Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3) (16 page)

“Oh, please crawl up your own ass and die.”

“That’s right.  Get all the profanities out of your system now, Ashley Williams.  Oh wait, you already got them out of your system during dinner the other night,” he teased.  “You actually slipped up a lot at the restaurant.”

Jessica frowned around the soda she was sipping.

“Cussing, telling the real truth about your brother and your father.  I’ve never seen you fall out of character like that,” he said.  “And tonight you actually invited him to the water tower?  Your favorite place on Earth?  Maybe you and Ashley Williams aren’t all that different.  Maybe she’s just a less loud, less crass, much less explicit version of Jessica Borgia.  A family friendly Borgia.”

Jessica knew what Chet was really trying to say.

Maybe Ashley Williams was falling for Leo Romanovsky.

Because it was obvious Jessica Borgia already had.

Jessica was determined to prove Chet wrong.  She was not falling for Leo Romanovsky.  She was just a damned good actress.

She’d convinced herself that was true, even as the distant roar of that Flat-6 engine painted an instant smile on her face. Trying to fight it away, she resumed jogging through the Westchester neighborhood that Sunday evening.

In moments, the red convertible came screeching to a stop next to her, inches from scraping the curb, and she slowed, jogging in place, still trying not to smile.

“Do I hear the penis car?” Chet asked, his voice sputtering through her earpiece, which was doubling as headphones.

Jessica pulled the buds from her ears as the tinted driver side window rolled down, revealing Leo inch by inch, a pair of sunglasses shading his eyes.

He leaned an arm out of the window, smiling wide.  “Oh hey, Wednesday.”

Jessica smirked, holding her hands up.  “Please don’t hit me.  I’m on the sidewalk this time.”  Of course she’d put herself on that sidewalk on purpose, and had been running the same block, back and forth, for half an hour, waiting to hear that Flat-6 rumbling in the distance.

Leo licked his lips, sweeping the sunglasses off his face.

Jessica was drawn in like a zombie, leaning down onto the window frame, lips spreading.  “You looking for a date, handsome?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.” His deep voice boomed, eyes going to her lips.  “To my family dinner tonight.”

She clicked her tongue.  “That’s gonna cost ya.”

“Whatever the price,” he said.  “You’re worth it.”

She pushed away from the car, ending their fun hooker charade.  “I can’t intrude on your family two weeks in a row, wearing the same inappropriate attire I wore last week.”

“You won’t be intruding,” he said.  “In fact, this time, they may not let you leave.”

***

“Yo.  Same girl? Two weeks in a row?”  Gary beamed.  “Somebody pop a bottle.  This is a new record for Leo.”

Zoey pushed open the blinds of the kitchen window behind her and then came back to the table with a smile.  “Nope, no pigs flying.”  She and Gary shared a laugh, neither of them blind to Leo’s glares of contempt as he led Jessica into the dining room.

“I’ll kill you,” Leo mouthed to Gary, pulling out Jessica’s chair.  He gave her the seat next to Tony this time, putting himself between her and Gary.  His glaring eyes went to Zoey after he sat down.  “I thought you were the homie, Zoey.  I really did.”

“I
am
the homie.” Zoey pouted, perking up.  “I can’t bust your balls now?  Since when are you so freaking sensitive?”

“It’s good to see you again, Ashley,” Bette said.

Leo motioned to Bette.  “That is what an appropriate greeting to a guest in our home sounds like.  Take notes everybody.  Thank you, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, baby.  I’m just so happy to see a girl finally stick.”

Zoey and Gary snickered.

“Ma,” Leo admonished.

Tony spoke from the other end of the table. “So, you just happened to end up under Leo’s car last week, and now you just
happen
to be the girl he brings by, two weeks in a row.” Tony held Jessica’s gaze with his hands curled into fists at his mouth.  “It’s just interesting.  Same girl.  Never seen that happen before.”

“Never,” Val confirmed.  “Not once.”

Leo groaned, still under the impression that his family was chiding
him.

Jessica knew better.  Their issue was with
her.

Like Val, Tony had finally found the good sense to find her suspicious.  With everything that had gone down with Knox Jefferson, she didn’t blame him.

