“I’m not hiding,” she said, hearing the breathlessness in her voice. “My hair is an unruly mess if I don’t harness it.”
“It’s not. It’s thick and beautiful.”
“I need those glasses to read.”
“You always wore them too much, even as a kid. They’re like a shield you put up so people don’t see you.”
“Not see me? Ha! I’m a size where it’s quite impossible for people to miss me.”
“Bullshit.” He took a fistful of her dress and hiked it up. “You could make a tent with this dress.” He kept pulling and bunching until her thigh was exposed. “It’s ninety-seven degrees outside and you are dressed like a sister wife.” His hand slid up her bare thigh. “You’re hiding this body.”
“Maybe it should be hidden,” she said. He shook his head as he pushed his face closer to hers so that his lips were nearly brushing hers. And she knew in that moment that what she was feeling was aroused. Her nipples had tightened. She throbbed between her legs. He was closer than anyone had ever been to her in that moment and yet she wanted him closer still. “What’s happening?” she whispered.
He lifted his head slightly and blinked at her and instantly her body felt lighter and colder because he was gone.
They had gotten too close, crossed a line that other friends never did.
She sat up and tried to make sense of what had just happened, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the bathroom, spinning her around so that they were both looking in the mirror. She didn’t look at herself very often. Just to see if she was neat, but other than that she didn’t see a point. Yet here she was with Levi staring at herself.
“I want you to see yourself.” Levi’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Her hair was in soft tousled curls instead of the tight frizzy coils she used to have. She could see her eyes clearly now that they weren’t covered by glasses. She wasn’t the walking disaster that she always imagined in her head. She still had an image of herself as an awkward teenager with bad hair and multicolored braces. She used to hate how she looked. She had avoided the mirror, but she was seeing that she wasn’t so bad. She almost looked pretty.
“This dress is so damn ugly,” Levi said and popped her tender confidence bubble.
She spun around to face him. “It is not!”
“It’s shit brown, Shell.”
She gasped. “You take that back!”
“I’m your best friend. I will not. I’m telling you the truth. That dress is shit brown and you look like an old schoolteacher.”
“I am a schoolteacher, damn it.”
“Oh, baby.” He grinned at her. “I like it when you get sassy. But you’re not old.” He spun her back around so she was facing the mirror again and grabbed her dress, pulling the fabric back until she could see the shape of her body. He then ran his hand down her waist, settling on her hip. “Do you see this?”
She let out a slow breath, not thinking it was possible for her body to react so intensely to a simple touch.
“Don’t hide this from me.”
“I don’t know what to say to that.” Their eyes connected in the mirror. His hands were still on her body. There was so much heat coursing through her, and as she looked in his eyes she thought she saw it in his, too.
“Don’t say anything, just come shopping.” He stepped away from her, dropping his hands from her body. “I didn’t bring enough clothes with me to last the month.”
And just like that the heat was gone. Disappointment settled around her.
“Just let me change before we go. I would hate to be seen out in shit brown. That color is so last season.”
“You don’t have to change. I’m not telling you to change. I was just …”
“What, Levi? Tell me.”
“Just don’t cover up who you really are.”
She didn’t want to think he was right, but he might be. There was nothing exciting about her. Not the way she looked or acted, or lived. Everything about her was muted. She lived her life in a box and she didn’t like it but she never did anything to break out of it. Maybe it was time she did. “Give me a few minutes to get ready. You’re buying me lunch, by the way.”
“Naturally,” he agreed.
“An expensive one. With food I’ve never eaten before like lobster and that kale stuff everyone on TV keeps talking about.”
“You think we’ll find that kind of stuff around here?”
“I don’t know. That’s your problem.”
His grin widened. “We’ll go for broke and get an appetizer.”
“Dessert, too.” She nodded. “I expect to be spoiled and pampered while you’re here.”
“Of course.” He kissed her cheek again. He didn’t linger as long as the last time, but it was still long enough to make her blush.
“There’s a mall at the casino,” she said when he lifted his lips. “You might find something there.”
“Take me there.”
“Right after I change.”
She didn’t miss the irony of her words. She had the feeling she wasn’t going to be the same person after this trip.
*
The casino complex was surprisingly nice, Levi saw when they pulled up half an hour later. He expected the place to be filled with chain-smoking octogenarians, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that there were quite a few younger people there. Even families, though there wasn’t much for the under-twenty-one crowd to do except shop in the mall or eat at the dozen or so restaurants there.
Still, he was impressed with the growth that had happened here in the last ten years. There could probably be a lot more if the factory didn’t close.
“There’s a gondola ride,” Shelly said to him, pointing to the indoor waterway as they stepped inside. “They’ve tried to make it very international. There’s a mini Tower of London by the craps tables. It has me feeling quite Continental, you know.”
“You want to go on the gondola ride?” He gently bumped into her.
“You want to take me on the gondola ride?” She bumped him back.
“I do.” He looped his arm around her shoulders as they walked, unable to keep his distance from her.
