Chapter 29 – Leo #2
Without thinking, I shift her, settling her on my lap until she’s straddling me.
I slide a hand up beneath the hem of her dress, my hand moving over the smooth skin of her thigh, and her body stills again.
When she pulls back, her pupils are still blown, still hazy with the panic attack lingering, but hopefully, I can make them hazy in a different way soon.
“Leo, what are—” she asks.
“Do you trust me?” A moment passes, a single moment in time before my heart explodes with her nod.
“Of course,” she says, and I press my lips to her in favor of biting back the groan that wants to leave my lips at her sweet trust in me.
As I kiss her, I slide my hand up, shifting until I press my thumb against her clit over her panties.
I’m not sure what her reaction will be or whether she’ll go with my plan.
Her system is already on high alert, cortisol running through her body, but when her hips tip towards me, I can’t help but smile as I drop my head to her neck.
“What are you doing?” she whispers, and the panic in my own chest eases when the words sound less panicked.
“You’re having a panic attack. You need a hit of dopamine and endorphins, and I’m going to make it happen.
” My thumb moves in circles over her slit, and she lets out a heavy breath.
“You’re gonna have to make this quick, but I know you can come for me fast, can’t you?
” I murmur. I’m pleased when she doesn’t argue like she did that first night, telling me she can’t do that.
She knows that she can.
“I think so,” she breaths, her hips shifting. I read about this once, that you can trick your brain out of the fight or flight that comes with an orgasm, but obviously never had a need to test it out.
Until now.
“That’s my good girl.” My thumb continues to move over her clit, and my middle finger presses into her panties over her entrance, teasing her.
I note when the stiffness of her panic attack leaves her body and a new tightening enters as I press her clit in hard, rough circles, which I know from a lot of testing that she likes most of all, her hips bucking as it builds, fast and quick.
I desperately want to sink into her, but we don’t have time.
We don’t even have time for this, but I’m making time for it.
“Leo,” she whispers, and when I look up at her, her face is dazed but in a much better way now.
“I know, honey. Let go. Let me take care of you.”
She bucks again, a breath, leaving her lips, her eyes fluttering shut.
“You look so fucking pretty like this, all done up as your pretty princess version, but being my little slut.”
“Yes, yes,” she whispers, head nodding. I feel her clench along the tip of my middle finger and decide to give her a little more, to tip the scale. My middle finger moves, sliding along the seam of her underwear and then sliding under. She’s soaked, and I bite back a rough groan.
“You like that, don’t you? You like it when I call you my little slut?” I murmur, my forehead to hers, and she nods, breath hitching as I slide my middle finger into her, my thumb still roughly circling her clit. “That’s because you were made for me, Willa Stone,” I breath, and that’s what does it.
That’s what has her teeth sinking into her lips.
Her head tipping back as her body quakes over me, tightening around my finger as she comes silently in my lap.
I hate that she’s swallowing her sounds, but it just means I’ll have to make sure she’s even louder next time.
I wait until she comes down from her orgasm before sliding my hand out from between her legs and rearranging her.
I brush her hair back and rub a finger over her lips, but her makeup is still perfect.
The light is also back in her eyes, which is the real relief.
“What was that?” she asks with a small laugh. I grin wide.
What it was, was risk. Stupid, and idiotic.
But I don’t care about that right now. I couldn’t care about it when that blank look was on her face, and I can’t care about it now.
“How do you feel?” I ask, and I’m pleased when instead of brushing me off, she takes a moment, seeming to take stock of her body and her feelings before grinning at me.
“Amazing. But what was that for?” she asks, a goofy smile on her lips.
“Are you calm?” Her eyes widen in disbelief.
“That was to calm me down?”
“You were having a panic attack. You needed a distraction, and orgasms release endorphins and dopamine to counter the cortisol from panic.”
“How do you know that?” she asks, furrowing her brows.
I press my lips to hers, softly. “I’ll tell you all about it later.
Right now we have places to be.” She scrunches up her nose, and I smile, shaking my head before my hands move ot her hips.
Lifting her and setting her to her feet.
I stand after, rearranging my hard cock to make it less noticeable, but also removing my suit jacket and draping it over my hand, just in case.
She watches with an amused smile on her lips, and I roll my eyes.
I stare down at Willa, then dip to give her one last kiss before swiping my thumb over her lip.
“Still perfect.” She smiles sweetly, and I’m tempted to stay in here forever with her. Unfortunately, the sound of Jackie’s voice filters in through the door, and I sigh. “But we’ve gotta go.”
