Chapter 4
The man next to her was going to either kill her or drive her crazy.
Trying to ignore Leo for the last twenty minutes, while everyone ate and chatted, had taken all her willpower. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she felt hot and tingly just sitting next to him, and from the sidelong glances he shot her way she wasn’t alone. Every time he swallowed a drink, she was entranced by the muscles in his neck as they moved. When he reached for something on the table, her gaze automatically took in the tension of his forearms as they reached across the grey cloth. That wasn’t the only thing that she was silently obsessing about either. Jasmine felt as if she were getting high off his scent every time the air around him would shift in her direction. Jasmine didn’t know what cologne he wore, but he smelled so damn delicious that she wanted to lick him up and down.
Yeah, that’s right. Lick. Him.
She seriously had to have a five-minute silent talk with herself over the inappropriateness of licking a man at her best friend’s engagement party. What the hell was wrong with her?
The crazy thing was that stuff like this never happened…or at least not to her. Jasmine had never been the type of woman to see a man, become unable to control her libido and then throw all of her common sense out of the window for one wild and wicked night. Nope. Jasmine was the text and talk for a month or so before setting up a date and then a separate grace period before anything physical happened…well, not anything physical. She wasn’t a nun or anything.
Yet, here she was seriously contemplating how to get him back to her apartment before “Sane Jasmine” regained control over her lower half.
As she sat there silently, Jasmine thought back to when she had last been laid. Her parents had sent her on dates with colleagues and associates of theirs for the last year or so, but none of the men had made it past two or three dates. Either they were too invested in their careers, or they were overly invested in hers. The last thing that Jasmine wanted was yet another person, especially one that she was on a date with, demeaning her choice to be a nurse instead of a doctor. No thank you, sir. She dealt with enough of that from her parents.
In fact, if it were up to her, she would date someone completely out of the medical field. Her parents tended to have way too much reach when it came to their influence in the profession anyway. Something that Jasmine hadn’t figured out until one of her dates had asked if her father would be interested in joining a practice when he was done with the specialty work that he loved. It wasn’t that Jasmine didn’t understand how admired her parents were, but she just didn’t feel the need to live up to the hype of being their rising star. Part of that hesitation came from her upbringing, but if she were honest with herself, a good majority of it came from her own experiences with family while she was growing up.
There was a reason Janet was so loved by herself, Victoria and Reginald. Janet had been the buffer that allowed her parents to work late and travel for emergency surgeries out of state. Her parents had provided food, shelter and financial support but they were rarely present, and even when they were there they weren’t really there. Instead of conversations at the dinner table, her family ate in silence, usually because one of her parents was reviewing a tough case or reading up on new medical procedures that they could use on their own patients.
Jasmine had a vivid memory of the crushing disappointment when they had been unable to attend an awards ceremony at school. It wasn’t a big award for Jasmine. As a matter of fact, it was something trivial where she had simply received a certificate, but to eight-year-old Jasmine it was a big deal. Since it was during the school day, all the teachers had their students sitting in rows by grade level. The memory was so clear that Jasmine could practically hear kids laughing and talking with their friends as they waited for the assembly to begin. Jasmine had sat quietly with her hands folded over her pink pleated skirt, her hair braided with matching bows gracing the ends. As the principal called her name to receive her ribbon and certificate, Jasmine had turned back to frantically scan the crowd for at least one of her parents.
They weren’t there.
Neither one of them had bothered to show up. Instead, Janet was sitting in the front row with a proud smile on her face as she waved at Jasmine as she walked toward the stage. Jasmine had walked up the steps, shaken the principal’s hand and accepted her award with tears in her eyes. The only person keeping them from falling was Janet. That precious woman was sitting in the front row, dressed in her Sunday best, and clapping louder than anyone around her.
The loud sound of clapping startled Jasmine out of her foray into memories and back into the present. Looking around, she realized that Will’s father had finished speaking to everyone and was sitting back down at his table.
“Aren’t you up next?” Leo leaned in while asking the question, his musky smell tingling her senses.
As his question sank in, Jasmine felt butterflies start to build in her stomach. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that last glass of champagne. The fizzy bubbles that she had gleefully swallowed earlier now felt like bubbling lava in the pit of her belly.
As she stood, Jasmine’s chair screeched loudly across the floor, the sound echoing as if it were a sound effect from a horror movie come to life. Watching everyone wince, Jasmine mouthed ‘sorry’ to the older gentlemen at the table next to hers as he glared at her and turned down his hearing aid.
“I didn’t prepare a long speech tonight. Instead, I will save that for the wedding reception when it’s too late to fire me as the maid of honor.” The beginning was met with some chuckles from the crowd. “I have known Winter for a bit over two years now and I honestly can’t remember a time when she wasn’t in my life. We were perfect strangers when we became roommates, which might sound scary to some people, but Winter is so friendly and open that we didn’t stay strangers for very long. I like to say that Winter adopted me, mostly because from the moment she moved in with me, she made it feel like a home. She is funny, smart, generous, and most importantly, she is genuine. Since almost that first day, I have thought of her less like a roommate and more like a sister.”
Jasmine looked over to the table where Winter and Will were sitting, Winter already dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a tissue.
“Sister is probably the best way to describe Winter. We’ve laughed ourselves silly during the funny times, and on more than one occasion we also supported each other through the times that called for tears. It wasn’t until she met Will that I realized how much I depended on her to balance me out. At first, I was a little pissed off that this hunky firefighter thought he could barge in and take away my best friend—” At that statement a few of their friends booed in Will’s general direction. “But I soon realized that Will was made for Winter and I wouldn’t be the awesome best friend, which I obviously am, if I had a problem with that.”
