Chapter 19
chapter nineteen
MARISOL
I focus on the music floating through the grainy speakers of Leo’s Impala. Because if I don’t sit here singing every lyric, I’ll think about the man sitting next to me. And if I think about him any more than I already have, I fear my frontal lobe might explode.
We’ve sat quietly in this car for the last three hours as Leo has driven us from Rome back to Sorrento. I was going to fly home, but Leo wouldn’t let me. He insisted on driving me, yet he’s barely said a word to me the whole ride.
I felt unarmed last night, entirely helpless to the way Leo affected me. Seeing Jack was jarring. My mind raced with so many memories and thoughts that I could barely stand upright watching him with that other model. Part of me wanted to storm over there and tell her to fucking run. But I couldn’t.
Just like I couldn’t control myself when Leo pressed his head to mine.
I was completely enveloped by him, consumed by his existence.
I had to put my hands on him to steady myself, but that was a mistake, because I felt his muscles tense through his shirt.
And that left me wanting to tear the buttons apart and run my hands up his bare chest. That thought is quite possibly the most dangerous one I’ve had about him yet.
It’s like a gateway drug, one that leads to other thoughts.
I clear my mind as we turn onto my street, but before we can get past the first letterbox, Leo is pulling the car to a halt. Through the windscreen, I can see a crowd of people standing outside a house, a few of them spilling onto the quiet road. My house. They’re outside my house.
“What the fuck?” Leo mutters, and I sit in complete silence as one man notices the car. He swings a camera up into his grasp, and I see a flash before he starts moving toward us. Paparazzi. Shit.
Leo reaches his hand around the back of my headrest as he reverses back up the street and turns the corner, the wheels screeching against the road. “You got a back door?”
“Only one that we can get to by jumping a few fences,” I say.
Leo smiles for the first time all day. “Good thing I have a bit of practice then.”
* * *
Leo reaches up, lifting me by my waist before gently lowering me onto my back patio.
He wasn’t kidding about the whole jumping fences thing.
He moved like a spider monkey, and I moved like a princess who was trying to keep her hands clean, but I was really just trying to keep my sundress from flying up.
The last thing I need is a photo like that surfacing on the internet.
“You good?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I breathe, before moving toward my back door and punching in the security code.
Leo follows me in, and I realize he’s never been in here before.
I’ve stayed with him at his house in Ruby Cove, but he’s never so much as seen the inside of mine.
He doesn’t stop to look around, though. He moves with purpose, striding toward the front of the house and peeking out the closed blinds at the crowd gathered on my front lawn.
“Pack a bag,” he says. “You’re not staying here.
” He leaves no room for argument, authority flooding his tone, and I realize this is what he does. He protects. Or he did.
I start collecting my things that are tossed around the living room. My book, my glasses, Leo’s sweatshirt, slung over the back of the couch.
He stays in the living room as I go into my room, packing a bag with a week’s worth of clothes because I don’t know where I’m going or how long I’m going for. The sound of the crowd builds outside, and my heart begins to race. Do they know we are here?
I hear my phone ringing from where I left it on the kitchen bench, but it stops after only a second, and then I hear Leo’s voice. “Why the fuck is there a herd of paparazzi outside Marisol’s door, Eva?”
I walk out of my room to find him leaning on the kitchen counter, his brows drawn together in a frown, and his jaw tight.
“What are you talking about?” Eva asks.
“There is a fucking flock of pests on her front lawn. We could barely get down the street. We had to jump her neighbors’ fences to get in unseen. So tell me what happened.” His eyes slide over to me for a second before he’s back to scowling at my phone.
“There were photos of the two of you last night, and a few articles with photos of Marisol on the runway,” she says. “Lots of talk about how this could be her comeback.”
I can’t help but feel a flutter of excitement, because that’s exactly what we wanted. “So why the paps?” Leo asks.
“Give me a second,” she says. “Let me do some investigating.”
Leo hits the mute button as he blows out a breath, stepping away from the phone. “Did you pack?”
“Yeah, I just need a few more things.”
“Get them.” He raises his brows. He seems anxious. This is something I know he’s dealt with before. Leo has worked with high-profile celebrities on many occasions at Romano Security, so why does this seem to have him so spooked?
“Leo,” I say, and I reach for his hand, but he steps away. I try not to feel anything at that reaction, but I don’t think Leo has ever rejected my touch.
“Okay,” Eva’s voice comes back through the phone speaker.
Leo hits the button to unmute us. “What have you got?”
