Page 44

Leo Turner just punched my ex-boyfriend in the face.

…You don’t look at her, you don’t talk to her…

“Jacqueline,” Leo murmured with a hand on my lower back. He had opened the passenger side door for me, but I just stood there. My brain was trying to make sense of what had happened, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to escalate things.”

I turned to look up at him, blinking.

His blue eyes filled my vision. I was hyper-aware of the dark lashes that surrounded them. The pinch between his dark eyebrows as he studied me, concern on his face.

“You…” I breathed the word, unsure what I was trying to say.

“I’m so sorry, but we should really go—” Leo was cut off, my lips trapping any words in his mouth before they could escape. I was clutching his shirt in my fists, pulling him down while also stretching up on my toes, because he was so stupid tall. I released a little sigh in the back of my throat at the feel of his warm and smooth lips against mine, feeling just as I remembered, but also somehow better.

I released one fist from his shirt and slid my palm up his chest, towards his shoulder, before I realized something.

Leo wasn’t kissing me back.

He wasn’t moving at all.

He simply stood there while I kissed him.

I froze, my lips parting so I could gasp my humiliation at the realization. Our top lips lingered against each other for a second, before I opened my eyes in a panic and pulled my hands off of him as if he burned me.

Leo’s eyes were wide and his dark eyebrows were up, his cheeks had a faint flush and his lips were a little pinker. His dark pupils were expanded.

I stood there, looking between his lips and eyes in horror over what I had just done.

My mouth opened.

Then, my lips closed, I even went as far as to curl them between my teeth. As if I could hide the evidence of what I just did from him.

Leo blinked at me, his chest rising on a deep inhale while his eyes dropped to my mouth.

“Come back,” he whispered. Suddenly, one of his hands slammed on the roof of his car behind me. The other cupped the back of my neck. My mouth parted in shock just in time for his smooth lips to meet mine again, but as soon as I felt that familiar warmth of his kiss, I responded.

My blood was pumping, my heart was pounding, and I moaned in his mouth when my hands found the bare skin of his neck. I tangled my fingers in his dark hair, holding him to me just in case he changed his mind too soon.

Leo took control.

Just like I asked him to all those months ago.

It was as if he remembered what I needed.

He encouraged my lips to part for him, not wasting a moment before his tongue was tangling with mine. I almost couldn’t keep up, but when his hand left the roof of the car to snare his arm around my waist, pulling me flush against the front of his body, I felt my knees buckle.

Leo shifted us, and then my back and butt hit the closed door to the backseat. The passenger side door that he had opened for me moments ago was now forgotten as he towered over me, his hand tilting my head back so he could reach my lips.

I went to lift my leg, but my skirt restricted my movements, so I settled for hooking my calf around his.

In response, I swallowed his groan.

I couldn’t get close enough to him.

“Relax for me, love,” Leo murmured against my lips.

A piece of myself thawed at his words.

I dropped my leg, but Leo made up for that loss of contact by pressing me almost completely against his car. His hardness against all my softness. Even though my toes were on the ground, it felt like I was being held up against the car by the front of his body. Leo’s kisses slowed, but their intensity grew.