by Leslie Kelly
Oh, she hoped so. She most certainly hoped so. Because, no matter what day of the week it was, or how many weeks it had been, she was falling for Leo Santori. Falling head over heels, out-of-her-mind, crazy-in-love with him.
She might have come here to escape and to hide.
Now, she suspected she’d been found...and didn’t want to be lost ever again.
10
THEIR THREE DAYS left together flew by way too fast for Leo’s liking.
Once Madison had stopped beating herself up about what might happen due to her mix-up with her pills, she’d let him coax her back into a good mood. He’d done it with lots of laughter, long walks on the beach, midnight swims in their private pool, surfing lessons, a wind-sailing expedition, dancing at the club of a big touristy resort nearby. And lots and lots of sex.
Damn, he didn’t think he would ever have another week like this in his entire life. And he knew he’d never had one before.
They didn’t talk about the birth control pill issue, instead using condoms as a matter of course. He wasn’t thrilled about it—having been inside her warm, wet body, skin to skin, he really disliked there being any kind of barrier between them. But there was no sense in taking risks.
Although, to be honest, part of him wasn’t sure he minded so much.
Yeah, it was crazy to be thinking about having a kid with a woman he’d met a week ago.
But yeah, he was thinking about it.
Whatever he’d thought about his life, his future, his relationships or his prospects before coming here to Costa Rica didn’t matter a damn. Because, since he’d met her—since he’d begun to fall in love with her—he was seeing whole new worlds of possibility. Worlds that included him and Madison, committed, together, bringing more little Santoris into the world. No, he wouldn’t have chosen to do it so soon, but he wasn’t going to deny that, if it happened, he wouldn’t be absolutely devastated.
He just wanted to make sure that Madison wanted him as much as he wanted her...and that, whatever happened between them, didn’t happen only because of a possible pregnancy. That was why he hadn’t pushed her for any confirmations on where things would go after they both left this wonderful place. But now it was Sunday night. And in the morning, they were both going to leave this wonderful place.
It was their last night in paradise, but rather than going out somewhere, they’d decided to have a room service dinner. The hotel might be small, but the chef was outstanding, and, once again, they were served an amazing meal.
They shared it outside on her patio at a small table draped with a snowy-white cloth and lit by a few tapered candles. Again, the staff had gone overboard. He had no doubt word had spread that his bed wasn’t being slept in—while hers usually looked like a troupe of monkeys had been doing acrobatics on it all night long.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“Monkeys.”
She tilted her head, visibly curious, but he only laughed.
“What about you? What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking I want one more naked swim in that pool.”
He shifted in his seat.
“And wondering how long we’ll have to wait until room service comes to take all this stuff away.”
He dropped his napkin onto his plate, reached for his water and finished it, as well. Although they had never even discussed it, neither of them admitting any reason for it, he’d noticed that neither he nor Madison had been drinking any alcohol during the past couple of days. It was as if she were already protective of the life that might be growing inside her. And he... Well, he wasn’t sure whether it was solidarity or a desire not to jinx anything, but he was laying off, too.
“There’s a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. The waiter offered to put it there and said we can just call when we want them to come back,” he said with a suggestive wink.
“Do we need to wait a half an hour after eating before we can swim?” she asked.
“I don’t think so, considering the water’s not even over our heads.”
“Perfect,” she said, already rising to her feet and pushing at the straps of her sundress. They fell, revealing those soft shoulders, and then the whole dress dropped with a whoosh.
She hadn’t been wearing anything underneath.
He swallowed hard, staring at her, awed, as always, by that perfect body, so curvy and feminine. She was lightly tanned all over, no lines to mark the infrequent presence of her skimpy bathing suits.
“Come and get me wet,” she said, throwing him a sassy look.
He played along. “The pool’s not too cold this time?”
“Not talking about the pool,” she promised.
“Good.”
He pushed back from the table and stripped off his clothes, grabbing a condom from his pocket before letting his shorts hit the patio. Madison watched him, her eyes zoning in on all the places on his body that she seemed to like a lot.
He was already as hard as a rock.
“Okay, never mind, I don’t think I need your help. I’m already there,” she exclaimed with a visible quiver of excitement. She clenched her thighs tight, as if to catch the moisture building between them, and his mouth went wet with hunger.
“I think I should check and make sure.”
He walked to her, dropping the condom on the pavement right beside the pool, knowing there would be a lot to do before he would want to put it on. He slid his hands around her waist, stroking her hips, pulling her to him. She tilted her face up and their mouths met in a warm, lazy kiss. Their tongues twisted and mated, each stroke languorous and hungry, each breath shared, their heartbeats falling into the same rhythm.
When they finally broke apart, she whispered, “Thought you were going to check it out.”
He nodded. Hiding a grin of mischief, he wrapped his arms more tightly around her and jumped into the pool, bringing her with him.
She came up sputtering, splashing his face with water and swimming away. “That was a dirty trick.”
