Better than Sexy (The Sexy 3)

Vivi took another spoonful just as her mother returned to the kitchen with a guest in tow.

Landon met her gaze, a look of remorse on his handsome face. He wore a pair of dark jeans and a navy tee shirt, his muscles bulging from the edges of the short sleeves. No matter how often she laid eyes on him, he impacted her as if it were the first time. His well-groomed good looks took her breath away.

“Well, look who I found on the doorstep?” Anne Marie put a hand on Landon’s bicep and led him farther into the room.

“Vivi,” he said in a gruff voice.

“Hi.” She narrowed her eyes. “How did you find me?”

A wry smile lifted his lips. “Ellie’s an easy bribe with Cronuts.” The croissant dough-like pastry that looked like a donut and was filled with various flavors that melted in your mouth was enough to make anyone with a sweet tooth cave.

Vivi wagged a finger at him. “You don’t play fair.”

“Not when it comes to something I want.” He glanced at Vivi and her mother. “I didn’t realize the photographers would be following you or I’d have set up security. Did Owen?”

She shook her head. “It hasn’t been that bad.”

He frowned, obviously disagreeing. She fully expected him to rip into her agent later today.

“Well, you two, I have some calls to make,” Anne Marie said in a light tone. “I’m not working this week but there are a few cases I have to handle.” As she smiled at Vivi, her mother’s stare lingered, as if to say behave before she left the room.

* * *

Showing up on Anne Marie Zane’s doorstep and offering his condolences for the death of her son was one of the hardest things Landon had ever done. Finding he had to drive past paparazzi pissed him the hell off. He should have been here for her in more ways than one.

He wasn’t proud of the fact that he’d bailed on Vivi when she needed him, but he’d been so unsettled by the situation, uncertain whether staying away was better than being by her side when he couldn’t feel her pain. Not in the way she probably needed him to. Looking back, he’d taken the coward’s way out. He’d steered clear, avoiding her altogether.

She sat at the table wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a tank top, the outline of her breasts visible from across the room, her tight nipples puckering through the ribbed shirt.

Landon cleared his throat. “Mind if I join you?” He gestured to the seat her mother had been in earlier.

“Go ahead.” Ignoring him, she took another spoonful of what looked like soggy cereal. She swallowed, grimaced, and pushed the bowl out of reach.

And still, she said nothing.

Not that he blamed her. He’d shown up here. Now he had to fumble through whatever he’d come to say. “I’m sorry.”

She lifted her head at that. “For?”

He raised and dropped his shoulders, knowing there was a laundry list of his sins. “Disappearing. Not being there when you needed me. Putting my past hurt before your present pain. You name it, I’m sorry for it.” He ducked his head a bit then looked at her again. “I needed time to get my head on straight, and I regret that it came at your expense.”

“Thank you.” She drew a deep breath, opening and closing her mouth, clearly trying to pull her thoughts together. “I … didn’t expect you to be sorry my brother was dead, but I did think once the shock wore off you’d be there for me … and you weren’t.” The words came out in an emotionless tone, the complete opposite of the storm he assumed was brewing inside her.

Guilt swamped him and he reached across the table for her hand, pulling it toward him, keeping his fingers curled around her fist. He needed to touch her, to find a way to break through the wall she’d erected to keep him out.

“I should have been here. No matter who it was who died, someone who mattered to you was gone, you were hurting, and I should have been there for you.” Instead he’d holed up in his apartment, remembering the details of the night Levi had died.

The way his brother’s drunk body had sagged when Vic had put the backpack full of rocks on his shoulders and insisted he run up and down the stairs. The sound of Levi’s head hitting the stairs when he fell backwards, the weight dragging him down. Him screaming for his brother to wake up.

He shook his head, forcing himself away from the old memories.

“Where were you just now?” she asked. “Where did you disappear to?”

He wasn’t surprised at how perceptive she was, but he refused to put that night in her head. Before choosing to come find her, he’d decided his future had to come before his past. Vivi had to come first. Because Levi would have wanted Landon to live his life and be happy. And he’d have liked Vivi a lot.