“Trust me. I’ve dreamt about it.” Lifting my head off his chest, I look up into his eyes that are soft and full of so many emotions. I cup his jaw and bring my lips to his for a gentle kiss. “Let’s get you off this cold ground,” he whispers against my lips while scooping me up like I weigh nothing and carrying me over to the willow tree where we sat for ages just this morning, wrapped up in each other. Shifting so I’m perched on his lap, he refuses to let me move to sit next to him as he curls his arms around me, giving me a tiny smile that eases the grip of terror wrapped around my heart.
“You truly do mean it, don’t you?” Nodding slowly, he brushes the pad of his thumb against my cheek. “But what about the fear of breaking someone's heart?”
“With you it would never have been me breaking your heart; you’d break mine. I’ve papered over the cracks for as long as I can remember. Watching you with other men who are not worthy of your time but who chip away and break your beautiful and kind heart.” His legs start to tremble underneath me as he keeps talking. “I couldn’t tell you how I felt because I never thought you’d look at me like you are right now or how you have these past couple of weeks. I finally get it. I get why Dad never could move on and exactly what he meant when he said his heart was only ever one woman’s and why I flitted between women, never settling, keeping my heart safe. I’ve never been able to give it away because my heart was never mine to give. You’ve always owned it. It’s yours. It always has been and no one else will ever hold it. It’s yours to look after and yours to break, and that should scare me but it doesn’t. I know you’ll never break it.”
“Leo,” I whisper. “You’ve held on to this for all this time.”
“Yeah.” He laughs softly. “I’ve loved you for a long time. I guess I needed this push to finally tell you.”
“You love me?”
“So much, baby. And I don’t expect you to say it back.” He cups my face and brushes away the wetness that coats my cheeks. “You’re incredible, and that’s how I know you’ll get through this. You don’t need me or anyone to fix this for you. You’ve probably got the tools to bring him down. You just need me to stop distracting you.” His lips tilt up into a cheeky smile..
“I quite like your form of distraction.” Kissing him gently, I giggle against him.
“I can’t say I’m complaining either. But you need me to let you be the CEO you are and crush Ezra fucking St. Claire.”
“I’ll destroy him, not crush him.”
“There she is.”
Luckily Ezra’s outburst was only heard by us, and the rest of the wedding guests were oblivious. Hunter assured me that nothing could ruin their perfect day and made a joke that it has never been me to bring the drama to family events. I did feel sad for Jade because Trixie never came back.
Ria - I’m sorry again. But have the best honeymoon. This will all be over when you get back.
Hunter - Stop apologizing, you’ve got this.
Rubbing my eyes, I lean back in my chair, stretching out my aching muscles. Nila grumbles on my lap at the sudden movement, and I scratch under her chin. “Sorry, sweetie.” The glow of my computer screen in the dark is all that illuminates my home office. I’ve been looking over every piece of information Deacon gave me along with anything Mom and Dad could give me on Dale, and I’m struggling to piece it all together.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? It’s four in the morning and still dark outside.” Leo spins my chair and crouches in front of me, stroking Nila softly, and she purrs loudly at his touch.
“Couldn’t sleep.” I sigh, meeting his gaze.
“Okay, give me two minutes.” Standing, he turns to leave. “Let me help.”
“No, you need your sleep. You’ve got the auditors coming today.”
“You also have the auditors today, baby. I’m not leaving you in here to do this alone. Do you think I can sleep knowing you're here?” He places a strand of hair behind my ear that has fallen from my messy bun and kisses my forehead. “I’ll get us somecoffee. And check on Bartholomew, since apparently you have a favorite.” He tips his head to Nila who is curled into a tiny ball on my lap.
“Don’t say that she followed me in here and I didn’t want to wake him.”
“Don’t worry; I won't tell him.” He winks before he slips out of my office.
He returns a few moments later and places a mug next to me as I rest my head in my hands. “It has to be in here. But nothing is making any sense. This is going to ruin Bright if I don’t pull out. How will our clients trust us again?”
“Baby.” Leo pulls my hands away from my face before taking Nila off my lap and placing her carefully on the ground. He gently draws me toward him, before sitting back down in my chair with me settling onto his lap. “We might be looking in the wrong place. Have we gone through the filed accounts for Peak with a fine-tooth comb?”
“I looked at the most recent set, yes.”
“Okay, I’m going to analyze them for the past five years, before he took over. Bright has always been in competition with Peak, but it was a healthy competition. Fred Crawley was a good friend of your dad’s. He had nothing to hide.”
“Maybe you’re right. Okay, you look through them and I’ll analyze the rest of this.” I motion to the newspaper reports up on my screen of anything I could find on both Ezra and Dale.
Dusting the back of his fingers down my cheek, he drops a quick kiss to the tip of my nose. “We’ll get him.”
We work in perfect harmony until the sun starts to stream in through my window. Leo settled in his own chair and kept his hand on my thigh the whole time, anchoring me.
“Baby? Have you heard of Sinclair Properties Ltd?”