“I think this might be about Jack.” The room stays silent, neither Leo nor I having a response for her. “There’s been talk of the woman he was with last night—”
“The model?” Leo asks.
“That’s the one. And after there being photos of the two of you there last night too, I can only imagine the first question from any one of the people outside will be something to do with your reaction to it all.”
That daunting feeling spreads through me like a disease. I know I wanted my job back—my life back—but I didn’t want this. I never had this, not when I was the most talked about name, and not when I fell from grace, so why now?
“Alright, but if there were photos of us together last night, then surely they know Marisol has moved on,” Leo says.
“Maybe, but the media doesn’t care if she’s moved on. They haven’t.” A knock sounds on the door, and I’m pulled behind Leo in a second. “Is that someone at the door?” Eva asks through the phone.
“Yes,” I say. They’ve never done that before, either. I can feel my heart pounding out of my chest. I’m not safe here.
“Fuck, Marisol,” Eva says. “If this carries on, we might have to look into security for you.”
“That’s insulting,” Leo spits, a hand still holding me steady behind him. “I’m not taking my eyes off of her.” My heart skips a beat.
“Alright,” Eva says, as if she’s trying to calm a wild animal. “What’s the plan then?”
“She comes to stay at my apartment for at least the next couple of days. I’ll send one of my guys out to monitor this whole situation, and he’ll keep us updated. I’ll clue you in, too, Eva.”
I feel helpless, standing here while other people decide my fate. The last time that happened was with Jack. But this is something else. Leo isn’t trying to dictate my life. He’s trying to keep me safe.
“Okay,” Eva says. “Marisol, you call me if you need anything at all.”
“I will,” I say, and then she hangs up. The sound of the crowd outside is the only thing I can hear now.
“Get the last of your things,” Leo says, turning around to face me. “We need to go.”
* * *
My audiobook plays quietly from where my phone sits on the bathroom vanity, my hair pulled back with a bunny-eared headband as I go through my skincare routine.
Leo hasn’t spoken much since we got back, leaving me to settle in in peace. Except I haven’t been at peace, because Leo has never been so quiet around me.
After last night, I wasn’t sure how things would be with us, not after I confessed to being confused about our situation.
But he seems upset. Maybe even triggered.
It’s almost like he’s angry that the paparazzi were at my place, but no one could have expected that to happen, and shouldn’t I be the angry one?
I heard his bedroom door shut a while ago, assuming he went to bed early, and while I wish I could do the same, my mind won’t shut off.
I pull the jelly kind of face mask out of the plastic packaging and lean my head back to get it on my face. I smooth it over with my fingers, but when I tip my head forward to look in the mirror, the mask starts sliding down my face. “Oh, hell no.” I tip my head up again, staring at the ceiling.
I sigh before I grab my phone and fold myself down onto the bathroom floor.
The cool tile has me arching my back in surprise before I settle into the feeling, breathing deeply as I try to calm my mind, try to focus on the words of the story coming from my phone.
But it doesn’t work. Not when I hear a sound from Leo’s room.
I push pause on my audiobook, lying in silence as I wait to see if I was hearing things or not.
Just when I go to push play, I hear it again, a sort of pained groan.
I sit up when Leo yells out, letting the mask fall from my face as I get myself up off the floor and out of the bathroom. I hesitate at Leo’s door. He’s quiet now.
I gently push it open, not worrying about privacy, more worried about him.
But when I step into the room, the sliver of moonlight peeking through the curtains lights up his tall frame, taking up the entirety of his bed.
He’s lying on his stomach, his sheets tangled around his legs, and his toes hang off the end of the mattress.
He’s got an arm over the side of the bed, too, but he doesn’t look peaceful; he looks tortured.
Like his sleep isn’t a sanctuary but a nightmare.
I wonder what is going on in his mind, wishing a little thought bubble would pop up to show me.
But unfortunately, this is not a cartoon.
I want to stay here, to pull up a chair from the dining room and watch him until the sun comes up, and maybe if things weren’t so weird between us right now, I would.
But they are, and I don’t want to make them weirder when he wakes up to me watching him sleep.
So I tiptoe my way out of the room, closing the door as quietly as possible before I’m staring at the other side of it.
I go back to the bathroom, not bothering to do anything more than rub in the excess liquid left on my skin from the face mask before I crawl into bed myself, but I don’t sleep. I merely stare up at the white ceiling until there’s nothing left to think about except what I’m going to do tomorrow.