“Are you… are you asking me out for a drink?”
With a deep chuckle, he leaned back and stretched his arms over his head, exposing a sliver of skin where his shirt rode up. I thought I caught a glimpse of the beginnings of a six pack, one I’d like a much closer inspection of, preferably with my tongue.
“If you’re having to clarify, then obviously I’m not doing a very good job.”
Now I felt foolish. I should’ve just said no, then we wouldn’t be caught in this awkward silence, with neither of us knowing how to get out of it.
“Shit! Wait here a second.” He was up and sprinting away from me.
“Wait! What?”
“Just stay where you are for a second. Please,” he called out as he kept moving in the opposite direction, his long legs carrying him gracefully along the footpath.
My phone pinged in my pocket. I was almost afraid to look. The way things were going, it was going to be someone telling me my dog died. And I didn’t even have a dog. When it went again, I dug it out and sucked in a deep breath.
Jax: Don’t forget. 7 tonight
Jax: I’m picking you up. Wear something slutty
Well, that made me laugh. Rising to my feet, I looked down and noticed not only was there a streak of green across my calf, but my toes were splattered with yellow. Damn it! I was a disaster.
“Okay, let’s try this again,” Luca said, stepping in front of me, his huge, solid chest rising and falling with every breath.
He was close enough I could smell him. He smelt delicious. Like I wanted to lick him from head to toe and back again. I had no idea what exactly it was, but he had pure testosterone radiating off him, and with each whiff I was losing brain cells.
“Try what again?” I asked dumbly. Yep, it was a fact. Being this close to someone as potent as Luca made me an idiot. Jax was going to have a field day with this when he found out.
“This.” Luca whipped his hand out from behind his back, producing the most stunning bunch of flowers I’d ever seen. And talk about huge. I was a girl who firmly believed size did, in fact, matter, and if this was Luca throwing his hat in the ring, he was definitely rising to the top. “Elise McCoy, would you like to have a drink with me?” He blushed. I mean, he actually blushed. His cheeks turned pink, and I saw him rub his hand against his thigh. Luca was nervous. I was making him nervous. And that fact alone was a serious power trip.
“Luca.” Wow! If saying his name made me tingle, I wondered what his hands could do to my body. And God forbid if he ever kissed me. I’d probably combust. “I can’t tonight. I already have plans.” I was both happy and sad about the fact.
If this was for real, something I wasn’t entirely convinced about just yet, I needed a minute to pull my shit together. If it was a joke, then I wasn’t going to be made a fool of. Not publicly anyway. I was more than capable of embarrassing myself on my own, I didn’t need help.
“Oh. Okay.” Defeat flashed across his face briefly before he thrust the flowers he was crushing in his grip towards me. “Take these.”
“They’re beautiful, Luca. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Well, I better let you get on with your afternoon. Sorry to have been a bother,” he said softly as he buried his hands in his pockets and spun around before heading back to his car.
Watching him leave, I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn’t even remember the last time someone had asked me out on a date, and here I was turning down possibly the hottest guy I’d ever seen. Stupid didn’t begin to cover it.
“Luca! Wait up!”
Chapter Five – Luca
“So, she shot you down, hey?” my sister Sienna asked as I handed her a lemonade and sat down on the lounge beside her.
“Yeah,” I admitted. I still couldn’t believe my desperation had been so deep that I’d called Sienna asking for help.
Tuesday I’d talked my way out of training early, bought flowers, and showed up at the school to ask her out only to be rejected. Then she’d asked for my number, which frankly shocked the shit out of me. When she said she had plans, I figured that was the end of that, so as manly as I could, I tucked my tail between my legs and attempted to flee only to be chased down and asked for my number. While it wasn’t the first time someone had followed me to my car trying to get my number, but it was the first time I wanted to let them. And it confused the fuck out of me.
“Well, I like her already,” Sienna declared, her eyes never leaving Princess Phoebe who was floating around my pool on a giant unicorn.
Yes, that’s correct. I’m a single, straight, adult male with a giant unicorn floatie in my pool. And I was damn proud of it.
“You don’t even know her!” I countered. Sienna was my sister. My baby sister. And she wasn’t even on my side. She was a traitor, that’s what she was.
“Luca, I know this whole dating thing’s new to you, but you’re going to have to actually step out of your comfort zone and try.”
