Assassin's Mark

by Ella Sheridan

  “He?”

  “My father.”

  Levi drew back enough to look at me. “Family can be a bitch.”

  Or bastard. Since my mother had died when I was a toddler, my father was all the family I had.

  Vibrations lit up my pocket. Levi chuckled this time, his cool fingers gripping my chin. “Why don’t you go see what the problem is?”

  “Because I don’t care.”

  “And I don’t want your attention divided—I’d rather have you all to myself.” Heat licked at me as his hungry gaze settled once more on my mouth. “Trust me; I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Why would a guy this hot be waiting for a girl like me? The questions beat at my brain, demanding an answer, but I’d never screw up the courage to say the words aloud, so I slipped reluctantly from his arms instead. Rather than returning to the table, I walked down the hall to the ladies’ room and hurried inside. The stalls were empty, so I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled through my contacts until I came to my father’s number, not bothering to check the texts. Personal experience had taught me that he wouldn’t stop until he heard my voice.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Abigail?”

  “Hello to you too, Dad.”

  Pride filled me at the lack of fear in my voice—until the fury in my father’s growl made me tremble.

  The sound of people talking that filtered through the phone became muffled; Dad moving to a more secluded area. “I’ve had enough of your goddamn games, Abigail. I’m sending a car for you; it’ll be outside in ten minutes, and I want you inside it in ten and a half. You will come to this dinner, and you will be by my side when I make my announcement—or you will regret it. Is that clear?”

  “That’s going to be difficult since I’m not at home.”

  “I know exactly where you are. Do you think I’m an idiot?”

  “How—” But I was no idiot either. Or maybe I am, because…cell phone. I pulled the device away from my ear to stare at it, dazed, my father’s rants and demands registering vaguely, like flies my mind batted away without conscious thought. Only the tone flowed over me, a trick I’d learned as a young girl—or more of a survival strategy, really. The only way to endure the hours of lectures and discipline that had filled my childhood.

  “Get your ass outside right this minute and wait for Charlie to arrive. I won’t have you shaming this family.”

  That registered. Or rather, slapped me awake. I was bringing shame to our family? Me? My father expected me to marry for his convenience, for the good of his political career, but I was the shameful one? I squeezed down on the cell, the sound of plastic creaking in protest satisfying something inside me that ached to burst free. Too bad I wasn’t strong enough to pulverize the damn thing.

  And yet, a large part of me believed him. Always had. After all, if I wasn’t shameful, he would love me, right?

  No. Wrong. You’re not going to let that bastard poison you anymore, Abby.

  I wasn’t the Hulk, able to crush a cell phone with a single twitch of my fingers, but I was strong enough to drop it into the trash can full of wet paper towels and walk out of the bathroom without looking back. In the hall, the sight of Levi leaning against the wall, obviously waiting, hands stuffed into his pockets, brought me to an abrupt stop. My mouth went dry. I’d spent my life trying to please a man, and look where that had gotten me.

  I was already bringing shame to the Roslyn name; maybe I should embrace the role instead of letting my father’s words cut me to pieces.

  I moved closer. One side of Levi’s mouth tilted up, and he wrapped those big hands around my hips the minute I came within reach. A gravelly rumble escaped him, sinking beneath my skin and sending shivers to the deepest part of my being. Heavy-lidded eyes devoured me, shouting a desire I found hard to believe, but it was there nonetheless. Hunger. Pleasure. That look sent a surge of desperation so strong through me that I couldn’t speak if I’d wanted to.

  It’s now or never, Abby.

  I didn’t stop or slow. I moved into his space until my body was pressed firmly against his, lifted my chin, and met the lips that lowered to mine.

  Chapter Three

  His fingers bit into my hips, holding me tight, bruising with the force of his desire—and I reveled in it. I’d gladly bear bruises if it proved that, for once, someone wanted me, Abby Roslyn, not the daughter of politician and wealthy businessman Derrick Roslyn. Levi’s grip, the way he opened his mouth and let me in, the urgent push of his erection against my stomach said this was about hunger, not status. I needed that, wanted it with a desperation that probably made me pathetic, but so what? My entire life probably seemed pathetic to most people.

