by Ana Lewin
“It was unexpected!”
“She’s a horse! It’s not like a car where you completely control how it moves, Maeve.”
She loved the way he said her name. The way it slid off his tongue, his husky voice making it sound like the name belonged to a small-town girl instead of a big-city socialite. Maeve couldn’t put her finger on why that thrilled her so much. “Lead her around a little bit. Really, I’m doing fine. I don’t think I would have been able to talk this much if it was as bad as last time.”
The last time she’d been seconds away from her throat closing up and heart stopping, causing her death. This time she was closer to feeling mildly uncomfortable. Dusk was hanging around them and they didn’t have much time before it would be too dark for a newbie like her to do anything at all. She knew she could do it. Levi didn’t share her confidence but he slowly released her hips and moved around so he was in front of Daisy. When the horse moved her body stiffened, then relaxed. Staring at Levi’s ass helped to distract her and before she knew it they’d made it one full circle around the enclosure.
Full circle might have been pushing it. They were close to the middle so it was a bit of a smaller circle, but she wasn’t going to mention that small fact.
“Are you done making me worry about you now? Can I help you down?” Levi cocked an eyebrow at her.
Smirking, she nodded. “You’re worried about me? How sweet of you. At this rate, people are going to think that we’re dating.”
Hands coming down on her hips, he lifted her and helped her off Daisy, not letting go until she was safe with two feet on the ground. He didn’t respond to her comment about dating at all, pretending like she’d never said anything. Maeve wasn’t sure if that was annoying or for the best. On the one hand, they couldn’t be dating. They lived in different cities, were completely different people, were going different places with their lives. On the other hand… fuck, did she ever want to be dating him. Now that was something she’d never said about anyone else in her life.
“Head back to the house and wait for me in my bedroom,” Levi’s tone indicated he was issuing a demand.
Licking her lips, she debated being sassy back to him. Usually she led their encounters with her bossy streak, Levi only taking control when she was pissing him right off. Granted, that happened more often than one would think. But tonight… well, it sounded like he was ready to tell her exactly what to do. That was something that only turned her on when it was Levi. “Fine. You better hurry up,” she settled on compliance, knowing that she could always change her mind when he actually got to the bedroom.
“I don’t want you wearing anything by the time I get in there.”
“That’s quite the demand.”
“Are you going to do it or not?” he’d started leading Daisy back towards the barn, darkness descending faster now.
“I guess you’ll just have to hurry up and find out.”
She couldn’t deny that she almost ran to the fence at the edge of the enclosure, hopping it and making her way inside. Olivia and Grant were sitting in the living room but when they greeted her she only waved, heading up the final flight of stairs to the top floor. If she wasn’t mistaken, they grinned at each other before settling back in to finish their movie.
Chapter 8
Levi
He wasn’t expecting her to actually be naked when he stepped into his bedroom.
Maeve liked to be as difficult as she possibly could be, and doing what he’d asked her to do would be too easy. Technically, he’d been right. But he still had the breath knocked out of him when he saw her lounging on the bedspread, book in hand, wearing only one of his ratty button-up shirts. She made it look spectacular. “You’re not naked,” he said as he closed the door, his husky tone giving away the fact that he liked what she was wearing regardless.
Glancing over her shoulder, she tugged up the hem of the shirt with one hand, exposing her bare ass. “I’m naked underneath.”
“That so doesn’t count.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it then?”
Stalking over to the bed he grabbed her ankles and tugged her towards him until her legs were hanging off the edge of the bed. The book slipped from her grasp when she let out a cute yelp at the sudden movement. They left it, forgotten, by the head of the bed. “You think I’m going to let you off easy, don’t you?” he asked, trailing a line of kisses along the supple skin of her ass. “Can’t even listen to me when I ask you to do one thing, one time.”
Her ass pushed back against his lips as her feet found purchase on the floor. “Aren’t you?” she asked, but her voice was breathy. Like she knew what he had planned for her and was as into it as he was.
Instead of answering he brought a hand back and slapped her firmly on the ass, smirking when it jiggled from the impact. That was something he could look at all day, without a doubt. Maeve’s sweet moan had made it all the better and he dropped a smack on the other cheek, watching the whole time. “Maybe next time you’ll listen to me when I ask you to do something?” he mused, hitting her a bit harder on each cheek.
“This is encouraging me to never listen to you again.”
His hand slid down from where he’d been bracing it on her hip, fingers trailing along her folds. Already she was drenched, about ready to get fucked without even being touched. “I guess I’ll have to find a punishment that you don’t like. Like not touching you.”
Withdrawing from her he went over to the small accent chair in the corner of the room, sitting down and making himself comfortable. Looking over her shoulder, Maeve’s eyes went wide. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she demanded, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re going to leave me like this?”
“It’s a punishment that you don’t like, isn’t it?” he was teasing her, of course. There wasn’t any way he was going to be able to resist running his hands along her curves for more than a minute or two. But the way she was glaring at him made it more than worth it.
“Well if you’re not going to help me out, loverboy, I’m going to have to finish this myself.”
