Page 65 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

CHAPTER THREE

W ATCHING HER , Leo noted every shift of expression on her face, so familiar and yet so alien after all this time.

Curiosity had propelled him here. Curiosity and a stupidly childish desire for revenge, whether he liked to admit it or not, because revenge was a petty emotion, beneath him.

Take away those two things and only one thing remained which would account for his response to her, a response which defied logic and infuriated him: unfinished business.

‘I think I can help you out…provided you’re ready to take the deal I offer.’

‘Deal?’ Cassie asked hesitantly.

‘Interested?’

‘I thought you said that my catering company could never repay any loan you offered.’

‘Who said anything about a loan?’

‘Do you really think I would ever believe that you’d just give me money after everything that’s happened between us? I know how you feel about me. I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your voice. At any rate, I would never take money from you if it wasn’t a loan, Leo.’

Leo countered that with a slow, curling smile.

‘Gifts often come with price tags but, that aside, I expect you might very well take money from me if I threw it your way. One thing I’ve discovered is that people often say one thing very loudly but can always be persuaded to do the exact opposite when sufficient money is dangled in front of them.

In the nick of time, they’re usually prone to remembering the saying about pride coming before a fall. ’

‘You’ve changed so much, Leo.’

‘From what?’

‘You used to be so…gentle and kind.’

Leo flushed.

Gentle? Kind? It was a reminder that wasn’t welcome because he’d been as tough as nails from way too young. By the time he’d met Cassie, he’d been so tough, he’d been pretty much untouchable. Working in construction wasn’t a career that called for anyone of a delicate disposition.

But with Cassie, yes, he’d become a guy he’d barely recognised, though he’d liked that part of him—the part that had been gentle and kind. The part that had put her first.

He had let her tame him and he would never forgive himself for that misjudgement.

She had opened a door behind which his emotions had been kept under lock and key and, when she had walked away from him, he had returned those emotions to their vault but this time he had thrown away the key. It would never be used again.

It was good that she could see just how far he’d toughened up. For the deal he was about to put on the table, she’d do well to remember that he would never be up for grabs.

Once she’d been the rich girl and he the poor boy. Now the shoe was on the other foot and that was pretty much the beginning, the middle and end of it.

‘Want to hear the deal?’ Leo drawled and, when he knew he had her full, undivided attention, he sat forward, arms on his thighs and looked at her until she nodded.

‘We made love once and I haven’t forgotten just how good it was. You got cold feet and ran for the hills before we had time to really explore one another sexually.’

‘It wasn’t like that. I know it seems that way but I didn’t run for the hills. At least, not like you seem to think.’

Leo let her finish. ‘Let’s not get bogged down in details that don’t matter. Time’s moved on from then. What I’m proposing is that we pick up where we prematurely left off…’

‘You mean you want me to sleep with you?’

‘You catch on fast.’

‘How could you suggest such a thing?’

‘Unfinished business for me, Cassie.’ Just talking about it was a reminder of how good that one passionate encounter had been.

It had been mind-blowing. Sleep with her again, and he was sure he would discover fast enough that his rosy memories of that magical experience could be a thing of the past. He’d never found that level of passionate fulfilment with anyone else.

It was time for that particular ghost to be exorcised, and sleeping with her would definitely do the trick.

‘Not for me!’

‘Oh, we both moved on with other people, but neither of us is married and I’m currently unattached. What about you?’

‘I’m not going to have this conversation.’

‘But you haven’t heard what you get out of it.’

‘I’m not interested!’

‘Everything. Every single debt will be paid in full: no nasty creditors at the door; no unsympathetic company turning off the central heating as winter approaches; no stressed-out mother wringing her hands in despair at having to show the world how far the powerful Farraday family has fallen…’

Cassie stared at the man opposite her.

He was so devastatingly, sinfully beautiful and so casually ruthless. She should spring to her feet right now and march out of the door, whatever the consequences!

Then she thought of her mother…thought of how she would collapse when she knew the full extent of their penury. Thought of the disease burrowing inside her, which would be unleashed to run amok by the stress which would surely cripple her.

