Page 45 of The Mogul: Leonard

“Aren’t you coming?” I frown.

He shakes his head. “I’m staying on the boat in case of an emergency. When one of the guys comes back, I’ll take a swim too.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Thank you,” I say, but a pang of disappointment hits my gut. I shouldn’t feel let down because he is not coming, but I can’t stop the feeling from creeping in.

He holds my gaze for a moment, then gestures towards the side of the boat where everyone is leaping into the water. “Go on, I’ll follow later,” he says, his voice carrying a hint of reassurance.

I hesitate for a moment longer, then decide not to make a fool of myself by staying on the boat with him. I walk gingerly, trying not to slip, but when I’m almost there, I trip and fall overboard, head-first into the water. Graceful as a seal trying to climb stairs.

When I come up for air, sputtering salty water, I look up to see Leonard’s worried face. “Are you okay?” he asks without a hint of amusement in his voice.

I’m still trying to free my face from the mess that is my hair, but I manage to give him a thumbs up. Great. This is my personal version of ‘I carried the watermelon.’

“Well, that was one way to jump in,” my sister laughs, and I give her a side-eye.

We swim for a while, enjoying the cold water and the lulling movement of the small waves. This day couldn’t be more perfect.

“What if there are sharks?” Mia suddenly asks. Well, that is an excellent way to ruin the moment, considering we are swimming in a freaking ocean.

“Well, there probably are somewhere,” Elijah answers, and we all groan in response.

“Is this your way of reassuring her? Because you’re not doing a great job,” Raphael points out.

Elijah rolls his eyes but follows Mia to the stern of the boat, where Leonard lowers the boarding ladder.

A few seconds later, a loud splash startles me. I turn around in time to see Leonard emerge from the water, shaking his head and dragging a hand through his hair to shake off the water. I have to check my mouth because I’m sure it’s hanging open. Can this man be more gorgeous? The droplets running down his face make him even more sexy. He looks like he came straight out of a perfume ad. One of those fancy brands that uses half-naked models to make women buy cologne in bulk.

“And this is our cue to leave,” my sister murmurs.

Jesus, can she be more obvious? She chuckles when I give her the stink-eye.

“I’m cold. Can we go up?” she whines at a clueless Raphael, who eagerly follows her onto the boat.

I turn around in time to see Dakota dragging Aaron toward the boarding ladder. I need to have a few words with those traitors. It’s painfully obvious they’re trying to set us up.

“If you stare at her like that a bit longer, she may bleed.” Leonard’s husky voice comes from close behind my back. Too close. When I turn around, he is at arm’s length.

He is staring at me like he wants to devour me, and I would totally let him do it. I swim back a bit toward the boat to put some distance between us, but he follows me. His eyes never leave mine, burning with a desire that ignites mine. Suddenly, everything around us disappears—the waves, the cracking sound of the boat, the voices from our friends. When my back hits the side of the boat, I have nowhere to go to escape his magnetic gaze.

And I don’t want to. I almost crave his touch when he puts a hand on the boat beside my head and lets the waves push his chest toward mine, close but never touching. He makes no effort to keep some distance, and I’m so gone that I wrap my legs around his waist. His eyes widen in surprise, but a small grin tugs at his lips. What are you doing? I don’t know, and I don’t have the will to care.

His arm wraps around my waist in a firm grip, but he makes no move to drag me to his chest. I wrap my arms around his neck and enjoy the friction of my hardened nipples brushing lightly against his toned pecs. He doesn’t get closer, but he doesn’t loosen his grip either. We are dancing on a fine line. Neither of us is willing to push the boundaries, to tip the balance on one side or another. Give in to our burning desire and kiss or put some distance and break the spell.

A bigger wave pushes Leonard even closer. His lips are a breath away from mine. He is so close I can see the droplets of water on his long, dark eyelashes. His eyes are hooded with a desire matching mine. The cold water does nothing to dampen the heat rising in my lower belly. I’m surprised the water between us isn’t boiling already.

“Are you still alive down there?” Raphael’s voice comes like nails on a blackboard.

It takes us a moment to return to reality, but the spell is broken, and Leonard puts some distance between us.

“Jesus Christ, Raphael, can you mind your own business?” my sister intervenes.

“What? Why? They disappeared down there,” he complains.

A small smile appears on Leonard’s lips, listening to the banter on the boat, but a flash of disappointment also crosses his eyes. Is he annoyed like I am by the interruption? Every sign tells me he is when he reluctantly lets his grip on my waist go and detangles from my legs.

His eyes never leave mine, and a silent question I have no answer for dances in them: what the hell are we doing?

I have no idea.

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