by Renna Peak
Leopold
Part Six
Ember Casey
Renna Peak
Casey Peak Publishing
Contents
Royal Heartbreakers Reader Team
1. Elle
2. Leo
3. Elle
4. Leo
5. Elle
6. Leo
7. Elle
8. Leo
9. Elle
10. Leo
11. Elle
12. Leo
13. Elle
14. Leo
15. Elle
16. Leo
17. Elle
18. Leo
19. Elle
20. Leo
Epilogue - Victoria
Epilogue - Andrew
Cunningham Family Bonus
Mistaken Bonus
The Royal Heartbreakers Series
Leopold
Royal Heartbreakers Reader Team
Also by Ember Casey
Also by Renna Peak
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, locations or incidents are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Ember Casey and Renna Peak
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Edition: October, 2016
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Elle
As much as I might want to wander around the halls of the palace, I don’t dare. Even if my tea with the queen was successful—and I’m still not entirely sure it was—I know there are still people here who would rather I disappear. And I can’t help but feel that if I wander around unattended, something will happen again. Stephan will corner me and try to force me to leave. Now that he has what he thinks is leverage over me, it’s only a matter of time.
I need to get out of here.
But I made a promise to Leo. I’m not going to leave without at least telling him.
It’s getting late. The family dinner should have been over at least an hour ago—Matthias was kind enough to have had dinner brought to my room, but when I asked him about Leo, he was very…evasive. It almost seemed like he didn’t have answers to my questions—that he had no idea where Leo might be. And considering I haven’t seen him since I left for tea this afternoon, I have to admit I’m starting to get a little worried. After all his insistence on wanting to be with me every moment of every day, it’s a little concerning that no one seems to know where he’s gone.
I must fall asleep on the sofa in my sitting room after I change into my pajamas. It’s late when I hear the knock on my door.
I rub my eyes and stand, but before I can cross the room to answer, the door opens.
Leo stands in the doorway, frowning. “Get your things.”
“What?” I stare at him for a moment before my gaze drops. His shirt is covered in blood, and his hands are bandaged.
My jaw drops and I look back up at him. “What happened?”
He shakes his head but doesn’t answer me. Instead, he crosses the room and walks into my bedroom.
I almost have to run to follow him. He walks through the bedroom and into my closet, pulling the clothes down from the racks and throwing them over his arm.
He shoves the pile of clothes into my hands. “Do you have your passport?”
“It’s in my bag.” I stare at him for another moment. “Leo, what’s going on? What happened to your hands?”
“What happened to my hands is of little concern. But the current state of my hands is merely an indication that the health care system in our country is in grave need of an overhaul. If circumstances were different, I might have suggested that you assist with those improvements. As it stands now, you have an interview to attend.”
My mouth hangs open for a moment. “I have a…what?”
He nods and places his hands on my shoulders, turning me around and guiding me back into the bedroom. “I’ve had Matthias ready my plane. I would have sent you via a commercial flight, but there were none that would have you arriving in Oklahoma in time. With the time difference, you should arrive with an hour to spare if you leave now.”
“If I leave…now?” My words are choked—almost desperate. “Leo, it’s the middle of the night. I thought—”
“This is what you wanted, Elle. It was why you’ve been unable to return my feelings. It’s why you refuse to say you love me again.”
My jaw clenches for a moment. “Is that what this is? Some desperate attempt to get me to tell you that I love you?”
“Do you?”
Heat rises in my cheeks. “Leo, this is not how you—”
“That’s what I thought. Come…” He motions with his arm. “You need to be going so that you aren’t late.”
My entire body tenses. “What the hell did you do all this for, Leo? What the fuck kind of stunt was this? You bring me here—you make me pretend to be something I’m not… For what? Was this some sort of game for you?” Hot tears fill my eyes. “I thought—”
“No.” His shoulders drop and he looks almost defeated. “No, Elle, it was nothing of the sort. But I’ve made a decision. And it’s time that you go.”
“Go where? I called and left a message at the clinic in Oklahoma today while you were gone. I told them I wouldn’t be able to come there after all—that I had decided to live overseas for a few months. For fuck’s sake, Leo, I did that for you!”
He winces, but he covers whatever it is that’s going on in his head pretty quickly. “Then you’ll return to Arizona. Your co-workers there seemed to like you. You can take a full-time position at that clinic. They said one was available as I recall.”
“I don’t…” I have to blink away my tears for a moment to choke back the sobs I can already feel starting to rise in my chest. My voice drops to a whisper. “I don’t want to leave.”