  It was time to leave that old Abby behind. And what better way to do it than with an act that would also give me pleasure?

  I retreated just enough to meet Levi’s eyes. They burned with the same intensity as his touch, reassuring me, fanning the flames that already consumed me. I swallowed hard. “Would you…”

  His fingers speared into my hair, tangling in the thick length, his palm big enough to cup my head. That touch steadied me, secured me. I couldn’t fall with someone that strong holding me. “Would I what, Abby?”

  “Would you like to go someplace more…private?”

  Silence. I dug my teeth into my bottom lip, that “not a complete fool” prayer echoing in my mind for the umpteenth time. Maybe he expected a quick screw in the bathroom? But I didn’t want quick. If I was going to do this, I wanted it to last.

  Levi stroked a rough finger over my mouth, forcing me to let go of my lip. “Are you sure that’s what you want? You don’t really know me.”

  I know I want you. I know you want me. I know I don’t want to be locked in a cage with no way out. “I know enough.”

  This time he kissed me, forcing me harder against him until my curves melded into the nooks and crannies of his powerful body. I could feel the demand, the hunger in his tight muscles as he bent me to his will. Wise or not, my body softened against him, surrendering control, yielding to the ferocious roar of desire, both from without and within.

  When the kiss ended, I could only hang there, a broken reed in his hands, desperate for Levi to put me back together.

  “Let’s go.”

  My laugh trembled as much as I did. “I’m supposed to walk after that?”

  Levi grinned. “Don’t worry. I can carry you if necessary.”

  I eyed the broad stretch of his shoulders. “I bet you can.”

  We’d just reached the end of the hall when I caught a glimpse of the front doors, situated to our left. One side opened, and in walked Charlie, my dad’s chauffeur. My ride was here.

  I jerked Levi to a quick stop. “Maybe we could go out the back?”

  His dark brows knotted up. “Your friends will wonder what happened to you, won’t they?”

  My heart thumped in my throat as Charlie surveyed the crowd, frowning. He was just as capable as Levi of hauling me out of here, willing or not. He’d never had to do more than threaten before. “I’ll text them.”

  Suspicion tinted his gray eyes. He scanned the bar, his hand tightening around mine. Whether he noticed Charlie or not, the tension in him rose, and he turned back to the hall, his arm coming around me. Without a word, without question, he protected me in a way my father never had. Stranger or not, he’d just given me something I’d never had before, and the fear of the unknown, of leaving this building with a man I’d met a mere hour ago, with the intent of making myself as vulnerable as a woman could get with him, disappeared.

  I was going to defy my father, and I was going to have sex with the hottest, most intriguing man I’d ever met. And nothing was going to stop me.

  Levi’s car waited across the street, low and black and gleaming in the streetlight’s faint glow. The barest glimpse of a limo parked in the no-parking zone in front of the bar entrance had me ducking my head, a low sigh of relief leaving me as I settled into the passenger seat of Le
vi’s vehicle. The door closed with a solid click, and then he was rounding the back to take his place behind the wheel. The growl of the engine rumbled through me, beneath me, vibrating things already sensitive to sensation. I fought the urge to squirm in my seat, barely managing to stay still despite years of practice at controlling myself in public, never moving the wrong way or saying the wrong thing. I couldn’t control the need to reach out, though, and lay my hand on Levi’s thigh, absorbing his heat and strength through the denim, feeling the play of his heavy muscles beneath my touch. What would they feel like when he was pushing inside me?

  My fingers clenched against him.

  Levi shifted the car into the next gear, then settled his hand over mine, threaded his fingers between mine. I focused there as he navigated through the dark city streets, trusting him to take us where we needed to go. I’d never had a hook-up before. What did I know about places to have sex? But Levi knew; in too few minutes he pulled the car into a crowded hotel parking lot.

  Levi parked. I couldn’t decide where to look—at those looming glass doors leading to the lobby, the man taking up so much space next to me that I could barely breathe, the dark street that offered anonymous escape. I deliberately turned away from that last option. I didn’t want escape, no matter how nervous I was. And yet…

  “Hey.”

