Thirty minutes of explaining what had gone down in a week, omitting the parts she knew would annoy Owen greatly, like mentioning Jamil, Leonica was no faced with a very worried looking Owen.
"I leave for one week and you totally become reckless." He huffed, shaking his head in disapproval to all the stunts she had pulled.
"Reckless," Leonica parroted with a grin, finding how he worried for her, funny. "If getting a sprained ankle after being falling off a staircase is recklessness, then I'm all in."
"Leonica," The way her name slipped through his lips made her smile even more, and she was tempted to wrap her arms around him, but he had beat her to it.
His embrace was warm and the smell of his cologne, sweet and spicy, tickled her nose. She felt her body relaxing and leaning into his, and although they'd only been apart for a week, she realized that she missed this; him.
"When are you going to stop being so reckless? You mustn't always put yourself in harms way to protect everyone. You're not supergirl."
Leonica hummed. "But what can I do when my family is in danger. If I don't step up, everyone's going to suffer something worse." She snuggled further into his embrace, taking in his scent once more. "So I had no choice but to be reckless and you can say it paid off."
Owen didn't say anything for a few seconds. Instead, he hugged her tighter and whispered.
"Good job then."
A grin bloomed on Leonica's face, never being more happy to receive a praise from anyone.
After a while, Owen released her, a serious expression on his face. "I'm not going to talk about it if you don't want to, but at some point, we'd need to address that little video going round. Wanna explain?"
Ah, she knew he was eventually going to touch this matter. Who wouldn't when there's a video of your fiancée, walking out of a room with another man supposedly in, circulating around the internet.
"Well," She began. "Its really not as the internet's making it out to be."
"Of course it isn't. I wanna hear your side and you don't have to tell who he was, if you don't wanna."
His soft and understanding tone had Leonica feeling more courageous to speak. She took his hands, playing with his fingers as she explained.
"It happened when I just returned to Norway. Arvan got an invite to a party and I tagged along as a favor. However, I met Gabriel there," She paused to gauge Owen's reaction. On the outside he was all calm and smiles, but on the inside was cursing the billionaire out.
Why did he always have to be around Leonica and why the fuck did it have to be him?
Wasn't it enough that he was Ashley's father and her ex husband?
He wanted to punch the guy in the face, but he wouldn't. Not for now, anyways.
"Anyways, I found out that Gabriel had been doing some digging into Ashley and confronted him about it. But he had been drugged and I was slightly drunk," Hearing the story out of her own mouth, Leonica realized how bad and scandalous the entire thing sounded and cringed.
"It wasn't anything serious. That night was only a mistake." She concluded, giving Owen's hand a light squeeze in hope that he'd believe her.
He did.
"I know," He kissed the back of her hand and then hed cheek, before planting a peck on her forehead.
"I know," He repeated. "And if you want, I can take care of the internet."
Leonica gave him another cheeky grin. Although she was thankful that he was willing to use his fame and turn the internet's opinion around, she had already gotten that covered.
"No need for that," She answered. "I'm already handling it."
"Is that so?"
"Mhm,"
Owen gave her a soft smile. "If you say so." Standing up, he walked towards her kitchen grabbing a drink or two when Leonica recalled something.
"Owen?" He hummed in response. "We're still on for Saturday, right?"
"Of course luce mia, why'd you ask?"
"Nothing, I was just curious."
"About where we're going?" Owen asked as he sat beside her, passing her a glass of orange juice.
She nodded. "Yeah."
"I thought i told you it was a surprise. However, I can make an exception." He said and gave her a knowing stare. "But not for free."
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