Page 137 of Petite Fleur

This feels better. This feels right.

Honestly, this feels like home. Right here in his arms feels like home.

"I will never hurt you, ma fleur. I didn't love you from afar for months, look after you, and learn about you just to force you to give me children. If my sole purpose was children, I have quite literally far too many desperate women throw themselves at me every day. I could have just had a one night stand. I want you; I love you. I want a life with you, ma fleur." He goes on to say.

I don't really know what to say. I knew all this, well, aside from countless women begging for his attention. I don't think he really needed to throw that in the conversation, but whatever.

Rub it in, I guess.

"Tell me what you're thinking." Leon says, startling me out of my own thoughts.

How long have I just been sitting here without responding to him? It doesn't feel like that long, but it is kind of his job to get people to talk, which honestly surprises me that he's willing to talk at all after the days he has.

Maybe that's why he wants me? I don't say much.

I get lonely when I'm by myself, but I just want comfortable silence with my company.

With Leon, it's effortless. I have his full attention whenever I want or need it, and he has mine, but otherwise, we're able to just exist together.

Leon squeezes me into his embrace more after a few minutes. Crap, I still haven't answered him.

Where is my head today?

"You don't need to brag about all the women that want you. They're probably smarter, make more money, and are more age appropriate." I quietly say.

This butthead laughs!

He laughs at me!

"You're right. I didn't need to say that, and I'm sorry, but I wanted to prove my point. You are not, nor have you ever, simply been a womb for me to use. I want you to be my wife, Maeve. Not my surrogate." He says calmly.

I still don't think he needed to rub it in that women throw themselves at him.

Jerk.

"Is ma petite fleur jealous?" He teases.

I glare at him, crossing my arms across my chest. "I am not jealous, butthead." I say a little sternly, but he just laughs again!

"Do you not think men would bow at your feet if you demanded it? They absolutely would, ma fleur. Half the men on thatcampus would have followed you to class on leashes if you had let them. Don't ever doubt how drop dead gorgeous you are." He tells me.

The laugh that erupts out of me is entirely involuntary; I even have to put my hand on my chest to steady myself.

Leon isn't laughing; he's not even smiling. Did I do something wrong?

"Nobody is staring at me, big guy. I was invisible on that campus. Go there right now and see if a single person aside from the dining hall staff even realizes that I'm gone. Or if they do, they don't miss me." I tell him calmly.

I don't want him to feel jealous.

Even if I could leave, I'm not so sure that I want to.

Although I would love to rub it in my mother's face that I have the best psychiatrist in Texas on my arm, and I would like to finish school. But I don't hate the life I'm living right now, not even a little bit.

Leon tucks a stray hair behind my ear, gripping the back of my neck until it almost hurts, and my attention is forced onto him. "Everyone was staring at you. Believe me, I watched. Even your fucking roommate saw it. That's why she kicked you out." He says.

I have to stop myself from laughing.

Carlie knew I was invisible; she laughed about it while drunk a few times.

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