CHAPTER TWENTY
There was a half-second more of patient touch-yourself-and-I’ll-wait Leo before his eyes went heavy with something much more feral.
“Grab the headboard,” he said, his voice cracking.
He pulled out and I rolled over, looking over my shoulder at him as I wrapped my fingers around two wooden spokes on the headboard. He peeled my thong off and ran his hands over my ass as I arched for him, and he cursed under his breath.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered. “Hold on, baby.”
Leo pushed back inside me, deeper, deeper, making me cry out as he plunged without mercy at a whole different angle. It was the best kind of pain as he dug his fingertips into the soft flesh of my hips, slamming deeply into me, and I found my rhythm, meeting him slam for slam.
It was liberating. It was freeing. I was cursing and begging him to keep going. To slap my ass, grab my hair. I didn’t know who the living hell I was, but whoever I was channeling was the damn bomb.
“Micah,” he roared. “I—”
It was happening. Something was happening. The pressure was building wayyyyyy off in Never Never Land, and I couldn’t stop now. I couldn’t feel my arms anymore. They were just a big giant burning sensation, pushing me back and forth, but I wanted it.
“Fuck me harder, Leo!” I cried as the build started in my toes, curling them under and almost cramping my calves. “Oh, God, please—don’t stop!”
He was almost splitting me in half and I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. I couldn’t breathe—that had gone by the wayside. I couldn’t—all there was, was this phenomenal wave of holy fucking fuck—
Noises that sounded almost inhuman came from my throat as it crashed into me. Wave after wave beat into me and over me and through my bones as Leo continued his punishing pounding, and as my screams hit the downhill range, I felt him bow up like a beast.
My name never sounded so good as it did roaring from his mouth as he finally let his climax go. Again and again, he pounded his orgasm into me, finally ending with a shudder as he lay heaving against my back.
Slowly, we melted together into the bed, sweaty and limp, struggling to catch our breath. Leo rolled onto his back and held up a finger.
“Give me a sec,” he managed.
I rolled over, too, drawing oxygen into my lungs. My body burned from every direction, inside and out. I felt like I’d been beaten, drawn, and quartered—or just truly and thoroughly sexed beyond imagination.
Never, ever had I experienced anything like that. I turned my head to peer at his profile, eyes closed, mouth open, pulling in air and probably listening to his heart still racing in his head. No one had ever been willing to work that hard for me—least of all, me.
“I’m sorry you had to run a marathon there,” I breathed. “While climbing Mount Everest. And swimming the Atlantic.”
He turned his head to me, eyebrows furrowed. “Are you kidding me?” he asked around breaths. “What are you sorry for?”
“That was a lot of—”
“If you say work, I’m going to pull your hair,” he said. “Again.” A chuckle wound its way out of my chest. “Micah, that was unbelievably hot.”
“Even though you made yourself wait?”
He lifted a hand and ran a finger along my cheek.
“Because I did,” he said. “Getting you there was erotic as hell,” Leo said. “Watching you come undone.” A lazy grin pulled at his mouth. “Watching you enjoy it a little rough.”
Heat rushed to my face that had nothing to do with body temperature.
“Yeah, that was new,” I said, smiling and looking away.
Leo pulled my chin back so that I faced him again. “Own it, Roman-off.”
I chuckled. “I’ll work on that.” His expression was so soft, so relaxed and happy, that it took my breath away. “Tell me something,” I whispered. “Something very few people know about you. Something you love.”
“Lying in the grass, looking up at a clear sky,” he said.
I smiled. “Really?”
“It’s endless,” he said. “Pure. Like an open road.” His finger traced my bottom lip. “Your turn. What do you love?”
I closed my eyes. “Dirt.”
He laughed, and I opened them. “Seriously! And rain. I love a soft rain.”
“Have you ever made love in the rain?” he asked.
“I’ve never even been kissed in a sprinkle,” I said. “It wasn’t practical.”
Leo’s brows furrowed. “That’s sad.”
“You have no idea.”
We lay like that for a while, not talking anymore, my fingers loosely laced with his. Each lost in our own basking, our own recovery, our own thoughts.
Thoughts that were creeping in like vines, now that the horniness was sated. I turned his hand over to see his knuckles, which were starting to bruise.
“Do I need to go find you some ice and a towel?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Oh, no,” I said, kissing his knuckles softly. “You insisted when it was me.”
His eyes went unreadable as he watched me do that, as if he was mesmerized. “And I will probably do that again the next time you punch someone,” he said finally. “But I’m fine.”
Of course my inner ridiculous girl heard “next time” like it was said through a megaphone and I had a squealy moment, but those things from before were swimming around us like sharks. It was time to dive in.
“Leo—”
“I told Nick I was working as a bodyguard, that I delivered papers, worked the late shift stacking lumber, that I had to haul potatoes—I really did have to haul potatoes for a while, but mostly I made up excuses for why I was always gone at night.”
It was a giant info dump done all on one breath, and I didn’t want to break his rhythm, but part of me was terrified. He wasn’t just sharing; he was going to eventually get somewhere. And that somewhere was going to be relevant. I held on to his hand, feeling that keeping that connection was important.
“Nick was smart, though,” Leo said. “Once he got old enough, he knew what I was doing.”
“Which was?” I asked.
