6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Juliet
“ A re you nervous?”
A warm smile crosses my face as Leo hovers above me, our clothes littering his bedroom floor. I lay in the middle of his large bed, cheeks flushed and skin hot.
“Just a little,” I say as I run my hands up his bare chest. I wonder if his heart is beating as quickly as mine. “But I trust you.”
Leo smiles back and presses a comforting kiss against my forehead. “You can always trust me, Juju.”
I melt under his touch, my eyes fluttering shut just as his lips touch mine.
Leo lowers himself more between my thighs, his length sliding through my folds with every slow rock of his hips .
Eager nervousness flutters low in my stomach as I tilt my hips, needing him to continue. To go further than we ever had before.
“Please. I’m ready,” I tell him as I push my fingers into his hair, our eyes locking.
Leo nods and reaches down to guide himself inside of me, going as slow as he possibly can.
The air leaves my lungs as I adjust to the feeling of him, a faint whimper lingering on my lips.
Leo presses gentle kisses all over my face, distracting me from the slight discomfort until he’s fully sheathed inside of me. “You okay? I can stop.”
I draw in a deep breath and shake my head. “No, don’t stop. I want you to move.”
Leo rests his forehead against mine as he starts to rock in and out of me, our moans mingling.
The discomfort completely fades away, being replaced with a deep, warm pleasure that builds low in my stomach. I curl my fingers in his hair, my breathing picking up .
We’ve snuck around and done enough foreplay for me to know that this would feel good, but I didn’t think it would feel this good.
“Leo…”
“Good?”
“So good.”
Leo lowers his head to kiss my neck, one hand squeezing my breast. His pace quickens, and his thrusts deepen, making my legs fall farther apart.
My hands slide down the back of his neck to his shoulders, feeling the flex of his muscles as he moves above me. Warmth spreads throughout my entire body, concentrating between my thighs.
Things really start to feel good.
“Oh…” I breathe out, my nails sinking into his back. “I think…”
“Fuck, I can feel you,” Leo groans as he kisses his way along my jaw. “Feels amazing.”
More than amazing. Every nerve within me is lit up, buzzing with bliss .
“I’m so close. I just need…” I trail off, not knowing exactly.
The hand on my breast slides all the way down until it disappears between my thighs. His fingers press against my clit, sending an electric jolt of euphoria through me.
“Oh, yes, that ,” I tell him, my eyes fluttering shut as my head tilts back.
Leo drives into me harder, his fingers moving in steady circles. “I want you to come for me again.”
I already did on his tongue earlier. We’ve gotten really good at everything else before this.
“Don’t stop,” I say, every muscle in my body tightening more and more as my second orgasm starts to crest.
“Not until you come apart for me.”
I part my lips to cry out, but all that leaves me is a breathy gasp as I lurch out of the heated dream.
My heart slams against my ribs as I sit up in bed, glancing to each side to take in my bedroom. My empty bedroom.
It was just a dream. One that reminded me a lot of my first time with Leo .
I flop back down onto my bed, staring at the ceiling as morning light slowly creeps through my window. I’ll never be able to scrub that time from my brain.
I was his first. He was mine.
A deep ache spreads throughout my entire chest, making me exhale shakily. We were so close. He was my best friend, and I was more comfortable around him than anyone else.
But he’s closer to a stranger now.
When I look at him, I see someone cold and distant who doesn’t want to be perceived as anything other than successful and in control. Not the sweet, caring boy who made our first time so special and emotional and who promised that he would love me no matter what.
Even when I try to put my back to the past, it finds a way to hurt me in the present.
With a heavy sigh, I get out of bed and take a cold shower, washing away the heat on my skin. Nothing can get him out of my mind, though.
Not a cold shower. Not a fresh cup of coffee. Not singing in the car with Piper on the way to school.
Especially not showing up at the same house where we share so many memories together.
Frank is still asleep when I arrive, so I head to the study instead to check this week’s schedule. I’m pretty sure the landscaper is coming on Tuesday, and the cleaner is showing up on Friday.
I step into the study, only to pause in the doorway at the sight of Leo already sitting at the desk with a cup of hot coffee in front of him. “Oh, I didn’t know you were here.”
Leo looks up at me, and the moment his eyes meet mine, I’m taken back to that night we were in his bedroom.
