Loving Leo (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 3)
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Authors: Trevion Burns
Loving Leo
The Romanovsky Brothers, Book 3
Trevion Burns
LOVING LEO
Copyright 2015 © by Trevion Burns
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
To my readers
Thank you
Jessica Borgia’s knees were going numb. Kneeling behind a line of bushes had grown not just boring, but painful. She squinted against the setting sun as she snapped dozens of photos of the Romanovsky house on her cell phone.
An engine snarled in the distance, making the grass at her feet vibrate. The distinct roar of the Porsche Flat-6 sent her leaping to her feet, tucking her phone into the exercise band around her arm. After unzipping the jacket of her insulated jogging suit, revealing a tight sports bra, she began to jog in place, gazing down the road.
When the sparkling red stunner came zooming into view, she jolted and made a mad dash. She hadn’t expected the son of a bitch to be driving so fast. As she raced into the street, she could only pray that her timing was right.
Tires screeched against the asphalt just in time, and though the Porsche struck her in the thighs, it was nothing more than a love tap. A love tap would not suffice, however, so she leapt off her feet just as the car screamed to a stop, landing on the hood with a hard thud before making a big production of rolling onto the pavement. She hit the asphalt on her back, and bit back a fake scream. This guy had great reflexes; he’d stopped just in time. She’d been prepared to take a real blow, a blow he hadn’t supplied, so her moans of pain were simply a product of her subpar acting chops. Pushing herself up to her elbows, her hooded eyes rose just in time to see her tall, dark and very handsome mark jump out of the car and circle around the front.
She held an arm out, anticipating an apology, a little compassion, perhaps a clumsy, frantic attempt at helping her to her feet. “Don’t worry, I’m okay—”
“What the
fuck,
woman? Why are you jogging in the middle of the street? You’re going to get yourself killed—and this is a brand new grille!”
Still on her back, Jessica watched with her mouth agape as her mark raced to the car’s grille, caressing the shining metal with the pads of his fingers.
She stumbled to her feet on her own, taking a quick moment to adjust her breasts in her sports bra.
Tearing his golden eyes away from his grille, the speed demon turned to her, and his eyes shot straight to the deep V in her sports bra.
“You should really watch where you’re going, sweetheart,” he purred, appreciating her assets for a few moments longer before moving his gaze to her eyes. The moment he saw her face, his own melted into a smile. “Are you hurt?”
Yes, you son of a bitch!
“I’m fine,” she said. “In fact, I should be the one apologizing to you. I can be so scatterbrained sometimes.” She leaned forward, worried that her breasts might literally spill right out of the sports bra as she did. She’d bought it two sizes too small for a reason.
His eyes shot back down, and he motioned behind him. “This is my parents’ house… right back there. Do you want to come inside and sit down for a minute? Maybe get a closer look? Make sure there’s no bleeding or bruising, or anything?”
Jessica almost laughed. One shot of her huge breasts, and this fool was putty in her hands.
“I’d love to come inside.”
He smiled, offering his hand. “I’m Leo. Leo Romanovsky.”
Jessica Borgia gave Leo Romanovsky her hand, and it was game on.
“I’m Ashley,” she said. “Ashley Williams.”
***
Jessica followed Leo up the cobblestoned walkway of the Romanovsky estate. Her eyes ran over his body—expensive leather coat, dark-wash tapered jeans, and combat boots.
He threw her a look over his shoulder.
A slew of luxury vehicles lined the circular driveway, gleaming under the setting sun. Not a single vehicle there retailed for less than $100,000. The only thing missing was bikini-clad women writhing all over the hoods.
The estate
was
big enough to host a legitimate car show. Massive in size, it spanned almost an entire block and gave new meaning to the word
sprawling
. A Tuscan-style fountain flowed in the middle of the driveway, surrounded by a circular patch of grass and lilies. Jessica’s heart ached. Her studio apartment in Hoboken wouldn’t even make up a fourth of that driveway.
“Beautiful home,” she said.
Leo looked over his shoulder. “Not bad huh? My brothers and I bought it for our folks after we made our first million at Novsky.”
Not even five minutes in, and already bragging about being a millionaire. “Novsky?”
“Our family real estate company. You know,
Novsky
… Roma
novsky…”
“Brilliant wordplay.”
“Do I sense sarcasm?” He smiled over his shoulder. “My twin brother, Val… he started Novsky while he was still in college. Of course, it blew up overnight, because everything Val touches turns to gold…”
Sensing sarcasm herself, Jessica shot him a look.
“And now here we are.” Leo motioned to the house. “It’s a pretty far cry from the desolate shack we grew up in back in Jersey.”
Jessica knew all about that “desolate shack,” the same desolate shack where Pansy and Marcus Black had been killed in a hit-and-run ten years earlier. They’d both died instantly, and the driver had never been found.
Her inquiring gaze returned to the back of Leo’s head. She took in the clean lines of his dark brown hair, cut into a low fade with a precision only good money could buy, before gazing up at the sky. The stone mansion seemed to go on forever, slicing through the clouds. A Juliet balcony sat on the second level, right above the wrought-iron double front doors.
Leo came to a stop at the doors, keys jingling to life as he went to work on the lock. This time, when he looked over his shoulder and caught her eye, he didn’t look away.
She raised her eyebrows in response, and it took everything she had to ignore the movement that commenced in her stomach.
Movement.
She was disappointed in herself. Disappointed in her body. Nothing had changed.
This chauvinist bastard could still turn her inside out with one shot of those golden eyes.
