by Joya Ryan
Part of it was freeing. Because I didn’t have to keep trying to convince her anymore. I could let go. I knew the truth. Leo knew the truth and, somehow, that mattered. Made me feel stronger. Like a whole person.
Leo makes me whole.
And I didn’t want to lose him. Didn’t want to be temporary. I wanted to be his. I met his eyes, which were fierce and zeroing right to my soul.
“Do you think it’s stupid to hope?” I asked him.
“Recently, hope is the one thing that has kept me sane.”
My chest lightened. “Really?”
He nodded and ran his fingers along my jaw. “From the second we met I had hoped for more.” He smiled. “Started when I walked in to find you on your hands and knees picking up chocolates and I hoped so hard you would reach just a little farther under the desk so I could see—”
I lightly smacked his chest and he chuckled. Catching my hand, he held it against his heart and I felt the strong beat soothe me.
“Then I hoped to see you again. But you left, and I hoped I’d never see you again.” There was a hint of anger in his voice and that time it was directed at me. But his face softened.
“And now?”
“Now I just hope you’ll never stop looking at me the way you are right now.”
“What way is that?” I whispered.
“Like you need me. It’s that look”—he traced his thumb along my lower lip—“you gave the first night I met you. And I haven’t been right since.”
I gasped. Everything I felt crashed into me. “I do need you, Leo. So much it scares me.”
Pulling my face the few remaining inches to meet his, he kissed me. It was sweet and sincere, as if giving me a silent promise that I was more than temporary. I’d taken a risk today, several actually. I’d said things I shouldn’t have. Like I loved Leo. Like I needed him. Despite the fact that he hadn’t technically said it back, it didn’t matter in the moment. I felt him. Felt his intensity. And I held on to that hope that he loved me.
The most dangerous hope I’d ever had.
He laid me back on the bed and slowly kissed down my throat, peeling off my top as he traced every newly exposed inch of skin with his tongue. I wove my fingers into his thick hair and kept him close.
“I need you too, angel”—he kissed the swell of my breast—“and I’ve been beyond scared for a while now.”
His admission made my whole body beg for him. To be a part of him. Of his life. Of his body. Of his family. Leo was something greater, something beyond my wildest dreams, and I wanted him so desperately it ate at me like a savage ache.
It didn’t take long for him to get both of us naked. He didn’t pull back the sheets. There, atop the mattress and exposed in every way, I lay beneath Leo. The only warmth and shield I had was him.
“Leo . . .” I whispered his name as he trailed his lips to my belly button.
“I’m here, angel.” Laving at my stomach, he reached up and cupped my breasts. Grazing his thumbs over my nipples made shivers break over my skin and my blood hotter. It was an amazing, confusing feeling. Every area Leo touched burned up, while every inch of skin the air hit was chilled. Hot. Cold. Need.
Grabbing his wrist, I tugged slightly so that his hand came to my mouth. Needing to taste him, any way I could, I sucked on his fingers.
He groaned and nipped my hipbone. He pushed himself up, and I reluctantly let my hold on him go as he grabbed a condom quickly from the bedside table and put it on.
He settled between my thighs, and I wrapped my legs around him as he nudged my entrance. Threading his arms under my shoulders, he held me tightly and barely pushed an inch inside, then stilled.
“Paige?” He leaned back enough to look me in the eyes. “You look sad.”
I realized then that my thoughts were, in fact, sad.
“I was just thinking.”
“About what?” he whispered.
The truth came out before I could stop it. “About how this is my last week working for you. Then we’re done. And I’ll be gone.”
His brow sliced down hard and, honestly, I felt the same slice to my chest. Gone. The word packed so much hurt that I could barely swallow.
“No,” he said and slipped another inch inside of me. “Not gone. Stay here. With me.” Another inch. “Like this.”
I wanted to scream yes. To tell him I’d stay with him forever if he’d let me. “I’ll stay.” I smiled and lifted my hips, coaxing him to fill the last part of me. He did. I gasped. With our bodies connected and my heart in his hands, I knew temporary was off the table.
He wanted me to stay.
However or whatever that meant, we’d figure out later. For now, I was his, in his arms. I was clinging to the one man who made me a part of his world. And I wasn’t letting go.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jes Frolos and his son, Zander, were in the conference room with Kyros and Leo. The men exchanged pleasantries while I made a tray of coffee in the outer room. The meeting was about to kick off, and the final paperwork would be signed. I was excited. Not only to see this deal through, but after last night, I was certain things wouldn’t end between Leo and me, regardless of what happened with my job.
And that made me smile like a moron all morning.
“You’re chipper today,” Leo said, coming up behind me, his breath in my ear, as he snaked his hand around my stomach.
I shrugged. “A few orgasms will do that to a girl.”
He growled and kissed my earlobe soft and quick. “Wait til later and I’ll give you a few more.”
I looked over my shoulder at him. He had a wicked grin. “Promise?”
