Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Leo hardly slept that night. The couch was a bit too short, the cushions were a bit too hard, and he was a bit too horny.
He shouldn’t have given in to temptation. The more time he spent with Amelia, the more he admired her. She was intelligent, beautiful, driven, and so charmingly funny—especially when she didn’t intend to be. He’d remember the outrage on her face when she found out about the scavenger hunt prize for the rest of his days. Then after Jenga, when the other team won smartwatches, she looked as grumpy as she had when she fixed his bow tie at Maggie’s wedding. She was irresistible, even when she was annoyed.
But Leo wasn’t stupid: He knew why she was spending time with him.
She hadn’t asked for orgasms. She hadn’t asked for an easy hookup. She hadn’t asked for Pestilence to fire his arrows across Stirling and to spread disease in her life.
Amelia wanted to find a partner worthy of her. That person sure as hell wasn’t Leo.
Dull, gray light filtered through the thin curtains as dawn slowly won its war against night. Leo watched its arrival through slitted eyes, his body sore, his spirit aching.
That’s when a realization swept through him, growing as slowly as the light of day: He was falling in love with Amelia Darcy.
The kicker was, he couldn’t have her. Not for real—not after this retreat was over.
Sitting up, he rubbed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets and stretched his back, scowling at the sofa. Stupid thing. He’d be sore for weeks after this damn retreat. Dragging his bones over to the breakfast bar, he started the coffee machine and watched it brew. Then, sipping a fresh mug, he leaned against the window frame and cast his eyes over the forest. Birds called to each other as the day arrived, a breeze floating through the open window. It smelled fresh and earthy, a smell that was distinctly Stirling. For the first time in decades, he thought it smelled good.
It had been a long, long time since he appreciated this place. He’d moved away at eighteen and vowed to never look back to the town where he’d spent his childhood. Those years of pain had hardened him to life, and he wondered, looking out at the trees, if the damage was irreparable.
“Is there enough coffee for me?”
Leo turned to see Amelia sliding open the pocket doors that led to the bedroom. She wore tiny sleep shorts that exposed most of her shapely legs. On top, she had a matching button-down pajama shirt, navy blue piped in white. Her nipples were visible through the thin fabric.
Leo cleared his throat and tore his gaze away. “Morning,” he said. “There’s enough for a couple more cups.”
“You’re my hero,” Amelia breathed. She stumbled across to the breakfast bar and fixed herself a mug (two creams and four sugars, to Leo’s combined disgust and amazement). Amelia stirred her coffee and joined him at the window. “What are you looking at? Anyone skulking around out there?”
He grinned. They’d spent dinner studying everyone around the table but had come no closer to finding any clues about the missing ring. Truthfully, Leo’s thoughts had been dominated by the memory of Amelia’s body splayed over his. It had been hard to care about his billionaire boss’s eye-wateringly expensive engagement ring when the woman of his dreams was seated just beside him. They hadn’t stolen it; why did they care who had?
“I was just thinking how little I appreciated this town growing up,” Leo admitted.
“When did you leave?”
“As soon as I graduated high school. Went to college in Boston and never looked back.”
“I only moved here for work when I was in my early twenties,” Amelia told him. “Maggie and my parents came later, when I kept telling them how great Stirling was. What was it like growing up here?”
Leo couldn’t hide his grimace. “It’s a nice place for a kid,” he said noncommittally.
Amelia could read him like a book. “But…?” she prompted.
He slurped his coffee to buy himself time. “But my parents weren’t exactly loving.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I survived.” He gave her his best, brightest smile—the one that usually turned aggressively flirtatious and had landed him in bed with whoever he aimed it at—but Amelia only frowned at him.
Leo sighed. Of course that look didn’t work on Amelia. It never had. To his surprise, he heard himself say, “I mostly lived with my grandparents. Dad was out of the picture. Mom was off getting high and finding new boyfriends every couple of weeks. She died when I was eleven, and we moved in with my grandparents full-time. They died within six months of each other when I was sixteen, and Marlon and I were on our own. He ended up buying me out of my half of the house they left us so I could afford to go to college.”
His voice sounded oddly flat, like he was describing what he’d eaten for breakfast. He took another sip of coffee and let his eyes drift to the distant mist curling around the treetops that would soon be burned away by the sun.
Amelia nodded but stayed silent.
Maybe it was her silence—comforting, steady—that prompted him to go on. “I was nervous about coming back here for the wedding and the retreat.”
“Is it the first time you’ve been back in Stirling since you left?”
Leo nodded. “Marlon never left, and Archer and Cormac came straight back after college. But I stayed away. We’d meet up in Boston every couple of months, and they always came down. I told Fred I’d grown up here in my interview with the company years ago, and I think it helped me get the job. Home court advantage. But I hadn’t been back since I left at eighteen.”
