Breathless (28 page)

Leo’s back went ramrod straight as he approached Cuba to shake hands, easing up to him as stealthily as a tiger on the prowl. Standing across from each other, I could see that Leo was about three inches taller than Cuba, which put Leo around the six foot five mark. No wonder he drove the Escalade; it was the only car big enough for him.

As I watched, they acknowledged each other in some ritualistic badass caveman style, with glaring eyes and grunts, mostly from Leo’s end. Tension crackled in the air as Leo’s eyes bounced back and forth from me to Cuba, and I wondered what the hell he was thinking with that hard look on his face. And the way he was staring at Cuba made me think he was jealous, but that wasn’t true. He’d just been with Tiffany, “the girl he was seeing.” Why would he be mad because I was hanging out with Cuba? I huffed and was gearing up to tell him he could just turn himself right back around and walk back the way—

He turned to me, and his eyes seemed to search every inch of my body, making me feel hot. “Did you get a tattoo today?” he asked.

“No, but I made an appointment,” I said, taking a lick of my forgotten ice cream, wondering if I’d get the same reaction from Leo that I’d gotten from Cuba. “Got a nipple piercing instead.”

Leo’s entire stance stiffened, and his eyes flicked from my mouth to my breasts, where they stayed, and heaven help me, I couldn’t resist, so I reached for the hem of my top. “Wanna see?” I teased.

“Hell, yeah,” Cuba muttered out while Leo stood there with a clenched jaw. I knew that reaction; I’d seen it when I’d taken my clothes off in front of him. Either he was angry or horny, or maybe both at the same time. I hadn’t decided.

“No?” I arched a brow, staring hard at Leo, my breathing getting faster. “You’d like it. I didn’t do the norm and get the ring or barbell. I got these little angel wings that you screw onto the side. It’s right here,” I said, taking my finger and tracing it around my breast where the piercing lay underneath my shirt. I remembered touching my breast for him the night before; I wondered if he was thinking about it, too.

His nose flared wide, and his eyes jerked back to my chest, and I
knew
he could see the imprint of the piercing because I’d seen Shayla’s, and she’d been wearing a bra. I arched a bit forward so he could see better.

Cuba whistled, his wide grin making me chuckle. He was a lot like Sebastian, handsome with a tinge of arrogance, but instead of seeming conceited about their good fortune in the looks department, both of them managed to not take themselves too seriously, and it worked big time, making them even hotter.

And Leo, he stared at me and then at Cuba, his mouth a thin line, like he wanted to throttle us both. We were spared what would have happened next when Sebastian walked back over to us.

He must have caught the tail end of our conversation. “Hey, don’t forget about me. I wanna see this piercing,” he said, grinning at me and then cutting his eyes at Leo, like he wanted to gauge his reaction to what he’d said. I paused, wondering what that look had meant.

“I was kidding about flashing my boobs in the park,” I laughed. “But, I’ll show you later,” I said to Sebastian.

Leo let out an exasperated breath and ran both hands through his hair, his fingers twitching as he let them fall.

I ignored him and turned to say something to Cuba when Leo grabbed my elbow. “I need to talk to you. Now,” he said, steering me away from Cuba and Sebastian. Dumbfounded, I let him. Once we got out of earshot, I came to my senses and jerked away. “Stop dragging me around. What is so important that you couldn’t say it in front of them?” I said heatedly, looking back at Cuba and Sebastian, both of them watching. Cuba appeared unconcerned, but Sebastian seemed to have a smile on his face.

He shook his head, his face serious with his brows pulled down. “Nora, you think I don’t know Cuba already, but I do. He comes over to the gym some, and Sebastian talks about him a lot. He’s dated lots of girls this summer, all at the same time and then dumps them. When I said you needed a healthy relationship, he is
not
who I meant.”

I scoffed. “Maybe I don’t want healthy. Maybe I just want to hook up. Ever think of that?”

“I saw your list, Nora. I know what you’re planning to do. And I don’t want you to make a mistake. You think you want to be bad, but I think that maybe whatever happened to you was what was
bad
. Not you.”

My mouth opened in shock. “You read my private journal? How could you, Leo? That was personal.”

“Because you ruined my car. Because it’s obvious you’re a girl who’s crying out for help,” he said.

