Chapter Eighteen Leo
After enduring all I could of being close to Drea, I escaped from the table. I had every intention of disappearing somewhere in the garden. Sure, it was a pussy move to hide out, but it was all I could do to keep from going insane.
I’d almost escaped when Harper appeared in front of me. She threw her arms around my neck and squeezed me tight. “I was hoping I’d see you.”
Jesus, could this night get any worse? Although I had been whoring myself out to her for her father’s help with my casino, I sure as hell hadn’t asked her to be my date to the wedding.
“I didn’t know you knew the Carusos,” I replied.
She pulled away to wink at me. “I found a way in through some of Dad’s connections.”
“I see.”
Making a pouty face, she whined, “It’s been a week, Leo.”
“I’m sory, Harper. I truly am. Everything has been so crazy with the wedding.”
“Why don’t we go somewhere a little more private, and I can show you just how much I’ve missed you?” she purred.
At this point in the evening, I didn’t have anything left to fight being a morally bankrupt bastard. I didn’t want to have to feel anymore. I didn’t want to have to think either.
And for a manwhore like myself, the best way to do that was through fucking.
I gave Harper a genuine smile. “That sounds amazing.”
She beamed and then grabbed my hand. After dragging me away from the tent, we started heading down the lighted path.
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Not really. But the design is kind of like the garden at our summer house.”
“I see.”
When we got to a thicket of trees, she pulled me off the path a little for us to be somewhat hidden. Glancing around, I said, “I think we can still be seen.”
She pressed her body flush against mine. “I hope so. Just the thought of someone seeing me swallow your cock makes me soaked.”
Normally, dirty talk coming from a sexy woman would have me hard as a rock. But at the moment, I found myself flaccid as hell. After everything I’d been through today, the absolutely last thing I needed was for my cock to fail me.
From my peripheral vision, a streak of white caused me to jerk away from Harper. As I narrowed my eyes in the moonlight, I realized the figure was Drea. Not only was she manically running through the garden, but she was sobbing.
“Isn’t that–”
I placed my fingers over Harper’s mouth. “Do me a favor and don’t say a word about what you just saw.”
Her blue eyes widened in surprise. “Um, okay.” When I started to pull away to chase after Drea, she grabbed my arm. A coy smile had replaced her confusion. “But only if we finish what we were starting.”
At the thought of Drea’s tears, Harper’s delay infuriated me. “You know who my family really is, correct?”
She furrowed her brows. “Well, duh.”
“Then I’d keep my fucking mouth shut. Got it?”
Fear resonated on her face before she took a step back from me. “I’m going back to the tent.”
“You do that.”
Once she was gone, I went in search of Drea. Thankfully, she was wearing heels that slowed her down. I was able to catch up to her after she slipped inside an intricate greenhouse. I caught the door before it closed and rushed inside. Her harsh sobs echoed off the glass walls.
“Drea,” I called softly.
Hr cries quieted. As her head poked out from behind a topiary, she questioned, “Leo?”
I closed the distance between us. Her agonized expression broke me. Staring intently into her eyes, I asked, “Did something happen?”
“Too much,” she sobbed.
Although I shouldn’t have, I drew her into my arms. “Shh, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
She shook her head wildly against my chest. “No, it isn’t! It will never be okay ever again! Not as long as my father lives. Not as long as he makes me lie and lie and lie!”
When those words left her lips, she tore herself away from me and started pacing madly around the rose bushes. I’d never seen her in such a manic state. Her entire body trembled and jerked while she wobbled on her feet, and she continued mumbling about lies and hurting people.
As I stared helplessly at her, my mind went to something Rafe had told me about Maeve. He wanted to understand the complexities of what was between the two of them. That it wasn’t just lust or pursuing someone he couldn’t have.
When she was just eighteen, Maeve had been raped by the man her father was forcing her to marry. After time passed, she was desperate to be able to have a man’s hands on her and not think of her rape. She’d tried and failed with a man at the club, and Rafe was there to pick up the pieces.
