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“He knows we’re lying, Amelia. Fred’s not a fool. I saw the way he was looking at you.” He rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head, gripping his hair with both hands. He tugged, letting out a low noise. “Fuck. I never should have lied. This was such a stupid idea. Why didn’t I just tell him I was single?” He scrubbed his face, then left his hands there, covering his expression. Amelia had the horrible suspicion he was trying not to cry.
Not knowing what to do, Amelia put her hand on his upper back and stroked him in slow circles. Leo had been so confident in their time together. She’d never seen him worried—not like this.
“This job means a lot to you,” she said, and it sounded so pathetic in the heavy silence of the room.
Leo let out a bitter snort. He dropped his hands, letting them dangle between his knees. “I know what you’re thinking. I just want to party for a living, and I’m sad the gravy train is ending.”
“That’s not what I’m thinking at all.”
His lips twisted, but he didn’t look at her. “Forgive me for not believing you. I’m the guy who gave chlamydia to his entire college. The guy who can’t hold down a relationship. The guy who parties for a living because he can’t let go of his glory days.”
“That’s not what you do for a living.” The words came out heated—more forceful than Amelia had intended.
Leo finally turned his head to look at her. The green of his eyes was so bright, but his face was horribly drawn and tense. He said nothing.
She frowned at him. “You plan elaborate events for demanding clients,” she told him. “You take in information from them, coordinate multiple vendors and subcontractors, and deliver on their expectations in high-pressure situations.”
He blinked.
Amelia wasn’t done. “You’ve told me only a handful of stories, but I know you don’t party for a living, Leo. I just spent the last six months trying to get my sister’s wedding to go off without a hitch, and Iknowhow hard that was. The last three weeks of planning were pure hell. And I did it in Stirling, where weddings are basically part of the town’s mission statement. It was still horribly complicated. I needed seventeen different spreadsheets to keep track of everything. So don’t give me that stupid line about you being a brainless playboy wanting to party all the time. I know it’s a mask, and it makes me angry every time you put it on. You’re more than your stupid college nickname, Leo, so don’t be a coward. Stop hiding behind it.”
Chest heaving, Amelia realized her tirade had ended shrilly, with her voice raised and her cheeks red. She glared at him and had the ridiculous, childish urge to stick out her tongue.
“You really believe that?” Leo grated.
“Believewhat.”
“That I’m more than my college nickname.”
Anger rose in Amelia so fast she thought the top of her skull would fly off from the pressure. “Of course I believe that!” She poked him in the chest. “You’re smart and hard-working and so stupidly beautiful it’s hard to look at you sometimes. And, by the way, these are thingsyoushould be tellingmebecause our agreement is meant to bolstermyego.”
“You’re smart and hard-working,” Leo said, eyes intent, “and so stupidly beautiful it’s hard to look at you sometimes.”
“Har-har,” she spat, making to get up off the couch. She shouldn’t have been angry. It was silly, really. Didn’t she know exactly how it felt to have her confidence dinged, even when it didn’t make sense on paper? She knew what self-loathing felt like. She knew what shame felt like.
But it made her somadto see Leo like this. And it made her even madder to think about the way Trish and Lauren and Rinn had giggled behind their manicured fingers about him. How much ridicule had he endured? How long had it taken for him to believe it?
So she had to get off the couch and go stomp around in the bedroom or down the hallway or out into the flower garden. She had to get away and calm down before she yelled at Leo some more, who didn’t deserve to be yelled at at all.
Getting away from Leo was suddenly the most important thing, because beneath her anger was another emotion. One that had grown in her way too fast. One that would do nothing but hurt her in the long run.
But as she stood up, Leo caught her hand. She tried to tug it away, but Leo held on. He pulled, then caught her around the waist and dragged her down to his body, so she had no choice but to straddle his hips where he sat on the couch.
With one arm banded around her back, he lifted his other hand to cup her cheek. “I wasn’t lying, Amelia. You’re an incredible woman.”
“Yeah, well, you’re…” Her bitter words petered out. She wanted to push away from him, protect herself. Because that emotion in her breast was white-hot infatuation—or maybe something more.
His hand slid along her cheekbone and tangled in her hair, gripping tight. The arm around her waist was like a steel band. Immovable.
“Are we back to my spreadsheet now?” Amelia asked rudely, desperately scrabbling to regain control over the situation. Her body was heating under his touch. The pinpricks of pain on her scalp were quickly turning to liquid pleasure. Shelikedbeing held like this, being caught by him. “We could go over the intercourse section so I know what I’ve been doing wrong all these years.”
A low, rumbling growl rattled Leo’s throat. “This has nothing to do with your fucking spreadsheet,” he said, then tightened his grip on her hair, angled her face, and kissed her.
She fought him for a fraction of a second, then lust went off like a rocket inside her. Fingers curling around the back of his neck, she pressed herself against his chest and let him control the kiss. It was a punishing embrace. His stubble rasped against her skin, the slight burn of it a delicious counterpoint to his soft lips, the velvet stroke of his tongue.
They kissed like they were fighting each other, with an edge of anger and aggression that Amelia had never felt before. It consumed her, the lust and fury and passion of it all. Hips bucking, she moaned against Leo’s lips as the arm around her back slid down, his hand clawing at her dress. He finally reached up under it to grab a handful of her ass, kneading her flesh with his big hand.
“This dress has been driving me crazy all day,” he growled, pulling away to look at the offending garment. One hand was still twisted in Amelia’s hair, the other shaping her flank and bottom. Leo held her like that, then brought his mouth to her breast and bit her through the fabric.
