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As I add the cubes to the glass, I watch her looking around curiously. My place is sparse, just the essential pieces of furniture and a big screen TV. I’m not particularly sentimental, so if she’s searching for family photos or personal mementos, she won’t find any.
“You mentioned that your mother’s last name was Legend,” I inquire because that piqued my interest. “You didn’t take your father’s name?”
“Welcome to the twenty-first century, Leo.” She saunters over, swaying those bell-shaped hips that have me biting my bottom lip. “I don’t have a father. He was just a sperm donor.”
I nod, understanding what it’s like to have a deadbeat old man. It seems we have something in common after all. “You don’t have any relationship with him?”
“No,” she replies, cocking her head quizzically. “I don’t even know who he is. My mother was never given the name of her sperm donor for privacy reasons.”
“So, he really was a sperm donor?”
“Yes. That’s what I said.”
“Oh, I thought…never mind.” Back to nothing in common.
She shrugs, unaware of my thoughts, and takes the glass from me. “My mother wanted a baby and wasn’t going to wait around for a man to have one. She raised me on her own, and Inever felt like I was missing out on having another parent. She was more than enough.”
I hear the deep affection and grief in her voice. “She’s gone,” I say gently.
“Yes.” Jazz’s eyes get misty. “It’s been three years, but sometimes it feels like yesterday. Let’s not talk about this right now, okay? It makes me too sad.”
I nod again, and clink my glass against hers. “To whatever the night holds.”
“I’ll drink to that.” She knocks back half of it and winces. “That’s awful.”
“Your first whiskey?”
“I didn’t think it would taste this bad.”
“It’s top shelf, and supposed to be sipped, not treated like a shot.” Which makes me wonder if it’s her liquid courage. “Would you like me to dilute it or get you something else?”
“No, thanks, I’m good.” She takes a gingerly sip this time and seems to tolerate it better. “Oh, before I forget…” Jazz opens her clutch and sets two small bottles on the counter. “This one is a tension-reducing body oil. It has lavender, chamomile and sage. You can add it to your bath.”
I almost laugh. “I don’t take baths.”
“That’s okay, you can apply it directly to your skin, wherever you feel tension.”
I’m feeling plenty of tension right now that nothing in that bottle is going to relieve. But on she goes about the other one, calling it an aromatherapy blend with a calming scent, and espousing all its benefits. Jazz opens the top and brings the bottle to my nose.
“Amazing, right? Just add it to a diffuser. If you don’t have one, you can rub it into your palms and cup them around your nose and mouth to inhale.”
“I’d rather smell you.”
“Go ahead.” She pulls her hair aside and offers me her neck. “I made it myself. It’s vanilla, peach nectar, and white musk.”
My blood is already pounding as I set my glass down and make my way around the counter. I notice behind the glint of desire in her eyes there’s a flicker of nerves. “I’m warning you, Jazz, I’m going to want to do more than just smell you. So be sure.”
I hope like hell that we’re both circling the same orbit, but I can’t ignore the mix of uncertainty and bravado. I’m the older one in this situation, I don’t want to take advantage or pressure her into doing anything she’s going to regret, or blame me for.
“Being a gentleman, Leo?”
“Only until you’re sure. Then all bets are off.”
CHAPTER 10
Jazz
SOMETIMES, YOU JUST HAVE TO go with your instincts, with your cravings. At the moment, mine are entirely centred on Leo. Finding out he’s not a complete jerk, lessened my dilemma over selling my vagina to the devil. But with that realization comes a worry of another kind. What if Zay was right? What if I can’t separate my emotions after a night with Leo? What if I actually fall for him? But that intense gaze on me, waiting with heated anticipation, and the fact that he’d cared enough to ask if I was certain, seals my fate.
