19. ~Levi~

19

~Levi~

I stepped out of the Science and Technology building on campus now that I'd retrieved the class notes I'd missed while I'd been away for a few days due to a faux family emergency.

As I made my way around to the north lot where I'd parked my Harley, my phone buzzed in the pocket of my well-worn leather riding jacket.

I pulled it out and swiped it open to see a text from Colt.

Yet another one.

Colt: Are you back yet, Lev?

Colt: Hellraiser, this is urgent, text me back. Better than that, get back here ASAP.

He'd sent a dozen of them while I'd been gone, but I hadn't responded because I couldn't risk having my focus divided while I'd been dealing with Kyle and obtaining that information I'd needed.

I'd made it back into town ten minutes ago and after visiting campus, my plan had been to head home anyway.

Lev: Just got back, Maverick. On campus. Be home soon. Chill, brother.

Colt: Oh, thank fuck.

Lev: Missed you too, cupcake.

Colt: Well, I always miss you, but this is actually more business related. We have a problem.

Lev: Just take a breath, we'll see to it. I've got you.

Colt: It's actually about me having your back this time.

I frowned down at his message.

Having my back about what?

Colt had been clingy since I'd returned after being away for a year. He hadn't wanted me to take off even for a few days, so I'd figured his texts had just been about that, his way of trying to make sure I came home as quickly as possible.

But with that last text, it suggested there was actually something serious going on.

So serious that he hadn't wanted to tell me via our phones.

Thuds and yells caught my attention and pulled me from my thoughts.

I spun to my right and I was surprised to see Brianna there with her driver's door open as she was half in and half out of the car, slamming the steering wheel and dash while cursing.

Her silky mane of black hair was wilder than normal and I could see why as she shoved her hand through it in her agitated state. There was less of her bubbly pink going on. In fact, her boot cut pants were plain black, along with a lacy tank, the only signs of her favorite go-to color being on her leather jacket which was predominantly black but with pink stripes adorning it, along with some studs.

What was going on?

I pocketed my phone and strode over there quickly.

"Fucking shitheads!" I heard her seething as I reached her and her Charger.

I leaned down and spoke through the open window of her passenger door, "Hey."

She started and swung her head my way. "Jeez, maniacal stalker, make a sound, would you?"

"You wouldn't have heard my approach with all the hitting and cursing anyway."

She narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Just got back into town. I had to drop into the Science and Tech building and as I was leaving I heard this going on."

She just grunted, then tried to start the engine again.

The failed results of that made it clear to me what was happening.

Or, what wasn't happening.

"You're gonna damage the fuel pump," I warned.

"What?" she snapped.

"You keep trying to start the engine while you're out of gas and it could fuck up the fuel pump."

She blew out a breath, then slammed the door shut with a brutal thud. "Sons of bitches actually siphoned my gas!"

"Yeah, I'm getting that."

She shot me a look over the hood. "I don't need your sarcasm right now."

"That was my creepy calculative tone, Wildflower."

Her eyes lit with mirth and a slight smile curved her lips. "Oh, shut up," she said, but there was definite humor there in it.

I walked around the car to meet her on the driver's side. "We both know that's not possible for me."

"Never have truer words been spoken."

I chuckled and she actually joined me.

The sound was… incredible.

But it came to an end all too quickly as her focus returned to this bullshit that had happened to her car.

It was Hex.

Hex had happened to her car.

It was Mason through and through.

The motherfucker had targeted her while I'd been gone.

It was one of his go-to tactics.

I pulled out my phone. "I'll fix this."

"I'll handle it. It's fine. Now I'm past the initial rage, it's onto the problem-solving part of this shit show."

"While I don't doubt your ability to take care of it yourself, I have connections here in Stonewell. I can get you the gas and have your car moved to your apartment complex too."

She eyed me skeptically. "And what's the price going to be?"

"Price? Nothing. Like I said, connections."

"I mean your price, Hell Spawn."

I smiled to myself. I knew that was what she called me in her phone. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"This is my fault. The least I can do is fix it."

