Page 107 of Under Her Protection

Leo did not move.

The shoulder against the frame did not shift. The hands at the sides did not change. The beautiful green eyes came up, finally, to Vivienne's face, and held there for two breaths, and went, again, to the stone of the hearth.

“I’ll get Avery for you. I need to leave.”

"Leo." Vivienne’s voice was sharp.

"You have fucked me in this room. You have held me in this room. You do not get to walk out on me and hand me over to Avery like I mean nothing to you.”

Leo looked at her her green eyes were full of pain.

Vivienne knew what came out of Leo’s mouth next was for sure going to ruin her week.

"You want the truth?” Leo asked tentatively.

"Yes, I want the truth.” Vivienne didn’t really want the truth but she asked for it anyway.

"I am leaving. I am leaving because I am, to you, just a hot fuck. Just someone on your staff you are fucking. I naively have begun to think it might be more, and it is not more, and that is on me, not on you. You did not promise me anything. I know I am just staff to you. That is on me. I am taking myself out of the situation before it ruins my work and your work both."

She stopped. Vivienne felt a hundred calculations running through her brain. None of which would give her the answer Leo wanted to hear. She kept quiet.

"Avery will take care of you.”

"Leo." Vivienne's voice was soft in a way that Vivienne’s voice never was.

"You have lost your mind, Leo."

"Vivienne."

“I would never use the phrase a hot fuck.”

"I need to go, Vivienne, I can’t do this.” Leo’s voice was breaking. Her green eyes were filled with tears.

She turned.

Vivienne watched the line of Leo's strong shoulders as she walked out of the room and Vivienne let her go.

A car door, in the courtyard, opened and shut.

An engine started.

Her right hand went to the back of the oxblood chair in front of her, and she gripped the leather hard enough to leave the print of her hand in it, and she did not let go.

She had, at fifty-two, just been broken up with by her bodyguard.

By a woman had made her come so many times, who had held her and kissed her after sex. Who had loved her. Vivienne was sure of that. Her own feelings she had a lot less clarity over.

Vivienne let go of the chair.

She walked to the door of the library.

She walked across the hall and to the outside door.

Vivienne stepped out onto the portico and breathed in the outdoor air.

"The sex was not even that good." She spoke into the darkness and she knew as she said the words that they weren’t even close to true. Leo had rocked her world sexually and she wondered if she would ever get sex that good again.

And there was something more. Nagging at her. An unease around Leo’s feelings for her and perhaps her own feelings for Leo which she wasn’t prepared to approach yet.