Page 161 of Kingmakers, Year One

Shannon’s story has the ring of truth to it. It’s more sensical than what I thought happened. After all, it was unlike Leo to get out of control drunk, especially so quickly. If I hadn’t been emotional and upset, if I’d actually analyzed the situation, I might have realized the truth. Instead, I lost my temper. And Dean was right there to capitalize on that moment.

I want to find him and rip his fucking face off.

I’m already scanning the deck, searching for a glimpse of his white-blond head.

I must look crazed, because right as I spot Dean on the opposite end of the ship and I start rushing forward to confront him, Leo steps in front of me, grabbing me by the shoulders.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To stab that motherfucker,” I snarl.

“Who?” Leo says, bemused.

“Dean, of course!”

“What happened?” Leo says, trying to pull me aside to calm me down.

I give him a brief and painful recitation of what Shannon told me, my throat constricted with guilt. I’m realizing more and more by the minute that Leo was a victim, that it wasn’t his fault. Which means that everything that happened between us ismyfault instead.

I’m so ashamed that I can barely get the last few words out. My face is flaming and I can’t look Leo in the eye.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

Leo wraps his arms around me and pulls me hard against his chest. He’s squeezing me with all his strength. I can feel his body shaking slightly.

“I’m so relieved,” he says.

“What?” I pull back from him just a little so I can look up at his face.

“I’m relieved,” Leo repeats. “I can’t tell you what a weight that is off my mind.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Yeah of course I’m fuckin’ mad—that devious little shit. But Anna, I thought I made the biggest mistake of my life that night. And I still did! ‘Cause I should have kissed you the moment I had you alone on that walk down to the beach. I should have never let you out of my sight at the party. I should have told you what you meant to me way before any of that even happened. But at least I didn’t fuck around with Gemma on purpose. I couldn’t stand that I did that. I couldn’t stand the pain I caused you.”

I’m looking up at him in total disbelief.

“You’re not mad at me, Leo?”

“God, no,” he says, kissing me quickly. We’re still on Kingmakers property, and we’re not supposed to show open affection.

I say, “I don’t understand how you can let things go so easily.”

I’m a grudge holder. When someone’s wronged me, I never forget. It eats at me if I don’t do anything about it.

“Everything that ever happened to me before today brought me to this point,” Leo says. “Right here, right now, with you in my arms. I wouldn’t change anything. Because I’d never risk not being here with you.”

I can’t help laughing.

“I think you might be becoming a Buddhist,” I say to Leo. “You’re shockingly zen.”

“Yeah,” Leo growls, raising an eyebrow at me. “Unless someone fucks with my baby . . .”

The flight homewith Leo is the most blissful experience of my life. I’m thirty thousand feet up in the air, floating over the clouds, cuddled up in the arms of the man I love.

We’re so exhausted from the school year that we sleep almost the entire time, only waking when the flight attendants bring us snacks and drinks.

Miles is on the same plane as us from Dubrovnik to Vienna, but then he takes a different exchange, planning to stop in Los Angeles before coming back to Chicago.

---