Breathless (27 page)

I laughed nervously, glad the awkwardness had faded somewhat.

We walked out together and back to the front of the store where I found Mila, sitting on a leather couch peering at a tattoo book.

“Is it over?” she asked, her eyes focused on my breast.

“Yep, all over. Too bad you missed it,” I said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes. “Thank God.”

As we walked back to the shop, I got a text from Sebastian asking if we could meet him at the park. In a strange way, meeting him and Leo the other night felt fortuitous, like I’d caught a break for once in my life. I texted back and said I would meet him there.

Mila had to go home, so we said our goodbyes at the shop. After she left, I went inside and grabbed a towel from the closet and strolled the two blocks over to White Rock Lake, a thousand-acre lake and parkland. Although Aunt Portia’s shop wasn’t located in the premier area of Highland Park where I lived, this part of Dallas still featured million-dollar homes and plenty of imported cars. Even former President George W. Bush played golf sometimes at the exclusive course within the park.

Huge oaks trees and pink crepe myrtles lined the entrance I walked through, and I inhaled deeply, taking in the scent and feel of late summer in Texas. Only a few more days of this and I’d be in school, studying like a maniac and getting ready for Princeton.

With BA on my mind, I headed for the center of the main grassy area, where I saw several guys playing football. When I got closer, I recognized Sebastian and Cuba Hudson, one of the other football players from school. Cuba, also known as Hollywood among his friends because of his pretty boy good looks, was the
it
boy at BA. We knew each other from growing up in the same town and had even had several classes together, but we didn’t hang out in the same circles. He was king of the jocks while I was queen of the intellectual crowd. He always had a different girl with him; I had no one.

A group of giggling girls sat on a blanket nearby, their eyes following the game as Sebastian caught a screen pass, and Cuba’s large frame blocked for him down field. Sebastian scored, and the girls went nuts, jumping up and clapping. When he looked their way and took a bow, I snorted. The girls at BA were going to fall in love with him.

He and Cuba continued their game as I sat on my towel. After a while though, my eyelids grew heavy from lack of sleep. My life had taken a turn this week, and I didn’t yet know what it was leading to. I lay down on the towel, worn out.

I woke up when I felt something tickle my wrist. I blinked my eyes a few times and brushed my arm, but it kept itching. Thinking it might be an insect, I forced my eyes to open and saw Sebastian, sitting beside me and running a small branch up and down my arm.

“I’ve been doing this for ten minutes,” he said with a grin, tossing the stick to the side. “You’re hard to wake up.”

I poked him in the ribs. “Why’d you wake me up?”

“I was bored and didn’t want to talk to myself. Plus, I thought you’d want to watch the show,” he said, nudging his head over to the left. I looked where he indicated and saw Leo with blue running shorts and a tank on. He’d been exercising hard because, even from here, I could see the sweat glistening on his body. Again, he reminded me of a warrior with his height and broad shoulders. He pushed his hand through his damp hair, and I had to smile a little because I’d figured out it was a habit of his. I turned my eyes to the girl he was talking to, trying to suss out what was going on with their interaction. She was petite with dark brown hair and appeared thrilled to be with him if the animated smile on her face was anything to go by. She wore a tiny red sports top that had to be two sizes too small because it barely contained her big breasts. The more I looked at her, the more I wondered how she stayed upright with those surgically enhanced boobs. She also wore a pair of running shorts with cute matching shoes. But she didn’t look like she’d been working out; she looked like she’d just stepped out of a Lululemon catalog. I frowned.

“Tiffany, the date, I presume?”

“Yep.”

“Why don’t you like her?” I asked.

He rubbed his jaw. “It’s not that I dislike her, although she is
very
annoying, it’s just I’m sick of him being a man-whore and not dating someone who’s good for him. He likes sluts because they don’t ask for anything more.”

“Hasn’t he ever been in love?”

“Leo, in love? Please,” he said, shaking his head emphatically, “the man has no idea what it is.”

We sat and watched them talk. They moved over to a shade tree closer to us, and they were standing close, as if in an intimate conversation. Every now and then, she’d reach out her hand and touch him somewhere; twice on his arm, once on his shoulder and one time she rested her hand on his chest. I got peeved thinking about her touching my dragon. But what bothered me the most was
his
body language, the way his body was centered with hers and the way his eyes focused on her as she talked. Sharp jealousy gnawed at my insides at the reaction she was able to get from him when last night, he’d barely even noticed I was standing there naked.

