Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) Read online

  A smile spread on his face.

  She looked away from the adorable sight.

  “The truth is, I’m really glad you called me,” he said.

  The song changed. A lower bass and slower beat sailed through the air.

  “R. Kelly, huh?” Jessica said, her voice hitching. “When I chose this playlist I thought it was ‘Fucking Music’ not ‘Fucking Music.’ Is the next track going to be a Marvin Gaye classic?”

  His head fell to the side and he covered his eyes with a groan.

  Her eyes ran over his long body, and her heartbeat picked up. “Why were you glad I called you?”

  He lifted his head again, accepting the bottle when she offered it. “I guess I needed someone to talk to.”

  She watched as his lips tugged at the rim of the bottle, shifting when she instantly pictured her clit in its place.

  “Some pretty fucked-up things went on after our date.” He took an extra swig before handing the bottle back to her. He waited for her to take a swallow. “Some dude hung himself in Rome’s apartment.”

  Jessica feigned shock as best she could. “Oh my God. That’s awful. How’s Roman?”

  “Withdrawing. Again. Took us an entire day to find him.”

  “Did he know the guy?”

  “Wouldn’t say. We went by his place in Brooklyn, and he’s fine. But I feel like there’s a lot he’s not telling us. Or maybe just me.” Leo shrugged.

  “What do you mean?”

  He squinted into the distance. “You know that feeling, when you’re surrounded by people who know you better than you know yourself, but you can’t really say the same about them?”

  Jessica took a heavy swallow.

  His eyes hit hers. “That’s how I feel about my brothers sometimes. Like they’re in some secret society, just letting me tag along out of pity. It’s so strange, because I never used to feel that with Rome, but now it’s coming from him too. Like I’m not part of their crew.”

  Jessica frowned around a few more chugs to keep herself from telling him that his brothers were harboring secrets from him, that he had no idea how lucky he was to be in the dark, and that his brothers were keeping him there because they loved him.

  The butterflies in her stomach seemed to catch a case, and her body went sick with them. She wanted Leo in the dark too, just like his brothers did. She didn’t want to be the reason he was bulldozed with the truth.

  He watched their feet as they played together. “Sometimes I feel like that guy no one really likes, or wants around.”

  Jessica frowned. “Your brothers love you, Leo.”

  He sighed. “I begged Rome to come stay with me at my place, but he doesn’t want to leave Angie. They’re holed up in a property he owns in Brooklyn Heights. He calls it an apartment but it’s really a detention center. Took us twenty minutes before security would even let us through the door. Shit is locked down like Alcatraz.”

  “Sounds like the perfect New York apartment. I’d ask if they were taking applications if I didn’t already know they’d laugh my salary out the door.” Jessica took a deep breath, relieved to hear that Roman had taken Angie somewhere safe.

  “I’m just tired of seeing Rome taking shots he doesn’t deserve. He’s just getting the shit kicked out of him left and right. He always took care of us when we were kids. It makes me crazy that he never lets us take care of him.”

  “You guys are used to protecting each other. I can understand how hard it is when he won’t allow you to.”

  Leo met her eyes and smiled. “Let’s change the subject,” he begged, his smile growing bashful.

  She looked away.

  “Okay, change of subject,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me about young Leo? What was Leo Romanovsky like in high school?” Her teeth were already grinding. “Was it true what Gary said about you and that Ethiopian girl?”

  “I was an asshole in high school, and Gar has a big fucking mouth.”

  “I think he’s sweet.”

  He chortled.

  “And funny,” she added. “I almost died when Zoey was talking about him being her man of honor for the wedding.”

  “Zoey is a completely different story with him.” Leo’s eyes widened. “Fucked-up as it is, I’ve always been surprised that Val is the one who ended up in bed with her. My money would have been on Gary.”

  “He’s in love with her?”

  “He’s attached. He is her man of honor because he cannot tell her no. He’ll complain all day long, but he will never deny her.”