Undoing the one button that she’d had done up on the plaid shirt, she pulled it open. Defiance in her gaze, she ran a hand down her stomach and started touching herself, fingers slipping out of sight. The way she bit her lip got him beyond hard as if he wasn’t already. His jeans were uncomfortable so he stood and slipped out of them, not bothering to keep any clothing on at all. Naked, he sat back down and grabbed the base of his cock. “Great, so now you’re taking pleasure in my punishment,” Maeve said dryly, taking it slow as she touched herself.
“I was taking pleasure in your punishment before, too,” he commented. “What’s changed?”
“Now I’m not getting pleasure.”
“Looks like you are.”
That defiant glare still on her face, Maeve dropped her hand from her folds and strode across the room to him. Before he had time to register what she was doing, she’d taken a seat in his lap and was adjusting his cock so that she could sink right onto him. They both groaned when he bottomed out. She went to shrug off the shirt but he stopped her. “Keep it on,” he said, watching as the fabric enveloped her.
“You liked it the whole time, asshole.”
“It’s not my fault you’re bad at taking orders.”
“It’s not my fault you’re bad at enforcing them.”
She had a point. It was fun to play every once in a while, but they both knew who was in charge in the bedroom. It was her. He caved to her every demand. And the woman had a lot of demands.
He was no longer interested in talking as Maeve started to bounce on his cock, slamming her ass down against his thighs with every thrust. It wasn’t long before they were a sweaty, groaning mess and he was picking her up in his arms. Carrying her to the bed, he placed her down gently and then crawled on top of her. Her legs wrapped around him, tugging him close, and the depths of her eyes begged him to fuck her. As if there was any other opt
ion for what he was going to do next.
Leaning down he captured her lips in a kiss, trying to eject all his emotions into it. His ever-growing love for her. The doubt he felt about that love. How he felt every time she smiled at him or made one of her stupid sassy remarks. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d been able to handle her long enough to fall in love with her, but here they were. And whether or not she felt the same he was ready to admit it to himself. He was in love.
“Levi, god,” Maeve groaned and rolled her hips, trying to meet him thrust for thrust. Then she attacked his lips again and he was lost in the kiss. His tongue against hers, his teeth pulling at her bottom lip.
“I’m getting close,” he mumbled against her lips, loving the way her heels dug into his ass.
“Me too,” she brought her hand down to rub at her clit and he knew she would get there soon.
It was the permission he needed to let go. The orgasm hit him like a wave, nearly drowning him in the pleasure. His thrusts stalled then stopped as he relished the feeling of her wet heat clenching against his bare shaft. Her orgasm ripped through her with just as much intensity as his. When they were both done they kept kissing for a while, as his cock softened and slid out of her on its own. Then finally he collapsed beside her, pulling her warm body against his chest.
Cuddling was against their rules. They hadn’t done it before. Today felt different, though. Like what they’d shared at the lake made them closer. And it did. He’d never imagined that Maeve would trust him enough to get on a horse again, but she’d done it. Telling her about his past had never been on the table as an option… until he’d done it, almost completely unprompted. This woman. She was going to absolutely ruin him, a lot worse than Jeanine ever had.
For right now, though, he would enjoy the feeling of her pressing back against him as if she had the same kind of feelings for him that he had for her.
When she spoke, he hadn’t even been sure if she was still awake. “I guess I should go,” she murmured, shifting toward the edge of the bed.
Instinctively his arms tightened around her, keeping her right there beside him. “Stay,” he wasn’t sure if it was a demand or a plea. “It wouldn’t hurt if you stayed.”
Oh, it would hurt. It would hurt his heart when she left to head back to New York City in a week. She didn’t need to know that. “Are you sure?” her tensed body relaxed but she still sounded unsure.
“One hundred percent. Just sleep here tonight.”
“You’re asking me to stay tonight because you want to have sex again in the morning, aren’t you?”
Levi couldn’t tell if she was serious or teasing. “We never have had morning sex,” it was a non-answer that he hoped would be good enough. He didn’t want to explain that this didn’t have anything to do with the sex.
She made a humming noise that moved her whole upper body. Tracing tiny circles on her abdomen, he reached over to the lamp and turned it off. With her beside him, he stayed awake much longer than he should have like he was trying to remind himself that she was still there. That this was real. Eventually, though, he couldn’t help but sleep.
***
For a split second when he woke up, he thought he was back with Jeanine. Cuddling her, having sex with her when he didn’t want her like that. Hell, by the end of it all he hadn’t even liked her as a person. That’s how wrong for each other they’d been. Even though he realized that it was Maeve asleep in his arms and not Jeanine, the peaceful morning was shattered and his mood was foul.
A glance at the clock told him it was 5:30 am, too early to do anything. He supposed he could start on ranch tasks but Oscar was on early morning duty this week. Levi didn’t want to do it when he didn’t have to. Detaching himself from Maeve he got up and stretched before heading into the bathroom for a shower.
