Long Time Coming

by Scarlett Parrish

  "Trust me, Leo. He has none."

  "Apparently not." He ran his thumb over the back of my hand, lost in his own thoughts, giving the impression of a man concentrating hard. Or planning something. I shivered at his absent-minded touch. Stared at his thumb moving across the back of my hand. "So he didn’t..."

  "No."

  "Good. I mean, he didn’t touch you or anything."

  Involuntarily, my spine rippled and the movement caught Leo’s eye.

  "What? What did he do?"

  "Just, I think, you know when you brush past someone...?"

  "Yes...?"

  "I wondered if I imagined it, or if it was an accident, but I could have sworn he felt my arse."

  "Jesus fucking Christ, this gets worse," he hissed. "No man..." He pointed at me with his free hand. "No man feels you up accidentally. I know from experience, that when I touch your arse, it’s ‘cause I want to. And I’ve never got the impression you minded."

  Well no. That’s because I didn’t. "So you don’t think he might have...?"

  "Jesus, I can’t believe this bloke. I’ve known him for months and I’ve thrown so much business his way. He’s had thousands off me for hardware and he goes and does this? I mean, not that I’m saying he... it’s not like I own you or anything but Christ... you’d think you’d get to know a guy... Mind you, I’ve only ever seen him in a business context, so... Right. Well." He slapped his hand down on the table and I jumped. "First things first. We go back to pick up your equipment and take it from there."

  "We?" I echoed. "Um, yeah. We. Of course. We’ll go. Both of us. We will."

  He covered my hand with his. "Don’t worry. I’ll go in with you. Or maybe you could wait in the car. We’ll figure something out. Mind you, I guess you’d have to be there to check everything was in order. Did you leave it in a laptop bag, I assume? Ah, like I said, doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out. Come on, I’m parked at the bottom of Burnham Street."

  "Double?"

  "’Course not. I paid for a ticket and parked legally. As if I’d ever break the law."

  "Leo. We both know that isn’t true." I grabbed my handbag and stood.

  "Are you ever going to stop taking the piss out of my deep, dark secrets?"

  "For as long as you’re absolutely unashamed of them? No."

  Leo shoved his hands in his trouser pockets, sticking out one elbow and I took it to be an invitation to hook my hand through, which I did. It felt natural, that we should walk hand in arm.

  Like a couple, I thought. Despite my don’t think like that reaction I couldn’t help it. I did think like that. At least for as long as we touched.

  It took us a minute or two to reach his car. He zapped it with his key fob and I was about to grab the passenger side door handle when he leaned over, one hand on the small of my back, the other opening the door for me. The sharp movement startled me but instead of jumping away from him, something strange happened.

  My body automatically leaned in to him. I turned my head, caught a whiff of his aftershave, inhaled deeply and wet my lips without thinking. His eyes caught mine and his gaze dipped to my lips. I knew what he thought, because I thought the same thing.

  The hand on my back pulled me in and he stared at my mouth; I’d been self-conscious in his presence before but never like this. Fully clothed, in public, and the way he looked at me sent shivers up my spine. Or it could have been his touch.

  His free hand came up to my face, thumb grazing my bottom lip and he inhaled sharply, as if taking a breath in readiness for speech, but no. He tilted his head, leaned in and paused. Touched his forehead to mine. Closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "I really want..."

  I know. I want it too. Touching his face with both my hands, I pulled him closer and kissed him, instead of waiting for him to kiss me. We fell into it, like we’d done it a million time before, known each other for a thousand years, experts on each other’s bodies who still hungered for more of what we already knew. The familiarity jolted through me and we jerked apart.

  "No time for that, Pipes." Smirking, he licked his lips as if tasting the memory of our kiss, pulled the passenger door open and made a sweeping motion with the other hand. "Your carriage awaits. At least until my ticket runs out. And may I say how splendid it is watching you get into such a low car when you’re wearing a short dress?"

  He walked round the front of his Jag and when he got in the driver’s side, his jaw set. "Shit." He did up the seatbelt, started up the car and stared straight ahead. "That was really stupid."

