The gate swung open.
Levi stood at the front door in frayed jeans and a worn T-shirt, his feet bare.
My brain kind of stuttered, unsure of what to unpack first. The dusting of flour on his shirt? The fact that his home smelled like freshly baked cookies? Or the black rectangular frames he wore that drew attention to his thickly fringed eyes that were the dark blue of deep well water?
“I forgot you wore glasses.”
He’d worn them one year at camp when he’d lost a contact lens during Capture the Flag. Teen Levi had looked like a geek, but adult Levi was obscenely hot. Not just sexy, but vulnerable. This was the man at the end of the day who loosened his tie, set aside his mantle of power, and was himself. The man who’d show his scars.
“It’s late and I'm tired,” he said. “Could you harass me about my weak eyes in the morning?”
“No. I mean, Sarah told me how you were personally paying for everything and you must have thrown around a ton of House power to keep today out of the news. So explain one thing to me, how could you be so protective of those kids and have treated me so callously? We’d defeated the smudge for fuck’s sake and then you shut me out.” I paused. “It hurt.”
Levi sucked on his bottom lip and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “There’s something you need to see.”
I stacked my boots neatly on the doormat, and hung my jacket on the knob of his coat closet.
He led me in the opposite direction from his study, turning the corner into a jaw-dropping space that was all bleached wood and brick, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the beach.
Levi crossed over to a coffee table and picked up a creased piece of paper which he handed to me.
“‘We know it wasn’t you,’” I read. “And?”
“This appeared in my jacket pocket when you went to get me water at Robson Square.”
“This is why you fired me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I told you to back off for your safety and you got all huffy.”
“You didn’t tell me why. You threatened to destroy my livelihood. Take away the thing I love most.”
“Yes.” He threw up his hands. “I stupidly assumed that throwing you in jail and ruining your business would be enough to get you to run the other way from this. Would you have backed off if you’d seen the note?”
“Of course not, but that wasn’t your call to make.”
He pushed me back a few steps so I wasn’t glowering nose-to-nose with him. “You’re Nefesh now. You’re under my protection and I made a call. For your safety and the safety of my House. If your power becomes known, who knows what threats we’ll both be facing?”
I balled the note up and dropped it on the coffee table. “When it gets out. You can’t keep it a secret much longer. You’ll have to formally register me. And if there is a threat, then I would have rather faced it with someone I could trust.”
Levi reached for the note, but I blocked him. He waited me out until I stepped aside with a frustrated huff.
He picked up the paper and smoothed it out again, before putting it into his pocket, folded once more. “That’s our fundamental problem, because I rightly didn’t trust you to see the bigger picture and step aside, and you don’t trust me period.”
“So where does that leave us?”
He pushed his glasses up his nose in a weary gesture. “We keep circling back to that, don’t we?”
A timer went off. Levi stalked off, me jogging at his heels.
I’d expected some showpiece, enough stainless steel and fancy tech to build a space station, but the kitchen was cozy with red appliances and glass tile that mirrored the sunny blue of his eyes when he was amused. Round spice tins were stuck to a long magnetic board with braids of garlic pinned to the window frame. It was a room made for cooking, not impressing.
It was all too easy to picture him and Dr. Ryan drinking wine and making pasta together, passing each other with intimate touches on their lower backs.
Trays of golden brown biscotti were spread over the quartz island countertop, cooling.
Levi put on an oven mitt shaped like a boxing glove and removed the final pan from the oven. “Go ahead. Make your snarky comment.”
It was late and I was tired, too. “Who taught you to bake?”
He deposited the tray and snapped off the dial. “My nonna used to bring me into the kitchen with her when things got… tense around our home. My father would never deign to come in there. Baking became a way to destress.”
“My father was the one who warded my magic before pulling a disappearing act. Again.” I watched him carefully for any sign of pity but he merely flapped a spatula at me.
“Sit down. Might as well help me eat some of these.”