She fought an annoyed smirk because Leo,
Leo Romanovsky,
was looking at her like he could eat her alive. Like he’d already put her into a million different erotic positions in his mind, and couldn’t wait to get to work making his filthy thoughts a reality.
Despite her fight, the smirk hit her lips.
He didn’t recognize her.
“Word of warning,” he said, pausing with his key in the door, meeting her eyes. “My family is insane.”
“Aren’t all families?”
He paused again, door half-open. The heat from inside escaped through the crack. “Please don’t misunderstand me. My family is
absolutely
insane. On a whole other level of insane. In their own stratosphere. A dimension that has yet to be discovered by man.”
She chortled. “Thanks for the warning.”
He pushed open the door of the house and pressed back against it, waiting for her to pass him.
Jessica noted his playful eyes, keenly aware that he was only holding the door so he could get a good look at her ass on the way in.
She stepped in, throwing him a look over her shoulder once she’d passed.
Sure enough, those dog eyes were riveted to the ass of her spandex jogging pants.
Beer Belly Borgia.
She turned away from him to hide the disdain in her eyes, taking in the marble floors and double staircases in the foyer.
Voices floated through the hall, and Leo motioned toward the sound. “The insane people are in the dining room. End of the hall.”
Jessica waited for him to come up next to her, a shiver zooming through her when he placed his hand on the middle of her back.
She looked up at him.
He matched her gaze, eyes hooded, breathing labored, tongue darting out to wet his parched pink lips.
Her eyes grew heavy, too, running along his beard, which was as carefully trimmed and well maintained as his hair, giving more dimension to a pair of cheekbones that were already strong on their own. His thick black eyebrows made his cognac eyes pop, damn near sounding a horn to announce their stunning presence.
When he got bold and curled his hand around her waist, Jessica was snapped back to reality.
Jesus.
How long had she been staring at him?
“You know what?” He showed her a hint of his straight teeth as his eyes shifted to the other end of the hall. “On second thought, let’s go this way.”
He tugged her just enough to change their direction. They proceeded past the dining room, but Jessica got a peek inside just in time to lock eyes with Angie Colt.
Angie perked up in her seat at the dining table, her thick forest of brown curls dancing as she pushed her cat-eye glasses a little higher on her nose.
The last thing Jessica saw was the widening of Angie’s green eyes, those bifocals she wore making them look wider still, and she cursed Colt under her breath. Angie’s game face needed work. If the shock in her eyes was any indication, Angie was going to blow Jessica’s cover before this investigation even began.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as Leo led her down what seemed to be a never-ending hallway. It stretched on for ages, lined with tall windows the whole way down before curving around two different corners at the end.
Distracted by something in front of him, Leo’s smile broadened. “Whoa, look who it is,” he called, pleasant surprise lacing his voice.
Jessica’s eyes snapped forward. When she saw who had stolen Leo’s attention, her spine straightened, her lungs filled, and she almost tripped over her sneakers, catching herself just in time to keep from tumbling to the floor.
Roman and Val Romanovsky were moving down the hall, lips pulled taut and eyes cloudy. Their hands were shoved deep in their pockets, and both were watching her with hard, rattled eyes.
Roman, sharply dressed, didn’t respond to Leo’s greeting, too taken by the sight of Jessica.
Jessica peered back. As they moved past each other, she held his murky blue gaze.
Roman’s attentions didn’t waver until they’d passed each other by.
But Val.
Val slowed his stride, squinting at her. Unlike his dapper older brother, he was dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. An oversized skull cap was pushed back on his head, and it was the same unique color as his eyes. He and Leo were fraternal twins, but they had the same golden eyes. Something about Val’s eyes, however, felt gloomy and uninviting. Not bright and playful like Leo’s.
She held on to the shifty feeling his eyes brought alive inside her, even as it sent her skin crawling.
His eyes had been just as cold in his mug shot.
She craned her neck to hold his gaze as they sidestepped each other, looking over her shoulder to watch as he and Roman moved down the hall.
Roman didn’t look back.
But Val peeked over his shoulder, attempting nonchalance, even as apprehension swam in his shrunken eyes as they met hers once more. He didn’t look away until he and Roman disappeared around the corner and into the dining room.
Jessica’s skin still burned where Leo had her around the waist, leading her down the hall and away from her prime suspect. Even though her body was still very much with Leo, her mind was now distracted, seized by the instant reminder of why she was in that house in the first place. That reminder had come in the form of Val’s probing, distrustful eyes.
Of course he was distrustful. He was probably distrustful of any new face in his family’s house. What man in his position wouldn’t be? She imagined Val must live in constant fear of new people, wondering every time if this new face would be the one. The one who was going to shatter everything. Obliterate the bogus life he’d worked so hard at building.
This time, his suspicions were correct.
Jessica Borgia
was
the one.
She was here to see Val pay the price. The
highest
price. A price he’d been skirting for ten long years.
She was here to see Val Romanovsky burn.
***
Leo only left a sliver of space between his body and the bathroom door as he held it open for her. She squeezed through, purposely pushing her ass into his jeans, just the way she knew this nasty son of a bitch liked it. Once inside, she faced him just in time to see the smile vanishing from his face, replaced with a lust filled gaze.
She gazed up at him, and had to give him credit. As a woman who stood at five foot ten, craning her neck to look up at a man was a miracle she rarely had the honor of experiencing. It was rare that a man made her feel dainty, and even more rare that she could put on four-inch heels and still be looking up at him. Leo ticked both of those unicorn boxes, which was usually reason enough for her to drop her panties on sight, but not this time. She loathed him far too much.
Beer Belly Borgia.