Chapter 14 Leo #3
“She lied to you too,” he points out and shrugs again. “You just need to figure out if you want it to work from here. Just know that if you do, I’m not backing down. I’ll still be involved with her as long as she wants me to be.”
I think about that a minute before I answer. He just laid it out there that she’s no longer just mine, that the girl I’ve been seeing for the past four months is his now too. Do I want that? I look back into Gage’s eyes, and he’s staring at me with an open and honest expression.
“I want it to work. I’ll do anything to make that possible, and I don’t have a problem with you being involved. I’m just confused about how I feel about,” I gesture to his naked torso on display, “this.”
He leans closer. “There is only one way to find out how you feel about this,” He suggests, letting his own eyes roam down my body. “Because I know exactly how I feel about that.”
When his eyes connect with mine, I can see the truth there.
He’s attracted to me, but he’s not afraid to admit it.
I feel the pull to touch my lips to his just to see what it’s like.
He’s leaning toward me too, eyes zeroed in on my lips.
He gets so close I can feel his breath on my lips, then he stops, letting me close the last bit of distance.
“Oh,” Alessa’s voice cuts in. “Uh. Wow.” We jerk apart like we’ve been shocked. “Don’t let me interrupt,” she laughs and disappears into her massive walk-in closet.
Guilt slams into my chest, and I look at Gage, and he’s grinning from ear to ear.
“How is this funny?” I hiss, ashamed we got caught by the woman I love.
Gage snorts. “She’s fine. If she wasn’t, we would both be dead.”
I hear rustling in the closet before she walks out dressed in a tailored dark blue pantsuit that hugs her curves, the jacket folded over her arm. I look closer and realize she has a little makeup on, and her hair is in soft waves down her back.
“Hey, Pretty girl,” Gage greets, sliding off the end of the bed and kissing her cheek. “What’s with the suit?”
She kisses his cheek back, seemingly unaffected that she almost caught us kissing. “I have that meeting with Helena for the restaurant.”
“You want me to go?” he asks.
She looks at the clock. “If you can be ready in fifteen minutes.”
“Done.” He slaps her on the ass and jogs out of the room.
She shakes her head with a laugh before crawling up the bed towards me. She climbs up, so I have to lie back against the pillows with her straddling my waist. Even though she seems fine now, I still worry about last night and the fact that I was about to kiss a man in her bed.
“Hello there,” she purrs, pecking me on the lips. She sits back and looks at me closer. “What’s with the face?” she asks, smoothing her thumb between my eyebrows to smooth out my frown line.
“Last night,” I say in the way of the answer, and I don’t know how to bring up the other thing.
She sighs. “We can talk about that later, okay? We can talk about everything.”
I place my hands on her thighs. “Even what you just saw?”
She smiles. “I saw how you looked at him at the cabin, Leo.”
I frown again. “That doesn’t bother you?”
“No.” She pecks my lips. “If you want to explore things with him, then I’m okay with that.”
“I’m not gay or bi or whatever.”
She cutely tilts her head. “Are you sure you aren’t bi? I mean, Gage is smoking hot, but I don’t know if he’s hot enough to turn a straight man bisexual.” She crosses her arms on my chest before putting her chin on them. “I can’t think of someone better than Gage to explore with.”
I tuck her hair behind her ears. “I’m not sure yet.”
She shrugs. “I won’t push. I just need you to know I don’t care as long as it stays between us. In this house.”
“I don’t see anyone else but you, Baby.”
“And Gage,” she teases.
I smack the side of her ass. “Stop.”
“Fine, but I want to watch when you do.” She swings her leg over me and slides off the bed, leaving me gaping at her.
“You are a dirty girl, aren’t you?”
“The dirtiest.” She bats her eyelashes at me, and I laugh. “You want to go too?”
I raise my eyebrows. “You want me to go?”
“Yes.” She motions towards her bathroom. I jump off the bed, kissing her cheek on the way by. “Clocks ticking, though! There are spare toothbrushes under the sink!” she yells when I shut the door.
I climb into her massive shower and grin when I realize I’ll smell like her all day.
Ten minutes and I’m ready. I tuck the towel around my waist to search for clothes when I walk into her empty bedroom, and everything is laid out on the bed for me.
I smile at her thoughtfulness and start dressing.
She laid out a pair of black slacks that aren’t mine, so probably Gage’s, and a light-yellow button-up that Evander brought me when he brought some of my stuff over.