Was that what had happened to Drea? Was her father making her lie about something from her past like an assault?
After joining her, I gently placed my hands on her shoulders. “Drea, did someone…hurt you?”
She blinked at me in confusion. “I just told you what my father does.”
“You’re talking about having to lie. Did some bastard…”
I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. It was too agonising even thinking it, least of all speaking it. It’s been hard enough hearing what had happened to Maeve. I’d wanted to help Rafe hunt down the man and torture the screams from him for days and days and days.
But Drea…I would burn the entire fucking world down to ensure the man who hurt her would pay.
“Were you assaulted?” When her dark brows furrowed, I shifted on my feet. “Like…raped?”
Her dark eyes popped wide. “God, no. Why would you think that?”
“Because it happened to someone I know, and they had a similar reaction to how you are right now.”
Drea shook her head adamantly. “No, I wasn’t raped. Or even touched.”
As a relieved breath whooshed out of me, I realized I had a villain. He wasn’t guilty of what I’d imagined, but he was causing her agony.
“What did your father do?” I demanded.
“It’s…I can’t.”
Searching her face and neck for marks, I asked, “Did he put his hands on you?”
“Worse,” she replied in a pain whisper.
The anguish in her words and expression caused a tightening in my chest. “I’ll kill him,” I pronounced.
While I expected her to argue with me, she smiled sadly instead. “I know you would. Not just for me, but for Rafe. But you can’t.”
“Wars have been fought over less,” I countered.
“But not ones where your brothers and yourself could be casualties.”
I hated that she was right. Feeling utterly emasculated by not being able to solve Drea’s pain, I grabbed a pair of shears off the table next to us and hurled them across the room.
“FUCK!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
When I started to tear my hand through my hair, Drea grabbed my hands. “Don’t hurt yourself for me.”
Shaking my head, I countered, “Don’t you get it? I’d do anything for you. I’d fucking cut myself and bleed out if it meant you wouldn’t feel pain.”
Her frantic graze bounced left and right. “Leo, you can’t say those things to me.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“If someone heard–”
At that moment, the frayed thread of reason I’d been clinging to these past few months snapped. I didn’t care what anyone thought anymore. I didn’t care how Rafe would be affected by my feelings for Drea. How despite how he felt for Drea, I’d still be betraying him.
Instead, I was going to be a selfish bastard.
I only cared about freeing myself of the paralyzing fear of not being able to express my feelings. “I don’t care about what anyone else thinks right now. I need you to know what I truly feel for you.”
Her brows popped wide in surprise. “For me? What about Harper?”
My head snapped back in surprise. “How the hell do you know about her?”
With a sheepish look, Drea replied, “About a month ago, I Googled you. There were all these pictures of the two of you together with articles saying how you were taken.”
“Those were bullshit PR pieces that Harper had her people put in,” I argued.
“I thought it might be, but then I saw the two of you at a party.”
“What party?”
“It was in Philadelphia.”
“You were at that party?” I questioned in disbelief.
Drea nodded. “My roommate at college got an invite.”
Something like regret flashed in her eyes, and I couldn’t help wondering if there wasn’t more she wasn’t telling me about that party. But apparently she’d spent the last few weeks thinking I was with someone else.
I ran my hand over my face. “I only went to that party because Harper's brother invited me, and I’ve been trying to suck up to their family to get the ball rolling on my casino.”
Drea blinked at me in disbelief. “So you and Harper…you’re not…”
Shuddering, I replied, “Fuck no.”
“Oh,” she murmured.
“Trust me, she’s the last woman on earth I’d ever settle down with.”
“Even though I shouldn’t say it, I’m glad to hear it.”
“There’s only one woman for me.”
Before she could tell me to stop, I took a step forward. Cupping her cheeks in my hands, I said, “I love you, Drea. I think I’ve been in love with you since you knocked me off my feet that first day I met you.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Oh, Leo,” she murmured.