"Your fault? You weren't even here."

"Mason is doing this because I pulled you close to me, because I'm showing a lot of interest in you."

"Why is that his concern?"

"It's a long story."

"One I want to hear. But not right now." She reached into the backseat of the car, then pulled out her messenger bag. "I need to see if I can still catch Professor Ruiz before she leaves. She's known for staying late. I need her help fixing the other attack from Hex . As much as it pains me to say it, I wasn't able to do it myself."

"Fix what? What other attack?"

She blew out a breath of frustration and reached into her bag.

In the next moment, she was pulling out a small silver cube the size of a golf ball, a piece of hardware I recognized all too well.

"That's mine."

She frowned. "You weren't around, so Mason stole it from you while you were gone?"

"Looks like. Is your laptop in that bag?"

"Yeah."

"Shit." I reached out and took the device from her, studying it. "You already switched it off."

"Yeah, I figured that much out. Although its off-switch really wasn't easy to find. It's hidden in the design really well."

"That was the goal when it was developed by Knightsridge Engineering. This is actually an early prototype. The ones these days are much smaller—easier to conceal."

"For cyber terrorism? It's scrambled all my files, even programs, every single thing on the local network."

"It didn't just do that. It siphoned everything first, made copies in essence, then scrambled it, as you put it."

"I see. So Hex is looking for intel on me as well as trying to bully me out of here."

"I'll handle the former and as for the latter, there's no way that's happening."

She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and folded her arms across her chest. "Right. So you can do it yourself."

"I did gather intel on you, yes. But not for nefarious purposes. To protect you and to get to know you, so I could approach you in the right way."

"That sounds beyond manipulative."

"No. In the right way meaning so as not to hurt you—emotionally. After what you endured six years ago, I knew there'd be scars. I wanted to make sure I understood those and the way you wore them before I came into contact with you."

She arched an eyebrow. "Is this your maniacal and twisted way of saying you were afraid of scaring me off?"

"Actually, yeah." I stepped closer, aware of her tensing, so I pulled up shy of her personal space. "As for bullying you, that wasn't my intention at all." I shoved a hand through my hair. "It was because I saw you, Wildflower. I saw you standing in the shadows of who you were, afraid to be that person again because it was attached to all that trauma. I saw you hurting. And that hurt was ruling your every action. You don't even talk to your father anymore because of it, because he's a reminder of that time, of the pieces of you that you lost during that hell and were too afraid to recover all of this time." I took a risk—something I normally had no qualms about, but something that had proved different when it came to her and had me holding off on going all out as I normally would with little concern for the fallout—and grasped her hands, holding them between us.

She didn't pull away.

"And I see all that because it was me for a long time too. I went the other way eventually. Too far, some might say. Maybe even me sometimes. So much has been about trying to prove I'm not that na?ve and helpless kid bound in that room unable to save himself—unable to save you. "

"Levi," she uttered sadly. "It wasn't your job to save me. You were just a kid then."

"But it fell to you. And what you did for me, it hurt you."

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as she uttered, "It was my choice to make and I don't regret it. It spared you. That's what mattered." When she opened them, they swam with agonizing emotion. "I don't talk about it, I don't like to think about it, and sometimes I pretend it wasn't real at all. Because the truth is, I do see them when the lights go out." She squeezed my hands. "I see the demons."

"You remember me calling them that during those two weeks," I realized aloud.

She nodded.

I watched her suck in a breath and take a moment, clearly needing to say more.

I waited, trying to maintain patience that normally didn't come easy to me.

And then she told me, "I saw you as a threat when you first showed up in front of me. I thought having you around me or anywhere near at all would unearth all that trauma and pain I'd spent so much energy trying to bury. But being around you, our interactions, it started to make me realize that I hadn't really buried it at all. I'd been running. I hadn't actually faced it." She smiled sadly. "And you… you're the only one who knows what happened to me, to us. The only one who could ever hope to understand, somebody I don't need to confess it all to. And you were right, there is a connection between us all these years later, because what happened bound us together in a way that nobody else can understand."

