“I’m glad,” I say, although I don’t believe him.
At six o’clock, we land safely in LA. I recovered a few hours of sleep by napping during the long flight. Now, I’m starving. We’ve hardly eaten anything during the past twenty-four hours. Levi kept me quite preoccupied until we had to catch our flight home.
He’s continued to keep me close all afternoon, rarely releasing my hand. I’m not sure what to expect going forward, and I’m afraid to ask. Jill would advise me to keep my mouth shut and roll with it. For once, I think I’ll follow her lead.
We stop for dinner on our way home from LAX. By the time we return home for the night and I unload the luggage from the car, I’m exhausted. Levi takes hold of my hand and starts walking out of my garage toward his home.
“Levi?” I stop. “What are you doing?”
“Going to bed. I’m beat.” He tugs me into another wonderful kiss. “Come on.”
He tastes yummy, like the red wine and chocolate he enjoyed at dinner. But I’m not staying in his bachelor pad. I push away from him.
“To your house?” I arch one brow. “Uh-uh.”
“Why not?” He frowns. “What’s wrong with my house?”
“Your house is lovely, but I’m not sleeping with you in the bed where you’ve made love to countless women.”
My cheeks color, but I don’t care. I’m not comfortable and I won’t pretend I am.
He casts a seductive smile in my direction.
“I’ve had sex with other women, but I’ve never made love with any woman in that bed . . . yet.”
His words cause my heart rate to climb, but I hold my ground.
“Smoothly played, Levi. But I’m still not sleeping there tonight.” I hug my arms around his neck. “You can stay with me at my house if you’d like.”
“Still bossy.” He searches my eyes, then smiles. “All right, you win.”
Within minutes, we’ve tumbled into my bed, naked. The glass door’s open, allowing the sound of the waves to float through the air. Levi’s husky voice rouses me. His fingers sweep across my skin, drawing ribbons of goose bumps and shivers over my body. His day-old beard lightly abrades my breast before he takes it in his mouth, sending another wave of shudders through me.
My own hands explore the hard muscles of his chest and arms, the silky locks of his hair, and his bare chest. He’s so gorgeous. When we’re together this way, he looks at me almost reverently, reducing me to a quivering mass of Jell-O.
I like being on top, controlling the pace and having a perfect view of him. It makes me feel powerful.
Afterward, I collapse on top of him. We end up entwined with his leg thrown over my hip. I snuggle deeper inside his embrace. Exhaustion lays over me like a heavy blanket.
While drifting to sleep, I realize Levi hasn’t asked about Rob or spoken of the future. He may assume I’ve agreed to his no-strings policy by sleeping with him before clarifying the point. That I won’t share him may send him running. I need to talk to him before I talk to Rob, and I need to talk to Rob soon.
But my head throbs from the lack of sleep and the roller coaster of emotions. I think I’ll put off dealing with it all until tomorrow.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Levi
I can’t keep Lindsey close enough to satisfy me—she’s infused all my senses. To win the pot, I ought to be shrewd, to withhold and wait for her to reveal her hand. But I can’t stop smiling or keep my hands—or any other part of my body—to myself.
Am I falling in love? It’s a disastrous place to be, but my heart won’t give it up. Not yet, anyway.
She yawns and shifts away from me to stretch. Holding her waist, I tuck her back inside my arms, pressing a kiss against the top of her head.
“Go back to sleep, darlin’.” Resting my cheek against her hair, I inhale that captivating grapefruit smell.
She unlocks my arms to escape me, but I grasp her wrist.
“Where’re you going?”
“To run.” She smiles and kisses my nose. “Got to keep the blood pumping.”
I yank her back into bed. “I’ll keep your blood pumping.” Grasping her behind her neck, I steal another kiss.
She grins. “I know, that’s why I need my morning run—for sanity.”
Reluctantly, I release her.
“I’ll be back in forty-five minutes.” She kisses me quickly and then dashes away.
Rolling onto my stomach, I notice two framed photos on her bedside table. In a glass frame, she keeps a photo of herself with her parents. They’re dressed up at some formal social event. Lindsey’s wearing a low-cut, emerald-green gown, her shiny hair framing her face. I imagine escorting her to an affair like that, dancing close, having her on my arm all night. She makes me wish for something I never wanted before, yet now need like air and water.