Allison
Swallowing thickly, Allison reminded herself where she was: in a seedy neighborhood, harboring a convicted felon who still wore blood stains of the man he’d nearly killed. The challenging expression that teetered from a glare to a gaze, had her breathing in deep.
“Jelly?” she asked, lifting her brow before addressing his question.
“Yeah, we’ve been over this,” he said, tightening that jaw.
Refraining from rolling her eyes, she didn’t ask the obvious, why he didn’t like being addressed as Leonardo. She’d save that for another time. Right now, there was something more pressing she needed to address first because she had an inkling of what he might be trying to do.
“Okay, Beast.” She lifted her chin a bit. “I think if you ever murdered anyone you’d still be sitting in jail.”
She kept to herself what Gio had told her about doing their own extensive backgrounds on the guys and his no-exception rule to accepting anyone with violent pasts.
Leonardo smirked, shaking his head. “Because everyone who’s ever murdered someone is locked up?”
Allison thought about that. “Well, I suppose there are exceptions. Many have killed during wars or out of self-defense. Cops have killed in the line of duty, but then those aren’t considered murderers. And I’m not talking about manslaughter either, like accidentally killing someone, so yeah, I think if you were a cold-blooded murderer, you’d be in jail still.”
“Well, then, if that’s the rule, I guess I haven’t.”
Allison shook her head. Was he trying to say something more? But her eyes focused on something more curious now. She’d seen it before on his arm but wasn’t sure what it was because the tattoo over the skin did such a good job of camouflaging it. “Is that a scar on your arm?”
Leonardo glanced down at it and shrugged. “I have lots of scars.”
“I’ve noticed. Can I ask why?”
He did that thing again where his expression and body language said one thing but his mouth was saying another. He’d begun to shake his head but then answered instead. “Rough upbringing. Rough life.” He chuckled dryly, shaking his head again as he threw the bloody shirt from his shoulder onto the sofa. “Guess things never change.”
“Is that a burn?” Allison reached out to point at the scar on his arm and he nodded. “May I?”
Ever since the first day she’d seen all the scars on him, something about them drew her to them. She wanted to touch them—touch him. He didn’t say anything, so she took it as a yes and touched the scar on his big arm gently. It wasn’t exactly random, and touching it, she could see there was a shape to it.
Glancing up quickly, she caught his eyes closed, as if her touch did something to him. “What kind of burn is this?”
His eyes flew open, and like all the other times, they were locked into each other’s gaze. Though his was a bit harder than usual. “The worst kind.” He paused, still staring into her eyes but went on before she could ask him to elaborate. “Not just because it was inflicted when I was a child, but the malice with which it was done. But seriously, Allison, it’s late and you should—”
Her touching the side of his face froze him mid-sentence. Allison was determined to call him out on this. She wouldn’t leave here tonight without getting to the bottom of what it was they were both feeling. Any other girl with half a brain would’ve already run out of there the moment she’d been given the chance. Here Allison couldn’t tear herself away. “Were you an abused child, Beast?” She touched the scars around his forehead and smiled when he closed his eyes and leaned into her hand.
“Something like that,” he whispered as he let his eyes flutter open slowly and gazed at her again.
“What is it about you?” she asked softly—gently. “What is it about this?”
She placed her hand over his incredible chest so he couldn’t even try to deny he was feeling the insanity too. Unable to help it, she smiled when she felt how undeniably hard his heart pummeled against her palm.
“Tell me. What are you feeling right this moment?” She stared into his eyes as her own heart threatened to burst right through her chest.
He placed his own palm over hers. “You don’t need to know.”
“Yes, I do,” she insisted, her insides already going crazy.
“Something I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
Now he scoffed as dryly as he had earlier, shaking his head, but he didn’t move away the way she was afraid he might. “Why?” He glanced around, motioning with his hand at their surroundings. “Look at where you are.” He sounded a little agitated now. “In this rat-infested hellhole in a neighborhood you shouldn’t be in. Because of me. A felon with blood on his hands—”
“We’re not that different.”
That had him scoffing even louder, and this time he did move away. “When I say I have blood on my hands, I’m not talking about just tonight. To be clear about my earlier answer to your question, yes, I have murdered someone—in cold blood—and I fucking loved every minute of it. I have no business feeling what I’m feeling for someone like you. Nothing good could ever come of it.”
“Because I’m a nice girl?”
She crossed her arms in front of her, not entirely sure she should still be arguing about this. The man had just admitted not only to having murdered someone but to enjoying it. Of course, he could be lying—trying to shock her. What he’d just admitted confirmed that inkling she’d had earlier. That this was just another tactic to push her away. Scare her. Remembering Gio’s assurance that the work-release guys were thoroughly screened relieved the alarm she’d begun to feel over what he’d just admitted.
“You’re a good guy, Beast. Just because you have a past, doesn’t mean you’re not deserving of a better future.”
“There’s no way . . .” he began to say, but he stopped to stare at her, and she could see it in his eyes: he yearned for this as much as she did.
Once again lost in his gaze, she walked up to him and took his hand, placing it on her chest. “I’m feeling it too. There are no rules when it comes to this stuff. It just happens.”
