“All right, Levi. Crystal and I are going to input the layout for today. Signing off,” Kyle said.
“Later.”
Levi checked to make sure the Audi was gone, grabbed the replacement glass and toolbox from the garage, and made his way back upstairs to Taylor’s room. Thunder echoed through the house as the sky opened up, a rarity in Southern California. Suzanne passed him on the stairs and gave him a sympathetic smile. He barely returned her smile before wondering why all the women in this house were so strange. He stood outside Taylor’s closed door for a few seconds and settled his frenzied mind. Focus on the job, he told himself before knocking.
“Come in, Suzy, but I don’t want to hear about Beau.”
He swung the door open, entered, and closed it behind him. Taylor was sitting at her desk typing on her laptop. She unwrapped a candy, popped it in her mouth, and continued typing. Her clothes were all back in place, but she looked ruffled.
“It’s not Suzanne,” Levi said. Taylor whipped around, surprised to find him there. She seemed to choke on her candy but recovered quickly. “I’m just here to finish the door.”
* * *
Taylor pretended to return her attention to her computer screen. She felt a flaming heat in her cheeks when she thought of Levi seeing her with Beau. His fierce gaze had originally spurred her on, but when he’d disappeared, Taylor had felt guilty and ashamed. These were two emotions she was not familiar with. Beau’s hands had felt all wrong, and before she knew what she was doing, she had asked him to leave.
Now, seeing Levi again, she was dying to be near him. Taylor struggled to think of ways to start a conversation, but she couldn’t manage anything appropriate. She frowned and tried to remember when she had ever been unsure of herself around a guy.
Levi worked quietly. Taylor stole glances at him when she could, and he continued to ignore her. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she closed her laptop and rolled her chair over to the balcony doors. He looked up from under the bill of his hat but made no effort to engage her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Repairing the door.”
“I know that.” Taylor rolled her eyes. “I mean how are you doing it?”
He opened his mouth, but then closed it. She watched him take a deep breath and look up at her.
“I already replaced the pane of glass. Now I’m working on oiling the hinges and the upper and lower sliding locks.” He sprayed something onto the locks and hinges. He tried the door again, but it didn’t budge. “It may need to sit for a while. I’ll try again in a few minutes.”
A flash of lightning lit up the windows before thunder shook the house.
“I hate thunderstorms,” Taylor said. “That’s the best part about living here. This almost never happens.”
Levi leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “I was scared of them when I was a kid. Then my mom told me that thunderstorms were just people in heaven having a party.” Levi grinned. “I know it’s lame, but it worked.”
She shook her head. “It’s not lame. It’s the perfect thing for a mother to tell her child.” Taylor’s chest squeezed tight at the thought of never hearing anything similar from her own mother. When the silence became too much, Levi broke first.
“So, where did your little friend go?” he asked.
“Who? Beau?” Taylor swallowed and tucked her hands beneath her thighs.
“The Ken doll with the nice car?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” she said. “He left right after he came.” Taylor laughed at her own joke. Levi glared at her. “I’m kidding.”
“Not one for sticking around, huh?”
“He’s not invited to stick around, Levi.”
“I thought he was your boyfriend or something,” he said.
“I’m not a boyfriend kind of girl. We only started sleeping together again to piss off our parents. But, of course, none of them have even noticed. Our fathers are, like, mortal enemies.”
“So you two are kind of like Romeo and Juliet?”
Taylor laughed, hiding her surprise at his Shakespearian reference. “I guess the warring families part is right, but take out all the love, devotion, and pointless suicide.”
“Pointless?”
“Yeah. I mean, they didn’t have to die. If just one of them had stood up to their families and declared their love, they could have avoided death. Romeo and Juliet is an overdramatic love story that ends in tragedy because of miscommunication and a lack of backbone.”
Levi shook his head, an amused smile on his lips. “I disagree. It’s my favorite piece by Shakespeare.”
“Really?” Taylor asked. “I didn’t know you could read.”
“He showed us a realistic, chaotic portrayal of love,” Levi said, ignoring the snobby jab. “Not a fancied-up, delicate version. They’re thrown into this situation where they have to fight their families, their friends, and sometimes each other. Romeo was misunderstood. Rosaline left him wanting. And he’s okay with his life until the moment he sees Juliet. I don’t know if I buy the whole love at first sight thing, but it was something more than just lust.”
“Oh, come on. He wants to bang her so he spits all this romantic bullshit to lure her in,” Taylor insisted.
“Maybe. But the kicker is, she feels it too. Their attraction was mutual, and so intense that neither of them could fully comprehend or resist it.”
“This so-called love”—Taylor used air quotes to make her point—“made them weak idiots who end up hurting each other, and eventually dead. I mean, the entire theme of the play is death.”
“Romeo wasn’t perfect.” Levi threw his hands in the air before dropping them to his side. “He made mistakes. I get that. He was impulsive and volatile. He let his desire for this girl cloud his ability to make good decisions. You can’t go around killing your new wife’s cousin.”
“And Juliet fell for all his lines when she could have had a nice cushy life with Paris,” Taylor said.
