The woman might be tall, but she was nowhere near strong enough to subdue a man like Levi. Short minutes later he had her trapped against his chest, thick arms caging her ribs as she kicked and screamed and bucked. Levi’s jaw was clenched, anger and frustration mixing in his eyes as he fought to hold her, and I found myself wondering for the briefest moment if it turned him on, if the woman in his arms was making his body react the way it had to me.
Christ. I seriously needed to get my head on straight before I started fantasizing about Levi being Prince Charming with a freaking castle in the clouds. A Prince Charming who could snap my neck without a thought. Hers too.
“Stop!”
The nurse froze, fear shimmering like tears in her gaze as it locked onto me. Behind her, Levi glared, his lips opening, the explosion barreling down toward me. He needed a target—his world wasn’t cooperating, and it was pissing him the hell off. Really he should be used to it after me. I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t certain it would be the last straw, possibly for all of us.
I glared right back. “Just tell her.”
His expression said he’d rather strangle me, but I ignored it. “Tell her why she’s here and when she can go. You worry about your brothers; she’s worried about her kid. You get that, I know you do.”
He didn’t move for long seconds. The slow release of his arms told me how very reluctant he was to cooperate, but he did it anyway, eyes narrowed on me instead of the woman in front of him. I braced myself for whatever alpha bastard bullshit he was about to spill.
“You’re getting pushy,” he barked.
I shrugged, fighting back a swallow of fear. Not that there was anything to swallow; my throat was as dry as a desert, my heart pounding so hard against my ribs I thought they might crack. But I had nothing to lose, right? No one had helped me, but I could help her and her daughter. No child deserved to wonder where their parent was, if they’d ever return. If they cared enough about you to try.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
The woman rubbed her hands up and down arms that I knew probably ached from Levi’s grip. “Leah. Leah Marrone.”
“Leah.” I nodded in what I hoped was a reassuring way, then cocked a brow at Levi. “Tell her,” I said again, the words rasping the sides of my throat. “Please.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What’ll you give me if I do?”
Bastard. I didn’t respond aloud; I didn’t have to. He knew anything he wanted was his for the taking—hell, he’d proved it more than once. And I was fooling myself if I thought I wouldn’t give in.
Levi’s chuckle said he knew it too.
Leah stepped away, turning to face off with her enemy once more, though I noticed she kept a healthy distance. “I have to go,” she said.
Levi grunted. “I get that. And you will.” He glanced at Remi, eyes haunted. “Help us stabilize him, tell us what he needs, and I’ll make sure you get back to your daughter safely.”
Leah looked to me as if for reassurance.
“It’s okay. They won’t hurt you.”
The words burned in my throat, but if I believed anything anymore, I believed them.
She didn’t; her snort said so. “How would you know?”
“Because they took me too.”
The surprise that flashed across her face made my cheeks heat. Levi had kidnapped me, and I was vouching for him. Standing up for him.
Don’t forget sleeping with him.
I ignored my bitch of a conscience and held Leah’s eyes. “He’ll keep his word,” I assured her. “Just help us get Remi stable. He wasn’t safe in the hospital; his brothers can keep him safe. And you’ll see your daughter as soon as he’s out of the woods.”
Her gaze ricocheted between the two of us, eyes narrowed. Whatever she saw, she didn’t fight, simply turned her back and went to Remi’s side. Levi’s focus shifted to me, his burning gaze trailing down my body, and I wished suddenly that I had something, anything that would keep me busy and far, far away from that look.
Chapter Eighteen
I tried to help, sitting beside Remi’s bed for the afternoon and into the evening, but Leah refused to rest. Her lips were white, her eyes anxious. Afraid. She took turns hovering over Remi, fiddling with the tubes and wires leading in and out of his body as if getting everything just right would mean the difference between life and death for her patient—or herself—and pacing the length of the room and back, biting her nails down to the quick. I lost count of the times she would stand at the opposite end of the room, staring up at the windows that revealed a darkening sky, eyes clouded with what looked like panic. Not worried about herself, but her daughter, obviously.
