Page 49 of Deception & Desire

“I will bleed all over your carpet,” I also say as a threat.

“Are you sure you’re mentally sound? You just keep mimicking me. You’re usually more original than that.”

I scoff as I take another swig of whiskey. “Are you sure you’re mentally sound? You—oh fuck!”

It takes everything within me not to jerk my arm away as the pain shoots up my arm with lightning efficiency and shattering agony.

My head must have slumped at one point as I find myself staring at the counter. A hand is soothingly stroking the back of my neck.

“Hey.” His voice is so much softer, so much more earnest. Like the last conversation never even existed. “That’s it, that’s the last of the glass. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and focus on breathing.

I’m inexplicably comforted by his tone, by the pressure on my neck.

“I’ve got some skin glue here. It might sting a little when I put it on, but that’s it. Okay?”

I nod my head and shudder slightly as he lets me go to tend to my arm again.

There’s nothing to be said as he continues to work, fingers diligent and surprisingly gentle. He murmurs a few times to instruct me to move, but the silence that stretches between us has lost the angry charge it had when I arrived.

Something else creeps into this moment, something I don’t recognize until Leon has finished wrapping the gauze around my arm and finally decides to voice it.

“I missed you,” he sighs so quietly. “Isn’t that insane?”

Oh God, I missed him too. A week of nothing, and it was infuriating and awful. And I hated not being able to be here and hated the part of me that wanted to be here. We’re a mess.

Instead, I say, “You’re the one who walked away.”

“You don’t want this,” he says, butthissounds a lot likemeto my ears.

“I don’t,” I reply because he saidthisand notme.“You don’t want me either.”

His smirk pierces my heart out of nowhere. It’s bitter and doesn’t reach his eyes, but it does something very, very warm to my insides.

“That’s not what I said.”

The warmness crackles from within me, and I’m suddenly very aware that he’s still holding my bandaged arm, that we’re so close, leaning across the counter.

I swallow hard and fall back on my anger. “Why did you shoot him? I had everything under control, Leon. You could have jeopardized the whole thing.”

“He touched you.”

“What do you…” the words die in my throat.

Leon looks at me with an intensity that suddenly forces the scattered jigsaw pieces of this entire ordeal into place.

He wasjealous.

He killed a man because he touched me.

He…

My heart hitches as I stand, walking around the counter toward him, searching his face for confirmation of my theory.

His eyes widen as I approach, backing up against the counter as I crowd him. I take a purposeful step between his legs and watch as he stiffens while his scent overwhelms my senses. How dare he smell so good?

For a beat, we just stand there. Then his eyes drop to my lips, and I just know.

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