“Please don’t help me anymore. I don’t need your pity. I can take care of myself.” I seethed.

“Listen to me. I want to . . . I don’t know . . . get you through this. You seem like you’re on the edge of doing something terrible, and you don’t have to do bad things to get attention—”

“You think I’m doing this for
attention
?” I gasped out, shaking my head at him angrily. “You want to fix me?”

He faltered and struggled to find words. “No, it may appear that way, but that’s not what I meant—”

“Stop,” I said, holding my hand. “First of all, if I want to be fixed, I’ll call a shrink like you hinted at this morning. Secondly, just because we spent the night in the same bed does not mean you know me. You have no idea if I’m good or bad, you have no clue what happened to me, and you can’t tell me who I can date. If I want to get drunk, I will. If I want to snort some coke, I will. If I want Cuba, then I’ll enjoy every dirty moment. I’m not afraid of getting my heart broken, Leo. There’s not one there to break. Thirdly, why do you give a shit, anyway? You basically told me to stay away from you.”

I whipped around, heading for the park exit, not even turning to wave bye to Sebastian or Cuba.

I heard Leo call out to my retreating back. “Dammit, Nora. Come back! Don’t walk away from me!”

I kept going, yet I stupidly prayed he’d come after me. Tell me that he wanted to keep me from Cuba because he felt the connection between us. But that would be a lie because now I knew the truth. He’d read my journal and only felt sorry for me.

I hated pity. Despised it. It was a wasted emotion.

Chapter 8

Leo

“If love is the answer, then I’m changing the question.” –Leo Tate

As I walked back to the gym from the park, I wasn’t thinking about the contractors who were there, working on getting the pool in. Nope, I stuck on Nora and how she made me forget every practical thought in my head. She’d driven me insane today at the park, licking that ice cream cone and talking to Cuba. And he’d been all over her, standing next to her, wiping ice cream off her face, grinning at her. Even when I’d been talking to Tiffany, I’d been distracted, watching their annoying flirtation play out.

Nora . . . she did
something
to me. I’d spent half an hour in the shower this morning, jerking off to her, thinking about her big green eyes, how she’d touched my tats at breakfast, the way she smelled like fresh peaches. Most of all I kept remembering her in the bathroom, tall and sexy with breasts perfect for cupping in my hands.

I’d said she was too young, but maybe it wasn’t just the age difference. Because the more I got to know her, the more I saw that the age factor wasn’t the big deal I was making it out to be. Maybe it was a convenient excuse. A part of me knew that besides the age, I simply wasn’t good enough for her. I’d end up treating her like all the other girls I’d known. Like shit.

And I didn’t want to be part of her destruction. Just a number on her list.

My eyes were caught by a camera shop’s storefront, and it reminded me of Teddy. It was sometimes hard to tell how he felt about things, but I’d sensed he taken a liking to Nora. She needed something to keep her out of trouble, and maybe helping Teddy would be good for her.

I strolled inside the shop to check it out. Teddy’d mentioned his sister didn’t have much money to support his film habit, so I looked around and talked to the clerk some about what types of pictures Teddy took. I ended up spending about a hundred bucks on regular film plus some black and white. Knowing how Teddy loved to take pictures, he’d be thrilled with whatever I got because he wasn’t hard to please.

Part of why I’d taken to him so fast was that he and his sister had lost their parents at an early age just like me and Sebastian. Mostly, it was his enthusiasm for life that fascinated me, reminding me how easily we forget the little things we used to think about when we were younger, like a nice sunset or a how great a song sounds the first time you hear it. Even though he had autism, he saw a whole lot more than I did.

When I got back to the gym, I hit it hard even though I’d just had a run at the park, hoping to rid my body of the frustration I’d been feeling, I lifted for an hour, concentrating on my arms, sweating Nora out of my head.

While I was working out, Sebastian came in the weight room, making a beeline for me. “You wanna tell me what that was at the park with Nora?” he snapped, like he was irritated.

I let the dumbbells fall to the floor, their clinking noise the only sound in the room. I didn’t know what to say to him. I’d been out of control in the park. The truth is, trying not to want her made me want her more.

“Leo? Dude, what’s wrong with you?” he asked. “I’ve never seen you get worked up over a girl.”

