Unthinkable (Unstoppable 2)

My chest pinched. “Leon—”

The smile wiped cleaned off his face, replaced by a look I couldn't decipher. But his eyes blazed, fire leaping from them; bright orange flames that licked at my skin and sent my temperature soaring.

Big hands clamped down on my hips, and he tugged. Caught unawares, he managed to position my pliant body between his spread thighs before I could even think to protest.

My mouth dropped open, my free hand landing on his jean clad leg. I stared down at it. “What are you doing?”

“You did it again,” he murmured, voice rough.

I frowned, struggling to catch a decent breath as his fingers sank into my flesh. “What?”

“You called me Leon.”

My head came up. I raised the glass to my lips and took a deep swallow. “I call you Leon all the time in my head.”

His lips pulled up on one side. “Good to know. Figured you’d call me asshole, or worse.”

Shrugging, I glanced away and said, “I do.”

He gave a light chuckle, those eyes burning a hole into the side of my face, the weight like the pull of a magnet, yanking my gaze back.

My mouth opened and words spilled out without permission. “How come you didn’t tell anyone about what happened between us?” I knew he hadn’t. I’d have heard about it before now if he did.

His head furrowed. “New Year’s?”

I nodded, wondering why the hell I’d brought it up when he still hadn’t.

He cocked his head. “Who would I tell, Snow Queen?”

I scoffed. “Everyone. Surprised you didn’t want to brag about your conquest.”

He gave a light snort, shifting on the table as he lifted a brow. “And what would I have told them, exactly? That we had sex, then you ran out on me in the middle of the night? That you blew me off and ignored every call or text for the past five months? Pretty interesting take on the word conquest.”

I fought the urge to snap my lids shut and escape the intensity of his stare; unyielding, unwavering, and way more perceptive than I could have prepared myself for. But it was the flicker of hurt in his eyes that threw me, that gripped something inside, and twisted.

He cared.

And I wanted him to.

“Why'd you run out on me, Lissa?”

My heart clenched at his quietly spoken words, my eyes skittering around the near empty room. Most people were in the kitchen or out by the pool now. I’d inadvertently set up a private Q&A with the one person whose questions I’d spent months avoiding. And yet, I’d instigated the whole conversation.

Lips suddenly bone dry, I dipped my tongue out to wet them and gave a small shrug. “It was a one-time thing.”

Leon’s head tipped to the side, eyes darkening. “Don’t remember agreeing to that.”

My heart broke into a gallop at his words, that, and the hungry way his eyes scoured my face. My black fingernails curled into the coarse fabric covering his thighs, and I had to forcibly slow my breaths as I tried to formulate a response. But the unbridled hunger and raw intensity burning from him killed my thoughts dead.

Swallowing thickly, I eased back from him. “It shouldn't have happened in the first place, Bradshaw. We don't even like each other.” My gaze travelled back to his face before I could stop it. “Right?”

The tentative hope in that one unplanned word speared me right through the middle, splitting me open and baring my soul in ways I never intended.

Leon pushed up from the table, moving until he towered over me and my back bumped against the wall, scant inches of space separating us. “That right, Snow Queen? You don't like me?”

His low rasp sent tingles floating across the surface of my skin, that cobalt stare producing a rush of heat that fled directly to my core. Gazes locked, I kept my lips tightly sealed, but I couldn’t break out of the hold he had on me.

“Well, if it isn’t our very own Elsa, back from sunny Florida.”