“Isn’t there someone who will take care of her?” I asked.
Leah snorted, the sound at once grim and amused. It was the only response I got.
A hand settled on my shoulder sometime much, much later, waking me from a light doze. I’d nodded off after dinner, I guess, but I wasn’t sure when.
“Go on to bed, Abby.”
I blinked up at Leah in the gloomy light. “You need sleep too.”
But the woman only shook her head. “Not gonna happen tonight. Besides”—she nodded toward Remi’s still form—“I’m used to long hours and late-night vigils.”
I imagined that was true. Standing, I stretched my cramped muscles and glanced toward the door to the main room. “What time is it?”
Leah looked at the slim watch on her wrist. “Eleven.”
Levi hadn’t come to get me. Was he still awake? Would he have the cuffs waiting?
I rubbed the phantom aches from my wrists. “Can I get you anything before I go get ready for bed?”
Leah settled herself in my chair, eyes locked on Remi sleeping a few feet away. “No.”
She didn’t trust me. I didn’t blame her.
I grabbed a plastic cup and poured myself some juice on my way through the kitchen. The warehouse was eerily still, the only sound a slight snore escaping Eli with every exhale as he lay on the couch, a pillow bunched under his head at one end, his big feet hanging off the other. Levi stared at his computer screens, the faint glow spotlighting him in the otherwise dark room, emphasizing the chiseled cheekbones and tight jaw. A god directing mere humans to carry out his whims. He didn’t look up as I passed.
“Grab a shower,” he said quietly, though not quiet enough to miss the thread of steel underlying the command.
I rolled my eyes, knowing my back was to him as I continued toward the bedroom. “Sure. I’ll enjoy the hot water until it runs out. Thanks.”
I wouldn’t swear to it, but I thought I heard a sound almost like a laugh, choked off abruptly. The man was a pain in the ass, so why did my step lighten at his response?
True to my word, I stood under the hottest water I could stand until it turned tepid. When I flung the curtain back, a squeak escaped.
Levi stood, feet planted, arms crossed. The god was no longer interested in carrying out whims; or maybe he was. Maybe that look in his eyes said the whim he was interested in included me.
I cleared my throat. “What do you want?”
“You.”
My laugh sounded strained, even to me. “I’m not on the menu, but there’s a cold shower available.” My gaze dropped to the straining crotch of his jeans. “Looks like you need it.”
Levi was on me before I could do more than lift my towel to my chest. My wet back met the warm tile as he crowded me against it, his wide shoulders blocking the light, the room, everything. Sight and sound and sensation—all were overtaken by Levi’s presence. He became my world. My temptation.
My rising hunger.
I clutched the towel to my naked skin and punched his shoulder with my other hand. “Back off.”
What the hell has gotten into me?
“Your tongue is going to get you in trouble, little bird.”
See?
And then the image of my tongue on Levi’s most vulnerable places flashed across my mind’s eye. I
n that case, would it be me or Levi in trouble?
A chuckle drew my focus. “Now what was that thought?” Levi asked, leaning in. The rough press of terry cloth against my aching nipples had me sucking in a sharp breath.
“Should I start calling you naughty bird, Abby? Is that what’s got your attention? Something naughty?”
Like I’d tell him. “What? No.” Modesty and the need for escape fought inside me, but all it took was the lift of a disbelieving eyebrow for escape to win. Letting go of the towel, I palmed Levi’s pecs and shoved. “Get off me!”
The push barely rocked his big frame. He stared down, implacable, unmovable, amusement creeping into his gray eyes. “Frustrated?”
“Yes,” I snapped. The man chuckled as I strained harder and harder, trying to push him away, to free myself from the need swirling like molten fire in my belly. I had to escape, to run, to hide, not let this, this…other…take me over. I wanted to—no, had to—fight him, but the desire to feel him, to have him inside me again, was equally as strong.
And so much more tempting.
The knowledge only made my anger swell out of control. Levi’s sexy, self-satisfied smirk shattered the final tattered remnants of my self-restraint.