At least I could answer some of that question. “Nora made a list of bad things to do in her journal. I read it. When I asked her about it, she freaked out and got mad when I tried to tell her to stay away from Cuba.”

Sebastian’s brow wrinkled. “What did it say?”

“That she wants to drink, do drugs, and have random sex with multiple people,” I said, snarling a little on the last part.

“Ah,” he said, sitting down on the bench next to me, his annoyance at me gone.

“And I want to know why. Something’s off about her family.”

He nodded. “Her mom’s a piece of work.”

I agreed. “Look, here’s the thing. I want you to keep an eye on her. Check on her. Call her. Hang out with her. Make sure she’s not doing anything stupid,” I said, not meeting his eyes. I mean, I pretty much sounded like a stalker. Why
did
I care so much about what happened to her? I’d only just met her.

He laughed out loud. “Dude, challenge accepted. She’s gorgeous. And I was planning on hanging with her anyway,” he said as he stood up to go.

He got to the door and turned back around, a serious look on his face. “Technically, she may be younger than you, but I think she’s had to grow up too fast, man. Just like you did.”

***

A few days later, I did something I’d later regret. I called Nora to invite her over to the gym for an impromptu poolside get together with Teddy. The pool had been finished that week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to see if the spur-of-the-moment decision to ask to her to help him had been a good idea. I could already tell that Teddy liked her, but it was important for her to return the feeling. I didn’t know her well enough to judge yet, and I wanted to believe that she wasn’t just another entitled rich girl, but I needed to see her one more time.

That’s the only reason I invited her.

I heard the buzzer peal while we were at the pool. Teddy jumped up from his deck chair and ran over to mine, his Mickey Mouse swim shorts still wet from swimming. His sister had dropped him off with us about an hour earlier, and he’d been in the pool the entire time. He was a good swimmer and had only gotten out when he knew it was time for Nora to arrive.

“Nora’s here. Nora’s here,” he said, walking in circles, flapping his arms a little more than usual.

“You want to see her, Teddy?” I know I did, and I didn’t like it.

“She’s pretty. She plays piano like me,” he said, his voice rising up and down in a rhythm I’d gotten used to with him.

“Come on,” I said with a grin, “you can go with me to let her in.” I handed him a towel and pointed out his shoes. “Go get your flip-flops. I don’t want you slipping on the slick floor in the gym.”

He slipped his shoes on, and we went to the front door. She was waiting, wearing a breezy, white dress, looking innocent. Yet, she wasn’t was she? She’d told me she’d been with other guys before, and I wondered how many. Fuck it. Why did it matter anyway?

I unlocked the door and let her in, noticing her slightly cool demeanor. Had I been too hard on her at the park? Maybe it was none of my business what she did with her life, including who she fucked. Yeah, I needed to let her live her life. She was nothing to me but a way for Teddy to expand his song selections and make our band better.

Teddy ran right up to her. “Nora, Nora! This isn’t band practice. It’s to see if we like you. Leo isn’t sure you’ll work out.”

My stomach dropped, realizing I shouldn’t have said so much in front of Teddy earlier when I’d been talking to Sebastian.

Nora laughed, her eyes dancing. “Teddy, I can tell already that you and I are going to be best friends.” She gave him a big smile and me an amused smirk. “Tell me what else Leo says,” she said, walking over and tentatively crooking her arm through his and heading out through the patio doors to the pool area. I found myself pleased at her reaction. With Teddy, you had to get that he didn’t hold back when it came to what he said. You had to roll with it ’cause social cues and niceties meant nothing to him.

As soon as we stepped out into the hot August sun, Sebastian yelled for her to get in the pool with him and Vixen. I stood there not sure what to do now that she was here. I hung back, watching as she pulled her dress off, revealing a bright orange bikini. It wasn’t too revealing; it covered her full breasts and her pert ass, yet I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. I thought about the piercing she’d gotten last week. I wondered how it would feel in my mouth, how I could use my tongue on it to make her hot and wet. Pissed at my wayward imagination, I forced my eyes back to the pool, where I caught Sebastian checking her out, too.
Fuck.
Stupid, asinine idea to be around Nora in a bikini. Maybe we should have just had a band session. At least then she would have decent clothes on.