Leonardo took another step toward her, and she backed up against her car, her eyes lowering to his arms, those big tatted arms that had fascinated her when she first saw his photo. Then later again she’d been tempted to run her fingers over his scars in Havasu. Glancing up at him, she realized he’d been watching her, and his eyes dropped to the place where her eyes had been fixed on: the double L tattoo that peeked out from just under the sleeve of his shirt. The one he’d changed the subject about so abruptly in Havasu. She lifted the sleeve to take a better look as the reality of just how naïve she’d been began to really sink in.
“They’re your initials, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “Ledesma is my last name. I almost told you in Havasu. I swear I went there with every intention of telling you everything. I figured I’d tell you the truth about my brother first and see how you’d react. But you started freaking out before I told you anything, so by the time I’d let you in about my brother, you were already so rattled I decided I couldn’t. After my first attempt to try and cut things off with you and I couldn’t do it, I decided I’d just tell you the truth.” He shook his head, looking away with a puckered frown then back at her. “I thought worst-case scenario you’d tell me to go to hell and that would be the end of it, but a tiny part of me thought I saw something in your eyes. Maybe, just maybe you’d understand and forgive me. Maybe I could even make you fall in love with me too.
“I kept making excuse after excuse to put off telling you. I didn’t wanna ruin your holidays, and then I didn’t wanna ruin your birthday, but I was really gonna do it after New Year’s. Then you took off, and I didn’t hear from you for days, so I started to go a little nuts. And then I saw the photos of what you’d been doing all those days up in the snow—the days you said your Internet was so spotty you couldn’t call or text me but you’d been able to update your photos online just fine.”
He stared at her for a moment, completely stunned. This was what had been so odd about him all along. He actually believed he could make her fall for him. That’s why he chose to use such profound and strange phrasing when he spoke to her. All those pet names she knew now were not just strange but they were grossly inappropriate, and Angel had had every reason to not like them.
“After seeing the photos and videos of you and Angel, I realized I was in denial. The connection I’d felt with you even before I met you was pure fantasy, a fantasy that even after I decided to walk away still lives on.” His eyes dropped down to her lips. “A fantasy that one day I’d get to kiss you just once.”
Breathlessly caught in the moment, Sarah realized that the way he’d been looking at her that whole time was the same way he’d looked at her the entire time in Havasu, the same way he had when he’d said goodbye to her that last morning she was there. How she ever believed he was looking at her this way because he was just different and deep was beyond her. If anything about what he’d just told her was true, it was one thing. He was in love with her. At least he believed he was. And now he was standing here so close to her, practically telling her he wanted to kiss her—just once. For an instant, that conversation she’d had with Sofia came to her, the one where she’d asked Sarah if she’d ever be tempted to give into a harmless kiss with an attractive guy out of curiosity. Her eyes dropped down to his lips for a moment as he licked them, and only one word screamed in her head. “Never!”
His eyes darted from her lips to her eyes, startled, and that only infuriated her further. Did he really think her that stupid?
“Never in a million years,” she said, the anger searing through her veins now. “That you would even think . . .” She shook her head, disgusted. “That somewhere in that sick twisted head of yours the thought would exist that you could just waltz into my life, a complete stranger, and just make me fall for you and drop everything—Angel.”
“I just thought maybe—”
“What you saw in my eyes Leonardo was hope,” she said, almost through her teeth. “Hope because you’re right. People like me, like your sister, if you even have one, can’t even fathom your kind of warped mentality. I trusted you with the truth about my excitement to have a brother in my life, and you took advantage of that for your own selfish reasons. You sicken me.”
A car’s loud horn in such close proximity made them both flinch, and they turned to see Romero in his car pull up behind her car. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized just how close Leonardo’s face had been to hers. Romero brought a camera out and snapped a photo then smirked, lifting an eyebrow.
“This is state of the art stuff,” he said, looking Leonardo up and down in that same suspicious way he had the first day he’d met him on the marina. Then he looked back at Sarah. “I’m testing it out before I decide if I’m really gonna spend this kind of money on it or return it.” He snapped another photo of them before adding. “This is top-of-the-line shit here. It can zoom in from miles away, Sarah.” The car behind him honked, and he waved his arm out for the car to go around then turned back to Sarah. “So where’s Angel?”
“School,” she said, her heart still hammering away but glad Romero didn’t know anything about the reality of Leonardo and her so-called dad.
At least Angel hadn’t mentioned telling him yet. She knew if Romero did know he’d already be out of the car in Leonardo’s face, not just sitting there eyeing them suspiciously.