Fixation (Magnetic Desires Book 3) (5 page)

Leo

A war raged inside me as I stalked down the drive. My chest was on fire and my blood pounded through my veins. Hands clenched tightly to my sides, I tried not to explode. Lola had been a temptation I should have run from. Rubbing my temples with trembling fingers, I couldn’t escape the disgust twisting my gut.

I wasn’t a bad guy. So what if I refused to let another woman get under my skin? So what if every woman was fair game until they were no longer interesting, which was usually by the next day? Not once had I taken what they weren’t willing to give, but tonight I’d come damn close. Would I have held back if she’d pushed me away?

I slammed my fist into the cold brick wall. "Fuck."

Leaning my forehead against the gritty surface, I dragged deep breaths into lungs that ached.

I wanted to believe I’d have walked away, but my anger had pushed me past reasoning and control. It was the shock of it all, seeing her for the first time in six years. She materialized out of my dreams and into my brother's engagement party and it was like… it was like she’d never been gone. I’d wanted her as much as ever, but all the pain of her leaving had rushed over me and stirred my anger.

Gathering myself together, I made my way to my motorcycle. She was the problem here, not me. She was encroaching on my turf and stirring up trouble, and the only answer was for her to get the hell out of Reverence. So, I was going to follow through with my threat. I’d be on her ass, showing her she didn’t belong here, until she turned tail and ran like she always did. As I straddled the bike, I pulled my phone from my pocket and thumbed the screen looking for a little distraction. Glaring at the crack that ran the length of the screen, I called Natalie.

I didn’t have to wait long for her to answer. "Hey Nat, you want to meet me at mine?"

She chuckled. "Couldn't stomach all the feels, big boy?"

"A simple yes or no would be great," I bit out.

I shoved the phone in my pocket while the bike rumbled to life. In fifteen minutes, I'd have a bottle in one hand and a fine piece of ass in the other. The bike howled as I gave it more throttle and tore up the driveway. Fifteen minutes wouldn’t be long enough to undo what had happened here. If anything, fifteen minutes gave me ample opportunity to stew over the fact that faced with the ghost of my past, all I’d wanted to do was slide into her and claim her as mine all over again. Because of that, I’d overreacted.

By the time I slid off the bike, I’d gotten a grip. I sauntered into the house and dropped my jacket over the back of the couch. As I made my way into the kitchen, I pulled my shirt over my head and dumped it. Snatching the half-empty bottle of Jack from the counter, I stalked back into the living room and stretched out on the couch. I tossed the cap and put the bottle to my lips, letting the liquid gold glide down my throat.

The knock on my front door came faster than I thought it would, and I sat up as Nat enter. She raised an eyebrow as she took off her jacket and hung it by the door, revealing sexy lingerie. "That bad, babe?"

My mouth watered and I took another swig from the bottle while I worked my gaze over her. The deep red corset stretched over soft curves and defined all the parts of her body I wanted to touch, setting off the paleness of her skin and the rich ebony of her hair. She’d coupled it with a matching thong and thigh highs. I let out a low whistle. "Get over here."

With feline grace, she moved across the room and settled on her knees in front of me. Placing a hand on my leg, she slid it up my thigh and began working on my belt buckle. "What do you want tonight?"

I grimaced as Lola sprung to mind. The soft seduction of her plump lips and… I pushed the memory back. The only thing I wanted from Lola was to get the hell out of my life.

Leaning forward, I grasped Nat’s hair in my fist. "How about we start with you spread out over my kitchen counter. I’m going to take my time unwrapping you from this delicious contraption before I fuck you."

"Okay, then." She sat back on her heels. "Relax, Leo, let me take care of you."

The bottle empty, I stood and grabbed her, pulling her with me to the kitchen where I searched out another bottle. With a flick of my wrist, I twisted the cap free and tossed it at the sink before raising the bottle to my lips.

"Maybe you want to slow down?" Nat said, glaring at the bottle.

Slamming it down on the counter, I spread my fingers around her waist, lifted her up onto the counter and growled, "That’s not how this works, Nat."

With a shrug, she picked up the bottle. Putting it to her lips, she swallowed some of the Jack, and I watched her throat work before she passed it to me. "We might fuck a lot, but you and I were friends first. You can talk to me."

I gulped down a double shot and pried her legs apart with my other hand. Moving between them, I ground into her and she wrapped her thighs around me. "Since when do I ever want to talk?"

Taking the bottle back, she took a swig. "I’m saying you can if you need to."

Twisting her hair around my hand, I tipped her head back so I could run my lips over her throat while she swallowed. "Don’t ask me if I want to fucking talk. That’s not your place."

She whimpered as I brushed my fingertips over the wetness that seeped through her thong. "I get that, Leo, it’s just—"

"What?" I slipped my finger under the edge of her panties.

"You’re not hard."

