Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Amelia marched into the dining room and went straight for the apple Danishes. She recognized Camilla’s baked goods anywhere (and she’d seen the box they came in), so she knew they’d be delicious.
She needed something delicious to ease the burn at the back of her throat. Ben’s message was lame. She knew that. But Leo had seemed…angry? And his anger made her angry, and then she’d stormed out of the room without meeting his gaze.
But now that the flash of emotion had faded, Amelia felt silly. She was only mad because her feelings for Leo were growing with every minute they spent together, and she knew that would blow up in her face. Leo didn’t deserve her ire; she should figure her shit out herself. She resolved to apologize to Leo as soon as she could swallow her pride, which would likely happen after her second or third pastry of the morning.
“Good choice,” Percival said, breaking down one of the white bakery boxes behind the table where the Danishes were displayed.
Amelia grinned. “Camilla’s one of my best friends. I usually get these when they’re a day old and unsellable, but I know this one is going to be incredible.”
The man inclined his head, then cast an eye across the table. As soon as he saw that the scrambled eggs were quickly running low, he nodded to Amelia and took his leave. The man was observant and very good at his job. Amelia thought that if anyone found out who had stolen the ring, it would be Percival. Unless she and Leo did it first.
The thought made her square her shoulders. She couldn’t get distracted by lame one-word messages from a guy she no longer had a crush on. Ben could wait; the ring thief couldn’t.
While she was loading up her plate with an altogether unhealthy breakfast, Amelia sidled up beside Cora. If there was one thing Amelia had learned in her stint working in an office, it was that the administrators were all-seeing and all-knowing. They had the power to make your life a dream—or a living hell.
She suspected that Cora, having worked at Goodhew since its inception decades ago, was no different.
“Morning,” she greeted the older woman brightly.
“Hello, dear,” Cora said with a smile, brown eyes crinkling. She had half a grapefruit on her plate and was waiting for toast to brown in the toaster.
“How did you sleep?”
“Like a baby. You? Did that man keep you up all night?” Cora angled her head toward Leo, who was watching them from across the room.
He’d been watching her like that all morning. It was as thrilling as it was unsettling. She wasn’t used to having men—especially attractive men—pay that much attention to her. Was he still angry about this morning? She couldn’t keep up with how she was supposed to feel or act around him.
Amelia turned back to Cora. “Oh, you know how they are,” she deflected, trying not to squirm.
“I certainly do.”
“Go Cora,” Amelia said with a laugh. “Are you saying you were a man-eater?”
“There’s no past tense about it, girl,” Cora replied with a wink.
Laughing, Amelia perused the fresh fruit on offer. She had to turn this conversation to something more productive. She placed a couple of strawberries on her plate and asked as casually as she could, “Did you hear that they think Nadia’s ring was stolen?”
Cora’s fingers paused above the toaster. “I did,” she finally admitted. “Fred’s been on edge since it went missing. Haven’t seen him this bad since ’92, when he almost went bankrupt planning children’s parties here in Stirling.” The old lady glanced over her shoulder, then leaned toward Amelia. “You ask me, I think buying a ring worth twelve million is just asking for trouble.”
“I don’t know that I’d go that far. Stealing is wrong, and it isn’t the victim’s fault.”
“I wouldn’t be flaunting it all around, that’s for sure,” the old lady said. She hiked her purse up on her shoulder and shook her head. “But Fred doesn’t deserve that. This retreat is one of the only times I see him truly enjoy himself.”
“Maybe they’ll find it in a heating vent,” Amelia offered.
“One can only hope,” Cora said, then nodded to Robert Lafontaine, who had just entered the room. “If anyone took it, it was that man. Started his career with the Mob, you know. An outfit out of New York City. You can take the man out of Little Italy, but, well, you know how the saying goes.”
Amelia’s eyes widened. She glanced at Robert, who gave her a sunny smile and a wave from his side of the room. He didn’t look like a mobster. He and Trudy looked like they were looking forward to a sunny retirement in Florida.
“Lafontaine isn’t an Italian name.”
“Either him or Vanessa,” Cora continued, ignoring Amelia’s comment. “She’s been stuck for cash since her sugar daddy left her, and she has the integrity of a wet noodle.” She grabbed a little packet of butter and placed it on top of her toast before turning to face the room. “Well. Enjoy your breakfast!”
Hurrying to Leo’s side, Amelia slumped into a chair. She leaned over and said, “Cora thinks it was Robert or Vanessa.”
Leo reared back. “Really?”
“Apparently Robert was part of the Mob, and it’s like you heard yesterday, Vanessa’s got money troubles.”
