Chapter 2
The common area was dark, and the door to her roommate Mya's room was closed.
She tiptoed to her purse on the kitchen counter and quietly made her way to the front entryway.
She loved her best friend, but she could not deal with having any more anxiety about this meeting.
That is exactly what Mya would have added.
The drive was quicker than she had expected as she made her way to the bar.
She had anticipated being a little early, but not by fifteen minutes.
Lights were strung up around the building and emitted a warm glow as it lit the walkway to the front and around to the back of the building.
The calm ambiance was periodically disturbed by the opening of the door as someone would exit, sending music and loud chatter into the outside air.
Now or never.
Stop being a wuss and just go meet him,she thought as she forced herself out of her black sedan and into the chilled air of the night as she headed for the entrance with her chin held high.
As she opened the door and walked into the dark bar of intoxicated patrons, her stomach knotted with anxiety.
At that moment, she regretted ever getting out of bed.
She had looked at his picture enough times that she figured she would spot him right away, but as she looked around the room, he was nowhere to be found.
There were groups of people huddled around tables laughing loudly; others stood together by the pool tables and dartboards as they yelled over the music that came through the speakers.
It only took one look around the room to locate the bar where all of the individual people sat alone, and she made her way to one of the open seats at the end of the bar.
Layla grabbed her phone out of her purse before she put it on the empty barstool next to her as a place holder.
10:26 pm, it read and she locked the screen again after she saw that there were no unread messages.
She glanced back into the rest of the room and let her eyes drift from side to side as she scanned over the crowd.
"What can I get you?" A girl yelled from behind the counter.
Layla turned to the bartender and immediately felt self-conscious as she looked over the beautiful, scantily clad blonde in front of her.
Her shirt did nothing to hide her breasts, nor the belly button ring beneath them.
She was shocked by how much skin was actually on display, and she wanted the woman as far away from her when Leonardo showed up as possible.
"Vodka Cranberry, please." She said over the music, and the woman smiled at her with a slight nod as she turned to start mixing her drink.
It only took a moment, and when the glass was placed in front of her, Layla let out a breath of relief as the bartender walked away to help an animated customer who was waving her down on the other end of the bar.
Her phone lit up at that moment and she quickly grabbed it.
I'm here.It said, and her head shot up to scan the room once more.
Only one man was on his phone that she could see, and her stomach instantly dropped.
He was a large man, at least twenty years her senior, with a black leather jacket hung over his stretched out white wife-beater.
He looked up from his phone and smiled when he made eye contact with her.
The slight lift in his eyebrow made her spine stiffen.
She instantly looked down and spun back to the bar to deter him from coming over.
Body odor and smoke radiated off of the man as he leaned forward so he didn't have to yell.
"Hi." He said loudly in her ear.
Layla leaned away; her head only turned slightly to acknowledge that she heard him, but she kept her back to the man as much as possible without being overly rude.
The man came up behind her and had stopped in the space between herself and the wall.
"Can I get your next drink for you?" He asked as he reached to pull out the seat that housed her purse.
Her hand reached down to stop the stool from moving, as she placed her palm down flat on her bag.
"I'm so sorry.
Someone is sitting here." She yelled back as she ignored his question.
He grunted at her as he lifted his hand from the seat, and leaned forward to place it on the bar next to her.
As he opened his mouth once more, she felt a warm arm settle across her shoulder, and smooth lips pressed against her temple.
A light layer of stubble prickled against her skin, and she looked up into familiar hazel eyes.
"Hey, sweetheart.
I'm sorry that I'm late." His deep voice sent a shiver down her spine, and she instantly sat up straighter.
The man moved back and walked away with a grumble of irritation, taking the strong stench of cigarettes with him.
Leonardo laughed lightly, and he dropped his arm to place his hand on her back.
He pointed to the unoccupied seat as his other thumb moved back and forth across her spine.
"Do you mind if I sit here?"
She quickly grabbed her purse and hung it from the hook under the bar top in front of her knees.
Her eyes had a mind of their own as he moved to sit down.
His black shirt was stretched out across the muscles of his shoulders and chest as they flexed slightly while he pulled out the chair and slid into the seat.
Her mouth watered at the sight before her, and she quickly looked away as she felt heat creep into her cheeks.
The drink in front of her was coated in a light layer of precipitation, and she grabbed for it quickly to take a sip of the cold liquid inside.
She could feel him staring at her as he sat on the stool, facing her instead of the bar.
Once again, her bottom lip found its way between her teeth, and she was overwhelmed with the feeling of his eyes trailing over her body.
He let out a deep chuckle as his hand wrapped around one of the legs on her bar stool before he slid her seat over to sit between his knees.
"I hope you don't mind.
It will be better this way, rather than yelling at each other." He said as his warm breath blew across her ear, engulfing her in the smell of spearmint.
Goosebumps rose from her skin, and she turned to meet his gaze.
"So, you're my Layla."
His Layla.
That was what he had said.
She wasHisLayla, and she loved it.
The adrenaline that coursed through her body stemmed from his fingertips, as they drew delicate circles on her back where his arm lay on the back of her chair.
"You're Leonardo." She said as she turned to look at him, her face only inches from his.
She watched as his eyelids lowered slightly, and he swallowed quickly.
It made her happy to see that she had an effect on him as well, that she wasn't the only one nervous.
His eyes were locked on hers, and the pull she felt between them was deafening; it drowned out the other noise in the room until she was only aware of the two of them.
She wished she could take it back and say that he washerLeonardo, but she was so tongue-tied, she could barely get the two words out that she did.
"I've waited a long time to meet you.
Seeing you now, I wish I had just played hooky.
I should have told my work that I couldn't make it in the very first time we tried to meet three months ago." His smell surrounded her, embraced her in a soft cloud.
He smelled clean, like soap and just a hint of whatever deodorant he was wearing.
It was intoxicating.
She leaned in slightly as she unconsciously took a larger inhale than normal.
"That would've been nice." She said with a light sigh on her exhale.
The tension in Layla rose as she heard the bartender once more, and she remembered how stunning the blonde had been in comparison.