  Levi cupped my chin, tilting my head until his gaze trapped mine. “Okay?”

  “Yeah.” Hopefully the darkness hid the shakiness of my smile. “It’s just…umm…”

  A glint of amusement lit his eyes. My cheeks heated. “Not used to the walk of shame?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Don’t worry.” He stroked my flushed skin, his gaze following the movement as if fascinated. “I’ll take care of you.”

  The deep timbre of his voice shivered through me, his words wrapping me in silken threads as unbreakable as the thickest, strongest rope. “I know. I trust you.”

  Did I? Maybe the words were automatic, what you were supposed to say when you were planning to sleep with the man you said them to. Tomorrow they wouldn’t matter, but I didn’t want to think about tomorrow, so I reached for the door latch.

  “Wait, let me.” He was out of the car and around to my side before I could draw a full breath.

  Inside, the clerk barely glanced up while he assigned us a room, sparing me the embarrassment of having to meet his eyes. Levi guided me to the elevator with a hand at my back. His heat both steadied me and made something deep in my core clench with excitement. I stepped through the sliding doors and turned at the back of the elevator, but he stopped just inside, reached for the button to our floor, and pushed, all without taking his heavy-lidded gaze from my face.

  How could a glance make me feel so vulnerable? I wanted to cross my arms over my chest and squeeze down, protect myself—from what, I didn’t know, because I also wanted to spread my arms wide and let Levi crawl inside me.

  “Abby.”

  Two syllables. So little, just my name, but that was all it took for my nipples to throb and a warm melting to suffuse my most feminine parts. And then he surged toward me, his big body pinning me to the back of the elevator, his mouth hard and demanding on mine.

  The ding of our arrival barely registered through the roaring in my ears.

  I chased his lips as they left mine. Levi was all electric heat and searing pleasure, and I wanted more, as much as I could get. Everything he had to give. I wouldn’t deny myself anything, not tonight. I didn’t hesitate as he gripped my hand tight and dragged me from the elevator. I caught a desperate glance at the key card, the door numbers, and then we were at the end of the hall, last door on the right. He fumbled the entry, a fact that told me he was just as anxious as I was. We’d started stripping each other before the door clicked shut.

  “Abby, Jesus.” He frowned down at the lace corselet I wore under my silk shirt. The lingerie made me feel pretty, but Levi was focused on the intricate lacing holding the front together.

  I laughed. “It zips.”

  “Well turn around, for fuck’s sake.”

  Another laugh as I obeyed. Cool air rushed over my skin when the sides of the corselet opened over my spine. Goose bumps rose. I held the front against me for a moment, struggling with that last little shred of timidity, and then I dropped the cloth. Levi swore as he stepped close, his heat covering my back.

  “Look up.”

  I did—and wow. The wall I faced wasn’t a wall at all, but a mirror. I zeroed in on Levi immediately. His hungry eyes devoured the sight of my bare breasts as he crowded closer. My hands came up automatically to rest on the cool surface; my nipples slid against the mirror, tingled at the chill until Levi cupped them from behind.

  My head fell back. “Levi!”

  The scruff on his chin abraded the sensitive skin of my neck. He bit down lightly, forcing me to acquiesce as he fondled my breasts, pinching the tips, rolling them, pulling. Cries escaped me, the begging and screaming and squirming out of my control as he pleasured me, pleased himself. And that made it all the hotter, the fact that I couldn’t escape, could only accept what he chose to give me, his shadowed gaze taking it all in as the mirror reflected back my torment and titillation.

  If this was what foreplay was like with him, how the hell would I survive sex?

  When his fingers left them, my nipples were hot enough that the cool surface of the mirror felt like ice, but I wasn’t shivering from cold. No, it was pleasure that shook me as I watched him watch me, felt the trace of his hands down my stomach, my hips, around to the clasp of my skirt. He bared my body while I examined his behind me, the sight of gleaming olive skin decorated with a wash of vibrant tattoos turning me on almost as much as his touch. The ink began just below his collarbone, a sea of blacks and blues and reds that highlighted the masculine hills and valleys of his torso and shoulders. My fingers itched to trace every line, although maybe I’d use my tongue. Or maybe both.

