Soon, sighs turned to panting, then to mewling noises as he pumped into her from behind, his hand splayed on her stomach, hers clutching his thigh, this position forcing them to work harder at achieving that pinnacle that was oh so close.
And then his hand was between her legs, his finger stroking her most sensitive spot, and she came so hard her vision blurred for a few seconds.
Without losing his rhythm, Leo rolled them both until she was on her stomach and he was behind her, his hips pistoning urgently. He gave a shout, and his body stiffened as he found his own release.
With a gusty sigh, he pulled out and disposed of the condom, then he was back again, wrapping his much bigger body around hers. Kissing her shoulder, he said, “I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy Sunday.”
“Me neither,” she replied, and she smiled.
Because it was true.
Chapter Nine
Leo’s phone chimed, breaking into his post-coital bliss. With his arms wrapped around Shannon and one leg draped over her thigh, he considered ignoring it. Given it was Sunday morning—or maybe afternoon by this point—it was likely one of his parents, probably wanting to talk about the cancelled wedding, possibly thinking they could convince him to return and give it another try.
Nope, nope, and triple nope.
He kissed the back of Shannon’s neck and buried his face in her hair.
“Are you going to get that?” she asked.
“Nope.”
The ringing stopped. And started up again. Leo tensed. If it were one of his parents, they’d likely leave a message—pleading, if it was Mom, terse if Dad—and wait for him to respond.
“Whoever it is really wants to talk to you,” Shannon noted.
Leo sighed and rolled away from her comfort and curves. His phone was in his shorts pocket, and they were all the way across the room, so he grudgingly climbed out of bed and went over to check to see who so desperately needed to speak to him on a Sunday morning.
The name on his screen said: Max.
“Shit.” He hung his head for a moment and then began pulling on his shorts. “It’s my brother. And we had a sort of falling out, so this call could get ugly. I’m going to go to my room to get my toothbrush and talk to him, and then I’ll be back.” He hurried over, dropped a hard kiss on Shannon’s lips. “Don’t go anywhere.”
She smiled. He kissed her again.
His phone stopped ringing. And started up again.
“Damn it. I’ll be back as soon as possible. We have big plans today.”
Her laughter chased him out the door, and he finally connected the call. “What, Max?”
“Good morning to you too, brother. What took you so long to answer your phone?”
“My reluctance to talk to you.” Leo unlocked the door to his room and stepped inside, heading to the bathroom.
“Ouch. Guess that means you’re still upset.”
“Well, you did serve as lookout at my rehearsal so that your asshole best friend could fuck my fiancée while the rest of us sat in church, waiting for her to walk down the aisle.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” He didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “But we all knew it was an arranged marriage, so I don’t know why you were so surprised.”
“Arranged or not, I happen to believe in the idea of fidelity.”
“Clearly you and Bridgette never talked about this.”
“Bridgette and I rarely talked about anything except the next party she wanted to plan and her shopping expeditions.” If there were a more shallow woman on earth, Leo didn’t want to meet her. Frankly, he should be thanking Max and Davit. If not for them, he’d be married to the woman by now—and he’d never have met Shannon.
Well, he very well would have, except it would have been under entirely different circumstances. Because he did believe in being faithful, he might have admired her beauty and would have been polite to her; however, his attention would have been on his wife.
Because that was what he was supposed to do.
“Yeah, she does like to plan parties, doesn’t she? She said she’d go ahead with your thirtieth, if you’re still interested.”
“If I’m still—wait, are you talking to Bridgette?”
“Funny that…”
Leo waited. What the hell had happened since he stormed out of that church Friday evening?
“Even after your rather dramatic disappearing act, Dad still insisted he wants our families to come together. For the business. And since you refuse to toe the line, guess who gets to?”
Leo closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are you telling me you’re going to marry Bridgette?”
Max laughed. “Pretty funny, don’t you think? I’m the one Dad was ready to write out of his will, while you’ve always been the golden child, and now look what’s happening.”
Leo tried to decipher how he felt about this. There was definitely no regret. No sadness. No disappointment. Frankly, if this was what it took to get Max to stop acting like a child, and he was clearly okay with it, why the hell not?
“You’re good with marrying the woman your best friend just fucked? At your brother’s almost wedding?”
“I look at it this way: Davit took her for a test drive and assured me she’s good enough to keep around.”
If that weren’t a twisted way to look at it…
“And I’m not worried he’ll do it again. He’s in love with some other woman. I’ve seen her, so I can see why. She’s smokin’. And he says she’s wild in bed too.”
Leo didn’t give a shit about Davit’s sex life, except… “If he’s in love with someone else, why was he fucking Bridgette?”
“Oh, his woman disappeared. About a year ago, I think. Kind of a big drama. I guess some Italian mafia family