"More than that, Brianna. The way I handled it and you handled it were polar opposite approaches, from one extreme to another. But together there's a balance neither of us were able to strike individually."

"A chance at peace, you mean?"

"Very possibly."

She pulled her hands from mine and sank against the side of the Charger. "You're dangerous, Levi."

I joined her, settling beside her, and turned my head to tell her, "As are you. You've just been hiding it in those shadows you've gotten far too comfortable immersing yourself in."

Her lips quirked as she noticeably avoided eye contact. "No idea what you're getting at."

I laughed. "Actually look at me when you say that."

She did, turning her head. "I may have flexed that dangerous muscle while you were gone."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

She nodded. "I struck back against Hex. Twice."

Christ. "How soon after they hit at you?"

"Quickly. I couldn't allow escalation without punishment. They were seeing me as a victim, thinking they were winning the battle they started. I couldn't accept that."

"I get that, but with the timing, Mason will know it was you. This gas siphoning is just a warmup, he's just hitting the on-ramp."

"Then it's a good thing I am actually dangerous then, isn't it?"

I reached out and slid my fingers into her soft, silky hair, playing with the black strands. A calming serenity took me over as she sank into it and angled her head toward me, a little sigh of contentment escaping her.

"You don't need to worry about this. I've got it from here. I also have the means to reverse what was done to your laptop." Off her incredulous look, I explained further, "When I discovered that my dad's company had created something so devastating, I worked on an antidote of sorts to the tech. As for the data taken from you, I've already put something in place that will corrupt it once Mason opens it on any device within our home."

"That's… a lot to absorb. As for the data protection, are you telling me you wrote a program to flag any intel related to me and destroy it from others' view?"

I winced because with her knowledge being similar to mine on such things, I knew she'd understand how I'd been able to go about it. "Yes."

"Shit, breaking into my apartment was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to your stalking tendencies toward me, huh?"

"I couldn't take any chances—either with messing up things between us, or with Mason getting wind of who you really were to me and interfering." I ground my teeth. "As it is, he's already interfered in another way by coming after you."

I expected her to pull away, to tell me to go to hell again, to scream and curse me out at the very least.

But, instead, she drew closer to me and a little smirk spread over her face. "I would've done the same thing."

"You… what?"

"You said we reacted to what happened in polar opposite ways. Well, if things had been reversed and I'd responded like you, I would have done things the same way in my pursuit of you."

I couldn't believe it. She was bringing out the person I remembered, the person she'd buried for far too long, but whom I'd still seen in spite of that attempt.

" Wildflower ."

" Hellraiser," she responded, all breathy.

The surprises kept on coming as she pushed into me, grasped my nape, then dragged my mouth down to hers.

It wasn't an out of control explosion of passion like it had been the first time I'd kissed her.

No, this time it was intense in a whole other way.

Slow, easy, soft, and so incredibly raw that I felt it down to my bones.

I closed my eyes, savoring her taste, her lips on mine, her finally wanting me without any convincing on my part, actually truly connecting with me.

When I went to ease away because I felt myself getting worked up, the urge to escalate things when that wasn't what this was about in this moment, she chased my lips.

I grinned and grasped her hips, holding her at bay.

"Lock up your car, I'll give you a ride home."

"Yeah," she rasped, still caught in the moment. "Take me home."

Christ.

I hadn't wanted the ride to end.

It had barely been ten minutes having her on my bike, her chest plastered against my back, her arms linked tightly around my waist, as her sweet coconut scent wafted over me and her heat had rolled through me. Halfway through she'd even tightened her hold around me, and then I'd felt her cheek pressing against me as she'd drawn ever closer, like she hadn't wanted the ride to end either.

Something had fallen into place between us in that campus parking lot, something that hadn't been possible before because of so much resistance and fear on her end.

But now that had shifted in her—or at least begun to.

It was just a shame that it had taken Hex coming at her to jar that into being for her.

The idea of anyone coming at her made me sick to my stomach and infected me with a rage so pure the whole fucking world should cower at the mere sight of me.

