by Dee J. Adams
She heard Leo approaching and took a steadying breath. Just because she hadn’t seen him in a few days didn’t make this meeting special. And she’d keep saying those words in her head until they stuck.
The door opened with a flourish before she even knocked. Her dry mouth and sweaty palms hadn’t paid any attention to all her calm and cool thoughts.
“Right on time.” Leo gestured her inside. The area around his stitches had turned dark shades of blue and purple, but the outer edge was starting to fade. The mouth-watering smell of him made her eyes glaze over. She’d just stepped past him when he closed the door, grabbed her arm and gently swung her into his chest.
Flustered, Kim gasped. “What are you doing?”
Leo wrapped his arms around her and held her close, his bowed head next to hers, his breathing soft in her ear. “Price of admission,” he whispered.
A full body flush sent a delicious shiver down her spine. “I didn’t know I was getting a show.” She managed the words without sounding too breathy, even though she barely sucked air into her lungs.
His masterful hands stroked down her back and came up her sides as he pulled away and watched her. His smile weakened her knees. “Not just a show,” Leo said. “Dinner too. And a surprise after that.”
Surprise? Or sex? Because as easy as it would be to get horizontal with this man, she’d promised herself not to. “Wow. Dinner theater in Los Angeles? Who knew?” Maybe if she glazed over it, he wouldn’t push her. Because they both knew the type of restraint she showed.
The glint in his eyes as his gaze roamed to her lips nearly set her hair on fire.
“What’s for dinner?” This time her voice didn’t sound nearly as strong and she took a step back to get some space from the sexual fireball in front of her.
But the sexual fireball in question only followed her and brought her close again. “Why don’t you ask me what’s for dessert?” One hand stroked low over her back while the other eased under her hair and cupped her nape. The instant sizzle of his touch made her pulse thump faster and her lids grow heavy.
“I might not be staying for dessert.” Forcing the words out took real effort.
He narrowed his gaze and the moment stretched into forever as she waited for his kiss. She’d fall into it like the Niagara hitting bottom. Coming here had been a giant mistake. Maybe Leo got the same feeling because instead of diving in for a sure thing, he let her go and stepped back. Breathing hard, Kim realized that Leo’s chest might’ve been puffing a little extra as well. It would be too easy to jump into his arms and fuse her mouth to his. Too easy to touch all parts of him north and south and take all the comfort he was so good at providing.
“C’mon,” he said, holding his hand out. “Dinner first, then the movie. I’m starving.”
“Did the mail come?” she asked, taking his hand and relaxing an iota.
“Ah! I meant to check after you called and got sidetracked with phone calls and getting dinner started.” He headed for the door.
“I’ll check. You can finish dinner.”
He nodded and she bolted out the door and to the mailbox on the street. Anticipation had her fumbling with the envelopes as she looked through the small pile.
Nothing. Damn. Kim took the stairs back up in slow motion. Leo must have heard the front door.
“Did it come?” he asked.
“No.” She trudged into the kitchen and put his mail on the counter as he set a container in the microwave. A plate of barbeque chicken sizzled on a small platter.
“Steamed veggies,” he said, turning on the microwave. “Almost ready.”
Stella limped into the room and Kim scooped her into a quick cuddle as Leo poured drinks. The domestic quality of the whole situation made her hungry for something like this on a regular basis. Once they were both seated at the kitchen counter, Leo dove into his meal.
“What’s got you so busy that you don’t have time to eat?” she asked before taking a bite of chicken.
“Been meeting and talking to distributors. Hoping to get my film out ASAP. I need to get a marketing campaign going first.”
“Like bus and billboard ads? Trailers? That sort of thing?”
He nodded. “Exactly.” He did a double take at her. “Why’re you smiling like that?”
“You’ve just come across my specialty. Advertising.”
“I thought you were the finance end of business.”
“I’m very versatile.”
His gaze smoldered hot. “So I’ve learned.” He broke eye contact and focused on his next bite before he glanced at her again. “The trailer’s being put together as we speak. I just need to rent the ad space wherever I decide that should be, not to mention what I can afford…which isn’t a lot,” he added. He went into more detail about what he thought he should do versus what he could afford and where he thought he might get the most for his dollar.
They discussed costs and different avenues of publicity as they got through the meal.
“Tell me about your movie,” Kim said as she finished the last bite of her dinner.
“I’d rather you just watch it,” Leo replied, rinsing their dishes and loading the washer. He took her hand again and led her into the den where he gently pushed her onto the sofa. Using the remote, he accessed his computer on the flat screen, clicked on a link from his email and started the movie. He put his arm over the back of the sofa, which effectively settled her comfortably under his arm and snuggled right next to him.
She could’ve moved. Should’ve moved, but she fit so perfectly and he smelled so good that she decided to stick it out.
The opening of the movie began with sweeping vistas of rugged mountains. The camera zooming across the land as opening credits streamed over the view.
“I thought you didn’t like to watch your movies with people,” she said, cuddling closer.
“This is different. You’re one of the first to see this. I want your honest opinion.”
Something shifted inside Kim and she caught Leo’s gaze. “Really? I’m one of the first people to see this?”
