by Chey M. Burn
Katie’s expression: wide eyes, rapid pulse at the base of her neck, and her usually pale face completely leeched of color, let him know that she was, in fact, completely innocent. The fact that the cartel had begun to speak of her with interest, and the Bureau had picked up the chatter through their CIs and Undercovers, only meant that Katie was in danger. Something which Levi could not allow.
Just as he’d suspected.
“W-why am I on their radar?” Katie stammered, nibbling nervously on her lower lip. Levi swallowed back a groan as his eyes locked in on her mouth, now swollen from her anxious actions.
I wish I could have been the one biting that lip, he thought to himself.
“Levi?” Katie’s worried tone brought him out of his lustful musings, and Levi widened his stance, coughing to clear his throat of the growl that threatened. He also hoped that Katie didn’t look down and notice the very obvious erection that bulged obscenely behind the zipper of his pants.
“We’re not exactly sure of the cartel’s purpose in wanting you. Of being interested in you per say. But apparently, your work with the young woman—”
“Gabriella,” Katie interrupted him to point out.
Levi nodded. “Your work with Gabriella has… for lack of a better word, intrigued, the head of the cartel. And since you have had no previous dealings with them and are not currently working with them…” he shrugged.
“And never will work with them,” Katie muttered. She sighed and shook her head, running her fingers through her blonde hair, tugging slightly on the ends. She walked away from him, pacing back and forth in front of the condo’s windows. Levi watched her silently. He wanted so desperately to pull her into his arms. To offer her a bit of comfort. But he couldn’t. He was officially on the job and had been from the moment he’d eliminated her as a suspect. So, now it was his job to protect Katie. From the cartel. Their associates.
And from himself.
Chapter Three
Katie kept her gaze averted from Levi. She wasn’t exactly sure whom he was thinking about in that moment, but from the bulge in his pants, he liked that woman very much.
Lucky bitch, she thought to herself.
The guilt she felt for thinking uncharitably about a woman she didn’t even know rushed over her like a tidal wave, and she shook her head, turning her focus to the information she’d just received. Her life was in danger. Someone possibly wanted to kill her or get her involved with something that could cause her to be murdered or incarcerated. All because she’d taken Gabriella Montez’s case. The “single” mother who’d been sitting in the parking lot of a popular department store, breastfeeding her daughter.
When Katie had first heard of the case, not to mention the fact that the man who had reported her, had at first, stood two cars away and filmed her breastfeeding for a solid five minutes, she’d been shocked. When she’d gotten a copy of the man’s recording and realized that he’d only reported Gabriella because she’d rejected his advances? She’d been livid. But it was the actions of the manager of the department store which had prompted her to countersue for loss wages, emotional and mental stress and trauma, as well as the violation of Miss Montez’s civil rights to provide nourishment to her infant child. Especially in the privacy of her own vehicle.
Katie had gotten to know Gabriella quite well and had only met the father of her baby once, but that one time had been quite enough for her. Ricardo, or as he had initially been introduced to her, “Ricky the Undertaker”, had stared at Katie intently, not moving to shake her hand, or even to smile. After a moment of having her hand out, Katie had gone to drop it, only to have Ricky the Undertaker grab her wrist and ask her why she didn’t want to shake his hand. Katie had refused to let him know how frightened she was, instead, she’d done as Cassie had taught her so many years ago, and lifting her chin, she’d merely shook his hand and smiled at him.
Apparently, her refusal to show fear in front of him had caused him to take an interest in her.
I’m totally blaming Cassie for this, she thought unfavorably.
Turning back around, she found Levi’s eyes on her, unmoving. She noticed that besides crossing his muscled arms across his wide, barrel-like chest, Levi hadn’t made any other movements. Refusing to be the first one to speak, Katie simply mimicked his stance, folding her arms in front of her own chest, pushing on her breasts, and stared at him with an expression of false-ease.
After about two minutes of them simply looking at each other, during which time Katie could almost feel her heart attempting to gallop through her breastbone in an effort to get to Levi, and her panties dampened as well, growing wetter and wetter the longer they stood there—Levi was sexy no matter what he was doing—Levi finally smiled at her.
“There’s the Katie-bug I remember. Stubborn and fearless,” he said with a deep chuckle.
Katie could feel herself practically bristle like a cat and rubbed her hands along her forearms to make sure the almost invisible hairs weren’t standing on end. She scowled and narrowed her eyes at Levi who merely looked at her with amusement. “No one calls me Katie-bug anymore. It’s either Kathryn or Katie.”
Levi tilted his head to the side and Katie thought of her dog, Bruce, who was known to do the exact same thing when he found her confusing. Or just humans in general. She couldn’t wait for Cassie and Kevin to bring him back from the groomer’s. They’d offered to take him for her the day before, then because their children loved the dog as much as she did, had decided to let him stay over for a sleepover. Katie had missed the little furball, especially since he served as her bed companion on many nights, but she couldn’t deny her nieces and nephews the opportunity to be smothered with Bruce’s love.
