Page 74 of Christmas off Script
The frustration he’d felt earlier when Ella had been stuck with Michelle. The fury he felt towards Oliver and Zach. The butterflies in his stomach when Ella was around, then the pain in his chest when she wasn’t. Every thought and every feeling had the same root cause: love.
But this love was no longer that of a friend. Now her kindness, her humour, her creativity and her beauty added up to something even bigger, even deeper, and the sum total of everything he’d ever wanted.
Ella had stolen his heart in the beginning, and now Leo knew she would own it forever.
She stopped on the first step so their faces were level, her voice a little breathless as she said, ‘Hi’.
Leo’s brain fired, misfired, then every circuit shorted out into an overwhelmed silence.
Say something!
Ella swallowed. ‘You look very… handsome.’
Come on!‘You, too,’ he finally managed.
Ella blinked. ‘Oh.’
Shit!‘In a girly way. I mean, for a girl—a woman. Like a woman. You’re a handsome woman.’
Her eyes widened, suddenly glassy, as if she’d presented him with her prettiest picture and he’d immediately blown his nose on it.
Jesus Christ!Ella had just had her heart and life trampled on by Oliver, and now Leo was describing her as ‘handsome’ when she’d never been more beautiful.Fix this, you utter twat!
‘Sorry, I’m just shocked you’re here and I’ve developed Foot-in-Mouth disease.’ He reached a hand out to take hers, then immediately second-guessed himself and shoved it in his trouser pocket instead. ‘You look really—’ He broke off, panicking that if he used the word ‘beautiful’, she’d know how he really felt and it would make her deeply uncomfortable. ‘Nice,’ he finished confidently, then inwardly cringed.
‘Hey Leo!’ Willow bounced down the stairs. ‘Isn’t Ella the most gorgeous woman you’ve ever seen?’
Tearing his gaze from Ella’s face, his cheeks scorching with embarrassment, Leo faced his sister. ‘Yes, of course.’
‘We got the dress from Summer’s wardrobe. I think it’s a couture sample from Aunt Simone. Doesn’t she look amazing in it?’
Leo kept his eyes on Willow as he nodded, hoping that silence was the best way to salvage the situation.
His sister pulled a face. ‘I’m not the one wearing it, you numpty.’
Steeling himself, as if about to face an army of Cupids with their bows drawn and him in their sights, Leo forced himself to look properly at Ella.
Then immediately wished he hadn’t.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
The corset framed her top half, accentuating her waist and presenting the creamy softness of her breasts like a pudding he wanted to dive headfirst into. Her long black hair fell in curls, as glossy and lustrous as a raven’s wing. Leo wanted to feel the locks against his face as he kissed and sucked down her neck, swirling his tongue in the hollow at the base of her collarbones.
Molten heat burned from his cheeks into his chest, moving like lava, lower and lower, to pool in his abdomen and thicken his cock.
Stop! Think of something else! Anything else!
But he couldn’t. Desire for Ella was hitting him like a thousand-tonne truck full of fireworks driving into an active volcano during a meteor shower. He needed to run. Hide. But the only place he could think of was under the skirts of Ella’s dress, burying his tongue in her—
‘See?’ Willow said to Ella with a smug grin. ‘Told you I’d need a shovel.’
‘Willow!’ Ella hissed, her face flushing with embarrassment.
He glanced up, the sight of his sister providing a much-needed bucket of cold water. ‘Huh?’
Willow’s eyes were sparkling. ‘To scrape your jaw off the floor after you saw Ella.’
Leo was floundering, the ground no longer solid and the air too thick to breathe. Not knowing what to do, he rubbed the back of his neck, surreptitiously pulling the collar of his shirt away from his sweating skin, then frowned at his sister.
