I quickly looked away, and I heard a deep chuckle rumble out from his throat. I peeked at him through my heavy eyelashes and saw super model perfect, straight, white teeth sparkling at me.
"What's your name?" he asked me while taking a sip of beer from the bottle just placed in front of him. Lacey was bending over to grab something, and obviously trying to get the mystery guy to look at her cleavage. All the other guys nearby were eagerly accepting this opportunity for a clear look. Gross.
But Mr. Mysterious payed her no attention and continued looking at me expectantly.
"Kat," I whispered, then cleared my throught and told him again my name in a much more confident tone.
He smiled crookedly at me and said, "Cool name, Kitty,"
"Umm, I just said my names Kat, not Kitten, just to make sure you heard me correctly," I told him, raising one of my eyebrows at him.
"Ever heard of a nick name, Kitten?" he asked me cockily, wiggling his eyebrows at me as he leaned back against the bench with his elbows.
"Yes, and I find them annoying," I told him with a straight face, not amused.
"All the more reason to give you one, Kitten! Besides, you appear to be much more of a Kitten than a Kat," he answered with a laugh and a wide grin.
I glared at him, hating that he must think I was one of 'those' girls.
"Yikes, maybe not,'' he said, still smiling from ear to ear.
"What's your name, Mr. Let's see if we can antagonize this pissed off girl anymore?" I asked in a bitter tone with my voice.
"Tou-chy," he chuckled, lengthening the three syllable word, clearly referring to me and not himself. "It's Leo."
I couldn't think of any way to insult his name, so I just continued to send icy glaciers into his soul.
"Look, I'm sorry if I offended you, I was just trying to get a conversation started," he said, looking perfectly serious and generally apologetic.
I took a deep breath and sighed, "No, I'm sorry. I over reacted. I do get... a little touchy, when it comes to my name. My Mum named me, because she believed that my eyes looked like a cats. But she had to make my name unusual, so she gave me a 'K' instead of a 'C'." I gave of a slight unsure laugh and turned my gaze to the dance floor, hunching over a little and rubbing my bare arms.
"I'm sorry, did your Mum..." Leo left the sentence wide open, his leg jittering around nervously.
"Die? No, but she might as well be dead. She cheated on my Dad with some dooshbag, got pregnant, and than ran away with him, all in the same year. Leaving us." I looked at the ground, frustrated at the bitch who gave birth to me.
"Let's dance," Leo told me eagerly, trying to lighten the mood and pulling me to the dance floor.
"I can't dance!" I shouted at him over the music.
"Just trust me!" Leo shouted back and started getting into the rhythm. 'A Little Party Never Killed Nobody' by 'Fergie' started playing, and everyone seemed to be pairing up and... well... pretty much molding their bodies together, grinding, and moving to the music.
Leo grabbed my hand and spinned me around a few times. A light, bubbly laugh came out of my mouth as I let myself go. Everything got a little blurry as I continued spinning, and then finally stopped, falling into Leo's arms. I laughed my head off, feeling light and giddy. Leo was looking down at me, grinning.
"Did you have something in that drink?" he asked over the music as we swayed in time to the beat. I stepped back from him, holding onto his hands and twisting us.
YOU ARE READING
Playing The Player
RomanceKat has just moved from Australia to America with her Dad and younger sister, Juliet. She didn't want to, and was almost hell-bent on not going. But she had to go, just for a year, for her sister. A new country's a big thing to handle. Especially si...
