We’d stayed in that bath long after the water ran cold. Taking our time relearning one another’s bodies. Never speaking more than dirty, filthy things that turned us both on.
Now, hours later, I watched from my spot on the bed as Leo hung the phone up. He ordered our room service meal, never once asking what I wanted to eat. I tried not to dwell on the fact that he already knew exactly what I wanted.
It was surprisingly late in the evening when we emerged from the bathroom. Neither of us spoke about our sleeping arrangements. I had just wrapped my robe tightly around my naked body and climbed in under the plush white blanket on his bed.
He had opted to just wear one of the big white towels wrapped around his muscular hips. The soft fabric hung low on those hips and effectively short-circuited my brain every time I looked at him. It really was unfair how dangerously attractive this man was.
Leo climbed under the blanket with me and pulled me to his side immediately. It was like he thought if he didn’t keep his hands on me I would disappear. We were both content to lay like that for a long while. My head was draped on his chest, my leg over his. I felt warm and safe and … I felt like I was home. Like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. That was until he decided to open that wicked mouth and bring me back to a screeching reality.
“We need to talk,” he murmured against my hair.
“We already talked. I don’t want to fight anymore today, Leo,” I said.
He was quiet for a few beats but I could tell something was eating at him. I knew we would need to hammer everything out eventually. I just wasn’t ready to break the bubble I had fully encased us in yet.
I winced at my own selfishness. It wasn’t fair to not let the man say his peace just because I was completely content not rehashing the past right now.
What is it they say about ripping a bandage off? Better to just get it over with.
I sighed as I pushed away from him. I adjusted myself until I was sitting cross-legged on the bed facing him. I made sure all of my naughty bits were fully covered. Wouldn’t want anyone to get distracted.
“Talk.” My voice held none of its usual animation as I spoke the one word.
Leo looked me up and down before he moved as well. Soon, we were both sitting on the bed, cross-legged, facing one another. I stifled my smile as I thought about how we were sitting. We looked like a couple of college girls at a slumber party. You know, if there was extreme sexual tension at slumber parties.
If I thought about it hard enough, I could write the scene beautifully. I had never written a girl-on-girl book but the idea did spark that feeling in my mind when I felt the urge to write. Sometimes it was impossible to quell the creativity I felt when inspiration hit.
“I would like to know what goes on behind those beautiful eyes, Princess.” He smiled my way as if he was trying to read my mind.
I smiled then. “Trust me, no, you don’t.” I was a creative writer. The things that flashed behind my eyes daily were not always for the faint of heart.
Leo returned my smile before sobering again. “I know the last person you want to talk about is Chris,” he said coldly and I shivered. I stayed silent though, willing him to continue.
“I already told you I never worked for him. Everything between you and me is and always has been real. I was never paid by anyone other than your parents, I swear on everything I am, Emy. And I know I don’t have anything solid to prove my innocence besides my word. But, I have been trying to work this out in my head and I think I figured it out.”
I nodded my head for him to continue. I was going to let him say what he needed to say, even if I was still doubtful.
“I was hired to dig up concrete evidence that Chris was embezzling from his own company. I’m still not sure how he found out that I was hired but my guess would be he had someone watching your parents. He was a very paranoid son of a bitch, and for good reason.” Leo’s face dulled its usual playfulness as the professional in him slid into place.
He was right, though. Chris had always taken every security measure he possibly could. He had hired a security firm to cover every square inch of our home with cameras. There were alarms set at every door and window as well. I felt like I lived in Fort Knox most days. And that was exactly why Leo and I always had to sneak off to that motel. Even if Chris was gone a lot on business, he would know if anyone came or went from that house.
“From the time he opened his company to the time I came into the picture, Chris had stolen over five million from his investors and nobody was the wiser.” I shook my head in disbelief. I’d known he was taking money from his investors, but I never knew how much.
“I think when he was tipped off about your parents hiring me, he confronted your father. I think Chris knew he was fucked when he saw the evidence I had given to your dad. He knew there was no way he could get out of trouble other than making Frank a deal. I think he offered him a way to make millions by joining him and getting rid of all the evidence.” Leo studied me carefully as he dropped the bomb between us as if he were talking about the weather. I openly gaped at him.
“That’s an awful tangled web you’re weaving, Leo,” I said. I didn’t quite believe everything he said, but I couldn’t say some of it wasn’t ringing a familiar bell.
“I do the same research on my clients as I do the people they hire me to follow, Princess. Daddy was in the red in a bad way. He was less than a year away from bankruptcy.” His words cut through me like a knife to the gut. I had no clue the family’s money well was running dry. I nearly laughed to myself. Why would I know? Patricia and Frank never felt it necessary to tell me anything.
“Of course,” Leo continued, “when Chris confronted him, Frank had to save his own ass and blame the whole thing on someone else. I would guess your father saw a dollar sign and looked for the easiest way to cash in. What better way to get on your husband’s good side than by lying and telling him his wife was the one that betrayed him?” Leo was starting to sound more and more convincing the longer we sat there.