Levi sighed and frowned at her. “A cushy life with someone her father appointed. She would rather die than do that. It speaks to the power of their love.”
“Lust.”
“Attraction,” Levi countered. “As much as Romeo screwed up, he was also a victim of those crazy events he had absolutely no control over. Like he said, ‘I am fortune’s fool.’”
Taylor smiled up at him, amused at Levi’s obvious passion. “Fortune? As in destiny and all that? I don’t buy it for a minute. They were idiots who should have humped and said their good-byes.”
He laughed, but it was cold and humorless. “I would expect nothing less from you, Taylor.” With that, he turned to the door and pushed against it. Miraculously, it swung open.
Something about the tone of his voice set Taylor off. She jumped from her chair.
“What the hell does that mean?” she asked. Levi ignored her, moving the door back and forth. Taylor pulled it from his grip and threw it open, finally gaining his attention.
“It means that you’re a spoiled, rich brat who takes what she wants and disregards anyone not in her tax bracket,” he growled, stepping closer.
“I’m so tired of people making assumptions about who I am!” she yelled, poking Levi in the chest. His eyes followed her finger before returning to her fuming expression. “I’m sorry that you were born less fortunate. But I’m not apologizing for having money.” She poked him again. “You think you have me pegged, but you don’t know shit about me.”
With the rain suddenly gone, her voice echoed through the room. The silence left them in an eerie standoff. “You decided you hated me right away. You think life’s not fair because you got dealt a shit hand? Well, what’s fair about the deadbeat parents I got? Huh? What’s fair about your unfounded attitude?”
Taylor poked him in the chest again before dropping her hands to her sides, balling them into fists. She worked hard to pull in breaths as her head spun with words and thoughts she couldn’t quite piece together. Levi dropp
ed his eyes to the floor and shoved his hands into his pockets. His silence stabbed at her. Here she was, passionate and heated, while he stood motionless, unaffected.
“Say something!” Taylor demanded.
“You’re right.”
“I am?”
Levi nodded and shifted from foot to foot. His eyes scanned the room, avoiding her gaze.
“Money separates people. It’s not your fault you were born into this life. My opinions of you are based on my general resentment of the wealthy, which stems from experience with other people, and not on you.”
With no warning, Taylor launched herself at him. Her arms went around his neck as she pressed her lips to his. Levi’s hands came up to hold her, but he stopped short. His fingers hovered around her waist as if there were an invisible force field restraining him. When she scraped her nails along the back of his neck, he was done for.
He parted his lips and sucked on her tongue. When his lips touched hers, he felt a jolt race through his body. It was that rush of kissing someone for the first time, someone that knows what you need more than you do.
His fingers curled around her hips and he pulled her closer. She tasted like watermelon candy and fit perfectly in his arms. Taylor hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Levi’s hands caught her and held her there before moving up her smooth thighs. He stumbled to the bed, needing more of her.
They fell onto the mattress with Taylor pinned beneath him. Levi pressed his hips against her, and she moaned at the feel of it.
“Levi, so good,” she whispered.
Those words, spoken earlier in the day to another man, broke Levi out of his lust-induced haze. He pulled his mouth away from her neck and looked into her greedy blue eyes. Their mouths, inches apart, exchanged labored breaths. Levi’s head and body battled between what he wanted and what was right.
“Don’t,” she said, her voice manic with need. “Levi, don’t stop.”
Levi shook his head, disappointed that he was willing to risk everything, ruin the plan, for a piece of ass.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, pulling himself from her grip.
He packed up his toolbox and retreated as fast as his feet could carry him.
* * *
Later that evening, Levi sat in his favorite spot overlooking the ocean, and all he could do was think about Taylor Hudson. He strummed his guitar lazily and thought about the revolving heat and energy between them, the sort of lust and fury that pushed and pulled them apart. When the team learned of Taylor’s existence, no one had given her a second thought. She was just a kid, they said. But Levi knew better now. With her wicked body and pretty face, she threatened everything they worked for.
Tempt not a desperate man.
Levi hummed along as he played “Sex and Candy,” remembering the feel of her legs wrapped around him and the taste of her lips. He lifted his eyes to the sky and thanked God that Crystal or Kyle hadn’t witnessed when he broke down and almost gave her what she wanted, though they would eventually watch the footage and find out for themselves just how weak he was. The Boss would not hesitate to cut him out of the deal if he jeopardized this job in any way. Levi finished the song and placed his guitar on the ground. He inhaled the cool, salty air and silently vowed to be strong, for himself and for his team.
* * *
The next morning, Reese called Taylor as if nothing had happened. That was the way the two friends operated. They fought, and the next day all was forgotten. She invited Taylor to the beach along with some friends. Needing an escape from the four walls of her room, Taylor agreed.
After she was dressed in her favorite bikini and new sundress, Taylor went in search of a beach bag in her mother’s closet. One of the good things about Virginia always being gone was that Taylor had complete access to all her accessories. When she opened the bedroom door, Nadine was there, coming out of Henry’s closet. Taylor raised an eyebrow at the woman and glanced back toward the closet.