“It’s so fucking wrong to tell you this tonight, but after tomorrow, I can never, ever think what I do about you, least of all say it.”
My declaration sent the pulse point in her neck beating wildly. Her eyes dropped from mine to stare at my lips. She brought a shaky hand to cup my jaw. As her thumb rubbed along my bottom lip, I flicked out my tongue, causing Drea’s eyes to flare with desire.
Despite how much I wanted to kiss her, I knew that I needed her to make the first move. Leaning in, her breath fanned against my cheek. It smelled sweet like the sorbet we’d had as a palate cleanser between courses.
Her chest heaved with her harsh breaths, which thrust her breasts against me. After that night at Inferno, I’d forced myself to push all thoughts of the perfect globes out of my head. But now, I reveled in the feeling, my fingers itching to cup and squeeze them.
But this wasn’t about foreplay–this was about emotion and admission.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Drea’s eyes fluttered closed. “Kiss me,” she whispered.
I didn’t give her a second to change her mind. I wanted nothing more than to harshly claim her mouth by crushing my lips against hers, but I held myself back. Bringing my hands to cup the sides of her neck, I slanted my head to hers.
Gently and tenderly, I brushed my lips over Drea’s. For a man like me, it wasn’t a kiss I was used to giving. I’d never felt the all-consuming emotions in the past that distinguished kissing for lust versus love.
After placing butterfly kisses along her top lip, I moved to her bottom. Drea’s arms came to wrap around my waist, drawing me even closer against her. As my mouth finally closed completely over hers, I tangled my fingers through the silky strands of her hair.
To my surprise, Drea took the lead and slid her tongue against my lips, causing me to groan. I’d fantasized about this moment. I’d known the taste of her skin that night at Inferno, but her lips and her mouth were still unknown.
She tasted just as sweet as I’d imagined. Although she could be so tough and sassy, there was such sweetness at her core.
And at the moment, my starved self couldn’t get enough of it.
Our tongues battled against each other, seeking and taking, while my hands and arms tangled with Drea’s. We desperately devoured each other as if at any moment, we’d once again be deprived of the other.
Overcome with desire, I shoved us back against the wall. When she cried out in pain, not pleasure, I jerked back. “Fuck, what did I do wrong?” I panted.
Drea surprised the hell out of me by giggling. “The wall is lined with vines, and I got poked in the ass.”
I laughed at the absurdity of the moment. “I never would’ve thought a vine could be a cockblocker.”
“Me neither.”
When I started to turn her around, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Assessing the damage.”
“Sure you are,” she replied while swatting my hand away.
“I wanted to make sure you weren’t bleeding.”
She slid her arms around my neck, drawing my head down to hers. “You just want an excuse to feel my ass.”
“While that might be true, I seriously was worried about you.”
Her expression sobered. “I love that you worry about me. I worry about you, too.”
“Don’t waste your time on me.”
With a slight shake of her head, she countered, “But I can’t. I love you too much.”
My eyes popped wide at her declaration. At my surprise, she leaned her forehead against mine. “I love you, Leo,” she murmured.
Hearing those words was a fucking balm to my wounded soul. Drea loved me. Her heart belonged to only me.
I brought my lips to hers to show her just how much I loved her. As my mouth moved against Drea’s, her words echoed through my mind.
Whatever revelry I had in that moment was short-lived. At the sound of a pot crashing to the floor, we jerked apart. At Drea’s gasp, I whirled around.
Audrianna stood frozen with an expression of disbelief. Drea pushed past me to start over to her sister. Snapping out of her stupor, Audrianna said, “Father…sent me. He…He’s looking for you.”
Without a word, Drea took Audrianna’s hand in hers and started dragging her to the door. Just as she was about to go out, she threw a look at me over her shoulder.
No one had ever been able to hurt me with a look.
But what I saw in Drea’s eyes caused an ache to reverberate through my chest.
It wasn’t just for tonight but for the future.
It was goodbye.