Free Leon's Way by Sunniva Dee

and ready to jump in. For my projects, he moves objects out of the way without me asking, even things I could easily clear away myself. When I’m not doing well, he diverts people’s attention, and whenever possible, he takes me upstairs to be sick in peace instead of in the ladies’ room downstairs.
    I force myself to recall how he devours his girlfriends. The way he thinks nothing of it after he cuts their heartbroken souls loose. I hope to stop loving him at some point. Maybe all I need is to observe him with a few more broken-dolls.
    Leon says he respects my decision to not try out a relationship with him. He’s in my space, though. In my face. Creepy-crawls hotly beneath my skin.
    My love isn’t touching me, but his palms are flat against the brick and his mouth dips in until it finds me. He sucks in a deep breath as he pulls on my lip with his teeth. “Christ, Arriane.” He kisses me and I open, my inhale quivering with indecision.
    “Please don’t,” I whisper, but my neck arches to meet him better. One of his hands reaches my waist, caressing it carefully. Moves over my stomach as our kiss deepens.
    “Just a little bit,” he whispers back, and the hot twinge in my gut makes me moan. “Shit,” he says. “You’re fucking addictive.”
    “Stop confusing me…” I mumble, but his touch trails up, curling around my breast. As he squeezes, he presses his body hard against me.
    “Your call, Arria. I’m here,” he says, reading minds and stoking my fire. I burn.
    “You should find another girl,” I press out, not meaning a word.
    “Judging by how jealous you are, I beg to differ.”
    “I’m not jealous,” I sigh as his hands skim around to my back and tuck me against him. His touch becomes rougher, and my fingers lace through his hair. Leon jerks me up against the wall, my legs sliding over his hips on their own accord.
    I—
    Should leave before I do something else I’ll regret.
    A button in my shirt is about to pop, and Leon finds it at the center of my chest. A pleased grunt escapes him as he undoes it and sneaks a hand in to caress me beneath my bra. “You want me so bad, baby,” he tells me. “Ah, these nipples… Stay with me tonight?”
    Somehow my brain still works. “I can’t.”
    “Why not? I’ll please you, baby—I’ll please you.” He rocks into me, showing me what I’m missing out on, and I whimper, remembering so clearly.
    “Shut up.”
    “So I should chase other chicks, then?” he whispers in my ear while he moves against me.
    My legs tighten around his waist, my hips undulating with him, riding him, using force. He helps me. God, he’s hard as granite between us, and I’m dying for this man.
    My brain isn’t working. “Leon, please…”
    “Should I grab the chick by the DJ booth instead? The one who’s got the hots for me?” he murmurs through the kiss.
    “No…”
    I’m shameless, I—press my crotch into him, needing release. I’m panting, squeezing myself against him, and Leon understands, works me—works himself against my core until I start whimpering from him.
    “Oh, baby, baby…” His breath is fast into my mouth, every muscle in his body coiled tight as I climax. “I love it when you come.”
    I am weak, slumping my head against his shoulder as he cradles me in his arms. He kisses my neck, a warm burst of air hitting me from his nostrils and producing goose bumps.
    “I’m sorry,” I say, meaning for everything. For giving in to him, for not making him happy, not easing his worries like my mission has been since I started loving him. I’m adding to his burden instead.
    “Sshhh, baby. Sshhh.”

I’m not sure when Kat will return. Knowing her, it depends on our father’s situation, which isn’t something I’ll lose sleep over.
    After a week of having her at my house, I’m floored by how much I’ll miss her sweet presence. It’s why I’m with her, entering my father’s hospital room on Kat’s last day in Deepsilver. I’m doing this