“Not including the editor and the distributors I sent it to, yeah.” He nodded, as solemn as Kim had ever seen him. “You’ve always been a hundred percent honest with me and that’s one of the things I like best about you. I want to know what you think of this film. If you think it sucks, then maybe I cut my losses now and don’t spend the money on advertising. If you think it has a shot, then I’ll go for it.”
“No pressure.” She snorted. Except that it was a ton of pressure.
He didn’t bat an eye. “I’m serious. I trust you. I trust your opinion.”
“But it’s—”
“Shh.” He put his finger against her lips and kept her from saying so subjective. That single touch had her thinking about sex in an instant. The devil on her shoulder urged her to lick his finger, taste him. They’d be horizontal on this sofa faster than Mach 1.
The heat in his eyes warned her that maybe he was thinking the same thing, but he blinked and leaned back a fraction. “Just watch,” he said.
So Kim shifted toward to the television and did as she was told. The story obviously took place in the old west. Carrie Ann Laughlin played the lead role and Kim already had her doubts, but the longer she watched, the more she got pulled in to the story—the struggle of a widow running the ranch her husband left behind. How a stranger passing through town saved her life from a group of bandits as she drove her wagon home with supplies. The two strike up a friendship. Then a love affair. Until the job he’s been waiting for comes through with the Pony Express. He vows to return and marry her, but on his way home, he’s attacked by the same group of men he’d saved her from in the beginning and they leave him for dead in the middle of the desert. A wagon train passes by and saves him, but months go by before he’s able to make the trip back to the Black Hills and back to the woman he loves. In the meantime, we see her struggle with running the ranch and hoping he’ll return. But as the months go b
y, her hope fades and she’s left crushed again.
Finally, when he’s well enough to travel, he takes the long journey home. The reunion had Kim bawling her eyes out as the music swelled. The look on Carrie Ann’s face when she sets eyes on him cut straight to Kim’s heart. And when the audience thinks it’s all going to end happily, that same gang of bandits returns to finish the job. It takes both characters to fight off the men before help arrives from the nearby town. The final scene, where the audience sees the threat is over and the couple survive to lead a long life together had Kim crying even harder than the first time.
As soon as the screen faded to black, the first credit flashed on the screen. Written by Leo Frost. Kim’s tears welled up again and she swallowed back a sheer bolt of pride that Leo penned this amazing love story. He flipped off the player before the credits rolled.
“Well?” he asked. “What’d you think?”
She turned to him as she blew her nose into a ragged tissue. “Are you kidding me? That was amazing! How did you come up with that?”
He shrugged, but he had the sweetest smile on his face. “Really? You liked it?”
“Doesn’t the fact that my mascara is smeared down my face tell you that?”
“It’s not so bad. Actually, you look pretty beautiful.” He took a tear with a gentle swipe of his thumb and Kim sunk into the web of his hypnotic blue eyes. “Hi,” he whispered.
“Hi.”
Somehow they ended up only inches apart, his breath warm on her lips.
“This house isn’t the same without you. Stella misses you.”
She leaned back a fraction, her interest piqued. “Stella misses me? Just Stella?” She wanted more than that. It was stupid, she wanted the golden egg.
He shook his head, no hint of a smile this time. “No. Not just Stella. I miss you.”
Kim kept her elation under wraps. It would do no good to show him how much those words meant to her. “Oh yeah?” She stroked her thumb across the hard line of his jaw. “A lot?”
“How ’bout I show you?” His lips covered hers before she could answer. Before she could run. Like she’d ever have the common sense to run when this man touched her. Kim fell under the magic of his kiss, the sweet caress of his hands against her head, his fingers combing through her hair. He gave her everything she wanted. Everything she needed with his touch, with his kiss. He filled up all the empty spaces in her soul.
Chapter Eighteen
Leo pulled back before he couldn’t stop. Kissing Kim usually led to fucking Kim and he didn’t want to scare her off. He hadn’t been lying when he told her he missed her. The house was too quiet without her. His bed was too cold. He was too lonely. Without studying what all of that meant, he chose to take it for what it was. He liked her. A lot. More than he’d liked any other woman in his past…enough to miss her when she was gone and think about her most every waking moment when he wasn’t buried in work.
He’d made peace with the fact that he was going to be a father. He’d braced himself for the worst as far as the potential challenges. No more wild spending sprees, no more mansions in multiple cities or continents. No more expensive cars or houses or hobbies. Until he rebuilt substantially and made sure his child was set for life, he wouldn’t rest, wouldn’t splurge.
Now all he had to do was convince Kim that he could handle it. That he wanted to handle it.
So yeah, maybe he hadn’t planned on being a father but he’d also never planned to meet someone like Kim. A woman with brains and beauty. A woman who knew how to take control and spoke her mind when she wanted and not just when convenient.