  Levi was beautiful in a brutal way, and the darkness of his gray eyes in the midst of his passion gave him a deadly edge that only added to his appeal. I wanted him inside me, wanted him to take me now, immediately. The damp heat between my legs said I was ready even if I had no actual experience with the physical act—preliminary contractions rocked my pelvis just from his look as my skirt drifted down my legs, leaving my lace garter belt and thigh highs bare to his view. What he zeroed in on, though, was the sight of my soft auburn curls framed by the delicate lace and garters. An animal growl escaped him, rumbling along my spine.

  I don’t mind vibrators, but that’s not exactly what I had in mind.

  I slammed the door shut on the reminder of my father’s demands and moaned my dismay as Levi stepped back. “No. What—”

  One thick arm wrapped around my belly, the other beneath my knees, and then I was in the air. Levi carried me across to the bed, proving he hadn’t lied earlier. He dropped me onto the mattress with a little grunt, tugged my boots off and tossed them one at a time over his shoulder, then dropped his hands to his belt buckle. “I can’t wait, Abby.”

  “I don’t want you to.”

  Chapter Four

  His chuckle was strained; so was his erection when he stripped his pants down his legs. I caught a brief glimpse of an angry red head before he bent to push off his shoes and shed his clothes. The size made me hesitate, but I wouldn’t stop, not now. Not ever if it meant Levi would be the one over me, inside me. I wanted him more than I was afraid of my first penetration, more than the worry about what might come after. When he stood and began to roll a condom onto his hard length, I opened my arms and beckoned him to me.

  He planted one knee on the bed. “Let me see all of you, Abby. Let me in.” His hands felt too big on my knees, too demanding as they pushed outward, but my hunger for him overcame any hesitation. Levi crawled up between my spread legs, his gaze on the most intimate part of my body. Searing. Hungry. Still making me squirm. And then he was on top of me, all solid-steel muscles and s
mooth skin and glorious heat.

  I hadn’t known the weight of a man could feel so good. Levi was heavy, his body pinning me in place, making me feel small and protected. I slid my hands down his wide shoulders, the muscles straining with the effort to keep his full weight from smothering me, down to hard pecs and ribs layered with a dense pad of muscle. His back too—the thick ropes lining his spine were the perfect handhold as he arched above me. His hot breath stroked one nipple. The other. When his tongue traced the aching nub, my nails dug in, my own back arching as I waited, waited…

  “Levi!”

  The cry escaped without permission, his name my touchstone against the overwhelming pleasure that hit with the sucking pressure of his mouth on my breast. I’d read about it, imagined it, had Levi’s fingers on my nipples, but this…oh God. Every tug, every swallow, the wet push of his tongue locking my nub against the roof of his mouth—they shattered me. All I could do was squeeze my eyes tight and try to breathe as the pressure built in my breast, in my core. Drawing my knees back tilted my hips, and then Levi was there, poised at my body’s entrance, a sensual threat I could do nothing but surrender to.

  I tightened my knees on his hips, urging him inside.

  Levi grunted around my nipple. His back curved under my hands; his shaft pressed forward, stretching me farther than I’d known I could be stretched. A sharp pain pierced my core.

  His head jerked back, and a curse escaped his clenched teeth. Wide, wild eyes stared down at me, but he didn’t stop his advance, and I didn’t stop wanting it, despite the pain, despite the protest of my body as he hilted inside me. Only then did I realize I was biting down on my lip, tasted the blood on my tongue, heard the tiny mewling sound that escaped despite my best attempt to hold it back.

  Levi heard it too. A quiver shot through him. “Breathe, Abby. Breathe.”

  He took his own advice, held himself still as he drew in a deep breath that mashed my breasts beneath him. When he exhaled, I inhaled. I exhaled; he inhaled. We followed the pattern until his body stopped shaking and my hands relaxed enough to extract my nails from his skin.