A tense silence followed her teasing, and Carla wondered if she might have gone too far.
Until Leon started to laugh. He continued to do so as she drank the rest of her tea with a deliberate look of innocence on her face.
“Did you make any of this for yourself?” She indicated the eggs and toast when she saw Leon had only poured a cup of tea for himself.
“I didn’t like to presume…”
Now it was Carla’s turn to chuckle as she recalled the way Leon had ordered her to dance with him at the wedding rather than asked, and continued to order her about since as he saw fit. “The Leon I know is always presuming.”
“Not this time,” he answered seriously. “I made some accusations earlier I can never take back. All I can hope for is that you will one day be able to forgive me.”
Carla had so many questions resulting from that statement that she didn’t know where to start.
The main one being, did that “one day” imply he intended seeing her again after today? It had certainly sounded like it.
“You can share my eggs and toast, and if we’re still hungry afterward, then we will make some more.” She stood to get another plate before putting half the eggs and one of the slices of buttered toast onto it. “Sit.” She indicated to the stool next to hers.
Leon’s mouth twitched at Carla’s high-handedness. Not that he was about to argue with her. He didn’t want to leave yet, and, now that she mentioned it, he realized he was hungry. Win-win.
Besides, sitting next to her rather than standing on the other side of the breakfast bar allowed him to breathe in the heady musk that was pure Carla.
They ate in silence for several minutes. “Are you wearing anything under that cute nightshirt?” he finally questioned gruffly, her musk having invaded all his senses.
“Lacy bra and panties,” she dismissed lightly. “A red set Natalia leant me,” she added in a suggestive voice, her gaze holding his as it was accompanied by the equally seductive glide of her lips down the fork as she put some of the eggs into her mouth.
As if Leon needed any encouragement to imagine Carla’s curves covered only by a skimpy red lace bra and panties. Or the visual of her making love to the fork in the same way she’d taken his cock in her mouth earlier today.
He gave a low groan. “Is this a form of torture to punish me?”
She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “You have your methods, and I have mine.”
“I think yours is much more effective.”
“But less so if I were a man, huh?” she said dryly.
“It would have no effect on me at all if you were a man. Not that I have anything against same-sex relationships or marriages,” he added in case Carla decided to take exception to his comment, which he knew she was perfectly capable of doing. “I’m just not personally attracted to other men.”
Her chuckle was one of pure evil. “You’re also very aware you’re skating on thin ice with me at the moment, hm?”
Leon grimaced. “After already falling through the ice and then barely managing to pull myself back out onto the surface again.” He nodded.
“Oh I wouldn’t say you’re completely out of that icy water yet.”
He stifled another laugh. “Eat the rest of your eggs while they’re still hot.”
“Yes, sir.” She feigned a salute before resuming eating.
Leon gave a shake of his head. “I don’t remember dating ever being this difficult.” He forked up some eggs off his own plate.
Carla glanced at him sideways. “This is a date?”
He shrugged. “As close as it gets for me, yes.”
She smiled ruefully. “When did you last date anyone?”
He frowned. “You know, I don’t think I ever actually have. I was too busy before my marriage, and I had lots of one-night stands after I was widowed. But nothing at all for the past ten years.”
Her eyes widened. “Ten years?”
He gave a rueful grimace. “Please don’t remind me that’s almost half your lifetime.”
“But—”
“Carla.” His hand briefly covered hers. “I’m not some heartless prick who beds any female he sees, okay? And I’ve never dated any woman.”
“Not even Natalia’s mother?”
He shook his head. “It was an arranged marriage.”
“My God, do people still do that?”
“In the Italian Mafia they do. Or they did for me and my brother.”
“Will Natalia’s marriage be arranged too?”
He raised his brows. “You’ve met my daughter, right?”
Carla snorted. “I’ll take that as a no. These eggs are really good, by the way. Light and fluffy and buttery.”
“But you’re surprised I knew how to cook them,” he guessed.
“Yes.”
Leon looked away from the temptation of some of the butter glistening on the fullness of her lips. “Some nights, when Natalia was a little girl, she didn’t sleep so well. On those nights we’d go down to the kitchen on my estate. I’d cook eggs, and we’d sit and eat them in there together. She still usually ended up sleeping in my bed on those nights, but she’d mainly forgotten the reason she’d woken in the first place.”
“Why didn’t she sleep?”
“Nightmares. She was about five when she realized that other children had a mother as well as a father. I made a mistake when Natalia asked me where her mama was and told her that Rosa had sadly died when she was born.” He grimaced. “It didn’t even occur to me that in a five-year-old’s head, that would translate into her having killed her own mother.”
“Whoa.”
“Exactly.” He gave a pained wince. “Not only that, but Natalia became obsessed with
