I’m in a fog as I step out of the building onto the quiet sidewalk. After six in the evening, the loop is practically deserted. What the hell just happened? Why does it feel like I left a part of me upstairs with Leandros Kaplan?

My emotions and my mind are in complete chaos. I’m empty, gutted, at the same time filled to bursting with happiness, yet terrified as if I’ve been tossed off a skyscraper and am waiting to hit the concrete. My phone rings startling me out of the fog, I don’t answer. I know it’s Natalie. I’m not ready to talk to her.

I have the job, I should be ecstatic. Instead, I’m scared. None of the hours of research prepared me for meeting him in person. It wasn’t fair a man could be as beautiful as Leandros Kaplan is.

The words, handsome, or good-looking were too weak to use; the only word that truly fits is beautiful. Hair thick and as black as coal with silver flecked at his temples that only highlighted his stunning beauty. His features individually weren’t attractive, his jaw is too strong, his brow too heavy and lined, his nose too hawkish, his eyes too black without a hint of softness yet combined they somehow came together in complete perfection. Adding to his perfection was the kind of body no perfect tailoring could hide, his chest is wide and strong, muscles bulging beneath the silk of his charcoal gray suit.

The moment I saw him, I longed to touch him to find out if he was real. For a long moment, I trembled, hesitating, wanting to drop the bag and flee. Only I couldn’t any more than I could stop the insidious weakness thrumming through me.

For the first time in my thirty-one years, I want a man, not just want him, crave him. After so many years without feeling this way, there’s a small current of fear running through me at what it means. I haven’t dated a man in over three years and haven’t missed it. I’m a damned virgin.

It’s not a religious thing or even a man on a white horse thing. It’s a having a loving, protective, father thing. He told me I was a treasure and only a man who recognized that and treated me like the treasure I am deserved me. He said this when I was twelve, before my sarcasm, cynicism, and deep lack of trust kicked in. I long ago made peace with dying a virgin. But now, after meeting Leo, there is no peace.