chapter 6

"There's a thin line between a lie, and a concealed truth."

~Shannon

I froze and stared wide eyed at the full grown teenager cuddling Lionel, then at the barbie doll lookalike sizing me from head to toe. So much for promising never to give me a reason to part ways with him. His eyes were pleading with me to relax but how did he expect me to do that? I was awfully quiet but questions were burning in my throat.

"Claire sweery, could you please go to your room for a minute?" He bent over to her level and pecked her on the forehead. She scurried away within a second, oblivious of the tense situation.

She had a room and he called her sweery? Damn, it was as real as it could get.

"I should have told you-" He began.

"Told me what? That you have a wife and a kid?" I yelled.

"No! It's not like that." He protested.

"Stop lying to her, she's just the other woman and you know it." She sat herself down and crossed one leg over the other, a smug look on her face.

Say what now? I smacked my palm against my forehead and huffed out air. Un-fucking-believable!!

"Just shut the fuck up, Leslie." Lionel roared, his eyes were so red it scared me.

"Why would I? Don't lie to the girl, you're only wasting her time." She giggled.

"How did you even get in here? My father told you about this place, didn't he? You know what, just get the fuck out." He walked towards her, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the door.

"Let go of me!" She tried to get out of his hold but he wasn't having none of it. I watched the exchange silently, my anger building up by the minute, I didn't give a damn that he threw her out. I just wanted to know why he made a fool of me all this time, and to think that I almost said yes to him. 

"I don't want to see you in my property ever again, Leslie. Or so help me, I will do something you will never forget." He violently pointed his fingers at her.

"But, but I love you." She pleaded as he shut the door in her face.

"Get lost." He yelled but she was still there, I could hear her cries. Lionel creaked the door open and called for one of the bodyguards, "get her out of my house right now and I don't want this to repeat itself." He declared and as the man hoisted her up, she spurred insults I didn't have time to listen to my way.

When he turned back to me, his eyes softened immediately and the angry Lionel I had seen a few seconds ago disappeared. I put my right hand akimbo and raised my eyebrows, "you have one minute to say something that makes sense."

"I'm sorry, Shannon." He tried to touch me but I dodged his touch.

"That's not what I want to hear. Now I got the answer I was looking for, you were too good to be true after all." I collected my phone that was lying on the floor and made my way to the door but he stopped me.

"I can't let you leave like that." He blocked my path.

"You have no right to hold me against my will."

"I just want you to listen to me, then you can decide if you want to go or not." He put his hands together and pleaded.

"I'm listening." I took a step back and sat on a puff.

"Leslie and I met in highschool. We dated for a few months and I didn't like the spoilt brat-rude girl she was, so I broke up with her. She didn't take it well and threatened to kill herself if I didn't give her a proper goodbye. In short, she wanted sex." He kept looking down and away but not at me.

"Wait, how old were you?"

"16, she was 15. So like the stupid teenager that I was, I thought why not? We had done it before anyways. Little did I know that it was a trap, to get her pregnant. I din't know how she did it cause we always used a condom but later realized that she took it and poured it in herself. When I discovered what she had done, it was too late cause she was already pregnant and I wasn't about to kill an innocent baby." He dropped on the floor and buried his face in his hands.

"Did you ever date again?" I was curious.

"No, my hate for her only grew." He raised his head and looked up at me, "I'm so, so, sorry for not telling you earlier. I didn't want to scare you off just yet."

"You should have told me from the very beginning, Lionel. When were you planning to reveal it to me?" I pressed my lips together. I hated getting lied to.

He shook his head, he couldn't even look at me, "I don't know, he whispered."

"So if I hadn't found out you wouldn't have told me?"

"Of course not, I was planning to tell you but I did not know how to." He defended.

"How did your parents react then?"

"They wanted me to marry her after completing school, but I said no. I couldn't agree to getting tied down to a woman I did not choose, to spend the rest of my life with. She's from a wealthy family and marrying her meant our families would be extremely powerful. They still pressure me to date, that's where she gets the courage to bother me." He spoke with so much bile.

"Jeez! That's crazy. How old is Claire?" 

"Thirteen. She's a good girl, very intelligent and outgoing." His face lit up as he spoke about her.

"She sounds like an amazing little girl." I said honestly.

"She is, she is. Can you ever forgive me? I know it's a lot to take in but I need you in my life, Shannon." He came to sit beside me and whispered, "I'm so sorry, I really mean it."