The fact that it was Mason behind it caused a complication that didn't compute with my automatic protocol to decimate in the face of such an offense.

It posed a barrier.

I didn't care for barriers. I mowed them the fuck down.

And I was a vengeful fucker by nature. My years-long crusade being a testament to that.

If someone came at me, I struck back tenfold and razed the threat to the goddamn ground.

No matter the consequences.

Something Mason hated with every part of his hollow vacuum of a soul.

Yet, him being who he was to me, he'd forced me into a state of inaction—at least the immediate kind. He'd forced me to tone down an immediate brutal response, and to finagle another way to go about delivering punishment for the offense and, more importantly, protection for my girl from anything further being levied upon her.

I swallowed down the rage, placing it into a box for the time being. Because what mattered right now was her. This connection I'd felt snap into place between us earlier.

I couldn't allow anything to mar that or take precedence.

I'd waited too fucking long.

It wasn't just Hex inadvertently pushing her to embrace that which she'd denied for so long. It was also my absence giving her time to come to terms with things I'd brought back to life and thrust right into the forefront for her. Who knew the act of essentially doing nothing—giving her space—would actually prove such a powerful aid?

I pulled into the rear lot of her apartment building.

Her apartment was on the fourth floor facing toward this particular lot, and the forest flanking it.

As I dismounted my Harley, I went to reach out to help Brianna down, but she swung her leg over like a pro and did it herself.

I watched enraptured as she pulled off my helmet and shook out her long silky black hair like something out of a shampoo commercial.

She passed it to me and I stowed it in one of my saddlebags.

"It's been a long time since I've taken a ride."

"In any sense, as I understand it."

Expecting her to bite back at me or tell me I was disgusting, a pervert, or something along those lines, she defied my expectations as she had been doing a lot tonight and instead stepped up to me with a suggestive glint in her eyes, as she admitted, "In any sense, yeah."

She was showing me the woman I knew she was, the parts of herself that she'd lost along the way when she'd driven herself into the shadows and reinvented herself without key aspects of her personality.

And I was absolutely here for it.

"Is that something you want to remedy?" I asked, sliding my hands down to her hips.

A soft moan escaped her at my contact, and it was all I could do to leave it at that, holding her at arms' length. It had to be her decision. Her clear choice, no hesitation.

If not, it would fuck up everything.

It would taint our connection.

Something I would never allow.

I'd already come too close when I'd teased her up against the wall of Nirvana. That hadn't been the same as going all out with her, though, of properly claiming her as mine where there was absolutely no question as to who she belonged to.

Absolutely no escape for her.

Besides, she'd most definitely wanted it then. She hadn't just submitted, or been putty in my hands, she'd risen to the challenge of it and given it right back to me.

Good fucking thing. I didn't want submissive. At least, not from her. Not from something that was so fucking real to me. So important to me.

The women I'd fooled around with—mostly fight bunnies , as Colt called them—had only been a means to an end, to physical release. It had basically been a transaction and nothing more, to all parties involved.

But this, with Brianna Walker, it enveloped me mind, body, and goddamn blackened soul. It was all-encompassing.

Every. Fucking. Thing.

She stepped back, easing from my grip and ran her hands through her hair.

Not in a frustrated way, though. No, in a freeing way.

She let out a peaceful sigh, her beautiful whiskey eyes lit up. "I made myself forget how liberating riding is," she said in a thoughtful, faraway voice. "How much I really missed it."

"Well, you were born into it, raised in it. It's a big part of you."

"A part I've denied for a long time."

"It's okay. You're coming out of it now. It just took a little push."

"A little, huh?"

"Well—"

She jolted toward me and fisted her hands in my hair, cutting my response to the quick, and sending a shock of twisted bliss through me. Driving my already semi-hard cock even fucking crazier in the process.

"If I wasn't still high on the amazing ride, I'd slap you for downplaying your bullshit."

"Then slap me once you come back down to earth." I winked. "I like it rough."

Her hands slid from my hair, down to my shoulders, coming to rest on my biceps. I smiled as she felt them up, enjoying all the well-defined muscle I'd worked hard to maintain. "Interesting information."

