by North, Paige
I swallowed. When I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn’t blame him, he held up his hand. “Wait,” he said softly. “Just let me get this out. I need to say it all.”
I nodded my acquiescence, and he continued.
“But as I worked on the screenplay, everything flooded back to me. All of our time together, and the way you made me feel. I remembered who you truly were, and for the first time I was able to step back and objectively view our relationship.” Leo swallowed, his chin trembling momentarily. When he spoke again, his voice was full of emotion. “I realized that you’d given yourself to me fully, and I was the one who’d held back. And then I understood, by the end of writing and filming, that I was the one who’d been a coward, too afraid to show you my feelings, Sophie. You’d lost everything to be true to what we had, and I hadn’t been willing to do the same. It had been easier for me to blame you. But that’s because I’d been a fool.”
I so badly wanted to talk now, but I recalled that he wanted me just to listen. So I kept my mouth shut even as tears streamed down my face.
Leo looked into my eyes. “I rewrote and reshot that last scene only a few weeks ago, and it was only then that I realized what I needed to do.” He took a deep breath and sighed, his eyes brimming with unshed tears. “I needed to tell you the truth, Sophie Scott. I needed to tell you that I always loved you, and that I still love you more than ever. Your love made me seize not just the day, but my life. And I intend to spend the rest of my life with the woman of my dreams…if she’ll still have me, that is.”
He handed me the bouquet as I nodded, barely able to speak. “Of course,” I said, as the crowd burst into thunderous applause that I didn’t even care about. All I cared about was him.
Leo.
He loved me back. He didn’t hate me at all.
I found myself wrapped up in Leo’s arms, tears running down my face and his lips pressed firmly to mine. I was his. It had always been that way but we’d let outside influences get in our way. As he kissed me there in that theater in front of his friends, colleagues and industry bigwigs, I cared only for Leo and our feelings for each other.
I knew that I’d never let a day pass without showing him how much I loved him, and what he meant to me.
Just minutes later, we walked out of the theater with our arms around each other, straight into a waiting limo—with Steve at the wheel, of course.
“It’s great to see you again, Miss Scott,” he said, and I was happy and relieved at the use of my real name.
“Yeah, yeah,” Leo said. “No offense, Steve, but let’s just get out of here already.”
As the car pulled away, I stayed snuggled close to Leo, still in shock that I was there with him, and that he hadn’t stopped loving me after all.
I felt the reality of Leo Armstrong, his scent, his feel, his heat. I let go of the flowers and clutched him.
“What’s wrong?” he said, touching my cheek that was still wet with tears. “I thought this was a happy moment, Sophie.”
“I’m afraid that if I let go of you, you’ll disappear again,” I told him.
He pulled me closer. “Then don’t let go,” he said, his voice slightly bemused. But then he held me, too, his strong arms encircling me. “I won’t if you won’t.”
And I knew then that he was a little scared too. We’d both thought that we’d lost each other, and being in one another’s arms again felt too good to be true.
But it was true.
I looked up into his eyes. “I’m so sorry—“
“Don’t,” he said. “You never need to apologize to me. I’m in love with you, and besides—I think we’ve met our apology quotient for this year.”
I laughed a little, my chest loosening. I was beginning to accept that this was actually happening. “I always want to tell each other how we’re feeling from now on,” I said. “Promise?”
“Promise,” he replied, stroking my hair. “As long as we both shall live.”
Epilogue
“You’re wrong,” I said. “She would never say that.”
“Sure she would,” Leo said.
“Why? What’s her motivation?” I asked.
Leo stood for a moment in our living room, his blue eyes fixed on the rolling hills outside the large window.
“See?” I said when he didn’t answer. I smiled and shook my head. “She wouldn’t say that. Let’s go back to earlier in the script.”
Leo walked over to me. I tilted my head up toward him, offering up my lips, which he kissed. “I taught you everything you know and now I’ve created a monster,” he teased, running a hand over my growing belly.
“I learned some things for myself,” I said, putting my hand on top of his.
After the premiere, my life became just plain ridiculous. Leo and I eloped and then he took me to Mexico, just like he’d wanted to all that time ago. We stayed in a secluded area with our own beachside bungalow, big enough for a large family but all for us and complete with full staff and a chef. We stayed there for three perfect weeks, watching the gossip blogs go nuts over what happened at the screening and reading the reviews for All For You. Critics said the movie had signaled a new reign for Epix Studios, proving that the studio wunderkind could be passionate and thoughtful in his moviemaking and not just loud and explosive. Of course, I knew that already. And now, a year later, here we were, together in our new home working on a script—that old script he’d first had me work on during my dark days at Crush magazine. I’d finally gotten him to agree to change the ending to something more hopeful instead of the dark cautionary tale he wanted.
With his hand still on my belly, Leo said, “I hope our baby grows up to be as strong as you are.”
“And as willful as you are,” I added, kissing his lips again.
Leo had sold his Wilshire Boulevard apartment and his Malibu home soon after we were married; now we were nesting in the Hollywood Hills, a place that was ours—and our soon-to-be bundle of joy.
Even though it was a Saturday, we were working because we loved to work. When our minds went toe-to-toe it was as satisfying as when we rocked the bedroom—in a totally different way, of course.
Delaney came out to visit so often that she practically had her own bedroom, and Leo was trying to convince her to open a shop out in L.A. She was considering it, especially since the New Hampshire location was doing better than expected. And I still kept in touch with Ava Marie, who was on the short list of dancers in the Epix offices, so she was working steadily and had even upgraded to a decent apartment in Santa Monica proper.
Life was good. I still couldn’t believe it.