“What? Now I’m positive you’re nice and wet.”
“Maybe not everywhere.”
“Everywhere,” he said, totally confident.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
He stepped toward her, enjoying the coolness of the water against his naked skin. “Yeah. I would like to know.”
She stopped moving away, her teasing words dying on her lips, as if she knew, as he did, that their time together was too short to delay. They wanted—needed—each other, tonight more than ever, and all the playfulness evaporated. There was just intense heat, and, he suspected, a hint of desperation. They both knew they had to leave in mere hours.
Madison watched Leo approach, and saw the same note of, not sadness, but maybe wistfulness on his face that she sensed was on hers. Saying goodbye to this man would be next to impossible, and frankly, she didn’t want to think about it. Not when she still had him for a little while longer.
They came together, their bodies meeting beneath the surface. She loved this sensation, had loved it from the first time they’d swum naked together. Water caressed her, cooled her, even as his slick skin warmed and aroused her. There was no weight, no gravity to combat, and they could float and thrust and twist and love to their hearts’ content, wrapped in their own wet world.
“I’m going to miss this,” she admitted.
“Me, too.”
“Not many opportunities for skinny-dipping in Chicago?”
He didn’t smile. “Nobody I’d want to do it with if there were.”
Madison sighed a little, loving that admission.
“This has been the best week of my life, Leo,” she said, reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck.
He encircled her waist and held her tightly against him. Bending to kiss her, he replied, “Mine, too.”
The kiss was sweeter, soft and tender, and in it Madison read a lot of emotions neither of them had expressed. Although she wanted to express them now,
to let him know she longed for so much more than this, she knew she couldn’t. There was too much to deal with, too much to fix in her life, before she asked him to be a more permanent part of it.
Not that she was about to let him go completely. God, no. She just wanted to be able to come to him with a clean slate. She longed to admit to him exactly what she’d been running from and why. Until that time, telling him she cared about him—hell, that she loved him—seemed unfair.
After the kiss, he said, “Are you cold?”
“No.”
He lifted her higher as he dropped lower in the water so he was eye level with her breasts. “You look cold.”
She laughed softly. “So not cold.”
“Maybe I should warm you up, just in case.”
“You do that.”
He did, lapping up some of the water off the curve of one breast, kissing his way toward its tip. He breathed a stream of warm air over the puckered nipple, and then covered it with his mouth and suckled her.
She threw her head back, groaning with pleasure. Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around him and floated there, rubbing herself against his heat, indulging in all the sensations battering her body. His mouth on her breast, his hand on her hip, another twined in her hair, his big, thick cock between her legs, brushing against her core.
There was nothing better than this on earth. Nothing.
He moved to her other breast, pleasuring her just as thoroughly, and then began to draw her back toward the steps at the end of the pool. She saw the condom lying on the pool deck where he’d dropped it but wasn’t ready to lose all that hot male skin just yet.
When they got to the steps and he reached for the packet, she said, “Wait.”
He eyed her quizzically.
Giving him her sultriest look and licking her lips, she said, “Sit on the top step.”
One brow rose. He did as she asked.
Kneeling below him, most of her body still in the water, she kissed her way up his powerful leg. The wiry black hairs teased her lips as she nibbled and tasted her way ever higher.
He dropped a hand onto her shoulder and tangled the other in her wet hair, obviously knowing where she was headed. When her cheek brushed the side of his erection, he jerked a little. And when she ran the tip of her tongue all the way from its base to its tip, he groaned out loud.
“Madison...”
“I love how you taste,” she admitted, licking the moisture that seeped from the tip of his cock.
“Jesus,” he groaned.
He liked it, she knew that much. She’d loved doing this to him at various times this week, but they’d never done it in the pool. And the position was so easy and so perfect, the steps lining up exactly the way she needed them to be.
Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she sucked the thick head of his cock.
His guttural groan told her he liked what she was doing, as did the gentle squeeze of his hand on her shoulder. She slid her mouth down, taking more of him, filling her mouth with him, licking the salt and the chlorine and the male right off him.
When she could go no farther, she began to pull away, sliding up, knowing her pace was both a torment and a delight. Another flick of her tongue as she lapped up more of his body’s delicious juices, and she went down again. Up and down, slow, then faster, soft, then harder, until her jaw hurt and Leo was thrusting a little with every stroke.
“Enough,” he said with a gasp. “Get up here.”
She wanted to finish, wanted to swallow him down, but she was also dying to have him inside her. So with one last powerful suck, she released him and kissed her way up his stomach, tracing his abs, licking his nipples, biting his neck.
“You definitely should hold the world record for that,” he said before sinking both hands in her hair and dragging her mouth to his.
He kissed her deeply, thanking her with every thrust of his tongue, releasing her only so he could grab the condom. Tearing it open, he sheathed himself and then pulled her onto his lap. She straddled him, her knees beside his hips on the step.
