I stammered—no, I uttered incoherent sounds that must have made me look as if I was choking.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I…I just…I wasn’t prepared for this. I’d never been with a boy or…” I should just die right now. “I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud. I’m gonna shut up. Forever.”
“Are you telling me that no one has ever told you you’re beautiful before?”
Two. Both of them said it to take something that should have never been theirs. Both of them broke me beyond repair. My eyes burned, so I pushed the thought before I’d cry in front of him. I’d embarrassed myself enough. “Why do you use the alumni meetings as an excuse to see me? It’s not like you don’t see me around outside school.”
His eyes grew dark. “It’s not enough.”
A strange tingling hit my spine, pleasant yet uncomfortable. “What?”
His smirk returned. “Like I said, I’m a big fan. I plan to be at every one of your performances, and by that I don’t just mean recitals.”
“What else?”
“Walking to class, eating, going shopping, anything and everything,” he stepped forward, his fragrance a blend of a forest and something delicious, something you felt guilty to crave, “because everything you do, Lina bella, is art.”
“You are…” Intense? Weird? Confusingly hot? “…Italian.”
He flashed his teeth. “And your biggest fan ever.”
Smooth. I had zero experience, but I had no doubt he was a player. And creepy. The guy could smooth talk his way out of anything, obviously. He didn’t need the recital as an excuse to talk to me. Why did he prefer to wait all this time, staring,accidentallyappearing everywhere I went? Creepy. Exactly my type. “What do I call myonlyfan?”
“Leo.”
“Just Leo?”
“For now.”
Definitely creepy. It seemed to be the one trait that I couldn’tnotbe attracted to in a guy. “Secretive much?”
“I’d be more than happy to reveal my secrets to you, one for every time you give me the honor of taking you out.”
I blinked until I got a headache. “Take me out?”
A shadow crossed his dark blue eyes, and for some reason they resembled the image I’d created forhiseyes. Drowning, dangerous and incredibly beautiful. “Unless my suspicions are right, and today’s performance was meant for a special someone. Someone you want to be with.”
My chest heaved, and tears blurred my gaze for a second, the reminder heavy on my heart. “I… I gotta go.” I turned and started down the hall. I waved the bouquet without looking at him. “Thank you for the flowers.”
Chapter14
Lina
On Sundays, Nicky didn’t get up until noon. We didn’t have breakfast. Brunch was more like it, and it was on me. She worked so hard at school and at the coffee shop. Even though her scholarship paid for everything, she always worked extra shifts, trying to save enough money for the next few years. Architecture school was going to get much harder and time consuming, and she wouldn’t be able to keep the job with her studies.
She never took more than half a day off—on Sundays. It was the only time she rested. The least I could do was make her a nice meal. Well, buy her one with my allowance. My cooking skills were disastrous.
It wasn’t raining this morning, thank God, and Sunday farmers market was on. I picked up some strawberries, avocados, cottage cheese and organic eggs, Nicky’s favorites for toast four ways, along with a beetroot and a couple of radishes for the shaved salad. That I could make.
I headed to the bakery for salmon bagels, dark chocolate cannoli and Nicky’s pineapple upside-down cake. I hated pineapples, but she could live on them for the rest of her life. They were sweet, but whenever I ate them, they never stayed down.
The door chimed with more customers coming in as I stood in line. This place was always busy. It was good I got here before ten. Last week, they were out of cannoli by then. Asking the cashier to add one piece of cherry cobbler for me, the smell too yummy to resist, I opened my purse and got out the cash.
“Put our orders together.”
My head jerked up, and Leo’s smirk met me. His arm extended toward the cashier with a credit card in hand.