"Good to know."

She smiled devilishly, that look doing a fuck of a lot to me.

"As I was saying about the ride… I haven't felt that kind of real freedom for a long time. The kind where I just let go, being my true self without any fallout from the trauma of the past trying to yank me back into those shadows, as you call them. The only other time in all these years was what happened between us outside the bar—kicking your ass, then… the other stuff."

"Kicking my ass… that's a rewrite of recent history right there."

She chuckled. "Have you ever lost a fight?"

"Once."

She looked surprised. "To who?"

That was a story for another day, and definitely not something I wanted to get into now. So, I redirected. "Hmm, you know about my street fighting then?"

"I do," she said, thankfully accepting the redirection.

"So, I'm not the only one with stalking tendencies?"

"I might have started looking into you once you made your presence impossible to avoid."

"You also tagged me—or more specifically, my phone."

Her eyes widened. "How do you—you hacked my phone. It wasn't just a one-off so you could enter your number."

"Had to keep an eye on what's important to me. I would apologize, but looks like we're even."

"Not even close. Plus, you deactivated the tag before you left on your recent mysterious trip."

"I did."

"Noted that you didn't deny the mysterious trip thing. So you didn't really go to visit your dad then, like Colt said?"

"Aww," I said, sliding my hands into her hair. "You were asking about me, hmm? Missed me, didn't you?"

"Yes," she answered, sinking into my touch and moving closer so I could get my fill of her hair.

"Wow, that was… unexpected. I thought you were going to deny the fuck out of it."

"Not anymore."

"Is that right?"

She smiled, then frowned at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're nervous, aren't you?"

"Nervous?"

"About where this is clearly leading tonight? You swerved our conversation down a totally different path. Are you having second thoughts?"

I cupped her face. "Never. There could never be second thoughts when it comes to you, my Wildflower. But, yeah, I am nervous, I guess."

"Wow, unexpected," she said, echoing my words a moment ago. "Why the nerves? I mean, I know I am, but it's largely because it's been a really long time for me and I'm not exactly used to the rough that you prefer."

I stroked her cheek with my thumbs. "That's a shame, considering you were made for the rough , for letting go and unleashing that raw and too-long-repressed part of you. I'm sorry that need was never met for you. Well, a little sorry. Also happy that the real you wasn't shared with anybody else."

She chuckled. "You're another level, you know that?"

"Oh, I'm well aware."

She sobered then and grasped my hands on her face. "Why the nerves?"

I sucked in a breath and gave it to her straight, "Last time we got… carnal… you blew me off like it was nothing. Like it was just a meaningless release, an itch you needed me to scratch for you."

"I didn't mean… I was just scared… not ready. I hadn't pegged you yet. And I was still in those shadows."

"I know. And I see that's shifted for you, or it's at least on its way. I just… I've waited a long time, held off for longer than you even realize. Christ, I've been obsessed with you since I was fifteen. But it wasn't the right time then. I mean, it took me two whole years after what happened to even become stable again." I cocked my head to the side. "Well, to be able to appear outwardly stable to others, anyway. To get my father off my back and be able to live without such a short leash. And after that, it wasn't safe to approach you. Not until the last year or so."

"Wasn't safe, how?"

"It doesn't matter. It is now."

"Levi—"

I dropped my hands from her and stepped back. "What I'm trying to say is that if I touch you again like that, escalate things beyond a tease, I won't be able to give you space again, to allow distance between us. I won't be able to let you brush it off. I'll be all fucking in, Brianna. You will be mine. No fighting it this time."

"Like I was saying , both times I've felt free and like my true self was around you, because of you. I want more of it. I don't want to run anymore. And, you, you make me feel safe to do that, to get back to that." She smiled, her eyes swimming with emotion, though, as she confessed, "You pulled me out of the shadows. I don't want to fight that, to fight you, or this thing between us. It's past the point of being denied, trust me."

In the next moment, she was on me, looping her arms around my neck and crushing her lips to mine.

The moment I responded, all bets were off.

