Chapter 5
Walking from the banquet hall, Jasmine felt as if all eyes were on her. This was literally the reverse walk of shame. Instead of walking out the morning after, half of her friends were witnessing her leaving with a hot guy…it wouldn’t take much to guess where they were heading by the looks of them. Jasmine was sure that every single person was not only looking at her but also judging her as well. She had a feeling her cheeks were as red as they felt, and Leo had a naturally confident smile on his face as they walked toward the double doors leading to the front lobby.
“Where you guys off to?” A man asked so loudly that it made Jasmine cringe. Dear God, had the people in the lobby heard him?
“Hey Sam! How have you been?” Leo stopped walking, his firm grip on her hand pulling her to a stop as well.
“Good, man. I got here just in time for dessert and drinks. Miss any drama?” Sam was an easygoing coworker of Will’s who always had a smile and kind words to pass around to those he stumbled upon. He was a big guy who always just happened to be hanging around where everyone else was at, even if it was by chance at a bar or local game. It was a skill that Jasmine had admired prior to tonight, especially since he called attention to them leaving together with matching grins of anticipation gracing their faces.
“A couple of the guys acted like assholes and brought a few pole bunnies as their dates,” Leo answered dryly, his tone letting Sam know that there had indeed been drama.
“No way, man…I thought the guys were smarter than that.” Sam’s eyes were wide as he searched the crowd for the offenders. “I bet it was Nix. It was Nix, wasn’t it? That guy can’t seem to think with the head on his shoulders for the life of him.”
“Apparently not. He was only one of them. I think Jack and Reb brought a couple of them too. At least that’s what it looked like from our table at least.” Leo held up the hand linked with Jasmine’s and lifted his chin toward the door. “We were just getting ready to head out. You know Jasmine, right?” At Sam’s nod and smile, Leo kept talking. “Jazz here is giving me a ride home since my bike got scraped up in the parking lot.”
Sam nodded, as if Leo holding hands with a female was nothing to bat an eye at. “Your bike got hit too? See, this is what happens when I’m late. I miss all the good stuff,” he grumbled, as if he had walked into the middle of a scene from his favorite soap opera.
“Yeah, Jimmy brought over his trailer and took it to the shop earlier. It looks like I am going to be driving the truck this week.” Leo shook his head sadly.
Sam chuckled and slapped him heavily on the back. “You act like it’s the end of the world when you have to drive your truck. That big blue beast of yours is not too shabby at all, man. In fact, that little lady there would have a hard time climbing into the monster truck you call a backup vehicle.”
“When you finally break down and get a bike you’ll see, man. And I got new running boards on the truck a month ago. Even you can climb into Betty now without me giving you a boost,” Leo answered with a laugh, dodging Sam’s big fist as it swung toward his arm. “C’mon Jazz, we better get going. It looks like there is a storm moving in and I don’t want you driving in that weather if I can help it.”
As the pair made their way free of the crowded room and out to the main lobby, Jasmine shivered when thunder rumbled through the building. When the lights flickered, her eyes widened in apprehension. “Damn, I didn’t expect the storm to pass through until early tomorrow morning.”
“How about we head to my place? I have a finished basement, a fridge full of beer and enough movies to last us until it passes.” Leo kept his tone light and easygoing while tossing out the suggestion.
Jasmine thought for about two seconds before nodding her head. “Sounds better than my third-floor apartment if we end up getting a tornado warning. Wanna drive my car?” Fishing for her keys in her bag, Jasmine held them out for him to take if he wanted. “It’s not a bike or your big blue beast, but it has four wheels and never fails me when I need it.”
Leo took the keys gently from her fingers and then gestured for her to precede him out the doors, the night darkening even more on their short walk to the car.
“I have a room at the house in case you want to stay over….” Leo’s words trailed off as the wind whipped by them.
“Let’s see how it goes and I may just take you up on that,” Jasmine answered quickly, wondering where the evening was going. Before they had started walking to the car, she was sure that he had been hinting at wanting to hit the sheets, but the longer she talked to him the more friend zoned she felt.
Had she done something to turn him off?
Did she have something in her teeth?
Was she not giving him the sex-me-up signals that she thought she was?
Leo opened her door for her, making sure that her skirt was inside before closing the door and moving around the front of the car to take his seat in the driver’s side.
“I can hear you thinking.” Leo’s deep voice sounded overwhelming in the small space, the timbre causing her to jump. “Whoa there, you still with me?”
Jasmine figured it was now or never…just lay her cards out on the table so to speak. It wasn’t as if she had been someone that pussyfooted around the subject before. When she wanted something or someone she made it known and went after it…or him.
“Sex is natural.”
Oh. My. God. What the hell had just come out of her mouth?!
Jasmine covered her face with her hands when Leo let out a loud laugh at her words. Did she really just blurt out ‘sex is natural’ like some goddamn sex therapist? What was wrong with her?
“Yes, sex is natural.” Leo chuckled. “Is there a reason why you said that and then covered your face as if you can hide from me behind those tiny hands?”
“No,” Jasmine said, the word muffled behind her now sweaty palms.
“No?” Leo had now turned to her in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition but not started.
