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This week she had assumed Leo had changed his mind about Ty but she’d been wrong and it made her feel edgy. She wanted to ask him if he was ever planning to tell Ty that he was his father but the magical night already felt tainted by their earlier discussion and she didn’t want to ruin it by getting into another argument. Which was probably very cowardly of her, but she needed more time to digest her feelings before she broached it again.
Thankfully, the flight back to the yacht was a little better than the flight over but that was because she was basically half asleep with her head on Leo’s shoulder. Still, if she’d had the energy she would have kissed the deck when the helicopter landed safely on the yacht.
Leo scooped her up into his arms and carried her into his suite. Lexi stood before him, much as she had that first night but instead of ripping her dress in half he gently turned her and lowered the zip at the back. Then he peeled the fabric from her body and proceeded to kiss his way down her spine.
His lovemaking was surprisingly gentle and afterwards Lexi lay in the crook of his shoulder and traced lazy patterns over the hair on his chest. Gradually his breathing eased as he slipped into sleep and, for all her earlier tiredness, she felt suddenly wide-awake.
He had told her a few nights ago that he had never slept as well as he had this week and she was glad. But she was also a fool. What she felt for Leo was ten times—no, a thousand times—deeper than what she had ever felt for Brandon. Because she hadn’t really loved Brandon—at least not the way she loved Leo.
She let the words that had been edging into the front of her brain for days now take root and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were true.
She stared into the darkened room at nothing in particular and didn’t know how she felt about that. Because she didn’t know how he felt about her.
Yes, he’d done nice things for her and, yes, he had spent time with her, laughed with her, helped her whenever she needed it, but was she really any different from any other woman he had spent a week with?
Being on his mega-yacht and sailing around the Cyclades islands was like being in a fairy-tale bubble. In two days she would return to London. Return to work. Return to reality. And she had no idea if he would want to continue seeing her there.
She tried to imagine what it would be like if he did. Movie nights with Todd and Aimee? Dinner in her tiny flat? Or would she always have to go to his penthouse and enter his world? And would she want that?
Oh, it was too hard.
Leo shifted and mumbled in his sleep, his arms tightening and releasing around her. He tried to turn, his brow pleated, and Lexi realised he was starting to have a nightmare again. She instinctively smoothed her f
ingers over his forehead, trying to soothe him.
‘Sasha?’
The whispered word was barely audible but Lexi heard it. And froze. ‘No, it’s me, Leo. Lexi.’
He seemed to relax at the sound of her voice and his lips whispered across her temple as he pulled her back down to him, immediately falling into a deep sleep. Unfortunately, it took Lexi a lot longer to do the same.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LEXI woke alone the next morning for the first time since they had started sleeping together and knew it didn’t bode well.
Then she realised that she wasn’t quite alone when she heard Leo talking into his telephone over by the window. He was as naked as the day he was born and the morning sun streaming in highlighted his toned butt and the defined dent where his back muscles met his spine.
She had seen him on the phone many times this week but she had never heard him speaking in such a low personal tone and her stomach clenched, a sixth sense telling her that he was talking to a woman.
Then she remembered how he had called out Sasha’s name last night in his sleep. How he had thought she was Sasha? Lexi’s heart hammered at the thought that he had remembered the dream and called Sasha while she lay sleeping.
Stop, take a breath, she ordered herself. He was not her father and she was not her mother. Hadn’t she told him that his parents’ story didn’t have to be his own? So, ergo, nor did hers!
He switched off the phone and Lexi saw such a distressed look etched into his profile that her breath stalled in her lungs. She didn’t want to intrude on what was clearly a private moment for him but nor could she keep quiet.
‘Bad news?’
His head swivelled around at the sound of her voice. ‘You’re awake.’
Her eyebrows rose. ‘Yep.’
She was desperate to ask who had been on the phone but he tossed it onto a nearby sofa and turned back to face the window, effectively shutting her out.
Lexi felt her face grow hot and her hands start to tremble at the silent rebuff. For the past few days, whenever the conversation had veered onto the personal he had clammed up and she had let him, not wanting to push him as her mother had pushed her father. But now it was different.
Now her heart was involved and she felt even more vulnerable than before. She remembered her father had had topics that were off-limits and it had meant that at times they had all felt as if they were walking on eggshells around him. Just as she felt she was doing now with Leo.
‘Where are you going?’ he demanded gruffly.
