He pulls his head up, but instead of looking me in the eye, he focuses over my shoulder.
“Fucking look at me, Leo.”
He shakes his head, clenches his eyes shut and swears under his breath again.
“Look, Sam…”
“No, fuck this. Just tell me what I did wrong.”
His head whips up and finally he pins me in his stormy, gray gaze, scowling. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But you just said you can’t trust me. I heard you.”
“No.” He shakes his head adamantly and rubs his hands up and down my arms. “You didn’t do anything. I wasn’t talking about you, baby.”
“What’s going on?”
“Fuck,” he mutters again, sighs and swallows hard. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Sam.”
“You’re scaring me,” I whisper.
“I’m just gonna say it, but before I do, please know that I am so, so sorry.” He’s looking in my eyes again, worried and sad and so pissed off.
“What?” I ask, exasperated.
“It seems that someone took photos of us in L.A., at my house, making love on the balcony.”
“What? How? Your beach is private.”
“Yeah, well, who knows?”
“How do you know this? Have you seen the photos?”
He scowls and shakes his head. “No. Melissa is blackmailing me. She says that if we fire her for the photo leak of you, she’ll post the photos online.” He shoves his hands through his hair and paces away. “So, I won’t be firing her until I can figure out how to handle this clusterfuck.”
“Fuck that.”
“What?” He turns back to me, his eyes wide.
“She is not going to bully you into keeping her damn job, Leo. Call her bluff. Fire her. If she posts the photos, so be it. We’re consenting adults in a loving relationship. If anyone doesn’t like it, they can kiss my ass. I won’t have her turning the most beautiful moment of my life into something dirty.”
He just stands there, his mouth gaping open, and then blinks rapidly. “Wait, where is this coming from? With as pissed as you were about the photo last week, I thought for sure this would destroy you. I’m not worried about me, but I won’t have something like this surfacing about you.”
“Look, I might have overreacted over that photo. This shit’s going to happen. It’s just a part of being with you.” I pull my fingers down his face and offer him a small smile. “I love you, Leo. We’ve established that I’m yours and you’re mine, and we’re in this for the long haul. I refuse to have people like Melissa dictating how we live.”
“This could turn into a major shit storm for you, baby.”
I shrug and wrap my arms around his still naked waist. “I bet she doesn’t post them, Leo. She doesn’t want to ruin her own reputation in this business. She’d be an idiot to let them leak. We don’t even have proof that they exist.”
“You’re sure?”
“The bitch is gone,” I confirm. “Now, let’s go enjoy our families, have some drinks, and then go home so you can give me some orgasms.”
“Lead the way, sunshine.”
***
“What time do you have to leave?” I ask quietly, not wanting to disturb the sweet silence of the early morning. We’re curled up in bed. It’s not quite daybreak. The cat is curled up on Leo’s stomach, purring, and I’m draped against his side, my head on his chest.
We’re still sweaty from early morning sex, my skin is still humming, and Leo’s fingertips are brushing up and down my back.
“I have to be at the airport at nine,” he whispers.
“What do you want to do until then?” I ask and trace the letters tattooed over his chest.
“I think we should go for a run.”
My head whips up to look him in the face. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He grins down at me. “I won’t get to run with you for two weeks.”
“I’m going to meet up with you in New York this weekend,” I remind him. Even five days seems too long.
“We won’t be running in New York, baby. We’ll be lucky if we make it out of the hotel room.” He chuckles and kisses my forehead. “Come on, out of bed. Let’s go.”
I follow him out of bed and we pull on our running gear and head down to the street. I realize he’s wearing the same shorts and t-shirts he wore the morning of our first run.
“You know,” I mention casually as we jog down our usual path through the city. “I can run farther than we normally do.”
“Just run. I’ll follow you.”
“You don’t want to know where I’m going?” I ask with a smile.
“Nope, I’ll go where you go.”
“Okay, but you’ll have to keep up. I’m not slowing my pace for you.” I throw him a mock glare as he laughs.
“So noted.”
Damn, he’s sexy. He’s just as sexy to me now as he was that first morning we ran together. Even more so now that I know the man beneath the tats and the piercings.
“So, who’s your favorite band?” He asks with a grin.
“I don’t know.” I shrug and keep my face neutral. “I like Daughtry a lot.”
“Try again.”
“Train.”
“I will spank you.”
“I might have a thing for Nash,” I reply, laughing.
“We’ll work on it.” He chuckles.
We run, side by side, our breathing and steps matched… thud, thud, thud, all the way to the park where he pulled me onto that picnic table to rub my legs.
“My legs aren’t shaking today,” I boast with a grin.
“I’m not inside you. Of course they aren’t.”
I raise an eyebrow and then burst into laughter, shoving his shoulder. “You’re such an arrogant ass.”
He nuzzles my ear, breathing hard, as we stroll down to our café. “Am I wrong?” he murmurs.
“No. Just arrogant.”
A waitress shows us to a booth, hands us menus and takes our drink orders of juice and coffee.
Neither of us needs to open the menu.
“How is your job going, baby?” Leo asks and leans his elbows on the table, his eyes happy, a half smile on those kissable lips.
“Good.” I nod. “No assholes named Bob at this one, and it’s unlikely they’ll want me to do a story on my family, given that we run exposes on wines.” I wink at him and reach over to grab his hand in my own so I can trace the ink on his fingers.