Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Leo couldn’t move.
Had that just happened?
A quiet curse escaped his raspy throat and he turned around, digging both hands into his hair before facing the house where Kat had just disappeared.
He should have been shocked by her reaction to his kiss.
Or at least he should be feeling guilty.
He had stolen that kiss after all. It didn’t matter that she’d most definitely kissed him back.
She was scared.
But, scared of what?
More often than not, Leo had been having a hard time sleeping. With Kat in the room right beside him, he’d taken to going to bed long after she’d fallen asleep mostly so he wasn’t tempted to knock on her door and talk.
What he wouldn’t give to recreate the night they’d shared in that cabin.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt to just talk with someone.
Granted, he wasn’t much of a chatter box.
And something told him that Kat felt the same.
She spoke more in board meetings than she did to the general human being. Even their dinners were quiet.
Maybe that was how she’d been raised.
But this? That kiss? She couldn’t just expect him to let this stand without any conversation or context, could she? They had to talk about it. Was it a one-off? Was she open to something more?
And why on earth did that thought get his blood pumping?
Another curse managed to burst from his lips when he realized he couldn’t just stay out here in the cold and wish for her to come back.
Kat needed the upper hand. He’d learned that much over the last month.
Normally, he’d allow it. Normally, he’d welcome it just so she wouldn’t become the pain his backside she had a propensity for.
Unlucky for her, he wasn’t willing to take on that mindset. They were going to work this out right here and right now. Thankfully, his mother had just left on a trip to Billings with his aunt and the house was completely empty.
Except for a certain little princess who might just need to be rescued from her own spiraling thoughts.
Leo strode into the quiet house and paused. His ears strained for any sound of movement. When he heard none, he headed for the stairs and took them two at a time.
All his courage dissipated like fog on a spring morning when the sun finally made its appearance. He couldn’t hear her in her room, but the door was shut so he knew she’d be in there. The bathroom door was open and there was no other space for her to hide.
Shifting closer, he took a deep, settling breath, then lifted his fist and pounded on the door. “Kat,” he barked. “We need to talk.”
The sound of scuffling on the other side of the door followed by a distinct thud had his lips quirking upward in a smile.
Her voice right beside the wood only confirmed that she’d thrown herself against the door in some ridiculous attempt to keep him at bay.
“I don’t think there’s anything to talk about right now. ”
Leo snorted. “You and I have very different opinions on what constitutes needing to be discussed.”
She sighed. “Yeah, okay. We’ll talk. Just not right now.” Her voice was quiet—timid even. He’d never heard her sound so unsure.
“Sorry, Princess, but you and I both know that’s not a good idea.”
Her mirthless laugh only made him want to smile wider.
“You can’t tell me you don’t feel it,” he murmured, resting a palm against the door followed by his forehead.
He closed his eyes, allowing himself to relive that moment of pleasure they’d shared out in the snow when nothing else in the world mattered.
That kiss had felt like nothing he’d ever experienced in his lifetime, and he got the distinct impression he might not be able to find something similar to it with anyone else.
He waited, holding his breath for her response. Leo could practically taste the electricity in the air, the way she clung to his words like they were breath itself. Or maybe that was just him.
No, he refused to believe that. There had been too much between them for him to accept otherwise.
Leo shut his eyes, beginning to realize that she wasn’t going to give him what he so desperately wanted.
He could still taste her on his lips, feel the warmth of her body, hear the gasps of surprise when he’d crowded her.
If he could turn back the clock, he’d revisit that moment and hit the pause button. Was that crazy? Probably. Up until this moment he could admit that he believed in love but that he’d been skeptical he’d ever find it.
As strange as it seemed, he could see Kat fulfilling that desire within him. They might have started off at each other’s throats but now?
He muttered a curse under his breath and pulled back from the door.
He didn’t make it two steps before he heard the quiet snick of the knob releasing the door from where it had rested.
Leo couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous.
If he turned around now, he didn’t know what he’d see and if there was even a small chance that she’d turn him away, he wasn’t sure he could handle it.
“It didn’t mean anything, Leo,” she whispered.
Leo could have laughed her off and accepted the way she wanted to take this conversation. He could have flashed her a cocky grin and accepted that he’d lost this round. But something within him refused to go down without putting up a fight.
Slowly, he turned to face her. The nervous expression she wore seemed to shift, taking on so many different emotions he couldn’t keep up with them.
There was a fire in her eyes that said she wanted him to prove her wrong.
There was a healthy dose of fear as he strode toward her, but the fact she was willing to lift her chin and stare at him head-on proved just how amazing she was.
When Kat wore her heels, she was tall enough to reach his nose.
But right now, she was only in a pair of thick socks, and she came to just below his chin.
She pressed her lips into a thin line, not breaking eye-contact as she spoke.
It was clear she fought the tremble in her voice, but he knew her well enough to hear the way it slightly wavered.
“We were both dealing with the high of the fight. It w-was adrenaline.”
He lifted a brow. “Adrenaline,” Leo muttered flatly.
Kat nodded, the movement sharp and reminded him just how well she was at putting on a show when she was in a boardroom. But they weren’t at her offices, and this was not a business meeting.
Leo reached up to palm her chin and let his thumb trail across her lower lip, tugging away from where she had pulled it between her teeth. Her breathing stuttered and he couldn’t help the knowing grin that tugged at his lips. “Liar,” he rasped.
