‘You,’ he said softly, the word falling between them like a sacred offering.
He heard her breath hitch and saw her body tense, her nipples tight as they pushed against the silky fabric of her dress. He knew the air was still too warm to have brought about that reaction and his groin hardened to painful proportions as it read the signals her body was sending out.
If he didn’t touch her soon, if he didn’t get her beneath him in his bed, he just might implode.
She wasn’t looking at him but awareness vibrated between them and burned up some of the few remaining brain cells that were still functioning inside his head.
Then she turned her head, an errant curl falling over her forehead, the look in her eyes utterly disparaging.
‘Why? Did your supermodel turn you down?’
He sucked in a steadying breath. ‘I didn’t offer her anything.’
‘Really?’ She arched a delicate brow and snagged the piece of hair behind her ear. ‘Could have fooled me.’
‘I think I hurt you tonight.’
‘You confuse me,’ she said with raw honesty, ‘but if you’re seriously offering me a night in your bed then I have to tell you I’m not interested in casual sex.’
Leo studied her, aware of the scent of the sea air and the loud thud of his own heart.
‘There will be nothing casual about the sex we have, angel.’
Her eyes dropped away from his and he wondered at the flash of—uncertainty? Insecurity?—that crossed her face.
‘Lexi?’
She shook her head at him. ‘I’ve known men like you and … you have too many secrets, Leo. I couldn’t be with someone I couldn’t trust.’
Leo felt the skin on his face pull tight. ‘Are you saying I’m dishonest?’
‘I’m saying I don’t know who you are. You give nothing away and …’
‘Somebody hurt you?’
Lexi huffed out a breath and shrugged her shoulders but the movement was stilted. ‘My father led a double life and when my mother found out it nearly killed her.’ She tugged at the necklace nestled between her breasts agitatedly and then dropped it when she saw him looking. ‘I don’t know why I just told you that.’
‘Because you want to sleep with me but you’re torn.’
She shook her head. Oh, to be so confident. ‘I’ve never met anyone like you but … like I said, you have secrets and they scare me.’
‘Believe me, moya milaya, it would scare you more to know them.’
She shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist and Leo cursed himself for saying what he had. Then he cursed her for being the person she was. She was too genuine and almost innocent in her view of the world. She made his conscience spike and he knew that pursuing her after this would be selfish and he’d promised himself he’d never be selfish again after Sasha’s death.
He heard a discreet cough behind him. ‘Someone had better be dead, Danny,’ he growled, not looking at his EA.
‘You might wish that were the case in a minute.’
Leo turned at the serious note in Danny’s voice. ‘What is it?’
‘You said to inform you immediately if we got word from Amanda.’
Leo’s eyes narrowed. ‘You found her, then.’
‘Not exactly. I’ve been checking your emails all day and this came in.’ He handed him a piece of paper and Leo took it, a sense of dread forming a knot in his belly.
He scanned the email and started sweating like a man trapped in a steel cage with a dozen hungry lions for company. ‘Married?’ He shook his head. ‘She can’t do this.’
Danny didn’t say anything and Leo knew that his worst nightmare had come true. Amanda was demanding that he take full custody of Ty. She had remarried and Ty didn’t fit into their lifestyle.
He felt the fist in his belly rise to his heart and emotion and pain clawed at him as memories of the past hurtled into his consciousness.
Air became choked in his lungs and Leo felt the panic he had experienced at the childcare centre when he’d first seen Ty take hold.
He needed space.
Time to think. Without looking at either occupant on the deck, he crumpled the piece of paper into his fist and stalked off.
LEXI wandered down the long walkways and spiral staircases until she came to her and Ty’s suite of rooms. She checked on Ty and smoothed his hair off his forehead as she watched him sleeping peacefully. He looked so much like Leo and her mind automatically wondered where he had gone. What he was doing.
He had said ‘married’ in such a tortured voice Lexi could only surmise that Amanda had remarried and the news had clearly devastated him. Her heart clenched in reaction and her skin grew hot. Her earlier assumption that he still harboured strong feelings for Amanda Weston was clearly correct.
She straightened Ty’s sheets and let herself out of his room and crossed to her own. She knew Carolina was asleep in the other room with the monitor on and that she would not be needed any more tonight.
She kicked off her heels and wandered out onto her private terrace. The air held a faint chill now that a soft breeze had picked up and she rubbed her bare arms. She turned back inside and poured herself a glass of water and sat down at the small writing desk, running her fingers over the edge of her laptop before jumping up again. She was too wired to sleep and too restless to work.
Again her mind drifted to Leo and she wondered if he would want someone to be there for him when he was feeling terrible. Instinctively, she knew that he wouldn’t but sometimes people didn’t know what they needed until they had it. She knew he wasn’t a talker but maybe he’d never had anyone offer a listening ear before. She might question his morals and his life choices, but he was a human being in pain and everyone needed someone at a time like this.
Not questioning her motives too closely, Lexi donned her heels and decided that the only way to put her mind at rest was to find him, make sure he was okay and then return to her room.
Pleased with her plan, she took the elevator up to his level and tapped lightly on his door. After a minute she knocked harder and then, still hearing nothing, turned the door knob and opened the door.
She hadn’t really expected it to be unlocked and now she was faced with the dilemma of whether to just close it and leave or … close it definitely!
‘Remind me to station security outside my door.’ Leo’s gruff words carried across the room and nearly gave her a heart attack and Lexi let the door swing further open, just in time to see Leo disappearing into the opposite doorway.
Okay, so he wasn’t dead … Lexi let her gaze drift over the room in front of her and gasped at the size and understated opulence that greeted her eyes.
It was a living room with a huge cream sofa and matching chairs that looked comfortable enough to sleep on. Large domed lamps flanked the sofa and gave the room an intimate, golden glow that set off the smooth polished cabinetry around the room to perfection. A flat-screen TV lined one entire wall and opposite that an open doorway led into what Lexi assumed was the bedroom Leo had just disappeared through.
Before she could stop herself she crossed the carpeted floor, trying not to think about the last time she had