Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (43 page)

Leon Christensen stood completely naked only a few feet away. If I pivoted my head, I would be face to face with his exposed cock. I was already down on my knees before the man I had fantasized about numerous times. A man who was sexier than any other man I had ever even seen before, whether in person or in the media. My heart skipped a beat, jumped in my chest, and raced on.

Leon stepped back from the underwear. I reached over and grabbed them quickly, adding them to the pile in my arms. I suddenly became aware of just how wet I was as I watched water drip from me onto the ground.

I turned away from Leon as I rose, resolved not to look at his nakedness in total. I badly wanted to drink him with my eyes, let the sight of his body fill my eyes and burn itself into my memory, but I held to my will. I walked away with the pile of clothes and felt my skin cool as my wet clothes moved with my steps.

“I don’t have any clothes that will fit you,” I said, my back to Leon. “Give me a minute.”

I walked into the bathroom and put the clothes on a drying rack I had set up. These were high quality clothes, probably best dry cleaned, so I couldn’t simply throw them in the dryer. It would be a little while before Leon Christensen was clothed again.

I sighed, thinking of how long Leon was going to be naked around me. What if my will breaks? It might be a question of when, I thought. No, I would get him wrapped in a blanket and sit him beside the fire, warming him. I would then bring the drying rack to the fire and he’d be out of here in an hour, maybe two. I’d brew coffee and he’d walk out of my place refreshed and thankful for my kindness.

I went into the closet in the hallway and grabbed a large, soft blanket. When I returned to the living room, Leon stood in the same place. My eyes rolled over his body quickly before I averted my gaze. I felt a pang of panic strike at my heart; he was so beautiful. I wanted to stare at him, adore him.

I threw the blanket over him quickly. I then pulled the towel that was still on his shoulders out from under the blanket and wrapped the blanket tightly around him. I breathed a sigh of relief that I immediately regretted as I didn’t want Leon to know just how relieved I was for him to be covered.

I walked over to the fireplace. I luckily had a good amount of logs, easily enough to maintain a roaring fire all night. I stacked the logs and looked around for the matches. Next to the logs, there was a starter log and some matches. Admittedly, there was even a thing of lighter fluid for when I was less than adequate at building the fire, but tonight I hoped I wouldn’t have to resort to that in front of Leon.

I motioned him over to me, nodding my head towards the fireplace.

“Here, come sit before the fireplace. It’ll be a few minutes before it starts really heating up, but it’s best to get in front of it now. I’ll bring out your clothes to and have them hang before the fireplace so they can dry off quickly. You’ll be dry in no time.”

Leon walked over slowly, lowering his head as he did. When he sat on the rug in front of the fireplace, the blanket wrapped around him looked like robes of a praying monk. I smiled slightly and Leon nodded at me, his first sign of communication since the cemetery.

I shivered. My wet clothes had only grown colder as I began to build the fire and I realized now how I had put my own needs second to Leon’s. My fingers were cold and numb, defying me as I tried to work with the logs. When I raised a match, it shook in the open air. The first match I struck went out, and when I went to strike another, Leon spoke.

“Go on,” he said quietly. It was so low that I struggled to hear what he said. “Go put on some dry clothes. I’ll be fine for a few minutes.”

His head rested against his arms as he stared into the dead fireplace. I nodded in agreement, but Leon didn’t see.

I grabbed the towel that I had taken off of Leon and dried my hair. I rubbed my hands feverishly and warmth returned to them. My suit jacket was still soaked, and I took it off and tossed it on the ground by our shoes.

My shirt stuck to my skin, translucent from the rain. If Leon looked up now, he would see through to my chest. My hard nipples poked against my now see-through bra. The curvature of my hips and the shape of my breasts stood out against shadows cast by the overhead lights.

As I wrapped the towel around my upper body, hiding my near-nakedness, I felt a hint of sadness that Leon hadn’t looked up to me. I had wanted him to see me so naked, so exposed. Walking back over to the fireplace, I knew that it was better that he had not seen me naked. If he had seen me naked in such a fragile state, we’d be in each other’s arms in no time.

My fingers, now slightly warmer, worked much better with the fireplace. There was a process that I had to do before I could light the fire and it was a welcome distraction from thinking about how close Leon Christensen was to me, his perfect body only covered with a single blanket.