“Hey, I’m getting burnt out with this rewrite,” Leo said, breaking me from my reverie as he yawned and stretched his muscular arms upwards. “Want to take a drive and get a smoothie?”
I made a face. “That’s all I ever drink anymore.”
Leo just chuckled, grabbed my hand. “You have it so rough,” he said.
I missed drinking coffee like it was going out of style, but Leo had graciously gone without in a show of marital support. So I couldn’t complain too much, anyhow.
We got in his car and drove to a nearby restaurant that made great smoothies, and had nice outdoor seating. It normally wasn’t very crowded and we could easily avoid the photographers that hounded us at the more typical Hollywood hangouts.
The day was beautiful and I felt like nothing could possibly make it better. As we held hands and crossed the street to get inside the restaurant, I glanced over at Leo and found myself smiling, as I often did lately.
He looked back at me and smirked. “I thought you were sick of smoothies, but you’re smiling like you’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
“I’m sick of smoothies, but I’ll never be sick of spending time with you,” I told him, and we kissed one another. It was just as magical as our first kiss, probably more so, because now I knew that he was mine and I was his.
I knew that he truly was the good, kind, loving
man that I’d always suspected him to be.
As we broke off the kiss, I happened to glance to my right.
Sitting not five feet away from us at one of the outside tables, all alone, was my old editor from Crush. Kait was sitting and nursing a drink, an open magazine in front of her. She looked pale and angry, her face pinched beneath her fancy sunglasses.
She had clearly spotted us, but went back to looking at her magazine and pretending she didn’t.
Leo squeezed my hand and pulled me to the bar to place our orders. “Did you see who was sitting out there?” I said under my breath.
Leo nodded as he paid for our smoothies. “I saw.”
“I want to give her a piece of my mind.”
He laughed. “Don’t even bother.”
“But she needs to know that what she did was wrong.”
“Sophie, just look at her. She’s sitting at this restaurant, drinking all by herself. She looks completely miserable. And now she sees us here together and knows that we’re happy and none of the bullshit she tried had any effect on us at all. Do you realize how much it sucks to be her right now?”
I thought about it and realized he was right. “Let’s get those smoothies to go, just the same,” I told him. “I’d rather have them on the ride back. Just you and me. Together.”
“Your wish is my command,” Leo replied, bowing slightly.
A few minutes later, we were walking to the car and getting inside, and already, as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb—we’d begun discussing the film script again. “I’m telling you, she would never do that,” I said, shaking my head as I sipped my smoothie.
Leo started to tell me why my idea for the script was wrong and his was still right, when it suddenly occurred to me that we’d walked right past Kait as we’d left the restaurant. And I’d completely forgotten about her. She’d just slipped my mind, as if she’d never really existed.
And I realized that it was because, in a way, she hadn’t.
Her brand of anger and bitterness was like smoke, dissipating in the wind, and now we were driving with the windows down and my hair was blowing in the warm breeze and I was truly happy.
Nothing else existed but me and Leo and the life we’d dared to create together.
I took another sip of my drink and listened to Leo talk, loving the sound of his voice and reminding myself to never let this feeling slip away.
THE END
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review and let us know!
If you want to know when the next book is released, and get alerted to the hottest deals in romance—sign up now to the Favor Ford Romance newsletter!
And also be sure to check out SMITH (The Beckett Boys, Book One) if you enjoyed these books brought to you by Favor Ford Publishing.
Meet The Beckett Boys. Three Brothers. Each One Dirtier, Rougher, and Sexier Than The Next…
A standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA
SMITH
I want her.
Plain and simple truth. I want her. I want to push inside her. I want to grip her hair and tug her scalp and lick her bared throat. I want to tie her wrists and ankles to my bed, make her helpless, weak, begging for me.
I want to leave my marks on her, bruise that delicate flesh, have her sore and aching after I ravage her.
But my cravings are most definitely too dark for her.
I’m not the white-picket-fence kind of guy, and I can’t let myself start thinking otherwise.
My life is my brothers, the bar my father left us, and proving to everyone in this craphole town that we’re not the trash they think we are.
But Aubrey is off limits.
I should stick to the kind of girls I’m used to, the kind who are fine with one night.
Aubrey deserves love, real love, the kind of love I’m incapable of.
The problem is she’s all I want.
I know I can only destroy her.
But I can’t stay away.
AUBREY
I try to pretend that I’m not aware of the tattoos covering him. That I’m not aware of the muscles of his arms and legs. I try to pretend my core doesn’t tighten in response to his raw sexuality, pretend I don’t want him to push me up against the wall and have his way with me.
I’m so attracted to him I can barely focus.
He thinks I’m just some scared little girl, and maybe he’s right.
Am I really so naïve as to think that maybe what Smith and I are doing is different? Or is this just me being blind?
Sometimes I can see every emotion on his face. Other times, I can’t tell a damn thing he’s thinking.
I’m plagued by doubts, yet also trying to convince myself that I know what I know. I’m not just a booty call to Smith. There’s more between us than that. What that “more” is, I don’t know. But it’s there. Either that, or he’s the world’s greatest actor. Because the emotion in our last kiss was so strong it almost blew me over.
If I’m wrong about him, it will shatter my heart, break me into a million pieces.
The only thing worse would be walking away…
Aubrey’s standing there, lips swollen, breath panting, eyes heavily lidded. She’s so innocent but so primed for me. I could probably take her upstairs to my apartment, spread her wide and plunge deep inside her.
But I can’t do that. Because she deserves better than to be one of my random booty calls. I can’t ruin her.
Click here to start reading SMITH now for just 99 cents or free with Kindle Unlimited membership!
