Page 77 of Starting Back
Leo:Get your coat on. We’re leaving.
“What is it?” Peyton reached over to touch my arm. “Are you okay?”
I didn’t answer her as I glanced back to the bar. Leo was leaning against the wall with his phone in his hands, arching his brow at me as if he were issuing a challenge.
I turned around and punched out a shaky reply.
Me:I’m with friends and can’t leave.
Leo:You should have thought of that before you kissed me. And I think you can. Did you drive here?
Me:No.
Leo:Good. We need to talk. Now.
“Would you guys hate me if I left?”
“Is something wrong with Chloe?” Peyton’s brow furrowed as she grabbed her phone and checked the screen. “The last I heard from Jake, all was fine. Emma was already sleeping.”
“No, it’s not the girls…” I trailed off when I found Leo looming over our table.
“Sorry, ladies. Kristina is coming with me.” He held out his hand, narrowing his eyes at me until I stood.
“I’ll be back,” I whispered to Nicole as I shrugged on my coat and grabbed my purse.
“No, she won’t,” Leo said with a slow shake of his head. He slid his palm against mine, lacing our fingers together so tightly I’d have his fingerprints on the top of my wrist when he let go.
“I’m Nicole. We spoke over the phone.”
“Ah, nice to meet you in person. I’d shake your hand, but…” He held up our joined hands and shrugged.
“Oh, that is no problem.” Nicole waved us off. “She’s all yours for the night.”
“See you in the morning,” Peyton sang as Leo dragged me out of the bar so fast, I almost tripped twice to keep up with him.
“Look, I don’t know what came over me.” Leo didn’t look back as he led me to the rear of the parking lot. “I just saw Renee with her hands on you, and I didn’t think.”
He let go of my hand and leaned against the passenger side door of his truck, his arms crossed and leveling me with a piercing and expectant scrutiny that left my mouth parched and my panties wet.
“It’s been so hard not to think of you all these months.”
After all this time of holding it in, the alcohol I’d tried to calm myself with brought on some liquid courage.
“But I thought I’d never see you again and moved on. Or tried to. Now you’re here, in my tiny fucking town where I can’t escape you. What if we ruin it?” My voice fell to a whisper. “What if the real me, the mom with two kids and two jobs, disappoints you? Or you get restless and leave because that’s what you’ve always done? Then I lose both the real you and the dream of us.”
I pressed my palm to my forehead, grateful for the one flickering light in the parking lot that prevented me from seeing Leo’s reaction.
“I’ll just go back inside.”
Leo caught my arm when I turned around and yanked me back. He grabbed the back of my head and covered my mouth with a scorching, toe-curling kiss that liquefied my knees. His warm tongue curled around mine as I slumped against him, running my hands up his chest and down his arms. I whimpered into his mouth as he grazed his hands down my back and cupped my ass, pushing deeper into me, his hard cock rubbing against my core with delicious and perfect friction.
“Does this feel like you’re disappointing me? Since the moment I saw you again, I’ve only wanted you more. You were beautiful when I met you, but seeing you in action here”—he cradled my cheek, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip, still wet from our kiss—“you are fucking incredible. Like I always knew you were. I’m not going anywhere. Give me a chance, baby. Giveusa chance. Things happen for a reason.”
I laughed, breathless from my heart thudding against my rib cage.
“Are you telling me to believe in fate, too?”
“With us, what else would you call it?”