I leaned forward and bit down on the muscle along the ridge of his shoulder. He groaned, the sound guttural, rough with pain and something else, something almost like…need. One big hand cupped the back of my head and pulled me closer; the other pushed between me and the wall to splay across the vulnerable small of my back in a blatant show of possession and control.
My bite gentled without my permission, turning into a desperate kiss that glided up the rough skin of his neck until I took his mouth with my own.
My decision. My kiss. My need roaring through me like an avalanche.
I rocked back on my heels. My hands went to Levi’s belt.
“That’s it, Abby.” Levi watched with hooded eyes as I tugged and fumbled and cursed. “That’s it; take what you want. Use me however you need to.”
Exactly what I planned to do.
Dropping to my knees was probably not what he’d expected, but he didn’t protest as I lowered his zipper and then his jeans and underwear. In the stark fluorescent light of the bathroom, every centimeter of Levi’s private skin was laid bare—the tight stretch across his stiff cock, the thick, pulsing vein underneath, the vulnerable trail of soft black hair from navel to pelvis. I leaned into that spot, nuzzled it, let my cheek rest there as I breathed in the scent of man and desire and power. My knees hurt, digging into the ceramic beneath me. My hands trembled at the enormity of what I was about to do, what I’d chosen to do. And still I forced them to grasp the thick stalk and hold it steady for the swipe of my tongue across the wet tip.
Levi sucked in a startled breath—one short, sharp sound, so seemingly insignificant, and yet it changed everything between us in a single moment. Because here, on my knees, I was the one with the power.
I opened my mouth. Levi’s fingers tightened in my hair—to hold me back or force me forward, I wasn’t sure. I only knew which direction I wanted.
I leaned in.
“Abby.”
He was too big for my mouth, and yet, not. I opened wider, fed him in until his rigid penis fit in the hollow between my tongue and palate as if the space had been made to his exact measurements. When my lips closed around him, his erection kicked inside its moist confines.
I slid toward the tip. Back down.
Levi’s knees shook. “Abby.”
I sucked gently.
“Goddamn it, Abby.” Pain tingled through my scalp as his fingers tightened, but he didn’t stop me. Didn’t force me. Didn’t—
I drew back, sucking. Pushed forward. Did it again. Then again, a little faster.
Levi’s breath was a harsh rasp in my ears, mingled with curses and groans and the occasional straining silence as he held the air in his lungs, anticipating my next move. I’d heard oral sex described, had listened in when Candy and Sarah and Renee discussed both the giving and receiving of it, but I could never have imagined the power of the act itself. The enormity of controlling another person with only your mouth and hands and breath. The sheer awe of reducing another human being to involuntary thrusts and groans and shaking as they pursued the pleasure only you could give them. Levi strained against me, chasing my tongue, my throat, and with every push, the power and the pleasure ballooned in my core until I thought I’d be the one climaxing in the cramped confines of the bathtub.
“Abby!”
Levi beat me to it.
My name sounded as if it had been ripped from his lungs. Levi’s beautiful body bowed toward me, shoving the tip of his erection to the back of my throat, and I felt the splash of his cum as I choked. A swallow forced them both down. Tears trickled from the corners of my eyes, washing the rigid lines of Levi’s tattoos and straining muscles with a watercolor brush as I watched, fascinated at the depths of the pleasure I could bring him. Even when the pulses in my mouth stopped, he held me tight against him, breathing hard, softening on my tongue for long moments.
And then his eyes opened. I’d expected, I don’t know, something soft? Relaxed? Not Levi. The fire that blazed down at me tensed every muscle of my body. Even his grip in my hair couldn’t keep me from lurching back, away from the threat in those steely eyes.
“Your mouth is far too talented.”
The menace threading through the words made them sound like anything but a compliment. My heartbeat kicked into high gear.
“Get up.”
