Chapter 22 Leo
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Leo
I don’t know when I lost control of this.
Maybe it was the first night she laughed in the kitchen, barefoot on the hardwood. Or perhaps it was Karl, leaning back in his chair, saying it wasn’t serious with her. That one landed harder than I wanted to admit.
Didn’t matter. I kept telling myself it wasn’t a problem. That I could glare, slam a few cabinets, burn off the rest at the gym, and it would fade.
Except it didn’t. It just built up.
And now I’m kissing her.
Christ. I’m kissing Olivia.
It’s not careful. My mouth crashes into hers, rough and desperate. Every sharp word we’ve thrown at each other just caught fire. And the worst part? She kisses me back. Hard. She’s been waiting for this, too.
Her lips are soft but demanding, heat sparking straight down my spine. My hands are in her hair before I know it, pulling her closer. She makes this low sound, and it almost undoes me.
I can’t believe I wasted two weeks pretending I hated her, when all I was doing was trying not to want her.
Her hands grip my shirt, tugging me closer, and I press her harder into the wall because space isn’t an option anymore. The way she fits against me is addictive. I can feel every curve, every shiver, and it’s not enough. Nowhere near enough.
My self-control? Gone. Shot to hell. The one thing I’ve always been proud of, the thing that makes me… it’s slipping right through my hands.
And all I can think about is how damn good she tastes. Same as her caramel mochaccino. How right it feels. How wrong it should be.
Karl’s face flickers in my head for half a second. My cousin. My brother in every way that matters. But then Olivia’s lips part under mine, hot and desperate, and the thought burns away as if it was never there.
I pull back just enough to see her face. Her flushed cheeks, swollen lips, eyes wide and shining up at me. I don’t know if I’m something she wants to fight or fall for.
“Tell me to stop,” I rasp, even though the words nearly choke me.
She doesn’t. Her chin tips up, her breath ragged. “Don’t.”
Something inside me breaks. Whatever wall I built between us crumbles, and suddenly I’m moving and lifting her onto the counter, crowding into her space, kissing her as if I’ll never get another chance.
Her knees bracket my hips, drawing me in, and I swear I feel her heartbeat pounding as hard as mine.
The kitchen disappears. There’s only Olivia… her taste, her heat, the way she clings to me. I’m the only thing keeping her steady.
I trail kisses down her neck, across her collarbone, breathing her in. I need it more than air. She gasps my name, and that’s it. That’s the moment I know I’m lost.
This isn’t hate. This isn’t a mistake. This is everything I’ve been fighting, all at once, and it’s too strong to push back anymore.
I sink lower, pressing my mouth against her skin, her body trembling underneath me. Her fingers thread into my hair, urging me closer, and I give in, letting go of the last of my restraint.
Because for once in my life, I don’t want to be careful.
I just want her.
I growl. “Say you want this.”
Her lips part, her breath hot against my cheek. “I want this.”
I grip her thighs and drag her forward to the very edge of the counter, forcing a gasp from her. She’s trembling, clutching at my shoulders, but there’s no fear in her eyes: only heat, only hunger.
“Hold on,” I rasp, my hands anchoring her hips. “Because once I start, I’m not stopping until you break for me.”
The way she moans at that, low, needy, and undone, nearly wrecks me before I’ve even touched her.
I make quick work of her jeans, sliding them down her legs and tossing them aside before sinking to my knees.
I grip her thighs and drag my mouth up the inside of one, biting just hard enough to make her gasp. Then I hook my teeth into the thin edge of her panties and tug them down slowly, the fabric scraping across her skin until they fall uselessly around her ankles.
The sight of her, flushed, breathless, trembling against the counter with nothing left between us, nearly undoes me right then.
I don’t wait. I don’t think.
I spread her, firm grip locking on the backs of her thighs, and I bury my face between them. Her scent hits me first, sweet and sharp and dizzying, and then her taste floods my tongue.
Hot. Wet. Addictive.
I lick her desperately, I need to taste her to breathe, long strokes that have her gasping, then sharper flicks right where she’s most sensitive.
Her hands fist in my hair, tugging, trying to guide me, but I don’t let her. I hold her open and set the pace, slow at first, teasing circles that make her whimper, then sudden pressure that makes her cry out.
I suck her clit between my lips and swirl my tongue until her legs tremble against my shoulders.
She’s shaking, arching, grinding against my mouth. She can’t get close enough. Every time she tries to move away, I tighten my grip, drag her back down, and force her to take every relentless stroke of my tongue.
She tastes of sin and salvation, slick and sweet, and I want to drown in her.
I shift lower, licking deep into her, fucking her with my tongue until she gasps my name, then back up again, tormenting her, working every inch until she’s wrecked. Her thighs clamp around my head, her nails scrape down my scalp, and still, I don’t stop.
I want her to be undone. I want to carve myself into her memory, so she’ll never forget this moment, this need, me.
Her cries get higher, tighter, her whole body bowing off the counter as I suck her clit hard, rolling it between my lips, tongue flicking mercilessly. She’s drenched, trembling, moaning, and I’m the only thing holding her together.
