Page 27 of Melted by a Man

I watched Brandon fold himself into his sports car, frowning at whoever he was listening to on his phone as he eventually drove out of the parking lot. I glanced back down at Leo, whose eyes were lowered and unfocused on some point on my lower body. I glanced down, my pencil skirt perfectly in place and not revealing anything inappropriate.

I snapped my fingers once in Leo’s line of sight, pulling him out of whatever distant thought he was in. After blinking a few times, he shook his head once and made his way to unfold himself from my driver’s seat. His movements were slow and careful, clearly still in some amount of pain but not enough to be immobile.

“I’m really sorry about hurting you, I promise it was an accident,” I sighed, stepping back so that he had room to stand. My car was still running next to us.

“I don’t know, it was very sudden and aggressive,” Leo shrugged, “You could have fooled me.”

“I just wanted to get my phone, I didn’t even realize what I did until after,” I added, rubbing one of my hands on my neck. It was a nervous tick of mine. I kept my palm flat on the base of my throat, over my collarbone. My fingers massaged the side of my neck and my thumb brushed against the dip at the hollow of my throat. I didn’t even realize I was doing it until I saw Leo’s pale blue eyes lock on where my hand landed.

And suddenly I was transported back into his hotel room.

“Can you—maybe—” I grabbed his hand and dragged it up, up, up. His rough palm scraped against my skin as his fingers brushed against the base of my neck. We locked eyes together as I kept his hand moving, his palm resting gently where I guided him. Right when his hand was where I wanted, I curled my fingers around his to show him how much pressure I wanted him to apply on the sides.

“What’s your safe word, Jacqueline?” Leo’s voice was raspy, his eyes hooded and his cheeks flushed as I removed my hand from his.

“Glacier.” I breathed out.

“Do you want to use it?” Leo asked, his thumb brushing against my skin in gentle swipes.

“No.” I shook my head to emphasize my seriousness.

“Just don’t forget that you can,” Leo groaned, pulling his hips back and slamming into me.

“Jacqueline?” Leo’s voice pulled me out of my memory, and even though my skin was already warm, I felt my cheeks redden under his stare even more.

Did he also remember those kinds of details?

Was that kind of night a normal occurrence for him?

“Sorry, what?” I asked, dropping my hand and hugging myself.

“Did you like our performance that much?” Leo asked, a dark eyebrow raised in challenge.

I glared at him, “No.”

“Are you positive?” Leo asked, tilting his head as he crossed his arms, his regular playfulness was slowly coming back, “Because I find it interesting that you’re listening to the same song that I know you heard Mary and I sing earlier this week.”

“It’s a weird coincidence,” I ground out and threw myself into the driver’s seat of my car. I went to slam the door shut, but Leo’s large hand caught it before I could.

“Jacqueline,” Leo’s voice was almost taunting, but I thought I detected a hint of something else. Something soothing. Perhaps it was just his English accent. Perhaps I wanted to hear something else in that warm voice of his. Regardless, I found myself looking up at him. My hand on the handle of my door, his on the frame, holding it open.

I didn’t verbally reply to him, I just gave him my eyes.

He met my gaze, his grin softening with the rest of his facial features, “You know I’m just taking the piss with you, right?”

I ground my teeth together and nodded, but it was one stiff movement. I wasn’t willing to touch “taking the piss” with a ten-foot pole, because at least he didn’t curse at work.

“You know I’m not arrogant enough to think that our mediocre rendition of their song got you hooked on a band that’s been around for decades?” Leo lifted both of his eyebrows. Little did he know, that is quite literally what happened. Sure, I had heard the song before. I was familiar with the band’s hits. But the reality was that I didn’t know all the words to this specific song before I started hyper-fixating on it this week.

All because I heard him, specifically, sing it in his office.

Why did my brain do this to me? I couldn’t say.

“I don’t know,” I inhaled a deep breath before giving him a smile I didn’t recognize. It was a smile I wasn’t familiar with; one I hadn’t made often at all. It was as close to a shit-eating grin as I could muster, “I know how cocky you can be when you think you’ve earned it.”

I gave his body a long, lingering perusal as I delivered that statement. When I finished dragging my eyes up his form, meeting his gaze, I got to see his clear eyes widen a fraction. I got to see his smirk relax into a surprised, parted lipsomethingthat made me feel like I had finally won an interaction between the two of us. I took half a second to scan his features, ensuring that no anger or embarrassment was coming off of him.

Instead, all I could see from him was stunned silence.

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