He’d thought the warm water washing over him would help wash away the memories, but they persevered. Levi couldn’t stop thinking about his relationship with Jeanine, how it was similar and different to whatever he had going with Maeve. Had he felt like this about Jeanine? That one he remembered. The answer was no. Maybe he’d loved her a little, but never this strongly. But the thought that had his foul mood hanging around as he finished his shower and the clock struck 6:30 was this: had Jeanine reacted to him the same way Maeve was?
No matter what he did, he couldn’t remember.
Would Maeve turn out like Jeanine? Cold and bitchy, not loving him at all? Maybe it wasn’t even the women, maybe it was him. It was possible that he brought out that change in people.
When he walked back into the bedroom Maeve was sitting up in bed, reading that same book that she’d had last night. It was his book, one he’d read a couple of months back, but she’d started reading it like it was her own. “Good morning!” she was cheerier than her usual self, but he couldn’t return the positivity.
“Morning,” he grunted, pulling on clothes without even looking at them.
There was a beat of silence. She’d picked up on the mood. He figured she was going to turn up the sass but instead she said, “So about last night…”
Her question trailed off, leaving him without a question to answer. “What about last night?”
Not looking at her, he heard her breath hitch. “Well, did anything feel different to you?”
Everything had felt different to him. He’d been closer to her than ever before and they’d broken the rules. They’d broken a lot of the rules, enough that it was worth talking about it. But he didn’t want to talk about it. Not when Jeanine was running around inside his head and cackling about how Maeve would fall out of love with him. If Maeve even loved him now. “The sex was amazing, better than we’ve ever had it.”
It was true, technically. He also knew it wasn’t at all what she wanted to hear. Sneaking a glance at her his heart squeezed at how deflated she looked, but he didn’t take it back. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because cocky and sarcastic Maeve had already taken vulnerable Maeve’s place. The side of her that she only showed to him was gone. “That’s because you finally admitted that you’re bad at enforcing the orders you give me,” she smirked but he could tell it was forced.
Sliding out of bed she set the book on the bedside table and started to pull on her clothes from the previous night. “I don’t remember admitting that.”
“You didn’t deny it, which is pretty much the same thing.”
She was dressed in record time, hand on the doorknob. “I’m going to head downstairs. You know how long it takes me to get ready in the mornings. I told Olivia we would be able to hang out today after she’s off work. Gotta get that time in since it’s my last week here and all.”
Not waiting for him to respond she slipped out the door and he watched as it closed tightly behind her, feeling like he’d lost something precious.
Chapter 9
Maeve
She should have known.
The rules had been there for a reason, not to be some arbitrary guidelines to follow when they felt like it. She’d flouted the rules, broken every single one of them. Except for the one that said it ended when she left and would never be repeated. From the looks of it that one would be staying firmly intact.
Levi had taken her on dates that they pretended weren’t dates. He’d told her about his family, his ex-wife. They’d stayed the night together, sleeping and cuddling and pretending they were a couple. But it was all a farce and that’s all it had ever been. At least that was what it felt like when he’d mentioned the sex instead of the fact that they’d forged a real emotional connection. She wanted to talk to him about it, but for once she was scared of something. She was scared that he would laugh in her face when she told him that she’d stupidly gone and fallen in love.
In the shower, she’d tried to let the hot water wash away the feelings, but that ended up being nothing short of pointless. Washing away Levi was going to take a lot more than that. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized they should have a talk before sh
e did. If they didn’t she would always wonder about whether he felt the same way about her. About whether he’d ever felt the connection that she’d been feeling since the very first time they met.
She’d steeled herself up to go talk to him when a loud knock sounded on the front door. Just one knock. Instead of going up the stairs, she headed down, pulling open the front door and letting her jaw drop straight to the floor. “Dad?”
The man standing in front of her had salt and peppered brown hair combed back and slicked with a gel. Even from a couple of feet away, she could smell the gel. The disgusting scent clogged her nose and robbing her of her sense of smell. He was shorter and skinnier than any of the men on the ranch, sporting a beer belly that he hated to have pointed out. George Marsh liked to pretend he was still thirty years old, running marathons and keeping in shape. He’d stopped doing anything worthwhile the moment his mother had died. “What do you look so surprised about?” he questioned, shooing her out of the way so that he could step inside. She cringed when he didn’t take off his shoes, trailing dust through the first floor as he made his way to the kitchen without waiting for her. “What a quaint little house this is.”
They both knew that it was far from quaint and it was far from little. The building had four floors, for God’s sake. It was bigger than their house in New York and sitting on a hell of a lot more land, too. But for her father, anything that wasn’t outfitted with a $4,000 couch set and paintings from famous artists was quaint. “I’m shocked that you’re here, is all,” she said, following him into the kitchen. “You didn’t tell me that you were coming.”
He waved it off, looking disdainfully around the homey kitchen. Then he perched on the edge one of the end chairs at their long dining room table. “Can’t a father surprise his daughter?”
Maeve knew that there was an ulterior motive, some reason that he was here instead of spending his morning brunching with a socialite. Her whole body was tense as she tried to figure out what it could be. “Maeve,” Levi’s voice called from the stairs and she whipped around to look. He stopped in his tracks when he saw her father, all high-class douchery sitting in their dining room. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you had guests. This can wait.”