“You…don’t?” He frowns and stares at me for a moment. “Elle, you can’t stay here in the palace any longer.”
I nod. “This is because of what happened this morning, right? Stephan told your father, and your father told you that I had to leave…” I glance down at the bandages on his hands again. “So you went and punched a few walls or something? You could have just come to my room and told me, Leo. I would have left without the drama.”
My chest is aching and I’m doing everything in my power to keep myself from crying in front of him. It’s a long trip back home—there will be plenty of time for tears later.
He doesn’t respond to what I’ve said. “My plane will take you wherever you want to go, then.”
“No thanks. I think I’d rather try my luck with a commercial flight. I wouldn’t want to owe you anything.” I look up into his eyes one last time, almost daring him to stop me—but he doesn’t respond. “Speaking of—keep your fucking clothes.” I shove the pile of dresses back at him.
He doesn’t reach for them or take them from me and they fall to the floor.
The silver beaded gown is on top of the pile, and Leo stares down at it as I edge around him
and walk out of the bedroom.
“Elle, wait.”
I freeze at the tone of his voice—there’s something so sad and vulnerable and almost broken about it.
He follows me out of the room and touches my shoulder.
I try to ignore the thrill of electricity that races down my arm at his touch, but it’s definitely there, just like it always is when he touches me.
My voice is low, almost a whisper. I’m not sure he can even hear me—I haven’t turned to face him. “You begged me to stay, Leo.”
“I know.” He plays with the strap of my pajama top, tracing the pad of his finger over my shoulder.
“Do you really want me to go?” I hate that my voice is so choked with emotion. I also hate that I was finally starting to accept the possibility of staying here with him indefinitely—of finding a way to make this work.
His voice lowers. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you doing this?” I finally spin to face him. “Is this to get me to say it again?”
He shakes his head but doesn’t meet my gaze. His finger finds the strap on my shoulder again, and he traces it up and down, his eyes following the movement.
I’m silent for a moment. “Fine. I love you, Leo.” I thought my heart would swell when I finally said it to him again, but it doesn’t. My voice is as flat and dejected as the rest of me feels.
He lets out a breath and stares at my shoulder. “This isn’t how I imagined any of this.”
“Any of what?” I motion to the door. “Am I going?”
He nods. “You should.”
I shake my head and catch his wrist, pulling his hand away from my arm. “Then stop touching me like you want to take me to bed.”
He winces—I’m not sure if it’s because I hurt his injured knuckles or if it’s because of my words—then he closes his eyes for a moment and he drops his hand. “I’m sorry, Elle. But I just can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“I can’t do my father’s bidding. I can’t do what he asks of me—I just…can’t.”
My gaze narrows to a slit again. “You can’t stop being a playboy? For three months? Are you fucking kidding me, Leo? I thought you said you already stopped pulling that shit. I thought you said—”
“Not…that.” He shakes his head again. “It isn’t that at all, Elle. He…he wants me to learn the tax codes. To sit on the Treasury Council. He’s given me a year’s worth of reports to analyze and decipher in only three days. And he wants my recommendations on how to improve.” His brow creases. “Can you imagine it? Me? On the Treasury Council?”
If I didn’t know better, I would swear I can see tears in his eyes.
“Leo…” I step forward and pull him into an embrace.
He holds me for a long time, burying his head in my neck. But there’s nothing sexual about his embrace—he seems to need to be held almost as much as I do.
He finally speaks after we’ve held each other for what seems like an eternity. “Elle, I am so sorry. I never should have made you come here.”
I pull out of his grasp and take his injured hands into mine. I look up into his eyes. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I can’t ask you to do that, Elle. Not when my plans for us—my entire reason for bringing you here was for the freedom to be with you. Not to bore you with details of my job.” He shakes his head. “I can’t do it, Elle. I can’t give up my freedom this way. I can’t give up our freedom.”
He looks into my eyes for a moment. “I’ll be a different person if I give in to his demands. And if I don’t, he’ll cut me off financially. I’ll have nothing else to offer you.”
I search his eyes. “Leo, you can’t actually believe the only thing you have to offer me—or anyone—is your money.”
He nods. “What other reason is there?” He makes a sweeping motion with his arm. “If I can’t offer you this, what other reason do you have to remain in Montovia?”
I lift a brow. “Well, I have no reason to remain in Montovia. Except that I want to be with you.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t, though. I misled you to get you to come here. And my father’s threats have made you feel coerced to stay.” He gives me a weak, forced smile. “Now that those threats are gone—now that I am willing to give up everything—you have no reason to remain. You are free to live the life you want.”
