Nerds Are Freaks Too Read Free Page A

exorcise a few demons.”
    Salvatore’s shaggy eyebrows shot skyward. “Demons? They
wouldn’t be of the female kind, would they?”
    Leo shook his head. Salvatore could read people like a book.
“How’d you guess?”
    “You have a great head for business and you’ve tackled
everything else with ease. Females, on the other hand, have always been your
Achilles heel.”
    “I hit on Roxanne.”
    Salvatore nodded solemnly. He’d met Roxanne on several
occasions and, with a sixth sense, he’d picked up on Leo’s secret infatuation.
And ever since, the old man pestered him on an almost constant basis to finally
seal the deal. “’Bout time,” Salvatore barked. “When’s the special day?”
    Leo shook his head. “Roxanne’s not interested. She doesn’t
want to ruin our ten-year friendship.”
    “Pshaah!” Salvatore waved his newspaper in the air. “What a
load of shit. If a woman is really attracted to you, she won’t give a damn if
you’ve been friends for three minutes, three days or thirty years.”
    Leo rested his taped hands on his hips. “Now you know why
I’m here rather than at work.”
    Salvatore swatted the paper against his leg. “What are you
going to do?”
    “Nothing,” Leo muttered. In an attempt to close the subject,
he lifted his arms and started working the bag. He didn’t get a chance to work
up a momentum because Salvatore stepped around him and smacked his hand against
the back of the bag.
    “Nothing? You’re not going to try to convince her?”
    “I don’t beg,” Leo countered with more attitude than he
felt, but he didn’t need this right now. He was trying to blow off steam, not
become even more worked up.
    “Begging isn’t convincing. She just needs to see you in a
different light.”
    Leo almost rolled his eyes but didn’t out of respect.
Salvatore believed he knew the art of seduction like he knew how to train a
prize fighter. And he’d trained dozens over the years.
    “You need to lay down the three Ts.”
    “The three Ts?” Leo asked hesitantly, unsure if he really
wanted to know the answer.
    Salvatore smiled slyly. “You need to tempt her, tease her
and make yourself so tantalizing she’ll want you as much as you want her. Oh,
and you should cock block any potential suitors. You do know how to do
that, don’t you?”
    “Yes,” Leo replied, humoring his old mentor.
    “Good.” Salvatore let go of the speed bag. “I’ll leave you
to your workout. You’re moving slower than day-old grits. And that’s never a
good thing, in or out of the ring.”

Chapter Two
     
    Roxanne clutched her third glass of margarita in one hand, a
bottle of Heineken in the other and went to answer the door. Leo had called a
little over an hour and a half ago to tell her he was on his way over to help
set up her WhipADate.com profile.
    Her steps slowed. How could she have been so blind? Leo was
her best friend. She could read him like the back of her hand. Obviously not .
His offer to be more than friends had hit her like a dump truck with no brakes.
Thankfully she’d imbibed a couple of margaritas to fortify her nerves.
    But as she opened the front door, Roxanne realized no amount
of fortifying could have prepared her for seeing Leo again.
    Casually dressed in a pair of well-worn jeans that hugged
his thighs, he looked fresh from a shower. His dark curls were still damp and
she could see where drops of water must have dotted the collar of his
long-sleeved, navy-blue Henley.
    Were his shoulders always that broad? Before she
started to drool, Roxanne focused on his glasses. Instead of being a safety
net, the dark frames drew her attention to his high cheekbones and aquiline
nose, which helped her notice his full bottom lip—
    “Hey, you,” he said, his voice interrupting her blatant
inspection.
    Damn, this is going to be hard. “Hey back.”
    Mentally applauding the casualness in her tone, Roxanne
stepped aside to let him in. Per their usual routine, she handed him the