Another kiss, deep and hungry, but also incredibly tender, and he began to ease his way into her. She took him, every inch of him, every breath of him, every ounce of him, grabbing and holding and loving and savoring. Wanting all of him. Wanting this memory to imprint itself on her very soul so she would always be able to return to it and relive such glory.
When they were fully joined, as close as they could be, she looked into his eyes—those beautiful brown eyes—and said all the things she couldn’t yet say aloud.
She’d swear he said them back.
* * *
REALITY RETURNED WITH a vengeance the next morning. As if to punctuate the regret both of them were feeling, Leo awoke to the sound of rain. It was the first time they’d seen anything but a blue sky, and the weather suited his mood.
They were both ass-dragging, having stayed up way too late last night indulging in a long, lethargic lovefest that had left him weak but utterly satisfied. Because of that, they’d overslept a little.
Not wanting to suffer the long drive all the way back to the airport in San José, Madison had been able to get a ticket on a puddle jumper that would take her from Liberia, the same airport from which he was flying, to the capital. That meant they had a little more time together. During that time, he intended to ask her when they were going to see each other again.
He’d prefer tonight in Chicago. But it seemed pushy to ask. So he would have to settle for the weekend.
She’d admitted she wasn’t working on anything right now except her screenplay, and he knew she was between permanent homes, though he’d never found out exactly why. She’d said she was heading back to her parents’ place in Florida while she regrouped.
Chicago was a very good place for regrouping, if he did say so himself. Plus, flights between there and Florida were pretty cheap. Hell, if she couldn’t come to him, he’d go to her.
When they reached the airport and checked in, they hesitated before going through security. Their gates were far apart and they had some time before their flights would start boarding, though his was earlier than hers.
Sitting together in a bar in the main terminal, each of them drinking a Virgin Mary, he said, “So. Madison.”
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “So. Leo.”
Their eyes met. He knew she knew what he was about to say.
“Facebook?” she asked.
He barked a laugh. “I’m not on it.”
“You’re joking!”
“Sorry, I prefer regular media to the social kind. I like actually knowing people I call friends.”
She nodded in commiseration. “I guess I understand that. And I was just kidding since I don’t have a profile anymore, either.”
“Really?”
“I got rid of it once I started getting too much attention.”
“Because of your screenplay?”
She nibbled her bottom lip and hesitated, staring at him searchingly. It looked as if she wanted to say more, and he wondered if she was finally going to reveal just what she was running from.
The fact that she was running, and that she’d gotten rid of her Facebook profile because of too much attention, suddenly made a sharp fear stab into him. Had she been stalked? Was she on the run from an abusive ex?
His hands fisted on the table, but he covered by reaching for his drink.
“Something like that,” she finally whispered.
He knew it wasn’t the whole story. But he also knew she wasn’t ready to tell him the whole story.
“Just tell me one thing. Are you in any kind of danger?”
Her jaw fell open. “Oh, God, no, of course not.”
“Okay then.”
“It’s...it’s complicated,” she admitted.
“I hear ya. It’s all right. I can wait, though not forever.”
“You won’t have to, I promise.”
Good. Her secret would give them plent
y to talk about when they saw each other back home. Tonight or next weekend or next month. Hopefully no longer than that.
“So I guess we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “You’re hot. Can I have your phone number?”
Her green eyes twinkled and she replied, “Well, I don’t usually give my number out to strange guys...”
“Hey, I’m not strange. Just Italian.”
A broad smile. Thank God. “Okay, I guess it’s okay if you call me.” She reached into her carry-on and pulled out her cell phone. “Tell me yours so I can punch them into my address book.”
He rattled off his numbers—home, cell and the station, and threw in his uncle’s restaurant just to be on the safe side. She was laughing and complaining about sore fingers by the time she’d finished entering. After she was done, she raised an inquiring brow.
“I hate to admit it, but we’re gonna have to do this the really old-fashioned way. I didn’t get an international SIM card, and knew my phone wouldn’t work here so I never even took it out of my suitcase.”
“Which you already checked.”
“Right.”
“I’ll text them to you.”
“No way. I don’t trust technology when it comes to something this important. Write them down.”
“Okay, but I don’t want to hear any excuses about you losing my number,” she said. “Remember, I have yours and I can stalk you and be all vengeful if you give me the brush-off.”
He reached across the table and took her hand. “Not gonna happen, Madison Reid. That is never gonna happen.”
Their gazes met and held and he knew that, once again, they were saying a lot more things that didn’t really need to be verbalized. In utter silence, they were thanking each other for the amazing week they’d shared, and promising each other it would be continued. They were admitting there were feelings and promising they would be explored. All without a word being spoken. Just like when they’d made love in the pool the night before.
Without ever even opening his mouth, he’d told her he loved her. He even suspected she’d heard it. And that she felt the same way.
Someday soon they’d say it out loud.