Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Sinking more fully into the sofa, Piper sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Her friend snorted. “No, you’re not.”

“Okay, fine, I don’t regret not telling you. But I am sorry that you’re upset by it.”

“Are you? Are you really?” Another snort.

“I didn’t want to worry you. Plus, you were on vacation; I didn’t want to spoil it. I chose to wait to tell you until you got back—I thought it would be over by now.”

Olive’s sour expression softened slightly. “I get it, but I would rather you’d told me.”

Piper lifted her shoulders. “There was nothing you could have done. You would only have gotten all stressed about it. Hell, you’re stressing right now.”

“My BFF—who has some serious making-up to do—is in danger. Of course I’m stressing.” Olive unfolded her arms. “I want to come see you.”

Piper shook her head. “No. Not until this is over. I don’t want any more people getting pulled into this. You’d say the same to me if it was the other way around.”

“Pfft. I’m not quite that selfless.”

Piper smiled. “Liar.”

“You’re the liar.”

“I didn’t tell tales, I simply didn’t—”

“Lying by omission counts. You didn’t even tell me that you and Levi formed the anchor bond or that—more interestingly—you did some rolling around in his bed.”

“You had to see why I wasn’t in a hurry to talk about the latter.”

Olive leaned forward, wagging her finger in an accusatory fashion. “You mean you knew I’d tell you that you were playing a dangerous game by sleeping with him, and you didn’t want to hear it.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I mean. Maybe the whole agreement thing was stupid, but I don’t think we would have left it at a one-night stand in any case. I don’t have that much self-control, and he never seemed all that interested in exercising any.”

“Hence what happened last night.” Olive poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue. “It’s a good sign that he asked to stay with you rather than heading off to his own bed.”

“I’m trying to not read anything into it. I mean, he might have wanted to stay with me, but he acted as if what happened in the bathroom … hadn’t. He didn’t speak of it.”

“Neither did you.”

Piper pulled a face. “I didn’t want to hear him say that it hadn’t changed anything.” Because she couldn’t help but hope that it had. There was no point pretending otherwise. She was tired of lying to herself. Tired of blocking out her wants and feelings. It hadn’t exactly gotten her anywhere good, had it?

“What makes you so sure he would’ve said that?”

“I wasn’t sure he would. I was scared he would. I wanted to work out where his head was at before I brought it up.”

“Maybe he was doing the same with you.”

Maybe. But maybe not … and that was what stayed her hand last night.

If he hadn’t been her anchor, Piper might not have been so hesitant to take a chance, put her emotions on the line, and declare that she wanted more from him than friendship. But this wasn’t a man she could part ways from if he didn’t feel the same. She’d always have Levi in her life. And if he didn’t return her feelings, the knowledge would always sit between them, possibly tainting their anchor relationship.

Plus, she knew he’d hate to hurt her. She knew it would pain him to say they didn’t want the same things. She didn’t want to put him in that position.

So, all in all, it had seemed wiser to keep a lid on everything unless or until she felt they were on the same page. The problem was … “I couldn’t sense how he felt about it. He’ll be back soon, and I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know whether I should act normal. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my demon from bitch-slapping him if he proclaims that last night was a mistake.”

“The entity still wants him, then?”

“It wants all of him. It’s formed a minor attachment to him.” Which was absolutely nothing to be blasé about. “How he acts this morning will either break it or strengthen it.”

“What about you? What do you want?”

Piper drew in a long breath. “Something I very much doubt he’ll ever offer.” A full-on relationship. Not one that was shallow, short, or casual. Something that was real and true. But Levi … he didn’t do ‘serious’ or ‘long-term.’ So, well, she was pretty much fucked.

Hearing the key turn in the front door lock, Piper tensed. Her pulse kicking up, she quickly said her goodbyes to Olive and ended the call.

Levi stalked into the living room, all smolder and animal grace, his face a mask of frustration. She didn’t get the feeling that the emotion was directed at her; no, the source of it had to be whatever he’d learned from his meeting with Knox. Or perhaps, more to the point, what he hadn’t learned.

Ignoring how her feminine parts perked up at the gorgeous sight of him, she said, “I take it you have no good news to impart.”

A muscle in his cheek ticked. “Lester alibied both Sefton and Jasper.”

“You think he lied,” she sensed. As it happened, she suspected the same.

“I do. I simply can’t prove it.” His gaze roamed over her face, drinking in every detail. “You look better. You slept well?”

“I did.” Better than she had in a while, and she suspected it might have had something to do with Levi being at her side. “You?”

“I didn’t sleep. Wasn’t tired.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Then what did you do?”

“Watched over you. Read a book on my phone. Listened to a podcast. Watched over you some more.”

A slight ache built in her throat. “You didn’t need to stay with me.”

He stared at her for a long moment and then scratched the side of his jaw. “We need to talk.”

