Page 8 of Tempted by the Taurus (BLP Signs of Love #11)

I smiled every time I thought about the time I spent with Leighton two nights ago.

I wanted to see her again, but the way she was set up, I knew she'd give me a hard time.

That was all good, since I knew how to handle her and her feistiness.

I wouldn't act like I didn't enjoy her playing hard to get.

Little did she know I went after what I wanted, and I desired her.

She was beautiful with a good head on her shoulders.

Then she flirted with me. She acted like I couldn't see how she showed me the house.

Her entire attitude changed. I could only laugh to myself and let her do her thing.

I knew it was no holding me back when I did mine.

"Damn, we knocked this out fast as hell," Aaron commented, wiping sweat from his forehead.

We had repaired a porch that had a hole in it. I stepped down off the porch and eyed our handiwork. What got me through the process were thoughts of Leighton. She had consumed my thoughts since we hung out at Tito's.

"Hell yeah. What are you going to do after this? We have nothing else scheduled for the day."

He shrugged. "I'll probably go home and catch up on sleep or hit up the gym. You know some fine ass women will be there."

I shook my head, not knowing what I was going to do with Aaron.

He told me about his date, and it went well.

He and the girl were still talking, but they hadn't reached a level of intimacy yet.

That was strange coming from him when it didn't take him long to jump into a relationship.

What was the holdup? He said he was ready to settle down.

I opened the trash can, and he threw the trash into it. "Why not try dating the girl you went on a date with?"

Aaron took a seat on the porch and removed his gloves. "Man, I like her, but I want to move at a slow pace. From what she told me, I need to take my time with her."

I scratched the side of my head. "Then why go to the gym and look at other women? Don't you think you should give your attention to the one you want?"

He smirked. "I got to have options, brother."

I threw my hands up, not knowing what else to say to him about it. "You do you then."

Aaron stood up from the porch. "What about you, since you're all in my business?"

I grinned. "Oh, I'm going to see my realtor."

He shook his head. "I don't even want to know."

I laughed. We cleaned up the mess we made before we headed our separate ways.

On the drive to see Leighton, I blasted Tupac.

Many knew my brother and me loved listening to that man.

It had been a time I wished I could have met him in person.

With my head bobbing and me rapping along with the lyrics to the songs, before I knew it, I had pulled into the parking lot of Leighton's job.

With my phone in my hand, I eyed the building in front of me. I showed up at Leighton's job, needing to see her. I wanted to spend more time with her. I had a feeling of what her answer was going to be. Still, she'd better be prepared to say yes, anyway.

I scrolled through my phone until I got to her contact name. I had it saved in my contacts as Lee. That was what I was going to call her. To me, it fit her better.

I clicked on the phone icon, placing the phone on speaker. The phone rang three times before she answered it.

"Hello?" she softly spoke.

I loved the sound of her voice. It was soft and smooth.

"Wassup? Let me take you out." I got right to the point of the call. There was no need to beat around the bush.

There was silence at the other end of the phone. "No thanks. I have work that I need to catch up on."

The side of my mouth quirked upward. "Oh yeah, you do?" I didn't know why she thought I would accept that. Soon enough, she was going to find out how I got down.

"Yes, so thanks, but no thanks. I'll be in touch when I have more houses for you to look at. Take care." With that, Leighton disconnected the call.

That was cute, but it wasn't enough to keep me away from her. I didn't think anything would.

A smile plastered my lips as I opened the car door and stepped out of it. With determined steps, I made my way to the building and breezed in. The receptionist pasted a smile on her face when I strolled to her desk.

"Good evening. Leighton is in her office."

I nodded and walked to the office door, since I already knew which one it was. It was a good thing the lady didn't ask questions, as I had none for her. When I reached it, I tapped my knuckles against it twice.

"It's open," she called out.

With a smile, I opened the door. When she saw me, the smile she had on her face slipped away slowly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with her eyes narrowed.

I strode toward the chairs that were in front of her desk. "I came to see you and wanted to take you out. Since we went out to Tito's the other night, we can find something else to do. I'm open to suggestions."

Leighton gawked at me with her mouth partly open.

Damn if I had it my way, I'd slip my tongue inside of her mouth.

I didn't know what it was about her that had me acting like this, but I wanted to explore it.

I felt something deep in my gut for this woman.

No matter how hard a hard time she gave me, I felt like it would be worth it in the end.

I like to build things, and in my defense, since I laid eyes on her, I wanted to build with her.

"But I told you I wasn't going anywhere with you. Do you not see the work on my desk?" She pointed to the papers in front of her.

I took a minute to observe her desk, seeing that she had a lot of paperwork. Then I tapped the Apple Watch that was on my wrist. It was close to six o'clock in the evening.

"Yeah, I see it. But I'm sure you were about to leave it all there for you in the morning. You get off at six o'clock, so there was no way you would've gotten done with that by that time."

Leighton's mouth opened and closed before she sighed deeply. I really didn't know what time she got off, but I could tell I was right from her expression.

I leaned forward in the chair and clasped my hands together. Our eyes met and held. "Look, I get it. You don't know me, and I don't know you. I'm only trying to get to know you. I don't know what it is you're afraid of, but I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

I had to tell her that was all I was trying to do. If I let it be known I wanted her, she'd probably run for the hills. I didn't need that.

"You came to my job, demanding that I go out with you."