  "What?"

  He glanced at me while pulling away from the curb. "Making that remark about your dress. You know." He kept his eyes on the road as he drove, the streets and buildings speeding past. We’d arrive at the computer shop within a couple of minutes at this rate. "After what Richard said."

  "Oh. That. Well it’s different coming from him."

  "Which means it’s okay coming from me?"

  I could have sworn he sounded hopeful. "Given how, shall we say, ‘well-acquainted’ we’ve been, I’d say you get a free pass to leer at me."

  "That’s good to know," he murmured, easily heard over the gentle purr of the engine, one hand on the wheel and the other—

  —on my knee.

  My breath caught at the back of my throat and I only managed to breathe properly when he lifted his hand away to grip the wheel. I tried not to tut or groan in disappointment.

  "It’s funny, isn’t it?" He continued to speak in a quiet voice, as if musing as he drove. "How one person touching you can turn your stomach, but someone else’s hand can..."

  "Yeah." I knew. He didn’t need to say any more.

  I knew.

  Twenty Two

  Leaning my elbow on the window, chewing my thumbnail, I watched the scenery—if one could call it that—pass by and the computer shop got nearer with each passing second. Too soon, Leo’s Jag screeched to a halt in the forecourt and he killed the engine. He made no move to get out. Didn’t even look at me.

  But I sneaked a sideways glance at him.

  "What do you want to do?" he asked. His jaw set again, and a nerve twitched in his cheek, anger where his dimple should have been.

  Stay here, my head said. "I want to go in," my mouth said.

  "Really?"

  "No, not really, but... I can’t expect you to do it... I mean, look after... ah, fuck it, you know what I mean."

  "You’re a grown woman who can’t expect a man to hold her hand everywhere she goes, even though you’re still a little sick at the thought of confronting a guy who came on way too strong?"

  "That’s it." I bit my lip, startled into drawing blood with the sharp edge of one tooth when Leo suddenly turned his head towards me.

  "Right then." He gave my hand a squeeze. "Let’s do this."

  In one fluid movement he was up and out of the car. Me, I took a few seconds longer, given the fact I wasn’t used to his Jag even though this wasn’t my first ride—trip—in it, and the butterflies in my stomach.

  "Leo, man!" Richard greeted him as soon as he walked through the door. "What brings you—" He saw me. "Oh."

  "Yeah. Oh," was all Leo said in return. There was another customer in the shop, an elderly gentleman, so politeness was called for.

  "Um...I’ll be right with you. Just let me see to this gentleman first." Richard’s eyes darted first one way and then the other, unable to focus on Leo alone. Or me.

  Clearly unsure what was going on, he was gratifyingly nervous, which meant I probably wasn’t the only one in danger of puking with nerves that afternoon.

  He wrapped up the transaction with the man who had purchased a single ink cartridge and pushed the till drawer shut.

  I stood to one side to let the gentleman exit the shop, smiling as he passed, more out of nervousness than good manners, swallowing hard.

  "Well." Leo crossed his arms. "I believe you have something that belongs to my friend?"

  "Oh. Yes. She left her computer here earlier. H
ad to, uh... rush back to work?" Richard suggested, shooting a glance in my direction, staying behind the till.

  "I suggest she gets it back, then."

  "Yes. Yes—" Richard’s body moved but Leo stopped him with a single word.

  "No." Pause. He stroked the stubble on his chin. "I think Piper should be the one to fetch it. Do you know where it is, Piper?"

  "Yeah, it’s..." I thumbed over my shoulder. "It’s over there. I see it..."

  "Go and fetch it, then." Leo waved a hand in the direction of the workshop and when I took one uncertain step close to my precious laptop, he added, "Me and Richard will wait for you."

  The knife-edge atmosphere stabbed the pit of my stomach through to my spine, chilled the back of my neck and made the hairs there stand on end. I crossed the workshop floor, stuffed my computer and power cable into the bag I’d left there days before, zipped it up and instead of carrying it by the shorter handles, hugged it to my chest like a favorite childhood toy. I looked across the room at Leo and Richard, who now stood at the side of the counter rather than behind it; his change of location made me nervous despite Leo’s presence. They muttered at each other through gritted teeth and I couldn’t hear all of their words.

