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“You weren’t in class,” she remarked, her voice carefully neutral.
“I know, I’m sorry,” he replied, looking at her with those piercing eyes that seemed to attempt to unravel her composure.“I had a lot on my mind and really needed to talk to you—one-on-one.”
The memory of their last encounter in her office lingered unpleasantly.She resisted the urge to tell him to leave, reminded again of the delicate balance she maintained as both an instructor and a protector.
“Alright,” she conceded, as she reached for her keys.“But make it quick, Leo.”
The lock clicked, a sound that seemed to resonate with finality, and she stepped inside, steeling herself against whatever Leo Dillard thought he needed from her so desperately.She ushered them both into the room.
“Please, have a seat,” Riley gestured toward the chair opposite her desk, her tone betraying none of the apprehension she felt.Then she settled into her own chair.
“Congratulations on cracking the Lancaster case,” Leo began, his voice smooth, almost rehearsed.“The whole Academy is buzzing about what a brilliant job you did.”
“Thank you, Leo,” she acknowledged.
He leaned forward, an earnest expression on his features.“Also, I meant to wish April a happy birthday.I hope she enjoyed it.”
A shiver of disquiet traced Riley’s spine as she contemplated how he knew about her daughter’s birthday.The private details of her life were not fodder for classroom exchanges or casual conversation.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice steady despite the alarm bells ringing softly in her mind.
His gaze lingered a moment too long before he continued, unfazed by her curt response.“You know, we should really spend more time together outside of class, get to know each other better.”
Riley’s fingers tightened around the edge of her desk.Leo’s voice snagged on her nerves like barbed wire, his words invasive than.
“I know about you and Bill Jeffreys—the relationship you have,” he said with an air of condescension that set Riley’s teeth on edge.“But he’s not right for you.He’s practically out to pasture—an old agent staring down retirement.”
The statement clanged in her head, discordant and presumptuous.She stood abruptly, her chair scraping back against the floor.“Leo, I think it’s time for you to leave,” Riley said, her tone brooking no argument.
The silence that followed was thick, charged with an undercurrent of defiance.Riley’s patience had reached its limit.She strode to the door and pulled it open.The gesture was clear: an unspoken invitation to exit, a dismissal she expected him to heed.
“Please,” she said, gesturing towards the hallway.
Leo rose slowly, his height unfolding like a shadow stretching.As he passed by her, he leaned in, his lips aiming for hers in a bold, unwanted advance.
Instinctively, Riley shoved him away, her hands firm and unforgiving against his chest.She pushed him beyond the threshold, her strength catching him off guard.Leo stumbled back, surprise etched on his face, but she spared no thought for his shock.
The door slammed shut with a resounding thud.Riley leaned against the wood, its solid presence a small comfort against the tremor that now shook her frame.
She told herself he was just an arrogant youngster, that his foolish advances shouldn’t bother her, if he persisted she would simply report him.But Riley had faced plenty of monsters—men and women whose minds were dark—and she recognized something of that in Leo.
*
The closing door echoed like a gunshot in Leo’s ears.He stood motionless, his hand still suspended in the air where Riley’s door had been a moment before.
Her face, stern and angry, lingered in his mind’s eye—an image at odds with the warmth he’d imagined between them.Confusion knotted his brow as he tried to reconcile the woman who had just shut him out so definitively with the one he had envisioned sharing his thoughts, his dreams.
The sting of that rejection ran deep, a wound to his pride and his heart alike.Where was the connection, the chemistry he felt sure was between them?What had he misread?
He had come seeking kinship, perhaps even understanding, but left with nothing but the echo of a closing door.As he walked away from Riley’s office, the fabric of his fantasies unraveled.The woman he thought he knew was now just an illusion.
The warmth he had felt in her presence, the domestic tranquility he yearned to be part of, all dissolved, leaving Leo grasping at the remnants of what never was.Riley Paige had embarrassed him, left him exposed and raw.She had drawn him in with her enigmatic aura, only to shut him out when he dared to lean too close to her flame.It was a cruel game she had played, whether she knew it or not, and for that, she must atone.
A steely edge crept into his thoughts, the gentle longing that once occupied his heart now replaced with a simmering anger.He would no longer be the discarded suitor, the footnote in someone else’s narrative.Riley Paige would come to understand the gravity of her mistake—he would make sure of that.
The cost of dismissing Leo Dillard as inconsequential was going to be terrifying and painful for Riley Paige.