“I think he’s afraid of losing someone, like he lost mom and dad,” Sebastian said quietly. “It hurts when you love someone and then they disappear. I was ten when they died, but Leo . . . it affected him the most. Losing them both on the same day was devastating. It’s hard to recover from that.” He looked down at the grass. “I had Leo, you know, but who did he have? Nobody.”

I thought of my own family and how they’re never around.

“I think he’s afraid to love again,” he said.

“He seems to be doing fine at the moment,” I said, scowling at Leo and Tiffany.

“Holy shit. Are you jealous of Tiffany?”

I whipped my head around to glare at him. “What? No, of course not. That’s crazy talk. He’s seven years older than me.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. But, you can’t always choose who your heart wants,” he said.

“True,” I said, remembering Drew.

“Come on, let’s go talk to Cuba,” he said, standing and putting out a hand for me. I grasped it, and he tugged, grimacing like I was too heavy.

“Ass,” I said, smacking him on the arm when I got up. Maybe it was weird that we’d settled so fast into a friendship, but I wasn’t questioning it. I needed friends.

He leered, teasing me back. “Wanna kiss it?”

We laughed together like we’d known each other for weeks instead of just one day. We made our way across the park and over to where Cuba was standing near the ice cream stand. On the way, one of the girls who’d been watching them play football earlier yelled for Sebastian to come over to them.

He grinned at me sheepishly. “Think you can handle Cuba on your own? Looks like my fans wanna talk to me,” he said, his body already pointed in their direction, like a golden retriever who’d spotted its prey.

“I know Cuba. Go be with your groupies,” I said with a chuckle, pushing him toward them.

He shrugged at me and sauntered over to them.

I looked back at Cuba who stood watching me, making me glad I’d worn my Burberry cuffed shorts and matching blue shirt. Even though we’d had a class together last year, I felt nervous about talking to him, wondering what we’d say to each other. I knew I had a reputation as being standoffish. But it wasn’t because I was snobby; it was because I didn’t want anyone to know the truth about me.

I studied Cuba as I approached, realizing he could help me mark meaningless sex off my list. Leo had let me down, but with Cuba’s well-known promiscuous nature, I may have just hit the sex jackpot.

“Nora Blakely. The girl that went off at registration,” Cuba stated with a big grin as I stopped in front of him.

I grinned. “Hollywood Hudson. The guy who tried to cheat off me in Euro history last year.”

He guffawed. “Shit, you saw me? I tried to be sneaky.”

“Kinda hard to miss when a six-foot-two lineman is looking over your shoulder, trying to peek at your answers. You’re lucky I didn’t report you,” I joked.

He chuckled. “You’re not gonna give me a lecture are you? If you are, let’s go find you a whip first. I like a girl in charge.”

“Uh . . . uh, why don’t you just buy me an ice cream instead, and we’ll skip the lecture bit,” I mumbled out, faltering. Shit. I sucked at flirting. I needed some vodka.

“Alright, what flavor do you want?” he said, handing me his football so he could pull out his wallet.

“Chocolate is my favorite,” I said, purposely running my eyes over his brown skin. He had a golden tan from the sun, but I decided there was also definite Latino in his family background, too. His mother had died last year, but I seemed to remember she was Brazilian?

He paused and raised his brows. “Is that so?”

“Today it is,” I said, smiling up at him. “What’s yours?”

He laughed, his eyes gleaming at me. “It’s gonna sound dumb if I say vanilla, so I won’t, but truthfully—I like all kinds of ice cream, sweetheart. It’s my favorite dessert,” he said, giving me a lingering look with his warm, almost yellowish eyes. I got transfixed for a moment at the unusual color, fascinated about the genetics behind it. Where had he gotten that rare hue? As he turned to go get the ice cream, I made a mental note to drag out my Biology 101 book when I got home and brush up on my genetics. Yes. Science interested me.

A few minutes later, he came back with a waffle cone that had two heaps of chocolate on top. It looked amazing and delicious, and I practically tackled him for it.