Something about the way he said it made her feel defensive. She pushed to her feet in case she needed to make a sharp exit to save him from her demon’s wrath. “If you’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t read anything into what happened last night—”

“That’s not what I’m going to say.”

Her hackles went down. “Oh. Okay.” Trying not to be too hopeful, she asked, “So what’s up?”

He crossed to her, each step fluid and purposeful. Then he was all up in her space. Like right up in it. Close enough that she felt the warmth of his body heat.

“I suggest,” he began, toying with a lock of her hair, “we form a new agreement.”

And all her hopes died in an instant. Simply crashed and burned. Her demon narrowed its eyes, not pleased by his suggestion but not ruling out that he would crush its own hopes. Piper, on the other hand, didn’t have its optimism.

Her heart heavy, she sighed. “Levi—”

“Hear me out.”

“There’s really no point. I’m not going to agree to whatever you have in mind,” she stated firmly, her voice edged with annoyance. It would have hurt to hear him declare that he wanted them to simply be friends, but to hear him actually suggest yet another ‘agreement’ that essentially allowed him to have his cake and eat it hurt her more.

“Maybe you won’t.” He lightly cupped the side of her face. “But I have to ask. I need to know if you would have said yes.”

The lines of determination etched into his face made her inwardly curse. He wasn’t going to back down, and she was too disheartened to argue with him. She wanted to get the whole thing over with so she could go lick her emotional wounds in privacy. “Fine.” She folded her arms, her clipped tone indicating that she was merely humoring him.

His hand still palming her face, he brushed his thumb over her mouth. “I propose we stop fighting ourselves on what we want. It’s pointless. It’s maddening. And it’s hurting us both. I say we agree to accept that we’ll never be platonic anchors and go ahead and fucking embrace it.”

“Yeah? For how long?”

He gave her a look of amused affection, as if the answer should be obvious and he found it cute that she was clueless. He dipped his head so their mouths were mere inches apart. “Indefinitely, baby,” he replied, his voice low and soft.

Her world stopped. Her heart sped up. Her thoughts scattered.

She wasn’t sure how long she stared at him, completely lost for words, but she eventually asked, “You … you mean that?”

“I mean it.” He danced his fingertips down one side of her face. “I’ll do what I can to ease my workload. I know you wouldn’t ask that of me, but I’ll be doing it anyway. Not only for you, but for me too. I want to free up time so I can be where I most want to be—with you.”

It was hard to grasp what he was saying. To process it. To believe it. To allow herself to believe it. But Levi was telling the truth—she saw it in his eyes, heard it in his voice. So did her demon. The entity relaxed, satisfied. “You really are serious about this.”

“Deadly.”

“And you’re not high or anything?”

His lips quirked. “No, not high.” He smoothed his hands up her arms. “I know my past history with relationships isn’t great. The truth is I was pretty blasé about them. They were more like a diversion. I didn’t think I’d ever want to claim a mate, but then you came into my world and made yourself the most important thing in it. That would have been the case even if you weren’t my anchor, because you’re quite simply you.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “There’s no going back for me. Even if you turn me down, I’ll still always want everything from you. There’ll never be any changing that. But I don’t think you want that to change. I think you want all that I want. Am I wrong?”

She swallowed. “No.”

His gaze flared with warmth. “Then let’s not make this more complicated than it has to be. We’ve already hemmed and hawed rather than taking the jump we should have took well before now. Let’s not do that anymore.”

She licked her lips. “I’m good with not wasting more time.”

He palmed her neck with both hands. “Then this is how things are going to be from now on. You’re mine. I’m yours. Not merely as anchors, but as mates. This is permanent, exclusive, and as serious as serious can get.” His eyes bore into hers, searching. “Can we agree on that?”

“Yes. I prefer this agreement over the last one you came up with.” She’d expected to see triumph in his eyes. Instead, it was relief.

“Thank Christ.” He drew her close and curled his arms around her. His mouth quickly found hers. The kiss wasn’t hard or wild. It also wasn’t sweet or slow. It was hot, deep, and filled with promise … like they were sealing a deal. “I thought I might have to spend hours convincing you to give us a shot at making it work.”

“Like you, I don’t see the point in hemming and hawing any longer. I’ve already learned that only being your friend sucks. I wasn’t happy. And I missed you. It felt like there was this … hole in our dynamic, in what we’d built.”

“I know what you mean. For me, something was missing. And you’d slammed that wall up between us, and I didn’t know how to get it down.”

She winced. “I had to put the wall there. I only meant to do it for a little while. Just until I could think of you without wanting to ride you like a pony.” She smiled at his snort. “Hell, I was so desperate to turn off all I felt for you that I even clung to some of the bullshit Celeste spouted at the studio.”

He raised a brow. “Are you going to finally tell me about it? People do that in relationships, you know,” he said, oh so reasonable. “Share important things.”

“Is that so?” She had a feeling he’d throw those words at her whenever she had even the smallest secret.

“Yes, it very much is.”

