped as she found herself pressed into his body, their faces just inches apart. His breathing was ragged and his blue eyes wild as he looked over her face. Feeling his arms tighten against her hips, she trembled.

For those brief seconds, Sophia was lost as his eyes continued to scan her features. It felt oddly comforting to be wrapped in his solid hold. But his near-savage stare made her want to duck for cover. It was almost as if—

“Um, hello?” Anne Marie interrupted her thoughts as she tapped on Sophia’s shoulder. Sophia jerked her head around and saw Anne Marie giving her a wicked smile. “I do hope I’m not interrupting. The car is ready.”

Sophia’s gaze slid back to Xavier. His wild eyes cleared, and he let out a long sigh as he loosened the grasp on her hips and brought a hand up to her face, slowly tracing the outline of her jaw. Although uneasy, she felt the need to lean into him.

“It’s you,” he whispered as he brought his face closer to hers.

Flustered and electrified from his touch, Sophia could only mumble, “Yes.”

“Xavier!” someone yelled. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Xavier didn’t take his eyes off Sophia’s when a dark-haired man stalked over.

“Good grief, Xavier!” the man barked. “You of all people know better than to run out at the end of the show. We have some business to finish.”

He yanked on Xavier’s arm, only to be swiftly shaken off.

“Listen,” the distressed man huffed, “I don’t have time for this.”

Xavier looked at him and scowled. “Not now, Bryant.”

“Yes
, now.
The truck’s out back, and the driver is nowhere in sight to load. One of the models ran off with her clothes still on, and the courier has
misplaced
the couture dress we brought over to show tomorrow.” Bryant drew a quick breath, shooting Sophia a quick, dismissive glance, and kept going. “On top of that, Diana is having a fit over some expensive fabric order that was damaged on its way from Japan, and Marcus called saying the new interns we hired have destroyed the work room, and he’s pretty sure one of them is stealing—”

“Enough!” Xavier’s deep voice boomed as he released Sophia and turned toward Bryant, pointing a sharp finger into his chest. “I know where I have to be and when. I’ll handle it when I’m ready. Understand?”

Xavier loomed menacingly over him. The man nodded curtly, bowing his head as he retreated.

Xavier focused back on Sophia with piercing eyes. “Come to the after-party,” he demanded.

“Oh, well…” she started, still unable to get her mind to focus clearly.

“We’d love to.” Anne Marie flashed a smile at Xavier as she stepped between them.

“Good.” He took a card out of his inner jacket pocket and handed it to Anne Marie. “Here’s the address.”

Xavier grabbed Sophia by the waist again and drew her snugly to his body. Her mind went instantly blank as she looked into his cool eyes lit up under the high moon. Those were eyes she could get lost in, she thought. Bluer than a summer sky. Beautiful. Captivating. Mesmerizing. She was certainly mesmerized by something, but she couldn’t figure out
what
exactly. It wasn’t only his eyes. Maybe it was just him. Never in her life had she felt so connected to someone so quickly. It was a heady feeling, one that she didn’t want to stop. Ever so lightly, he brushed his lips across hers, and she shivered head to toe.

“Don’t be late.” He released her and stalked in the same direction as Bryant.

Stunned, Sophia just stood on the sidewalk in a daze. She’d let him kiss her. A man who made her insides twist…a man she didn’t even know.

Oh bugger.
She couldn’t decide if that had been incredibly rude of him or incredibly stupid of her. Right now, her brain didn’t seem to care either way.

“Hmm.” Anne Marie cocked her head and tapped her fingers to her lips. “That was interesting.”

Still shaken, Sophia turned to her friend and saw the smirk on her face. “Well, I…”
Oh my heavens
…Words escaped her. “Yes.”

Amused, Anne Marie laughed and hugged Sophia. “Flustered a bit, are we?”

“Yes…yes,” Sophia said gently. “You could say that.”

Anne Marie grabbed her hand. “Well then, let’s go to the after-party and see how much more flustered we can get you!”

Xavier stomped backstage behind his brother. He raked his hand through his hair, unable to believe he’d let her walk away.

His Sophia. He’d thought of her, dreamed of her, and prayed for her for the last ten years. And there she’d been, as if in answer to his prayers.

