Page 128 of Desperate Crimes
Chapter Thirty-Three-Leanna
The living room back home smells like moonlight and roses.
I’m still in the dress from earlier—Nico’s choice for tonight.
The blue silk he picked out like it was sewn from the night sky just for me.
Now it clings to my skin like a question I don’t know how to answer.
I hear his footsteps behind me.
Slow.Heavy.Determined.
“Lee,” he says.
I freeze.
He never calls me that.
It’s always Princess or Leanna.Sometimes he calls me Baby.
Not Lee.
My heart lurches like it’s trying to escape my chest.
“I need you to understand,” he says again, voice low, rough, as if it hurts to say the words.“Youwere never about any of that.You weren’t a business deal.”
My throat tightens.
“Wasn’t I?”I whisper.
“No.Fuck, no.”
“Then why?”I turn to him.
My voice is shaking now, and I hate it.“Why didn’t you tell me?”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t look away.
“Because our fathers are larger-than-life.Titans.You know that.You grew up with it too.Always walking the line between power and legacy.I’ve been clawing my way up just to breathe outside their shadows.I needed to stand beside those men, and know I earned it.That I’m equal to the task.”
He runs a tattooed hand through his short hair, pacing now.He’s practically vibrating with masculine energy.
“This merger.This deal.It’s everything I’ve worked for in my business life.But it’s business.It’s not you.Never you.”
I blink at him, my ribs tightening like a corset laced too tight.
“Nico, I just—I guess I can try to understand that part of it.”
My voice cracks on the last word.
“But why go after me, Nico?Why do the whole dark-romance charade?”I ask, each syllable landing like glass in my throat.“Did you just want to fuck me before someone else did?”
He stills.
The air goes heavy.
“Goddamn it, Leanna,” he growls, stepping forward with eyes lit like blue lightning.“No.”
