She could feel him watching her as she walked to the doorway, a tingle of awareness down her spine, telling herself she mustn't look back, that she shouldn't give him that satisfaction. It was a compulsion, instinct, and she paused in the doorway to turn and look at Leo one more time.
Leo was ordering himself another drink, his attention turning to Susan as he saw her standing in the doorway watching him. He gave her a mocking acknowledgement with his head, laughter in his eyes as Susan gave him a fierce glare before turning away.
She was still fuming when she swung into her car, her bag landing with a thud on the seat beside her. Who did he think he was, trying to pick her up in that way! Especially after everything he'd done. No man had ever tried to pick her up in a bar before. Or so nearly succeeded!
If she was being honest with herself, she'd admit that there was something about Leo that was extremely appealing, his rakish charm a challenge, his almost casual confidence in his own attraction doubly so. But he was also a crime boss, a rake and a flirt, out for a good time with any woman he felt attracted to. He had no boundaries! No morals! By the time she had finished berating Leo's rakish behavior she had also realized that her car wasn't going to start.
Damn! Hopeless with anything mechanical, she knew there wasn't even any point in her looking under the bonnet; it all looked like a mess of wires and nuts to her. She was going to have to call someone, wait for them to arrive, and then hope that it wasn't anything too serious. And that's if they'd even show up this late at night.
"Having trouble?" drawled an infuriatingly familiar voice.
Caught standing outside her car, telling it what a useless piece of junk it was, by Leo Spencer, she rounded on him sharply. "No, I always talk to my car before driving it," she snapped sarcastically, turning to walk back in the direction of the club.
"Really?" he fell into step beside her. "Is that a little like talking to plants?"
She gave his innocently enquiring face a scathing look, ignoring him as she located a more quiet area, turning her back on him as she dialed a number on her phone. The call went straight through to the mechanic, and she impatiently answered his queries with an obvious lack of knowledge about anything concerning cars except how to drive one. The man promised to come out as soon as he could and Susan was so grateful.
She came to a halt as she turned and almost bumped into the man leaning on the wall behind her, his arms folded across his chest, his expression gently mocking. "Excuse me," she bit out, pointedly moving past him to an area where she had told the mechanic she would be waiting for him.
"I can see how you would have to talk to your car before attempting to drive it." Leo folded his length down into the chair opposite hers. "You have a decided lack of respect for their delicate engineering!"
She looked across at him with frosty blue eyes. "I don't remember asking you to join me."
"Neither do I," he answered cheerfully. "But it's my club, and I've decided to overlook your lack of manners this time."
Her mouth firmed. "And I suppose you think it was polite to eavesdrop on my call!"
He shrugged broad shoulders. "I was going to make a call too. I needed to be somewhere quiet."
That just sounded ridiculous, Susan thought, "Then why didn't you?" Her eyes flashed.
"I changed my mind," he dismissed tauntingly, eyeing her flushed face with amusement.
Susan gave a disbelieving snort before turning to watch for the arrival of the mechanic. She knew it was too soon for him to arrive yet, but anything was better than looking at Leo Spencer! Why was he here? A man like him could be doing anything at the moment. He owned a club, and obviously saw beautiful women everyday. Probably spent every night with a different woman too. Why wasn't he with one of them? Perhaps they could also see through his good looks, money and annoyingly charming personality and they knew they had to stay away from him, Susan thought with satisfaction.
"I pity the poor devil at the receiving end of that smile," he murmured, his eyes narrowed.
She looked at him with cool blue eyes. "Self-pity is so boring, don't you think?"
He grinned, those deep slashes grooved into the hardness of his cheeks. "Plotting my downfall, were you?" he drawled.
"To tell you the truth, Leo, I don't care if I never have to think of you again," she told him in a bored voice.
Dark brows rose over his eyes. "You say that, Suzy, but you see I think that's not true. You're bored. Yeah, you got a job, an apartment to live in… The whole normal stuff, but I think you want more than normal. You want fun, and you want excitement,"
"'My name is Susan," she snapped. "And don't speak to me about my life. You don't even know me or anything about what I want. As for me being bored, I suppose it's a boredom you would have been only too happy to help ease?"
"'More than happy," he acknowledged, his eyes brimming with laughter at her fury.
"How kind of you," she said with saccharine sweetness, "But I'm afraid I'll have to decline your gracious offer. Thanks to you, I have a lot of other things to worry about. Maybe I won't be so bored anymore," she looked pointedly towards where a man who was obviously her awaited mechanic hesitated, the blue overalls stained with grease and oil, although he was self-consciously trying to straighten his hair as he became increasingly aware of the elegance of his surroundings.
"I don't mind waiting," Leo drawled suggestively.
She looked down at him coldly. "I don't think you will still be around in a hundred years!"
"Neither will you," he reasoned.
"Exactly!" she said with satisfaction.
"Ouch!" He gave a pained wince.
"Good night, Leo," She nodded dismissively, a smile of welcome plastered on her face as she moved to greet the mechanic.
She took him outside to look at her car, listened for the next five minutes as he poked about under the bonnet talking about things she didn't even recognise the name of but which he talked about so lovingly she knew he understood what every single part of the engine should be doing—but obviously wasn't.