Chapter Twelve Leo
Let me draw you.
Drea’s request echoed through my mind. Although her sketchbook showed how she’d drawn many people and many things, there was something inherently intimate about her asking to sketch me.
We’d been tiptoeing around the fire since our identities had been made known on the dance floor. While we couldn’t fault our actions when we’d been in the dark, our actions since then were asking to get burned.
Trying to lighten the mood, I teased, “I don’t do nudes.”
Drea laughed. “Sorry, Mr. Egomaniac, that wasn’t what I was suggesting.” She jerked her chin at me. “While it might not be captured in art, I’m sure there’s photographic evidence of your junk.”
“Guilty,” I mused.
After easing the sketch pad out of my hands, Drea said, “It was just a suggestion. We don’t have to do it.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to see you in action.”
A shy smile curved on her lips. “Okay then.”
Glancing around the living room, I asked, “Where do you want me?”
Without answering, Drea walked over to an overstuffed chair. After pushing it back towards the large floor-to-ceiling windows, she nodded. When she turned around with a pencil in her teeth and a sauce-stained t-shirt, she’d never been more beautiful. “I think the muted light will work.”
“If you say so, boss.”
I closed the distance between us and dropped down in the chair. Gazing up at her, I wagged my brows. “Are you going to paint me like one of your French girls?”
Drea threw her head back with a laugh. “Can’t you be serious for five minutes?”
“My personal best is probably two and a half.”
With the cutest frustrated huff, Drea rolled her eyes before tossing the sketch pad on the table next to my chair. I thought she was about to tell me to forget it when her hands came to my hair.
I jerked back before I could stop myself. She gave me an apologetic look. “I was just fixing it for the sketch.”
“I knew that. It’s just I’m really particular about people touching me.”
The glassy look that appeared in her eyes told me she was thinking about how I didn’t give a fuck about her touching me on the dance floor.
Once she adjusted my hair, her hands came to my face. At the slight tremble in her fingers, it took everything within me not to take her hand in mine and bring it to my lips.
“Let’s turn your head this way,” she suggested.
“You’re the boss,” I replied as she placed her hands on my cheeks.
Gently, she eased my face to stare at the left wall. After stepping back a moment, she nodded. “That works.”
When I started to turn my head back to her, she wagged a finger at me. “Uh, uh, uh. “
“Come on. I’m going to get a crick in my neck if you have me like this too long.”
She snorted. “You’re such a baby.”
I fought the urge to argue. I sure as hell didn’t feel like a baby when my hard cock was against her ass. But I knew better.
“Hmm, what should I do with your hands?” she questioned under her breath.
Inwardly, I groaned. She was testing the hell out of me. If she wasn’t Rafe’s fiancée, I would’ve said fuck it all and already pulled her down onto my lap.
Taking my hand in hers, she placed one on the armrest. When she placed her hands on my shoulders, my breath hitched. For a moment, I sat frozen with her intoxicating smell overwhelming me.
After pushing me back to recline in the chair, Drea took my hand and placed it behind my head so that my arm almost made a triangle.
Without another word to me, she grabbed her sketchbook off the table. Although she didn’t take her eyes off of me, she started backing away. Even though I could only see her face out of my peripheral vision, I knew she was in the zone.
As Drea began to sketch, silence fell around us. It was so quiet I could hear every scratch of her pencil on the paper. Even though I was covered by a long-sleeved shirt and dress pants, I felt completely naked under her gaze.
And not in a sexual way.
I feared Drea could see through to the real me. The one who used humor as a defense mechanism to mask his insecurities. The second born who would always feel second best next to his older brother. The inner child that never healed from all his father’s cruelty.
No one had ever been this close to me outside of my family. At the end of the day, not even Caterina saw me like my brothers. Not even Talia.
No one truly had.
But if she kept pushing, Drea would.
And she wouldn’t even have to try that hard.
“Finished,” she pronounced.
I jerked my gaze from the wall over to her. “That was fast.”
“It’s easier when I know my subject beforehand.”
When she held out the book to me, the air around me shifted. She’d drawn a version of myself I’d never seen. The mirror reflected the version of myself that I put forward. Drea had captured everything I didn’t project.
“Wow,” I murmured.
“Do you like it?” she questioned softly.
“It’s…fucking incredible.”
Her face lit up at my compliment. “Thank you, Leo.”
“No. Thank you for doing this.”
Rising out of the chair, I took the sketchbook from her and stared even more intently at the drawing. “Can I have this?”
