Page 115 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘I haveacceptedwho he is; it is not quite the same thing.’

‘After Mum died and then Dad was arrested and bailed…’ she said slowly.

Some of the heat died from his face. ‘Your mother always seemed like a nice person.’

She nodded, tears crowding her eyes. ‘She was, but I think when Alice died… Losing a baby, a child, like that, it has to change you.’ Hand on her throat, her chest lifted in a shuddering sigh. ‘I always wish I had told her—’

He watched as she stopped, a stricken self-conscious expression, quickly banished, flashing across her face.

‘Told her what?’

‘Dad was devastated by her death and then… I was furious with him after the arrest, you know, especially after the police rolled up at Mum’s funeral. We had massive rows and for the first time in years, I went to the stables. I even got on a horse.’ She vented a hard little laugh at the memory. ‘Just to punish him.’

‘Did you enjoy it?’

The question made her smile wryly. ‘I do love horses, but it turns out I’m not too good with heights.’

Her attempt to laugh at herself brought an ache to his throat. Leo was fully aware of the irony of his reaction. He had brought her here to punish her and he had fallen into the trap of wanting to protect her, but it was an impulse he had no intention of surrendering to. ‘It is hardly surprising you were so angry with him.’

‘I know, but…one night I came home. He’d been bailed awaiting sentencing the next day, but I still went out and left him. When I walked in there were empty pill bottles everywhere, and he was unconscious…’

The shock of her stark description nailed him to the spot. ‘Your father attempted to take his own life?’

She nodded. ‘It was lucky I came home when I did.’

Leo compressed his lips. Expressing his suspicions was not going to make anyone feel better, but he had to wonder, knowing the man as he did, if Sinclair had not very carefully timed his suicide attempt. Whatever the truth was, Amy being her father’s protector now made much more sense.

‘I don’t know why I told you that.’ Amy’s smooth brow pleated as her eyes lifted to his face. It was stupid, considering he had appointed himself as her enemy, but she felt a sense of relief in finally having shared it.

Her legs felt shaky and she just hoped they would hold her up. During the to-and-fro of their conversation, a heat and a heavy raw awareness had been building until she could almost see and feel the blue crackle in the air, and not just in her legs.

‘You’ve not eaten enough to keep a sparrow alive.’ His voice was a sexy, dark silk rumble as he pre-empted her intention to move away by coming to stand in front of her, effectively pinning her with her back to the counter.

‘I’ve had enough. I was breaking more health and safety rules than you can dream of by sitting on the work surface,’ she said, her voice sounding a little high-pitched.

‘I never dream of health and safety rules. Do you want to know what I dream about, Amy?’

Playing for time, she tucked stray strands of toffee-coloured hair behind her ears. The delay didn’t help as when she opened her mouth a squeak came out. Not that Amy heard it past the mindless clamour in her blood—a driving desire to touch him becoming so loud it drowned out everything else. A bomb could have exploded and she wouldn’t have heard it.

Her head lifted, her eyes half-closed, she could see the dark shadow of him through the delicate membrane.

‘Your mouth.’

She blinked her eyes open to see that Leo was staring at the mouth he’d just mentioned.

‘I dream about your laugh too…full-throated and the sexiest sound in the world.’

She gave a laugh now but it was nervous and breathless, more a sigh than a laugh.

‘I dream—’

Unable to stand further revelations, she cut across him. ‘Not of revenge?’

Her words hit him like a bucket of ice water.

The sexual tension moved below critical point as he acknowledged the charge with a careless shrug.

‘Another day, maybe? Right now, I want…’ He leaned in and touched her cheek with his thumb, running down the soft curve until it came to rest at the side of her mouth before moving to the curved seal of her lips. ‘I would like to explore every moist, warm crevice.’