After a pause, Amelia asked, “What do you think about the town now?”
The town, he could take or leave. He didn’t care. The woman leaning on the opposite side of the window was another story. “It’s been good,” he finally replied, and he was surprised to realize it was the truth.
Amelia beamed at him, and a thunderbolt pierced his chest. She was charming when she frowned, but she was utterly breathtaking when she smiled.
“I’m going to shower first,” she told him, gulping down the rest of her coffee. “We have to go over what we’ve found out about the ring and figure out what we’re going to do. Fred keeps looking at me and asking pointed questions about my band. It’s getting uncomfortable.”
“He knows you didn’t steal the ring, Amelia.”
She tilted her head from side to side. “I don’t know. He’s suspicious about something. Last night, when you went to the bathroom after dinner, he asked me about my last tour and the way he worded the questions sounded like he was trying to catch me in a lie.”
Guilt squirmed in Leo’s stomach. “I’m sorry.”
She pursed her lips, flicking her gaze up to his. “It’s worth it.”
As she walked away, Leo wondered what, exactly, was worth it. Did she mean Fred’s suspicion was worth it because she got to spend time with Leo?
But that was just wishful thinking. She was probably grateful that she was one step closer to finding a partner who was worthy of her. If such a man existed.
By the time he’d drained his second cup of coffee, Leo felt halfway human. The shower had stopped, so he was readying his clothes to take his turn in the bathroom—when there was a knock on the door.
“Ari,” he said, surprised, when he pulled the door open.
The other man scowled, dark brows pulled low over his eyes. “Hey.” He glanced over his shoulder, as if to check he was alone in the hallway. “I have a question for you.”
Leo nodded, trying not to betray his nerves. Had Ari noticed his papers were missing? Did he suspect Leo and Amelia of taking them?
“Was anyone else in the hallway yesterday morning when you and Amelia were here?”
“Yesterday?” Leo asked to hide his surprise.
“Yeah. During the scavenger hunt.”
“Not that I saw. Why?”
Ari let out a breath and combed his fingers through his hair. “I think someone was in my room.”
“What?” Leo’s voice rose, and he hoped it sounded like surprise and not guilt. His hand tightened on the door so hard his fingers ached.
Ari pursed his lips and let his gaze slide to the side. “I know it sounds crazy, but things were shifted around.”
“Oh, man…” Leo said with exaggerated concern. “That’s…wow.”
“Yeah. And my Patek Philippe was missing.”
“What’s a patate flip? Something to do with potatoes?” Amelia’s voice was so close, it made Leo jump. He glanced over his shoulder and did a double take. Then he slammed the door in Ari’s face.
Amelia gave him a look like she thought he was crazy.
“What are you wearing?” Leo demanded.
She glanced down at herself. “A towel.” She said it like he was an idiot for asking.
His breath was coming in fast. The towel barely skimmed the tops of her thighs, and her breasts were pushed together at the top. It was not big enough to cover Amelia’s body. Not by a long shot. When she moved, the fabric opened in a slit at her hip. “You can’t walk around like that when the door’s open, Amelia.”
She reared back. “Excuse me? And who opened the door? Am I supposed to stay hidden like a little mouse? Please.”
“I don’t want Ari or any other man seeing you like that,” he growled.
Amelia planted her hands on her hips. Leo could almost feel the anger rising in her, like the first puff of ash on a volcano about to erupt. He knew she was right; he couldn’t tell her how to dress. But…but…
“I’m wearing undies,” she said, flipping the front of the towel up. “See? It’s not like I’m going to flash anyone.”
Leo groaned. Blood rushed away from his brain so fast, he wobbled on his feet. Amelia was, in fact, wearing underwear. It was red, lacy, and it curved attractively up over her hips.
“Plus,” she went on, “you have no right to tell me how I can walk around my own room.”
“I am your fiancé,” he growled, which was a ridiculous thing to say seeing as Leo wasn’t, in fact, Amelia’s fiancé. But she was nearly naked. “And I don’t want some asshole drooling over you.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “No one is drooling over me, Leo.”
“I beg to differ.” So did the tent in his pants, but he wasn’t about to point it out to her.
Her chest had flushed a pretty shade of pink. One sharp tug, and her towel would be on the floor. Leo’s hands itched. But Amelia just rolled her eyes, grabbed something out of her suitcase, which was just outside the bedroom door, and headed through the pocket doors. At the last moment, she spun around and stuck out her tongue.
He bit back a laugh. The pressure on his chest increased as he watched her disappear into the bedroom.
Turning back to the front door, he opened it with a yank. Ari was still waiting on the other side, an eyebrow popped. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Your watch is missing?” Leo prompted.
Ari nodded. “Yeah. And…yeah, the watch.”
“We didn’t see anyone.”
