“Sam, you deserve your family. They love you.”

“Yes, they do.” I nod and then shake my head. “And I love them more than anything. But I don’t deserve to have them pick up the pieces when my life falls apart. I’m in my thirties, for the love of Christ, Leo, I need to pick up my own pieces.”

“I notice you’re not including me anywhere in this equation,” he murmurs and shoves his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t need you to fix anything either,” I tell him firmly.

“No, you don’t need me to fix anything, but supporting you and being there for you is not fixing.”

“I don’t need your fame,” I mutter and turn my back on him, shuffling back and forth across my small living room.

“What do you need?” He asks, his voice tight with frustration, but I don’t answer. I just continue to pace.

“I don’t need your money,” I mutter again and push my hands through my hair.

“Okay.” He’s right behind me now, and I can feel the frustration rolling off him in waves, but he places his hands gently on my shoulders and his touch is my undoing. “What do you need, sunshine?”

“You!” I spin and clasp my arms around his middle, press my face to his chest so I don’t have to look him in the eye and let the tears come. “I just need you,” I whisper.

“Sam,” he whispers and wraps those warm, strong arms around my shoulders, hugging me close. “You have me, baby.”

“It pisses me off.” I lean my forehead against his chest. “I don’t like this feeling. In the car, I thought you were dropping me off and not coming back, and it killed me. I don’t want to depend on you.”

“Hey.” He tips my chin up so I have to look him in the eye. “You make me so angry, I just didn’t think I could talk with you without wanting to throttle you. Sam, you have to work on this whole not feeling worthy thing. Your family adores you, and you feel the same. You need to trust them.”

“I know.” I drop my gaze to his mouth and frown.

“And another thing.” He kisses my forehead. “You are a nice person, whether you like it or not. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. If you keep talking shit about my woman, I’ll have to punish you.”

“No more tosses into pools.” I smile.

“I’m sorry you feel like I betrayed you.” His face sobers, his eyes are sad. “That’s the very last thing I would ever do.”

“I know, but I told you…”

“You know, one of the things that you’ll learn about me,” he kisses my forehead softly, “Is that I will always have your best interests at heart. Your family deserved to know.”

“And I deserved to tell them.” I stand strong. “I need you beside me, not fighting my battles for me.”

A slow grin spreads across his face and he cups my face in his hands before lowering his lips to mine. “Well put. As long as I’m in the picture.”

“Leo, you are the picture.”

He stills, his eyes searching mine, and then he kisses me, softly at first, and then demandingly. He bends and scoops me into his arms and carries me to my bedroom.

“I need to get you naked and lose myself in you. Is that okay?” He asks, his gray eyes have softened.

“Yeah, that’s okay.” I pull his shirt up over his head when he sets me on my feet. We quickly undress each other and tumble onto the bed. Leo rises over me, his leg resting between my own, and pulls his fingertips down my face.

“I love you, Samantha Williams. Every damn day, I love you.” His lips capture mine again before I can answer, and he contentedly kisses me, brushing his mouth over mine, letting me bite and pull on his piercing, his thumb tracing circles on my cheek.

His erection is pressing against my hip, but when I try to reach down for it, he captures my hand in his and kisses my fingers. “Not yet,” he whispers.

“What’s wrong?”

“We have all night. This isn’t a quick fuck, sunshine.” He nibbles the corner of my mouth and down to my jaw line. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m going to lose myself in you. I’m going to make love to you, baby.”

“I don’t know…”

“Yes, you do.” He interrupts, and eyes on mine, and kisses me again. “You do know.”

I glide my fingertips down his side to his ass and my hands clench when his fingertip circles around my nipple, tightening the sensitive skin.

“I love your breasts,” he whispers and pulls the nipple into his mouth, suckling gently. “So responsive.”

“I love your mouth.” I squirm beneath him as he gently bites the tight nipple. “Can’t get enough of it.”

“Good.” He chuckles and kisses my jawline again and up to my lips. He continues to kiss my mouth, his tongue teasing mine, as his hand glides down my torso, over my stomach, to my core, and pushes two fingers over my clit and into my folds.

“Oh, God.” My back automatically arches, pushing me against his hand. “God, you have good hands.”

“I love how wet you get,” he whispers. “You’re so fucking sexy, baby.”

He nibbles down to my collarbones and farther still to my breasts, paying them both close attention. His fingers are moving rhythmically through the lips of my labia, almost tickling me.

“Haven’t we already decided that I’m not a guitar?” I ask.

“You’re better.” He licks my navel, pulls my piercing gently with his teeth and then kisses it sweetly. “This piercing will be my undoing.”

“All those piercings you have.” I gasp as one of his fingers dives inside me and brushes my sweet spot. “And my little navel piercing turns you on?”

“It’s hot as hell on you, baby.”

“I like yours too, even the eyebrow.”

“Yeah?” His lips move lower down my abdomen to my pussy and then he leans back and just stares at my core.

“What are you looking at?”

“I love how pink you are.” He grins wickedly and then leans in and licks me, from my anus to my clit and back down again. “God, you taste good.”

“Holy fuck,” I whisper as my hips begin to move like they have a life of their own. He spreads my legs wide and pins them down to the mattress with his forearms, and uses his hands to spread my pussy wide and buries his face in my core, thrusts his tongue inside me, then closes his mouth and moves that glorious piercing all over my lips and up to my clit.