10. ~Levi~

10

~Levi~

"Order up," I spoke as I approached the seating area with her water and snacks in hand.

She was lounging back in the middle of the wraparound couch, her legs tucked underneath her and an arm slung over the white leather as she played with her hair.

I saw her noticeably tense as I drew close, then put the plate and bottle down on the gold-rimmed glass coffee table in front of her.

Her gaze left me briefly as her attention went to the cookies for a moment.

And when her focus returned to me, a different type of tension took her. She gave herself away as a pink tinge colored her cheeks, while her eyes roamed over my bare chest, taking in every chiseled inch of it, before zeroing in on my all-seeing eye tattoo on my shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat as she obviously recognized it was the exact same design as her necklace, except for the coloring.

She blinked and averted her eyes as though the sight was too much to behold.

I bet it was with all that denial she had going on.

And it was exactly what I'd intended to pull from her.

A shock to her system.

She sucked in a breath, then went to reach for one of the cookies on the plate.

I caught her hand before she could and her gaze snapped to mine.

"Why do you think I have this tattoo that matches the design of your pendant?"

She stared at me for a moment, before answering all matter-of-fact and coldly, "A lot of people have those tattoos."

I scoffed. "You really think you can put it down to a mere coincidence?"

"What else would it be?"

"You know very well."

She snatched her hand back. "All I know is that you had me lured here via Colton under the guise of the duet and helping my friend out as part of the deal, that you think you made some sort of connection to me at that party. So, with that in play, the only deduction I can make is that you've become unduly and very quickly obsessed, you noticed that I wear this necklace all the time, and you had this inked as a result of that obsession."

"It's not freshly inked. Weak try, Wildflower."

"I'm not your wildflower."

I took a seat beside her—right beside her—so that my pants brushed against her bare thighs. "Oh, but you are."

"I'm not your anything," she insisted. "And that's part of the reason I agreed to come here—and to help out Chloe. That's all. To tell you to back off before things go any further and become unpleasant for us both."

"Unpleasant? Hmm, no, we certainly don't want that, do we? Well, you don't. I do well with unpleasantness."

"Is that a threat?"

"I only issue threats when they're absolutely needed. Otherwise they lose all meaning. And they're not going to be needed here, are they, Brianna? You're going to give me what I want now you've had time to digest it all, aren't you?" I sidled closer to her and stroked a finger down her cheek. "You're going to be my good girl, yes?"

A stilted breath escaped her at my touch.

"Well?" I pushed, adding my thumb to the mix and softly stroking her jaw too.

Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment and I could feel her heat, see that need there sparking to life. For me.

But then she went to pull my hand away.

I held fast, not allowing it.

"Stop. I'm not…"

"You're not what? A good girl? Well, I do know there's a lot more to you than that."

"Not yours."

I ground my teeth at her continuing to play hardball.

It had me forcing her hand to the side of my neck, right over my scar. "You know where and how this came about. Admit it."

"Stop it," she said, slapping my hand away, then scrambling to her feet.

She snatched the water bottle off the coffee table and screwed off the lid, taking a couple of big gulps as she backed away to the other side of the room.

"You stop it," I snapped.

All my patience, all this time I'd put into this thing, and she couldn't offer up anything in return? No. It was bullshit. I wasn't having it.

It had me storming over to her, grasping her arms and slamming her up against the wall, crowding her with my body.

"You were there! Six years ago, you were there! Fucking well admit it!"

"Don't push this."

It was both a plea and a warning.

I leaned in closer, breathing at her ear, "I can't let it go. I never have. What you did… what you did for me… it's stayed with me. I've given both of us time to get our shit together, to rebuild after what happened, so the time is ours now."

She trembled as I drew my lips over her throat, breathing her in, tasting her just a little.

Just enough to tide me over and tamper down the rage and pain threatening to clash in a majorly destructive way with her infuriating reactions and denying the very thing that had made me who I was today, denying that fucked-up experience that had changed me forever.

"I remember," she murmured.

I stilled and eased back just enough to look into her eyes.

There was a chilling, haunting look there.

And agony. So much fucking agony.

"You… what?"

"I remember everything."

"You remember me?"

"Yes." She sank against the wall, the tension and resistance leaving her as she admitted with a heavy sigh, "I thought denying it would stop you in your tracks. But you're like a dog with a bone. So now I'm telling you the truth, okay? And hopefully that will make you see that we can never have this conversation again. We can never talk about anything at all related to that depraved experience we both lived through." She shoved me back, catching me off guard as her words cut into me. "You need to back off and stay the hell away from me."