“Ummm…no.” Jasmine wasn’t sure how she was going to dig herself out of this one. Sure, she normally had an issue with blurting out whatever was in her head, but it usually happened around her close friends. Friends who laughed with her and not at her. Friends who she didn’t want to see naked.
Leo pulled her hands away from her face, his grin helping her relax.
“Hey, I like you.” His deep voice rumbled, the sound reminiscent of the thunder around them.
“I like you too,” Jasmine whispered softly, her tongue feeling ten times the normal size in her mouth.
“Sex is natural,” he repeated, this time with a bigger smile than before. The teasing glint in his eye letting her know that he wasn’t making fun of her but was definitely amused by her.
“Yes it is.” Jasmine nodded solemnly.
“Let’s just pretend that this is our first date, okay? No pressure. Hell, the last time I saw you was when I was helping my mom clean up after your graduation party. Remember that?” Leo’s words took her back to that particular memory.
Of course, she remembered the last time she had seen Leo. It wasn’t something she was about to forget, especially because he had been so sweet at the time, especially when she needed it.
Reginald and Victoria had thrown a fancy schmancy high school graduation party for Jasmine the last week of school. Her friends had been invited, but most of the attendees had been colleagues of her parents. Whispers of her bright future had been aplenty that evening while a live band played elevator music from the stage that her parents had commissioned for their garden parties.
Her friends bailed quickly when they realized that this was going to be like any other uptight party that her parents had hosted. The only person her age that hung around until the end had been Leo.
Not only had he danced with her, but he had also stayed behind to make sure his mom hadn’t been loaded down with cleaning up after the shindig was over.
At one point that evening, Jasmine had imagined that Leo was there for her and not so much his mother, even though she knew that she was just an afterthought. He had danced with her as the second-rate band played “Wonderful Tonight,” the moment carving out a special place in her eighteen-year-old heart.
As Leo had held her close, her white eyelet dress pressed against the front of his own dress clothes, Jasmine felt like she was being seen for herself and not for who her parents wanted her to be. Leo didn’t ask her about her graduating GPA. He didn’t ask her how many classes she was going to take her first semester at college. Instead, he had told her that her dress was pretty and he was happy she had been named co-valedictorian. A tidbit that had made her parents grimace because she shared the honor with another classmate.
With the garden lights twinkling and the soft strains of music floating in the humid air, Jasmine had felt a moment of peace that she hadn’t expected to feel in his arms. She had seen him as more than just Janet’s son, more than the bad boy who open mouthed kissed girls in the school hallway almost daring the teachers to write him up. It was the first moment that Jasmine could remember feeling like a woman instead of a silly girl that her parents dressed up and paraded around. Partly because she knew her parents would never let her dance with him if they had any say in it, the small rebellion had felt thrilling at the time. Victoria and Reginald pretended that Leo didn’t exist for most his childhood, his presence only interfering when it affected Janet’s work schedule.
He simply wasn’t on their radar.
Why? Because he was beneath them and, by default, also beneath Jasmine.
It had been that night that Jasmine’s parents had taken her aside and reiterated their plan for her future, and the fact that she needed to focus on her studies and not ‘that boy’ she smiled at all the time. Truth of the matter was that Jasmine had started paying more and more attention to Leo, or Leonard as he was called back then, than she wanted to admit.
He had grown from the annoying boy that she wasn’t too fond of into a young man with muscles with a slight edge to him. Even back then he had tempted her young heart and body, at least until her parents stomped that idea right out of her head. The repetition of ‘he’s not for you’ having been said so many times that it didn’t stop until he moved away and out of the picture completely. It wasn’t as if he had ever given her a second glance anyhow. Other than that one dance at her party, he had been too busy dating a stream of girls in their class. Girls who broke curfew and showed up late to school with hickies.
The exact opposite of younger Jasmine. Hell, older Jasmine wasn’t event that daring. She liked to follow the rules. She never double parked, always took the cart back to the cart area when shopping and barely went five miles over the speed limit and even that was only if she was in a rush.
“You drifted off again.” Leo’s voice sounded amused as he recaptured her attention. Jasmine took the moment to look at him…really look at him.
He was different than she remembered and yet also the same. The appeal that he had shown in high school was still there. He was simply taller and more confident than the Leonard she remembered. There wasn’t anyone stopping her from tasting the forbidden now. She was an adult who lived her own life, or did she? Her parents still tried to tell her what to do and who to date. But that had to stop at some point, right? It was at that point a light when on in her head.
She had to stop her parents at some point. They had already shown that they didn’t approve of the job choice. Now, she needed to grow some balls and tell them that she had accepted the offer. The same would have to be said for the endless boring dates that they set up for her. Something had to happen, and soon, or else she was going to be bored to death for the rest of her life while married to someone they handpicked for her.
Yuck. Just the thought of that made her feel queasy.
Jasmine raised her palm and cupped Leo’s strong jaw, smiling when his eyes widened. The fact that she surprised him with her actions made her feel a little badass for some reason.
“Take me to bed.”
Leo’s eyes got even wider as he digested her words, shocked silence taking over the small space of her compact car.
“Yes, ma’am.” Without another word, Leo started the car and started driving.
Well hell…if she had known it was going to be that easy, she would have started with those four simple words.