But they were too late.  Jessica already had Leo right where she wanted him. She had no doubt that if his family told Leo to stop seeing her, he wouldn’t listen.  He was too enamored.  Too determined to get in her panties.  His family’s words of warning would fall on deaf ears.

They were also too late because, as they watched her with rocky eyes, she’d already planted an audio adhesive to the bottom of their dining room table.

“Leo saw me jogging again, and insisted I come over for dinner.  I hope it’s okay.” Jessica looked to Bette.

“Of course it’s okay, sweetheart.  Any woman who can strap Leo down, two weeks in a row, is family by default.”

“You’re about to have a lot of brown babies running around this mug,” Zoey said to Bette.

“Zoey,” Leo cringed.

“Brown, green, purple, I don’t give a damn, just bring me them babies.”

“Ma,” Leo begged.

Tony exhaled.  “Let’s eat already.”

Jessica cut a look at him. Knox’s death had really shaken him up. Jessica wondered if Tony thought Knox’s “suicide” smelled funny, too.

“Where’s Rome and Angie?” Leo asked, frowning at the two empty chairs across the table.

“Still shaken about everything,” Bette said, going somber.  “Poor Angie is terrified to leave that correction facility he calls an apartment.”

As Leo sighed in aggravation, Jessica sighed in relief.  She would sleep better knowing Angie was heeding her warning, and staying behind closed doors.  Not worrying about her would make it much easier to finish this job.

“He’s fine, baby,” Bette said in response to the frown collecting between Leo’s eyes.  “I’m sure he’ll be back soon, once things calm down.”

The grimace on Leo’s face only eased when Jessica pressed a hand to his thigh.

“So, Ashley,” Bette said, catching Jessica’s eye as the clanking of plates and silverware picked up around the room. “How is Novsky treating you?  We heard you got the job.”

“It’s great,” Jessica said.  “Everyone’s been really nice.”

“That’s because you work from home.” Zoey winked.

“Right?”  Jessica laughed.  “Seriously, though, I got a chance to meet a few of the employees at the office party.  They’re definitely a wild
bunch.”

“You’re not going to sue us are you?”  Gary leaned over to catch her eyes.

She returned his smile.  “No, Gary. I actually prefer a work environment where inappropriateness and vulgarity run rampant.”

“Then you’re going to
love
Novsky,” Zoey said.

“It’s too bad Roman and Angie aren’t here,” Jessica said, trying to steer the conversation in a workable direction, like Knox Jefferson.  “They’re so cute together.”

“I take full credit for Roman and Angie shacking up.”  Zoey raised her finger high in the air and pointed at herself with it.  “That was all me, thank you very much.  Just call me the love doctor.”

“Calm down,” Leo teased.

Zoey met his eyes.  “You’re next, sir.”

“Looks like he’s already there,” Bette chimed in.

“I wonder if his harem knows that he’s already there,” Gary said.

Under the table, Leo kicked and caught Gary in the shin.

Jessica’s eyes went to Gary.  “Harem?”

“Nevermind,” Gary mumbled, his cheeks rapidly reddening.

Jessica looked at Leo, taken off guard by the feeling that was working its way through her.  From day one she’d known who she was dealing with.  A chauvinist pig who had given her a degrading nickname in high school, and didn’t think much of women outside of how big their tits and ass were.  She’d
known
who Leo was, right from the start, which was why she couldn’t make sense of what she was feeling.

Jealousy?

Anger?

She didn’t have the right to feel anger toward a man she was using to further her career.  She couldn’t be jealous of a man who was a mark.  A catalyst.  A pawn.  But she did.  She was.

In her time spent with his family, she’d also learned that Gary told the truth.  Leo had just finished telling her what a big mouth he had the day before.

She knew Gary was telling the truth now.

When Leo laid his arm along the back of her chair and met her eyes, she saw the truth written there too.  There were parts of him she’d yet to see.  Totally different from the shiny model he’d been advertising.

