me that phone.” He had no idea what kind of a mess he could make for her. “I’m serious.”
Eyes locked with hers, he held her at bay. “So am I.”
Then …
“Hi, Ally, this is Levi, Elise’s boyfriend …”
Her mouth fell open as the floor dropped out from under her—taking whatever understanding she’d thought she had with it.
“Cancel her date. She’s not available.”
Levi powered the phone off and then pushed it away, that dark gaze raking down her body to where she straddled his lap and then back up to her mouth hanging in slack-jawed shock.
He didn’t mean it. Obviously he didn’t mean it.
And she might have confirmed that with him too, if he hadn’t pulled her hard against him and taken her lips with a kiss so charged with want, it shorted out all reason and rationale.
LEVI’S hands tightened at Elise’s hip and in her hair as he thrust into her mouth, carrying her half-blind through an apartment he barely knew the layout of.
Her back hit the bedroom door an instant before the door hit the wall behind her, the dull thud echoing around the pants and groans that had followed their desperate flight toward her bed.
She sucked at his tongue and tightened her legs around him, starved for more of the contact she’d never thought to have again.
At the bed, Levi planted a knee on the mattress, easing his hold until she slid down his thigh in a high-friction free fall into need.
Beyond caring about consequences or bad decisions, she bowed forward, licking at his bare chest as she pulled at the buckle of his belt. She wanted him. Inside her. On top of her. All strength and power and masculine need suspended above her as he worked himself in and out of her body.
Fly half-open, Levi pulled a pair of foil packets from his pocket and tossed them to the head of the bed.
He was always prepared. Always thinking, even when she wasn’t.
Especially when she wasn’t.
And suddenly that seemed like more of a problem than a relief. Giving in to her body’s needs shouldn’t mean shutting off her head. Especially since she was perilously close to making a habit of it.
Which brought her back to what Levi had said.
Running her hands up the front of his body, she stilled at his shoulders. “When you asked me if I understood what I was getting into … I thought you meant ‘no strings.’”
“Not quite.” His mouth slanted in one of those relentlessly bad-boy grins as his hands slid over the contours of her hips, fingers teasing under the hem of her tank, pulling it up until it bunched around her elbows. Eyes burning with appreciation as he studied her pose, arms overhead, half bound by the Lycra top. “Considering the way you’ve got me tied up, I think a few strings make sense … in the short term.”
Her breath hitched, her body clenching in response to his words—though she wasn’t certain whether it was the idea of Levi being tied in knots because of her, or the subtle erotic subtext of his statement as it applied to her immediate position.
Before she had time to consider, he’d pulled the tank the rest of the way off and tossed it aside. Set those big hands at her shoulders and gently pressed her back into the mattress so he could go to work peeling her yoga pants and panties free.
Stripped bare, she lay before him, watching the rise and fall of his chest as he surveyed the offering of her body.
Neither of her previous lovers had ever looked at her like this before. As if they’d enjoy spending the entire day just deciding which spot to start with first.
It was arousing beyond expectation to be on the receiving end of that kind of focus. Only the anticipation was beginning to make her squirm.
“Levi.” She pushed up to her elbows, peering down the length of her body to where he stood at the end of the bed.
“Damn, I like it when you say my name.”
Her brow arched, and she said it again, this time pitching her voice lower as though she were some kind of seductress instead of the mostly awkward, relatively sheltered woman she was.
His mouth slanted further and he reached for her foot. Circled the inside of her ankle with the thick pad of his thumb in a seductive caress that sent currents of electricity racing up her leg. Then carefully he positioned her heel against the comforter several inches to the side.
“Like this.”
Her nerves came on line in a flash. It was daylight. The room completely lit from beyond the thin sheer at her window, and Levi had just opened her legs to him in a way that left her totally exposed.
Her bent knee angled in, only his palm was there smoothing over the joint. “You’re beautiful, Elise. I’ve been going nuts thinking about you for a week. Let me see you.”
A week. Was it possible? Logic told her no, and yet the stark hunger in those blue eyes told her it was truth. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.
Like this. Right now.
Relaxing into his touch, she closed her eyes. Felt the bed sag and strain beneath Levi’s weight and then the graze of his lips at the sensitive skin of her inner knee, the light scrape of new stubble along his jaw, the whisper-soft brush of his hair as he fit the breadth of his shoulders between her legs.
Fists curling into the bedspread beneath her, she moaned at the wet stroke of his tongue teasing close to the juncture of her thighs. “Levi.”
Thick fingers wrapped tight around her hip and ribs, reminding her what he’d said about hearing her say his name, and making her throb with the knowledge that she could affect him.
An open-mouthed kiss followed with a pulling suction that had her hips rising from the bed. “Levi, please.”
A low seductive laugh sounded as the wet heat of his breath washed over her center. “That’s even better. Let’s see what this gets me.”
“Oh God, Levi!” Her breath burst past her lips with his name—without thought, beyond control—earning another low satisfied growl and a repeat of that incredible crazy thing he’d done with his lips and teeth and tongue.
She started to writhe, felt her body slipping past her grasp, feeding control of itself to the man watching her with hooded eyes as he feasted on her pleasure. Slow licks and soft nibbles, gentle pulls and wicked thrusts had her gasping for breath just beyond reach.
Her fingers had found their way into the thick waves of his hair, and tightened as the tension simmering beneath the surface of her skin ratcheted higher.
“Enough … please.” She didn’t know how much more she could take.
“Not enough,
