She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. Levi kissed her neck and ran his hand up and down her body, feeling her curves, and letting her get used to his touch.
Oh, she could get used to this all right.
She wanted him to touch her all over, all night.
Rebecca pulled her t-shirt up and she heard Levi suck in a breath when he glimpsed her bare breasts.
“Rebecca,” he grated.
Sliding his hands reverently up her body, Levi held his breath as he pulled the t-shirt up over her head. Rebecca raised her arms and let him pull the t-shirt free and toss it over his shoulder.
She was now naked from the waist up, wearing only her tiny shorts.
Levi's blue eyes darkened, and he bent down to take a breast deep into his mouth. Rebecca writhed against him, surrendering to the pleasure. He suckled her ferociously, sucking hard on her nipple and making it lengthen and throb with pain and pleasure. Raising himself to his full height, he took her mouth again as his hands fondled her breasts. He squeezed and kneaded them, groaning his appreciation of her lush figure into her mouth.
“Oh, Rebecca,” he breathed.
She let out a small cry when she felt his erection press against her belly. The size of him, the hardness of him, and the knowledge that this big, beautiful male wanted her so badly made her so damn wet.
She parted her legs and ground against him.
“Levi,” she panted.
He pushed his hand between her legs, but he didn't remove her shorts. He simply rubbed his thumb over her most sensitive spot, increasing the pressure as she ground harder against his hand.
When Levi flicked his tongue over her nipple and rubbed hard against her crotch, Rebecca gasped and shuddered violently with her sudden climax. She had come so fast, coming undone without even being fully naked.
Levi caught her in his arms as she slumped against him, still trembling and unable to think or stand straight. Levi carried her to the couch and set her down gently.
He smoothed her silky black hair away from her face, and gazed at her.
“You are so sweet, so perfect, Rebecca,” he whispered.
Her breath caught at his words and his touch. She stared into those beautiful blue eyes that were holding hers so tenderly and possessively. He was still rock hard—she could feel his erection against her thigh. But he didn't try to remove her shorts and take her.
He simply looked deep into her eyes as he stroked her face. She could see the passion and desire in his eyes, but she also saw something else. An unspoken, indescribable sadness.
Tentatively, she traced a finger down the angles of his face, down his strong jaw and neck. Why did his face seem so familiar? And his kiss?
Unconsciously, she touched her own lips with her trembling fingers. She seemed to remember his kiss. But she had never kissed this beautiful man before, had she?
His kiss was filled with passion and poignancy, and she could sense his profound, almost paralyzing pain.
Levi had lost something dear to him. He smiled at her, but she could see the deep longing and sadness in the depths of his blue eyes.
Rebecca opened her mouth, then clamped it shut again. Would he tell her about his sorrows and his troubles if she asked him? Or would she just make him uncomfortable?
She was after all, still a stranger to him. He had been assigned to protect her by the PAC, that's all.
She was nothing to him.
But his kiss and his eyes told her otherwise.
She was everything to him.
“Levi...” she began. She looked down and chewed her lip. Have we met before? Have we...kissed before?
Instead, she swallowed and said, “Would you like to sleep with me?” As soon as the words left her lips, she gasped and corrected herself, “I mean, sleep in the house, with me, instead of out in the rain. But not sleep with me, as in...you know...” She could feel the heat creeping up her neck to her face. You have already seen me half naked, you might as well see me fully naked.
Rebecca turned away to hide her mortification at her own naughty thoughts.
“I mean...I can't let you spend the night out there, in the cold, in the dark. It's not safe,” she managed to stammer.
Levi smiled at her. “I appreciate that. Thank you, I'll sleep here on the couch then. It's pretty comfortable, and it sure beats crouching under that tiny slide. I'll see you to your room.”
With that, he stood and carried her across the living room.
“I can walk to my bedroom,” she protested, but he didn't seem to hear her. He pushed into the bedroom and laid her onto the creaky bed. He turned and pulled a big t-shirt draped on the back of a chair and began to dress her. Then he kissed her on the forehead.
“Goodnight, Rebecca,” he murmured.
She gave up trying to resist her big, hunky and rather bossy protector, and simply let him tuck her in.
She yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Goodnight, Levi. And thank you.”
He pulled the door shut quietly as he exited her room.
Rebecca turned to her side and blinked sleepily at the window. She had never felt like this before. This feeling was entirely new to her.
Rebecca felt herself smiling as her eyelids drifted shut. For the first time in a long, long while, she felt safe.
She felt safe and secure with Levi in the house with her. He was sweet, sexy, steady, and it had felt so right being with him. In fact, she was quite sure that it would feel perfect to have him in her bed. But—what would he think of her?
She was a stripper, but that was just a job. Just because she was a stripper didn't mean she was a slut.
That was what her ex kept going on and on about. He derided her job, insulted her profession, disrespected her and abused her, but he had no problem spending all the money that she earned in her slutty, shameful job.
Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut and tried to just go to sleep. Reliving her horrific experience with Phin was no way to heal and move forward. She had to let go and just forget about everything. But was forgetting really the answer? She had this strange, niggling feeling that she had forgotten something very important.
