Mira Kelly – Never Stay Past Midnight (страница 7)
Huffing out a breath, she scanned the deserted sidewalk from her perch at the front window. Once they were in sight she’d jog down to meet them at the street. Thank Levi and say goodbye. He’d probably want to bring Bruno back inside himself, but that wasn’t happening.
The man tempted her in ways she’d never had to ignore before, and, while she wasn’t interested in a “real” relationship, she didn’t think she could handle the kind of casual on offer.
One more
And she couldn’t really imagine what more would have brought Levi back. Sure, the sex had blown
Two hard knocks sounded at the front door. Stumbling back, she hissed at her own stupidity. She’d literally been staring out the window waiting for him … and hadn’t seen him coming.
That kind of distraction was dangerous.
Didn’t matter. She just wouldn’t invite him in.
“One sec, I’m coming.” She’d lay it out straight. Apologize for the misunderstanding. Thank him again for helping out. And then a no-touching goodbye.
Swinging the door just wide enough to put herself between the gap, she opened her mouth for the straight talk and no-nonsense dismissal—only to find Levi, propped on one strong arm against the frame, mere inches away. He’d changed out of the track pants and athletic shirt from earlier and into a pale blue oxford open at the neck and rolled at the sleeves, and a pair of worn, asset-hugging jeans like the ones he’d been wearing that first night. His hair was slightly damp, falling in the kind of tumbled half-curls that indicated a quick shower and even quicker towel dry.
Wow, this guy was trouble.
And he wasn’t just handing off Bruno’s leash.
While she’d been standing there ogling him, Bruno had pushed past her legs and Levi’s wide palm covered the curve of her hip as that cocky smile loomed closer.
“How was class?” he asked, those dark eyes intent on hers.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, warning sirens were sounding loud, and yet, when he closed that last distance between them, bringing the mass of his chest into brief brushing contact with hers, she’d long since spent whatever breath it would have cost to protest.
The pressure at her hip guided her back a step, just enough for Levi to continue past her into the apartment.
So much for her plan.
“Kitchen this way?” he called, already halfway down the hall. “Bruno got some water at my place, but we had a pretty good run, so he might need more.”
The tap sounded and then a few low-spoken words of praise before her short reprieve was over and Levi was headed back.
Tall. Strong. Overwhelming the narrow width of her hall and sucking the oxygen from the air between them so no breath she took seemed enough to fill her lungs.
Bruno followed him halfway down the hall, before stopping and stretching out on the floor. In the blink of an eye, he fell asleep. It was enough to break that slow-building connection and bring Elise back to the here and now, and Bruno all but collapsing beside her.
Focus shifting between man and beast, she remarked, “I’ve never seen him conk out like that.”
Levi shrugged. “We ran awhile.”
Guess so. “Thank you, very much, for helping me out today.”
“Yeah, well, I was here.” Levi’s mouth pulled to the side, wry humor tingeing his words. “And, apparently, you really needed it. So, I’m glad I came.”
This was the point to tell him to go. She could see in the slanted gaze he’d fixed on her—he was waiting for it. Only when she opened her mouth to say goodbye, she found herself asking instead, “Why did you come?”
Running a palm over his jaw, he shook his head. Good question.
He didn’t like to lead women on, so he’d generally made it a rule to leave one-nighters at one night. But with Elise … it just hadn’t been enough. And when she’d provided such a perfect excuse … when he’d seen a way back in without having to think too much about why he wanted to get there … he’d taken it.
“The dog thing.” He laughed. “With the offer to pay me. That was … unique.” It was also only part of the answer. The rest, he didn’t want to examine too closely, but suspected had a lot to do with the way the air seemed to hum with a kind of energy between them.
“The money?” She half gasped, chin pulling back in an expression fast on its way to horror. “You came back because it …
“What?” Whoa, had that squeak come out of his mouth? And she couldn’t really be asking if he— Only the look on her face said that was exactly the conclusion she’d jumped to.