Stepping back, I cupped my crotch. "Fuck."

Nat stared at me, a twinkle in her eye and her lips pursed as she tried not to laugh. "It’s okay. It happens."

"Not to me it doesn’t." Snatching the bottle out of her hand, I glared at her.

Legs folded up underneath her on the counter she travelled her gaze to my crotch. "So tonight was shit, obviously. What happened?"

The buzz hit me way too fast, and I clutched the bottle, which was now devoid of two-thirds of its contents, as I swayed. "My wife’s in town."

She gaped. "Seriously?"

I staggered from the room. Glancing at her over my shoulder as I stumbled into the living room, I said, "Never thought I’d see her again. Thought she was long gone, like she’d said in her note."

Nat was the only one I’d told about Lola. She was the only girl I’d dated since I married Lola, but we’d worked out pretty quickly that neither of us wanted that kind of commitment. The sex, though, was satisfying, so we’d given up the pretense of a relationship and called it what it was: friends with benefits.

Nat jumped down and followed me into the living room. "So what are you going to do?"

I yanked her coat from the rack and tossed it to her before slumping down on the couch. "I don’t know."

Nat finished buttoning her coat. "Well, when you deal with your problem." Again, she glanced at my crotch, but this time she added an eye roll for good measure. "Call me."

She let herself out.

I shut my eyes but darkness didn't come. Instead, it was like an old photo reel of the three weeks I'd spent with Lola. They had been the best damn weeks of my life, until the day I'd gone back to the hotel to find her gone. She'd taken the money, and all her stuff, and then to add insult to injury she'd left her rings in the drawer under the bathroom sink. She'd up and vanished, leaving me shattered and looking like a fool, but then, I had been a fool. The woman was a con artist. She’d told me that, and I still married her. Well, I wasn't a fool now, and despite how she'd gotten under my skin tonight, I wouldn't let her get the better of me again. Tomorrow, I’d find her and push her to leave. She had no business here in my world.

Lola

"Mom, get up."

Drawing out a groan, I covered my face with a pillow while Tia bounced mercilessly on the side of the bed. I peeked out from between half closed eyelids to find I'd forgotten to close the curtains last night and the burst of sunlight had me slamming my eyes shut again. "What time is it?"

"I’m hungry." Tia snuggled into me, pulling my arm around her.

"Mmmm." Sleep was so close and inviting.

"Mom, I want breakfast." Tia didn’t stay still long once she was awake. She climbed over me until I dragged myself up against the headboard.

"Why are you up so early?" I stretched my arms over my head, easing out the kinks in my muscles.

She flounced down next to me. "Aunt Mellie is taking me shopping today."

"Yeah, but that’s not for a while yet." I reached over to pluck a hair tie from the nightstand and pulled my hair back. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Mom?" There was something in her voice that made me pause. Climbing over to me, she placed her fingers on my neck, tracing an oval. "What’s this?"

Cringing, I scooted off the bed. "It’s nothing, baby. I had a little accident last night. Now you go down to the kitchen and I’ll get dressed. Then we’ll fix breakfast."

Tia jumped off the bed and skipped out of the room while I went into the bathroom to examine the evidence of last night's encounter. Staring at my reflection, I winced as I ran my fingers over the subtle ridges where he’d broken the skin and the purple-red of the bruising, which spread further than the outline of his teeth.

"Damn it," I muttered under my breath as I stripped and climbed into the shower.

Turning the water to a steamy heat, I examined my hips and thighs. The bruising there wasn’t as bad as the one on my neck, and blended into the less obvious bruises I sustained from work. I hugged myself as I let the water cascade over me. It had taken me hours to fall asleep after I left the party last night. The pain of the bruises had been masked by a type of euphoria at having been with Leo again, but his brutal words had left marks that ached far deeper. He didn’t want me beside him. Not even in the same town.

Tears sprung to my eyes, and I lifted my face to the spray. It wasn’t crying if you were under water anyway. I rushed through washing and shut off the water before grabbing a towel and wiping the steam from the mirror. Dumping out my makeup kit, I found my primer and went to work hiding the bruising. The last thing I wanted was to have to explain what happened to Mike and Mellie. Mike wouldn’t be so bad. He was protective of me and Tia in his own quiet way, but my sister wasn’t so easy going.

Dropping the primer back into the makeup bag, I surveyed my handiwork. I’d done a passable job of hiding the bruise, though I couldn’t hide the teeth marks yet since they were too fresh, a slight crusting the only obvious mark he’d broken skin. I brushed out my hair, left it down to cover the rest of the evidence, and went to get dressed.

Mike was already in the kitchen with Tia when I made my way down the stairs. He had a tea towel slung over the shoulder of his white shirt, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and he and Tia were singing as they made breakfast. Mike glanced up at me as I entered the room. "Feeling better today?"