I had little choice unless I wanted to end up bald. A bubble of hysteria tried to choke me as I rose on wobbly legs, the throbbing ache in my knees echoing the sickening thud of my heart. This was the downside of power—it only mattered until you came up against a stronger source, and Levi was the strongest source of power I’d ever met. “What—”
His hands slid from my hair. “Out. Dry off.”
“But—”
“Now!”
I turned my back, grabbed a fresh towel, and dragged it roughly over my skin. What the hell had I done? Why had I decided to—
Stop it, Abby.
I took a deep breath. Worrying and wondering would get me nowhere. I’d done that with my father for years, trying to find the best avenue to please him, agonizing over every decision and every word until I thought I’d go insane. Levi might have control of my body, but I wouldn’t give him control of my mind. I couldn’t, not if I wanted to survive.
A final swipe of my legs for any last traces of water, and then I turned back to my captor. Levi’s gray gaze bored into me.
He held his hand out for my towel. As he hung it up, I noticed that his clothes were gone. I’d been listening to my neurotic inner voice; he’d been undressing. When he faced me again, my gaze dropped immediately to the stiffness of his penis. My mouth went dry.
“Into the bedroom,” he demanded.
It took a moment, but I finally gathered enough saliva to choke out, “Why?”
“Because you’ve been a naughty little bird, Abby.” He stepped closer, and I managed not to flinch as his hand came up to cup my jaw firmly. “And naughty little birds deserve punishment.”
Chapter Nineteen
He couldn’t be serious. And yet, looking into that face, I found it impossible to tell. This man that I’d been able to read clearly earlier today, when his fear for his brothers had shredded his control over his temper, and minutes before, when my mouth had crumbled his control over his body, was now an enigma I couldn’t decipher.
He didn’t wait for me to. His big body loomed over me, crowding step by slow step into my personal space, stealing every molecule of air, every bit of choice. That was all it took to force me into the bedroom. My stomach fluttered with anticipation and cramped with intimidation at the same time, all of it mixing with a sense of inevitability I couldn’t quite shake. Every step I’d taken, every move I’d made had led me here, literally and figuratively.
T
he only question was, now what?
The hard push of the mattress into the backs of my knees startled me out of my fixation on the enemy. Thrown off balance, I fell backward onto the bed. Levi leaned a knee on the edge. "Scoot back."
I scrambled for the feeling of control I’d had mere minutes before. “No.”
"Do what I say, Abby."
"No."
But a denial couldn’t keep a man like Levi away. As if he was lifting a five-year-old, he gripped my arms and shoved me farther onto the bed, his massive torso following. I tried pushing him back, only to have both hands gathered into one of his and planted firmly above my head.
Trapped. Why was I always trapped by this man?
Because you don’t really want to get away?
I closed my eyes against that voice—and against the breathtaking sight of Levi above me. Whatever I imagined we’d shared in the shower, it would never be real. In the morning it would all be smoke, just like that first night.
“Don’t play the coward with me now, little bird.”
My eyelids snapped open. Satisfaction lit the eyes mere inches above my own. Bastard. He wanted me to be brave? Fine. "This is just another game, Levi. I'm tired of games." I wanted something mutual or nothing at all. "I'm done with other people controlling me. Just leave me alone."
Dark brows narrowed to a vee as he stared down at me. “I should. I really should.” His gaze shifted to my mouth. “So why do I find it so fucking impossible?”
I opened my mouth, but he didn’t give me time to reply before his lips met mine.
God, I loved how he kissed—and hated how thoroughly it ripped through my defenses. His tongue thrust inside, reminding me of his relentless invasion of my body just last night. The sensation lit me up from the inside out, destroying my resistance in an instant. Instead I strained toward him without thought, needing him deeper, needing to devour him as thoroughly as he was devouring me. If my mouth had been free, I’d beg him to take me, to fuck me—anything to make me forget the fear, the helplessness, but most of all, to forget how much he didn’t care. No one cared; the sooner I accepted that, the better. The pleasure Levi gave me was a cheap imitation, but it would do for now—if he let go. The slower he went, the more time I had to think. Mindlessness was my only refuge right now.
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