His eyes narrowed in an instantaneous reaction and a moment later, he was sweeping her up, lifting her against his chest, so her brain exploded and every cell in her body began to vibrate with sweet, desperate pleasure. Each step he took brought their bodies closer together, and by the time he shouldered in the door, it was like being caught in a fire. She was so hot, all over, her insides squirming with a fervent, all-consuming need.
Did he feel it too? She was sure he did. But would he act on it? Benji might not have approved, but did her cousin really have a say in this? She supposed she should credit Leonidas with being a decent guy, to care so much, but her own desire outstripped any capacity to be impressed by his attempt at restraint.
He stepped across the laundry tiles and then, made a hissing sound and stopped moving altogether. Something in his body language conveyed urgency to Mila.
“What? What is it?”
She immediately tensed, sensing something was wrong.
“Come outside,” he said unnecessarily, given that he was carrying her.
But Mila’s instincts were tingling, every sense in her body telling her something was wrong. She craned her head, twisting to see, at the same time she asked that he put her down.
And she gasped, as graffiti on the walls caught her eyes first, and then, the words written there pummeled her sides.You’re mine,was painted across the wall in dark red letters. Her heart leaped into her throat.
“Put me down,” she repeated, digging her fingers into his back, trembling with fear and anger and non-comprehension, as her eyes fell on another wall, where the word,slut,was painted in the same awful, angry writing.
Nausea rose inside of her, disbelief making her squeeze her eyes. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “Even here?”
Leonidas strode into the room and sat Mila on the edge of the sofa. “Do not move,” he said thickly. “Stay exactly where you are. This is now a crime scene.”
She shuddered.
“I’m going to look around.”
“Wait. Let me come—,”
“No.” He shouted, then grimaced, softening his tone. “Not until I know it’s safe,” he added. “Stay. I mean it, Mila. Just…sit there.”
She wasn’t sure she could move, anyway. With the impediment of her ankle, and knees that had turned to jelly, she was trembling from head to toe.
“I can’t believe it,” she mumbled, as Leonidas strode away from her, towards the kitchen, first.
Leonidas could.He kicked himself for not having foreseen this possibility, after she’d told him about her stalker. His brain wasn’t working properly. His father’s death had thrown him for a loop, and then he’d arrived here and all his senses had been sent haywire by the beautiful, alluring, all-consuming, completely forbidden Mila.
But she’d told him all he needed to know—someone had been stalking her, had followed her around the world for more than a year. Why wouldn’t they have followed her here too? He hadn’t even checked the doors and windows before they’d left.
A cursory inspection revealed the kitchen was empty. He moved to the bathroom next, looking behind the shower curtain, and into the cupboard.
No more ‘love notes’ were written.
Her bed was unmade—he had no way of knowing if that was how she’d left it. He looked around—no vandalism, but it was very untidy. Mila would need to check, to see if anything had changed since that morning, to identify if anything was missing.
He took a minute, standing in the middle of the room, looking around, hands on hips, tension tightened around his core.
“You have survivor guilt.”
Leonidas stared at the psychologist, clearly unimpressed. “No shit.”
Dr Chung didn’t blink. “Your twin sister died. You feel responsible, but you weren’t. It wasn’t your job to save her, and it’s not your job to save the world. You will never feel at peace unless you learn to let this go.”
Acid filled Leonidas’ mouth. He’d been twenty two when he’d gone to see a professional. Years of nightmares over Valentina’s death, heavy drinking, poor life choices, had made him realise that he was wildly off track, but ultimately, it was Benji who pushed him, Benji who made him see what he stood to lose, and who he was hurting most. If he hadn’t done something, he would have destroyed himself—and his family in the process. He hadn’t been willing to put them through that again. Their brother Dimitrios’ downward spiral was hard enough to watch; Leonidas had known he couldn’t add to it.
The shrink had been right.
He felt guilt. He always would. And yes, he wanted to save the world. A God complex was hard to shake. Right now, it exploded through him and he knew that he would move heaven and earth to save Mila. Not because she was Benji’s cousin, and not because he’d been fantasizing about sleeping with her, but because she was innocent, being hunted, targeted, attacked, and it wasn’t fair. Leonidas had put up with a gutful of life’s injustice. Mila deserved so much better.
With resolution firming in his mind, he strode into the living room, to find her sitting just where he’d left her, haunted eyes stuck to the wall, the word ‘slut’ glaring angrily back at her.