Page 145 of A Lethal Game of Trust

“Come on,” I said, and I hated to briefly let go of her, only to reach for her the second I opened the passenger door.

Leonie kicked off her heeled boots, leaving them beside the car. It was the only one in the lot. We were the only couple mad enough to be here on a Tuesday in January at nearly midnight.

We’d been mad enough for that to be regular eleven years ago.

We sat, our backs against one of the mounds of sand, and Leonie pulled her knees up to her chest as she watched the waves crash onto the shore.

“I missed you,” she said, leaning back on my shoulder.

I pulled her close, planting a kiss on her head. “I missed you unbearably. How are you feeling?”

She raised and lowered a shoulder. “Better. It’s sinking in.” Then she straightened to turn and face me. “How are you feeling? I’ve been so selfish, you just…”

I only tugged her back. “Fine,” I told her. “In that regard, I’m fine. I’m just worried about you.”

Searching my eyes, those deep blue pools darting from one eye to the other in scrutiny, she said, “There’s something.”

“I have some questions,” I admitted. “But now is not the time. We’ll get to them. We’ll get to them.”

“Ask me,” she begged, lifting a leg and placing her foot between mine so we were a tangle of limbs. “Distract me.”

“I can distract you with other conversation—”

“Ask me.”

My sigh was deep and long, but she moved back into the position we had frequented only when we were alone as teenagers. She came to sit between my thighs, leaning back on my chest.

Playing with a wave of her hair, I asked, “Did you ever for a second think I could do that to you?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “I did. I told you I did, but that was my… I mean, look at it from my point of view. All I could think was you turned off the security cameras and then you were furious with me.”

“If I knew that was going to happen, why wouldn’t I just stay away, Leo?”

“I’m not saying it’s rational. A lot of what I’ve done hasn’t been,” she admitted. “But… to finish answering your question, I didn’t truly believe it for long. I bumped into Jared in Paris.”

Even hearing his name made me stone beneath her. “Jared,” I repeated.

“He told me what you said to him while I waited for you inthe car.” She breathed in deeply and swivelled around to face me. “You told him there and then that I was yours. That if he even thought of me, you’d have him killed. You said any threat to me, and you’d personally take him down to hell.”

I had said pretty much those words exactly.

“You told him I meant everything to you there and then.” She smiled softly, looking down at the small gap between us. Then, her smile froze. “Do you still love me?”

“Of course,” I said and laughed in disbelief. “Nothing could stop that. You could have killed my dad and, as much as I would have been devastated over it, if he had hurt you like that… I can’t just turn my feelings for you off. I’ll never be capable of that.”

She nodded and pressed into my chest.

I finally had her in my arms again and held her close, enjoying the coconut scent of her shampoo and the warmth of her against me.

“I’m sorry for leaving,” she apologised. “I should have spoken to you. I knew I could trust you; I’ve known all along, but it was all a mess in my head. I felt so vulnerable.”

“You’ve been a true Belov these last few months,” I complimented. “Taking no shit, getting stuff done. Rebuilding the Castillo name.”

“It doesn’t mean anything when I wasn’t with the Belov I wanted,” she said sadly.

“Did you ever nearly come back? As in, back to stay?”

“Every time I got on a plane. I rented out your flat in the hopes you would realise. I walked past your office, the same walk we did when we lived together… I wanted you to find me, stop me and… and tell me it would all be okay.”