With her own eyes starting to get teary, Jasmine sniffed and smiled while raising her glass to the happy couple. “Congratulations you guys. I wish you nothing but happiness.”
After toasting Will and Winter, Jasmine began to sit down when she locked eyes with Leo. “Are you giving a speech tonight?”
Leo shook his head, the light catching the small silver hoops that he had in his lobes. “No, his dad wanted to speak tonight figuring that he would be too emotional to toast at the actual reception. I didn’t object.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” Jasmine gave him a sly grin. “Next time, help me figure out a way to get out of the toast too, okay?”
“Your speech was great. You have nothing to worry about. The only stories that I have about Will are single guy tales and firehouse shenanigans.” Leo tipped his beer bottle in her direction. “You really didn’t know each other when you became roommates?”
“Nope, not at all.” Jasmine shrugged. “My roommate moved out and I hated living alone so I placed an ad for a single female roommate to live with me. I know it sounds crazy to some people, especially my parents, but it worked out in the end. I can’t imagine not having Winter in my life.”
“You weren’t scared you were going to get a psycho? What about like that movie with the single chick and the lady tried to steal her identity.” Leo’s description made Jasmine laugh.
“I held interviews and did background checks. Believe me, there were some pretty scary chicks…I almost changed my mind after a couple of them, but I’m glad I stuck it out.” Jasmine looked across the room at her former roommate and frowned. “I actually need to figure out who’s going to rent out her room soon.”
“Have you thought about getting a smaller apartment?” Leo scooped up a bite of pie off his plate. The banana cream caught the top of his lip leaving a creamy smudge.
Without giving it a second thought, Jasmine reached forward and wiped the whipped cream away with her finger before licking it off. Her eyes widened at the liberties she had just taken.
“Sorry…” With her voice trailing off, Jasmine felt her face heat. The physical warmth let her know she was blushing without having to look in a mirror.
“No worries.” Leo’s eyes twinkled as he ran his own fingers over the area on his lip where she had caressed.
“What were we talking about?” Jasmine looked around the table as if the other guests were able to tell her what they had been talking about. The act was useless of course. All of the other table occupants were chatting amongst themselves with a majority of them having split into couples.
“Smaller apartment?” Leo’s voice rumbled, obviously amused by Jasmine being flustered.
“Oh, yeah…smaller apartment. Well, there are a couple problems with finding a smaller place. First, I’m lazy.” Jasmine smiled when Leo let out a gruff laugh. “No, really. I hate packing and moving and lifting and everything that goes along with the entire relocation process. In fact, Winter accused me of faking the stomach flu when she decided to move in with Will just so I could avoid helping out.” Casting a furtive glance around quickly, Jasmine leaned in close. “I actually overdosed on grilled cheese sandwiches and that’s why I was sick…I didn’t have a stomach bug.”
Leo was not holding back his laughter after her confession. The booming sound of his amusement caused a couple of people to look in their direction. “Seriously?”
“Yes, and if you ever tell her I will skin you alive,” Jasmine threatened, holding up her butter knife.
“So, other than the actual moving, what else is the problem?”
“I don’t like being alone.” The admission was as honest as Jasmine could be. She hated living alone. When she thought about the idea of either leaving the second bedroom empty or downgrading to a one bedroom, the weight of potential loneliness reared its ugly head.
When Leo opened his mouth as if to speak, Jasmine was already a step ahead of him and held out her hand, palm open, to halt his words. “And don’t say I should get a dog.”
At her words, his mouth slammed shut.
Jasmine fiddled with her napkin, twirling the fabric round and around her fingers. “It’s not that I dislike dogs…I love them actually. It’s just that having a dog in an apartment doesn’t seem that fair to it, ya know what I mean?” When silence was her answer, Jasmine looked over where Leo was studying her.
“Yeah, I understand what you mean.” Leo reached over and slowly pulled the napkin out of her grasp, the lack of fabric taking away her opportunity to get rid of the excess energy she felt coursing through her body. “Want to get out of here? Maybe go to that apartment that’s sitting all alone right now?”
Jasmine’s mouth dried at the suggestion. Dear lord, this was exactly what she had been thinking about all night. Well, at least the portion of the night after she found out that Leo was not only single, but also interested in kissing her. Although, if she was honest with herself, Jasmine would admit that she was thinking about doing a hell of a whole lot more than kissing.
When she hesitated, Leo reached for her hand. With large fingers, he traced the slender line of her wrist up and over the back of her hand. “No expectations. Just two friends catching up and figuring out if there might be more there.”
Jasmine swallowed, her throat catching at the lack of moisture in her mouth. Turning her hand around so they were palm to palm, Jasmine gripped his hand in her own. “That sounds good. I just need to make sure that Winter and Will don’t need me for the rest of the night.”
It hadn’t taken that long for Jasmine to catch the soon to be bride and groom where they were tucked away in the corner of the ballroom. Winter must have noticed how tired she looked because she didn’t question Jasmine wanting to head out before the night was over. The last thing that she wanted was to answer a million questions from her nosy best friend, which thankfully she was saved from when a couple of cousins went over to Winter and started saying their own goodbyes.
Jasmine blew kisses at Winter before walking away and toward the man waiting for her by the large double doors at the back of the room. She crossed her fingers that that was going to be the only thing that delayed her and Leo from having a chance to catch up.