Surprise edged out the tightness in my chest. I perched on one of the tall barstools pushed up to the island and helped myself. The biscotti was still warm. I nibbled on the edge, a delicate lemon flavor filling my mouth.
“These are really good.”
He set another one in front of me. “No kidding.”
We ate in almost companionable silence, Levi leaning on the counter across from me.
“I’m sorry for how I handled things,” he said. “Everything had gotten so far out of my control, and this seemed like one element I could bend to my will.”
“And I’m sorry I accused you of spying. Everything had gotten so far out of my control and this seemed like one more thing you’d bent to your will.”
He threw a biscotti at me, which I caught.
“How’d you find the lab so fast?” Levi said.
“The Queen gave me a present.” I dropped the biscotti, my appetite gone.
Levi caught my hands in his. “You know I can’t think any less of you, right?”
I half-sobbed, half-laughed, and swatted him away. “She gave me five minutes with Mr. Sharp.”
He searched my face. “You took his magic.”
I crumbled the biscotti into crumbs. “He was going to die anyway, but I sure tenderized him for her. Wrecked him but good. It made your ‘devoured by ants’ trick look like a walk in the park.”
“You’re so competitive.” Levi swept away the crumbs I’d made into the sink. Then he stilled. “The Queen knows about you.”
“Yeah. But she wasn’t the one that sent the note. She’s a lot more direct. And oddly, after it was all over, she gave me some advice that helped.” I frowned. “Telling you helped, too. Weird. Maybe we could start a monster support group. Take turns bringing pastries. I can’t tell my mom, not that I would, and while Priya knows the broad strokes, I won’t share the specific gory details, because I don’t want her to see me differently.”
“And since you don’t care what I think…”
“Not a whit,” I replied.
“Even if your magic is monstrous, it’s not your defining quality.”
“That’s my humor and intelligence.”
“Let’s not get crazy. You defied me to find those kids, risking everything you’d built for yourself. You care deeply. You may just be the awesomeness that humanity is desperately in need of.”
I ate the second biscotti, my appetite restored in the face of his words. “How does it make any sense that the person I trust the least is the one who gets me the most?”
“We’ve always gotten each other. It’s why we don’t trust one another. And there’s a part of you that gets off on that, same as I do.”
“Why, Levi Montefiore, are you propositioning me?”
Levi took off his glasses and set them carefully on the counter. “Yes.”
“What happened to ‘ill-advised?’”
He shot me a wicked grin that lit me up. “Oh, it’s definitely that, but I find that I don’t care right now.”
“I see. In that case…” I slid my shirt over my head and dropped it on the ground.
Levi lunged for me and with a coy look back, I raced into his living room, where he knocked me onto the sofa.
&n
bsp; I fell with a laugh and a wince when my shoulder hit and Levi froze.
“Golem,” I said.
“Oh good. I was worried we wouldn’t have the proper foreplay.”
I laughed and hooked my ankle around his, bringing him down on top of me. “Surrender.”
He positioned his body between my open legs. “I think that’s my line.”
I rocked the heel of my palm over his impressive erection. “You love it when I fight you. Meeting me was the best day of your life.”
Levi pinned my hands above my head, speared me with a hot look that sizzled through me, and crushed his mouth to mine. The kiss was explosive, almost violent in its passion, and I reveled in it. He still held my hands in his iron grip, so I wrapped my legs around his waist, trying to worm closer. His lips were full and smooth and his stubble scratched my chin, sending tremors through me.
Levi broke the kiss to look at me, his eyes practically smoky in their desire. We stayed there like that a moment, then his hold on my hands loosened. Gently, tenderly, he brought his hands to my face and kissed me with incredible sweetness.
I tried to push him off me, because we didn’t play that way.
He kissed me again, a long slow drug of a kiss. “Surrender,” he whispered, trailing kisses down the hollow of my neck.
“Never,” I sighed, leaning my head back.