“Count on it, Red.” He looked at the tray of coffee. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I want to. Now quit talking to me and get in there.”
He smiled before going back in. I was so happy he was treating me like part of the team and part of his world. Treating me like I was . . . his.
The idea made me warm, and confident for the first time looking forward to the future. A future with him. Closing this deal and being a part of it really made me feel like I was worthwhile. And being in Leo’s bed, having his arms around me, made me feel warm and complete.
Ironically I hadn’t thought about my resume in a while. Mostly because the closer I came to leaving and my three months being up, which was next week, the less I thought about moving on to something else. I just thought about Leo.
One tiny detail was still hard to swallow though. He hadn’t said he loved me back. Not that I expected that. But that stupid twinge of hope was still pulsing. Because there was the way he looked at me. The way he held me. And something in his eyes made me hold on to that feeling. It was that same look that gave me strength. Enough to finally be done with a chapter in my life that had haunted me. My mother and my past.
He may not have said he loved me, but he said he needed me.
Just as I got four cups of coffee for the men onto the tray, a voice from behind me said, “You might want to make one more cup.”
I turned to find Colin. My temples pounded wildly from the shock.
“What are you doing here?”
He smiled. “There’s a meeting.”
“A closed meeting,” I said.
“A meeting I was invited to.” My mouth dropped. “Careful, Miss Levine, with that sweet mouth open like that, it might give a man the wrong idea. But that is what you’re known for, I suppose.”
“Excuse me?”
His evil smile turned sly. “Has the news from the US not gotten over here yet? Because it broke this morning that a certain assistant to Bill Vorse was leaked as being a person of interest in both the sex scandal and missing state money.”
My heart was going to explode and my knees shook. A sheen of sweat broke over my face and my skin chilled instantly. Colin pulled open his phone, then held out the article. I blinked several times to try to clear the haze in front of my eyes.
There, in big, black New York
Times letters, was my name and a whole story of speculations about my questionable actions.
“Davis?” Leo asked as he walked out toward us. “What is going on here?”
He cupped my shoulder and I couldn’t speak. I was on the brink of something I hadn’t felt since Frank snuck into my room.
Panic.
Fear.
Terror.
“Zander Frolos invited me. I’m here to negotiate the purchase of the London slip,” Colin said.
“We’re closing the deal and this wasn’t even announced publicly.”
“I know, I didn’t find out about this publicly.” Colin winked at me and I frowned. But Leo looked like someone just kicked him in the stomach. “The old man may be on board with you, but his son, the one who is set to run this whole thing, likes my offer better.”
Leo looked ready to spit daggers. He glanced over his shoulder at the meeting room where both Frolos men stood. Jes, the father, looked surprised, and Zander looked victorious. Like this little coup of secretly inviting Colin was about to work in his favor.
“You really do have a fine assistant. But when I told Zander about her questionable past, there was hesitation to sell a family-run company to someone like you.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Leo said.
Colin smiled and looked between Leo and me. “She didn’t tell you? Seems Miss Levine has an affinity for, shall we say, using her assets to get what she wants from her bosses. So much that it involves missing money.”
I shook my head but my body tingled with fear. “That’s not true.”
“So you don’t fuck your bosses?” Colin said and glanced at Leo.
“I . . .” I looked at Leo and again shook my head. Leo was different, had been from the beginning. But Colin phrased this so I couldn’t win, and he knew it. And I wasn’t about to lie to Leo. The truth was on the table, ready to be dissected. Problem was, I couldn’t get myself to breathe right.
“Paige, what the hell is he talking about?”
“This,” Colin said, shoving his phone at Leo with the report about the scandal. Leo glanced over it and looked at me.
“This isn’t true?”
I shook my head. “There’s truth to some things, but—”
“And what things are those, Paige?”
“I didn’t sleep with Bill.”
“And what about Colin?”
“Never!”
“I’ll let you two work out this train wreck while I go say hello to Zander.” Colin walked into the room, leaving Leo staring down at me.
“Colin said some odd things the night at the gala . . . now it’s all making sense,” Leo said.
“What?”
“He knew about the slip, Paige. Right after you danced with him and left, after we were on the terrace, he said things that hinted he knew. How would he have known?” The insinuating tone of Leo’s voice cut through me.
“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him.”
“Then how the fuck did he find out if not from you?” Leo looked beyond mad—he looked destroyed. Like seeing my face caused him pain and disgust. “Is he the one you met with the night before we left for London?”
My eyes shot wider than I ever thought possible.
“Don’t look surprised. I went to find you and you were gone and didn’t return to the property until several hours later.”
“You were watching me?”
“I was waiting on you,” he snapped. “Apparently just so you could make a fool of me.”
“Leo, I didn’t meet with Colin the other night.”
“Then who was it?”
“I . . . I can’t really say.” And I couldn’t, because I was bound by the law and attorney general himself not to say anything. I also couldn’t make up some excuse and lie to Leo. All I could do was watch his perfect face scowl into deeper anger. Anger with me.