She smirked at Levi and when he frowned at her, she burst into laughter. She covered her mouth after a minute when her dreaded snorts started to come out. She’d always hated the fact that whenever she laughed out of true amusement or hilarity that she was sure to snort. It had always been embarrassing. Though from the way Levi’s own eyes softened, she didn’t think he found her snorting anything to tease.
Why is he looking at me like that?
Katie wanted to ask, because the expression on Levi’s face made her feel warm inside, but the very possibility of him saying something about her being Kevin’s little sister, or “like a sister” to him, or “cute” or anything besides the L-word, caused her to simply lower her hand and smile at him. She shrugged at him and walked over to her couch to sit in the corner.
“I have a few questions that aren’t related to this case or issue and then I can answer any you may have about it. Okay?” Levi told her as he walked over to sit on the opposite end of the couch from her.
Katie couldn’t help but watch the flex and movement of the muscles and tendons in his arms, torso, and legs as he walked. When he sat down and turned to face her, she cleared her throat and turned her gaze away for a moment. She could feel the blush flowing up her cheeks, turning her normally pale peach skin a rosy red.
“I see you still blush for no reason,” Levi observed with humor tinging his words.
Katie stuck out her tongue at him, just as she used to do when she was a kid. Her laughter echoed his and she found herself being soothed, strangely, because of their common and comfortable interaction. She watched Levi as he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, leaning forward to rest his thick, veiny, muscled forearms on his thighs. He smoothed the fingers of his right hand over his bristled cheeks and chin before turning back to her.
“Are you dating anyone?” he asked.
Katie blinked in surprise. Of all the questions she’d expected him to ask, that certainly had not been one of them. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. She shook her head, even before she realized what she was doing.
“No,” she answered and watched as Levi nodded.
He then gestured around the room they were sitting in.
“Why’d you choose to move here? Why not closer to Kevin and Cass
ie?” Levi asked then.
Katie laughed. She got asked that question a lot. From her parents. Her friends. Even from Kevin and Cassie themselves. The happily married couple lived with their kids in what she could only term as Suburban USA. In a big five-bedroom home three streets over from her condo. Katie was happy for her brother and best friend, but it wasn’t time for her to settle down in a home just yet.
Not unless Levi was making an offer.
Stop thinking like that Katie. It’s never going to happen.
“You sound like Kevin,” Katie said with a small chuckle. She shrugged. “It’s just Bruce and I and we don’t need a lot of space. Besides, what do I need a home for? I have no children, no need for a big backyard, and no significant other to worry about.”
She shook her head and turned to look around the room. “You probably don’t understand,” Katie murmured.
“Understand what?” Levi’s voice sounded much closer to her than it had been before and when Katie swiveled back to gaze at him, she found that he’d moved to be mere inches away instead of a couch-length. Katie swallowed and offered him a small smiled. How would she be able to get her point across to him without making him feel bad? Or without making herself look like an ungrateful bitch?
Better yet, could she tell him without letting out her biggest secret?
“Understand what it’s like to grow up in a big family, with a nosey sibling, and two parents who insist on being involved in every aspect of your life and think no subject is off limits.” Katie chuckled softly. “Growing up I had little to no privacy whatsoever thanks to Mom, Dad, and Kevin. It was nice when I went away to college because then I didn’t have them breathing down my neck. But still, I didn’t have the privacy I so needed and desired, because I had a roommate in the dorms. Then Cassie and I moved in together in an apartment up through graduation and grad school—when she and Kevin were married and starting their family. So, I really couldn’t find any time alone, or to do what I wanted to do living with newlyweds, then a married couple and their kids.”
Levi snorted. “What did you want to do that required you to have so much privacy? Huh, Katie-Bug?” He lifted a hand and squeezed a strand of her blonde hair in between his thumb and forefinger, tugging on it gently. Katie reached up and swatted away his—not altogether unwelcome—touch. “What did you want to do? Walk around naked? Dance in your underwear? Sing, horribly, at the top of your lungs? Have men over for sleepovers?”
Katie narrowed her eyes at Levi over that last question. It was bad enough that he didn’t find her attractive. Didn’t see her as anything other than his best friend’s little sister. Fuck him for then turning around, and after rejecting her crush by just not seeing her as a potential love interest whatsoever, for him to then assume that her hooking up with or dating another guy was a joke? Well, she would teach him a lesson. The same way she’d taught Kevin one.
Standing up from the couch, Katie flipped her blonde tresses over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Levi who looked up at her with a smirk.
“Yes. As a matter of fact, yes, to all of that,” she retorted. Then, spinning on the heel of her feet, she walked away towards her bedroom. Her life may be in danger, but it didn’t mean she had to put up with a jackass just to stay alive.
Chapter Four
The scorching hot, forbidden image of Katie walking around her condo naked, sitting where he was sitting… only naked, cooking in the kitchen… naked… all rose in Levi’s mind and played like an adult theater slideshow over and over again. Levi’s cock grew hard behind his zipper, having only recently softened, and he let out a soft, low growl. Did Katie not know what she was doing to him? Or maybe she did, and she enjoyed teasing him. Torturing him. Tormenting him to the very point of madness.
