Levi
Low Hartley’smouth is the first thing I noticed about her. Those hot as fuck lips, pink and perky, and most importantly calling to me. They alone sponsored a thousand inappropriate thoughts that I’m ashamed to say have been playing on a loop ever since that first night she barreled into my life like a hurricane. She was the first girl to elicit a heartbeat in this dead carcass I’ve been dragging around ever since Mer walked out that door. I thought maybe she might be the one. Everything in me was eager to believe it. And then the cops showed up. The next thing I knew I was at the station, bailing her out, bringing her home of all places. As soon as I found out she was Raven’s friend, it felt like a solid line in the sand had been drawn. Any indecent thoughts I was having about her needed to stop. The fact Raven herself asked me to stay away from her sent a personal cease and desist to my dick. But that didn’t stop me from wanting her. On a primal level I craved her. And as much as I wanted to deny it, my heart was reawakening every emotion I never thought I’d feel again—that I might not have ever felt. They were percolating to life one by one, and they were all for Low. I never felt this way about Meredith, and up until her, there was no one else who made me feel anything close to thiseither.
Low moans while straddling me, her dress hikes up dangerously close to her hips, and my hands smooth over those toned thighs. Her tongue toys with mine as if it were on a swivel, licking me, biting my lips, tugging at them, capturing my tongue between her teeth playfully, then doing her best to suck it down. Low slips her cool fingers up my shirt and runs her hands over me, wild and free. It feels like heaven, and at the same time I realize there is so much more ground to cover emotionally. But, then, things can only get betterfromhere.
My dick grows hard as she presses against me. Her kisses growing increasingly feral by the second, and, as much as I don’t like it, the rational side of me pipes up and starts asking the hard questions. What happens in the morning? Is this a one-time thing, or is this our new routine? I’ve had a few one-night stands before, something hot and quick that was urgently needed to satisfy an itch. We didn’t exchange numbers. We didn’t have to. Hell, I wouldn’t even recognize those girls if they stepped into the bar. But Low—I’m going to have her in my life for a long time to come. And not just because she’s Raven’s best friend, although that should be the chief reason. But I can feel a connection with her—a budding friendship, something genuine forming, and I don’t want to cut that off at the base simply because my dick gotgreedy.
My lips linger over hers, and I kiss a smooth line over to her ear. “I think thisisgood.”
Low bubbles with a laugh. “I think it’sgreat,but if you’re still stuck on good, it’s clear I need to step up my game.” She scoots back, and her hands go for the gold and I’m quick tostopthem.
A laugh gets caught in my throat, and locked in this moment is something beautiful where the two of us exude nothing but joy while staring into oneanother’seyes.
I love how playful she is. Meredith was a damn scientist in the bedroom. Every angle, every move needed to be analyzed ten ways to Sunday. It made for a hypnotically boring, outrageously unsatisfactory sex life. Hell, I’m still not sure what Chip is doingwithher.
Low tips her head to the side, and her curls spill over her shoulder like a waterfall. She glances down at her wrists that I’m currently holding captive. “Is this indicative of things to come?” She holds out her hands as much as my grip will allow. “Because if you’re into restraints, I can totally get on boardwiththat.”
“No, no.” I close my eyes while a soft laugh strums through my chest. “It’s not that. I promise you, I don’t even ownrestraints.”
“We can do a soft tie up.” She leans and licks a line across my cheek before biting down on my bottom lip and pulling it out achingly slow with just the right pinch of pain. “Why don’t you take my panties off?” she whispers hot into my ear, and my hard-on is back with a vengeance. “You can tie me up with those, and I’ll find something far more secure to wrangle you to thebedpostwith.”
“Sounds like a good time.” A damn good time, and I’m actually getting pissed at myself for trying to wrangle my way out of this. Crap. Is it really that big of a deal if she knows Raven? I try to shake the thought away. This is more than that, and I know it. “But I think”—I wince as I pull back, the look of horror on her face already morphing into place—“we shouldslowdown.”
“Slowdown?” Her knee softly grazes over my hard-on, and she lets out a throaty laugh. “Oh, hon, I think this runaway train has already left the station. There’s no slowing down for that bad boy you’ve got brewing there. I’m pretty sure you need to come to a climacticconclusion.”
“You got me there.” Instinctively, I know I should slide her off my lap, but there’s not a single part of me that wants to comply. “We should probably wade in really slow. I don’t think we know each other well enough, and unfortunately we both know Raven alltoowell.”
“Ugh.” She slides to my right and rests her head on my chest a moment before looking up. “Did she threatenyou,too?”
“Only within an inch of my life. Shethreatenyou?”
“She made it clear as that gloss she slathers over her lips that you, my friend, are forbidden fruit.” She glowers at the wall a moment as if it were my sister. “But Raven isn’t here. And she certainly isn’t about to pick who I can or can’t associate with, in or out of my bed. I say we write her out of therulebook.”
“I like that.” My fingers dig into the back of her hair, into those butter soft curls, and my gut cinches. My dick very much insists that Low is a part of the rules tonight. “So, you’re okay with moving slow? Getting to know one anotherbetter?”
Those long, thick lashes bat up at me. “I think if we move any slower my pink parts willrevolt.”
“Pink parts?” I mouth the words before belting out a quiet laugh. “This is why I love you.” And immediately, I regret my wordchoice.
“Aww.” She gives a devilish wink. “I knew we’d speed right back up again. You always throw theLword around so quickly? Or are you just glad to see me?” She gives my dick a quick stroke over my pants, and my head tips back with a heavygroan.
I’m pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes, but I sure as hell like how she tookithome.
“I’m always glad to see you, sweetheart.” I give her hair a littletousle.
“It’sPeaches—keep it straight, would you?” She frowns, glancing around the room a moment. “Okay, so let’s get this conversational ball rolling, shall we? And then once we know everything there is to know about one another—which will take all of five minutes—we can get to the good stuff.” Her finger cuts a quick line back over my hard-on, and I suck in a breath through my teeth. “Why the hell do you have a monkey with five arms holding five very sharpknives?”
“Katanas,” I correct her with a sigh while glaring at the damn thing. “It was my grandmother’s. It’s something my grandfather brought back from the war as a token of hisaffection.”
“Oh.” She tilts into it as if trying to reason it as a gift. “Are you sure helikedher?”
“Helovedher. They stayed solid for fifty-five years, and that’s exactly why my grandmother wanted to gift me a piece of thatmagic.”
“Meaning?” She curls up against me, warming my right side, slipping her long, luscious legs across my lap, and my dick aches for her attention. I dot the top of her head with a kiss, because for whatever reason it feelsnatural.
“Meaning it was a wedding present to Meredith and me. And now it’s all I have left of my grandmother.” A heavy sigh pushes through my lungs. Everything about my soon-to-be former wife has weighed me down for so long. It feels good finally getting it out, like pus out of an infected wound. In the end, that’s what we had become, an infectedwound.
“Wow”—Low scratches lightly over my chest with her fingernails, and it feels like heaven—“bet she was sorry to have wasted all that magic. Maybe it was sort of symbolic. Maybe she wanted you to cut Mer out of your life right from the beginning.” She says that last part under her breath, and I can’t help but belt out alaugh.
