You’re genuine and interesting. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.
Give them a story. Get out of your head.
“Hey,” he rumbled, whipping out a sheet of wax paper, picking up on the very distinct scent of marijuana. “Let me guess. You folks just came from church.”
They all jerked around, wide-eyed. And promptly burst into laughter.
“I told you the Mean Baker was cool.”
One of the young guys approached, looking at the display case the way one might look at a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Behind him, two girls whispered furiously to each other, one of them making swoon eyes at the kid’s back. “Damn. Those brownies look insane.”
“They might not have the ingredient you’re looking for,” Leo said.
The young man snorted, glancing back over his shoulder, definitely making goo-goo eyes right back at the interested party. Leo studied the guy closest to him, noting he was probably no more than seventeen, probably limited cash-wise, but trying his best to impress the girl and hell, even Leo could relate to that now.
Leo slid open the bakery case and wrapped a frosted purple cupcake in wax paper, sliding it across the counter to the kid. “Here,” he said. “Give her that.”
A disbelieving laugh puffed out of the young man. “Seriously? Thanks, man.”
“No problem.” He nodded once, crossed his arms. “Now beat it.”
The kid barked a laugh and turned back to his friends, handing off the cupcake to the girl with a flourish. And when the whole group cheered like it was a marriage proposal, the other guys in the group teasing the young man mercilessly on the way out of the shop, Leo couldn’t help but crack a smile.
“What do you know?” he muttered to himself, picking up a rag to clean off the counter, but not really seeing it. Seeing Reese, instead. “It works.”
Chapter 17
This was one of those times. When something seemed like a really great idea. But upon execution? Begins to feel like a potentially humiliating mistake.
Reese hopped out of the Uber in her high heels, arms crossed tightly over her midsection, Leo’s building entrance only twenty yards away.
Seemed more like a mile.
She might be a Wisconsin girl, but with nothing but panties and thigh highs beneath her coat, even she could admit it was too cold to walk, so she’d spent ten dollars on the quick cab ride.
God, Reese.
People only showed up naked at their love interest’s door in movies.
In real life, she might look ridiculous, but she’d come too far to turn back now.
At least the prospect of showing up at Leo’s apartment door naked was distracting her from everything else. The pressure of her upcoming open calls, perhaps the final ones of her dance career. The ticking clock on her time in the city. The pit of untruths she’d dug herself. This naked party trick might be corny or played out, but it was giving her something to focus on besides her potential defeat.
Reese drew to a stop in front of Leo’s building, stepping inside the vestibule and ringing the buzzer for his apartment. She smiled when the inner door clicked open within a second. Giddiness stole over her on the way up the stairs, the thrumming between her thighs growing heavier, even more unbearable than it had been all morning. This was some 9½ Weeks type stuff. There was no turning her off anymore. Even in the free class this morning, her movements were executed with more sensuality than ever, her palms raking down her belly, her hips giving that extra roll, fingertips cruising along her scalp, senses heightened.
In front of Leo’s door now, her knees shook, anxious heat making her skin flushed, dewy in that intimate place between her thighs. The lock slid on the other side of the door and there he was. I’m really doing this. I’m actually doing this.
And then there was Leo, outlined in the doorframe, his head nearly brushing the jamb. The sheer joy that leapt in her breast at the sight of him, the way her knees stopping shaking for one reason, then resumed trembling for another, told Reese she hadn’t just fallen for Leo. She was well on her way to being in love with him. In love with his intensity, his bluntness, his passion for his job. The depth of him, his wealth of honesty, the way he took things she said to heart. She especially loved the way he was looking at her now, as if she’d arrived on a cloud from the heavens, instead of a pair of cheap heels.
As if they had all the time in the world.
Which they very possibly didn’t.
That troubling reminder gave Reese the impetus she needed to unbutton her coat, spreading the sides and letting it hang open, knowing full well what he saw. A pair of sheer black panties that barely covered a thing. And skin that had been lotioned head to toe.