I couldn’t hide my glee when I took the first wonderful bite, my lips sinking into the cold creaminess. “Oh, Cuba, so good. Thank you,” I moaned, as my tongue wrapped around the yummy cone.

He fidgeted, his hands gripping the football he’d taken back a little tighter. “That good, huh?”

“Uh-huh, you have no idea. Mother never allows sweets in the house. She’s too scared she’ll gain a pound . . . or I will,” I said in between licks. I looked up from the cone. “Here,” I said, holding it up to him, wanting to share this glorious thing, “take some of mine. Best thing ever, I promise.”

He leaned down and licked the ice cream, never taking his strange eyes off me, making me shiver. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s good, but I’d rather watch you eat it.”

Well.
I mean, were all guys this easy? Leo hadn’t been. He’d cut me off quick.

And at the thought of him, my eyes wandered back over to where he stood with Tiffany. They were sitting at a picnic table now, and Tiffany’s back was to me while Leo faced me. Even though we were several feet away from him, I felt the weight of his stare. Those blue eyes of his had zeroed right in on me, and he might say he didn’t want me, but his actions hinted otherwise. He’d been hard for me in the bathroom; he’d tried to sniff me in the bed; he’d held my hand all night. But maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. He already had someone.

“Are you going to Emma Easton’s party this weekend?” Cuba asked me, getting my attention.

“Emma doesn’t like me much, but you can count on me being there. I’ve got some catching up to do when it comes to partying.”

“I’d like to be around when you catch up,” he teased, stepping a little closer to me. He stroked his thumb across my cheek, wiping away some of the ice cream I’d gotten on my face. He sucked it off his fingers. Slowly. My eyes got big.

I stood there blankly, not able to think of a single thing to say. Me. The word girl. A conversational idiot. This flirting while sober thing was hard.

“I think I have you figured out. You’re not real subtle are you?” I finally said.

He laughed. “Nope. Besides, it saves time, doesn’t it? If I like a girl, I let her know. And you, I like.”

“Uh-huh. I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“You know, I tried to talk to you some last year, but you never seemed interested,” he said, watching me eat the ice cream. “I said hi to you once in class, and you looked right through me, like I was invisible.”

I bit my lip. “Cuba, I’m sorry. I don’t remember that. Sometimes I get in a zone thinking about all the things I have to get done. Ignoring you was never on purpose.” I said, telling him a half-truth. Oh, I’d been in a zone alright. One where I’d had to constantly concentrate on holding myself together.

He grinned. “Good. I hope we have a class together this year.”

I nodded absently, my attention switching to Leo as he stood and hugged Tiffany, and after a few moments she walked off, ending their date. As soon as she was out of sight, Leo headed our way.

Leo strolled over to us with the fluid grace of a man who knew he was the epitome of a confident male, assured in his virility and sexual prowess. And even though my blood raced with the anticipation of being close to him again, I still fumed over Tiffany.
Why did he affect me like this?

“Date leave?” I asked him.

He ignored my question and cut his eyes at Cuba, like he didn’t like him.

“Who has a running date in the park anyway?” I said, goading him, wanting to push his buttons.

“Grown-ups,” he replied instantly, making me want to squish my cone in his face, but no way was I parting with my precious.

“You’re just not that in to her if you can’t put forth the effort it takes for a real date. Seriously, all you did was run around in the heat, sweat like a pig, and buy her some water,” I retorted, not able to stop the flow of smart-ass remarks with him. I mean, this wasn’t like me at all.

He threw back his head and laughed uproariously, and I stood hypnotized by this Leo, seeing his sexy lips curve up and his sparkling eyes shine with amusement. Even if the joke was at my expense, it didn’t bother me, because it had been worth it to see him like that, so carefree and happy. And I also sensed he wasn’t the kind of guy to laugh at someone to be mean. He’d taken up for Teddy in a heartbeat, telling me real quick Teddy was valuable to the band. And so, even though I wanted to be mad, I couldn’t stop myself from joining in and laughing with him.

Somehow, I remembered my manners. “Cuba, this is Leo Tate. He’s Sebastian’s older brother and guardian. Leo, this is Cuba, a football player and student at BA.”