“You’re eleven years younger than I am, and for me, eleven years is a long fucking time, considering all the things I’ve seen and experienced in life. Stick with Carson. He sounds like the kind of guy your heart should be pounding for. But you should—” He paused but didn’t remove his hand from her chest. “You need to stay away from me.”
“What if I don’t want to?” She slipped a hand into his.
That alone was enough to make her tremble, and she felt him go even more taut. But she refused to stop, and he didn’t pull away. He was feeling this as much as she was. There was no fighting it now. Tilting her face against his hand, she gazed deep into those intense eyes then kissed the side of his hand. “What if I just can’t stay away?”
Without another word or protest, Leo cradled her face and kissed her as she’d never been kissed before—deeply, skillfully, possessively—like he never wanted to stop, and she prayed he didn’t. Allison ran her hands down his arms the way she’d fantasized doing so many times. They were as hard and perfectly sculpted as they looked. As feverishly as he kissed her, every curve of his arm muscles felt flexed to the max. Allison wasn’t sure that was a good or a bad thing.
Concentrating on keeping up with his delicious tongue, Allison could not get enough. His kisses were beyond even what she’d been imagining. Her lady parts were on fire, and already her head was wondering how far this would go.
With a groan, he brought one of his hands down and pulled her to him, holding his hand tightly around her waist. There was no mistaking the enormous erection pressed against her now. It was all Allison could do to keep her legs from giving out on her.
Loud voices and something crashing just outside the apartment had Leonardo pulling away and jumping in front of her. “Get down,” he whispered loudly.
Allison did as her heart walloped with a new reason now. She heard arguing outside then what sounded like various voices yelling and cussing all at once. Leonardo crept over to the window to investigate as the voices got louder and along with more banging and sounds of things breaking.
Allison watched, practically holding her breath as Leonardo shook his head. A few minutes later, the voices finally calmed and then they were gone altogether. Leonardo turned to Allison from the window. “Bunch of junkies going at each other. Probably fighting over drugs. You shouldn’t be here. You need to go. I’m in enough trouble as it is. The last thing I need is for your sister to start a witch hunt if she gets wind that you’re with me tonight.”
She ignored his comments about Lila because, as much as she hated to admit it, telling Lila about this was not happening—not yet anyway—at least until she knew she had good reason to even argue that she believed in her heart of hearts she could trust Leonardo. After that kiss, there was no turning back no matter what he said now. There was no way he could deny feeling everything she’d felt from him just from that one kiss. But there were things she’d meant to ask earlier.
“What about food? Or clean clothes? Is someone bringing that to you?”
Leonardo nodded, opening the front door and looking out as if to check if the coast was clear. “It’s all taken care of and your part in this is done.” He turned to her as she reached him, flinching when he realized just how close she was again. “Thank you for everything,” he said, staring down into her eyes. “I do appreciate it, but I mean it, Allison.” His eyes dropped down to her lips. “I may’ve given into that just now because there was just no way of fighting it, but it can’t happen again. You need to stay away from here. From me. You hear me?”
Allison caressed his face because once again his actions spoke louder than his words. He was this close to kissing her again, and she wanted him to. So bad.
“Allison, please.” He closed his eyes in an almost pained way. “You have no idea what you do to me. But this can’t be. Trust me.” He covered her hand on his face. “You don’t want any part of my life.”
“You can’t know what I want.”
His eyes darkened, going hard on her suddenly. “But I know what you don’t need in your life, and that’s me screwing it all up. Nothing’s happened yet, and already you’ve been attacked and stalked by a guy with a fucking loaded gun. This isn’t happening, Ali. You need to stay away from me.”
As happy as Allison was about finally getting the truth out of him, and as badly as her body would yearn even more for his touch now, she drew the line at begging. The knot in her throat thickened, only there was one thing she needed him to know.
“Carson’s not my type.”
It was a ridiculous statement at a moment like this, and she knew it, but it needed to be said. She’d never had a type in her life only now she knew with every fiber of her being that Leonardo was all she wanted. Something in that gaze touched her deep in her soul. There was so much more to him she wasn’t done learning about, but mostly there was this tender vulnerability she saw beneath the angry glares. The way he’d been so quick to jump to her defense—to risk so much for her—when he hardly even knew her. She knew so little about him still, yet in the short time she’d known him, those moments they’d shared made her feel like she knew him better than most.
Leonardo’s eyes went from hers to her lips then back to her eyes again. “Maybe you should give Carson more of a chance. He sounds like the kind of guy who should be your type. Because I sure as shit shouldn’t be.”
Opening the screen door for her to walk out, she did, glad to be in front of him this time so she could swat the tear that escaped the corner of her eye. “You don’t have to walk me to my car.”
His only response was to keep walking alongside her, looking out in every direction, guardedly. He walked her all the way to her car and waited for her to drive away before she saw him walk back inside.
Even as she drove away, her entire body tingled still from having been touched by him. But the knot at her throat threatened to suffocate her when she remembered how he’d begged her to stay away. How could she feel so heartbroken over this man? She’d only begun to peel away the tons of complicated layers she knew there were yet to be removed. But even more pressing, how in the world was she supposed to stay away from him now?