“Couldn’t do what?” he asks softly, his deep baritone sending an electric current through my body.
“Reason with Kenji. I tried. Really, I did,” I insist, turning my head to plead up at Leo with my eyes. “He just… has a way of getting under people’s skin.”
Leo chuckles, the sound triggering a rush of excitement to my core, and I press my thighs together as I become intensely aware of the fact that I’m not wearing any panties—I’m not wearing anything—beneath my robe.
“You don’t say?” Leo jokes, relief flooding me as I realize he probably already knows I failed, and he isn’t mad. “You want to tell me why he decided to throw you overboard?” he suggests, an edge creeping into his tone.
My stomach quivers nervously, and I lick my lips, swallowing forcefully. Leo’s eyes track the movement, sending my heart into a sprint as they linger on my mouth. Maybe near-death experiences make a person hornier. But since Leo brought me back to life, I’ve been overly aware of his presence, his touch. Even his proximity is making my belly do flip-flops.
“Well, I—like I said, Kenji was trying to get under my skin. And I don’t know what came over me, but I just… snapped.”
“Snapped?” Leo presses, digging for details.
Heat floods my cheeks as I think back on what happened. Even if Kenji deserved it, I’m still embarrassed for losing my temperlike I did. “I slapped him,” I admit, my face so hot I’m sure I’m blushing all the way out to the roots of my hair.
Amusement curls the corners of Leo’s lips, his dark eyes gleaming with silent satisfaction.
“You’re not… mad?” I ask, still feeling like the ground is shaky between us when it comes to the conflict between our families.
Leo chuckles. “No. I’m not mad. If anything, I’m proud of you for standing up to your brother.”
Relief eases the tension in my shoulders, and I smile as Leo’s hand comes up to trap my chin between his fingers.
“And I fully intend to teach Kenji a lesson for daring to lay a hand on my wife.”
Heat pools low in my belly at the way he saysmy wife. It’s dangerously possessive, and for the first time, I want nothing more than to belong to Leo, body and soul.
This new side to him is a distinct shift from before—when he was willing to use me to teach Kenji a lesson. Now, he feels protective of me, and that means more to me than I ever knew it could. I’ve never had someone look out for me like that. Not my mother, certainly not Kenji, not even my father.
And as I stare up into Leo’s eyes, I see a burning passion that lights my body on fire.
Slowly, gently, he lowers his lips to mine.
It doesn’t matter that he just made me come. Twice. As soon as he kisses me, it’s all I can do to stay strapped in my seat for the car ride home. The same would seem to be true for Leo as he unbuckles my seat belt and grasps my hips to pull me on top ofhim. My robe falls open as I straddle his muscular thighs, the terry cloth belt no match for the passion with which he brings me to him.
I have to keep my head tilted so it won’t brush the ceiling of the car, but it hardly matters as I dive in for more, my lips ravenous to taste him. His hands slide down my thighs to find the opening of my bathrobe, then travel slowly back up the way they came, his fingers pressing into my soft skin and raising goosebumps in their wake.
Then his big palms are cupping my ass, pulling me to him so I can feel how rock hard he is for me again already.
I could take this man inside me every day for the rest of my life and still not get enough of him. Even when we were at our coldest and most distant, the chemistry was there. But now, after hearing he loves me, after seeing the lengths he would go to in order to protect me, that attraction is on an entirely different level.
I don’t even care that his driver is just feet away from us as he sits behind the wheel. I’ll do my best to be quiet, for his sake. But I can’t keep my hands off Leo. And I don’t want to.
Rolling my hips, I grind against his hard length, shuddering as I feel him pulse against my clit through the thin fabric of his swim trunks. Tangling my fingers in his hair, I press my chest to his, relishing the warmth that radiates off him. I wish we were skin to skin, but I won’t go so far as to remove his shirt with someone else in the car.
Instead, I savor the taste of his lips, tangling my tongue with his as I kiss him deeply, fiercely, with a consuming kind of need that takes my breath away.
Leo’s hands explore me in turn, his arms sliding beneath the robe without removing it to give me a sense of modesty—even if we’re being completely indecent. But the feel of him exploring my flesh, pulling me closer as he kneads my body into putty, makes me pant.
It takes a few seconds for me to realize that the car didn’t just come to a stop for a light. The sound of a stick shift being put into park vaguely registers in my mind, and I freeze when Leo’s driver softly clears his throat.
“We’re home, sir,” he says, then opens his door to slip outside as subtly as he can.
Breathlessly, Leo and I share a laugh, our lips hovering inches apart.
“Shall we go inside?” he asks. “Or would you rather I make you come first?”
His eyes dance playfully as he rocks his hips up into me for emphasis, and I groan.