When I make it downstairs, Gage and Alessa are waiting for me. Gage has on black dress slacks and a blue button-up, making his eyes stand out even more, and she’s slid her jacket on with high-heeled boots.
I am a lucky fucker. By two counts.
We load up in Gage’s Range Rover with her up front, and she slides on a pair of oversized sunglasses when he backs out of the garage. “We can order food on the way and deliver it there.”
Gage groans. “Dolly’s. Please.”
“You’re obsessed,” she laughs. She pulls out her phone and asks what we want before placing an order. “It should be there when we get there.”
“Good.” He grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles before laying their locked hands on her leg.
I can see her smile when she looks away. When I first met her, I didn’t think she would be openly affectionate, but she surprised the shit out of me by loving the constant touch. Which I’m okay with because I’m the same way. Gage seems to be following that same path.
“Ryder’s at his dad’s,” she says softly, looking at her phone.
“We can fix this, Pretty girl.”
She smiles sadly. “Maybe.”
I don’t like Ryder, but I know it hurt her that he isn’t home. I don’t want her to hurt, so I need to try with Ryder. If she wants him in her life and I want her in mine, I can be the bigger person to a certain extent.
Her phone rings, and she picks up, answering in something I assume is Italian. She has an animated conversation with someone until we pull up in front of a huge building downtown with a large sold sign in the window. We sit out front while she finishes her call.
She hangs up and turns to Gage. “That was Aldo.” He nods and slides out of the car. He strides to her side, pops her door open, and helps her out. I slide out behind them, not asking who that was because they won’t tell me.
“Aldo is our New York man,” she explains, surprising me. “And even though the old fart can speak perfect English, he only talks to me in Italian. Says it keeps me fresh,” she finishes that with a fond smile.
Gage pulls open the front door, holding it so we can enter. The air conditioning hits me in the face, and I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s much hotter in California than in North Carolina, and they don’t seem to be affected by it because they grew up here.
“I don’t understand a word you say, but it’s hot as fuck,” Gage says.
“Same,” I agree, and Gage fist bumps me.
She rolls her eyes with a laugh.
We see our breakfast order sitting there waiting for us and dive in. Alessa said Helena could wait while we ate. As soon as I bit into my breakfast sandwich, I know why Gage is obsessed with the place. She fires off a text when we’re done eating to let her know we’re ready.
A robust lady with greying red hair greets Alessa with a kiss on both cheeks. “You look ravishing,” she says, holding her at arm’s length.
“You look beautiful too,” Alessa says. The lady wears a loud green dress that clashes with her red hair. “Helena, this is Leo,” Alessa introduces, and Helena pulls my face, smacking her lips right on my cheeks, not just the air kiss she gave Alessa.
“Nice to meet you,” I greet.
“Oh, manners.” She claps her hands and turns to Gage.
He swoops in, bending her at the waist, smacking a kiss on her cheeks before sitting her back on her feet.
She fans her red face. “He always was my favorite.” Gage grins at her, letting the full force of his dimples pop out.
She fans herself harder, visibly collecting herself.
“Come, come,” she gestures for us to follow.
I see I’m not the only one Gage effects like that.
Alessa giggles quietly, wiping her thumb over my cheeks to get rid of the bright red lipstick. “I said keep it in the house, Leo.”
“Ha. Ha,” I gesture at Gage. “I didn’t maul her, at least.”
Gage snorts. “At least she didn’t grab my ass this time.”
Alessa laughs and follows Helena.
She sits us at a table with Gage and me on either side of Alessa before sitting across from us. “These are what I have so far,” she says, sliding design plans across the table. Alessa looks through them carefully, one at a time.
“These are excellent,” Alessa comments. “Can we expand this, though?” she slides a drawn-out picture of a bar back to Helena. “Maybe curve it around both sides, so we have more room.”
“Certainly,” Helena jumps up. “I almost forgot some samples came in.” She bustles out of the room with a swish of the green dress. I can’t help but like the woman.
“Is this your restaurant?” I ask. I knew she owned several, but I never put the connection together when she said she had a meeting.
“Yeah,” she smiles. “It’s the first one I’ve bought and designed. The other ones were Dad’s.”
“Can I look?” I ask, gesturing towards the plans. This is what I did in North Carolina. I helped the designers get everything up and running to make it successful and helped restaurants out of the red to survive.
She shrugs. “Sure.” She pushes them in front of me, and I look through them, impressed as hell.
“Is it themed?” I ask, looking at different looks that looked digitally made.