She hooked her thigh around me and I took the cue, hauling her into my arms without breaking our kiss.

It was all a blur of roaming hands, fisting each other's hair, nipping, biting, and tonguing as I carried her into the building and managed to get us into the elevator and push the button for her floor.

As soon as we were inside, I slammed her up against the wall and rolled my hips, grinding my painfully hard cock between her thighs. She threw her head back, opening wider for me, inviting me in, her desperate need as acute as mine.

The doors pinging open had her pulling her mouth from mine, much to my regret.

Even for a moment.

I couldn't stand the separation.

I fisted her hair to pull her back to me, but she resisted, uttering breathlessly, "My bag. I left it in your saddlebag."

"Your keys are in it?"

"No. My jacket pocket."

"Then I'll get it after."

"After?" she asked all coyly, biting her lip all fucking sexy.

I carried her down the corridor toward her apartment door. " After my cock has a thorough introduction to your sweet cunt."

A little tremble of need went through her.

"Is that how you want it from me, Wildflower? Dirty and rough?"

"I thought you'd studied me in such an invasively in-depth way that you already knew how to give me what I need? " she said, grinning, so proud of herself, thinking she was calling me out.

Mmm. I loved it when her fight came out, when she spit fire back at me.

"I'm confident that I do. But this is about what you know, what you're ready to accept."

She reached into the pocket of her edgy pink and black leather jacket and withdrew her key. Even at the awkward angle, she was able to reach down and unlock her apartment door with it. She pocketed it, then took me in with blazing eyes. "Everything. I want it all."

"Everything, hmm?"

She leaned in, her warm breath tickling my neck and teasing the fuck out of me in the process. Her sweet coconut scent and her body wrapped around mine already pushing me right to the edge as it was. "Don't hold back," she whispered huskily.

"Fucking Christ."

In the literal next second, I shoved us through the door, kicked it shut, then roughly locked it, then strode to the nearest surface—that being the kitchen table—and put her down on the edge on her ass.

My blood was roaring in my ears.

I could barely breathe with the thick and all-consuming anticipation that was fueling my every step knowing that this was the moment I'd been waiting on for so fucking long.

Her really and truly wanting me.

Her being as desperate to have me as I was to have her.

I was shoving her jacket off her shoulders in the next second, and she was stripping me down to just my pants, the two of us in a frenzy.

I yanked down the bust of her tank, splitting it down the middle with my roughness and a sexy little pink bralette came into view.

I pushed against her, making her lie down on her back while I stood between her spread thighs, then dove down and bit at her nipples through the lace.

"Ah!" she cried, hooking her ankles around my hips and jerking me harder to her, as she arched her back, pushing her breasts closer, silently begging me for more.

I couldn't get close enough to her fast enough. I needed to feel her skin-to-skin immediately, no fucking waiting.

I moved to reach around and open her bra so I could taste her breasts, when another idea occurred to me.

I reached into the pocket of my cargo pants and pulled out my tactical knife.

A small gasp escaped her, but as her eyes lit up with fucking flames, it was clear it was far from anything resembling fear.

It was twisted depravity just like what I had in mind.

There she is. There's my girl.

"Give me everything," she uttered on a needy rasp, referencing our discussion earlier.

"Fuck, baby." I took her in a sloppy, wild kiss and she chased my lips when I pulled away to slice my blade through her bra.

A thrill rolled through me as it fell away and she watched so intently, her chest heaving, her breathing coming fast and uneven because she could barely contain herself, getting off on it as much as I was.

I swept the pieces of her bra away and then I trailed the flat of the blade down her throat, along her collarbone.

She fisted her hands on the kitchen table either side of her, clearly struggling not to move while I teased her.

"Don't worry about a little nick here and there. I'm very skilled with a blade."

"I don't want you to be."

Our eyes locked.

"Is that right?"

She bit her lip wantonly and gave a coy nod.

"Christ."

I spun the blade in front of her and adjusted my grip and she looked on in wonder.

And then I very carefully pressed the tip to her hard, cherry-tipped nipple.

