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“Find me later,” Leo whispered to Piper before scurrying off in the direction of Moreno and his stunning wife, whom everyone had their eyes on. Quinn German was beautiful, of course, and Leo had technically seen her naked, too—albeit onscreen—but regardless, Leo thought that if people were searching for the most beautiful woman in the room, it would be Piper, hands down.
For the next hour and a half, Leo and Piper circled each other like starving vultures. Even when his eyes weren’t on her, he was watching the way Piper’s dress moved like water in his periphery. When she passed in front of him once, her hand grazed his groin, and he had to get himself a refreshment to cool down. It was a game of cat and mouse. He would shoot her a heated look from across the room, she would turn back to her conversation with a smirk and a lick of her lips. Both of them knew exactly what would happen the second they were alone together.
Fifty-Five
PIPER
The hallway was empty except for two cast members passing by, whispering and clinging to each other with secretive smiles, and it was clear that Piper and Leo weren’t the only ones feeling the pull of lust after the exhilaration of opening night. Her family had finally taken off for Archwood again, and as much as Piper loved them and loved talking the head off the interim CEO of Hartrick Designs about the design concepts for the show, all she could think about was getting Leo’s hands on her. The secret looks they had shared all night had her on edge. When she finally figured out where he had run off to, she headed straight there.
Piper knocked twice with her knuckles on the office door and opened it to find the culprit of every longing ache in her body sitting behind his desk. His white dress shirt was partially unbuttoned, the sleeves pushed up on his veiny forearms, and his hair was disheveled from where she was sure he had been running his hands through it.
“Working on directors’ notes already?” Piper asked, shutting the door behind her and locking it. Leo looked up from where he was writing something on the clipboard that was always glued to his hands. His gaze liquefied, and he tossed his pen on the desk, leaning back casually in his chair, his eyes freely trailing up and down her body.
“You’re in big trouble,” Leo said.
“I’ve never been to the principal’s office before. How much trouble am I in, sir?” Piper swung her hips a little more than necessary as she ventured farther into the untidy office space. Leo had papers strewn across the desk in a disorganized chaos. She itched to tidy everything up but knew Leo probably had some sort of method to his madness. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
“So much trouble. Both our families are here, and you thought it was okay to wear that dress?” A strangled groan slipped through Leo’s lips as his thick eyelashes fluttered shut.
“Mine left, so technically it’s just yours now.” Piper shrugged. “And Carter.”
When Piper had slipped the dress on after the show, she only hoped it would have some effect on him. The way the black smoke of his eyes roamed her face, heavy with salacious implication, said they were stuck here until they both had their fill of each other. She wished the dress had some magical capability to make Leo fall for her, too. Not just her body, but everything else. She was starting to think that she would never have her fill of him.
Leo rose from his seat slowly like a predatory lion stalking his prey, and, God, did she want to be the prey. The dress clothes he was wearing had her wanting to pull something out of The Promenade and rip open his shirt, buttons flying everywhere. She always liked it when his hair was in disarray. It looked like he had been doing something illicit already, and his rakish appearance had her ready to debauch him further. His arm reached out for her, and she took it, pulling him to her and pressing her chest into his as his sturdy hands found her hips.
“Fuck, princesa. I’m trying to control myself,” Leo said, his hand tightening on her waist.
“Don’t,” Piper ordered. “I don’t want you in control.”
He bent his head forward and trailed deep, sucking kisses up her throat as Piper wiggled to press her pelvic bone into his hardening erection. He was holding back, and she hated it. She wanted him unraveled, so desperate that he said everything that came to his mind. Maybe then she would know exactly how he felt and if she was crazy for thinking they could be something more.
“Here? In the office?” His hand slid up to her breast, and he massaged it as his mouth found her ear. “Moreno would kill me if he found out.”
“He just left with his wife. He never has to know.” She kissed him, hard and needy. Leo met her mouth with equal force, finally unraveling a bit of control. The high of the night did not have to end yet, and she would be damned if she didn’t relieve some of the pressure coiling in her belly.
“You’re a terrible influence on me. The library. The hot tub. The dressing room. Your car.” Leo punctuated each location with a harder press of his lips and slid his hand under where her dress split on her thigh, his fingers finding her silky underwear. Then, in a motion that made her dizzy, he jerked away with a gasp. “No.” Leo shook his head, one of his dark curls flopping over his forehead. Piper’s heart sank in her chest. The part of herself that specialized in self-preservation said to book it and never look back. If he was rejecting her for sex, there was no way he wouldn’t reject her if she asked for more. She was just about to reach for the door to leave when Leo stepped an inch forward, both his hands raised. “Don’t go. Fuck, this is not how I planned on this going. I just meant to stop for a second. Long enough for me to give you this.” He grabbed a small box sitting on the end of the desk and flipped open the top. His fingers reached in and pulled out something dangling from a thin gold chain.
Piper stepped toward him and reached her hand out, still confused. A small sunflower pendant swayed in the air between them. Her fingers traced over the petals, feeling the coolness of the metal. “You got me a necklace?” It wasn’t so much a question as a statement of awe. The necklace looked expensive, and she immediately wondered how much it had set him back. The invisible calculations Leo said he always made started up in her brain.
“I didn’t buy it,” Leo replied, reading her mind. “The chain was my abuelita’s, and Varo makes metal trinkets, so I had him make the sunflower. It cost me a favor that he gets to call in whenever he wants, though, which is mildly terrifying.”
“It’s beautiful,” Piper whispered as he dropped it into her outstretched palm. She turned the charm over in her hand, admiring all the tiny petals welded together.
“He does good work,” Leo agreed and shifted on his feet. “I just thought you deserved an opening night gift. I saw one on a billboard the other day, and I couldn’t afford to get you one studded with diamonds, so I—”
“This is better,” Piper cut him off and looked up into his eyes. She would have cherished a flower that he had cut out of a gum wrapper, but this—this was beyond anything she could have expected. “I…” I love you. The words almost slipped out, but she caught them before she embarrassed herself. An opening night gift didn’t mean that Leo felt anything other than gratitude for her role in keeping the show alive. “I wish I got you something.”
“You’ve bought me like ten coffees over the past few months” He grinned. “And a wide range of medications, along with the groceries you dropped off on my porch that you think I don’t know were from you, Emma, and Thea.”
“W-what? How did you know?” Piper’s heart jolted in her chest.
“You put Thea down as your emergency contact for the show.” Leo grinned. “I might have broken a rule by programming it into my phone because you tend to injure yourself a lot, and I got worried I’d need to call her.”
“Oh.” Piper bit her lip.
“That, and Thea didn’t quite hang up the phone before I could hear you all giggling.”
“God, we’re so stupid,” Piper groaned. “You’re not mad?”
