Winter Hearts

Change of Plan

Leo reached the landing outside the penthouse and sighed. He felt defeated, as if he had been winded before he could put his hands up to fight. He was about to ring the doorbell when he pulled back his hand and waited.

He knew it would be warm inside and that his brothers were all waiting to be there for him.

He just couldn't bear to see them right now. When he finally spoke to N on the phone, he found out that they had been taped, as he had feared, but that was not all. There was footage from this afternoon when they were by the sea. And footage from the night they first kissed.

He didn't ask how much N had seen, or if everyone had seen it all. It was already bad enough that they knew what the clips were of.

His own deep-seated desire to control the pace of their exposure had been wrested from him, and he felt deeply violated by the act.

Although, he felt more disappointed than angry. He could see why the man recorded them, after all, he knew that as long as anyone knew who he was, he could expect that a camera would be recording him.

He just didn't expect that here, he had even been recognised.

He wondered if that bartender had spiteful intentions, because he felt he had been rejected. He wondered if perhaps he should have acknowledged the man that night.

Leo sighed again, turning towards the staircase and sitting down a few steps above the landing. The air was chilly, and he looked up to let the chill sweep over his warm face. He leaned back, resting his elbows on a higher step.

From experience, he knew that acknowledging a fan's overzealous attentions could either have calming effects on them, or could heighten their zeal. Ignoring that sort of behaviour, like screaming, or reaching or touching, had always been his best policy, and it also fit his sometimes cold demeanour.

He was at the point where he was comfortable chatting idly to the more reasonable fans, whose sense of humour often set the tone for him, and helped him respond with his usual dry comments.

He shook his head. He believed he acted as any person would have when receiving unsolicited attentions, celebrity or not.

His hunch was that the man had taken the footage for his own personal satisfaction of having caught such a private moment. Unfortunately, the urge to share and be the one with such a scoop of a recording, could overcome even the best of fans.

He knew that by now, the machinery that was their company support team would have been set into action. Back home, a tiny team of staff would already be scouring the net for any of that footage, ready to pounce on the publishers or sharers. If it was bigger than they could handle, the job would be outsourced to a professional service. He frowned. More and more people would become privy to this, even if the clips never really saw the light of day.

He took a deep breath. There was no shame in what they were doing, in his mind.

But they could become fodder for shamers. And Siana would bear the brunt of it.

It wouldn't be like they had broken any laws, but that would make it all the more reasonable to haters to take on the role of punishers and judges themselves.

He sat back up, groaning. He couldn't help but wonder if the clip of him and Siana on the night at the club was clear. Whether it captured their faces, or just their forms. Whether anyone could see him looking at her with desire just before he kissed her for the very first time. Or if it caught her expression when he pulled away. He squeezed his eyes shut, hanging his head.

The look he had given her as he wiped his mouth and said, "What am I doing?"

He felt so ashamed of that moment, and it had taken him so long to square it with her, to get her to trust him again. And now, barely a day or two after their stalled romance had turned into something so sweet and hot, this.