Page 18 of Wrong For Me

“No, seriously, Leo. I’m debating whether or not I should have followed you out into the dark night alone.” He laughs again, the husky sound filling me with warmth right on down to my toes. “Please tell me you’re not like, a chainsaw murderer. You don’t have a pit in your basement, do you?”

His laughter dies. “Shit,” he mutters. “That got pretty damn macabre really fast, Rose.”

It’s my turn to giggle. “I watched a lot of scary movies growing up. Will and River and Fox—my other brother—loved them.”

“Did you love them, too?”

I shrug. “They usually gave me nightmares.”

My eyes are starting to adjust to the dark, and I can see the way his gaze is studying my profile, like he’s trying to figure me out. “So why’d you watch them?”

I shrug again. “Because I wanted to hang out with my brothers and cousins. They were my best friends growing up.”

Onlyfriends, growing up. Only friends now, if I’m being honest. I had to learn the hard way that when your last name is Ransome, there aren’t many people you can truly trust outside the family.

“I, uh, guess I don’t know what that’s like.”

It’s my turn to study his face in the dark. “You don’t have siblings?”

He shakes his head. “It was just me and my mom. And we moved around a lot. Made it hard to make friends.”

I could tell him that we moved around a lot too—spending months on the road in buses while our fathers toured—but I know it isn’t the same. Everywhere I had gone, I’d brought a whole soccer team worth of family with me.

“That sounds tough,” I offer. There’s a beat and then he seems to shake it off, turning to me with a little smirk.

“If you ask Bodhi, he’ll tell you I never really got much better at it—the friends thing.”

My eyebrows go up. “No? The two of you seem close.”

“Only because he forced his way into my space and held on for dear life, like a human-sized leech.” Leo chuckles. “We were roommates our freshman year. I was perfectly content to mind my own business, stay to my side of the dorm, and get on with it. But not Bodhi.”

“He’s more social than you?”

He laughs. “Bit of an understatement. I’m a grumpy bastard and everyone knows it.”

That makes me pause. Grumpy? He doesn’t really strike me as grumpy. A little cocky, maybe, with all his smirking and those flashing eyes, but not grumpy.

Then again, I suppose I don’t know him all that well.

“So, Bodhi wormed his way past your defenses?”

“Exactly,” Leo says, but there’s a note of fondness in his voice when he talks about his friend. “And then I could never get him out. Dude is like the stray cat who you feed once and then can’t get rid of for the rest of your life.”

“Some people would describe that as loyalty,” I point out, and he laughs.

“Yeah, he’s loyal all right.” His voice goes just a shade softer. “He’s been a good friend.” Then he clears his throat, like he’s uncomfortable with the tiny glimpse of emotion he showed. “He’d have to be, to put up with me.”

“You really don’t seem all that grumpy to me.”

He shifts on the rock so he’s facing me. “I guess sitting next to a pretty girl, eating good pizza, and listening to the lake lightens me up a little.”

I swallow, face suddenly feeling warm even with the cool breeze off the water. “You think I’m pretty?”

He stares at me for a long moment, like he’s trying to decide if I’m messing with him. Whatever he sees in my face in the darkness has his eyes softening. He reaches over and brushes his thumb across my jaw. “I think you’re fucking gorgeous, Rose.”

My whole body seems to light up with his words, heat rushing through my blood, skin erupting in tingles. “I think you’re pretty gorgeous, too,” I manage to squeak out, and his face erupts in a lopsided, boyish grin that’s so cute I can’t help but lean forward and press my lips to his.

The kiss seems to take him by surprise and he stills. But only for a moment—then he’s kissing me back, hard, his hands coming around me to press into my back, pulling me closer.