Chapter Eight

Sarah

"A re you okay?"

It was a dumb question. He knew it the second it left his mouth. But the words had already been spoken.

"Am I … okay." I repeated it like I was mulling it over, unsure of my own state. "Am I okay. Seriously, that's the best you could come up with? You see me like this. I'm sure I'm a mess, and you ask me if I'm okay?"

He grimaced, his cheeks dimpling in the process. It was actually kind of cute, the way he—

No!

"It was an automatic question," he said. "I can see you're not okay. Do you mind if I take the knives, though? They're, uh, well, sharp."

I lifted my hand to examine one of the blades I'd grabbed from the kitchen. It was the first thing that had come to mind as I'd leaped up from the couch upon hearing someone on the roof, not knowing if it was Levi or another stranger. "A knife is sharp. You don't say."

"Ha-ha. Very funny," he deadpanned, holding out a hand.

Knowing the only danger I was in from Levi was his own cluelessness, I handed the knives over. It provided a good distraction so I could return to the couch and tuck something under the side cushion surreptitiously before he came over.

"What was that?"

I looked up to see him watching me.

"Huh?"

"What were you just doing to the couch?"

"Fluffing the pillow," I said. "It wasn't sitting right."

His eyes told me he didn't believe me, but for once, the big idiot didn't push the topic. Perhaps the sight of me in tears with a pair of knives in my hands had unsettled him enough to let some common sense seep in.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, coming to sit beside me. There was a gap between us, so our thighs didn't touch, but only barely. He was in my space, and I could feel his presence reaching out for me, trying to grasp me.

It was the same way he'd won me over when we'd first met. There was just something so intense about him, and I'd been unable to resist.

"Because," I said, shaking my head as tears threatened to return, not trusting myself to speak further.

"Did something happen while I was gone? Did someone come in?" he asked.

It was impossible to feel the protective undertones of his question. Somewhere in there, he did care about me. It was just in a really fucked-up dragon kind of way.

I shook my head, exhaling at the same time. "No," I said softly. "I was just mourning."

Levi sat up stiffly. "Mourning? Did someone die?"

An empty smile turned my lips up. "Only the life I was forced to abandon to come here."

My life … and Jake. My hand trembled uncontrollably as I nearly lost control once more. At that moment, I actually opened my mouth to tell him. To reveal that I had a son, a son he'd ripped me away from.

But I didn't. That ever-present fear, the one where he would actually develop a brain and do the math and realize Jake was his … that fear coiled itself around my throat, stopping me from saying anything.

"Is that how you see it?" Levi said, reaching out to pull some of my hair back from my face. He tucked it behind my ear with a gentleness I'd forgotten he'd possessed.

It was there though. It existed. I'd seen it in moments after our frenzied fucking—it wasn't love-making. It was too hard, too raw to call it that—where he would delicately tug my clothing back into place or wipe me down if it was called for. The way he'd sometimes carry me from wherever to the bed, so I could sleep there in comfort. A soft touch, a gentle brush. He wasn't all rough and tumble. Just mostly.

Then his words struck home.

"What? Of course I do," I whispered.

"You see it was me forcing you to leave that crummy, boring life? All you did was work."

I pulled away sharply, his better moments forgotten. "Crummy? What the hell do you mean crummy? I loved my life, thank you very much. It was a good one. Amazing. I was happy right where I was. Then you came along and made me choose between that life I loved and letting tens of thousands of humans die, maybe hundreds or even millions of them, if the war had gone on long enough. How was I supposed to stay when that was my choice? What kind of terrible person would that have made me?"

What sort of example would I have been to Jakub?

Levi rocked backward. "I … uh …"

Something dawned on me, and all the air left my lungs in a rush. "Holy fuck. I can't believe this. I cannot believe this. Are you telling me you didn't consider that? Didn't consider what kind of position I would be in because of your demand that I be one of the women?"

Levi didn't look away. But neither did he deny it.

"Of course not," I whispered. "You never thought of all the pressure you flung onto my shoulders, pressure to accept, so that all the soldiers fighting and civilians behind the front lines wouldn't necessarily have to die. You forced me to make that decision. Just so you could, what? Bring me here to be your mate? Whatever the hell that is? As if I would want to!"

"Sarah, I …"

"No," I said, shooting to my feet. "Unbelievable. You're a child. A damn child, never thinking of the consequences of your actions."

Fire was burning in my belly now, spreading across my body as I stared at him angrily.

Levi uncoiled from the couch, rising with a rippling effect, a predator preparing itself for the hunt. It was a brutal unspoken reminder of just how outmatched I was.

Not that I needed them. I had dozens of memories of times he'd demonstrated his strength. Pinning me to the wall, legs over his shoulders as his cock thrust into me so hard we'd dented drywall. Literally holding me off the floor in doggy style by my hips, my entire body flailing as he took me. Tossing me halfway across the room onto the bed where he would follow, spreading my legs and plunging deep into my begging hole, tearing a scream from my throat.

"Sarah," he repeated, stepping closer into my personal space as the deepness of his voice caught me like a lasso and held me firm.

"What are you doing?" I asked as his hand came up to my shoulder, fingers gripping firmly but not hard.

"Trying to calm you down."

"I am calm," I said, shaking his shoulder free. "I'm just trying to figure out what the hell I ever saw in you."

My eyes ran up and down his body as I spoke. It was the wrong move because the visual provided me with exactly what it was I'd seen in him. A smoking-hot, take-charge man who would pleasure me. Just the thing I needed after having to be in control of everything around me all day. A man who would simply give orders, allowing me to do nothing but obey.

And he was good at it. My pussy throbbed against my own self-control at the reminder of the intensity of orgasms his cock had given me. Long and thick, filling me so completely I—

Stop it. We are not going to fuck him. That's not happening. We are angry with him. Really, really angry. So angry, we could … oh, shit.

Levi leaned in and kissed me. He didn't ask permission, didn't wait for me to tilt my head back. He brought his hand up to my chin, reading my eyes like they were step-by-step instructions, revealing to him exactly what to do. Then he leaned in and blew the resistance right out of my brain with one fiery kiss.

I moaned into his mouth at the heat. I'd forgotten just how literally hot he was. Every bit of his skin was warm to the touch, and his thick, firm lips were no exception. They sealed my mouth tight and stole the oxygen from them.

Shit. Shit. Shit. This is not the way it was supposed to go.

His other hand circled my waist and pulled me tight against his unbelievably hard body, and all thoughts were momentarily lost as Levi started to provide the best reminder of how good our time together had been …