First, I had to light a single piece of paper. With the flute of the fireplace open, I shoved the burning paper up the flute so that it would start to draw air. If I missed this crucial step, the whole room would fill with smoke when I lit the fireplace. As I held up the burning paper, I could feel Leon’s eyes on me. Bent over, I wondered if he was studying my ass lustfully.

The fireplace began to draw air, the smoke from the burning paper sucked up into the chimney. I then struck a match and started to light the kindling that I had placed under the logs. Fire sparked and danced from the kindling, cracks of burning wood filling the silence. I blew on the kindling and watched the flames grow with every breath. Soon, the logs began to burn and the fire roared before us.

Refreshing warmth pushed against my face. I sat back a few feet from Leon, the warmth of the fire feeling wonderful against my still-wet clothes. Leon stared into the fire, red and orange flames dancing in his eyes.

“When I was thirteen, I was sent to a boarding school in England. Kevin Bowers was a friend of mine.”

I listened carefully. Leon was speaking now, slowly and quietly, but he was telling me something important. The fire cracked and popped before us, filling the room with fresh warmth that felt good. The mystery in the cemetery loomed in my mind. Kevin Bowers died today; Leon Christensen was about to tell me why.

“He was a lot like me, you know? Rich kid. Trust fund babies, that was us. Our friendship was one of those things that was instant. When young kids meet, it often works like that. One minute, you’re strangers, and the next, you’re best friends for life. With Kevin, it was like that. On the first day of boarding school we met and we were as close as two boys can get.”

Leon fell silent for a full two minutes, studying the fire. I remained silent, not wanting to push him to continue. Maybe it was enough to know that Kevin had been his best friend. Maybe it was enough to explain his behavior now that he lost his best friend when he was only sixteen.

I was about to rise and make some coffee for us when Leon spoke again, stopping me dead in my tracks.

“He fell in love, that dumbass,” Leon said, smiling now for the first time. “Her name was Cassandra. She was beautiful, maybe the best looking girl we had ever seen. She was into Kevin immediately, too. It was like Kevin was the best thing she had ever seen. For six months, those two were inseparable.”

I turned myself to face Leon, my right side now facing the fire. It warmed my skin and I reveled in the newfound warmth to regions previously chilled by rainwater.

“I still saw Kevin, sure, but he was just so wrapped up in this girl. It was cool at first. I mean, this girl was gorgeous and she liked my buddy, so it was all good with me. Then it became kind of annoying. She was always there, always hanging out. When I got to see Kevin alone, he would always make comments like ‘Oh, Cassie would love this!’ or ‘Dude, Cassie said the funniest thing yesterday.’ It was always about her, and I was too young to realize that it was pretty normal.”

I listened with fierce intensity, determined to take every single word into my memory. I wanted his words to burn into my memory like a film. If only I had a notebook right here. But I knew that if I had a notebook and started writing, it might break the free-flow of thoughts that Leon was letting me in on.

“I mean, this was a new girl who was his first girlfriend. Of course he was obsessed! Who wouldn’t have been? But when you’re sixteen, you’re not exactly aware of a whole lot above your waist,” Leon said. A hint of humor was returning to his voice, emulating the Leon that I had come to know in our unpleasant interactions. Yet his voice was still soft, warm, and honest. This was a whole new side of the man who I had come to lust after in my dreams and deplore in the real world.

“She was from a neighboring school. I’d go with him to see her, and yeah, it was fun, but Kevin was only interested in her. I met a lot of girls and got wrapped up in myself, so I didn’t see what was coming down the pike. Cassie was losing interest. While Kevin grew more and more attached, she was pulling away.”

Leon stopped talking again. His face turned blank. A wrinkle cut slowly across his forehead as he struggled to remember his story, as though it was too painful to remember.

“She broke it off with him on a Thursday night. I remember it clearly because Kevin just didn’t show up to morning classes on Friday. When I went to go look for him, he was just laying on his bed, sulking. I tried everything to get him up, but eventually I just sat next to him and watched movies all night with him. Saturday was the same. I was able to convince him to come out to the dining hall, but he barely touched his food. He only seemed to cheer up when I was able to buy a bottle of whiskey off a senior who owed me a favor.