Drea stared at me in surprise. “You really want it?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then it’s yours.”
“You need to sign it.”
“Why?”
“One day, when you’re a famous artist, I can sell it for a fuck ton of money.”
Drea laughed. “I should’ve known you had ulterior motives.”
“I’m a businessman.”
Taking her pencil, Drea signed the bottom of the sketch. When she glanced back up at me, vulnerability shone in her eyes. “Thanks for believing in me, Leo.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m not being trite with my gratitude. No one in my family besides the twins and Vittoria gives two shits about my art. You can’t imagine how much it means to have someone believe in you.”
“I do believe in you,” I murmured.
Drea shocked the hell out of me by diving into my arms. Hugging me tight, a sob choked off in her throat. When she pulled back, tears shone in her eyes.
The world slowed to a crawl. As I dipped my head, she rose up to meet me. Her breath fanned against my cheek, and I wanted nothing more than for it to mingle with my own.
And then the front door banged open sending Drea scrambling away from me. A lanky, dark-haired woman, who had to be Bianca, staggered in. Her glassy eyes flicked between Drea and me before she shrieked in horror.
“Oh my God! He tracked you down, D!”
As I furrowed my brows, Drea shook her head wildly back and forth. “No, no. This is Leo, not Rafe.”
I rose out of the chair and extended my hand. “Leandro Neretti.”
“Bianca Bolyshev.” As she shook my hand, she squinted at my face. “Damn, he really does look like his brother.”
“It’s the hair and beard. I’m usually much better looking than he is,” I teased.
My quip sent the drunken Bianca cackling. “I love a funny guy. You know, the best thing about my husband, besides him being loaded, is his sense of humor.”
“I wouldn’t imagine it would be his bedroom skills.”
Drea’s eyes bulged while Bianca giggled. “Drea, you bitch. You’ve been spilling my secrets.”
“I didn’t think Leo would flap his jaws the second he had the chance,” Drea gritted out.
Holding up my hand, I said, “You have my word that it won’t go any farther than these four walls.”
“Aren’t you just the sweetest?” But then her smile faded as she glanced between Drea and me. “Wait, you’ve been with him the whole night?”
Nodding, Drea said, “We ran into each other on the dance floor.”
“Interesting way to describe it,” I muttered under my breath to which Drea elbowed me in the ribs.
Bianca’s face scrunched in disappointment. “I thought you were fucking some stranger’s brains out.”
“Sadly, no,” Drea replied.
I tsked at her response. “And after I cooked dinner for you and let you draw me.”
Before Drea could respond, Bianca’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, if it’s a nude, I’d love to see it.”
I threw my head back with a laugh while Drea rolled her eyes at her cousin’s antics. Echoing Drea’s earlier response, I said, “Sadly, no.”
“What a shame.” Inching closer to me, she gave me a sultry smile. “The night’s still young. While it wouldn’t be proper for Drea to see her future brother-in-law naked, there’s nothing that says I couldn’t.”
“Actually, Leo was just leaving,” Drea replied.
“I was?” I teasingly asked.
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes. You were.”
I gave Bianca an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Gotta go.”
“You’re a party pooper, D,” Bianca grumbled as she started stumbling out of the living room.
Drea jabbed her finger into my chest. “For the record, I'd better not ever hear of you and her together.”
Oh fuck. Jealous Drea was so sexy. Since I couldn’t help but poke the bear, I said, “Why not? I was thinking the four of us could go on a double date.”
She shoved me towards the door. “You’re impossible.”
“Fine. I won’t fuck your cousin.”
“Good.”
“But not because you asked me not to. Gay or not, her husband is Bratva, and I don’t want him coming after me.”
“Leo,” Drea growled.
“I’m just fucking with you.”
The corners of her lips quirked slightly. “You better be.”
“Now I’m really going to go, but before I leave, I want my sketch.” After bypassing Drea, I retrieved the paper from the table.
When I once again joined her at the door, I smiled. “This is probably one of the best non-dates I’ve ever had.”
While pink tinged her cheeks, she nodded. “Me too.”
“We’ll have to do it again soon.” At the shock on her face, I quickly said, “You know with Rafe. And Gianni. You need to get to know the family you’ll be marrying into.”
“You’re right. I do.”
Despite the voice screaming no in my head, I leaned over and kissed Drea’s cheek. “Good night.”
In a breathless voice, Drea replied, “Good night, Leo.”
Turning on my heels, I rushed out of the apartment before I could add to the list of tonight’s things I’d regret.