She’d been advertising a false model, too, and she no longer felt badly about it.  She thought about Leo having a “harem.” Juggling women like toys.  Picking and choosing which one he wanted to disrespect and violate every night, depending on what mood he was in.  Did he have a girl in every color?  Every shape and size?  Did he even know all their names?

“Please don’t listen to Gary,” he whispered, eyes searching hers.  It was as if the entire table had faded away for him, and it was just the two of them.  “There’s a reason my family has never seen the same woman at this table twice.  It’s because none of them have ever been you.”

Jessica hated the relief that hit her.  She hated it
so much,
she almost ended her own life with the steak knife in her hand.  When had she begun looking for his validation?  When had his bullshit words started to mean something to her?  Was she really sitting there, feeling special about being the first woman to sit her ass in that chair two weeks in a row?  When had she become such a simp?  So blinded by her need for a man’s approval that she ate his bullshit words up like birthday cake?

“Please don’t listen to Gary.”  His eyes softened.

She took a deep breath, and it came easily—too easily.

“I won’t,” she whispered back, eyes falling to his lips.

His own did the same.  “Good.”

“Aw, look at how they look at each other,” Bette cooed. “Am I getting me some baby Leos?”  She threw her hands over her mouth as if she never thought she’d see the day.

“Some
brown
baby Leos,” Zoey corrected.

Bette broke into dance. “
I’m gonna get some baaaabies, I’m gonna get some baaaabies
.”

Zoey dropped her utensils and joined in on the dance to Bette’s uneven beat, laughing out loud when Bette broke out into a Michael Jackson pose, complete with an “ooooohhh” at the top of her lungs.

“Bring on them
babies,
” Bette cried, finishing her song.

Leo and Jessica locked eyes.

“I told you these people were crazy,” he said.

***

After excusing herself to the bathroom in the middle of dinner, Jessica was driven by pure adrenaline.

With shaking hands she managed to get cameras hidden in several rooms downstairs. Breathing growing deeper, wilder, with each device, she managed to bug wall sconces, smoke detectors, and electrical outlets.  A few of her favorite hiding spots.  No spot went untapped.

For effect, she flushed the empty toilet she hadn’t used before moving out of the bathroom and through the hallways, keeping her ear to the dining room to make sure she could still hear the talking and laughter.  Whenever there was a natural lull in conversation, she froze.  Her heart would churn to a stop.  She’d hold her breath.  Then, the talking would pick up once more, and she could breathe again.

Once she’d wired more than three rooms, a voice in her head told her not to push her luck.  Disregarding it, she entered the foyer and approached the coat rack next to the front door.  The rack was partially hidden from the dining room by one of the winding staircases, and Jessica pushed herself into the shadows.

The Romanovskys were so entrenched in an argument they’d gotten themselves into, they didn’t even notice her at the coat rack.  Even Val was playing along, breaking free of the apathetic attitude he’d had since the day she met him.

As Jessica inched closer to the coat rack, she saw Leo stand and break into dance.   The laughter from his family egged him on, and he did a little spin before falling back into his seat.  She knew it didn’t take much for Leo to bust a move, music be damned, so the sight wasn’t surprising.

Her heart warmed.  She felt like she’d known him for a lifetime.  Had it really only been one week?

She tried to control whatever it was in her mind that was making her hands shake as she dipped them into the pocket of the first jacket on the rack.  She kept her eyes on the dining room, exhaling when she felt soft leather under her fingers.

She pulled the wallet out and flipped it open.

Damn.

Cursing under her breath when Gary’s license photo smiled up at her, she shoved it back into his pocket and moved to the jacket beside his.

Once she had the next wallet, she cursed again.  Roman’s.

She dove into the next jacket, snatching out the slightly larger wallet from that one and breathing in relief when she flipped it open and saw Tony’s license photo. After pulling the only credit card in his wallet out, she returned it to his jacket pocket and then went to the last jacket on the rack.

Val’s.

Her throat went so dry as she took in his stoic license photo, her breathing took on a rasp.  She kept her eyes riveted to the dining room, where Zoey was now in the middle of a rousing story, stealing everyone’s attention.  Jessica managed to swipe the black card in Val’s wallet without dropping it from her quaking fingers.