“What does he look like?” I ask instead.
She smiles. It’s the first genuine smile I’ve seen on her in weeks. Maybe the first one I’ve seen since I met her in that club almost two years ago.
“He looks like you, Leo,” she says softly. “Just like you.”
I chuckle. “I bet that pissed you off.”
“You would think so, but no. It comforted me, actually. I felt like I had a part of you with me.”
She goes quiet. She’s said more than she wanted to. Revealed more than she should have.
But it just confirms it: tonight was progress, far more than I expected. In time, she’ll write that letter to Anya just like I want her to. This will resolve and then we can decide what comes next.
“Leo,” she says softly.
“Hmm?”
“My parents, are they—are they alright?”
I look at her and nod. “As far as Belov is concerned, they’re dead. Ariel’s orders were to kill them and wait for you. But she faked their deaths and transferred them to me.”
“So they know?”
“I told them only what they needed to know,” I admit. “And yes, that includes your true identity.”
“How did they react?”
“Like any parents would. They were scared. But I assured them that I would find you. That I’d get you back.”
“Where are they now?” she asks with wide eyes.
“I’ve set them up in an apartment by the city. In time, I’ll move them to a house of their choosing. They’re not apartment people.”
She smiles. “You noticed?”
“They’ve never complained about anything, but a couple of visits and I could tell.”
She sits up a little and looks at me with an awed expression.
“What?” I ask.
“You… you visit them?”
“When I can spare the time.”
Her expression softens. “That… I… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” I say.
She twists around and straddles me. Her hands rest on my chest as she leans in. “Thank you, Leo,” she says, pressing a kiss to my cheek.
The motion brings her ass into contact with my cock, which is starting to come back to life. “Careful now,” I warn her, gesturing down.
“You promised me a long night, didn’t you?” She rolls her hips again playfully, a light dancing in her eyes.
I slap her ass and roll her over, pressing my length against her thigh.
“I did,” I growl. “And I always keep my promises.”
21
WILLOW
I wake up before Leo. I stretch out, relishing in the soreness. It’s a reminder of every beautiful thing we did last night.
The sex is the easy part. Always has been. It’s everything else between us that makes me want to scream or cry or both.
Sighing, I swing my legs off the side of the bed and pad into the bathroom. I fill the tub with hot water, already aching to slip beneath the steaming surface. I’m leaning over to check the temperature when hands come down around my hips.
“Jesus!” I gasp. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”
I try to turn, but Leo grips me tight and forces me to stay where I am, my back pressed against his chest. It takes me only a second to register that he’s hard. His erection is pressed between my ass cheeks.
“After last night, that thing still works?”
“No rest for the weary.” His voice is raspy from sleep.
“Leo, I can barely walk straight this morning.”
I don’t need to see his face to know he’s smiling. Cocky bastard.
“A little more won’t hurt,” he murmurs. He smooths his fingers up the back of my neck and pushes me forward so my stomach hits the edge of the bathtub.
“I beg to diff—”
But the words die on my lips when he presses the head of his dick against my pussy. Already, my muscles are protesting. I need to stretch and hydrate and eat something.
Yet… heat pools low in my stomach with every touch.
“If you really can’t take it, I’ll stop,” he promises. But that’s a lie and he knows it. My body wouldn’t let him stop if the world were ending.
“Just get it over with,” I snap as bitterly as I can, even though I don’t mean a word of it.
He slaps my ass so hard that I cry out. Heat blooms across my backside, but the sting is countered by Leo’s teasing.
He pushes his cock into me just a little and then pulls out. He does this again and again, until my legs shake with anticipation.