Her thoughts a complete jumble Lexi did the only thing she could—she fled. Down the hall and straight into Ty’s room.
Leo woke, feeling as if he had a hangover. He’d slept, fitfully and the recurring dream he’d had on and off since his brother’s death had returned last night to haunt him. Of course he knew why, but he didn’t want to think about that any more than he wanted to recall Sasha’s death. A death he had inadvertently caused.
Leo turned his head to the side, as if that might dislodge the heavy guilt shrouding his heart, and caught the faintest trace of vanilla. Instantly another memory, a much more pleasurable one, slammed through his body and turned him as hard as stone.
Lexi Somers. She’d woken him and he’d momentarily thought it was his father attacking him. Had he hurt her? His mind sifted through the way he’d gripped her arms and brought her under him, the feel of her soft curves, the warm V of her thighs as she’d cradled him intimately. Her taste … like the sweetest dessert …
Leo closed his eyes. There was something about her that had called to him since they’d met, so coming fully awake to find her under him had been too great a temptation to resist.
Chort vozmi.
He hadn’t meant to kiss her but she’d said his name and lifted herself against him and what was a man supposed to do with that? The natural thing, of course.
Shafts of pleasure pulsed his groin as he recalled the feel of her mouth, the touch of her fingers.
He cursed again.
He couldn’t remember ever being so turned on and if she hadn’t stopped him he’d have buried himself inside her with no questions asked.
He pushed out of bed and padded into the bathroom. He didn’t bother shaving and just rolled straight into the shower, welcoming the stinging bite of icy-cold water as it lashed his shoulders and overheated torso.
He leant his forehead against the wall and refocused his mind. He had a massive weekend planned. The maiden voyage of his new super-yacht, Proteus, which he had helped design and which he planned to use as a prototype to launch a new area of his business—building first-class environmentally powered yachts, ferries and ships. But first he had to convince the Greek environmental minister to sell him land in Thessaly for a new cutting-edge ethanol plant that could revolutionise the world’s use of friendly fuel sources and one he needed to power his future ships.
Then there was Ty. For most of the night he’d tried to figure out how to handle things this weekend, Lexi’s questions about why he didn’t know him and her assertion of how much Ty needed him weighing heavily on his conscience. The trouble was he couldn’t look at Ty without thinking of Sasha and he couldn’t think of Sasha without getting emotional—something that made his blood curdle. Emotions led to two things in his experience—weakness or violence—neither of which he wanted to let into his life. Which was why, despite his guilt, he’d stayed away from Ty. It would have been selfish to have done anything else and the last time he’d acted selfishly his brother had lost his life.
Sighing heavily, he quickly pulled on his usual work attire and paused outside Ty’s partially opened doorway. Not hearing any sound, he pushed the door further open to check if he was up.
What greeted him was the sweet curve of Lexi Somers’ backside in the pale pink panties he’d shoved his hand into not a few hours ago. She was asleep on her side, his T-shirt bunched around her waist, her magnificent hair like a dark flag streaming out behind her, her body curved like a protective bow around the small form of his son.
Leo felt a vice grip his heart and absently rubbed his chest. They both looked so innocent, so untouchable, and his mouth tightened as he forced himself to turn away and leave the room.
He should never have agreed to take them to Greece.
CHAPTER FIVE
A THOUGHT that had only grown stronger since his private plane had taken off from Heathrow an hour ago. Having worked with Danny for the past hour, he now cupped his hands behind his head and stretched his legs out in front of him.
His eyes cruised Lexi Somers’ creamy complexion and lowered to her even white teeth as she smiled at something Ty said. They were sitting on the floor playing with toy cars Lexi had insisted he buy at the airport. She was wearing a plain T-shirt and denim jeans with her hair in a ponytail and should have loo
ked like any other girl, but she didn’t. She had an understated sexiness that she didn’t seem to be aware of and while he appreciated that the scrubbed, girl-next door image turned some men on, he hadn’t numbered among them before now.
He wondered how lover boy had taken the news that Paris was off and whether she had told him about the kisses they had shared the night before.
Probably not. Women were rarely honest about such things. And if she had, and lover boy was worth his salt, he would have come and laid Leo out cold. That was what he would have done if the situation had been reversed. If she was his and some guy had held her underneath him. But why was he thinking like this? She wasn’t his. No woman was, or ever would be.
Leo scowled, annoyed with his thoughts and the way she had treated him with polite detachment since she had woken this morning. She hadn’t mentioned what had transpired in his bed last night and he knew that was for the best. Why rehash something he didn’t care to explain, or repeat?
But he couldn’t deny that her indifference rankled. They had stopped briefly at her apartment and, much to her chagrin, he had accompanied her inside. He’d wanted to appease some latent curiosity about who she really was and what her motivation was for wanting to accompany him to Greece. Initially he had wondered if a latent gold-digger hadn’t been hiding beneath her down-to-earth demeanour but, if anything her home only confirmed that she was most likely a nice girl. Soft furnishings, family photos on the mantelpiece in the sitting room, personal knick-knacks carefully placed on well-worn surfaces. The opposite of the various homes he kept around the world, which were always pristine and well ordered. Like his life usually was.
And hell, she hadn’t even known who he was when they’d first met!
He glanced at Ty and cursed Danny’s lack of foresight in sending him a nanny without a passport, knowing as he did that it wasn’t Danny’s fault. None of it was. It was his. And only he could fix things. The key now was to keep Lexi and Ty as far away from him as possible, which shouldn’t be too hard. Yes, they’d be trapped together on his yacht for three days but the thing was as big as two football fields and consisted of eight levels. How hard could it be?
Bracing himself, Leo looked at his son. A boy he didn’t want and a boy who hadn’t asked to be born. Some might call it fate that Amanda had conceived on that one time they had had sex. He knew Lexi Somers thought Ty was suffering from his absence but Leo didn’t want to believe that. He had always believed he was doing the right thing, the honourable thing, in staying out of Ty’s life. In leaving him with his mother. But it seemed he might have been wrong and he couldn’t stomach that. Couldn’t stomach the thought of making a mistake again, of being responsible for another person’s future happiness.
But still Lexi’s words nagged at him. Was she right in suggesting that Ty’s emotional needs were suffering? She was the expert who had cared for him for two years. Why would she say it if it wasn’t true? And why had Amanda’s mother been looking after Ty? He needed to find out more information, that was clear.
‘Do you want to come join us?’ The soft query from the angel—on the floor—brought his attention back to the present. His eyes met hers and he saw a wealth of questions in her guarded expression. She was trying to figure him out and that wasn’t going to happen.