The other man sighed, his gaze meeting Leo’s. Leo met it head-on, knowing it was only a matter of time before Ari began to suspect them. If they were the only ones alone in the hallway, it was only logical.
“What about you?” Ari asked, jerking his chin over Leo’s shoulder.
Amelia had slipped into a white sundress with a red-and-pink floral print. The straps were thin, holding up a crisscrossed bodice and a flouncy skirt. Leo wanted her to slip right out of it again, preferably somewhere he could watch.
Scrunching a towel into her wet hair, Amelia shook her head. “Didn’t see anyone. What did you say they took?”
“My watch.” Ari narrowed his gaze at her, then shifted to look at Leo. “Strange that Amelia wouldn’t know what a Patek Philippe is, though. Surely she would have heard of the brand before now. Isn’t your watch collection worth a couple hundred k?”
A strangled noise came from Amelia, and she covered it up by coughing.
“She was just trying to be funny,” Leo lied.
“Uh-huh!” Amelia said, voice muffled by the towel she’d shoved over her face.
Ari, looking troubled, said goodbye to the couple and walked toward his room. Leo closed the door and turned the lock. He met Amelia’s wide-eyed gaze.
“You think he was telling the truth? His watch is really missing?”
Leo let out a sigh. “Either that, or he was trying to cover for the missing papers.”
Amelia bit her lip. “We should go down to breakfast soon. Maybe we can corner Vanessa and ask her why she was up here with Ari instead of with her boyfriend doing the scavenger hunt.”
Leo nodded. “Good plan. I’ll shower, and we’ll head down.”
But when Leo emerged from the steamy bathroom, he saw Amelia sitting on the couch, frowning at her phone. She glanced up at him, brows still drawn low over her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she mumbled.
“Did something happen?” Leo approached, trying to ignore the banging of his heart. If Amelia had to leave the retreat, it’d only raise the suspicion on them. He’d have to come clean to Fred—and then what? As he came closer, his worry grew. What if something was wrong with Amelia’s family? Her work? If something was truly wrong, he’d face Fred, come clean, do whatever he had to do if Amelia was in trouble. “What’s going on?” Leo demanded. He needed to fix this. Immediately.
Amelia let out a sigh and shook her head. “Sorry. It’s nothing. I’m just kind of shocked.” She turned her phone to face him. “I got a message from Ben.”
Leo’s first instinct was to grab Amelia’s phone and fling it into the blazing depths of an active volcano. But he wasn’t a savage, so he wiped the scowl off his face and sat down beside her. “Ah. Congrats.”
“Don’t sound too excited,” she mock-grumbled, elbowing him.
“This is what you wanted, right?” Leo asked, his voice sounding thin through the tightness of his throat.
Amelia bunched her lips to the side. “I guess.”
Silence dropped between them like a lead weight. Leo forced himself to be civil. Wasn’t he supposed to be helping her get a boyfriend? “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Hey.’”
Leo’s eye roll proved he’d spent a past life as a fourteen-year-old girl. “What a fucking charmer.”
Amelia clicked her tongue, frowning at him. “Be nice. I said ‘Hey,’ back, but with a smiley face added.” She stared at her phone screen and cringed.
Leo revised his previous thoughts. He didn’t want to fling her phone into an active volcano; he wanted to fling Ben into it. “The guy has the personality of a clump of dryer lint.”
“You’ve never even spoken to him. How could you possibly know that?”
“I know his type.”
“And what’s that?”
This conversation was starting to annoy Leo. He crossed his arms and stared at the coffee table. “The type who stalks a woman’s online photos for days and can’t even think of a single interesting thing to say. What time did he send you that message?”
“What does that matter?”
“What time, Amelia?”
She gave him a sideways glance. “Three o’clock in the morning.”
Leo spread his hands. “I rest my case.”
“You haven’t made a case.”
“This guy isn’t worth your time, Amelia. If he was, he’d have thought of something to say that was more than one word when he was lying in bed creeping on your photos.”
“Unless you’ve forgotten to engage your brain this morning, Leo, I’ll remind you that I don’t exactly have men beating down my door. This message is more than I’ve gotten in over a year.”
A hot, achy feeling was climbing up Leo’s throat. “That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve more. What’s so special about this guy?”
“Nothing!” The word exploded out of her, and Leo was shocked to see something like anger on her face. “Nothing is special about him, just like nothing is special about me. Not everyone can be a super-sexy, super-confident hunk, all right? For us mere mortals, sometimes this is as good as it gets.” She shook her phone for emphasis.
Leo hadn’t known it was possible to want to kiss someone and shake them all at once. Nothing was special about her? Was she serious? “You’re special, Amelia. Everything about you is special.”
“Oh, spare me.” She stood up, her jaw set. “Let’s go get breakfast and find this stupid thief so we can get this retreat over with.”