Page 67 of Fragile

My hands came around his neck as my eyes searched his face. “Are you sure, it’s so far?” My voice didn’t sound like mine.

Again, the smile he gave me was one of reassurance. “Of course, you’re as light as a feather. Let’s do this.”

Gabriel, aka my ex-tormentor, was once again my saviour and as he carried me past each floor, I knew that he was now a hell of a lot more than that.

Gabe

To say Leonie was terrified would be an understatement. I had to get her back to the apartment. She should have been in bed after being assaulted earlier. She looked like she could pass out again at any moment and I couldn’t allow that to happen, not on my watch. I hadn’t a clue why a power cut had alarmed her so much, but I would get to the bottom of that once she was safe and settled.

Luckily the emergency lights which had recently been installed on the stairs worked so I was able to see, but it was still dark.

Leonie clutched my neck tightly, her bare pink-toed feet stiffened as I made my way up flight after flight. I was fit so it didn’t bother me; the soft bundle in my arms did, but that had nothing to do with size.

She felt amazing in my arms; her sweet scent teasing my nostrils and I couldn’t help but lean down and smell her hair again. Her dancewear was slightly damp from perspiration, but the scent of her body was like an aphrodisiac to me. I wanted to run my tongue over her neck and down her body.

My cock had thickened in my jeans as her soft frame pushed into mine. I shouldn’t be thinking such sexual thoughts; not at a time like that. I was supposed to be a champion, saving a woman in distress, not having thoughts about how she would taste.

Fuck me she was sweet, and I wanted her more than I had ever wanted any woman.

When we got back into the apartment, I didn’t put Leonie down straight away. I walked straight to my room and shouldered the door open before lowering her body onto the bed.

“Why have you brought me here?” she questioned, looking up at me with wide eyes. She was so beautiful as she peered at me through a mist of vulnerability; it was refreshing to see. Women today weren’t allowed to show their softer side, or they were judged as weak.

At law school, the women who were my peers were so very different. They had to be seen as tough career women if they wanted to be taken seriously. But with this woman, there were no lies, no mask she wore to hide her weaknesses and that spoke to the protective side in me. One I didn’t know I had until meeting her that first day on my doorstep. She had gotten under my skin, beaten off the beast and managed to strip me of my ugly.

“I thought you’d feel more comfortable, the power is still out, and you said you don’t like the dark.”

She gave me a shy smile and pushed herself into a sitting position.

“Do you want something to eat and drink?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine. Will there be any hot water?” Leonie asked.

I nodded my head, of course, she’d been practising and so would be wanting a shower. “The shower in my ensuite is thermostatic and runs off the mains, so yes. There are fresh towels in the cupboard next to the sink. Knock yourself out,” I offered.

She pushed off the bed with a quiet as a mouse thank you and headed into my bathroom. The backup lighting dimly highlighted her body in the skin-tight dancewear. Fucking perfect.

Retrieving my phone, I sat down in the chair beneath the window, my eyes intermittently darting towards the bathroom door. I hadn’t heard the lock click which meant she must have trusted me. That thought made me feel good. Again, another first. There was no doubt about it, I cared about this girl and there was nothing I could do to rein it in. I was fucked.

The shower started and to distract myself from the image of her wet naked body, I focused back on my phone.

The call from my father earlier had been awkward and strained; almost like there was someone in the room with him, which there probably was. They had found cancer, and it was aggressive at stage three. The consultant had explained that they could start treatment to shrink it, but it had spread to the bones. Garrett had explained that my mother knew but had been told not to tell us until after my exams. I’d finished them weeks ago and yet they’d still kept it to themselves. I knew this was because Garrett didn’t like to feel weak but the fact that his criminal counterpart knew about it before me was insulting.

When I’d heard about it from Gerard, this had explained how my father’s appearance had changed. The thinness, his tired gaunt face.

And now that I knew, I felt nothing. Just numbness. My father would die, and this hadn’t conjured up any emotion in me. If it hadn’t been for the way Leonie was making me feel, I would have accepted my suspicions that I truly was dead inside.

I now knew that was far from the truth, I was very much alive, it was my relationship with my father that was dead.

Placing my phone on the bedside table, I listened to the sound of the water from the shower. My cock stirred again as I thought of joining her in there. And that’s all that would remain, a thought. After what the girl had gone through today, she would be needing space. Which is exactly what would happen when she came out of the bathroom. I would escort her to her own bedroom, tuck her in, kiss her on the head and leave her the fuck alone.

CLICK.

Then Leonie came out of the shower, wrapped in my robe and all my good intentions flew out the fucking window.

Ten

Leonie

---