  "...did you..."

  "...look, when I saw what she..."

  "...what sort of..."

  "...fucking photos, man, I thought..."

  "...so you did..."

  "...after what you said..."

  "...I did not!" Leo caught me looking and called across the workshop, "Are you done?"

  "Yes. Yeah, I’ve got it all."

  "Good, good."

  I hurried back to him, scurrying like a frightened mouse under Richard’s scrutiny, wondering exactly what he’d told Leo. Wondering what he’d seen.

  "Aren’t you going to test it then?" Leo asked. Richard, it seemed, wasn’t in the mood for talking to me any more. That, I could live with.

  "No, no. I’ll check it when I get it home. If there’s anything wrong with it, I’ll take it to another shop. I’m not coming back here."

  Richard scowled. "It was fine when I—"

  "Enough." Leo growled and it took a moment for me to realize he addressed Richard.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what had passed between them, or indeed, what Leo had in mind for later.

  "Piper?" Though speaking to me, he continued to scowl at Richard, who was just as tall but looked smaller in stature now. "If you’re all set?"

  With my handbag slung over my shoulder and my laptop bag clutched in one arm, I used my free hand to pull the door open, not so panicked as the last time I’d done so, but just as jumpy, this time with relief.

  "Hey, wait a minute!" Richard took a step in my direction and my heart skipped but Leo headed him off, stepping between us both. "Aren’t you forgetting something?"

  I stood in the doorway, looking back at them, Richard glaring at me with strong dislike bordering on...hate, possibly...flashing in his eyes. Leo’s facial expression I couldn’t see. But his monotone told me everything, chilling in its simplicity.

  "And what’s that?"

  Richard’s glance flickered from me, to Leo, and back again. "Payment."

  "Oh." It had completely flown out of my head.

  "Piper, shut the door," Leo said, and I let go of it automatically, my hand going for my bag. He looked over his shoulder at me and waved. "No, no, I’ll take care of this."

  "I... you can’t... you’ve already done enough..." My voice trailed away as one hand searched inside his jacket, presumably for his wallet.

  "Come on, make up your mind," Richard muttered, and I wondered how he had the gall to speak in that way. All things considered, I reckoned he’d got off lightly. A few scowls from Leo, the odd cross word.

  "Damn it, what did I do with it...?" Leo murmured, half turning to me in confusion.

  "Did you leave it in the car?" I asked. "Here, hold this." I offered him my laptop bag. "I’ve got—"

  "Ah, there it is." Pleasure spread over his face in the form of a grin so wide his teeth glinted, his eyes sparkled. "Payment, is it? How much?"

  "Thirty-five." Richard crossed his arms.

  "Right." Leo winked at me and I gasped. Such a strange thing to do in this situation. Then I saw why, as he withdrew something from his inside jacket pocket.

  A balled fist.

  He drew his arm back, swung it round and punched Richard clean in the face.

  It didn’t make a sound.

  But Richard falling backwards into a display of Bluetooth dongles, knocking them to the floor before stumbling to the ground himself, did.

  Leo peered over him, flexing his fingers. "Piper, I think we’re done here."

  "You punched him."

  "So I did." He put his arm round my shoulder, flexed the fingers on his other hand. "Shit, that’s gonna hurt in a few hours."

  "I mean, you punched him."

  "Mmm. I know. And he stayed down. Wise man." He threw a glance over his shoulder as I opened the door and we stepped outside. "Oh, and Richard? Keep the change."

  Twenty Three

  Leo didn’t say a word when he pulled up outside my block. He killed the engine and in so doing, stilled my beating heart. If he’d kept the engine running I would have taken that as a sign he was scooting off elsewhere. Back to his meeting? Another one? An office somewhere, another property he was interested in buying?