Unclasping my bra, he flung it across the room. He took one of my nipples into his mouth and suckled it.
“I can be very persuasive when I want to.” His voice rumbled against my skin, his sentence punctuated with the rasp of his teeth over one nipple.
I threaded my fingers through the black silk of his hair, arching back in delight.
“Is this your choice of weapon?” I ran my hands over his hard body, marveling at the tight definition of muscle and how he gasped involuntarily when I touched his inner thighs.
“What if it was?” he asked, pulling me onto him so I straddled him, my knees gripping his hips.
“Then I’d be very careful it didn’t go off prematurely,” I murmured.
“It is rather tightly sprung,” he conceded. Gliding his hands down, he hooked them beneath my knees, jerking me up his thighs.
My clit rubbed against his rigid cock, and a moan slipped out of me.
Levi claimed my mouth, catching my cry, his tongue tangling with mine.
I raked my fingernails down his back. “Lose this.” I tugged his shirt off, brushing my breasts against his chest.
The musky odor of his arousal teased me and I rocked against him.
Levi lifted me off him, relieving me of the rest of my clothing. Setting me on the couch, he slid to the floor and pushed my knees apart.
I placed my hand on his chest. “Not that I’m complaining, but you wouldn’t let me do this to you in the hot tub.”
“Bella, we didn’t have a condom, and if you went down on me, I would have given new meaning to ‘thirty-second wonder.’ No way I was giving you that kind of ammunition.”
He’d called me “bella,” the word all silky, pronounced by a true Italian. I almost giggled. However, being the cool, collected woman I was, I tossed my hair off my shoulders and spread my legs wider. “Proceed.”
“Thank you for your most gracious permission.” Levi licked into me and I swear I had a religious experience. He was all hot wet heat, fucking me with his tongue.
I gripped his shoulders, his scars thin ridges under my fingertips. He wasn’t hiding them from me. Levi was this unpredictable wild card: arrogant, caring, powerful, thoughtful, and a dangerous thrill.
“Get a condom,” I panted.
Levi looked up at me, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths and licked his lips. “Now who’s the thirty-second wonder?”
“Shut up and fuck me, Leviticus,” I said sweetly.
He slid his hand slowly up my inner thigh, tsking me. “Etiquette.”
“You just like to hear me beg.”
“That’s a big part of the appeal, yeah.” He crawled up my body, caressing me. “But we don’t have to rush.”
“An emotional tornado ripped through my life. I want to be taken hard and rough. Fuck this week out of my brain. Please,” I added.
He grasped my chin and kissed me again. “With pleasure,” he growled and sprinted off, returning a minute later with a condom in one hand, and holding his pants that slid off his hips with the other.
He shucked them off, kicking out of them entirely. “Turn around. On your knees. Hold the top of the couch.”
There was a rustle and then the sofa depressed as he leaned his knee onto it and pressed his cock against me, holding my hip with one hand.
I rested my cheek on the back of the sofa.
“Touch yourself.”
“Now who needs an etiquette lesson?” I said.
“You want to lead, I’ll happily let you play teacher next time.” He put my hand on my clit, rubbing it. “But right now, I’m in control.” He bit the back of my neck and I shuddered.
“Yes. Tell me what to do.” Don’t make me choose. Not tonight.
“Keep stroking yourself.” He slid inside me partway and a soft gasp escaped my lips. I forced myself to keep still, savoring the anticipation of having all of him inside me, filling me up.
Levi raked his nails along my spine, then thrust inside me hard. He smacked my ass lightly. “I didn’t say stop.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, drowning in the hot, tight spiral gathering force.
“Wider.” He jerked my legs farther apart, the angle of his thrusts changing, hitting me deeper. He pulled my hips toward him so hard that each meeting of our bodies sounded like a blow.
Sweat rolled down between my breasts.
Levi pressed against me. “Surrender,” he whispered.
