AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can hear you thinking,” he said, worried when she startled at his words. “Whoa there, you still with me?”
“Sex is natural,” She blurted out, this time startling him.
He blinked. Jazz looked like she was about to have a stroke, her face bright red as she stumbled over her words.
“I mean, I’m—what I was—” she stammered, covering her face with her hands.
“Yes, sexisnatural.” He 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,” she said, the word muffled behind her palms.
“No?”
“Because I’m a nervous idiot.”
Leo pulled her hands away from her face, the gentle smile on his face helping her relax.
“Hey, I like you.” His deep voice rumbled between them in the quiet car, the sound reminiscent of the thunder around them.
“I like you too,” she whispered back ever so softly.
“Sexisnatural,” he repeated.
“Yes. Yes, it is.” She nodded solemnly.
“Let’s just pretend that this is our first date, okay?” he proposed, hoping it would take away some of the nervousness she was obviously feeling. The last thing he wanted her to feel around him was anxious.
“First date?”
Leo nodded. “Do you remember the last time we saw each other? It was at your graduation party. Remember that?”
Chapter 8
Jazz nodded. It was one she’d never forget.
Mostly because of the man sitting beside her.
The party itself had been a disaster, with most of her so-called friends bailing before the valet had a chance to move their cars, only making an appearance because their parents made them. It had been a shitshow, a depressing one. The only person that had hung around until the end—other than the people sucking up to her parents—had been Leonard. He hadn’t asked her about her graduating GPA or what classes she was going to take. Instead, he had told her that her dress was pretty and how proud he was of her that she’d been named co-valedictorian. An achievement her parents found lacking because it was shared with another student in her class.
He’d danced with her as the band played Wonderful Tonight, and while totally innocent, the moment had carved out a special place in her eighteen-year-old heart. It was one of the first times she’d felt like somebody could actuallyseeher.
There were no ulterior motives hiding behind the compliments and slow dancing. He didn’t give a fuck about her parents. This was forher. That night, she fell a little bit in love with Leonard. He was more than she’d ever expected him to be—a realization that worried Reginald and Victoria from that moment on. They’d noticed the interaction and did not approve.
It had been that night that her parents had taken her aside and reiterated their plans for her future. Despite having to attend dinners that included obvious set ups with the eligible sons of people in their circles, Jazz was told to focus on her studies and not ‘that boy’ she smiled at all the time.
Dating was perfectly acceptable, but only when it came to men they approved of. If she wanted to go out, they always had a candidate on the backburner willing to step in to distract her from the man she was really interested in. She wasn’t even allowed to ask Janet how he was doing without receiving another one of their disapproving lectures. Every now and then, she’d get little tidbits about what he was up to before her parents interrupted the conversation with a sharp look. It was one they’d perfected, always effectively stopping her in her tracks when she tried to push back; a reaction she hated because she had no control over it. She’d been conditioned to fold when they gave her ‘the look’ starting at an early age and they used it whenever Leonard was mentioned. The repetition of ‘he’s not for you’ was said so many times she’d wanted to scream. It didn’t stop until he moved away from KC and out of the picture completely. It wasn’t as if he had ever given her a second glance then anyhow.
She wasn’t anywhere near his league when it came to dating. Other than that night at her party, he had been too busy seeing a stream of girls to notice her. She’d had to hear all about it from Janet the few times she had been able to sneak in an innocent inquiry into their conversations. His mom was not pleased with most of the ladies he’d been spending his time with. His girlfriends—if you could call them that—were the exact opposite of younger Jazz.
Hell, older Jazz wasn’t even as daring as some of the rumors she’d heard about a few of them.
“You drifted off again.” Leo’s voice sounded amused as he recaptured her attention.
“I do that sometimes,” she said, taking a moment toreallylook at him. It was crazy how different he was than she remembered while also being strangely the same. The appeal that he had in high school was still there, just stronger now that he’d grown into a man. “I was just thinking back to that party.”
“It was a good night, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she answered with a genuine smile. “It was one of the best.”