I let out a long breath. “Leo, I assume they have hospitals here in Montovia, don’t they?”
His brows draw together in confusion. “Yes.” He lifts his hands to display his bandages. “My hands might be in better condition had I gone there instead of to the palace physician…”
“Right.” I mirror his weak smile. “You don’t have to work for some tax ministry or whatever. I’m perfectly capable of working—I’m sure that Montovia will recognize a medical degree from the U.S. I can figure out a way to work here. I can make enough money to take care of both of us if what you’re thinking actually comes true.”
“I couldn’t allow you to do that, Elle. My intentions for us were to see the world together.”
I shrug. “Then we’ll go see the world together. You don’t have to go to luxury resorts to see things, you know. There’s plenty to see outside of a hotel room.” I smile. “Don’t you remember Owen’s hostel? I doubt that place costs a fraction of what a hotel would cost. And there are places like that everywhere.”
He shakes his head. “That establishment was barely tolerable. If you hadn’t been there, I doubt I would have stayed as long as I did.” He lets out a breath of frustration. “And you deserve to travel in luxury, Elle.”
“But I don’t need it, Leo. And neither do you. You might actually enjoy doing things that normal people do once in a while.”
“But it wouldn’t be once in a while. It would be daily. I don’t… I planned for us to live here. That we might take one of my family’s many homes and live together here in Montovia.”
I lift a brow. “And even if we did do that, Leo, I would still want to work.”
“That was never my intention, Elle. I had thought you would find volunteer pursuits that fulfill you, much as my mother and sister have done.”
“But that wouldn’t fulfill me. I like what I do, Leo. You have to know that—you’ve said it was one of the things that made you fall in love with me.”
He’s silent for a moment, staring into my eyes. “I believe we are at an impasse.”
I shake my head. “Why does it have to be an impasse?”
“Because I’ll not do my father’s bidding.”
I shrug. “Then don’t.”
“You don’t understand…” He places his hands on my shoulders. “If I don’t do what he wants, I can’t be with you.”
“Why can’t you be with me, Leo? This sounds an awful lot like an excuse—”
He interrupts. “It is not an excuse.” He pauses for a moment. “Did you mean what you said before?”
“About wanting to work? Yes—”
“No,” he interrupts again. “When you said that you love me.”
I frown and have to close my eyes for a moment. I let out a long breath before I look back up at him. “Leo, I don’t want to do it this way. I don’t want it to be forced.”
His jaw clenches for a moment. “I’m not forcing—”
“You might as well be. You wanted me to say it again and I did. Now it’s out there. But I want the next time I say it to mean something. I want to say it because I want to, not because you—”
He interrupts me by pressing his lips against mine. I return his kiss for a moment before twisting away from him. “Leo, I didn’t mean this second.”
His lips curl into the tiniest of smiles. “I know.” He lifts his shoulders in a small shrug. “I thought it was worth trying.”
I shake my head and can’t help but smile. “You really are insufferable, you know.”
He nods. “I know. And I love it when you say that.”
I roll my eyes.
He
smiles. “Of course, we’ve not solved the issue at all.”
“Maybe not. But do you really think that running away is going to solve it?”
He stares at me for a long moment, considering his words. “Elle—”
“I know. You’re going to say that I’m one to talk, right? Because running away is what I do so well. And so often.”
“That isn’t what I was going to say.”
I press my lips into a smile. “Okay. Then you’re a better person than I am. Because I totally would have said that to me.”
“What are we to do, then? If running away is not an option?”
I shrug. “How bad is that tax stuff?”
He walks over and sits on the sofa. “Very, very bad.” He starts to run his hand through his hair before he remembers his injury. He shakes his hand before he bows his head. “I think I’d rather die than even look at those files.”
I walk over and sit next to him. I take his injured hand in mine and stroke it with my opposite hand, tracing the bandages that cover his wounded knuckles. “Then you need to tell your father that. There must be something that interests you—something that gets your blood flowing, Leo.”
He turns to look into my eyes before I realize what I’ve said. But his gaze isn’t at all wolfish—it’s filled with something else. It takes me a moment to remember where I’ve seen this look before—it was when he looked at his mother. It’s some mix of respect and appreciation. And love.
He shakes his head. “You don’t understand, Elle. The only thing that has ever held my interest for even a passing moment is you.”
I tilt my head and look back into his eyes. My heart bangs in my chest and my stomach flutters and everything feels so right. So unfamiliar, but so, so right.
I smile. “I love you, Leo.”
His lips curl into a brilliant grin. He leans over and covers my lips with his before he lifts me up and carries me back into the bedroom.
Leo