I shattered.
In one fluid motion, Levi pulled out, flipped me on my back, then lay over me, braced on his elbows. He unleashed himself on me, his ruthless fucking sending a million delicious aftershocks quaking under my skin.
I clasped the back of his neck and leaned up to meet his mouth, our kisses hot and messy.
He caressed my cheek with his knuckles, then, his face twisted in savage pleasure, he stiffened and came with a shout.
Our sweaty bodies slid together as he collapsed on his side, the two of us jammed close to fit on the sofa. Levi traced the curve of my hip.
Okay, I could do this. I could post coital like a motherfucking boss.
Our eyes met and … “Nope. Too weird. I’m out.”
I crawled over him, Levi sprawling onto his back totally unselfconsciously to watch me dress. A lock of hair had fallen into his eyes and I picked up the pace of dressing so I didn’t do something mushy. Never show weakness. Slinging one leg into my jeans, I hopped back far enough that hopefully my face, my expression, was indecipherable.
“What happens next?” he said.
Find my team, get the vials back, figure out what I’m meant to do and what I stand for.
I pulled on my boots and flicked the lock off his forehead. “General awesomeness.”
Levi reached for me, but twisted mid-motion to grab his pants instead. An odd pang speared my chest along with the thought maybe I should stick around to strategize over biscotti, but he was already zipping up and the moment was lost.
“So no actual plan,” he said.
“Plans are a problem for tomorrow me.” I grinned, and throwing a finger wave over my shoulder, headed into the night.
Thank you for reading BLOOD & ASH!
Brace yourself as things heat up in DEATH & DESIRE (THE JEZEBEL FILES #2).
Angel of Death.
Black market magic.
When you’re Ashira Cohen, smart is the new kickass.
When Ash is hired to solve her first murder, it seems like a perfectly normal, open-and-shut case of family feuds and bad blood. Until Ash discovers an evil magical artifact and her lead suspect is of the winged, white-robed, celestial variety. As if that weren't bad
enough, if she can't find the perpetrator quickly, fourteen vials of lethal, ghostly magic will be sold to the highest bidder.
Her quest to figure out her Jezebel powers and find the shadowy organization responsible for stripping teens of their magic isn't going any smoother, either. Can't a girl just pursue her dream career without getting caught up in a mysterious destiny? Or, for that matter, playing a dangerous Sherlock-Moriarty game with the infuriatingly hot alpha male in charge of Vancouver's magical community?
But when Ash accidentally crosses the cunning and deadly Queen of Hearts, ruler of the magic black market, all those cases may go unresolved.
Permanently.
With the clock ticking, it’ll take all of Ash’s intelligence to survive with her moral center–and her head–intact.
The game is afoot and failure is not an option.
CLICK HERE TO BUY DEATH & DESIRE NOW >
OR why not check out my other funny, sexy urban fantasy series?
Dive into THE UNLIKEABLE DEMON HUNTER.
An all-male brotherhood hunts demonic foes. But their biggest threat could be a foul-mouthed, romance-impaired heroine who’s gonna show these boys a thing or two about how to really slay a monster…
Odds of survival: meh.
Odds of a good time before she bites it: much better.
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Turn the page for an excerpt from Death & Desire ….
Excerpt from Death & Desire
I never expected Touched by an Angel to stray into bad touch territory.
“Tall, white robes, white wings. Was there a celestial light? Did anyone see a halo?” The questions I asked in pursuit of the truth.
“It’s an Angel of Death. It kills people.” Husani Tannous, a late-twenty-something Egyptian, adjusted his baseball cap to hide his receding hairline. “It doesn’t get a halo.”
Ironclad logic from a man who’d paired his masculinity issues and deep-seated anger with the semi-automatic at his feet–like fine wine with cheese. Or gasoline with a match.
Blood & Ash: A Snarky Urban Fantasy Detective Series (The Jezebel Files Book 1) Page 27