Piper heaved a sigh. “All right, I’ll tell you. But you won’t like it.”

“I’ve already concluded that.” He backed up to the sofa, pulling her with him, and then sat. He patted his thighs and hummed in approval when she straddled him. “Go on.”

Piper fiddled with the collar of his tee. “I’ll admit, a lot of what she said to me rang true. For, like, half an hour. I dismissed most of what she said after I gave it real thought. But a few things stuck with me. Or I wanted them to be true because I needed some help keeping you at an emotional distance. I told myself that she might have meant to cause trouble but that that didn’t mean she was wrong about everything.”

Fighting a smile at her babbling, Levi gave her hip a gentle, encouraging squeeze. “What did she say? Tell me.”

He forced himself to remain silent as Piper relayed the conversation, feeling his anger build with each word she spoke. By the time she was done, he was honestly surprised his blood pressure wasn’t soaring through the roof. “That bitch. I would never have used sex to make you form the anchor bond. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do. I was miserable enough to give the idea some consideration, but only for a few minutes.”

He rubbed her thighs, despising that she’d been so down—especially when it meant she’d also been so vulnerable that she’d been easy prey for someone like Celeste. “What parts did you let yourself believe for longer than a few minutes?”

“That it’s your anchor you see when you look at me, not me as a person. I guess I did feel like a possession to you at times.”

“Baby.” He drew her closer and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “I’m sorry if I made you feel that way. In the beginning, I suppose I did add you to my collection of people. But not coldly. Bonding with others isn’t my specialty. I’m like my demon in that respect. But I formed one with you as time went on, and it’s not fucking going anywhere.”

“Like I’d let it.”

He felt his mouth hitch up. “What other bits of crap did you entertain as possible truths?” he asked without judgment. He wasn’t upset with her for buying any of it. She’d been hurting, and Celeste knew how to play people.

“That you’d try to control my life as far as possible.”

“Ah, that’s why you thought I was taking over when I suggested you move to this building.” He combed his fingers through her hair. “Would I like to take over your life and make certain your every need is answered? Sure. Would I do that to you? No. Not unless you were down with that. Which I know you never would be.” His demon found it a shame, really. “I might push sometimes, but I figure you can keep me in line.”

“And I figure you’ll make an effort to not push, although I’m sure that’s wishful thinking on my part. You’ll be unreasonable on the off-chance that you can get away with it.”

His chuckle was wolfish even to his own ears. “Probably.” He swept his hand up her back, loving that he was free to touch her as much as he liked whenever he liked. “Anything else ‘ring true’ for you back then?”

“That you’d gotten beneath my skin and made me feel owned on purpose so I wouldn’t be free of you.”

“There’s probably some truth in that, actually. I didn’t consciously aim to do it but, yeah, I did want to leave some mark on you that went beyond us being anchors.”

She slanted her head. “What about your demon?” she asked a little shyly. “I mean, will it be good with us being in a relationship?”

The entity snorted at what it perceived to be a preposterous question. “If it could, my demon would stamp itself on your very bones.” He nodded when she blinked in surprise. “It has never wanted to let you go. How does your entity feel about all this?”

“At the moment, it’s all ‘well it’s about time.’ It kind of finds us ridiculous for only getting to this point now.”

“My demon is of pretty much the same opinion.”

“I suppose it’s good that they’re on the same page.”

“Yeah.” He ghosted his fingertips over her lower lip. “And now that you and me are as well, it’s all fucking perfect.”

Levi took her mouth in a soft, slow, drugging kiss. He wasn’t sure what caused his control to snap, but he was soon eating at her mouth like he’d never get enough.

In a matter of minutes, he had her flat on her back on the sofa and was ragging off her jeans and panties. He impatiently unbuttoned his fly, settled between her thighs and—after a minimal amount of foreplay—he angled her hips just right. “My anchor. My mate. My everything.” He thrust deep inside her. Took her hard and fast, every drive of his cock blatantly possessive.

She came fast, her orgasm sweeping him under. It was as he exploded inside her that the temperature dropped as her demon surged forward. It shoved a hand beneath his tee and slapped it on his chest. The flesh beneath its hand quickly began to burn like a mother, telling him he was being branded.

His demon smiled, smug.

Soon enough, the pain faded and her entity finally lowered its hand. Its dark gaze empty, it gave an unapologetic shrug and said, “Turnabout is fair play. Hurt her, and I will destroy you.”

His own demon chuckled at that, finding the entity delightful.

Piper’s eyes returned to normal as she resurfaced. “Well that took me by surprise.” She lifted his tee, and her lips parted slightly. “Oh.”

Oh? He glanced down and felt his brows lift. Right above his heart was a very distinctive anchor, its rope forming the shape of an infinity symbol behind it.

He got the message loud and clear. Her demon was letting him know that Piper now had a solid claim to his heart as well as his psyche. That wasn’t a claim he had any intention of ever fighting.