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Just…something more.
But if he kissed her, all of that would be ruined. Because if their lips met, there was no way in hell he’d be able to stop there. He’d need to kiss all of her.
Every damn inch.
And then she’d push him away after.
Leo was trained to be rational, level-headed, smart, cautious, and kind in all things. His father taught him to never take unnecessary risks or hope for the impossible, and to always think of others’ wellbeing before his own. When it came to Alicia Forkes, though, he was the biggest fool to ever walk on this side of the planet. Rational decisions didn’t exist with her.
There was just hope.
Stupid, foolish, ignorant hope.
He was determined to keep her in his life this time.
If only he had a magic carpet he could take her for a ride on. That would fix everything. She’d fall in love with him and never want to leave.
“So, ice-skating.” She cleared her throat and averted her eyes, clearly not wanting to admit they’d almost kissed, and he knew why. She wasn’t ready. “I haven’t done this since that day we were together.”
He forced his mind back to the present. “Why not?” he asked, sitting on the bench next to the skates to undo the laces of his black leather boots.
She sat down next to him, letting out a breath as she ran her hands over her pants, up and down, as if trying to warm herself up. It took all of his control not to wrap his arm around her and pull her in close to share his body heat. Reluctantly, she said, “Dad died, and I moved, and all those things I did for fun just…stopped.”
He wanted to ask, so fucking badly, where she went. But just like he knew she wasn’t ready for a kiss, she wasn’t ready for him to press her for information about her past—especially since she was convinced he already knew it all. “I’m sorry.”
She side-eyed him. “For what, precisely?”
“Everything. Not writing you, for never going back to the city to find you, and for taking you in that hallway like I did.” He took a deep breath. “Also, for my actions afterward, in bringing you to the castle. I’m sorry for it. All of it.”
She turned to face him, her lips parted, so close to his own that all he had to do was lean in and they’d be touching. He didn’t move a fucking muscle. “That’s a lot of apologies in one breath.”
“I’ve messed up a lot.” He shrugged, hanging his hands between his spread knees, to keep them off of her. “I can see that.”
She remained silent, lifting a shoulder in a half-shrug.
For a few moments, she didn’t speak. It was as if she couldn’t figure out what to say to his apology, and maybe that was a good thing. But, knowing his luck, it was probably bad. She’d open her mouth, tell him to fuck off, and he would—
“I stopped skating because I went into foster care, and it wasn’t a good home.” She pulled off her left sneaker, and then her right. “After that, everything went downhill. Everything.”
He swallowed hard, biting back the questions that came, questions about exactly how bad it had been for her, and where she’d gone after it got bad, but instead he focused on the other side of her confession. The unspoken one. “And that’s when you wrote to me and ‘I’ told you to go to the airport?”
“That was later.” She pushed her foot into a skate. “Much later.”
“I see.” He slid into one skate and then his other before asking, “How much later, exactly?”
“Two months after I ran away.” She finished tying her second skate and held a hand out for him. “Ready to skate?”
He stared at her hand, since it was the first time she’d ever willingly initiated bodily contact with him, and slowly ran his eyes higher until he locked gazes with her. She looked so guarded, yet so vulnerable, that it physically hurt him not to stand up, pull her into his arms, and promise with a kiss to protect her for the rest of her life.
But she didn’t want protection, and she didn’t need him.
And that was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep.
Once upon a time, he had fallen in love with the girl she had been. And now, facing the woman she had become, despite all the odds stacked up against them, there was no doubt he could easily fall in love with her all over again, if he let himself.
And if he did, he would never let her go.
Was that what he wanted from her?