"Yes." Hoping to throw him off from asking questions, I offered a wide smile.

"Good." He grinned. "We’re making French toast."

Grabbing glasses, I poured juice while he whisked the eggs into a frothy batter, and Tia cut the crust off the bread.

"Do you need a lift to work?" Mike handed the bowl to Tia who began dunking the bread into the mixture.

"Mellie’s coming to get Tia and take her shopping, so I can get a lift with her." I heated the pan and started cooking the slices Tia had coated.

"Well, let me know if you need a lift home." His words trailed off and I glanced up to find him staring at me. Brow drawn down into a line, he crossed to me and brushed my hair back from my neck. "What the hell happened last night?"

"Nothing." I prodded the bread with the spatula. "Just a run in with an old friend."

"Some friend," he muttered under his breath as he let my hair fall back to conceal the mess.

Mellie entered the kitchen and hugged Tia. "Good morning, sweetheart. Are you almost ready?"

Tia bounced. "Almost, Auntie Mellie."

Mellie pulled out the stool beside her and leaned on the counter. "Morning, Sis, Mike."

Mike dropped toast onto a plate and pushed it toward her. A sparkle lit his eyes, and one corner of his mouth rose in a smirk when he picked up a squeeze bottle of syrup and waved it in front of her face. "Syrup?"

"Yes." Her cheeks heated and she snatched the bottle from his hand as though his touch might burn her.  I pressed my lips together to keep from saying something about the obvious tension in the room, while he turned back to put more bread in the pan. My relationship with Mellie was still too raw to meddle in theirs.

I left them to their breakfast. "I’m going to go get ready for work."

***

I still had an hour before my first class started, which was plenty of time to get my coffee and stroll the two blocks to my studio. Setting up usually took me about thirty minutes so the temptation of barista coffee was too much to pass up. I opened the door to the cafe and went to order before finding a seat where I could read the newspaper while I waited.

"Thought I’d find you here." His deep voice startled me and I glanced up from the paper to find him hovering. He glared at me with his arms crossed over his chest, the sleeves of his T-shirt hugged mid bicep, outlining a bulky, muscular frame and showcasing the tattoos covering his arms.

"How did you know where to find me?"

Leo clenched his jaw, a nerve jumping in his throat. I waited for him to assault me with words but instead he pulled out a chair and sat down, stretching his legs underneath the table. "Our families are friendly, remember, or did you not realize that when you showed up at my brother’s engagement party?"

"That was your brother?" I folded the newspaper and smoothed out the front page, giving him my attention.

"Yeah, he told me you had a dance studio down here. But I remembered how much you liked coffee."

I raised an eyebrow. After last night, I’d expected bitter words and clenched fists, not this almost friendly conversation. "Some things don’t change."

"Don’t they?" He leaned closer. "It seems to me everything changes, Lola."

The barista called out my name and I jumped, my hand fluttering to my chest. Getting up, I took me coffee and made my way out of the cafe. Leo followed me, neither of us saying anything. I raced to find the right words to break through the silence, to make him not so angry. The fact that I had to tell him he was Tia’s father sat heavily at the front of my mind, but there was a time and a place and blurting it out in the middle of the street was probably not the time, nor the place.

"Why are you here, Leo?"

He matched his pace with mine as I headed toward work. "I was angry for a long time when you bolted. I still am."

"So you’re here to harass me until I leave?"

"Are you going to run?" He shoved his hands in his pockets.

Surprised he wasn’t carrying through with his threat, I inclined my head. "I live here now. My family is here so, no, I’m not going anywhere."

"Then it would be a waste of my time trying to get you to leave, wouldn’t it?"

"Yes, it would." Unlocking the door to my studio, I stepped inside.

He halted outside the door. "I want you to know that I’m putting you behind me and moving on. What I did last night, I’m sorry about that. It won't happen again."

Despite the circumstances, I wanted it to happen again. Right now, the man I had fallen in love with stood in front of me, not the angry, cold asshole from last night.

He turned his back on me and hoofed it down the pavement.

"Leo. Can we please talk?" I called out, and he paused but didn’t turn to face me.

"Whatever you’re planning to say, don’t,” he said. "I don’t need your lies." He raced across the parking lot and onto the street, heading back the way we had come. For a moment I simply stared after him, and then I turned on the lights and went into my office. It still seemed so surreal that six months ago, I'd been broken, destitute, and homeless, and now I had my own business, Poleverize, thanks to Mike’s backing. I settled into the comfy chair in the office. It had been my first luxury purchase and I was enamored with it. Slipping my ballet slippers off, I tucked my feet up under me and rested my head on the overstuffed, oversized back. With still a few minutes to set up before the first group of girls arrived for class, I practiced yoga breaths and visualized the tension melting from my body. Maybe Leo was right. Maybe it was time to let the past lay where it was. Except I still needed to find the guts to tell him about Tia.