He’s not, but in my dreams, he is. I hate that he saw right through me and knows I dream about him now.
Dammit.
“Oh, hey, Erika. Isn’t Leon’s new bar amazing?” Cynthia asks, looking anywhere but at me.
“It’s LeonandBuster’s place,” I correct.
She waves me off as if pooh-poohing me. “Whatever, Ms. Know-it-all,” she mutters.
Leon throws her a dangerous look, then unpeels her arms from around his body. “Mind your manners, Cynthia. Don’t talk to my Erika like that ever again, you hear me?”
My Erika? Say, what now?
“Or?” she teases, missing the irritation bouncing off him.
“Or I’ll throw you out of my bar.” Leon pulls his wallet out of the back pocket of his dress pants and takes out a fifty. “You can see yourself home.”
A look of stunned surprise spreads across Cynthia’s face, her mouth falling open in disbelief, but not enough to keep her from snatching his money from between his fingers.
With a final glance, she lifts her nose in the air and quickly spots her target—a table of hockey players—and marches in their direction with determination.
Leon scoffs when Cynthia squeezes herself into the booth where some of his teammates are sitting. “Predictable.” He tuts.
“Maybe it’s time you changed the type of girl you date,” I suggest.
“Oh, yeah?” He crosses his arms over his broad chest and stands wide, his chin rising in challenge. “What type of girl do you recommend?”
“One that doesn’t jump from bed to bed. Someone who doesn’t have a thing for hockey players but likes you for just being you and notwhatyou do. Or maybe someone that can’t be easily shooed away with fifty bucks.” That’s low.
“Know of anyone?”
“I might do.”
“Will you hook me up?”
“Nah. All you’ll do is break her heart.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you already did.”Shit, I said too much.
He flinches, his head tipping to the side. “Do I already know her?”
Avoiding eye contact, I ignore his question and quickly glance at the clock above the bar, my feet moving toward the exit. “I gotta go. I need to study.” I don’t. I’ve done enough to sail through my exams. I’m reluctant to leave because I want tospend more time with Leon; hours are never enough, but I need to go before I say something really stupid that will cross a line I shouldn’t.
“Erika,” Leon shouts after me in what sounds like a warning.
“Bye, Leon. Congratulations on the bar. Tell my brother and Lily I said goodbye.” I wave over my shoulder and bolt out the door.
That was a close call. I nearly told him it should be me in his bed.
As if that will ever happen.
“Didyou leave the door open just for me, baby?” A hushed voice startles me awake quicker than a sneeze.
Through the darkness, I try to make sense of the silhouette of a man towering over my bed before he climbs on top of me. But when I try to scream, a hand is placed over my mouth, and it comes out more like ahnnghhhsound than the wordhelpI was going for. My eyes bulge out of their sockets as I gasp and choke, struggling for breath.
“Shush, it’s me. Leon.” He removes his hands from my mouth as I’m on the verge of having a heart attack.
