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He shrugs. “Guess I’m a bit of a workaholic.”
Sounds like there’s a story there.
“Okay,” I ask, washing down a bite of my burger with a swing of white wine. “Why are you a workaholic? I mean, no one loves their work that much.”
“How do you know I don’t?” he asks, laughing.
I roll my eyes at him. “C’mon. You can’t fool me.”
Holy shit. Am I flirting with this guy?
“There’s a story behind that perfectly coiffed hair. I know it,” I say.
Shit. I’m definitely flirting.
Smirking, he runs his fingers through his hair. “My hair’s never been called ‘coiffed’ before. I must be dining with someone from a famous fashion magazine.”
And… he’s flirting back.
“Why, yes, you are. I am a famous someone from a famous magazine. It’s nice to meet you.”
Leo looks at me, likereallylooks at me, and while I don’t know what’s running through his mind, I know it’s something good, and that he’s enjoying my company.
For the second day in a row, my heart thumps against my chest as I sit next to one of the best-looking men I’ve ever met, from his Harry Styles’ perfect hair to his chiseled cheekbones.
Hell, he’s so good-looking, he’s almost pretty.
He slides his empty plate back and swivels his bar stool to face me. “I am what’s known as a ‘scholarship kid.’ Ever heard of that?”
“Yeah. Sure. Lots of kids get scholarships,” I say.
He nods. “True. True. And not everyone takes advantage of the incredible opportunities the scholarship world provides.”
Getting the picture here.
“I take it you did?”
He gives a small laugh, looking down on his hands. “You’re damn right I did. Still am. When you get opportunities like I’ve gotten, only a fool would throw them away. It’s ingrained in me now. I’ve worked so hard to get where I am, I don’t know how to stop.”
Admiration swells through me. I place my hand on his and squeeze lightly. I can’t help myself.
His palm turns and he slowly weaves his fingers through mine, and all of a sudden, the tingly feeling of the night before, when I kissed Ethan and Jasper, is back.
Cripes. What am I doing, messing around with these guys?
The tingling increases when Leo inches closer to me and I know in a split second, there’s no way in hell I’m going to make him stop.
He takes a deep breath, hesitating before speaking, like he’s about to share something really important. “A teacher, who I’ll never forget, told me education is the best way out of poverty. I’d never been much interested in school up to that point—I wasn’t a bad kid, just into low-level mischief, going nowhere fast. But this teacher’s words, well, they changed me. I buckled down and never looked back. Stopped hanging around with my trouble-making friends. They didn’t like that and I got beaten up a couple times, which made me that much more determined. I had a mission and was obsessed with it. I got into photography. Now I’m saving to put my little brother through college.”
Goosebumps float up my spine as Leo’s story unfolds, and I hold his hand, like really hold it, that’s how honored I am he’s sharing with me. “So that’s why you work all the time. You don’t want to lose what you labored so hard for.”
“Exactly,” he says, staring at our intertwined fingers. “Although… right now, I don’t much feel like going back to work.” He looks from my eyes to my lips and back.
I take a shallow inhale, because that’s all I am capable of in this moment. “Whatdoyou feel like doing?”
* * *
26