‘Why would you want that, Leo?’

‘Like I said, there’s unfinished business between us, Cass. I hadn’t realised till I got here just how powerful that can be and this is my golden opportunity to slay that particular dragon.’

‘You would force me into a situation like that? How would you be satisfied knowing that you’d manoeuvred me into doing something I didn’t want to do?’

Leo shook his head reprovingly. ‘You know me better than that. I would never force you into anything,’ he said softly. He looked at her with his head to one side. ‘You’re not married, are you?’

‘No.’

‘The lack of a wedding ring was the first thing I noticed. I’m surprised.’

‘Why?’

‘Given you listened to your parents when it came to getting rid of me, I would have imagined you’d also have listened to them when it came to hooking a suitable husband.’

‘I’m not a doll, Leo, to be positioned this way or that without any say in the matter.’

But Cassie blushed. Her parents had been appalled when she’d told them about Leo.

She’d been so excited, so flushed with love, tripping over her words as she’d laid out all her fairy-tale plans.

Then had come the revelation about her mother’s illness and their dismay that she would consider leaving Canada.

They’d insisted they needed her there because these times were frightening and uncertain.

The fact that it would have been Leo taking her away and not one of the boys she had grown up with, who would have been a known quantity, had filled them with dismay and confusion.

Oh, how she could remember the painful conversation, the way the enthusiasm to spread her wings with the man she’d fallen in love with had seeped out of her.

Her dad had actually cried and it had been the first time she’d ever seen him do that.

Never had she felt the burden of responsibility on her shoulders weigh more heavily as she had listened to him brokenly explain the hard road that lay ahead of them all.

Her mother had started to cry as well. The thought of losing her daughter to an unknown future far away with someone she’d never even met had been too much.

She’d said she would worry about Cassie, worry that she’d made a terrible mistake, that she’d be too far away to come home if she had to.

The worry would kill her before the illness did.

Her diagnosis was something Mary had insisted on holding close until she’d grown used to the horror of it.

She’d said no one could know, not yet—it was too raw.

She needed her family around her, just until she grew strong enough to face the inevitable.

She’d said she knew it was a big ask, knew that her baby had to fly the nest some time, but not yet.

So, Cassie had stayed put. She had ended their relationship by text, without telling Leo the truth, because there’d been no way out. What would be the point of meeting up to discuss it, talking about something that was already a done deal, the details of which she couldn’t even share with him?

She’d promised her parents that she would say nothing to anyone, least of all Leo.

And she’d known, in her heart, that if she had met up with Leo, he would have seen the secret she was trying to keep.

What would he have done? Would he have sacrificed his bright future at MIT for her?

Promised to wait for her? If he’d decided not to and walked away, how bad would he have felt at having had to make that decision?

She couldn’t have clipped his wings, never.

It had been easier to cut the ties between them completely.

But something inside her had died that day. She blinked and surfaced to what he was saying now, some response to her comment about her not being the sort of doll who could be positioned this way or that.

‘Although,’ he murmured, ‘I very much enjoyed your positioning the day we made love.’

‘Leo!’

‘I never forgot the feel of you,’ he said huskily. ‘Did you—forget the feel of me?’

‘Why does it matter?’

‘You still haven’t told me if there is someone else on the scene for you. Is there?’

Cassie blinked and looked at him. She tugged her thoughts away from where they’d been, dwelling on the past. No, she’d forgotten nothing. The memory of him had been preserved in her mind in all its wondrous glory.

‘That’s none of your business…’ She breathed.

‘It is if we’re going to become lovers. I’m not into treading on any man’s property.’

‘ Property? I would never be any man’s property .’

‘You’d be mine if we were together.’ Leo kept his dark eyes levelled on her annoyed face in unashamed appraisal before standing up and flexing his muscles. ‘I’m like that…’

He stood tall, hard as rock, with the body of someone honed to physical perfection. Cassie’s heart was beating fast. His offer had penetrated her brain but she still hadn’t really registered the enormity of it. She took a step back because his physical presence was so overpowering.