Hailey and Tessa are supposed to be having some kind of big fancy end of days talk with me and here they are, sitting on the small couch in my apartment rambling about how hot Leo looked yesterday in the hotel. They’ve had a few too many homemade martinis and it’s barely eight at night. I’m torn between bearing my claws and flat-out hissing at them, then telling them to back off my man, and a twisted sense of enjoyment at having the tables turned. For my whole life, I’ve been the charity case when it came to men.

Hailey and Tessa got the cute guys and the fun stories. They dated the musicians or the athletes. Hailey even dated a politician once. Me? I dated musicians, but the kind who wear tall hats and stuffy uniforms while they march across high school football fields. I always had to listen to them try to convince me the guy I was dating was so great for me, when I knew what they really meant was a girl like me should be happy to land a guy. Period.

But I guess I’ve always brought it on myself. After all, it’s hard to get dates when you’re terrified of saying two words to a member of the opposite sex for your entire school career. I’ve been a little better since coming to college, but by this point it already feels like there was no point trying anymore. Guys are lame. Dates are awkward. And sex? My sexual history is like an extremely short and horrible documentary on how fast the average American male can reach orgasm.

So instead of watching them with annoyance, I settle for sitting back and enjoying the show. At least until there’s a loud knock at the door that makes us all jump.

Tessa gets up to answer the door, shouting over her shoulder as she walks. “I thought he was going to spank us if we said another word,” she says, laughing.

Like hell he would, I think, feeling suddenly less amused by them talking about Leo.

I hear the door open behind me, and Hailey’s eyes rise slowly higher and higher at whoever is behind me.

I turn to see what she’s looking at and nearly fall out of my chair.

“The only one at risk of a spanking is my pet,” says Leo, who must have heard Tessa through the door. “Because she’s not answering her phone and I had plans to take her out.”

I see Tessa and Hailey bulging their eyes at each other out of my peripheral vision, but I can’t seem to look anywhere but his commanding green eyes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t check my phone, but I was talking with my… friends?” I say, turning when I realize my so-called-friends have scampered out of their seats to huddle together nearly ten feet away from me at the far end of my apartment.

They both start gesturing and laughing, urging me to ignore them and look back to Leo. It’s not hard to do what they want. The man is practically a visual magnet.

“Your friends seem to think you should come with me,” he says.

“Wait. How did you know which apartment was mine? I never told you the number.”

The confidence that seems to always cling to him like armor slips for a fraction of a second. In that moment I see slight embarrassment and self-consciousness, and as obnoxious as it is, even that looks sexy as hell on him. “I’d rather not go into detail.”

“Oh?” I ask, leaning forward a little. “But I’d love for you to go into detail.”

His jaw flexes and his posture stiffens. “I looked up your billing address in the system.”

“But my mom is the one who pays for the room there.”

“I looked in all the systems. I told you, I own a lot of the buildings in this city.”

“You…” I start, but words fail me. I want to be creeped out, pissed even. I mean, Leo invaded my privacy and actually stalked me. But I’m not looking at some hunched over guy with greasy hair and darting eyes. Leo is a mountain of a man--all hard edges and powerful lines with those eyes like green flames that ignite me with maddening ease. “I’m kind of impressed,” I finally admit. After all, it hardly counts as stalking after the things I let him do to me two nights ago at the party, or even two months ago in the laundry room. And I am carrying his baby, so maybe I should cut him some slack. That thought still gives me a nervous chill. Not just that it’s his baby, but that I’m carrying a baby. “I think the most a guy has ever done to find me was send me a text saying ‘where you at?’”

I expect Leo to grin at my admission, but he steps closer instead, putting a hand on my shoulder and locking eyes with me.

God. He’s so freaking intense all the time. Everything seems so important to him, so life-or-death. It sounds stupid, but it makes me feel important when he’s around. For once in my life, I don’t feel like the odd duck. I’m not just the extra friend who tags along for the amusement of everyone else. I’m not just another girl waiting tables to pay her way through college. I’m not just a face in the crowd. To Leo, I’m something. I’m special. I can see how firmly he believes that in the way he looks at me, and it’s like a drug for me, like the importance he places on me seeps beneath my skin and grants me a tingling rush of energy.

“I would have done anything to find you. You didn’t answer your phone, so I worried.” There’s warning in his tone, something sharp beneath the gravel in his voice.

I can’t seem to stop myself from what I know is a dangerous idea, but the thrill of it seeps into me and clouds my judgment. Toying with Leo is like taunting a lion, in fact Leo is a lion and I want him to be so hungry he will pounce me. Maybe not in front of Hailey and Tessa, but they’ll get the message if he starts pawing at me.

“I barely know you,” I say slowly. I hope he can see from my expression and tone that I don’t really mean what I’m saying, but I also hope it irks him enough to set him off.

“Barely know me?” He leans closer until his mouth is only a breath away from my ear. “I’ve cum in that gorgeous pussy of yours twice now. You can probably still feel the dull ache of how I stretched you with my fucking cock at the party. And you barely know me?”

