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She’d seen him again, and it had gone a lot worse than she’d imagined. She had wanted to be cool when their paths crossed. To show him that she hadn’t let their relationship breakdown affect her life. That she was successful and happy and satisfied without the great, gorgeous Leonardo Fontana.
Only she wasn’t, and after her performance that night, she was pretty sure he’d realise that she’d spent three years pining away for a man who barely thought of her.
2
“Oh, ouch.” Aurora rubbed her temples gingerly, her blonde hair spiking around her face in disarray. “Ouch.” She repeated, her eyes instinctively squeezing shut against the harsh bright light that was flooding into her spacious loft apartment.
She squinted one eye half-open and looked at her phone. The screen was filled with messages. The time showed that it was after nine o’clock in the morning. “Crap.” She lifted a hand to her hair and smoothed it down.
She never slept in. Despite the fact she worked from home, and in her own time, she had a routine of going to the gym or for a run each morning.
Not that morning. The only thing she wanted on her agenda was coffee, and lots of it.
She wriggled her toes against the hardwood floor and stood. Memories flooded back to her. “Crap.” She grimaced at the painful recollection of having invited Leo upstairs. Even more painful? That he’d declined.
She forced herself to put one foot in front of the other until she reached the open-plan kitchen. The coffee machine was always switched on in Aurora’s apartment. She slid a pod in and waited for the heavenly black liquid to pool into a cup. She drank it black, and hot, then replaced the cup and slipped another pod into the machine. While it was brewing, she took a bite of an apple and stared out at the high rise opposite. Mid-way through lifting her second coffee to her lips, there was a hard, firm knock on the door. She frowned, moving through the apartment with far greater speed than she’d been able to manage ten minutes earlier. The coffee had been vital; its restorative powers impossible to ignore.
She pulled the door inwards and gasped. “Leonardo? What… are you doing here?”
He pushed past her and strode into the apartment, dropping his keys and wallet on the side table, just as he always had done in the past.
Aurora stared at them in confusion. It was better than staring at him. Dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, he was impossibly, darkly, gloriously handsome.
“Leonardo?” She repeated, lifting her gaze reluctantly to his face.
“How are you feeling?” His voice made her stomach clench.
“Fine.” She looked down at the floor. “A little embarrassed, actually.”
He nodded. “As you should. You were in danger of behaving in a way you would truly be regretting now.”
“If you hadn’t stepped in?” She challenged.
“Yes.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Believe it or not, I am capable of looking after myself. I haven’t seen you in three years. Do you think I’ve been wading into danger every night, waiting to be rescued?”
“I don’t give a shi… I don’t care how you’ve been spending your time.”
She crossed her arms across her chest, then realised it drew attention the vast expanse of skin exposed by the low cut nightgown she wore. She uncrossed them and formed fists by her side. “Then why are you here?”
“Why am I here?” He demanded fiercely. “Why am I here?”
He stalked back down the hallway and pulled her into his arms, kissing her lips hard. His hands pushed at her nightgown, lifting the hem, exposing her lace underpants and naked breasts. He broke the kiss for the briefest of moments, long enough to discard her nightgown and toss it to the floor.
“Why do you think I am here?” He lifted her easily, wrapping her legs around his waist and carrying her through the apartment, to her bedroom. He threw her down and ripped off his own shirt, then stepped out of his jeans.
She opened her mouth to say something but he kissed her again before she could voice any words. “Don’t speak,” he muttered, running his hands desperately over her body. “God, you would have gone home with that barman last night, wouldn’t you? He would have been doing this now, instead of me, wouldn’t he?”
She shook her head from side to side. “I wasn’t myself.”
“You drank too much. You made yourself vulnerable.” He rolled one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed it hard, sending little arrows of pain and pleasure shooting through her body. “You should know better than to put yourself at risk.”
“What do you care?” She groaned as he lowered her underpants down her long legs, and ran his hands over her calves.
“You were mine once. I don’t like the idea of you giving yourself away to whoever throws their cap into the ring.”
Aurora groaned, as his mouth pressed kisses along the length of her legs, to the apex of dark curls between her thighs.
