Page 10 of Second Chance Christmas

Why should she trust him?

Once she was dressed, she moved to the door.

“I’ll head back home, so no one wonders where we’ve been.” In the light cast from the hallway, he saw her smile. “Thanks again, Leo. That was…nice.”

Jeez.

Nice?

Nice?

He’d never felt quite so discarded after sex. Usually, he was the one who was managing expectations, not the other way around.

He stayed where he was, naked, and only the way her eyes drifted over his body, lingered there, showed that she wasn’t quite as detached from the experience they’d just shared as she wanted to appear.

“See you later,” she said, her voice only slightly strained.

“Sure, Cassie-May. See you later.”

“It’s Cassidy.”

He ignored her, lifting his hands behind his head and staring straight up at the ceiling. As a teenager, he’d done a lot of fantasizing about Cassie in this room, then a lot of exploring her. He didn’t mind lying here a little while longer and replaying what had just happened.

* * *

“What are you doing here?”

In the light of day, Cassidy couldn’t believe what she’d let happen the night before.

Okay, it had been amazing, and on the one hand, she felt empowered and powerful all at once, because she’d taken matters into her own hands and sought out her own pleasure for the first time in a long time. But on the other, Leonardo was firmly a part of her past. And a terrible part, at that.

He’d betrayed the most sacred trust—that of first love—and then gone on to live a fabulous, glamorous, successful life, while she’d ended up pregnant and married to someone who’d turned into her worst nightmare.

Falling into bed with him had been a stupid idea, and if he thought he could turn up the next morning expecting a repeat performance, he had another thing coming.

Conscious of Audrey watching television just inside, she kept a firm grip on the door, her expression issuing a silent warning.

“Good morning to you, too,” he drawled, his expression mocking.

She rolled her eyes. “Good morning,” she said, with obvious sarcasm. “What do you want?”

He lifted one brow. Was he trying to intimidate her? To make her feel ashamed? Too bad. Neither was possible. She’d had years of being manipulated and bullied by someone far more Machiavellian than Leonardo could ever hope to be.

“I’m meeting some kids at the school, to do some football drills. I thought Audrey might like to come along?”

Cassidy’s heart fell. She gripped the door even more tightly, wishing her daughter wasn’t quite so sports mad. It would be easier to say ‘no’ if Audrey wasn’t legitimately a huge fan of all sports, and particularly football. Nonetheless, “No,” she said. “Thank you for thinking of her though.”

She went to close the door but Leonardo’s foot was in it, his elbow propped on the side of the door frame.

“No?” He prompted. “You don’t even want to check with her?”

“She’s five. She doesn’t yet have a say in her social life.”

“It’s only for an hour, Cassie. Are you so pissed with me you’d seriously—,”

“Yes, I’m that pissed with you,” she snapped, then wished she hadn’t, because it was too honest, too revealing.

“It didn’t seem to bother you last night,” he murmured, sliding a finger beneath her sweater and running it over her bare skin, before pushing it lower, to the waistband of her pants and pulling her outside of the house.

---