Page 26 of Cinderella's Fling with the Off-Limits Billionaire

He laughed, deep and husky. “And if the women I date are on the same page as me?”

“I guess it’s just a lifestyle choice.”

“You said you didn’t want a relationship,” he reminded her. “Are we so different?”

“I can’t be in a relationship,” she corrected.

“Why not?”

“Jay.”

He frowned. “Your ex?”

“Right. He never fought me for custody of Harper. He said I could raise her, at least until she was school age. The importance of a mother being in a kid’s life, and all that. He takes her for one weekend a month, which almost kills me.”

Leandro was quiet.

“But he has made it abundantly clear that if I start dating again, he’ll sue for custody. He has more money than me, connections through college that would get him a great lawyer. And I couldn’t live with it, Leandro. I couldn’t live with only getting her half the time.” Her eyes misted over at the very idea.

Leandro placed his wine down deliberately and pushed towards her, his face a mask of anger. “You should not have to put up with that,” he said quietly. “You do not have to bend to him.”

“But I do. I can’t bear the thought of losing Harper, and so I bend to him completely on this matter. And it’s okay. Honestly, after Jay, I really don’t want to date again anyway.” She shuddered, the thought anathema to her.

“But this?” He gestured from himself to her.

“This isn’t dating,” she pointed out. “It’s the best of a relationship without all the messy stuff. I can’t do mess. Not again.”

He cupped her cheeks with his hands, his eyes probing hers. “I can guarantee you this will be completely mess-free. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through,” he muttered. “Your ex sounds like a bastard.”

“Yeah, a total A-hole.”

But then he kissed her, and thoughts of Jay evaporated from her mind, so too the lingering vestiges of remembered pain in her heart. Leandro kissed her in the warm water of the spa and she was capable of feeling only goodness and gratitude, her whole body singing with both emotions.

She didn’t think of Jay again.

How could she?

Bliss spun through her body, driving everything else away completely.

Seven

LEANDRO WAS NOT USED to having his mind wander. His focus was famously laser-like, and there was more than enough happening at Acto to keep him busy. In fact, he thought with a hint of something like guilt, he should have been burning the candle at both ends here, rather than curtailing his schedule to fit around Skye’s.

But her work hours were erratic, and now that he knew she had a daughter, he was conscious of not eating into her time too much.

Which was completely unlike him.

This whole thing was.

It was easy to put that down to the discombobulating discovery that he was adopted. At twenty seven, for the first time in his life, he was adrift. He’d wanted Skye the moment he’d seen her—something he’d attributed to the alcohol he’d consumed that afternoon and night. But he’d sobered up after Emme, and he’d still thought propositioning Skye was a great idea.

Because she distracted him. She made him feel present and in the moment, pushing thoughts of his family, his parents’ betrayal and all the unknowns out of his mind. She liberated him from the darkness of his thoughts when they were together so naturally, he sought to be with her as much as he could.

She was a coping mechanism, nothing more.

And he made her feel good, too. He wanted to punch something to think of the life she’d lived with her ex. The bastard didn’t deserve Skye—thank God she’d had the courage to leave him. It couldn’t have been easy, but then again, Skye was strong. She was brave.

…and he was thinking about her again.

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