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“Do you want to risk infuriating him with the decision to retire on top of that right now?”
“He’s not going to like it,” she said softly, running her hands over her neck. “Mario’s going to be apoplectic at our...new relationship.”
Leo took her hand in his and squeezed, willing her to trust him. All he wanted to do was kiss that tension off her mouth, to hold her until he could feel those lush curves against his, until he could calm her down like she had done him so long ago. But...if he did that, it wouldn’t stop there.
He would seduce her, and he knew without being arrogant that she would reciprocate.
And then what? What would happen when he lost interest and moved on? When hers was the face he’d have to disappoint?
Neha pulled her hand back slowly. He didn’t miss that she rubbed that palm against her hip. Or that she remained wary of the distance between them. “Okay. I agree to your plan.”
“Good,” he said. He could always count on her to be logical and rational. “What’s next for your plan, then?”
“You have to have blood work done. Mine’s done. I’ll have a couple of appointments with the IVF specialist first and then we can decide the logistics of when and where...”
Embarrassment dusted her brown cheeks a slight pink, but Leo refused to break eye contact. There was something incredibly satisfying to his male pride to see her blush like that. To see that composure of hers falter at such an intimate subject at least.
“When and where I make my contribution. Does that work?”
He smiled when she nodded.
“I don’t know much about it, but you have to take hormone injections, sì?”
“Yes. It’s a...little bit invasive and painful but I want to do this.”
“I’ve never doubted your resolve, cara. You will call me if it gets too much or if you need a supporting presence there.”
“Will I?” she said, a naughty smile dawning in her eyes, unfurling a beauty that made his body hum with desire, ache for contact. “Don’t get all arrogant and commanding on me, Brunetti.”
“Don’t forget this is a partnership, Fernandez,” he replied in the way they used to tease each other a long time ago. Dio, the woman had always been so strong. And it was the strength that attracted him, that will to keep going on in the face of adversity. “Everything will be all right, Neha. I’m glad you came to me.”
“I hope so. I...”
Eyes wide, breath hitching loud enough for him to hear, she came at him. And hugged him. Hard. The press of her body against his was a pleasure of mere seconds, gone before he could revel in it. The scent and warmth of her fleeting heaven. Her hands on his shoulders, she kissed his cheek, and a shiver of anticipation built inside him. Anticipation that would never deepen into more. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said, pulling back. “I promise you, Leo. You’ll never regret it.”
Leo pulled her arms from around his neck and took a step back. Putting distance between her and him. Giving his discipline a fighting chance.
Every muscle in his body flooded with the awareness that here was a woman who was his match in every way. A woman who’d never ask him for more than he could give, a woman who would be the absolute best mother to any child they had, a woman that would always make him laugh and want.
Awkwardness flashed in her eyes before she fiddled with her clutch again.
As he watched her walk out of his bedroom, Leo stayed leaning against the bed. He turned his neck around, tension clinging to his frame.
Cristo, now even his bedroom smelled of her.
The rest of the day, he wondered if he would come to regret his decision. Because he had tied himself irrevocably to the woman he desperately wanted and could not have.
NEHA WALKED ONTO the picture-perfect balcony attached to her suite and took in the astonishingly beautiful view of the grounds surrounding the villa and the glittering lights of Lake Como. After a relaxing day at a luxurious spa and lunch at a café overlooking the beautiful canal district of Navigli with Natalie’s irreverent companionship, Neha was equipped to face the evening.
Greta’s eightieth birthday celebrations—the perfect event for Neha and Leonardo’s first public appearance as an official couple. Today, they’d confirm the rumors that had already been whipped into a frenzy by Leo’s carefully orchestrated trips to her offices, even at the opening of a new, trendy café in London.
They’d seen more of each other in the last two weeks than they had in the last fifteen years. He was doing it for the press coverage, but she struggled mightily to not fall into the fantasy right out of her head.
Like sending her favorite exotic orchids the day after she’d returned from Milan.
Like showing up at work last night and packing her off to Lake Como so that she could attend Greta’s party and get a weekend away in the process. Neha had protested at first—it was a whole extra day she didn’t need to bunk.
“You expect me to accept the fact that you want to retire seriously, and yet you won’t cut yourself a break after an eighty-hour week,” he’d said, his powerful frame shrinking the size of her vast office. The broad sweep of his shoulders had electrified her senses after a long day, the reality of seeing him in her space making everything she’d set into motion achingly real.
The attraction she felt for him all the more painful to deny for he was just as out of reach now as ever. But he’d been right about her needing a break.
The two weeks since she’d returned had been packed with back-to-back meetings, a visit to a newly launched bakery in east London where she hadn’t been allowed inside the huge, state-of-the-art industrial kitchen but posed for pictures with delicious treats she hadn’t created, and reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of contracts with the legal personnel for a book deal she was going to sign soon.
A cookbook with her brand name but the actual recipes had been created by a team of world-class chefs.
She’d been thrust right into her soul-sucking life and desperate for escape, but Neha had given in. Even as the cautious part of her whispered that running away with Leo and to Leo was a dangerous habit.
Every free moment of the last two weeks had been spent replaying that scene between her and Leo in his bedroom. She’d fantasized in the most wicked detail what it would have been like if she’d taken his mouth for a kiss she’d wanted for so long. If she’d asked him to conceive their child by making love to her...
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