Leo pulls back and grazes my bottom lip with his thumb. “Thank you.”

When we turn back to the table, Will plants a kiss on Meg’s forehead, and her lips are full and swollen from being kissed, her eyes glassy from desire and unshed tears.

Her gaze finds mine, and she gets a goofy grin on her face.

“What?” I ask.

“I’ve never seen Leo kiss anyone before.” Her voice is full of wonder, and her gaze travels between Leo and myself.

“Never?” I frown up at the man sitting next to me. He glowers at Meg.

“Nope, he’s always had a strict no-kissing policy.” Her grin widens as he continues to fidget.

“Shut up,” he whispers.

“Interesting.”

“Very,” she agrees. “He always said, no kissing and no oral sex. Used to piss the girls off.”

“Shut the fuck up, Megan.” Leo’s pissed all over again, and I’m struck dumb as I remember the night on my couch when he kissed me for hours, and held me and kissed me most of the night in my bed.

The times that he’s gone down on me, like he can’t get enough of me.

Megan laughs and I swallow hard as Will catches my gaze. He smiles reassuringly and winks, and for a moment, I want to run. This is too much. I’m coming to depend on the affections of a man who never used to kiss women.

Why me?

What am I going to do when it’s over?

And then I feel Leo’s hand on my shoulder, his grip firm and warm and I look up into his soft, sweet eyes and I calm. I lean in and kiss him, pull on his piercing with my teeth and grin.

“He kisses me all the time,” I tell Meg smugly.

“Good. It’s about time.”

“You know, I have secrets I can tell too, brat,” Leo reminds her and Will comes to attention.

“Spill it.”

“No!” Meg shakes her head and giggles. “Story time is over.”

“It’s okay.” Will and Leo share a look. “I’ll get it out of him eventually.”

“I think that you guys can never spend time together again,” Meg decides. “Say goodbye now, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.” I chuckle.

“Damn.”

“Come on.” Will stands and pulls Meg out of her chair. “Let’s go in the living room and have dessert.”

Leo pulls me out of my chair too, but leans in to whisper, “You’re dessert.”

***

I wake with a start, sit upright in bed, and frown when I see that I’m alone. My eyes adjust to the darkness in Leo’s bedroom, but I don’t see him. He brought me here after our dinner at Will and Meg’s, and I was excited to see what he’s done with Meg’s place.

It’s small, messy and a total bachelor pad, but it suits him.

Where is he?

I climb out of bed and pull on his black button-down, buttoning just the middle two buttons, and on a whim, tuck a condom in the breast pocket.

The house is still. No music.

Something is wrong.

I find him in the dark of the living room, rocking quietly in a big recliner. It’s too dark to see his face, but I know he’s awake because the chair is moving rhythmically.

“Babe?” I ask quietly.

“Come here,” he whispers.

I climb into his lap, and his arms close around me tightly, pulling me against him, and he buries his nose in my hair and takes a deep, deep breath.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“I thought I wore you out,” I respond with a smile. When he said earlier that I was dessert and he was going to fuck the hell out of me, he hadn’t been kidding.

I feel him grin against my hair. “I love making love to you.”

“Hey,” the wistful tone in his voice worries me. I lean back and take his face in my hands, making him look me in the eye. “Talk to me.”

He tangles his fingers in my hair and watches them comb through it. His knuckles brush down my cheeks. He’s softly touching me, and he’s quiet for so long I don’t think he’s going to talk at all, when finally he starts to speak, so quietly that if I weren’t just a few inches from his mouth, I wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“When I met Meg, she was tiny. Underweight. She was all red hair and long limbs. And she was so scared.” He closes his eyes and leans his forehead against mine, remembering the little girl he loved. “I was headed for bad things. Bad people. But then she came to the foster home I was in, and she became mine.”

He takes a breath, swallows hard, and keeps talking. “She followed me everywhere, and I didn’t mind. If my friends didn’t want her around, they weren’t my friends anymore.”

“You’re kindred spirits,” I whisper to him and he nods.

“Yeah, and I knew what it was like to be thrust into foster care at her age. So I claimed her. I taught her how to play guitar. And when I got placed elsewhere, I made sure I always had a job so I could pay for her to have a cell phone.”

He brushes my hair back from my face as he speaks, his eyes distant, lost in another time.

“We’ve always looked out for each other. Even when things were really shitty; and they did get really shitty, we had each other.”

He swallows hard again and swears under his breath, and I feel his muscles tense even further under my hands.

“And now I learn tonight that she’s been struggling for years and I wasn’t here to take care of her.”

“Leo, she’s a grown woman. She made her choices for a reason.”

“Yeah, because I hurt her.” He shakes his head and growls in frustration. “I knew it would hurt her to leave her here, but damn it, she’d just started her career, and chasing this music thing can be unpredictable and brutal. I didn’t want that for her.” He kisses my forehead, as though he just needs the contact, and runs his hands up and down my back. “I made sure she was set to receive that royalty money so that I wouldn’t have to worry about her financial situation.”

“Meg doesn’t care about the money. She’s all about the people she loves,” I remind him.

“I know.” He sighs. “I love that girl more than just about anything. It kills me that she was driving an unsafe car.”

“Sweetie,” I whisper and kiss him softly, needing to comfort him. “She’s okay.”

His arms tighten around me again and he pulls me into a hug, tucking my face against his neck.