Stoking the flame of her desire until it blazed beyond containment.
“Levi,” she gasped, the needy ache between her legs spiraling tight through her core as she clutched at his shirt. “Take this off. Please.”
Levi shifted onto his knees, pulling her up with him so she straddled his lap. Then grabbing a fistful of shirt from his shoulder, he tugged it over his head and tossed it aside.
Her mouth opened to say…something, beg for more maybe, only the words were beyond her.
He was so incredibly, beautifully built. Broad shoulders. Bronzed skin. And that decadent trail of crisp hair arrowing beneath the fly of his jeans. Hands splaying over the defined contours of his chest, she brushed the tips of her fingers against the tight discs of his masculine nipples, marveling at her own body’s clenching response to the grazing touch.
Peering up into his face, she whispered, “What you do to me…”
“Elise. What I want to do to you.” Catching her jaw in his palm, he held her gaze. “You sure you understand what you’re getting into here?”
The corner of her mouth turned up at his reluctant concession. He didn’t want to be a nice guy, but apparently he couldn’t help it. “I’m sure.”
He nodded, then, leaning back, he dug his phone out of his pocket and held it in front of her. “Call your sister.”
Elise blinked up at him, her body a riot of need. “What—now?”
“Now. I’m not above talking you into another mistake, but I’m sure as hell not going to make a cheater out of you while I do it. Dial.”
Elise swallowed, thumbing in her sister’s number. At the first ring she moved to take the phone from him, but Levi pulled it away, catching her wrists in one hand as she grabbed after it.
“Levi, give me that phone.” He had no idea what kind of a mess he could make for her. “I’m serious.”
Eyes locked with hers, he held her at bay. “So am I.”
Then…
“Hi, Ally, this is Levi, Elise’s boyfriend…”
Her mouth fell open as the floor dropped out from under her—taking whatever understanding she’d thought she had with it.
“Cancel her date. She’s not available.”
Levi powered the phone off and then pushed it away, that dark gaze raking down her body to where she straddled his lap and then back up to her mouth hanging in slack-jawed shock.
He didn’t mean it. Obviously he didn’t mean it.
And she might have confirmed that with him too, if he hadn’t pulled her hard against him and taken her lips with a kiss so charged with want, it shorted out all reason and rationale.
CHAPTER SIX
LEVI’S hands tightened at Elise’s hip and in her hair as he thrust into her mouth, carrying her half-blind through an apartment he barely knew the layout of.
Her back hit the bedroom door an instant before the door hit the wall behind her, the dull thud echoing around the pants and groans that had followed their desperate flight toward her bed.
She sucked at his tongue and tightened her legs around him, starved for more of the contact she’d never thought to have again.
At the bed, Levi planted a knee on the mattress, easing his hold until she slid down his thigh in a high-friction free fall into need.
Beyond caring about consequences or bad decisions, she bowed forward, licking at his bare chest as she pulled at the buckle of his belt. She wanted him. Inside her. On top of her. All strength and power and masculine need suspended above her as he worked himself in and out of her body.
Fly half-open, Levi pulled a pair of foil packets from his pocket and tossed them to the head of the bed.
He was always prepared. Always thinking, even when she wasn’t.
Especially when she wasn’t.
And suddenly that seemed like more of a problem than a relief. Giving in to her body’s needs shouldn’t mean shutting off her head. Especially since she was perilously close to making a habit of it.
Which brought her back to what Levi had said.
Running her hands up the front of his body, she stilled at his shoulders. “When you asked me if I understood what I was getting into…I thought you meant ‘no strings.’”
“Not quite.” His mouth slanted in one of those relentlessly bad-boy grins as his hands slid over the contours of her hips, fingers teasing under the hem of her tank, pulling it up until it bunched around her elbows. Eyes burning with appreciation as he studied her pose, arms overhead, half bound by the Lycra top. “Considering the way you’ve got me tied up, I think a few strings make sense…in the short term.”
Her breath hitched, her body clenching in response to his words—though she wasn’t certain whether it was the idea of Levi being tied in knots because of her, or the subtle erotic subtext of his statement as it applied to her immediate position.
Before she had time to consider, he’d pulled the tank the rest of the way off and tossed it aside. Set those big hands at her shoulders and gently pressed her back into the mattress so he could go to work peeling her yoga pants and panties free.
Stripped bare, she lay before him, watching the rise and fall of his chest as he surveyed the offering of her body.
Neither of her previous lovers had ever looked at her like this before. As if they’d enjoy spending the entire day just deciding which spot to start with first.
It was arousing beyond expectation to be on the receiving end of that kind of focus. Only the anticipation was beginning to make her squirm.
“Levi.” She pushed up to her elbows, peering down the length of her body to where he stood at the end of the bed.
“Damn, I like it when you say my name.”
Her brow arched, and she said it again, this time pitching her voice lower as though she were some kind of seductress instead of the mostly awkward, relatively sheltered woman she was.
His mouth slanted further and he reached for her foot. Circled the inside of her ankle with the thick pad of his thumb in a seductive caress that sent currents of electricity racing up her leg. Then carefully he positioned her heel against the comforter several inches to the side.