"On two conditions." I illustrated with my fingers.

"Name it, I will do anything you want." He stared at me through hope filled eyes.

"First and foremost I need time, to think and make my decision. Secondly, I don't want to be anywhere near that woman. I know she's still a part of your life but-"

"You don't have to explain further. All you need will be done as from now and no, she's not a part of my life. We have visitation agreements where my bodyguards picks Claire up on the dates set by the court and drops her off when it's time to go home so I don't need to call nor talk to her at all. Claire has her phone in case of anything, she's the one to call me." He knew what he was doing and I loved that.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" He leaned his forehead against mine with his eyes open, staring at me with love.

"Yes, I forgive you. The fact that we have a child involved doesn't mean I'll leave you." I thought about it for days and realize our relationship was much more than the obstacles we were facing.

"You don't know how much this means to me." He pulled me in for a hug and placed his lips at the crook of my neck. I laughed, I was ticklish.

"But, we're gonna have to talk to my parents and I can't believe Kayleigh didn't tell me about this." I whined.

"She knows how to keep secrets." He pinched my nose.

"Gosh! Even from her best friend? She will hear from me when she lands here next week."

"But it's not her fault, I didn't ask her to lie or anything. Maybe it never occurred to her to tell you since things happened so fast and it was the last thing on her mind." He did have a point. But I was still bent on giving her a little ass whooping lol!

"Do you want us to go for a dip?" He sat properly on the bed.

"Where?"

"We could go to the pool, or the beach or the river behind the house." He traced lines across my stomach, earning a shiver from me.

"Alright. Pop the question already." I covered my face with my hands and dropped back on the bed laughing.

"Shannon, will you be mine?" He pulled me up and swatted my hands away from my face.

"Yes, I am yours now." I streched my hand forward and looked at him expectantly. He looked from my dancing fingers to my face in confusion.

"This is where you take out the ring and put it on my fingers, duh!" He still looked lost, "so you didn't get a ring? I can't believe this." I covered my eyes and began to cry.

"Babe, don't cry. I'll get you one tomorrow." He tried to pull me towards him but I wouldn't budge.

"I want it now." I mumbled.

"Girl, are you playing with me?" He doubled over in laughter.

"Gotcha!" I smirked, he had learnt so much about me in the short time we spent together.

Still laughing his ass off, he pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. I could hear his heartbeat, soft and steady. If only life was like his heart.

"Leo?"

"Huh? I like it when you call me that." His chest vibrated against my ear.

"Really? Then I should use it more often."

"Yeah, I'd love that. What were you saying before that?" His hands were slowly rubbing my back, up and down.

"Oh, I was saying that we need to take baby steps." I didn't want us to rush things and end up ruining everything. I wanted us to take our time and get to know each other on a personal and more intimate level.

"We'll go with your pace. But I'd like it if you did me one tiny favour." He lifted two of his fingers to illustrate.

"Which is?"

"I would like it if you could allow me to kiss you. I've been dying to taste your lips. I won't go further than that, you have my word." He lifted my chin so could face him and I nodded.

"You're such an amazing woman." He said as he began peppering kisses all over my neck and my jaw. I giggled as his lips travelled to my cheeks and all the way up, leaving a peck on my forehead before tracing my eyebrows and down to my eyes, nose and finally got to where I wanted them, my lips.

He hesitated for a few seconds before slowly lifting me up and placing me on his laps. He looked deep into my eyes, with his pupils dilated and I could tell that he adored me. With one hand on my waist and the other deep in my hair, he leaned in and claimed my lips. 

A sweet sensation washed over me and butterflies made a temporary home in my stomach as he kissed me slowly but surely. While he tugged on my lower lip, I massaged his hair with one hand and the other held on to his neck. His lips worked magic on me and my attraction towards him grew, he expressed his feelings through the passionate kiss and I finally admitted to myself that I had fallen for him. Deeply.

His hands on my body were still, he was keeping his promise to take things slow. I was getting aroused by the minute and so was he, his erection pressing hard against me was enough evidence. We had to stop or things would escalate to an uncontrollable situation.

Just as I was about to stop the kiss, cold air hit me as his lips left mine and squeezed me tightly against him. "You're a dream come true." His breath was raspy and I wished we could stay cuddled up like that forever.