Leo went in for a last long kiss. Her soft lips called to him. The warmth of her mouth was addictive. And the way she kissed him back, Jesus, she knew how to light him on fire with just her mouth. Her tongue tangled with his in a perfect game of catch me if you can. And he did. Repeatedly. He couldn’t stop his fingers from running through the softness of her hair or skimming over the smoothness of her cheeks. Her hands never stayed idle either and as they stroked over his neck and shoulders, he imagined them sliding lower into his lap and caressing the iron bulge in his pants. Her extra soft touch on his scratches and bruises turned him on even more.
Pulling back and breathing hard, Leo looked into her glazed, heavy-lidded eyes. He could push it. Her. He could have her if he never stopped to talk or breathe. He could carry her upstairs, strip her naked and be inside of her in the next three minutes, but he wanted her to see him differently. Wanted her to know he’d not only had a change of heart, but a change in heart.
“What did you really think?”
She blinked a couple of times and the faintest of smiles curved her lush lips. “Are we talking about the movie or that kiss?”
Leo held back his raging libido with a whip and a chair. “We’ll get to the kiss later. I’m talking about the movie.”
“I told you. It was amazing.” She licked her lips and it was everything Leo could do to sit still. “I can’t believe you did all that low budget.”
Didn’t he wish. He snorted. “Who said anything about low budget? It cost me a fortune.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to use your own money if you’re making a film. I thought you’re supposed to get investors.”
“All true.” Leo nodded. “Live and learn.” He swirled little circles on the soft skin of her shoulder since she was still tucked close to his side. “What’d you think of Carrie Ann? She’s the wild card in this thing. Had I known she was going to lose her mind after shooting this, I never would’ve cast her.”
“You can’t see into the future. Besides, I thought she was terrific. She was the one thing that held me back but she won me over pretty quickly.”
“Yeah, me too. She auditioned and it was like, boom. I was done. She nailed it. I had a few people who I was considering but as soon as I saw her, I knew. She never let me down.” Too bad he couldn’t say the same for himself. She’d tried like hell to reach him when they got back from location, but Leo had followed his usual MO and not returned her calls. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, he just had no urge to be caught by her. He’d seen her motivation from the first time they’d hooked up. She was all about the PR and promo. She’d mentioned as much during one of their nights together…where they happened to be in Leo’s trailer because they’d never gone back to the hotel. Carrie Ann had guzzled his wine and got a little loose, not only with her body, but with her tongue.
“Did I read somewhere that you two had a little on-set fling?” Kim asked.
Leo suddenly needed a shower, but he couldn’t deny it. “It was very short-lived. I hadn’t planned on it. I was a little busy producing and acting. But…” He shrugged. Carrie Ann was the last woman he’d been with before Kim. “She made herself very available even though I told her nothing was going to happen once we got home. I think she was hoping for a different outcome.”
“Did she fall in love with you?”
Leo laughed. “I doubt it. She was in love with my standing in Hollywood. My reputation maybe. I don’t know.” He shook his head. “She wanted me, she didn’t love me.”
“She sure lost it,” Kim mused, her eyes sad and full of compassion.
And he felt like shit about it too. What if he’d seen her just one or two times? What if blowing her off had pushed her over the edge? It wouldn’t have killed him to take her to dinner. He just hadn’t wanted to lead her on and that’s what he would’ve been doing.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched him. “Hey, you’re not feeling guilty about it are you?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I can’t help but think that things might’ve been different if I returned a call or went out with her a couple of times. I just didn’t have the interest.”
“Exactly. So why should you spend time with someone you don’t want to be with, especially when you know she’s using you?”
“Maybe. But she killed someone and attempted to kill two others.”
“That was her dea
l. It had nothing to do with you.”
The room got quiet as she thought about something else. “Flings are common on the set, aren’t they?” She eased away from him with that question as if it just dawned on her the amount of movies he made and the potential for easy hook-ups.
Leo owed her an honest answer. “Depends on the people in the movie. If you’re single, yeah, people hook up.”
“And even if they’re not single…”
“Maybe. Depends on the person. Depends on their marriage. Depends on a lot of things.”
She eased even farther away from him and Leo watched the divide between them grow bigger. So how did he get her back?
“But some people don’t even consider it,” he said and she met his gaze. “There are a few people so much in love with their wife or husband that they rush back to their trailers or hotel rooms to text or Skype or FaceTime or call, or if they’re shooting in the city where they live, rush home to be with that person. I’ve seen it. It’s not fiction.”
“But that’s not something you’ve ever experienced.”
“Not personally. Doesn’t mean I won’t.” He looked her straight in the eye with that answer. Her gaze skittered away, but he couldn’t blame her. Maybe he needed to back off with the insinuations. He had no business leading her on when he didn’t know what he was feeling either.
“How about dessert?” he asked, pushing to his feet and heading into the kitchen. “I went all out tonight. Root beer floats.”
The smile she gave him lit up the darkened room. She followed him and leaned against the counter. “I don’t think I’ve had a root beer float in fifteen years.”
“Then you’re past due.” He pulled out everything he needed and started scooping ice cream into tall glasses. “Have you heard from the detectives lately?”
“Oh my God, I completely forgot to tell you. Detective Browning called while I was on my way here. He said Wilson’s alibi checked out. He was with a friend in Arizona the day we were shot at, so that means he couldn’t have been here the day before when my accident happened.
