“Let me help you,” I say to Trinity, wanting to learn more about the amazing meals she likes to prepare on Sundays.
Smoke told me this is new, only since I started working here. I wonder if it’s something Trinity has always wanted to do, share her love of cooking with someone who’s equally as interested in rustic Italian cuisine.
And I do want to learn. This is my heritage, and I’m grateful that Trinity is here to hand it to me. I want to do everything I can to embrace our family traditions. Anything at all to keep my mind engaged and focused so I don’t obsess about the man I’ve barely spoken to since he destroyed me three weeks ago.
Twenty days. That’s how long he and Smoke and six members of the security team have been gone. Smoke calls Trinity twice a day. But I haven’t heard from Leo. Not a text or a call. Not a word. I need to tell him. Who I am. Why I’m here. But Leo is unreachable, physically and emotionally. There’s nothing I can do but wait him out because I can’t exactly confess to a ghost.
Trinity scoops another pile of flour in front of me, and I mimic what she does to hers. “Make a well so the mound of flour resembles a volcano,” she says, and I do, thinking how this is like science class. “Now add the eggs.”
I crack the eggs one by one. Watching them fall feels like therapy. Snippets of time when I forget about Leo and focus on something—anything—else. Working the dough, I pour myself into breaking it down to build it back up into something beautiful and new. Like a phoenix rising out of the dough to form spaghetti or ravioli or lasagna.
I’ve grown to love Sundays, the time when Trinity shares all her family stories with me. She paints a picture of always having her parents and brothers around. When life was good times and laughter, and family was everything. She has five brothers in total, and in all this time, I’ve only met Smoke. What keeps them away?
Even with a house full of people—it’s easy to feel the chill of isolation and loneliness. With round-the-clock security teams hovering about, they’re here to work. Trinity would be all alone if she weren’t with me. And I find myself in the same boat.
Smoke and Leo are returning today—a fact I only know because of Trinity whipping up a special feast for their return. She’s gone all out, preparing burrata and cherry tomatoes with olive oil and fresh basil for an appetizer and cannoli for dessert. I have no idea how I lived before trying my first cannoli.
While Trinity gets dressed for dinner, I’m cleaning up the kitchen alone.
“Hey.”
Startled, I whirl around at the familiar voice.
Leo’s scruff is a little longer than it was when I saw him last, and I tamp down the small worry that surfaces. In a dark gray button-down and with his wavy hair damp from a recent shower, he hasn’t shaved as he normally would. It could be a new look for him, but it feels like something more. Like his coming home will be fleeting, and I can’t help but wonder if he’ll even stay the night.
I’ve tried not wanting Leo—not letting hope bloom when I see him—but it’s not easy. Settling for professional and platonic feels unobtainable. Leo is oxygen. I’ve never needed someone more.
“Hey, yourself,” I say, snapping the flour container shut so I can put it away.
Hey is the most Leo has said to me since our explosive night together, though technically, I report to him. The day I accepted the job, I wasn’t sure he’d ever speak to me again. It’s weird to miss someone when the only promise shared between us was simple. No commitments.
When I try to reach the high shelf this special Italian flour is usually kept on, Leo steps in. “Let me.”
He moves too close to me, and once he has the flour back in its original place, we both pause, the air between us electric and charged. He reaches out and brushes what I’m sure is flour from my cheek before a flash of regret crosses his features.
Pocketing his hands, he takes a deliberate step away. “Something smells good.” Prowling to the stove, he lifts lids to get a better look at the feast awaiting us all.
“I’m glad you and Smoke are back. Safe and sound.”
It’s the world I’ve come to know better, even if I don’t completely understand it. When they leave, nothing is discussed. At least, not openly.
Smoke and Leo and a few members of the security team take off in the middle of the night with enough weapons for a small military strike team. The only way I even know Leo will be gone by morning is that look in his eyes. An arctic chill sweeps over them, and the normally bright blue hardens to an empty darkness I don’t recognize and can’t seem to reach.
That’s when I lose Leo to Z, a man my heart bleeds so much harder for.
For no reason at all, I tiptoe close until we’re a breath apart. My lips reach his, wrapping my arms around his neck until this kiss tells him everything I haven’t. Everything I can’t. Who I am. Why I’m here. And how much I need him to be okay with it all, because I need him.
Leo’s kiss is pained, and the strong arms that would usually sweep me against his body don’t. “You mean a lot to me, Ivy. You care so much about everyone. Especially Trinity.”
You mean a lot to me, too.