  Jessica couldn’t help herself. “What about that girl he claimed you terrorized in high school? Beer Belly Borgia?”

  Leo groaned. “Listen,” he said, unable to even look at her. “I terrorized Jessica…” His eyes met hers. “Her name was Jessica…”

  A new feeling zapped through her, and her spine arched. She’d never heard her first name come out of his mouth.

  “I terrorized Jessica, because I liked her.” He breathed deep.

  Jessica almost gasped, watching as he took another healthy swallow of wine. Thankfully, she managed to bite it back. “You called a girl you liked… Beer Belly Borgia?”

  Leo studied the bridge, a nostalgic smile pulling his lips. “I liked her. She was into cars, guns. Wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Told it like it was. A fighter. Just a cool-ass chick. She had a shape that did things to me…” He gave her an apologetic look. “In the most respectful way possible.”

  Jessica’s jaw had gone to mush, and she was unable to snap it back.

  “When I called her Beer Belly Borgia, it was an erroneous defense against the confusing feelings I had for her. I really liked her a lot.” He shrugged. “But I was a kid. She was a little overweight, not very conventionally attractive, my friends would’ve laughed, and I cared way too much about what those idiots thought, so I did all I could to hide my crush. She actually…” Leo shifted so he could get a better look at her.

  Jessica pulled her knees to her chest and fanned her hair into her eyes, which she lowered the moment he looked at her, biting her bottom lip.

  “She was kind of exactly like you.” He squinted. “She even sort of looked like you.”

  “Because all black girls look alike?”

  “Of course not. That’s not what I meant.”

  Jessica snuck a look at him from under her eyelids. She knew that wasn’t what he’d meant, but she was desperate to derail his thoughts. She looked like Beer Belly Borgia because she was Beer Belly Borgia. She feared if Leo looked too long, something would click.

  “I just meant that… If I’d gone on a date with Jessica back then, I might’ve found a Glock sliding out of her purse just like a damn Glock slid out of yours.”

  Jessica chortled, hiding her face in her knees.

  “And you’re into cars?” he pressed. “And you got jokes on me all day? And the damn locusts might come before you finally throw me a smile? You’re a lot like her, personality wise. And, I’m sorry, but you look like her.” He squinted harder when she continued hiding her face. “You really do.”

  “So you’re a changed man?” she asked, lifting her head from her knees and looking in the opposite direction.

  “I’m older now,” Leo insisted, pushing her hair back behind her ear when she fingered it over her face. “I like a shapely woman. I’m no longer at war with that part of myself. Today, if a woman does it for me, regardless of what size she is or what she looks like, she’s going to know about it. If she turns me on, flips my switch, makes me smile… she’s going to hear all about it. Regardless of what my friends or family think. If I could go back and tell Jessica how fast she flipped my switch, I would do it in an instant.”

  She played her fingers against her knees. “Do I flip your switch?”

  He breathed in. “Ashley?”

  The sound of that name annoyed Jessica in a way it never had before. Now that she knew what her real name sounded like spilling out of those lickable lips, hearing Ashley come out in
stead would simply never do.

  “You flip them all,” he finished.

  ***

  Their bodies inched closer as the moon rose high, melting into the playlist, and into each other. Leo’s hand found solace on her lower thigh, hers on his tattooed arm, tracing the art. The wind blew the empty bottle between them onto its side as Leo moved his hand from her thigh to her earrings. Neither moved to steady it, and as it slipped through a crack in the wood and crashed onto the rooftop a hundred feet below, Jessica could only hope an innocent bystander hadn’t taken the blow.

  She just couldn’t care.

  Not when Leo’s hands were moving languidly through her hair, down her arms and back along her thighs. She was in no hurry to get them off. Neither of them were, finding themselves wrapped in each other’s arms again, watching life zoom by in a flurry of headlights on the Brooklyn Bridge. They remained cuddled close long after the headlights began to die down.