Clothes on the floor. Eyes locked. Hearts racing.
We were seventeen and in love, and we had no idea what was coming for us just a year later.
“Just looking over some more paperwork. There’s so much of it,” he sighs as he rubs his eyes. “You need to do something in here?”
“I keep a calendar on the desk with all the appointments I make for estate maintenance and upkeep,” I reply as I walk around the desk to stand next to him .
I reach out and grab the calendar full of nature pictures that’s tucked under some documents that he was reading. My skin tingles as my arm brushes his, but I flip through the calendar casually.
Like I didn’t just have a sex dream about us.
“He let the business nearly fall apart,” Leo mutters as he tosses a stack of papers over to the other side of the desk.
“He did his best. He was sick,” I say as my forefinger slides across this week on the calendar page. My appointment guesses were right.
I’m on top of everything.
Leo scoffs a little, his head shaking. “It still baffles me that you defend him so much.”
I look over at him, standing only a few inches away from his chair. “I told you that he has changed over the years.”
“Not from what I’ve seen.”
“You’ve only been here for five seconds,” I tell him pointedly, unable to swallow down the frustration that has burned within me for years .
“That’s long enough to see if he’s changed or not,” Leo assures me as he stands from the chair, looming over me.
“You just don’t want to give him a chance because you’re still mad about the past.”
Leo narrows his eyes. “He saw you as a distraction. As someone who would negatively affect my life. Didn’t that hurt?”
“Of course, it did,” I reply, tilting my head back slightly to hold his gaze. “But that was seven years ago, Leo. All of us have changed since then, whether you want to believe that or not.”
“He doesn’t want me to be here,” Leo says, his voice lowering. “He was ready to die without me knowing.”
A sigh drifts from me. “He’s still stubborn and prideful.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
My lips purse. “But so are you.”
Leo rubs his temple. “I did not come here to fight so damn much. I just want to get this business shit taken care of so I can… ”
I cross my arms. “So you can leave? Is that it? You’re going to sign some paperwork and then leave your dad behind to die alone?”
Leo’s jaw tenses. “He was ready to die without me already.”
“I can’t believe you,” I tell him, my stomach twisting. I can’t believe I’m hearing these words come out of his mouth. “Do you hear yourself?”
“What do you want me to do, Juliet? What does he want me to do?” Leo questions me as he gestures in the direction of Frank’s bedroom. “There’s no way for me to make him happy. Not without giving up everything that I worked for.”
I don’t think he knows what to do. Beyond our complicated history, he’s a son about to lose his dad. Everything will be left to him, and he has to decide what to do with his family’s legacy.
“Just talk to him. Actually talk to him,” I urge him. “Tell him that you’re unsure. That you’re scared. Work on this together.”
Leo looks away from me, shaking his head. “He won’t listen. He never listens. ”
I frown, hearing traces of the stressed, hurt boy who confided in me every time he and his father fought. “Leo…”
He waves his hand dismissively. “You don’t get it. You don’t understand how hard I’ve worked to get to where I’m at now. You don’t know what all I’ll have to sacrifice if I stay here.”
“Do you care about money so much?” I ask him. “Your father is dying and needs your help to get things taken care of. You can’t take more time off? You have to run back to the city as soon as possible?”
Leo barks out a laugh of disbelief. “Seriously? You think this is about money? Do you really think so low of me?”
“You’re nothing like how you used to be,” I state, bitterness seeping into my voice. “The old you wouldn’t have been this uncaring.”
“Uncaring…really,” he mutters under his breath. “Think what you want, Juliet. It really doesn’t matter.”
His words land like a punch to the chest.
It really doesn’t matter .
He used to claim that I mattered the most. Now, he couldn’t care less about me and what I think .
My eyes start to sting, but I refuse to shed another tear over him. I’ve cried far too many times over him, and I refuse to be that quiet, broken girl again.
She was caught in such a terrible depressive spiral that she almost didn’t go to college. She didn’t know how she was going to live her life without him. She thought that she wouldn’t amount to anything because she was so devastated.
But she doesn’t exist any longer.
“I don’t even know who you are anymore,” I tell him before storming out of the room, not even knowing where to go.
I just need to be away from that stranger.