I do feel the memory of his cock between my legs, even now, and I’ve probably ruined these panties with how many times that memory has already made me wet tonight. “That was sex,” I say. Even though it started as a tease, my little joke feels more real now. I think of how much he wants from me and the fact that it’s still my job to make sure he’s fit to be a big part of our baby’s life. Words start pouring out of me and they aren’t just meant to tease and taunt now. “Yes, I feel good when I’m with you. I feel amazing, even. But that’s not the only thing I can think about anymore. I can’t let you in completely until something clicks--something in my heart that tells me you’re without a doubt, without any bit of the smallest reservation, that you’re the one. I know how you make me feel, but I still don’t know you. I don’t even know what you do for a living, whether you have parents, if you’re actually single. I don’t know anything but your freaking name and the fact that you own buildings.”

“I do a little bit of everything for a living, but I primarily deal in luxury real estate and business management. My parents are dead, and I’m single. Anything else?”

I sigh. “I don’t just want a fact sheet. I don’t even know if I want anything. We,” I say, lowering my voice as I’m conscious that Hailey and Tessa are getting the show of their lives from where they’re watching with wide eyes across the room. “We have had some very enjoyable encounters. Yes, you’re--” Gorgeous. Sexy. Mouth-watering. “You’re handsome. You’re obviously wealthy, but it doesn’t work like this. I can’t just… I don’t know. I have a life, I’m trying to work a job while I get through school. I’ve got my mom to take care of.”

“Let me take care of you,” he says.

“We went on a date. You made me all kinds of promises, but,” I say. “How do I know--”

“Tomorrow then,” he says smoothly. “I’ll pick you up here. Don’t worry about what to wear, I’ll pick something up for you and bring it by.” He leans in and kisses my neck before I even have time to react, but the warmth that spreads from where his lips touch makes my head spin. “If you want to get to know me, then you’ll have to keep coming on dates with me. Won’t you?” he asks with a wink before turning to leave.

My mouth is still hanging open when Tessa and Hailey come to sit back down across from me.

“Oh. My. God,” says Tessa. She’s still looking toward the door where Leo just left. She unleashes a very un-womanly barrage of slaps and punches on my shoulder while screaming with excitement.

Hailey watches with an amused grin.

“Stop!” I say, laughing a little. “That hurts, and you’re embarrassing me.”

Tessa finally calms down but is still shaking her head. “How long are you going to make us sit here before you spill the fucking beans, Lys? What did he whisper at the end there? If he’s like that in front of us, what is he like in private? Did he invite you to the alley behind the apartment for some dirty street sex? Did he want to have a foursome with us, or…”

“Tessa!” I say sharply.

“Not cool,” agrees Hailey, but she’s still grinning.

Tessa shrugs unapologetically. “There’s nothing wrong with a foursome as long as everybody involved is game.”

“Yeah? Well I’m not game with you even thinking like that about him,” I snap. My cheeks flush when I realize how I must sound. I just basically told Leo I don’t know him well enough to commit yet and I’m already snarling over him like a dog in heat. I sigh, covering my face with my hands and groaning in frustration. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure,” says Hailey, whose grin now rivals the Cheshire cat. “Did you see his bulge? Wow.”

I pull my hands away to glare at Hailey, but she and Tessa are clearly having the time of their lives teasing me right now. I know I should pretend it doesn’t bother me so they stop having so much fun, but I can’t seem to help myself.

I rip the little plastic sword from Hailey’s martini glass and aim it toward her eye. “You keep your eyes to yourself next time he’s around, or I’ll make a cocktail out of you.”

Hailey bites the olive off my sword playfully, then bursts out laughing with Tessa.

I relax my glare, but just a little. What is Leo doing to me? This jealous side of me that’s coming out now with Tessa and Hailey is new and strange. Not to mention a little exciting.

“This will only be our second date, but he talks like he owns me already. It’s exciting and everything, it’s just…” I trail off because I know what I’m hoping for is pathetic. I want my friends to tell me I’m not being crazy by going along with all of this, even though I know in my heart I want everything he’s promising. It’s hard not to doubt my choice to keep putting my trust in a virtual stranger. I sigh with frustration. “He’s so intense and he comes on so strong. It’s sexy, don’t get me wrong, it’s just… scary, maybe because it feels so all-or-nothing with him.”

Tessa arches an eyebrow. “Hot.”

“Very hot,” agrees Hailey.

“He could be a serial killer, for all I know,” I say, but I’m losing my conviction to fight this, which was only half-hearted to begin with. It just feels like I’m going to let my old life slip away and this new, strange but exciting life Leo is promising will take over. My old, socially challenged instincts are laying hard on the “caution” button, even if every other part of me is screaming to go on another date. “Or,” I add. “He could just be some kind of perv.”

“Girl, you had better hope he’s a perv,” laughs Tessa.

“Mhm,” says Hailey. “Whips, chains, calling him daddy… Whatever a man like that wants, honestly. Here’s what you do. Wear your sexiest bra and panties. Make yourself look hot as hell, and when he comes to pick you up, just grab him by the shirt and yank him into your apartment. Do him right there against the wall,” she says, flicking her eyebrows up.

“No,” says Tessa. “You let him wine and dine you. Fill up your belly with some expensive food, see the sights, get to strut around town with that fine piece of gorgeous on your arm, and then you wait. Wait to see what kind of kinky shit he’s got up his sleeve.”

“Or I lock my door, put on a crappy TV show, and suffocate myself in a mountain of junk food while I pretend none of this ever happened.”

That earns a glare from both of them.

“I’m just kidding,” I sigh. “Mostly.”