She could have pulled away from him then. She could have swatted him away. But the truth was sitting between them like a purple elephant. It was impossible to ignore and she knew it. “I’m n-not—”
“Don’t kid yourself, Kat,” he murmured, edging closer to her, his hand moving from her chin to around the back of her neck.
Leo’s head canted slightly, forcing her to meet his gaze even though it appeared that was the last thing she wanted.
“That kiss meant more than either of us expected. And you want to know what I think?”
“What?” Kat rasped, her warm breath fanning his face. He could feel her trembling beneath his touch and his grin widened.
“I think you’re just scared. You’re scared that if you let whatever it is between us blossom, that you’ll lose a piece of yourself.” Hadn’t that been something she’d said? She wasn’t willing to give up her dreams for anything.
She closed her eyes then for a brief moment before she exhaled a shuddering breath. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong,” he mused.
Kat’s eyes opened and she pinned him with an unmovable stare before she scoffed. “What do you think’s going to happen, Leo? That we’ll fall deeply in love with each other, and we’ll get a happily ever after? Let me ask you something. Would you ever consider moving to New York permanently?”
The look of disgust that curled his lips couldn’t have been helped and yet that was exactly what she’d been waiting for. He’d given her the ammunition to win her side of the argument.
“See? And I’m not willing to move here. We’re two different breeds, Leo. You can’t just drop a lion into the ocean and expect it to grow gills.”
This woman.
He smirked at her. “You think I’m a lion, huh?”
She rolled her eyes and stepped away from his touch. “Absolutely not. In that scenario, I’m the lion.”
Leo hated the distance she put between them but rather than follow her into her room, he rested his arm against the door frame and stared down at her allowing her to see just how amused he was by her ridiculous statement.
“No, I’m the lion. And I’ll tell you why.
Nothing and no one could have drawn me in but a siren. ”
Her mouth fell open as she gaped at him.
He let out a low whistle. “I never thought I’d see the day when Kat Jerris was speechless,” he chuckled.
Kat only sputtered. “Whatever, we’re not talking about lions and fish—”
“Sirens,” he corrected.
She gave him an incredulous look and ignored his statement. “We’re talking about the fact that I don’t belong here and you don’t belong in New York. This—this infatuation, it doesn’t mean—”
There would be no getting through to her. And right about now, he was desperate enough to get her to cross the line she’d drawn in the sand that he would say anything. “It’s not infatuation, Kat,” he murmured, catching her off guard. “I… have… feelings.”
Her eyes narrowed and for a second there, he expected her to argue with him and tell him that there was no way he had developed any form of affection for her. But she didn’t. “Well, that was really dumb.”
Leo laughed. “Don’t I know it.”
There was a brief glimmer of a smile attempting to shine through the walls she’d erected around her.
And he would have given anything to completely shatter them in order to see the light she had to offer.
Before he could lasso whatever it was he was seeing, she continued her argument. “I’m leaving in a few months.”
“Have you ever considered going into law, Kat? Because I think you’d make a great lawyer.”
“Leo, this is serious.”
He closed the distance between them, his hands grasping her around the waist before he spun her around and pressed her against the wall in her bedroom.
Running his nose along the hollow of her throat, her jawline, and toward her ear, he allowed himself to breath in her scent.
Then he whispered. “I’ll have you as long as you’ll let me. ”
It was a lie.
A bold-faced lie.
If she’d let him have even a morsel of what he knew the potential of this relationship could be, then he’d fight tooth and nail to see it through and win everything she had to offer.
If she gave him the chance? He’d make her fall so deeply in love with him that she’d throw her so called dreams to the wind.
She’d choose love over a job.
She’d choose him.
The thought had his core ready to burst into flames. And the soft whimper that came from her throat only added to his determination.
“What do you say, Princess? Want to have a little fun while you’re here?”
Kat exhaled a shaky breath. “I don’t think…”
“Don’t think,” he insisted. “Say yes.”
Even the quiet house seemed to hold its breath, waiting for her answer. Leo’s hands had released Kat long ago and now he rested his palms against the wall above each of her shoulders. She was all but pinned between him and the wall. One word from her, and he’d take what he so desperately wanted.
Finally, she took in a deep breath and whispered, “Yes.”
His lips crashed against hers, claiming her, promising her that he’d be everything she could ever want. She might not know it yet, but he was about to turn her world upside down in the most delicious and amazing way.
Kat’s fingers dug into his still damp hair and she gave as good as she got. Their kiss was messy and passionate. It felt like it went on for hours and yet mere seconds at the same time. His heart sang, relieved that he’d finally managed to find what might possibly turn into what his parents had.
Then the front door downstairs opened and slammed shut. “Leo? I’m back. We had to turn around. There was too much snow on the roads. You eat yet?”
Kat stilled beneath his kiss and when he pulled back, he stared into a pair of eyes so clouded over from their embrace that it made him want to ravish her even more. She bit her lip and stifled a giggle.
“Leo? Kat?”
He turned his head to the side then called out. “Just coffee, mom.”
“I’ll whip up some waffles,” she called back.
Leo turned his attention back to Kat. Then he leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll see you down there.”
She nodded. “See you down there.”