Page 11 of The Devastation You Reap

I can't help feeling like he's trying to tell me something, but I have no clue what it might be.

"Thank you." He shifts, I assume to pay until Paulo assures him that it's on the house. "I appreciate that, sir. Thank you very much."

"Anytime. Good luck with practice and all that."

Finally, Leon rips his eyes from mine and smiles at Paulo.

"Have a great night."

"Good night, Macie," Paulo says. "Don’t do anything I wouldn't do." He winks at me before shooting Leon a look and my cheeks once again heat up as I pray that the ground will open up and swallow me whole.

"You don't need to worry about me, Paulo. Football player's charms don't work on me." I smile at him, ignoring Leon's amused stare that's burning into the top of my head and march from the shop.

"You're quite the opposite of your roommate, huh?" he mutters, catching up with me in a second with his long-ass legs.

"If by that you mean I didn't immediately roll on my back and spread my legs for you, then yes, we're polar opposites."

"Ah, well. If I remember correctly, she wasn't actually on her back."

"Oh my God," I mutter, embarrassment blooming within me as he drags the memory up I don't want in my head once more.

I continue walking, hoping that at some point he might realize that I'm not the kind of girl he's interested in and disappear.

"What is it you wanted?" I snap when we come to the park entrance.

"I just want to eat." He admits, a knee-weakening smile pulling at his lips once more.

Damn him, he really is a little bit too pretty for a dude.

"And that involves me, how exactly?" I cringe the second the words are out of my mouth. This is why I should never talk to guys.

"Well, as good as I'm sure you'd taste," he says, blatantly running his eyes down the length of my body. My skin tingles with every inch he looks at me, making me wish I was wearing more than my jersey dress, leggings and denim jacket. "I was thinking about just sitting on a bench and eating this. But if you have another suggestion, I'm all ears."

"I'm sure you are." I can't help but roll my eyes at him. "A bench is fine."

Spinning on my heels, I march toward the one I usually sit at and drop down at the farthest end in the hope of keeping some distance between us.

I love it here. We're up on a hill that showcases all of Maddison County beyond.

Until I came to look around the campus the summer before my senior year, I'd never been here before. But the second I arrived, I just knew it was the right choice.

I came here because of Mom's legacy, but I never expected to immediately feel like it was my home. Where I belonged. All I knew up until that point was that Miami with my uncle was not my home and the school he shipped me off to, that place was almost as hellish.

Maddison County was my first experience of belonging, of that comfort that wraps around you when you're in a place you feel safe. I was too young to remember a time when I might have felt that before.

The sun has long set, leaving us with the silvery light from the moon and the glow from the lights before us where life continues like normal while I sit here with my head spinning and Leon's manly scent filling my nose, mixing with that from the sandwiches. I tell myself that it's the latter that makes my stomach growl and my mouth water, but I fear a part of that might just be a lie.

He lowers himself down beside me. He's entirely too close, seeing as I left him almost all of the bench to sit on, and yet, when he rests back, I can feel his burning heat down the entire right side of my body.

I've no idea what game he's playing, but it needs to stop. And not just because I fear it might be working.

We sit in silence and I can't help but stare as he lifts his sandwich and unwraps it.

His hands are huge, I guess that's necessary when you spend your life throwing and catching a ball, but it's not so much the size that catches my eye as the healing skin on his knuckles. Apparently, Leon Dunn doesn't just use his hands for football. I can't imagine his coach would be too thrilled if he knew.

A thought hits me and it immediately sends a shiver of fear down my spine. My eyes fly up to his and I study him, mindlessly.

"What?" he asks, a cocky smirk curling at his lips.