“What is it?” she muttered. “What have I forgotten?” Her eyes flew open with a start. “Is it about my attack? Is that memory so terrible?” So terrible that my mind had to block it out forever to protect my sanity.
Rebecca turned away from the window. “It's better then,” she sighed, forcing her eyes shut. “It is better to forget forever,” she sighed heavily and sank deeper under her covers.
The curtains moved and fluttered in the shadows, even though the windows were closed. Rebecca tossed and turned, her sleep fitful and her dreams troubling. She was finding it difficult to breathe. Something didn't feel right.
Her skin felt sticky with sweat, and the sheets tangled around her ankles when she tried to kick them off. She struggled to open her eyes, but it felt as though she was trapped in a nightmare. She could hear noises, footsteps and a low, harsh laugh.
Rebecca's entire body jerked. She knew that laugh.
She could feel cold sweat beading on her forehead. She had to get out of here. She wanted to scream, but her voice wouldn't work. Her eyelids were jumping violently as she thrashed in her bed. She had to wake the hell up and get away!
Finally, she forced her eyes open with a gasp. Her cry was muffled as a huge hand clamped over her mouth.
She stared into a pair of close-set, beady eyes as the sharp point of a knife pressed against her throat.
“Hello, Rebecca, are you glad to see me? I thought I'd pay my slutty ex-wife a visit, you know, for old times' sake.” She heard the laugh, that ugly, sadistic laugh. “And what do I find? I find the slut shacking up with her bear lover!”
Rebecca shook her head mutely, numb with terror.
“Now, shall I kill you, to torture him?” Phin smiled, dragging the blade across her cheek. “Or shall I kill him, to torture you? Ah, decisions decisions...”
<
br /> CHAPTER ELEVEN
Levi checked the doors and the windows again. Everything was locked. There was no way her scumbag human ex-husband could get in. He glanced towards her bedroom door. Rebecca should be asleep by now.
He stretched his tall frame out on the couch and tried to get comfortable. He was punching an old, dusty cushion into shape when he heard a scream from Rebecca's room.
He jumped to his feet and was in her room in a heartbeat.
Rebecca was clutching her pillow and crying out in terror. “He...he was here! Here, right here!” she blubbered.
“What? Who?”
“Phin! Phin was here!” she shrieked.
Levi's eyes scanned every corner of the room. He went to the window and checked it. It was locked. He walked silently to the windowless bathroom and looked around. There was no one hiding in there. Methodically, soundlessly, he went through every corner of her room, checking all the cupboards and drawers, and even under the bed. He found nothing.
Rebecca was still screaming and babbling hysterically, “I saw him, Phin...he was here...he had a knife. A knife!”
Levi approached her very slowly and carefully as he would a wounded animal. “Rebecca, calm down,” he said as gently as he could. “Shhh, it's all right. You had a nightmare. That's all. No one is here. Phin Lester isn't here. He couldn't have gotten into your room. Your window is locked. There are no windows in your bathroom. And he couldn't have walked through your bedroom door. Not without getting past me. I would never let him get past. You know that.”
“No! No! He was here!” she screamed, tearing at her hair. “He...he pointed a knife at me. At my throat! He's been watching me! He saw. He saw us, Levi!”
Levi took a small step towards her. “What do you mean?”
“He saw us.” She looked stricken. “He saw us...kissing, touching...he saw my body...” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He saw me half naked...and...he saw...everything...” She was shaking her head, her eyes growing wild with horror.
Levi shook his head. “He couldn't have seen us. Even if he had a pair of binoculars...”
“He saw everything!” she screeched.
Levi frowned and checked the house again. He sniffed through every corner, turned everything upside down, but he found no hidden cameras. Going back to Rebecca's room, he found her huddled at the far corner of the bed, hugging her pillow and crying softly.
“Rebecca.” He sat down beside her but didn't touch her. “There are no cameras, no recording devices hidden anywhere in your house. All the doors and windows are securely locked. I checked. Nothing has been tampered with. The blinds and curtains are drawn. There is no way...”
“You think...I'm lying?” she whispered, trying to suppress a wrenching sob.
“No, no, I don't...”
“You don't believe me.”
“Rebecca, it's just not possible...”
“Stop saying that! Please, just stop! I. Saw. Him! And there was someone else, something else in the room.” Her voice dropped to a dramatic, almost demented whisper. She began to shake her head frantically. “It wasn't a shadow. It was...”
“Rebecca, look at me...”
She hiccuped and turned to him, tears streaming down her face. “He was right here. In my room. With a knife. Don't tell me that it's just a nightmare. Because it's not! It's not,” she sobbed.
Levi nodded without speaking. Rebecca's fear was real. Her tears were real. Something had scared her badly.
“I'll stay here with you. I'll stay right here.” He pulled up a chair and sat down beside the bed.
She closed her eyes and slid down, pulling the covers over her head. “He'll come back,” she whimpered. “He said he'll come back for me.”
Levi reached out and patted her shoulder gingerly. “Go back to sleep, Rebecca.” He bit his tongue before he could say, And forget all about this awful nightmare.
