Page 126 of Under Her Protection

"Yes."

"I remembered."

"I noticed."

Vivienne almost smiled.

She did not, quite. She put the pot down. She put the small white sugar bowl in front of Leo. She put two cubes in for her.

Leo smiled to herself and drank the coffee.

"Leo."

"Yes."

"I have something to say to you. Again. Just so you know for sure.”

Leo nodded and their eyes met.

"I am in love with you."

A beat.

"I am in love with you, Leandra Cole. I have been in love with you probably since the first time we had sex. And I would really like to live with you. Whatever that looks like. I want to have coffee and toast with you every morning. I want to wake up in your arms feeling safe. I want you to consider some kind of arrangement.”

Leo put the cup down.

"Vivienne."

She nodded.

"I am in love with you too."

The words felt easy for Leo now.

“I would absolutely like to live with you and we should discuss what that would look like. I don’t want another morning where I am not waking up with you.”

Vivienne had the look of when she was thinking. When her mind was running at a million miles an hour.

"What does the arrangement look like for you, Leo?”

Leo took a slice of the toast.

She put butter on it. She put the apricot on the butter. She took a bite. She chewed it. She drank her coffee. She put the toast back on the plate.

"It looks like this," she said. "I am not your bodyguard any more. Avery, if you want her, is your protection until you decide what you want. Dominique will have a view; we will deal with Dominique. Blackthorn does not, in general, have its operatives in love with their principals. I will resign from the principal-protection unit on Tuesday morning."

"D'accord."

"Beyond that. I would like to keep working. I am not suited to just being someone’s partner. I will speak to Dominique on Tuesday about the corporate side of Blackthorn. I am good at risk management. I would like to do it from the other side of the desk."

Vivienne set her cup down on the saucer without sound.

"I would like to keep my flat on the rue Oberkampf for the first six months, but I will stay with you. We will see how we do. We will, I think, after six months, do well and then we can review what is next.”

"Yes." Vivienne looked relieved.

She came over to Leo and sat across her lap in an intimate way that surprised Leo. But she was happily surprised.