Prologue
“You know,” Meg announces to the room at large. “You didn’t all need to come help. I don’t have that much stuff. Leo and Will could have handled the big stuff.”
We are gathered at Will Montgomery’s house, helping him move his girlfriend, Megan in with him. I’ve grown to love these people. My brother marrying into the Montgomery family might have been the best thing he ever did.
Damn Luke, for always getting it right. I glance across Will’s impressive living room where I’m trying to decide where one of Meg’s brightly colored paintings should be hung and eye my brother as he kisses his pretty brunette wife on the cheek. Natalie is the best, and I’m so happy that she’s forgiven me for being a bitch to her when I first met her. Not that I’m all that sorry for it. I had my reasons. But Nat is fantastic.
She’s my best friend.
“Thanks so much for volunteering me,” Leo, Meg’s brother, mutters. “Why didn’t we hire a company again?”
I grin to myself and turn my back on the room, focusing on the wall and the artwork in my hands. I’m in a room with Leo Nash. The Leo Nash. He’s only the hottest rock star in the country. And he’s sexy as hell.
And he’s been watching me all day.
Will and Leo continue to grumble about doing all the heavy lifting, earning glares from Meg. God, she’s funny.
And I guarantee not one of us girls is going to complain about watching Leo, Nate and the Montgomery brothers lift heavy objects. Holy hot men.
“So, Sam,” Leo saunters over to me. I can feel him move up behind me, just a few feet away, and damn if I can’t smell his musky sweat and the soap from his shower. “What are you doing later?”
I take a deep breath and keep my face blank. I learned a long time ago to keep my emotions in check.
“I won’t be doing you,” I mutter and hammer a nail into the wall. As attracted as I am to him, and really, who wouldn’t be, Leo is off limits. He’s Meg’s brother.
He’s famous.
He’s cocky as hell.
“Uh, I wasn’t offering, honey.” I turn around to see Leo smiling smugly. “I was wondering if you’d like me to take you to have that stick pulled out of your ass.”
The girls gasp, and Luke’s eyes go hard as stone.
Okay, that hurt.
Don’t touch the stick in my ass, you jerk.
Before my brother can rip Leo to shreds, and despite his usual sweet demeanor I have no doubt that he would in a heartbeat, I paste a smile on my face and laugh.
“Nope, I like my stick right where it is.”
“Let me know if you change your mind.” Leo grins and shoves his hands in the pockets of the worn jeans that sit low on his hips.
“You’ll be the first to know.” I turn back to the wall and hang the painting. “But just so you know,” I turn back to him, “I don’t date famous people.”
“Neither do I.” He winks and saunters into the kitchen, pulls a beer out of the fridge and takes a sip. His biceps flex under those amazing tattoos covering his skin as he lifts and lowers the bottle to his lips. He swallows and smiles over at me, his eyes shining with interest, and for the first time in five years I regret my no celebrity rule.
Damn him.
Chapter One
“You okay?” Luke murmurs in my ear as he hugs me before we leave Will’s house.
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” I smirk as I look defiantly into Luke’s happy blue eyes.
“Leo’s not really an asshole.” He frowns and glances back at the house.
“He was being funny, Luke. I can take a joke.” I wave him off and sink into my little white Mercedes. “I’ll see you at mom and dad’s on Sunday?”
“Yeah, we’ll see you there.” He waves and joins Nat in their car and drives away. Everyone has left except Leo who hung back to help Will lift a few more boxes, and I’m relieved to get away from him.
He’s too good looking for my comfort level.
Okay, that’s not it. I pull out of the driveway and toward my downtown condo.
I see something in Leo that disturbs me. Not in a creepy, what the hell is he thinking way, but because he’s so… virile. He pulls to me in a way no one ever has before. It has nothing to do with his band or his money, and everything to do with those gray eyes and sweet smile.
He’s got baggage, and he’s probably a bit of a rock star jerk. I don’t have time to deal with an arrogant attitude.
I have my own to deal with.
Suddenly, a couple miles away from Will and Meg’s house, my car jerks and drops in the front.
Fuck, I have a flat.
I pull to the side of the road and jump out of the car. It’s started to rain, that thick, cold, biting rain that Seattle is famous for in the winter. Thank God I was dressed for unpacking, in my jeans and sneakers and a hoodie.
Not my every day attire.
I stand in the rain, my red hoodie over my hair, and stare at the tire. This is the perfect end to the week from hell. I sigh and look up and down the street around me and then give the tire a quick kick, managing to stub my toe in the process.
Shit! I hop around in a circle and then scowl at the tire again.
Fucking tire.
Well, I could call roadside assistance, but it’s just a flat tire, and I could have it changed before the guy got here to help.
I open the tiny trunk of the car and remove the small donut spare, jack and lug-nut-removal-thingie. I don’t know what the tools are called, but I’m sure as hell thankful that my dad made me learn how to use them.
Just as I lean the spare against the car and set the jack under the axle, a familiar car pulls up behind me, and I sigh deeply.
Leo.
Sonofabitch.
He unfolds his lean body from his black muscle car and walks to me, black Converse crunching over the gravel, seemingly unfazed by the rain. He’s wearing a leather jacket, open in the front, over his white t-shirt and loose jeans. He’s covered his head with a black knit beanie.
“Problem?” He asks with a half-smile, that lip piercing catching my eye.
Why am I attracted to a lip piercing?
I don’t know, but I am.
“Just a flat. I’m gonna change it. You don’t have to stay.” I start working on the lug nuts.
Leo hasn’t moved.
“You don’t have to stay,” I repeat more firmly and look up into his handsome face.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to leave you here, at the side of the road, to change out a flat by yourself?” He asks, his eyes have gone colder, and I frown.