It wasn't a nightmare to her.
To victims of violence and abuse, the pain and hurt they experienced in the past could still torment them in the present.
Telling them to forget their pain was undermining and belittling what they had gone through.
Some horrors could never be forgotten.
Levi watched Rebecca's shaking and shivering gradually subside. Her form remained curled up under the sheets, and her sobs became ragged breaths. She finally cried herself to sleep, her murmurs and frightened whispers fading into silence.
Once he was sure she was asleep, he surveyed the room again. There was just no way Phin could have gotten in. That bastard would have to break the window. But there was not even the slightest crack on the window pane.
He kept checking and rechecking the doors and windows. Throughout the night, he paced around her bed, occasionally whispering soothing words to her when she cried out and tucking her arm back under the sheets when she flung her arm out in agitation. The shadows began to recede as the first rays of the morning sun filtered through the curtains.
Levi slumped into the chair beside her bed. He had spent the whole night wearing down her carpet. At least Rebecca had managed to catch a few hours of sleep, fitful though her sleep had been.
As the sunlight hit her eyes, Rebecca jerked up in bed and blinked. Her hair was plastered to her face, and her skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Climbing out of bed, she staggered to the bathroom and was about to close the door when Levi put his hand against the door.
“I'm going to take a shower,” she said, running her hand down her neck which was sticky with sweat.
“I'm coming in with you.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it. Without another word, she opened the door and stepped aside.
Levi checked behind the door and looked in the shower. He even peered into the toilet bowl, which earned him a nervous giggle from her, but a giggle nonetheless.
“All clear, ma'am,” he announced.
“Thank you, kind sir.” She let out that high-pitched nervous giggle again. She went to the door and waited for him to leave.
Instead of walking to the door, Levi shrugged and went to put the toilet seat down. Then he sat himself down on the toilet seat and tried to look comfortable.
“Um, I'm going to take a shower,” Rebecca said pointedly.
“Yup. Go ahead.”
She blew out an exasperated breath. “Aren't you going to wait outside?”
“Nope.”
“But...it's all clear. You said so yourself.”
“Yeah. But I'm not letting you out of my sight. I'm not making that mistake again. I'm not going to give that bastard a chance to come near you—again.”
Rebecca's lips parted. She realized at once what Levi was saying. He had just told her that he believed her, that he believed Phin had really been in her room and it wasn't all just a nightmare.
“T-thank you, Levi,” she whispered.
He gave a small nod. “Go. Take your shower. I'll be right here. I'll watch your back, but I won't stare at you.” He frowned. “Does that make any sense?”
She laughed and he could almost feel the weight of the world lift from his chest. “Yes! Yes, it does.”
She disrobed quickly and stepped into the shower. Levi tried not to stare at her luscious, curvaceous figure. The water came on, and he could feel himself getting hard just sitting there, listening to her movements, knowing that she was shampooing her silky soft hair, and applying soap all over that delectable body.
He wished he was the one soaping her, running his soapy hands over her heavy breasts and sweet, generous hips and thighs.
He would take his time, make sure she was nicely soaped up, and massage every lush inch of her...
The glass began to steam up.
He couldn't see her clearly through the fogged glass but he could still hear her moving around, the water pelting down her back and running through her hair.
The whole bathroom smelled of her soap and shampoo, and of her. The scent was warm and inviting, and he leaned back a little, inhali
ng the glorious scent of her deeply.
If only he could wake up to this scent every day, and fall asleep with her scent all over him every night...
Levi blinked through the thick steam rising from the shower. The glass was all fogged up, and the entire bathroom was filled with dense, almost suffocating steam. He could hear the water running, but the rhythm was different. It was not the sound of water cascading down a warm, curvy body. It was the sound of water hitting the cool, flat shower tiles.
He jerked to his feet. “Rebecca!”
There was no answer.
“Rebecca!”
Levi waved the steam and fog away from his eyes, and skidded to the shower door. Despite the heat from the shower, his blood felt like ice in his veins. He yanked the shower door open, and stumbled into the scalding spray of water.
With a shout, he snapped the water off and spun round the narrow cubicle. An overturned shampoo bottle was bleeding out its contents in the corner, saturating the muggy, hot air with its cloying strawberry scent.
The shower was empty.
Rebecca was gone.
Levi scrambled out of the bathroom and checked the doors and windows. Everything was still tightly secured and locked. No signs of a break in at all.
Levi raced to the bathroom again, sniffing the air and watching the steam and mist slowly dissipating. As the glass began to clear, he caught his own distraught face in the mirror.
He closed his eyes briefly. “It's not Phin,” he whispered, almost in disbelief.
The mist swirled before his eyes, taunting him, opening his eyes and mind to the terrible truth.
“No.”
Levi clenched his fists painfully.
Mist.
How could he have missed it?
He had been keeping his eye out for a human. He had just assumed that Phin Lester would be coming after Rebecca on his own. He hadn't considered the possibility that Phin might have aligned himself with some rogue paranormals.
Wild Mate: BBW Bear Shifter Romance Page 6