“Jackie’s going to be mad that you wouldn’t make me take more pictures,” she says, nervousness returning to her face, and I hate that this is the kind of reaction her manager pulls from her.
I don’t think she’s ready for that conversation any time soon, but one day, we’re going to have to have the very uncomfortable conversation about how poorly Jackie treats her.
For now, I put my hands on her face and force Willa to look at me.
“They can go fuck themselves. I’m your publicist. I know what I’m doing.”
“And what are you doing, Leo?”
“Putting you first. Always.” That pulls a smile onto her face.
“I love you,” she whispers, and whatever remaining tension bleeds from my chest because of that. That is why I will jump through hoops for as long as she needs me to. Because at the end of the day, that’s what I get.
“I love you, Willa. Now let’s go meet your new boyfriend,” I say, and despite where we’re headed and the fact that she just had a full-blown panic attack, she lets out a loud laugh, and I know to my soul we’re going to make it through this just fine.
“What the hell is going on?” Jackie asks when we step out of the room together, though I leave a good amount of space between us, forcing myself to fall back into publicist who is taking care of his client on a professional level.
Jackie looks the same as always, if not a bit angrier, though with all the work she gets done, she might be a lot more frustrated than her frozen face lets on.
Willa walks right up to her manager, and I expect to see her a bit frazzled still, but instead, I see her shield is locked in place.
Now, she’s the world-wide pop star. America’s sweetheart.
She’s officially on.
“We had an incident,” I say, before Willa can speak. “And I brought her in here to collect herself.” I rack my brain trying to think of some kind of excuse for why I pulled her into a room for any stretch of time, but Willa speaks before I can think of one.
“I had a panic attack,” she says clearly, and for a moment, Jackie’s face softens. I might despise the woman and believe she doesn’t have Willa’s full interests at heart, but I can’t say she doesn’t care for her in some way, shape, or form.
“Are you okay?”
Willa nods, and then Jackie tips her head towards the elevator. We all pile in, headed to the floor where the Perfect Image offices are, and finally, Jackie looks her over.
“That is not what I sent you, Willa,” Jackie says, jaw tight, though her face shows a smile.
I don’t have to look her over to know she looks beautiful: a light, almost-white-purple dress with a high neck and long sleeves that flare out a bit, the short skirt doing the same, hitting at her mid-thigh.
It’s paired with a pair of high black boots that stop right over her knees.
She looks beautiful, the perfect mix of my Willa and the one she normally shows the fans, and I wonder if this is her way of bringing the color she found in Holly Ridge into her Willa Stone world.
“I know, but I saw this the other day and thought it was gorgeous. It’s one of the colors for the new album, so I thought it would be a fun hint for fans to catch.”
“We haven’t discussed the new album yet. The dress you were sent was specifically curated for you and your brand,” Jackie says, and the way she says it with a hint of frustration in her words rubs me wrong, but the way she bosses around Willa always rubs me wrong.
In the past, Willa would have apologized profusely, but she doesn’t. Instead, she lifts a shoulder and holds Jackie’s gaze.
“I decided the colors for the album months ago. I talked to Harper about it, and she’s working on the wardrobe already for it.”
“You didn’t talk to me about it,” Jackie accuses, and Wila gives her one of her sweet smiles, but beneath it is a thin layer of disappointment. I’m not sure if it’s for Jackie’s own frustration or something else.
“You didn’t ask,” Willa says, and I decide that’s where that disappointment is coming from. Willa poured her heart into this album, and I know she created a full mood board for its vision months ago.
“I think it’s smart,” I say, trying to ease the tension that’s brewing in the small elevator. “The fans are excited about a new album, and we can add some color to her outfits before we announce the cover. They love piecing together hints Willa leaves after the fact.”
Jackie’s jaw is tight, and she stares at me, a flash of utter dislike on her face. It’s gone as soon as I catch it, replaced with a pleasant, if not a bit annoyed look before she smiles.
“Well, what’s done is done; they already have photos with you in this piece,” Jackie says with a sigh as the elevator doors slide open.
“Come on. Chris is in the office—we snuck him in through the back so as not to seem obvious, but I wanted you two to meet before your first date.” She steps out, expecting us to follow, and Willa turns to me, giving me a small smile and wide eyes.
I roll mine, then gesture for her to go first.
And then I follow her, like I know I always will, and watch her ass sway with each step.