Page 137 of Blood in the Water

I cleared my throat by reflex, just in case any sounds wanted to stick, but it had been days since that had happened. “How’s it feel to have money again?”

Step one of Leona’s grand plan was to secure her and Caspian’s money. Since her father’s death, neither could access their bank accounts, including her trust or the investment accounts in her name. I’d transferred the funds to completely secure new accounts with my favorite Swiss bank, inaccessible to anyone except Leona, Cas, and their biometric signatures. It was nowhere near what the entire Vero Family fortune should be worth, but it was a start. Volpe wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on any of that money again.

“Honestly? Huge relief. I don’t like owing you guys things.”

I shook my head. “As of this earlier evening, it’s not a debt. It’s a business investment.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “So my clothes are a write-off?”

I rolled my eyes, suppressing my smile. “Seriously, though. Wynn will agree when I say you’re not incurring a debt. We’re helping.”

“Well, thank God, I get to contribute to the party.” She tilted her chin up. “Maybe I can start buyingyouall things. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I need a new gaming mouse.”

“Deal,” she giggled.

I let the lock of hair slip from my fingers, but I sat mesmerized as she picked my hand up from where it had landed on my armrest. She played with my fingers, brushing her thumb over my knuckles, interlocking our hands, and then moving them free again.

My speech didn’t seem to have any issues around her anymore. But my heart still stuttered at her touch regardless.

“Ciel, I like you,” she finally whispered, glancing up at me through her eyelashes.

My brain screeched to a halt. Did she say that? Or was I hallucinating?

“I’m afraid if I don’t tell you that to your face, you’ll keep looking at me like I’m a puff of smoke that will disappear through your fingers.”

Okay, so it was real. She was saying actual words and telling me she liked me. Was that the same kind of like that she so obviously felt for Wynn? It was, right? I wasn’t misreading this?

“You’re not a puff of smoke,” I hedged.

Leona had a way to tackle her problems head-on. She was confident enough to be honest with herself without fearing the consequences.

But me? I had always feared I wouldn’t be good enough, that I was defective and undesirable, and this situation was no different.

“You look at me like you’re content to watch, never stepping into the game yourself. I don’t mind the watching, so long as you’re not wishing you could participate.” She leaned forward in her chair. “Are you? If you aren’t, I won’t push it. The last thingI want to do is make you uncomfortable. But if you somehow think there would never be interest from me, you need to know there is.”

The more I spent time with her, the more I adored how her mind worked. I loved how her eyes lit up when she finally understood a new concept. I loved how she tackled problems with a tenacity that mirrored my own. She never gave up.

Was I going to give up before I had even tried?

No, I most definitely was not.

I wanted her.

Maybe I didn’t have to be afraid of rejection from her. Maybe she was actually a kindred spirit. And if she felt the same… how could I miss the opportunity to at least find out?

My fingers tentatively, gingerly, came behind her neck. Before I could let the fear talk me out of it, I tilted her head back and kissed her.

With all the contracts I’d completed, all the places I’d infiltrated, and the danger I’d lived in my entire life—thisfelt like the bravest thing I’d ever done.

Her mouth fit perfectly to mine, again a mirror of my being. Her lips were so damn soft, so supple. Her little pants, as I deepened the kiss, taking my time to drag my lips against hers, had my cock going hard.

This kiss was supposed to be slow. I’d hoped to pour all my unspoken thoughts into it and show her that I was quickly coming to believe she was exactly the piece we were all missing in our lives. I wanted to savor her, taste her, let her taste me.

But when she splayed her hand on my chest, leaned into the kiss, and gave a little moan as my tongue pushed into her mouth and brushed against hers, it awoke the fire inside my chest.

She squeaked as I yanked her to me, pulling her out of her chair and onto my lap so she straddled me. Her legs fit perfectly on either side of my lap.