Page 30 of Cinderella's Fling with the Off-Limits Billionaire

“Thank you,” Skye whispered, her heart hurting. She watched Jane and Harper wander off together and was pleased to hear Harper talking by the time they turned into one of the guest rooms.

She turned her attention then to the meeting with the lawyers, and she was glad beyond measure for Leandro’s presence at her side. Just having him there was reassuring, but it was more than that.

He asked questions she wouldn’t have thought to ask, he seemed to know things about the law that she hadn’t expected, like ways to expedite things and whether the emotional abuse she’d endured would have any sway on custody.

By the end of it, they were in agreement that their first approach would be to come in all guns blazing and try to scare Jay into giving up any custodial claim on Harper. It wasn’t something Skye had ever contemplated, but having seen the way his anger today morphed into something physical, the thought of sending Harper to him scared her senseless. He needed professional help. Badly.

“Do you think it will work?” Skye asked no one in particular, as the lawyers packed up their documents and stood.

Leandro spoke softly, just to her. “Bullies like him think they can get away with it because no one stands up to them. We’re going to stand up to him, Skye.” And then, “Si, I think it will work.”

She closed her eyes on a wave of intense hope and relief. When they were alone again, she kept a careful distance from Leandro, needing to say something, to get her thoughts in order.

“I’m so sorry about all of this,” she whispered.

“Why should you be sorry?”

“This isn’t what you signed up for.”

His voice was measured. “I chose to get involved in your life.”

“You chose to sleep with me. You didn’t know what my life looked like,” she pointed out a little sharply, her frustration all at Jay.

He brushed aside her concerns. “As I said, I’m spoiling for a fight. You’ve given me one.”

“Why?” She asked, simply. “What’s the fight you really want to have but can’t?”

His eyes shuttered and she realized that for all she’d become an open book to him, she still didn’t have any idea what he was trying to forget, what had put him in such a bad mood the night they’d met.

She shook her head, slowly, changing the subject. “How do you know so much about this?” She gestured towards the table.

“About…?”

“The legal stuff.”

“I’m a lawyer.”

Her brows shot up. “You are?”

“Well, not a practicing lawyer,” he amended. “But I got my undergraduate degree in the UK.”

“In law,” she murmured, wondering why she should be surprised by that.

He nodded once, then narrowed his eyes, focusing on her with an intensity that made her stomach flop. “You have given me so much these last few days, Skye.” His voice was graveled. “Let me give you this.”

Her jaw dropped. “What have I given you?”

“Exactly what I needed.” He crossed the room and cupped her cheek with his palm. “You’ve made it possible for me to forget. But also to remember—to remember who I am.”

It didn’t make sense to her, but it was clear that Leandro was being cryptic because he didn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering him. And they’d agreed to that in the beginning. It shouldn’t matter that she’d weakened and confided in him, but he hadn’t trusted her enough to do the same. She shouldn’t be focusing on that feeling of hurt rather than on the feeling of salvation—that he was helping her when he didn’t have to.

But God, when she thought of what these lawyers must be costing…

“Leandro, I can’t afford these guys,” she said, face pale. “I can’t even imagine what they bill.”

“Relax, cara,” he assured her. “My family has them on retainer.”

“What does that even mean?”

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