“Like this.”
Her nerves came on line in a flash. It was daylight. The room completely lit from beyond the thin sheer at her window, and Levi had just opened her legs to him in a way that left her totally exposed.
Her bent knee angled in, only his palm was there smoothing over the joint. “You’re beautiful, Elise. I’ve been going nuts thinking about you for a week. Let me see you.”
A week. Was it possible? Logic told her no, and yet the stark hunger in those blue eyes told her it was truth. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.
Like this. Right now.
Relaxing into his touch, she closed her eyes. Felt the bed sag and strain beneath Levi’s weight and then the graze of his lips at the sensitive skin of her inner knee, the light scrape of new stubble along his jaw, the whisper-soft brush of his hair as he fit the breadth of his shoulders between her legs.
Fists curling into the bedspread beneath her, she moaned at the wet stroke of his tongue teasing close to the juncture of her thighs. “Levi.”
Thick fingers wrapped tight around her hip and ribs, reminding her what he’d said about hearing her say his name, and making her throb with the knowledge that she could affect him.
An open-mouthed kiss followed with a pulling suction that had her hips rising from the bed. “Levi, please.”
A low seductive laugh sounded as the wet heat of his breath washed over her center. “That’s even better. Let’s see what this gets me.”
“Oh God, Levi!” Her breath burst past her lips with his name—without thought, beyond control—earning another low satisfied growl and a repeat of that incredible crazy thing he’d done with his lips and teeth and tongue.
She started to writhe, felt her body slipping past her grasp, feeding control of itself to the man watching her with hooded eyes as he feasted on her pleasure. Slow licks and soft nibbles, gentle p
ulls and wicked thrusts had her gasping for breath just beyond reach.
Her fingers had found their way into the thick waves of his hair, and tightened as the tension simmering beneath the surface of her skin ratcheted higher.
“Enough…please.” She didn’t know how much more she could take.
“Not enough, you aren’t finished. I’m going to make you come like this.” He licked a slow circle around the aching bundle of nerves before stroking down… “Then I’m going to slide inside you…” thrusting in and out of her with his tongue to punctuate his words “…and make you come again. And again. And again.”
“Yes!” Sensation ripped through her center, drawing tight. Tighter. Concentrating into a kind of reverse pressure that built until her body bowed from the bed, suspended for a moment before finally tipping over the edge of desire. Then racing outward until the waves of her release washed through every nerve, cell, and extremity. Body slack and sated, she watched through heavy-lidded eyes as Levi shifted between her legs, kicking off his low-slung jeans. He crawled over her body until his hips rested in the cradle of her thighs, the solid length of him thick and straining against her belly as he reached for the condom above her head.
Their eyes caught and she couldn’t help the awed whisper slipping past her lips. “You’re amazing.”
The muscle in his jaw ticced once, twice, before he covered her mouth with a hot, demanding kiss tasting of her desire and that had her body pulling together once more. He pulled away with a firm shake of his head and a gruff promise. “And I’m not half finished yet.”
He couldn’t get inside her fast enough. Tasting her satisfaction on his tongue had been a decadent torture. So good and yet painfully not enough. Condom on, he pushed inside her, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of sensation. The stroke of her small heel, high on his back, the tight clasp of her body clenching rhythmically around him, and the breathy relief at his ear when he sank to the hilt.
She’d thought he was after another no-strings night. Not even close.
This wasn’t something he was giving up until he split town for good.
Pulling back and thrusting deep, he set a steady rhythm. Watched the tells of Elise’s face and body, working her closer to the next rise with each stroke.
She wouldn’t regret this. Wouldn’t get hurt or form any lasting attachment. She didn’t want a commitment any more than he did. But being his beck-and-call girl wasn’t going to fly either. So they’d have an affair. A short. Hot. Guilt-free few weeks of fun together.
Arching back, Elise let out a wild cry as her body clenched hard around him.
And he’d blow her mind while they did.
* * *
The bed was garbage. Sure, it had held up its end of the bargain, remaining upright when they’d put it through its paces. But barely.
Slitting an eye toward the window at the far side of the room, Levi figured it had to be pushing late evening based on the auburn tint to the sky.
Later than he’d thought. But after burning off a week’s worth of bottle-necked sexual frustration he hadn’t been fully willing to acknowledge, he’d been wrung out. Add to that, the softness of Elise curled against him—a novelty too tempting to ignore—and he’d slept.
It wasn’t that Levi didn’t enjoy the feel of a woman in his arms or that, like some guys, he couldn’t sleep tangled up with another person. He liked the press of a soft body and deep rhythm of a chest rising and falling with each breath. Liked the pretty scent of a shampoo that wasn’t his. What he didn’t like were the complications and potential for misunderstanding when he gave into the desire to pull a woman close and just drift off into the night.
Women got ideas when a man held them for too long without trying to get inside them. Ideas he didn’t have the time or inclination to dispel.
But with Elise, he didn’t have to.