Like that, the humming energy shorted out, leaving a sort of vacuum in its stead.
“Oh, God, were you playing out some kind of a fantasy?” She looked as if she was about to choke, only the damn words just kept coming. “Like you’re a gigo—”
“Elise, I’m begging you. Stop.” Desperation ran thick through his words. “Just close your mouth before you say another word.” Before she ground the last bit of his masculine pride into the hardwood beneath her little bare foot.
She was a verbal train wreck. How could he want her like this?
It was physical. As she’d said in the park.
That crazy, bendy body had gotten under his skin, was all. It couldn’t be the twists and turns of her mind getting him so tied up in knots. Half the time it was as if they were speaking different languages. And the other half … hell.
But even with the way her mouth ran when she got nervous, he wanted another night. A whole night. He wanted her to stop spewing ego-shriveling assumptions and get her head back in sync with his.
Her mouth popped open again, making his gut clench. “You should just take the twenty—”
Enough! He’d crossed to her before her next breath, preempting the completion of her thought by catching her around the shoulders and surprising a sharp “Eep!” from her.
“Damn it, it’s not the money, Elise.” Looking down into those smoked-glass eyes, he searched for that same heat that had been there the first night. Found only confusion. How was he blowing this so badly? “It’s just … hell, it’s just you. You’re different. I don’t know what it is. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since last week. And seeing you yesterday—” His jaw clenched. “It was all I could do to walk out of here, but I did because I’m just as wrong for you as I was that first night. I’ve already got one foot out of Illinois, the other one ready to go. I don’t have anything
He should have left it at that. Said goodbye and gone. Only his hands were already on her, his thumbs brushing over the bare skin of her upper arms, and he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. “Aren’t you?”
She stared up at him—pupils dark and wide, an erratic flutter at the hollow of her neck—leaning in with each shallow breath. Her gaze dropped to his mouth and the pink tip of her tongue wet her bottom lip.
His heart kicked hard as that connection between them began to untangle. Smooth and pull taut.
Her eyes slid closed. Her next pull of breath drawing him in with it—bringing him closer to those bare naked lips. Parted, ready for him to take—
“I’m seeing someone.”
CHAPTER FIVE
LEVI froze a quarter inch from her mouth as something icy cold and distinctly unpleasant slid through his veins.
Not possible. He’d heard wrong.
“What?” He looked up, finding one anxious gray eye fixed on him, the other squinched shut.
“I’m seeing someone. Sort of.” Elise let out a tremulous breath, slipping from his hold. “I shouldn’t do this. I can’t do this.”
Because of another man.
Because of the kind of person she was.
He got it. Had understood from the start and known it had to be a fluke to find a woman like her outside a relationship. Figured it was only a matter of time— So what the hell was tightening his tendons and pulling his fingers into fists? Jealousy?
It couldn’t be. He didn’t get jealous. Ever. And besides, it wasn’t as though he had any claim over her. They’d had one night. And an afternoon at the park. Less than a handful of hours combined. She wasn’t his … only somehow that handful of hours must have been enough to screw with his head, because even as he closed his eyes to blot that pretty face from his sight, the images of lithe-bodied, little Elise in his bed were brighter than ever.
Hell, he could still feel her wrapped around him. See the smoke in her eyes thicken as he pushed her closer. Hear his name, all breathy and hot on her lips when she came.
What the hell was wrong with him?
She wasn’t his.
He didn’t want her.
No, that wasn’t true. He wanted her.
What he didn’t want was the complication of what being with her meant. He didn’t want her getting the wrong idea about what he had to offer.
But more than any of that …
“Seeing someone, since when?” Any effort to modulate his tone into something casual failed miserably as the words ground out through his clenched teeth.
It had only been a week from that first night, so maybe whoever this chump about to get dumped was hadn’t had a chance to make much of a move.