Page 22 of Her Lion Lover

Leo King wasn't gay. He was straight. And he was attracted to her.

But he was such an amazing dancer...

Lily had to remember theirs was only a fake marriage, not a real one. All men had morning wood, and she'd hugged him, which probably hadn't helped. His hard-on hadn't meant anything. Lily flung herself backward onto her bed, hugging herself.

Leo's arms had felt good around her, as had his muscles when she'd been pressed up against him.

She let herself relive the moment, just once, because she knew she couldn't let it happen again. If she did, it was only a matter of time before she fell for him, and it would break her heart when their arrangement ended, as it must. Fake marriages only ended well in romance novels, and hers wasn't that kind of story. No, in her story, she became a CEO of her own company, instead of falling for the CEO of another.

Her phone beeped, like it agreed with her.

Lily reached for it. The alert was for a message from Rosalind:

Did you get your degree yet? Oh, and congratulations. Did you meet him at the masquerade ball?

If her stepmother knew, then so did the rest of the world. Lily sighed. If only she could tell Rosalind the truth, but there'd been a non-disclosure clause in the prenuptial agreement.

Still, it would be nice to talk to someone who might understand...

Lily hit the button to call Rosalind instead of replying.

The phone rang twice before Rosalind answered. "You met him at the ball, didn't you? That's why you were rushing to get to the coach. Was it love at first sight? Is he good in bed? I mean, they say he's a porn star who's done it in every position, including a few of his own invention. Have you done it the royal way yet?"

Lily couldn't help but laugh. "I don't know. What's the royal way?"

"Apparently you sort of sit on him side-saddle and..."

Lily laughed so hard she almost choked. Rosalind was such a visual person, she could probably draw it in a few strokes so accurately, she'd make a porn star blush, but the way she described things with words...it sounded like this style of sex required six legs, eight arms and possibly at least four people to work. Not something Lily would ever do – even if Leo King was interested.

"Anyway, is it good?" Rosalind finished.

Lily had to take a moment to catch her breath. "Um, I wouldn't know. I...we haven't done anything like that."

"Well, when you do, can you tell me? Because if it's amazing as it sounds, I totally need to try it one day. Well, if I'm ever with some who...one day. When finances aren't so tight and I'm not so worried about my dad and his business and...so do you have your degree yet? They're posting them out, because the school closed before they could hold the graduation ceremony, and I was really looking forward to crossing the stage in one of those hideous graduation gowns, though we probably couldn't afford to go now, anyway, so it's probably for the best." Rosalind didn't sound entirely happy about it.

She'd been asking Lily a while back about working at the Academy to cover her room and board, too. Lily thought back over all the things Rosalind had said. "Wait...you said you're worrying about your dad and his business. Is he all right?"

Rosalind sighed. "Physically, yes. Though I think the stress is getting to him. I can't believe the difference a year can make. A year ago, when we started the school year, he was absolutely over the moon about this huge deal he'd scored to build an entire prefabricated housing development. But it wasn't just any housing development. It was this ecovillage, with state of the art technology to minimise environmental impact, and live in harmony with the surrounding forest. It was so amazing, I even did my final design project on it. A modular housing design that could be sized up or down to meet the owner's requirements, as well as the north-south orientation of the block. Of course, they couldn't use a student design in the ones he built this year, but the architect was looking to use a version of my design for stage two of the development. Only the whole thing's been delayed, so Dad now has a construction yard full of finished houses he can't ship to the site and get paid for, bills for all the construction materials he can't pay for, and he can't take on any new projects because there's no space in the yard to build anything, and his suppliers won't deliver any more materials until he pays them for the last lot."

Lily's relief curled into a tight knot of dread in her chest. This was the first she'd heard about delays, other than Leo's uncle. Then again, they couldn't send the houses to the site unless all the power infrastructure was in place, and that was definitely her job, once she got her hands on her degree and her dad's company. "Is this the Hea Sanctuary project, by any chance?"

"Yes! Have you heard of it?"

"I'll be one of the consulting engineers on the project, as soon as my degree arrives," Lily bit out, hoping the delays weren't her fault. Having her dad's company in a precarious position was one thing, but putting other people at risk of bankruptcy, like Rosalind's dad...

"Ooh, then go check the mail now. I'll wait," Rosalind said.

"The letterbox is at the end of the drive. It's a good fifteen or twenty minutes' walk, one way. The cook usually brings the post up with him when he arrives, but he had yesterday and today off, so I don't know if anyone else checks it. It could be somewhere in the house already, only I haven't seen where."

Rosalind sighed. "All right. I won't wait, then. You go hunting for the mail, and text me when you find it, okay? And promise me you'll go dancing to celebrate when you get your degree. If we were back at school now, I'd totally book one of the dance studios so we could dance till we drop, but I'm sure there's somewhere you can dance where you are."

Oh, yes. The moment she had her degree in her hands, dancing was definitely on the agenda. "I promise." Lily took a deep breath. "And tell your dad not to worry about the project, okay? There are delays in any project, and when you're trying to do something no one's ever done before, there are usually a few extra bumps along the way. These ones will get sorted and everything will work out. You'll see."

"I sure hope so. Now. Check. Dance. Then text me." Rosalind ended the call.

Lily had to laugh. Rosalind had done a wonderful job of distracting her. Who cared if Leo King was gay, straight, or anything in between? She'd come here to do a job, until she was ready to take over her dad's company. If her degree was sitting in the letter box right now, she needed to get her hands on it, because she had a whole lot of work to do.

TWENTY-SEVEN

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