I think the words but don’t say them, afraid to disturb our intimacy. Instead, I simply stand there, studying his eyes. I don’t see the cold mercenary the world knows as Z. But somehow, I don’t see the familiar warmth of Leo either.
He lets out a sigh and looks away. “Which is why this is so hard to say.”
A lump forms in my throat. Is he trying to fire me again?
“Say what, Leo?”
“I can’t lead you on, Ivy. And I can’t keep using you.”
His soft words slice into my heart like an icy blade, and I blink hard, searching his expression. Nothing makes sense.
“Using me? I don’t understand.”
His hands are loose around my wrists, keeping me distant but forcing me to listen. “There’s someone else.”
It takes a second before I feel my body again, but when his thumbs wipe fresh tears from my cheeks, I can’t stop what comes over me. I explode, pounding into his chest, shoving him away. But I’m no match for his gentle grip on my wrists, and trying to break free is pointless. He’s still holding me. Why is he still holding me?
“Let go.”
“Not until you hear all of it.”
“Hear how in the span of twenty days, you met someone else? Pass.” Wiggling to escape does no good.
“I haven’t met anyone else,” he says, holding me tight until my rage settles enough for him to continue. “It’s my wife.”
“Wife? You’re married?”
I’m floored. And outraged. Furious, I swing at him, but my slap falls short, landing in his grip. Again, he doesn’t let go.
“Lori died two years ago, and I was helpless to stop it. In more ways than I can explain, the best parts of me died with her.” The mourning in Leo’s eyes is raw and deep, and it tears me apart. He sucks in a breath, avoiding my eyes. “I can’t give you my heart, Ivy. After our last night together, I realized the truth. You deserve someone who’ll always put you first. You deserve better.”
His tender kiss on my temple feels strange and final, and my heart beats hard as my mind whirls.
It isn’t true. It can’t be true.
But what if it is? What if the passion between us was a lightning strike—a white-hot flare in the moment, never to happen again?
Leo releases my wrists and is already halfway across the room before I can react. “You can come in, Hunter.”
As the large man enters, I swipe the remaining traces of heartbreak from my cheeks.
Despite my heart landing somewhere on the floor before him, Leo speaks only to Hunter. “Ivy, this is Hunter. You’ll now report to him. I’ll leave you to introduce yourself. Take care of her.”
The two men shake hands like some really fucked up passing of the guard. Without another word, Leo leaves, and I’m left with the burly titan.
True to his namesake, Hunter is slow in his approach as if he knows with any sudden movements, I’ll bolt. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ivy.”
He holds out a hand, but I ignore it. My suspicion gets the better of me.
“I’ve met everyone in this household, and I’ve never seen you.”
He gives me a shy smile, one that looks way too practiced as if he’s used it a million times before to get whatever he wants. Access to information or panties, it’s all the same to a man like him.
And I’m on to him. Oh, am I on to him.
“Right,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck to show off his tanned bicep and the tattoos peeking beneath the tight sleeve of his T-shirt. “Before the work I just did with Leo, I was at my sister’s wedding. In Hawaii. I took a few extra days to explore the islands. Have you ever been?”
I let my scowl answer, though he’s being really, really nice. And if Leo meant it, this man is now my boss. Making a good impression would be smart. But I’m suffocating in the loss of Leo’s presence and his self-righteous one-way conversation, and all I want to do is fuck some sense into him.
“Excuse me,” I say like an idiot because I’m pretty sure Hunter was mid-sentence, giving me some rare tidbit about traveling to the isle of paradise in the middle of the Pacific.
I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s off. This wasn’t just about sex, as beyond mind-blowing as it was. There’s something more between us. Leo and I have a connection, and I can’t be the only one feeling it.
Leo didn’t flinch when he pulled a gun on a lowlife thief or the rich and powerful Uncle Andre. But face to face with me, he couldn’t meet my eyes? And Hunter. Freshly tanned and happens to be waiting in the wings? Maybe I’m clinging too hard to a man eager to let me go, but everything feels like a lie.
Pushing past my tears and pain, I race down the long length of hall to his room. When pounding on the door does nothing, I try the knob. It opens.
“Leo?”
I step inside, but the room is empty. Not only is Leo not here, but none of his things are.
The nightstands. The chairs. The desk. Even his oversized king bed is gone—the one I woke up in with nothing covering me but his strong arms and tender kisses. Where less than a month ago, nothing existed but his heartbeat against mine.
Leo is gone. And all evidence that we’ve been anything at all is suddenly erased.