Restless energy had me moving away from him. Panic laced his eyes as he watched me stand from the bed. He thought I was going to run. I wanted to run. Even though I didn’t want to hear anymore about how I was just a pawn used by everyone, I forced myself to stay in the room with him. I watched my feet as I paced back and forth next to the bed. When I nodded at Leo, he continued.
“That was his way into the business. An easy payday, Emy. He told Chris you were the one to hire me in hopes that he would throw him off his trail. After that was settled, Chris hired another PI to follow you. That’s how he got the pictures of us in that motel. And Chris lied too, just to hurt you. He told you he hired me when he really hadn’t, just to get back at you for trying to ruin him, Emily.”
Leo finished with such sympathy in his eyes that I couldn’t take it. Hurt and rage mixed in my gut like a ball of tangled yarn. I didn’t know who to be mad at but I needed to scream and thrash and let the world know that I’d been wronged. Nothing about the last fourteen years had been fair.
“That’s a whole lot of lies, Leo. You don’t have to try and be so creative. Just tell me the fucking truth for once!” I screamed at the only man to treat me like an actual human being. I knew it wasn’t fair to him. I knew he was trying to be honest with me but it felt too good to lash out right now.
Leo stood too. He rounded the bed and for a moment I thought he was going to grab me and shake sense into me. He walked right past me and grabbed the shorts he had been wearing earlier in the day. Was he going to leave? Did I want him to leave?
“I’m telling you the truth, you stubborn woman. I’m telling you the truth now, just like I was telling you the truth back then. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to take you away from it all, Emily. And if this is the only way I can prove to you how real everything was for me, then so be it,” he beseeched me before holding up his shorts.
Flashbacks of spoken promises as we lay in the motel assaulted my memory. I squeezed my eyes closed as the old pain resurfaced. A lot of things were said and a lot of promises were made that were never followed through on. It still hurt just as badly as it did back then.
Confusion creased my brows as I watched him dig out his wallet and fish out two pieces of paper that looked like they had been unfolded and refolded thousands of times.
The memory assaulted me full force. The image of us laying in that crappy motel room, limbs tangled together. Laughing so much, my cheeks ached.
As if something was tickling the back of my brain, it clicked together all at once.
****
“I’m going to take you away, Emy.” Leo’s voice rumbled across my neck as he leaned over my naked body. I’d lost count of how many hours we’d been here. I smiled as I threaded my fingers through his hair, loving the feeling of those silky locks caressing my skin.
“Is that right?” I could hear the smile in my voice. I felt him return my smile against my skin.
“Where do you want to go? If you could pick one place in the entire world, where would it be?” he asked as he kissed my collarbone.
I turned my head around to his face and smiled widely as I stared into his honey eyes. Trailing my fingers along the smooth lines of ink that scattered across his chest.
I thought about his question for a beat, even though I already knew the answer. When most people would say something exotic like Hawaii or the Bahamas, my place was much simpler than that.
“When I was a kid, we took a family vacation to Montana. We were way up in the mountains for a couple of weeks.” My smile wobbled as I became lost in the memory. “I was twelve at the time, I think. Tanner just turned sixteen. My parents spent the entire week working.” I huffed a laugh. “Big shocker, I know.”
I let my fingers trail down Leo’s chest to his lower belly. I grinned at the way his abdomen flexed when I circled his navel lightly. We had just spent our bodies to the point of exhaustion but I still hadn’t had my fill of him.
“Even though they ignored us the whole time, that was the best vacation I have ever been on.” I snorted despite myself. Leo’s perfect teeth made an appearance as he smiled down at me. He always said he loved my little sniffles when I laughed. I thought the sound was less than attractive, but he would always give me that look when I did it.
“Tanner and I explored the mountain around our small cabin and the tiny town at the base. We hiked and fished and just enjoyed each other’s company without any distractions. We found a waterfall tucked back in a small cove of the mountain that we played in for hours. Until it was past dark and it was hard to find our way back home.” I grinned as I remembered the carefree smile on my brother’s face as we jumped into the freezing water. That was the happiest I’d ever seen him. It was as if we had gotten to take a break from our normal awful lives and just be kids for once.
I rolled over on top of my lover, letting the sheet slip away from my body. The way his scalding eyes ate up my naked flesh had me shivering before I leaned down to take his lips with mine. His hand grazed up my thighs and came to rest on my behind before squeezing me there. I felt his cock start to stir back to life beneath me.
I pulled away from his lips long enough to speak. “Montana,” I mumbled. “That’s where I would like to go.” I smiled.
He returned my grin with one of his own before flipping me beneath him. I squealed at the sudden movement before it turned into an unabashed giggle.
He rubbed his parted lips against mine. “Montana it is,” was all he said before he slipped inside of me with one smooth thrust.
****
As I looked down at the three-year-old airline tickets in my hands, I realized he had been telling the truth all along. The top of the tickets read out the evidence in bold letters. He had bought two tickets to Montana.