Levi shook his head and rose from the cushions. He walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined one wall of Katie’s condo and looked out over the beauty of New York. He could hear her in her bedroom, opening and closing her drawers, huffing, sighing loudly, muttering to herself. While he was concerned about the possibility that he’d said something to upset her, at the same time, he found her antics amusing. He knew it wouldn’t take long for Katie Faulk, little miss “I-Have-A-Mind-So-I’m-Going-To-Speak-It”, to storm back into the living room and chew him a new one for whatever slight he’d made towards her. She may have been years younger than him and Kevin growing up, but Katie had no problem whatsoever with putting other people in their place. Even if they were older than her.
So, until she got there, he would spend some time “alone” in her space. Find out every point of weakness for her—security wise—and determine the best place to set up cameras, alarms, and his center of surveillance. It was imperative that he had one central location, somewhere in Katie’s condo, where he would be all at once the most vulnerable and simultaneously the strongest. It was usually somewhere his back was exposed in one area, his front was exposed in another, and his sides were exposed as well. He would be able to see everything and be ready for an attack or breach from every angle.
He knew many of his fellow agents liked to sit with their backs in the corner or against the wall and that was an effective way to keep an eye on everything in front of you, but as far as protecting Katie in her home? Levi shook his head. No. Even if he had to pace around the entire condo, keeping his eyes on every inch and never getting a wink of sleep, he would do it. He would do whatever he had to do in order to protect the woman he loved.
The sound of Katie’s bedroom door slamming open caused him to turn around, a small smile already forming on his lips. Especially when the sound of Katie stomping towards him, no doubt building up a head full of steam, reached his ears. Katie stepped into the living room, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. Levi let his gaze roam over her figure. From the top of her head, where her blonde hair now flowed down her back in loose curls, to her pale-peach skin, to her full breasts, lovingly covered by her white shirt, to her flat belly and rounded hips, down to her long legs, and finally to her tiny feet.
God she is amazing.
“And you listen here,” Katie said, her eyebrows pulled down into a frown as she poked him in his left pectoral. “Just because my life is in danger from some idiot drug dealer, doesn’t mean you get to come in here and be a jackass. I mean, it’s bad enough that you didn’t find me attractive. I mean, to you I’m nothing more than Kevin’s little sister. But there are a lot of men out there who find me extremely attractive, not just for sex, but they see me as a potential love interest. Someone that they want to date, or even marry.” She narrowed her eyes at him and Levi found himself searching for his words, for his ability to think.
Did she really think that he didn’t find her attractive? That he only saw her as Kevin’s baby sister? How could she not know how he felt about her? How much he longed for her, how he lusted after her and wanted her in his life forever?
“But for you to then assume that my hooking up with or dating another guy is a joke?” She poked him in the chest again. “How dare you? You have no right to make any sort of assumptions about my life, my condo, my activities or—”
Having heard enough Levi stepped towards Katie, smiling smugly when she stopped talking almost immediately. Especially when he leaned down to look at her directly in the eye.
“I don’t know who told you all of those lies you have in your head,” he told her in a low tone.
“L-lies?” Katie stammered.
Levi nodded. “Yes. Lies. But allow me to disavow you of them right now. First of all, I am here to protect you. To keep you safe. To make sure that no one ever has the chance or the opportunity to hurt you. That means it’s my duty, my every intention and need, to find out everything about you that I don’t already know. Things that someone would know if they’d been watching you every day. Monitoring your habits. Someone who knew your entire schedule. So yes, I do need to know all of those things. As to me not finding you attractive and only seeing
you as Kevin’s little sister?” He shook his head.
“That’s another lie. As a matter of fact—”
“Hello!” A voice coming from the doorway startled them apart. Levi turned with a scowl on his face at the interruption, only for his lips to turn up into smile at the person who walked in.
“Cassie!” Katie exclaimed and rushed over to hug her best friend.
Levi watched the two women. Katie with her blonde hair was a few inches shorter than the tall, statuesque, dark beauty that was Mrs. Cassie Williams-Faulk. Though both women were curvy, Cassie’s curves were a bit more pronounced than Katie’s. Cassie wore a red dress, belted at the waist, with long sleeves, a sweetheart neckline, that fell to just below her knees, and a pair of black heels on her feet. Her strawberry blonde, curly hair fell to her shoulders and her hazel eyes gleamed with happiness as she and Katie chattered in the doorway.
Levi knew Kevin would be walking in just a few seconds later, he never went anywhere without his wife and vice versa. The only time the two of them were without the other was when they went to work. Cassie at the hospital and Kevin at the NY FBI Field Office where Levi worked as well. And even then, the two of them tried to have lunch whenever they could. Talking to the couple, or even being around them, one couldn’t help but feel the love the two of them had for each other.
Levi’s eyes drifted over from the open door of Katie’s condo to the woman herself. He wondered if he would ever find the same type of love with someone like his best friend had. Though he’d been on the verge of telling Katie exactly how he felt, how he’d always felt about her, reality had a way of sneaking up on one and smacking them in the face. Levi could never tell Katie how he loved her, he’d made a promise to Kevin and he intended to keep it.