He was feeling something between them. Something coming from her that felt a lot like sadness.
He hoped he hadn’t hurt her feelings today. He thought Ace was crazy when he said that Shelly looked like a schoolmarm. He was expecting to see her more buttoned today. No miles of smooth long bare legs. No tight breast-baring tank top. But he walked in seeing another woman completely. The woman that she showed the world every day.
Brown drab shapeless dress, with thick-framed glasses and her hair brutally tied back. Joyless. That was the only word he could think of to describe the way she looked. It was in such contrast with the way she really was. Bubbly, happy, adorable.
That sexy girl had been put away. No one would look at her twice. No one would see how special she was.
It had almost been an involuntary action to pull down her hair and take away the glasses covering her face. He should have ignored the urge. Shut his mouth and just gone about his day. But he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t stop himself from touching her, and running his fingers through her hair, and revealing those eyes that looked up at him in a way no other eyes ever had.
He hadn’t meant to push her down on the couch, to press his body against hers, to settle in between those lush warm thighs. He was about to kiss her. And that was crazy in itself because she was Shelly and he never thought kissing and Shelly would go together. But what was crazier was that he knew that if he kissed her then, he wouldn’t have been able to stop. It would have been too easy to free himself from his pants. It would have been too easy to yank down her underwear and push himself deep, deep inside her. It would have been too easy to make a huge mistake that would alter their friendship forever.
And yet he was with her, with his arm wrapped around her, breathing in her fabric-softener scent and feeling aroused again.
She had changed into new clothes. A knee-length khaki-colored skirt and a boxy white polo top. He was still attracted to her and that made him realize that it didn’t matter what she wore. It was just her.
Or maybe it was just him. He needed a new focus in his life. He was sure once he went back to racing, these crazy feelings would stop and he would just laugh at how ridiculous he was.
“What’s on your bucket list, Shell?” he asked, remembering their conversation from last night.
“I don’t have one.”
“Yes, you do. You said something about traveling and living and having fun. What would you do?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think I would like to feel what it would be like to not be me anymore.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being you.”
“Said the millionaire race-car driver with his own TV show and legions of fans.”
He felt slightly guilty. He had been around the world more than once. He had seen so much in his life, but he had never really appreciated it. He had always been seeking more. A bigger rush. More pleasure. More danger.
He made fun of Colt for being too damn driven, but maybe Colt had gotten it right. He had made it to the top without causing any trouble and without taking anyone down in the process. “Tell me what you want to do.”
“Drive real fast.” She looked up at him thoughtfully. “You said it’s a rush. I’ve never felt a rush before.”
“Never?” He’d felt a rush just today when his lips were perilously close to hers.
“Nope. I would like to go to Big Sur one day. They let you skinny-dip in the sulfur baths at night. I guess it would be chunky dunking in my case, but it sounds very peaceful and beautiful.”
Levi swallowed hard. He could just imagine how she would look naked in a pool of water at night. The water gently lapping over her breasts. His groin tightened. “What else?” He cleared his throat of the fist-sized lump it had and tried not to think of his best friend naked.
“Maybe get all glammed up and beautiful. Like Zanna. Zanna’s always beautiful. Her skin, her dark hair and cool clothes. And she’s got red shoes. They look like they must hurt, but she looks so sexy in them. I would like to be sexy like her just once. I bet you hit on her already.”
“She’s Colt’s.”
“What?” She frowned. “I know your brother likes to acquire property, but the last time I checked, Zanna wasn’t his to claim.”
“I meant Colt has a thing for her. I stay away from anyone my brothers are interested in.”
“Does that happen a lot?”
“Almost never. Colt usually goes out with ice princesses. Women that look like they belong on the arm of a rich businessman. But I know him. I see where his eye goes and it’s to women like Zanna with long hair and tight jeans and red fingernails.”
“And Duke?”
“Duke doesn’t date. When he first got out of prison I knew he was plowing through women like a field horse, but he doesn’t do that anymore, and when he did he was careful about it. Duke was the king of no strings attached.”
“A trait that runs in the family.”
“Maybe. Duke likes understated pretty women. He’ll go for a diner waitress or an EMT. No makeup or flash. He likes a hardworking woman.”
“And you?”
“I just like women, Shelly. All women. It’s a simple as that.”
“Not much has changed.” Her lips curled into a slight smile and he was struck by how pretty she was. Maybe he did have a type. He always appreciated a girl with a pretty smile.
He felt Shelly’s attention leave him and he followed her eyes to a group of people with their phones held out in picture-snapping position. “I think you have been recognized,” she said softly.
“Yeah.” He had been fairly well known during his time racing, but King’s Customs Creates was extremely popular. And because of Colt’s little idea, his fame had exploded.
“They’re taking pictures.”
“They’ll probably end up on somebody’s Instagram page.” There was rarely a day that went by without people coming up to ask him for a selfie. He was cool with it, but today he didn’t feel like being bothered. Today it felt like these people were stealing something from the time he had with her.
“Do you want me to walk in front of you so I’m not in the pictures?”
