“I genuinely don’t think he likes anyone aside from me and Mitch—and I guess his new girlfriend.” She shrugs, looking at her phone again. Her ensuing eye roll gets me no closer to any answer. “Ugh. He’s so annoying. I’m sorry. He’s invited himself because it’s the only time we have this week to catch up.”
My eyes widen. “Wait, what? He’s coming?Here?”
I need to get out before he sees me. It’s too soon.
“Unfortunately,” she mutters, looking at her phone again before looking over my shoulder. “Speak of the Devil.”
Oh, God.
Ohfuck.
I steal a quick glance behind me and almost throw up. He’s here. Behind me. Breathing the same air. Sharing the same space.
Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod.
He’s going to figure out who I am. He’s going to know I’ve been using his sister to get to him. I haven’t gotten my hooks in yet so that I’m sure he won’t run in the opposite direction when I tell him the truth.
Sabrina may never forgive me. Leo’s friends were horrible enough when all I did was send a single message. Imagine if they found out how far I’ve gone?
And for fuck’s sake, the asshole has a fucking girlfriend.
I start to get up, hiding my face behind my hair. “Sorry, I need to?—”
“Thanks for crashing our girls’ date, you dick,” Sabrina says, completely ignoring the fact that I’m attempting to make a run for it. So does Leo. He drops into the spare seat beside me, and my heart stops beating. “Tala, this is my brother, Leo—or Duval, he prefers. Leo, this is my friend Tala. Be nice.” She points an accusatory finger at him, but his hazel eyes don’t so much as glance at her. They’re firmly set on me.
Every inch of my body, both exposed and unexposed, burns under the weight of his attention. I don’t dare look up at him, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that he’s watching me.
He holds out his hand in greeting. I stare at it. Then stare some more. It feels like watching someone hold out handcuffs that I’m supposed to voluntarily put on, and then escort myself right to my prison cell.
“Leo.”
I shiver at the deep tenor of his voice. From the corner of my eye, I see Sabrina’s brows hike up her forehead.
My throat bobs. “Tala,” I whisper, placing my trembling hand in his.
The moment our skin connects, the heavens open up, and angels sing in the distance. I’m sure tears are welling in my eyes, and I’m gawking at our clasped hands. His is calloused, yet somehow smooth. Firm, but in a heavy, engulfing blanket type of way. It dwarfs my own, and he holds mine for a little longer than necessary.
I’m either going to throw up or pass out—or both at the same time.
I snatch my hand away, daring a glance up at him, but it’s a mistake. Whatever dream I’ve had, every single photo I’ve seen of him, the videos, none of them do him justice.
Leo Duval is even more...morein person.
He has the slightest cleft in his chin I’ve never noticed before, and the lightest dusting of fine, almost invisible hair on the highest point of his cheeks that glows beneath the sunlight streaming in from the window beside us. A single stubborn strand of hairjuststicks out and refuses to conform to his eyebrows.
There’s an air around him that I’ve never been able to properly see until now. It holds a volatile edge, an all-consuming magnetism that has every one of my instincts on alert to either move closer or run away.
“Riiiight,” Sabrina drawls, pulling me out of my trance.
My face flushes red, and I try to make myself as small as possible, inching toward the window away from him. I’m not sure whether this is my personal brand of Heaven or Hell.
There was no recognition in his eyes. Nothing that might indicate I look familiar at all except for all of his... staring.
“Well, if you want anything, you’re going to have to go up and order it yourself,” Sabrina tells Leo.
“Okay,” he answers simply, still staring at me.
My anxiety ticks up at an alarming rate with every second that passes where he’s looking at me. He’s going to figure out who I am. It’s all over.