  Leo ran the tips of his fingers along her arm while she brushed his strong thigh with hers, stopping just short of the swell at the zipper of his jeans. Their feet continued their play, and soon Leo learned how to pinch with his toes too, trapping hers, sending sharp giggles bubbling from her lips.

  They whispered to each other, and his longing eyes searched hers, changing color under the rising moonlight as they fell to her lips. He’d watch them move as she spoke, and then lick his own. His gaze would take on a hunger that was indescribable, and then something would happen. Something in his mind would speak to him, and he would breathe in deep, forcing his eyes away from her lips and back up to hers.

  She caught his gaze, noticing his apprehension. How could he be afraid when she sat there running her fingers along his thigh, mere inches from where they both needed it most, throwing herself at him, throwing her job down the drain, her professionalism to the wolves, just as thirsty for his lips as he clearly was for hers?

  She shivered, and wasn’t sure if it was with blind need for his lips, or the soft chill that was settling in.

  “Cold?” He swept the tip of his nose along hers, smiling when she trembled again. “Come here.”

  She cuddled in when he offered the warm blanket of his arms, wrapping hers around his waist while pressing her cheek against his chest, feeling his heart pounding against it. She sighed when he enveloped her completely, encasing her in the warm shelter of his embrace. Feeling that deep warmth in an instant, and in every part of her body, she threw her legs over both of his to help keep him warm too. When she did, he released a low, gravelly moan and then pulled her onto his lap completely.

  She moaned as she slid on top of him and his solid desire hit her center. She nestled into it, curling her legs and gasping as the hardness hit her entry, trailing her fingers down his chest when her body responded in kind. She cradled her head on his shoulder, lips parting, flesh now primed for a release only he could give. She fought the urge to grind against him, knowing she was already dangerously close to the point of no return.

  He hugged her closer, and his breath warmed the top of her head. For a long while, they breathed each other in.

  “Can I take you home?” he asked.

  She couldn’t help a smile. Keeping her arms around his waist, she pulled her head back and met his eyes.

  He drank her in with hooded eyes. “I don’t want this night to end.” He tightened his hold on her. “I want to make love all night, and then again tomorrow morning in the shower. I want to wake up and see your face.”

  She listened to his words, the way they shook, and she damn near said yes. “I don’t sleep with boys on the second date.”

  His eyes jetted back to her lips. “You’re just hurting me,” he whispered, smiling when she squeezed him in response. “You just love hurting me.”

  “I’m not trying to hurt you. I think you’re amazing, and funny, and incredibly sexy.” She smiled when he tightened his hold. “I just have my standards as a woman. Standards that I stick to.”

  All bullshit.

  Any other circumstance, and she’d already be jacking him off right there on that tower, getting his spunk all over her fingers, laughing as she threatened to slap him with it, or something equally vulgar.

  He swallowed.

  She watched his Adam’s apple move. Sensing his nerves, and finding them adorable, she reached to cup the arm he had slung over her shoulder, but he stopped her, guiding her hand to the button of his jeans, pulling it in deeper, so close to his dick she was left breathless. Her quaking fingers itched to cup it, stroke it, feel its hardness and let it confirm that he was feeling everything for her at that moment that she was feeling for him. She wanted to stroke him to completion, show him the deepest depths of pleasure. She wanted to be the one to give that to him.

  Her eyes met his, and she realized she didn’t need to check if he was hard to know what he felt for her. It was right there in his eyes.

  “Do you kiss on the second date?” he asked.

  The wire that was strapped under her dress felt like it was stabbing her. Chet was out there somewhere, listening, absorbing every word of this conversation like the latest episode of Scandal.

  So, instead of answering Leo, her eyes fell to his full lips, and she nodded. Her heartbeat picked up the moment she did, making her throat tremble. Every breath she took wobbled, and when she found the courage to look up into his eyes, his were riveted to her lips too.