She hissed and a pearl of blood leaked onto the cold metal. I exerted more pressure until it was leaking over the curve of her breast.

And then I dove down and licked up the trail, tasting her.

Her hands fisted in my hair. "God, Levi."

I sucked on her abused nipple, drawing more blood onto my tongue and savoring such an intimate piece of her.

Mine.

Her nails scraped my scalp. "I need you. Fuck, I need you now."

I lifted my head and slicked my tongue across her bottom lip, delighting in her licking off my taste and her blood mixed together.

And then I brought my blade to her pants and cut through the soft material like butter.

I brushed the scraps away, made a little slice to her lace panties beneath, then tore them from her body with a growl, her needy pleas making me fucking crazy.

As I pulled off her shoes, and her entire body was bared to me, it was all I could do not to jerk down my pants and slam inside her, pounding her up the kitchen table, maybe even decimating the thing with the force of my out-of-control thrusts.

Because that was how I felt with her right now—out of fucking control.

I wanted to let go, to give into it, and her reactions and pleas made it clear she did too.

But I couldn't.

Not just yet.

I had to summon restraint.

For her benefit.

She needed me to straddle that line.

And I fucking would.

I wouldn't screw this up, I wouldn't scare her, not when it came to getting physical.

Absolutely fucking not.

"Christ, you're so fucking beautiful," I groaned, taking in every inch of her in all her bared glory.

A goddamn goddess was what she was.

Lying there sprawled out on the table like an offering, her breasts reddened from my erotic attentions, her chest heaving in need, shifting restlessly in her desperation to have me, to have us, and her cunt so slick she was dripping down between her spread thighs.

All for me.

I traced my fingers over her all-seeing eye pendant. "I never forgot a single detail about you, Wildflower ."

And then it happened, she finally gave it right back to me. "Neither did I."

I lunged at her, earning a yelp, and hauled her off the table.

Gathering her in my arms, I carried her to the bedroom.

She licked my neck, her tongue teasing my scar. And then she was slicking it over my vibrant red and black all-seeing eye tattoo on my left shoulder, tracing the design with sensual licks that had a carnal groan escaping me, my cock pushing painfully against my pants.

I adjusted her weight in my arms and held her with one hand, so I could snatch her wrist and exact the same sensual torment on her watercolor butterfly tattoo on her inner forearm.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, sexy moans spilling from her lips.

I dropped her on the bed.

I kicked off my shoes and socks and almost ripped my pants and boxers as I stripped them off in record time.

In the next second, I was pouncing on the bed and crawling up her body.

"Levi," she uttered in that breathy, turned-on voice that did things to me.

She surprised me then before I could cover her body with mine, and slapped her hands to my chest, pushing me back onto my haunches.

She grasped my biceps and kissed my scar again, then her mouth was all over me, licking and nipping at my pecs, my tattoo. She scraped her nails down my abs, making red-raw marks that had me throwing my head back and fisting my hands in the sheets.

"Brianna," I breathed, as she kissed the gunshot scar over my abs, then swirled her tongue around it.

My cock jerked when she came so close and I could feel her hot breath fanning over my tip.

Her hold tightened on my biceps, then she dove down and swallowed my shaft.

Right to the fucking hilt in one shot.

"Motherfucker!" I growled.

She found her rhythm instantly, moaning and grinding her cunt into the sheets as she went absolutely feral all over my cock.

I slammed my hands down onto the bed, losing my shit as she fucking well deep-throated me like a wild thing. The pleasure was so intense, I'd never felt anything like it.

It was more than even the act, it was the need I could feel from her, between us. All fucking consuming. Transcending everything.

"Not in your mouth," I was gasping after a few minutes, threading my fingers in her hair and easing her off my cock.

She smirked up at me, her beautiful whiskey eyes glazed as she licked my pre-cum off her lips.

Christ almighty.

"Woman, you're gonna kill me," I growled, grasping her hips and tossing her up the bed.

Snarling like a fucking animal, I dove down between her thighs, holding them at my mercy as I dragged my tongue through her dripping folds.