“You told me once that this job was your number-one priority,” he said, “and I believed you. In reality it was your end game. I should have known.”
“It’s not like that.” My voice cracked, which was exactly what my heart was doing in the same moment.
“No?” He glanced at Colin in the other room, then at the phone in his hand with the story currently destroying more than my reputation—it was destroying me to the core. “This article says it has sources claiming otherwise. Lying, stealing—”
“I didn’t take any state money,” I said quickly, frantic terror setting in along with the need to beg Leo to believe me. It settled in my bones like lead.
Leo looked at the phone again, then returned his gaze to me. “Fucking the boss?” I shook my head but his eyes were already on the phone. “Look here, there’s even a picture.”
I knew which one he was referring to. The one where Bill was whispering in my ear and I looked happy.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I pleaded.
“Just like at the gala with Colin?”
“I wasn’t the only one there, Leo.”
“But you were the only one who spoke to him besides me! What the fuck do you expect me to believe, Paige?”
“Me,” I whispered. “Believe me.”
He shook his head and my entire chest shattered into a thousand pieces.
I had held it together when I was scared, I even held it together when my mother chose Frank for the last time over me and cut ties for good. But standing there, watching the one thing I loved in the world slip away, the tears got the better of me. And one fell.
“I have to get into that meeting and try to save this deal.” He looked me over once like I was something rotten. So much anger and betrayal marred his voice. “I’ll make arrangements for your flight home immediately once I’m done in there.”
I saw it on his face, Leo was done with me. When he turned his back, it hurt worse than any other moment in my life.
He didn’t believe me.
When the door shut behind him, effectively cutting him off from me, the message was clear and my place in the world sealed.
Alone.
I was alone. And that small piece of hope I had for the future, a future with Leo, disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Five
You’re where?” Roman asked through the phone.
“I’m at the airport,” I said, rolling my little suitcase and hustling to make my flight home. I didn’t wait for Leo, not that he wanted me to. A red-eye international flight from London put a nice ding in my savings account, but I couldn’t think of that now. I had to get home. Well . . . to a hotel. I technically didn’t have a home. Or a job anymore.
I couldn’t call Hazel, not now. I’d have to start at the beginning and if she was watching the news, she already saw my name out there. I couldn’t bear to let another person down. I wouldn’t even know how to go about explaining. And judging by the lack of invitation to Amy’s dinner party, I couldn’t call her either.
Roman was my last resort.
“I’m coming home,” I said. “I just wanted you to know I found out about the breaking story in the news.”
“Paige, I don’t know who named you, but the money has a paper trail and it’s all leading back to Bill. Not you. I’m working now to get this finalized and over to the press. You have nothing to do with the missing money.”
“That’s not what the article alluded to.” While I appreciated Roman working on this, he said things I already knew, things I’d tried telling him from the beginning. I never touched the campaign funds. But speculation was a bitch.
I also knew that New York wasn’t an option for me anymore. My reputation was ruined in politics and after this story, likely in everything else, and Colin would make sure that in his circle, I would be shamed. There was nothing left for me in New York.
“Thanks for calling, Roman, but I need to catch my flight. Tell Amy I love her and you’re right, staying away is best.”
“I never told you to stay away, Paige.”
Maybe not those words specifically, but his acti
ons had made it clear that he wanted me to stay away from Amy, and for Amy to stay away from me. I may be drowning in my own life, but I understood what the word distance meant and Roman had used it.
“You didn’t have to.”
I hung up and ran down the hall toward my gate, those stupid tears rising and falling again. I was running from a broken heart and headed to nowhere. My world in shambles all around with no hope for escape.
The flight was long, but did little to help with the pain. I walked out of the airport ready to hail a cab when Roman got out of a parked town car and met me.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“We found the money, Paige. The Times is running the story. You’re cleared. Everything is fine.”
“Everything isn’t fine.”
“I was going to ask you to come back and work for me.”
I shook my head. That didn’t fix all the things broken inside of me. “This isn’t how it works, Roman. You can’t just snap your fingers and make things go back to normal.”
He frowned. “I thought we had an understanding. Once the funds were located and proper steps taken to clear your name, things would—”
“Would what? Magically be better?” No, because like I told Leo once, I was far from magical. And nothing in my life had ever worked out the way I’d hoped. “It doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t seen my best friend in months because of this. That I’ve missed out on you two setting a date for your wedding and . . .” I placed the back of my hand over my mouth to catch the small tremor that escaped. But I couldn’t break down. Not now. Not again.
“Paige, I’m sorry. I did what I thought was best for everyone.”
“I know.” And I did. But it still hurt. Badly. “I also know you couldn’t make the right choice in handling this issue, and my distance from the scandal was best. But what hurts the most was you stood in your office, and you didn’t believe me.”
“I made a mistake.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”
I turned to walk away and Roman called after me. “Leo is looking for you. He’s called me several times.”