  He leaned in and then stilled.

  Her eyes were trained to his lips, tracing their shape, already aching to suck the bottom one into her mouth, brush it with her tongue. It was so plush and pink, she feared she might bite it off in her desperation to eat him alive.

  With a deep breath, he found the grit to close the space between them.

  Their lips met tenderly, and the shot of feeling seemed to hit them both at once, causing a simultaneous gasp. They held on until the lack of oxygen forced them to pull back.

  He moved his arm from her shoulder and cupped her cheeks, watching her lips with a soft shake of his head before going in again.

  She parted for him, catching the soft cloud of his bottom lip between hers. A moan left her in unconscious reply to the thrill of feeling that lip between hers. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted it until her pussy surged with warmth, the moisture causing her to cross her legs tight in an attempt to fight it, but it only put friction on her aching clit, turning her on more. She released his lip with a smack, moaning as her center thudded in anticipation, just to go right back in and catch it between her teeth.

  He breathed out a laugh as she nibbled his bottom lip, but lust took over in an instant, tightening his brows as she moved to his top lip and licked it with the tip of her tongue.

  His tongue dipped out too, sweeping hers.

  When he dove in for more, Jessica pulled away, turning her head away from him when a new song came floating through his phone.

  The melody hit her hard and sliced through her senses, blasting her back to the real world. She looked toward the phone with wide eyes, gasping for breath, even as Leo’s lips went to her neck, looking for any alternative to her absent lips, trailing a blazing fire up to her ear.

  “This song,” she gasped, her heart racing.

  Leo pulled back, taking her hand. “You like this song?”

  Her wide eyes met his. Once upon a time, she’d loved this song. Now, looking at him, still feeling that delicious lip in her mouth, between her teeth, she’d never hated this song more.

  He tugged her hand. “Dance with me.”

  She let him pull her to her feet and they faced each other on shaky legs, still moved by the soft kiss they’d shared. Her knees wobbled, not because they’d been sitting for hours, but because her core was in shambles from the beginning strings of John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.”

  The first verse wafted through the speakers, and the moment Leo’s eyes softened, Jessica’s fell to the wood planks at their feet.

  The sultry guitar strings
clawed at her heart, and the smooth tone of Mayer’s voice sent a sharp sting blazing to her eyes.

  Leo laced their fingers as the bass dropped in, pulling her. When their chests tapped, another blast crackled through her.

  Jessica went to step back, but Leo took her arm before she could and wrapped it around his neck. He did the same with her other arm, locking them around his shoulders before he claimed the small of her back and pulled her in close.

  Their bodies melded, rapid heartbeats thudding together until they were muddled, unidentifiable from each other. Jessica’s eyes fell when his gaze only grew more intense, hiding her face in his chest, under his chin, pressing her lips between the strong collarbones jutting out of his t-shirt. Her attempt at escaping the intensity of his eyes was squandered when she was re-claimed by his enticing scent.

  She pressed her parted lips against his chest, eyes jammed shut as she breathed him in, moaning against his skin. She felt his heart slamming into her hot lips, and every lyric of the song seemed to take on an acute new meaning.

  Her eyes fluttered closed when his warm breath tickled her hair, soothing her pounding skull as he pushed his lips against it. She felt him breathe deep, pulling her in tighter as he did, his hardness clear against her stomach as he moved his lips to her ear, pressing the side of his head against hers.

  “I really like you,” he whispered.

  His fingers tightened around her waist, clawing the fabric at the small of her back, brushing his other hand up and down her arm. He kissed her shoulder, his breathing ragged as he brought his lips back up to her ear, feathering a kiss to the lobe.

  “My family and I are attending Governor King’s fundraising gala at the end of the month. I’d like you to be my date.” He deepened the hold he had on her, fisting the fabric of her dress at the small of her back.

  Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to find her words, croaking, “You’re booking me a month out?”