He hadn’t seen her in a decade. And the small bit of a kiss he’d given her had only sparked his longing for her more. The girl he’d spent countless hours looking for was right there in London, waiting for him. She’d trembled in his arms. Silent yearning had been clear on her face, and all he’d wanted to do was sweep her up, tuck her into a limo, and drive away.

“Tell me again why you couldn’t handle this, Bryant?” Xavier ground out as they rounded the backstage corner.

Bryant cocked a grin. “You’re the boss, bro. You get all twitchy when things don’t go as planned. You always have your hands in the middle of it.”

Xavier suppressed a growl. He wanted his hands on Sophia, not cleaning up a fashion show mess. “I could’ve done without any hassles tonight. I was busy.”

They stopped in front of their storage room. Bryant slid open the door, and they stepped inside.

“Yeah, you looked busy.” Bryant walked over to a rack in the corner. In meticulous fashion, he plucked clothes from it and put them into over-sized luggage cases. “But in case you forgot, we’ve got things to do here.”

“I didn’t forget. I was doing something
else
very important.” Xavier dug his phone out of his pocket and sent a message to Diana and Marcus, whose problems were insignificant at the moment.

“The sassy raven-haired beauty is important? Figures.”

Xavier jerked some clothes off the rack and flung them into the cases. Keeping them neat wasn’t priority number one. Finishing quickly was. “It was Sophia.”

Bryant stopped packing. He gave a twisted smile. “
The
Sophia?”

Xavier’s nod was quick.

Bryant scratched his head. “You’re trying to tell me that some random chick at a London fashion show is the same girl you’ve been trying to hunt down all these years? The
same
girl you thought you knocked up before she vanished?”

“Her parents took her away,” Xavier corrected firmly. “Sophia wanted to stay with me.”

“Whatever.” Bryant started working again. “So we come here and
bam!
There she is. Well, good for you. Just don’t get all distracted and googly-eyed while we’re trying to work. Besides, how do you know it’s her? I mean, ten years is a long time.”

“Bryant, it was her.” Xavier dropped another load of clothes in the case as he stared at his brother. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my whole life. And I’d appreciate it if you weren’t so smug about it.”

“Sorry. It’s been a long damn night. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He patted Xavier on the shoulder. “I know she meant a lot to you, and I’m sorry I had to drag you away from her. If I had known who she was, I wouldn’t have.”

“It’s all right.” He tucked the last of the clothes into a case. “After all, I created this fashion line to remind me of her. It’s only right to take care of it before I see her again at the after-party.”

“What?”

A smile curled the corner of Xavier’s mouth. “You didn’t think I would let her walk out of my arms without knowing I would see her again soon, did you?”

Bryant shrugged. “Well, no. I guess not. What are you going to do now?”

The lid of the case slammed shut, and Xavier jerked his vibrating phone back out of his pocket. “Well, as soon as I get these fires extinguished, I’m going to go start one with her.”

Bryant laughed. “After this long, that’ll be one hell of a raging inferno.”

“I hope so.”

Chapter Two

OXO T
OWER
W
AS
O
N
L
ONDON’S
S
OUTH
B
ANK
. Sophia had dined there before and was amazed to see the transformation from eating area to fashion show after-party. All the tables that lined the glass-encased dining room had been removed and replaced with couches arranged in intimate seating areas. The lighting was dim, and music played as people laughed and mingled.

The Brasserie had been revamped from a dining area and music room to a full-on dance club, complete with live DJ, flashing lights in every color, and music loud enough to wake the dead. Sweat beaded on Sophia’s skin as she bumped through the hoard of people. Aching to get away from the commotion, she motioned to Anne Marie.

“I think I’m going to go out on the terrace and get some air!” Sophia yelled above the music.

Dancing with some handsome man, Anne Marie turned about and replied, “All right, darling! I’ll catch up with you later!”

Sophia nodded and made her way to the nearest exit. Pushing open the set of glass doors, she drew a deep breath of the quickly cooling evening air. She rubbed her hands over her arms. As the doors closed, the music faded and her head began to clear. The terrace was a large balcony the length of the OXO, overlooking the River Thames below. It was dimly lit from the lights inside and, from the looks of it, not the happening place to be. There were very few people lingering about, and Sophia found that soothing.