Sonny shrugged and made to look away.
Levi caught Sonny's face in his hand, forcing him to stay put. “Tell me.”
“I feel like I’m missing something, something huge.” Sonny tapped the side of Levi’s head, his expression pensive. “Something’s wrong. I know it is, but you make me kinda crazy, like I can’t help myself.”
Levi rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. An odd, dull pain throbbed at the base of his spine, but he found it comforting—grounding, almost—like it was just enough to remind him this was real. He opened his mouth. Shut it again.
Sonny sat up and scratched at Levi’s chest. “What is it? Tell me.”
“My mom died.”
There, he’d said it. Sonny’s nails faltered on his chest. “When?”
Levi’s brain failed him for a moment. He glanced at the clock. It was Sunday morning, four a.m. “Friday.”
“How? Was she sick?”
“Kinda…” Levi stopped and took in a shaky breath. “She was an alcoholic. She walked in front of a truck on Thursday night.”
“Oh, God. Levi, that’s awful. Why did you come to the shoot?”
Now there was a question. Most of Bella’s debts had died with her. His porn career was over if he wanted it to be. Levi shrugged. The room was dark, but he knew Sonny could see him. “I don’t know. Maybe, on some level, I thought I needed to do it. I…I don’t know.”
He was at a loss to explain. His daddy’s death had left him with an ingrained sense of responsibility, a need to honor every promise he’d ever made. Perhaps it was that.
Or perhaps it was the need to be with the man in his arms. For weeks, he’d found himself torn between a real fear of what was to come next and an unbelievable desire for Sonny. Now, despite the shadow hanging over him, and despite the fact that there was so much more to say, with Sonny in his arms he felt at peace. He could tell him the rest later. Or not.
Sonny was silent for a while, the persistent light scratch of his nails the only sign he was even awake. Then he shifted and roused Levi from the light doze he’d fallen into.
“You know I wasn’t going to let it get that far, don’t you? With Rex?”
“Huh?” Levi opened his eyes drowsily. “What do you mean?”
Sonny finally stilled his fingertips, sat up, and put his chin on Levi’s chest. “I knew you weren’t ready…in any sense. I could see it in your eyes. I was going to jump you before he could, then let him take his revenge on me after.”
“You’d take that bullet for me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Sonny groaned and ducked his head. “Oh, God. I don’t know. I told you. You make me crazy. I couldn’t see you get hurt like that.”
Levi pulled him up and kissed him. “Trust me, darlin’, I get it. Why do you think I kicked that douche bag across the room?”
Sonny shivered. “Man, you and that accent. Gets me every time.”
Levi grinned, but though he was at ease in Sonny’s bed, the nagging question of what came next was eating away at him. The sky was beginning to lighten, and with the dawn came reality and the looming prospect of going home to an empty apartment.
He opened his eyes. Somehow they’d fallen closed again without him noticing. Sonny was watching him. Levi reached out and touched his cheek. “Can I make you breakfast?”
Sonny smiled, his hazel gaze gleaming in the dim room. “Sure, and after that, you can take me to your bed and let me teach you how to fuck me.”
Levi let out a startled snort of laughter, but in answer, he pulled Sonny to him and kissed him like he’d never kissed him before. He’d signed his life away more times than he cared to remember, but for once, he’d struck a deal he couldn’t wait to see through.
Loose Id Titles by Garrett Leigh
The BLUE BOY Series
Bullet
Garrett Leigh
Garrett Leigh lives in a small commuter town just north of London with her husband, two kids, a dog with half a brain, and a cat with a chip on her shoulder. She’s twenty-nine, and now she’s reached that milestone, she intends to stay there for the foreseeable future. Garrett has been writing just about her whole life, but it’s been about three years since she decided to take it seriously. According to Mr. Garrett, it was either give the men in her head a voice or have herself committed.
Angst. She can’t write a word without it. She’s tried, she really has, but her protagonists will always, always be tortured, crippled, broken, and deeply flawed. Throw in a tale of enduring true love, some stubbly facial hair, and a bunch of tattoos, and you’ve got yourself a Garrett special.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible. That, and dreaming up new ways to torture her characters. Garrett believes in happy endings; she just likes to make her boys work for it.
Garrett also works as a freelance cover artist for various publishing houses and independent authors under the pseudonym GD Leigh.
Links to reach Garrett:
Main Web page: http://garrettleigh.com/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighbooks
Blue Boy 1: Bullet Page 11