With Elise, the limits on the bounds of this relationship couldn’t be more clear. He was leaving in less than two months’ time. And she didn’t really want him. Well, damn, she wanted him in the make-me-come-six-times-tonight way. Which was about the way he wanted her too. But she didn’t want a real relationship getting in the way of her priorities.
Which made this perfect.
Which made her safe.
He wouldn’t give her no-strings, because that wasn’t what it was. There were strings, but they were uncomplicated.
Him. Her.
A feel-good bit of escape that would last as long as the distraction continued to work for both of them. And then they’d go their separate ways. No hard feelings. No hassle. No heartbreak.
Nothing he had to worry about when he left this city behind.
So he’d indulged in a couple hours of warm-bodied, close-contact shut-eye with Elise.
And hell, he probably would have kept right on sleeping if it hadn’t been for the bed and the way it amplified every movement with the supports swaying precariously under the slightest shift in weight.
How this thing had stayed up through what they’d put it through he had no idea.
The tumble of curls tucked beneath his chin shifted, tickling his neck as the body they were attached to wriggled around. He could sense her tension rising and didn’t want to give up the comfort that had been between them.
“Thinking about the strings?” he asked into the top of her head.
Elise traced a light pattern over his chest with the tips of her fingers, brushing this way and that. “Probably should have clarified the issue before we…”
The corner of his mouth kicked up as he wondered which words she was trying out in her head.
“Had sex,” he offered, chivalrously.
“Yes.” Tilting her head back she peered up at him. “What is this? I mean, I don’t think I mind, whatever it is. I wanted it—want it. But for both our sakes, a little clarification would probably go a long way. This is a…sex thing, right?”
“Obviously the sex is a big part of it, but it’s not the only part. Yeah, I can’t keep my thoughts out of your panties, but I also just…like you.” Levi brushed his thumb over the fine hair at her temple. “Neither one of us is in a place where we can afford a real relationship. I’m leaving and you’re working like a dog to make your studio happen. But we’ve got this connection. Why fight it?”
“So you’re my boyfriend, but in the loosest sense of the word.”
Why didn’t he like the sound of that? “How about I’m your boyfriend in the exclusive, let’s-just-have-a-good-time-while-it-lasts sense of the word?”
Elise’s brow lifted with the corner of her mouth, and something inside Levi moved with it. Damn, he liked that smile.
“You really don’t want me going out with another guy.”
Not even a little bit. “Only child. What can I say? Never learned to share.”
The second the words left his mouth he about choked. Beyond the offer of the most cursory information, Levi didn’t talk about his life growing up. Hell, he didn’t even like to think about it. But that glib remark was just the kind of opening a dedicated family girl like Elise could jump on.
He didn’t want her to ask about his family. He didn’t want her to know about his mother. He didn’t want all those normally innocuous questions that polite people asked giving away the kind of life he’d led. The kind of man he was.
Only she didn’t seize the opportunity. A small furrow had dug its way between her eyes, and after a moment she asked, “And you? Will you be exclusive too?”
He didn’t blame her for needing to ask. There wasn’t any shortage of available women at his clubs, and nine times out of ten the publicity shots that made the paper pictured him with at least one model-beautiful woman per arm.
But that was PR. Truth was, the club bunnies, while convenient, weren’t particularly difficult to resist. Especially the regulars who put in enough hours to know the staff by name, hitting the lulls where they could strike up a conversation while pouring down their drinks.
“I w
on’t go out with any other women.”
Elise flopped onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, wearing an amused look of concentration. “So how does it work, then? I call you up when I want…”
Again she seemed at a loss for words, but the devil in him wouldn’t help her out of this one.
“…a distraction.”
Letting out a bark of laugher, Levi rolled over her and, catching her jaw in the cup of his palm, leaned in for a taste. “That’s one way to put it. Or you could say a date. Dinner maybe? I’m starting to feel cheap.”
She coughed a little, that sexy red blazing into her cheeks even as she lay naked beside him. “I—oh, no—I guess I didn’t mean— Darn it, stop laughing!”
He wanted to, but for some reason, whenever he was with Elise, he just couldn’t.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“YES, I get that it wasn’t much of an introduction to the family,” Elise assured, winding her way through the throngs of book lovers populating the annual Printer’s Row Lit Fest.
Ally huffed beside her, one hand resting lightly on Dexter’s head where it peaked above the front flap of his baby sling. “He hung up on me.”
Wrestling against the grin pushing at her lips, Elise offered an acknowledging nod. “Yes.”
“Called me. And then hung up,” she snapped, her diligently nurtured outrage at a high-polished shine. “How did he think I’d feel about that?”
“At the moment, I’m not sure the impression he was making was foremost in his mind.”
Stopping at a cozy booth beneath one of the enormous white tents running down the center of Dearborn, Elise scanned the bounty of titles on offer, once again wishing she had more than this single hour to spend at what was essentially the largest free outdoor book fair and literary event in the Midwest. But she had two classes that afternoon, with a few hours of working the club’s child daycare in between.
Ally cleared her throat in indication she was waiting for Elise’s full attention.
Getting it, she prompted, “He said he was your boyfriend.”