“Whatever I had to,” he said. “Like I told you the other night. But—” He stopped. Very much in the same place he had that night. I let the pause be a pause. Let him find his way through it. Suddenly, I was in no hurry. “Nick got really distant and stayed pissed off at me most of the time, so I’d take off for a few days here and there. Maybe a week. Stay with a girl I was seeing at the time to teach Nick a lesson. But I got stupid,” he added, his voice little more than a whisper. “I got greedy. Blind. I stopped listening to myself. The girl had an abusive ex who I didn’t know I was working with, and I should have. He spouted about her all the time. I should have clued in, but he was certifiable so I ignored him.”
Leo sat up, letting go of me, and slid to lean back against the headboard. I followed suit, trying not to look nervous. Lying about jobs meant he had money he had to explain. Being gone at night meant it was secret and most likely illegal. Will it make me not want to get naked with you? It might.
“Nick also met a girl and got all wrapped up in that, got her pregnant, and came to me in a panic.” He breathed in slowly. “And all I saw was an opportunity. I had a plan. I always had a fucking plan.” Leo rubbed at his eyes and then down his face. “My brother—needed me. Put his pride and all his reservations about me aside, and came to me a scared seventeen-year-old kid needing a brother, needing advice, needing help from family, and all I could see was a girl from a wealthy family and the access we had that would make my psycho friends happy.” Leo shrugged as if pushing away the memory. “Long story short, Nick threatened to turn me in if I went through with my plan, and we never talked again.”
“Never?” I said. “Till now?”
“I left,” he said, staring ahead as if he was watching the action in his head. “Addison was born, life went on. I wasn’t there.”
“What was the plan?” I asked, feeling brazen to ask that. He closed his eyes and I knew we were to the “getting there” part. “Or—why’d you leave?” I added quickly, suddenly not wanting to be there.
“It’s the same answer.”
It wasn’t Leo’s voice. I gasped loudly as he and I both jerked to the right toward the voice. The voice belonging to the man leaning casually against the open bedroom door.
“Jeremy!” I yelped, the word cracking like I was a prepubescent boy.
I grabbed a pillow to cover myself, while Leo vaulted over the bed in all his naked glory.
“What the fuck are you doing in my apartment?” he seethed, grabbing a notepad off the nightstand and rolling it. Use what you have. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Your door was open,” he said. “Shit’s scattered all over the floor, looks like you were packing or something. Leaving again already? Oh—” he said, holding up a hand as Leo advanced on him. “I don’t blame you for stopping to bang my fiancée first. She’s a good fuck, isn’t sh—”
Leo dropped the pad and his hands were on Jeremy’s throat, pinning him to the door frame before the last word was out of his mouth.
“You miserable son-of-a-bitch,” Leo growled. “How dare you.”
Jeremy coughed and laughed in Leo’s face, which made my skin cold. It was creepy and disturbing and—I was going to marry that? It was horrifying that he should see me naked with another man, just maybe an hour after accusing me of doing that very thing, but more horrific was the look in his eyes. Like he had checked out.
“Aw, did I insult your girlfriend, McKane?” he said, his voice strained. “Again? That’s so cute.”
The fact that he knew Leo’s name triggered confusion. Should he know that? Had anyone ever said it?
“I should have—”
“Should have what?” Jeremy asked innocently. “Killed me? Turned me in?”
Killed? What movie was I watching?
“What?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s right,” Jeremy said, glancing at me before locking eyes with Leo. “You didn’t get to finish telling her.” In a surprisingly fast move of unexpected strength, he broke Leo’s hold on his neck and shoved at him, his expression going dark. “Get off me,” he seethed. “The smell of her on you is making me sick.”
“Get out,” Leo barked.
“Oh, I’m going,” he said, turning my way to toss my shirt at me. His eyes went angry. “Your clothes evidently fell off in the living room. Believe me, I don’t need to see more.”
“Why are you even here?” I asked, yanking the tank top on. “What purpose could it possibly serve?”
He threw something else in my direction and I ducked as it landed on the bed with a jingle. My keys.
“My—my car?”
He looked at me with disgust, and I didn’t even care. He brought my car. But—
“I filed for a transfer of title,” he said. “It shouldn’t take long. In the meantime, I want nothing of yours.”
I snatched up the keys and hugged them to my chest before he might change his mind.
“Whatever the reason, thank you,” I said.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” Jeremy said, turning to go, passing Leo—who had somehow miraculously found his jeans but never zipped them, standing there looking murderous and menacing. “Your fuck-buddy here still has a story to tell you.” Jeremy grinned again, although his eyes were vacant. “Remember, McKane? About the old days, when you were fucking my girlfriend behind my back?” He did a head slap on his forehead. “Kind of like now?”
My blood felt like it ceased moving. Jeremy was the abusive ex. Leo—knew him. He—
“Andrea wasn’t your girlfriend anymore, asshole,” Leo said.
“Convenient memory,” Jeremy said. “So did you forget about the rest, too? How we were going to rob your brother’s girlfriend’s family mansion, but you pussied out so we hit up my house while my parents were gone—and you wussed out again and threatened me, so—” He stared Leo down in an overly dramatic pose. “I’m sorry, did I end up telling it? Damn.” He slapped him on the shoulder and Leo hit his hand away with his fist. “That’s okay. You can tell her about setting my house on fire.”