Unthinkable (Unstoppable 2)

“Nothing,” I said, looking away. “My mom’s home tomorrow. I need to head home.”

His brows lowered. “Riley just said you didn’t bring your car.”

Shit. My teeth snagged my bottom lip, and I brushed my fingertips across my forehead.

Leon’s heavy sigh echoed around the secluded corner of the yard. He released my arms to fit his hands against his hips. “You promised you wouldn’t fucking run, Lissa.”

My heart pinched. “That was the other night.”

He was silent for a few seconds. “What if I meant longer? What if I never fucking want you to run?”

Every word he spoke felt like a hammer to my soul. “What do you actually want from me, Leon?”

He bridged the distance between us, dipping to snag my down-turned gaze as his hands closed around my face. “You, Lissa. I want you.”

My head came up, his face misty beneath the veil of tears begging to fall. “Just me?” I whispered, and my voice sounded like it belonged to someone else.

He exhaled, his breath rushing over my face. “Just you, baby.” His thumbs swept across my cheeks. “Only fucking you.”

“What about Ashley?” The words poured from me like an oil spill in the middle of the ocean… catastrophic, disastrous, unstoppable.

He frowned. “Ashley? What about her? Did she say something to you?”

I scoffed, my head shaking. “Nothing I didn’t already know.”

“You know better than to listen to fucking Ashley. She’s a twisted fuck who likes to spread misery.”

“But you’re happy to fuck her,” I countered, meeting his eyes with a hard stare.

His lids shuttered briefly, head dipping as he sighed. “I’ve fucked her, yeah, because I was a horny teenager, and she was convenient. That makes me sound like an asshole, I know, but I never led her to believe it was anything more, and she never meant anything to me.”

“Not like Riley.” The whispered words barely travelled through the thick air buzzing between us. They felt taboo falling from my lips. Poisoned words that should never have seen the light of day.

Leon’s brows pulled together. “What does Riley have to do with any of this?”

“You’ve always wanted Riley. Everyone else is just second best; a substitute.”

“Lissa,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “I don’t want Riley. I haven’t wanted Riley for a long time.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me and say she means nothing to you, either.” I spat the words, my eyes flashing as I blinked to ward off the moisture.

“I won’t,” Leon murmured, his hands stroking up and down my arms. “I have a lot of love for Riley. She’s one of my oldest friends, one of the best people I know. I’ll always love her.”

He paused, and my heart twisted. How could I adore my best friend and agree with everything Leon was saying, but hate

the way the guy standing in front of me felt about her? Self-loathing burned a path straight to my wounded heart.

I turned to leave. He let me go three steps before his voice locked my feet in place.

“I love her, Lissa, but I’m not in love with her.” I felt him draw closer, felt the heat from his body before he molded it to mine and smoothed his hands down my arms. “I’ve never been in love with her.” He pressed impossibly closer, those strong arms coming around me and linking at my waist like iron clamps. His breath floated over my cheek. “Wanna know how I know that, Snow Queen?”

My throat squeezed, heart smashing into my chest, his words robbing me of the ability to think.

Leon was a storm I hadn’t seen coming. He’d dropped on top of me without warning and obliterated the shield around my heart. He’d left me standing in a daze, looking around at the destruction left behind in his wake.

I was defenseless, stripped bare, turning a full circle amongst the wreckage—a blockade of debris too high to scale. Trapped.

But were you truly trapped if you didn’t want to escape?