“Is Henry in there?” she asked, expecting her father to stumble out half dressed.
“No,” Nadine answered. “He’s downstairs.”
“What are you doing in here?”
“I’m just grabbing a few suits for your father since he’ll be busy in meetings all week.”
“How accommodating.” Taylor sneered, while wondering where he was spending his nights.
Nadine pulled two suits from the closet and set them in a garment bag hung on the back of the door. “Just doing my job, Taylor. What are you doing in here?”
“That’s none of your business. I live here,” Taylor said.
Nadine stopped and put her hands on her hips. She tapped the toe of her knockoff shoe at Taylor.
“There’s no need for you to be rude. I was only trying to make conversation. I think we got off on the wrong foot, Taylor. I’m not your enemy.”
Taylor stepped forward, eye to eye with the petite woman. She’d never really looked at Nadine up close before, and even through her hate-tinted goggles, Taylor could see how attractive she was. She had a heart-shaped face, small button nose, and large almond eyes. Taylor thought she kind of looked like a cat, and by the tone of Nadine’s voice, she imagined the woman had claws as well.
“Don’t forget who you are. You’re his assistant, not his wife. You don’t get to ask me anything or make conversation. Do your job and get out of my house.”
Nadine pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and held it there as she also held Taylor’s gaze. She didn’t seem rattled by the threat, only more determined to stand her ground. She returned to Henry’s closet, retrieved two more suits, added them to the garment bag, and zipped it up.
Taylor found the bag she needed in her mother’s closet, and by the time she exited, Nadine was gone. When she was finished packing, Taylor ventured downstairs to grab some breakfast before Reese picked her up. She found Levi, Suzanne, and Mandy sitting around the kitchen island drinking coffee. Taylor grabbed a banana and sat across from Levi.
“Is Henry still here?”
Suzanne shook her head. “Sorry, honey. He and Nadine left a few minutes ago.”
Taylor hated the pitiful look on Suzanne’s face, a look that said I’m sorry your father is not much of one.
“That’s okay.” Taylor shrugged halfheartedly. “Last time I saw him he patted me on the head like I’m the family dog. I’ll take no interaction over that.”
Suzanne threw her arms around Taylor from behind and wrapped her in a tight hug. She pressed her face into Taylor’s hair and whispered the same words she’d been saying for eighteen years. “Thick and thin, tried and true. Against the world, it’s just us two. Love you, Boo.”
“Love you, Kitty.”
Taylor swallowed the lump in her throat, remembering the words Suzanne had been telling her since she was a child. The nicknames were a reference to Monsters, Inc., a movie Taylor had been obsessed with.
She was embarrassed to have this conversation in front of other employees, especially in front of Levi. Vulnerability was something Taylor was not used to showing. Suzanne released her and excused herself while Mandy scurried off mumbling about dusting.
“Don’t everyone get to work on my account,” she said. Levi didn’t look up at her as he finished his coffee and stood. “Good morning, Levi.” He dropped his mug in the sink and turned to go without acknowledging her. “Hello? Am I talking to myself here? Where are you going?”
“Outside,” he answered in a short tone.
“Levi, you don’t have to leave just because I’m here,” Taylor said. He stopped, took a deep breath, and turned to face her. He wore a smile so fake it looked painted on.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Taylor. I’ve got work to do.”
With that, he turned and headed out the back door. Taylor sat motionless and stunned. She hated this avoidance, from her father and from Levi.
Reese’s horn beeped twice and Taylor hurried out the front door. She tried to leave Levi and all unhappy thoughts behind.
>
“Hey, Reese,” Taylor said, crossing her arms after buckling up.
“Well, good to see you, too, Debbie Downer.”
Taylor pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes and put her best effort into a convincing smile. “Sorry, I’m tired today.”
“No worries, kid. We’re just lounging at the beach with the crew.” Reese turned around in the driveway and pulled out into the neighborhood.
“Who’s going to be there?” Taylor asked, trying to prevent more difficult subjects coming up.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get an official roster,” Reese teased, poking her friend in the ribs. Taylor slapped her hand away.
For the entire ride to the beach, they talked about how great it would be to live on the opposite coast. Reese was attending Brown University, so she’d be about an hour away from Taylor and Adrienne. She was determined to land one of those old East Coast family frat boys, the kind with sweater vests and bottomless trust funds.
“I hear guys like that are boring and prudes,” Taylor said, looking out the window at the passing scenery.
“He won’t be when I’m done with him,” Reese answered. “You know how these old-money boys are. They’ve got more dollars than sense. I’ll just have to train him.”
“Are we talking about a person or a puppy?”
“He’ll be my good little puppy. Yes, he will,” Reese said in baby talk while making smooching noises.
“And he’ll probably have an overbearing mother who will be hostile toward you and make your life miserable. She’ll say you’re not good enough and call you a gold-digging whore.”
“I don’t care. I won’t be able to hear a thing while sitting on top of my pile of money.” Reese chuckled. “Stop killing my dream, Dream Killer. What kind of friend are you?”
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