“We drank heavily on Saturday night, and Kevin cried, a lot. He said he could never love again. She was the one for him; she was perfect; and she was everything, all that kind of stuff. I reassured him that he was handsome and rich; he’d be pushing the girls away soon enough, but he didn’t listen. The booze had been a terrible idea and I had to calm him down after we were pretty drunk so he wouldn’t get us caught. Eventually, he fell asleep, fully clothed and tears wet on his face.”

Leon looked over to me and stared right into my eyes.

“Can I have something to drink?” he asked.

I nodded my head. “Yes, of course. I can make you tea or coffee if you’d like.”

“Tea would be wonderful,” Leon said flatly.

I rose silently and walked into the kitchen. My clothes cooled immediately in the wake of the warm fire and I looked over at it longingly as I poured water into the tea kettle. I put out two coffee mugs with packets of green tea in them and poured just a little honey into both mugs. I hurried back over to the fireplace, hoping that Leon would fall back into his story.

Flames sent light dancing across Leon’s furrowed brow. He looked worried, as though the memory itself was a dangerous thing, poised to strike if roused. I wanted badly to lean over and rub his shoulder, tell him everything was fine, and to continue. I resisted, knowing that I might offend him or close him off. I waited patiently and soon enough, Leon continued.

“Each day got worse. I started to feel pissed off at him for so many reasons. I told myself he shouldn’t have let some random girl get that close to him so she could hurt him like that. I felt like he should get over it and stop being such a baby about it. There were a ton of girls at that school anyway, and a lot of them were absolutely show-stopping hot.

“But Kevin didn’t get any better. I didn’t know what to do. He just sulked all day. When he went back to classes, even the teachers yelling at him for skipping didn’t have any effect. It was like he was shut off from the world. I had never seen anything like it. My anger soon fell away and I was just kind of scared for the guy, but not scared enough, as it turns out.”

Kevin Bowers was dead at sixteen. The thought reverberated in my head when Leon spoke.

“Kevin died on a Friday morning. I was the one who found his body.”

There was a long silence that hung over those words. I was left speechless. Leon continued to look at the fire, the flames crackling and popping the wood in the void after he stopped speaking. I searched for something to say and my mind gave me nothing. What was there to say after something like that?

Tears formed in Leon’s eyes, visible as they reflected light from the blazing fire.

“I found my best friend hanging from the fucking ceiling by his belt. He tied it to the ceiling fan and kicked out a chair. He didn’t even leave a note. I suppose he didn’t have to,” Leon said, his voice cracking as he spoke.

“It was my fault,” Leon said with a finality that was surprising. There was not even a hint of doubt or longing to be disproven.

“On the Thursday before he killed himself, we had a falling out. A major falling out. I was scared; I didn’t know what to do about my friend who seemed to be losing his mind over some stupid girl. I yelled at him to stop. I yelled for him to be a fucking man and take some responsibility. Who cared what she thought. I told him that she was never coming back.”

Leon lowered his head in shame. He ran his hands through his hair and lifted his head back up. Tears streaked his face. His voice returned to normal as he continued on.

“Kevin must have believed me. God, sixteen year-olds are fucking stupid. And I mean me, too. We didn’t know anything. All I knew was my friend was bumming out over a girl and I wanted him to be his old self again. If I had known! If I had even the slightest inclination that he would do something like that I could have saved him. I should have saved him.”

Leon wiped his eyes harshly with the bottom of his palms. I felt tears grow in my eyes as I listened to his story, his pain becoming my pain. The tea kettle began to whistle behind us and I cursed it silently in my head. I could not get up at this moment, this tender moment of Leon’s confession.

“The tea is ready,” Leon said, smiling wanly at me.

I nodded and reached out to touch his shoulder. I rubbed gently, a consoling rub that said what I couldn’t think to actually say. I got up quickly and ran over to the stove, removing the tea kettle and pouring the boiling water over our tea bags so quickly that scalding hot water splashed up and on my hands. I shook them out quickly, the burning sensation quickly dissipating as I did so. Then I hurried back over to where Leon sat before the fire and handed him a cup.