She screamed as I lost my shit all over her, lashing her clit, biting, sucking, until she was thrashing on the sheets, her thighs shaking.

"God, Levi!" she cried in that sexy way. "Ah! I'm gonna come! Fuck! Fuck me!"

Her screams turned to shrieks and she convulsed in my arms as she came all over my tongue.

I lapped up every drop of her sweet taste.

Then, before she could recover, I rose up on her, grabbed her hips, then slammed inside her cunt, the force of it rocking her up the bed.

She went still, her breath hitching.

She was so tight.

Fuck, the pressure was out of this world.

Wide eyes met mine. "More," she pushed, but I could see her wincing and trying to hide it.

"Not yet," I said, bringing my hands down either side of her head and covering her body with mine, reveling in her heat and us finally being connected like this as her gaze blazed back at me, those beautiful eyes holding me hostage. "Just relax, feel my cock stretching your sweet cunt."

"Definitely feeling it," she said, with a little grin.

"Want me to pull out?" I asked, stroking her soft black hair.

"No fucking way," she answered adamantly. "I want you to stop taking it easy on me."

"Baby—"

"No. Fuck me like a beast. I told you I wanted it all."

"It's been a long time for you, you'll hurt tomorrow."

A sly look flitted across her face. "You mean, I'll feel you every time I move?"

Fucking shit , she certainly knew how to push my buttons.

That was fucking it!

"Oh, Wildflower, you're so fucked."

She grinned. "Good. Give it to me, Hellraiser."

I slammed her hands down above her head, weaving my fingers with hers, then I pulled almost all the way out and thrust inside her, rocking her up the bed.

"Fuck! Levi, yes!"

I didn't take it easy, I couldn't anymore.

I lost fucking control and pounded into her like a madman, holding her at my mercy as I power fucked her sweet cunt like an out-of-control machine, the bed rattling at the force of my rapid-fire thrusts.

"So. Fucking. Beautiful," I ground out. "So. Fucking. Mine."

I angled my cock and hit her sweet spot, her eyes shooting wide. "Ah!" she cried in rapture. "Oh my God!"

"Say it," I growled. "Say that you're mine."

Before she got the chance, the animal took control and I was pulling out of her roughly, then hauling her around onto her hands and knees.

I slammed back inside her, and she screamed as she came, clamping down around my cock, pleasure shooting through my shaft, my balls drawing tight.

Fisting her hair, I yanked her head back so her eyes met mine. "Say it, Brianna."

"Yes," she cried. "Yours. Yours, Levi."

" Fuck."

I could barely see straight as I slammed into her like a beast.

I reached under her and slapped her highly-sensitized clit. She whimpered and tried to twist away, but I held her in place with my hand in her hair.

"Let go. Let it all go, baby," I uttered through ragged breaths at her ear. "Wreck for me, Wildflower."

My slaps to her wet cunt became harder and faster, rapid-fire, until she was shrieking non-stop and fucking back against me, trying to meet my powering thrusts.

And then she stilled and lurched, a sexy animalistic growl tearing from her throat as she clamped down around my cock and came all over me.

It was too much then, she milked the fuck out of me and I roared as I came with her, filling her tight cunt with my hot cum.

I felt her knees start to give way and I eased her down into the bed, keeping my cock buried inside her as I covered her body with mine.

I couldn't leave her warmth yet, couldn't break the connection.

"That was…insane," she breathed into the pillow.

"Beyond even my most vivid fantasies about us."

She chuckled, then relaxed against me.

Mine.

I stroked her dandelion tattoo on her right upper back that was concealing something only the two of us knew about—a gunshot wound she'd taken there from the demons. Trying to save us. Trying to save me.

I grimaced and forced those thoughts from my mind, focusing on the moment. On her. She was here with me now.

Safe and protected.

And we'd finally come together the way I'd craved for so long.

The way I'd needed us to.

Tonight had been more than just her surrendering to me.

It was us surrendering to each other.

In a way that would stay with me forever.

I tightened my hold on her and breathed into her hair, "My Wildflower."