“Doesn’t explain Ari’s list.”
Amelia bit into a strawberry and shook her head. “No,” she said after she’d swallowed. “It doesn’t. And if his watch went missing, he’d hardly have stolen it from himself. Unless he’s trying to deflect suspicion?”
Leo’s hand lifted, and his thumb swiped at something on her lip. It came away pink with the strawberry’s juices. “Messy,” he said, eyes still on Amelia’s lips.
Heat wound through her stomach, settling down between her thighs. She shifted on her seat and turned her eyes to her plate. The Danish was, indeed, as delicious as she’d anticipated. Camilla was a maestro.
Amelia was just staring down the third pastry on her plate, wondering if it was a bad idea to go for it, when she realized Leo was staring at her. She picked up a napkin and daintily patted her lips. Maybe two Danishes was enough. She frowned at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said.
Her frown deepened. “Tell me.”
“Never mind, Amelia.” He curled his hand onto her shoulder, like he couldn’t help but touch her, and she smelled the fresh scent of his skin. It rivaled Camilla’s Danish for deliciousness. Her head spun, doubly so when Leo leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her temple.
It was part of their loving couple act, of course, but it still made her vision go fuzzy around the edges. No midnight message from Ben could rival one touch from Leo.
In an attempt to distract herself—and maybe, in an attempt to ignore the truth beginning to reveal itself right in front of her eyes—she glanced around and saw Vanessa slinking out of the room. The other woman gripped her phone in one hand. The look on Vanessa’s face was nothing short of thunderous.
“Come on,” Amelia urged. “Let’s see what that’s about.”
It was only when they’d stepped out of the breakfast room that Amelia realized Leo had kissed her temple when no one was watching them at all.
Leo followed Amelia out of the breakfast room and down the hall. They passed the Blue Room and a small dining room and saw Vanessa disappear into a network of interconnected spaces. Creeping through lushly decorated rooms, they followed through big double doors into a salon, through a dressing room filled with empty shelves and a velvet-upholstered seat, stopping when Vanessa crossed into a guest bedroom and slumped down onto a window seat.
She tapped on her phone, frowning.
With their heads poking around the doorway, Leo knew that Vanessa only had to look up to discover them. He put a hand on Amelia’s hip to urge her to lean back. They needed to find somewhere to hide, and fast. That’s when he heard the click of Vanessa’s heels on the bedroom’s parquet flooring.
“Nice of you to pick up the phone,” she barked, her footsteps approaching.
There was nowhere to hide. If they ran for the salon, she’d have a clear line of sight. If they stayed in the dressing room, she’d come in and find them as soon as she stepped through.
Clearly, they were terrible at detective work.
Leo opened a door beside them and found a tall, narrow closet with angled shelves on both sides obviously designed to hold dozens of pairs of shoes. He shoved Amelia inside and followed, closing the door just in time to see Vanessa’s head pop into the dressing room.
She paced the length of the carpeted space. “Yes, I’m still at the retreat. No, I can’t leave. His stupid fiancée lost her ring, and she’s got it in her head that it was taken. If I leave now, it’ll look like I’m guilty and it’ll be a nightmare to straighten out.”
The closet door was made of angled slats, so Leo could see Vanessa as she paced. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned, horrified to see Amelia smooshed against the shoe shelves. He eased back to give her more space, but then he was pressing against the door.
Finally, he turned around to face Amelia, putting his arms around her so they’d have more space. Her eyes were wide, and the pulse jumped in her neck. She smelled like strawberries.
“I don’t know!” Vanessa huffed. “Look, I’ll send you some money next week, Dad. Yes, I’m sure. Can you last that long?”
Amelia tilted her head, frowning. Her body was so soft against Leo’s. He wished he had the right to press himself up against her like this all the time, without the pretense of their fake relationship.
There was a long sigh. “Fine. Me too. Bye.” Vanessa’s voice was tight, and Leo strained his ears to listen. He looked over his shoulder and saw her cross the slatted door once more, then her steps receded back the way they came.
“What was that about?” Amelia whispered. “It didn’t sound like she took the ring. Her money problems might be a family issue?”
Turning his head to face her again, Leo was surprised to discover he’d wrapped his arms around her waist, and she was clinging to his shoulders. Her eyes were shadowed in the low light of the closet, her sweet, fluttery dress soft beneath his touch.
Leo didn’t give a damn about the ring, or Vanessa, or anything other than the beautiful woman in his arms. The thought of her lacy red underwear covered with only the fluttery, floral skirt dancing around her thighs was driving him wild. “Not sure,” he grated.