And when she finally breaks apart in my mouth, I drink down every shudder, every cry, every ounce of her, until she collapses back against the counter.
Her cries are still echoing when I finally drag my mouth up her trembling body, lips swollen, chin slick. She looks wrecked, eyes glassy, chest heaving, hair a wild halo. Beautiful doesn’t even come close. She’s sin wrapped in snow light, and I want every inch of her.
“Leo…” she whispers, breath catching as I kiss up her stomach, her ribs, her collarbone. She can’t decide if it’s a plea for mercy or more.
“You want more?” My voice is shredded as I press my forehead to hers. “Because if you say no, I swear I’ll stop.”
Her answer is a desperate tug on my shirt, pulling me closer, her lips crashing against mine with the same wild hunger that’s been burning through us since the first slammed cabinet. She doesn’t just want this… she’s begging for it.
And I break.
I haul her off the counter, her legs wrapping tight around my waist, her body clinging to me. She’s terrified I’ll pull away. I stumble us down the hall, every kiss hot and frantic, teeth clashing, hands roaming.
My back slams into a wall, and I don’t even care because she’s kissing me. I might as well be the only oxygen left in the room.
I can’t get enough. I’ll never get enough.
We crash into my bedroom, the door banging against the frame. I toss her onto the bed, standing there for one split second to burn the image into my head. Olivia sprawled out across my sheets, hair messy, lips swollen, eyes dark with want. My undoing, right there in front of me.
“Leo,” she breathes, lifting onto her elbows, watching me.
I strip my shirt over my head, her gaze dropping to the ink scrawled across my chest, the ridges of muscle I’ve honed from years of firefighting. Her lips part, and I swear I almost come undone just from that look.
I crawl up the bed, bracing my weight on my arms, caging her. Only this time, there’s no wall between us. No restraint.
“You drive me insane,” I rasp, dragging my mouth across her jaw, her throat, down to the swell of her breasts. “Two weeks of fighting this, and for what? Just to end up here anyway?”
Her laugh is breathless, half sob, half moan. “Yeah… It’s crazy how things work out, isn’t it?”
That wrecks me.
I tear her sweater over her head, tossing it aside, then her bra follows, leaving her bare and flushed beneath me.
My mouth finds her nipple, sucking hard, making her cry out and arch into me.
My hand cups the other breast, my thumb rolling over the peak, greedy and desperate. I’ve been starving for her.
Her nails dig into my shoulders, her hips grinding against mine, and fuck, she can feel how hard I am through my jeans. I groan against her skin, the sound raw, broken.
I drag my lips back up to hers, kissing her. I want to own every part of her. “Tell me you need me.”
“I need you,” she gasps against my mouth, no hesitation, no doubt.
It’s all I need.
I undo my belt with shaking fingers, fumbling because I’m too far gone, too desperate. When I finally shove my jeans down, my cock springs free, stiff, aching, already leaking against my stomach.
Her eyes go wide, heat sparking in them as she bites her lip, gaze fixed on me. She’s just as hungry.
I grip myself, stroke once, twice, to keep from losing it, then line myself up between her thighs.
“Last chance, Olivia,” I grind out, every muscle taut, waiting. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
Her hands frame my face, pulling me down until our lips brush. “Don’t stop, Leo. Please.”
Control? Gone.
I thrust into her in one long, deep stroke, burying myself to the hilt. We both cry out, the sound messy and raw. She’s tight, hot, wet around me, and it’s everything I dreamed it would be and worse, because no fantasy ever came close to this.
“Fuck,” I groan, forehead pressed to hers as I hold still, fighting the urge to lose it in the first second. “You feel…wow, Olivia.”
Her nails rake down my back, her body arching to meet mine. “Move. Please, Leo. I need you to move.”
And help me, I do.
Slow at first, grinding deep, savoring every gasp and whimper that spills from her lips. Then harder, faster, my hips snapping against hers as she clings to me, moaning my name.
Every thrust is punishment and worship, weeks of tension detonating between us. She meets me stroke for stroke, wild, unrestrained. She’s been waiting just as long.
“Leo…” she gasps, head tipping back, eyes fluttering shut.
I grip her thighs, pulling them wider, deeper, until I’m buried so far inside her I can’t tell where she ends, and I begin. Her cries grow higher, sharper, and I know she’s close.
“Come for me,” I rasp, my lips at her ear, my pace brutal and relentless. “Let go, Olivia. I want to feel you break around me.”
Her body seizes, back arching, nails clawing my shoulders as she shatters, crying out my name. She clenches tight, pulsing around me, dragging me over the edge with her.
With a guttural groan, I spill inside her, thrusting deep, emptying everything I’ve held back straight into her. My whole body trembles, every nerve ending lit up, wrecked and undone.
I collapse against her, both of us shaking, gasping, clinging to each other. The world might end if we let go.
And maybe it has.
Because nothing will ever be the same again.