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“One last time,” he whispered, almost too quiet for her to hear. His lips pressed against her neck, body trembling above hers.
She frowned, stilling, then pushed at Leo’s shoulders. “One last time?” She pushed harder. “What are you talking about?”
Propping himself on his hands, Leo leaned above her and looked down. Amelia didn’t recognize the man staring back at her. “After this morning, our arrangement will be done. You’ll be free. You won’t have to waste your time with me.”
She blinked, then immediately clamped her legs closed. Ice water jetted through her veins as she tried to find the tender, loving man who had opened his heart to her last night. That man was gone. “Done?” Amelia whispered.
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
She shoved him away, wriggled off the bed, and picked her towel up off the floor. Whirling back to face him, Amelia clutched the terrycloth to her chest and stared. “No! What I want is for you to stop acting like some shameless playboy. I want the real you, Leo. The man who was with me last night. The man I got to know all week.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and spread his arms. “There’s only me, Amelia. Those two men are one and the same.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t get to push me away and put on that stupid persona. Not with me, Leo. Not after everything we’ve shared.”
“We fucked, Amelia. That’s it. Isn’t that what you wanted? You can think about this week and be confident that you’re good in bed. Now go forth and find a man to make your boyfriend. Ben the Barista is just waiting for you to say the word.”
His wordshurt. He sat wearing pajama pants and nothing else, his bare toes curled into the rug on the floor, his green eyes pale and so, so bleak.
“What if I want you?” Amelia whispered.
For a moment, it looked like Leo’s expression would crack completely. But he dropped his eyes and clenched his fists, then stood up. “I can’t be the man you need, Amelia.”
“Leo, stop it.” Her voice was stern. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m beingreal.” His voice was harsh. She flinched, then watched him walk away.
She watched his broad back disappear behind the bathroom door, her whole body shaking. She’d thought… She’d thought what they had was the real thing. She’d thought they’d moved past the stupid fake fiancée deal days ago!
Leo thought he wasn’t the man she needed, but he was wrong.Wrong.
But did it matter? If he didn’t want to be with her, could she convince him otherwise?
Last night, she’d thought they’d connected on a deeper level. There had been no spreadsheet, no pretense. They’d shared a physical and emotional intimacy that she’d never experienced before.
To Amelia, that had been the start of something special—but maybe to Leo, it had been the end.
A tear left a hot trail down her cheek. She brushed it away with furtive movements, then sniffled once and pulled on her clothes. Her movements became more and more frantic until she was shoving her clothes in her suitcase and scanning the room for anything else she needed to pack. By the time Leo was out of the bathroom, his hair still wet from the shower and his lips set in a grim line, Amelia was zipping up her suitcase and placing it by the door.
“I’ll wait downstairs,” she said to the wall, then left Leo in the room and closed the door without looking back.
The next hour was torture. Amelia forced herself to paint a cheery smile on her face while she greeted everyone and subsequently said goodbye. By the time Leo came downstairs and the staff brought their bags to the foyer, her cheeks were sore from holding up her smile. She waved goodbye to everyone, hugged Nadia, kissed Percival’s cheek, then got in the passenger’s seat of Leo’s car and slumped down in her seat.
It wasn’t until they pulled up outside her apartment that she spoke. “Thanks for the lift,” she said. Pulling the ring off her finger, she handed it over to Leo. “Here.”
He was careful not to touch her fingers when he took the ring from her grasp. He didn’t meet her gaze. He just nodded and said nothing.
Amelia waited a beat, then two. Maybe he would say something, apologize, fix this…
But he just lifted his gaze to hers. “Thank you for everything, Amelia.”
His voice was painfully tender. His eyes were stark.
It sounded like goodbye.
Amelia’s eyes watered as she got her bag out of the trunk, but she didn’t cry until she was safely behind her apartment door.
TWENTY-FOUR