She bit her lip, then seemed to steel herself to say something. “Leo,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry about this morning. About Ben. It was a lame message for him to send, and I feel kind of pathetic for being flattered by it. I…I just want you to know I appreciate you making me question these things. You make me feel more confident than I have in a long, long time.”
“You deserve more than some asshole who can’t even ask you about your day,” Leo grated, tightening his hold on Amelia’s waist.
“Thank you,” she breathed. Fingers dug into his shoulders as Amelia leaned into him. Her breaths were shallow, the sound of them filling the small space. She was temptation wrapped into a feisty blond package. She was the woman of his dreams, and he hadn’t even known he had dreams of a woman like her until she’d yanked on his collar at her sister’s wedding.
Leo only had a couple of days to hold Amelia in his arms. Another man was already sniffing around her, and it wouldn’t be long until she realized just how much she deserved. He might as well make the most of the time they had left.
So, without giving himself time to rethink his urge, he slanted his lips against hers and kissed her.
There was no excuse this time. They weren’t about to get caught. They weren’t talking about her color-coded spreadsheet. Right now, the only thing on Leo’s mind was tasting this woman’s mouth simply because he wanted to. With a soft moan, she melted against him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders.
Groaning in response, Leo slipped both hands down and cupped her ass, then clawed at her skirt until he felt skin. His thumbs swept over the edge of her lace panties, but most of her butt was beautifully bare flesh. He squeezed, and Amelia leaped into his arms in response. He pressed her against the shelves and kissed her harder, sliding his tongue against hers, moaning as she tugged on his hair and bucked her hips like she couldn’t get enough of him.
He was losing his mind for her. When she melted for him like this, it felt like they had a chance. Like this heat between them could mean something more.
“Feel how hard I am for you,” Leo said, using his hands to pull her core against his aching cock. “You feel it, baby?”
“I want it inside me,” she panted, eyes glazed. “So bad, Leo.”
He groaned, letting his forehead drop to hers. His hands kneaded her ass as she rolled her hips against him. He couldn’t fuck her in this closet. Not when they were expected outside for some stupid team-building activity within minutes. Not when she deserved a bed and rose petals and champagne.
He couldn’t fuck her in a closet. He couldn’t .
But if she kept bucking her hips like that, all he’d have to do was hook his fingers into her underwear, shove it aside, and?—
“Well, well, well,” Ari said behind them. “I thought I heard something strange over here.”
Amelia screamed, let go of Leo’s shoulders, and shoved him as hard as she could. Unfortunately, her legs were still locked around him, and his hands remained firmly clamped on her generous bottom. So, when she shoved, Leo stumbled back and took her with him. They fell in a heap on the floor while Ari watched on, looking vaguely amused.
“The puzzle challenge is starting in five. You’re expected out at the gazebo, and Fred’s in a hell of a mood this morning. If I were you, I’d leave the marital activities for the marital bed.”
“Do me a favor and fuck off, Ari,” Leo grumbled from the floor.
Amelia’s face was hidden in his neck, her hands curled into his shirt so hard he’d never get the wrinkles out. When Ari walked away, she sat up, looking rumpled and disheveled atop him. He held onto her hips, not ready to leave this particular position.
“Um.” She bit her lip.
It was unbearable how hot she was. She looked part innocent, part embarrassed, part flushed with arousal, and still with that harsh edge of annoyance dancing just out of reach. It was a cocktail designed to drive Leo out of his mind. Amelia’s eyes widened when she felt his cock throb against her core.
Leo huffed, shaking his head. “Sorry. Can’t help it when you’re straddling me like that.”
He didn’t know if she did it on purpose, but after he spoke, Amelia rocked her hips the tiniest— tiniest —bit. And he nearly came, it felt so good. A grunt rumbled in his throat as his hands tightened on her hips.
“We should go out there,” she whispered.
“Uh-huh,” he managed past his clenched teeth.
“You think he saw us following Vanessa?” she whispered again, even more quietly, her hands leaning against his chest.
“Don’t know,” he grated. “Don’t care.”
She huffed and stood, and that mind-blowing friction against his stiff member was taken away. Thought slowly returned to Leo’s mind as he sat up, blinking, more than a little dazed. He followed Amelia out of the dressing room and through the salon. They nodded at a staff member on their way to the back of the sprawling house, finding Percival there to hold the French doors open for them. The butler gave them a shallow bow, his face utterly blank.
Then they headed for the gazebo, where the rest of the guests awaited.