  None of that was an option. He parked outside my apartment block and underscored his presence by undoing his seatbelt with one flick.

  One hand on his knee and the other arm leaning against the driver door, he said, "Mission accomplished, then."

  "Hmm." I thought for a moment, my seatbelt still done up as if I was planning on staying in this car while he got out. "I got my computer back and de-virused for free, and you got to punch someone."

  "I know." He looked at me sideways and winked. "I love it when I get to act all manly."

  I undid my seatbelt and opened the door before he could get out and do the gentlemanly ‘let me help you’ thing.

  "Hey." He followed me up the steps to my block’s entrance. "Hey, Piper."

  "Yeah?" I stopped and frowned.

  "You’re..." He brushed a solitary finger over a strand of my hair even though I didn’t think I was that disheveled so he must have been touching me for the sake of it. "Did you forget I was here?"

  "No, no." Busying myself with rummaging in my handbag—or trying to—I looked away from him, and he lifted my laptop bag out of my arms.

  "Allow me."

  Treating myself to a brief glance in his direction, I recovered my keys and let us into my block.

  "Why do you have to live up so many flights of stairs, Piper?"

  "It keeps me fit."

  "It’d have to; there’s no lift."

  "We can’t all afford snazzy loft apartments, Leo." Leave me alone; no, don’t leave me alone. "Besides, you’re strong and manly enough to cope with lugging a laptop bag up the stairs, aren’t you?"

  "None stronger, babe."

  Neither of us said anything more for the remainder of the climb and when we reached my door, images of the last time he’d been here flashed through my mind.

  I unlocked the door up against which he’d fucked me. Stepped onto the carpet I’d fallen to afterwards.

  "Where do you want this?"

  "I’ll take it," I said, relieving him of my bag and heading straight to the living room, not looking at him, touching him, waiting to check if he followed.

  "Aren’t you going to have a look at it?" Leo’s voice in the living room doorway made me jump.

  "No." I’d put the laptop bag on the floor beside the settee and slid it back a few inches, out of sight between that and my end table. "I’ll check it later. I really can’t be bothered with it just now." I kicked off my shoes, threw my handbag and coat onto the armchair and flopped onto the settee, leaning on its arm, one hand shielding my eyes.

  His weight disturbed the settee
cushions and pulled me to one side like gravity would attract a satellite.

  A hand on my knee. A thumb, caressing.

  I took a deep breath and opened my eyes again, but stared straight ahead at my fireplace rather than to the side, at him.

  "How d’y’feel now?" he asked in a low voice.

  "God knows." I thought for a long moment. "Relieved. Tired. Wrung out. Creeped out—"

  "Not by my presence I hope."

  "No."

  Silence descended, thick and oppressive and choking, like smog.

  Leo inhaled sharply, moved again, this time facing me, one leg curled up underneath him, his arm—the non-punching one—along the settee back. He said nothing, and took my hand in his, bruised knuckles rippling as he flexed his fingers and clasped mine.

  His scrutiny was too damn much for me and I leapt to my feet, got halfway across my living room before I realized what I was doing.

  "Where are you going?"

  "I don’t know. Nowhere. I just..." I even resented him asking me that. As if I couldn’t even stand up, take a few steps without him making demands of me. Hands on hips, I faltered as I walked, and stopped, eyeing the door while still hyperaware of his presence behind me.

  Then right behind me, a palm on the small of my back. "Piper. What’s wrong? No, no, stupid question. It’s obvious what’s—"

  "I've been smothered enough already today thank you," I snapped, the words coming from my mouth but not my brain. It was as if someone else spoke for me with my voice.

  "I wasn’t aware that asking someone a question constituted smothering them," he whispered against my ear. "Threatening to take them 'round back and give them a good seeing to? Now yeah, that I could say was smothering behavior."

  "Exactly what I was referring to."

  "Good. We’re on the same page then. I might be hurt if I thought you were comparing my genuine concern with the behavior of a man slightly less gentlemanly than myself."

  "Does that mean you believe me then?" I murmured, craving his validation and mentally kicking myself for this need.