"What?"

"That was the worst time of my life. I don't want to think about it. I don't want to relive it. Not with myself and certainly not with you. It's dead to me." She gestured between us. "So, you see? There's nothing here. No connection. I don't feel a thing toward you, so this pursuit of yours, this obsession because of what happened back then, is futile. There's nothing available on my end. It's dead to me." She glared fiercely at me. "And so are you." She brushed past me, "Tell Colt the duet's off. Both of you stay the hell away from me."

"That's not fucking happening."

She spun back. "Living in the past means you'll never be able to build your future. Don't make that mistake. Leave this be."

As she went to throw open the door I was there, slamming it closed and pushing my bare chest into her back, effectively pinning her there.

I grabbed a fistful of her hair and wrenched her head back, making her gasp, as I breathed at her ear, "I've been patient. In fact, I've been really fucking nice, a lot nicer than I usually am. I don't do nice and gentle, Wildflower. But I made an exception for you. If you choose to go this route, though, if you choose to fight me on this, you'll leave me no choice but to resort to much more unpleasant methods."

"I just told you—"

I slapped my hand over her mouth.

"Shh, baby." I breathed in her sweet coconut scent. That combined with her squirming as I held her still was a hell of an aphrodisiac and it had me grinding my painfully hard cock into her ass through her sexy skirt. She whimpered into my hand, and I saw her eyes flutter closed for a moment. Mmm. She was definitely affected.

She slapped her free hand that wasn't holding the water bottle to my thigh, digging her nails into my pants.

And then I felt her push back against me.

Christ.

I ground harder and she moved with me.

I slid my free hand up and under her top, feeling the lace of her bra.

When I snuck two fingers beneath the cup, she jolted against the wall.

Instead of making a move to stop me, she dug her nails harder into my thigh, like she was holding on for dear life and begging for more at the same time.

I slid my fingers over the soft flesh of her breast then rolled her nipple between my fingers and she bucked against me, grinding roughly against my cock.

"Oh God, Levi," she moaned, the sound rolling through me like the sweetest fucking music.

I sucked on her neck, then growled at her ear, "Is this how Tommy touched you? Nah, let me guess, he was really soft and careful with you, treating you like you were breakable, yes?"

She murmured something into my hand.

"What's that?" I asked, removing my palm.

"How do you know about that?"

"I know a lot of things. So, answer me. Was it like that? Too sweet and gentle? I can tell from your reactions to this brief little tease that you don't like it nice and easy. Isn't that right? You've been craving the rough and wild touch of a vicious bastard like me, haven't you? You want to be consumed, utterly owned. But you're also afraid, because you've never met anybody who could understand what you went through back then. Until me. I was there. I know , Brianna. And I know how to make it better, to give you what you need without triggering you. You're claustrophobic, yet you haven't reacted negatively to me pinning you up against this wall. Quite the opposite, wouldn't you say?"

"I… I can't," she choked out.

"You already are. I'm certain if I reached under your skirt and dipped my fingers beneath your panties, you'd be soaking wet for me too."

"It's… it's not about you. It's just been… it's been a long time. It could be anyone causing these reactions in me."

What. The. Hell?

A dangerous growl escaped me and I ripped my hand from beneath her shirt and ceased rolling my hips for her.

Slapping my hand back over her mouth, I hissed, " Listen . Very carefully. I've waited. I've been nice and given you a lot of time, allowed you your freedom. But I'm here now. We're here now together. So if you run, I will chase. If you make the wrong choice to fight me, I will chip away at that wall of yours right down to the bedrock. I'll come at you with absolutely no mercy, and I won't fucking stop. It won't be pleasant. I don't want to employ harsher methods, but if you continue to force my hand, I absolutely will. Final warning. "

I sucked in a breath and removed my hand, then stepped back. "What will it be, Wildflower?"

She turned around slowly, breathing heavily, struggling to get a hold of herself and come down from the heady sensations I'd made her feel.

And then she unscrewed the cap of her water bottle.

Assuming her throat was parched and she was going to soothe it by taking a sip, she instead surprised me as she thrust it forward and poured it all over my face and chest.

I hissed and jerked back as the ice-cold water had me shuddering.

And that was all she needed to make a run for it and burst out of the room.

She was almost through the door when Colt came striding in.

She collided with him, choked from the impact, but managed to shove him aside and bolt away.

"What the shit was that?" he asked me, eyes wide with a whole lot of confusion.

I stared after her and rumbled menacingly, "It means, game on."