Page 237 of Innocent

It’s what you do when you’re in a relationship for life.

Once that’s finished, I’ve signed the form, and Leo’s paid, Leo has a quick and private consultation with the piercer. Then we’re shown back into a room, where Leo smiles as he strips my shirt off.

Ooooh, boy.

“Hands behind your back, baby. Keep them there. Hold on to my belt if you need to.”

He stands behind me, and that’s exactly what I do—wedge my fingers under and around his belt and hold on tight. He wraps his arms around me, one hand cupping the front of my throat and the other around my waist.

“Such a good boy for me, baby,” he rumbles in my ear, and I’m…gone.

It doesn’t take long. While it hurts like fucking hell—and makes me hard at the same time—I barely even notice the pain. It’s the non-stop stream of praise and love Leo whispers in my ear that tightly grips me and keeps me still.

He’s always wished he could get Elliot’s nipples pierced. Now, mine bear small stainless captive bead rings and Leo bites down on the side of my neck, just behind my ear.

It’s all I can do to keep my knees from unhinging right there. He knows my body so damned well it’s nearly terrifying.

I love it.

And him.

Once the piercer gives us care instructions, along with a couple of bottles of saline solution Leo also purchased, he steps out and leaves us alone.

Leo turns me in his arms and cups my face, staring down at me. From the way his brown eyes look a little too bright in this light, and as dark now as a black cup of coffee, I know me doing this for him is an important step to him, maybe even more than I realized.

His voice sounds deep, hoarse, and brims with emotion. “I love you so fucking much, baby.” His thumbs stroke my cheekbones. “Thank you for coming back to me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of fond of you two chuckleheads. Someone has to keep your asses in line.” He answers my smirk with one of his own.

“I think Stella now hates you more than me, baby.”

“I hope so. I have a feeling Grace Martin does, too.”

His smile fades. “Be careful with her and her so-called ‘friends.’ Especially the ones from The Family.”

We’ve slipped into serious territory. His voice has cleared and sounds measured, deliberate.

“Don’t withhold info from me, Leo.” He’s already told me some darkly juicy tidbits about her, so I would know the kind of person I’m dealing with.

“Some things I cannot tell you, baby. You know that. You need plausible deniability. I’m expendable—you aren’t.”

“Wait, what?” I grab his hands, holding them. “You’renotexpendable, Leo.” Something akin to panic threatens to wash through me.

“Yeah, I am. You are Elliot’s Higher Power now. If I didn’t think you could handle it, you wouldn’t be there. There are things I cannot tell you right now, or maybe ever. Maybe you’ll never need to know them. What you will need to know beyond what I’ve already told you, I’ll tell you at that time.”

“How can I protect him if I don’t know?”

“All you need to know is if someone says they’re a close friend of Stella or Grace, keep them fromeverbeing alone with Elliot.Period.”

I hate that he won’t tell me everything, even though I understand why and grudgingly agree with his rationale. “The Family’s ramping up another run at him, aren’t they?”

He nods. “You put a kibosh on it by denying Stella her plus-one this weekend. They’ve already tried making passes through your background and they’re coming up empty, other than your parents. I already put it out there that the president considers you family, though. I tipped off a few well-placed sources about that phone call she made to your mom.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I wanted people to know if they ever try to touch you in bad ways that they will trigger a bunch of information landmines that will take them out.”

That terrifies me, but I also know he’s right. There’s literally nothing in my life, except my bad blood with my parents, that can be leveraged against me.