“Why?” He frowned at her. “You don’t want to be seen in pictures with me?”
“I was thinking it was the other way around.” There was just a little bit too much seriousness in her voice for his liking, and he knew that he had inadvertently hurt her today.
He just wanted her to see what he did. That she was beautiful.
“You’re crazy. I think you don’t want to be seen with me because you’re afraid your daddy will find out you’ve been hanging out with me again.”
He knew her father had never liked him as a kid. And he really shouldn’t like him as an adult. No church deacon wanted his daughter to be friends with a man who drove too fast, partied too hard, and slept around a little too much. Levi didn’t blame Deacon Walker for not liking him. If he had a daughter like Shelly, he would want to keep her away from him, too.
“You King boys are known for ruining a girl’s reputation,” she said as she led him into a store that catered to casual but sexy twenty-somethings. “I think you’ll find something to wear in here. I thought about taking you to the discount store but I’m glad I didn’t. Can’t have you showing up on the Internet wearing an irregular T-shirt. But hell, you’re so good-looking you can make having one sleeve four inches longer than the other a trend.”
“We can make lopsided chic a thing.” He walked over to a table of neatly folded T-shirts and picked up all the dark-colored ones. “Can you grab me some jeans from over there? Thirty-six, thirty-four. Dark colors. You think they sell underwear here?”
“Men are annoying,” she sighed as she returned to him with three pairs.
“Why? Because we need underwear? I can go commando if you want.” He winked at her. “It might chafe a little but for you, I’ll do anything.”
She rolled her eyes but grinned. “It’s annoying how you can just pick up a bunch of T-shirts and jeans at random and probably look damn good in them. Meanwhile, I would have to try on half the store and still not even find one pair that fit right.”
“You’re a woman.” He put the shirts down and reached for her hand. A little voice in his head warned him not to, but he couldn’t help himself. “God made us big and ugly so there’s only a few things we can wear, but he made you soft and pretty and curvy. There are so many ways to dress you all up. So many ways to make you all look more delicious.”
“You’re so full of crap, Levi.”
“You think?”
He stepped closer; just another inch or two and he would feel her breasts against his chest. He would like to hug her again, to feel that softness, to be wrapped up in her.
She folded her arms beneath her breasts, pushing them upward, making her look tempting but preventing him from doing what he wanted. “Of course I think. You’re so full of crap it should be coming out of your eyes.”
His eyes traveled back to her mouth, where a slight smile curved her lips, and he wondered if it was always like that. If her lips were always so full and smooth and pink. That little naughty voice in his head shouted, Do it. Taste them. Kiss her. Make it good.
“Excuse me, Mr. King,” he heard a high-pitched, bright voice say. He silently swore at the interruption, even though it was probably a good thing he was stopped from kissing her right there in the middle of the store.
He turned around to see a sales associate wearing high-waisted short-shorts and a long-sleeved black shirt that he guessed passed for fashion in these parts. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen. “Hello,” he simply said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
He was way more interested in Shelly than anything this clerk had to say.
“Welcome to Jagged. Was
there anything I could help you with today? Maybe open a dressing room for you? I could pick out some clothes I think would work for you. Of course with your body, anything would work on you.”
She was flirting. He got that a lot and normally he loved to exchange banter with a pretty woman, but she was a girl and he didn’t look twice at anyone who couldn’t legally rent a car.
“I think we’re good.”
“I’ve seen every episode of your show. My boyfriend—my ex-boyfriend got me into it. You’re really great on it.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She gave him a smile that he recognized, one of those practiced coquettish smiles that served as an invitation. “I heard that you were going to be filming that big racing movie soon. I’ve been telling my friends that you should be an actor. It would be amazing to see you on the big screen.”
He felt Shelly’s eyes on him and looked back to see that she was staring at the girl with a mix of curiosity and a touch of annoyance.
“Actually you can help me.” He took his T-shirts and jeans and piled them into her arms. “Can you bring that to the counter for me? Thank you. Come on, Shells. Let’s find something pretty for you.” He grabbed Shelly’s hand and pulled her away.
“What?”
“Let’s get you something.”
“Are you sure you wanted to leave that girl?” she asked once they were out of earshot. “There’s a gorgeous hotel here. You can rent a room and I’ll walk around for a few hours. Just leave me some cash. There’s a bakery a few doors down. They’ve got a cinnamon bun as big as my head. That could keep me occupied for a long time. Then you could roll me out of here when you’re done.”
“What kind of man do you take me for? I’m a little offended. I don’t sleep with women I’ve just met and I don’t mess with anybody who looks under the age of twenty-five.”
“You should always check ID before you sleep with someone,” Shelly said with a nod. “I was at the middle school and those thirteen-year-old girls look older than me. Shiny lips and black eyeliner and don’t even get me started on the clothes. My father would never let me walk out of the house in a face full of makeup when I was that young. He probably wouldn’t let me get away with it now.”
Heart of a Bad Boy (Bad Boys of Destiny #3) Page 6