I inclined my head. "I did. Sometimes I have to do the things I do. If I don't, shit doesn't get done. You're ready to bolt from me right now. I can see it in your eyes. That's not something I want to happen. Since we laid eyes on each other, you can't tell me you hadn't felt anything."

She averted her eyes from me. That was all I needed to know.

"There is a food truck festival in town. Let's go check that out."

The food truck festival I mentioned was located at Skyeville Community Park. Every year, various food trucks come to town. It's usually packed every year, too, so I wondered how it would be this year.

Leighton looked as if she were in deep thought as she nibbled on her bottom lip. "Fine."

I almost smiled, but I was holding it together. I wanted to tell her to fix her attitude, but that probably would be asking for trouble. I didn't want to cross the line too much.

"We'll leave your car here and you ride with me." I stood up, not leaving room for her to argue with me.

I felt the daggers she shot at me but decided to pay them no mind. She wasn't scaring anybody. We walked out of her office in silence, and I nodded at the receptionist, who eyed us with her mouth dropped and eyes widened. It had me wondering what was running through her head.

Once we stepped outside, I reached for Leighton's hand and brought it to my lips to kiss it.

She glanced over at me, only for me to wink at her.

When we reached my car, I opened the passenger side door for her, and she slid in, thanking me.

I went around to my side of the vehicle, whistling, feeling like the man of the year.

I had a feeling that spending time with her was about to be a good time. Inside the car, we rode in silence.

When we arrived at the community park, I wasted no time in finding a parking spot. It was already getting packed out here. I turned my car off and got out of it, heading around to open the door for Leighton as well. Hand in hand, we walked around the park, trying to find a food truck to sample.

"All you had to do was give in. You'll enjoy yourself," I advised as we waited in line to order some wings to sample.

As much as I wanted to wrap my arms around her waist, I thought better of it. Her hips looked inviting, but I probably would be pushing my luck. Every time I was around her, a different side of me came out, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

"Whatever," she muttered, semi-turning her head to look at me. "You can't be demanding that I do something I don't want to do." She turned back around and faced the person's head in front of her.

I smirked. "But I did, and it worked. Sometimes all you need is a little push, and I did that for you."

"You didn't even know if I had plans."

I lifted a brow. "Did you?"

She smacked her lips. "No, but that's beside the point."

I chuckled. "Sure, you're right."

When it was our turn to order, each of us requested a sample of wings, which came in three flavors: buffalo garlic, hot chili pepper, and mild. They gave us bottled water for free.

I sat down and bowed my head in prayer. Once I was done, I lifted my head and stared at her.

"Are you always this quiet?" I asked, picking up a wing.

Leighton lifted her eyes to stare at me. "No, I am not. I have to know you to talk to you."

I scoffed. "But we've been seeing each other." I bit into the wing and licked the sauce from my bottom lip.

She shrugged. "Yeah, and? We've been seeing each other on a business level. You're my client."

I wanted to tell Leighton that I wanted to be more, but I'd be moving too fast. Could she be ready to hear what I had to say? It had been a while since I had strong feelings for a woman. Being burned by love would have you with your guard up tightly.

I tilted my head. "Yeah, I am. As you can see, I'm also seeing you outside of work. What does that tell you?"

"That you don't take no for an answer," she mumbled.

I threw my head back and barked out a laugh. "Yeah, now you're starting to get me. Once you get with the program, everything else falls into place."

She rolled her eyes and picked up a wing. We ate in comfortable silence.

"I want to hit up the seafood, soul food, and funnel cake trucks too," I stated to her after finishing eating the wings.

She nodded. "I want to try the lemonade truck. They have some of the best lemonade."

"Word. We can do that. Can I ask you a personal question?"

Leighton arched an eyebrow and reached for her bottle of water. "Okay. Don't be surprised if I don't answer it."

I smiled. "Cute. But why is a beautiful woman like yourself still single?" As I stared at her, waiting for her to answer, I couldn't help wanting to kiss the corners of her lips.

She shrugged. "Love has burned me in the past. Plus, I had a real shitty childhood that prevented me from giving my all to a relationship."

Leighton sounded sad when she said that. It had me wanting to wrap my arms around her and let her know she had me now.

"Oh, damn." There wasn't much I could say on that when I wasn't in a relationship because of my past.

"What about you? Why are you single?"

I wasn't counting on her asking me that, but I guess she had the right to do so.

"Like you, I've been burned by love. My baby mama and I were in a relationship, and she left me. She took my daughter and moved out of our apartment."

She shook her head. "Damn, I'm sorry to hear that."

I lifted one of my shoulders and dropped it down. "It is what it is."

And it was. Nya taught me never to give my all to a relationship.

"Are you ready to go check out the other food trucks?" I asked her.

"Yeah."

We got up from the picnic table and headed to the trash can. Once we had thrown our trash away, we went to check out the other food trucks.

By the end of the night, we were stuffed from all the food we had eaten.

It was a good day, and she kept me laughing and smiling.

I had never met someone as feisty as Leighton.

It was a joy to spend time with her. I was already looking forward to finding something else for us to do, just for her to tell me no.

I smiled, thinking about it. If only she knew, the pressure was on.

She didn't know what she had gotten herself into.

I didn't know what the hell I was doing when it came to her, especially with me not looking for a relationship.

Leighton had my head gone without even doing anything to me.