Her chest bucks with a simple laugh. “I’ve got this. Go get your money. I’ll be right here waitingforyou.”
“Oh no, she won’t.” Raven wraps her arm around Lex like an anaconda. “We’re heading over to check out the band. Take all the time you need!” She waves as they disappear into a sea ofbodies.
I look back to the bar and note Axel’s eyes wide with surprise as he pins his gaze on Lex. I don’t care what she says. That boy still has the hots for her. I’ve never seen anyone look at anyone the way he’s lookingather.
A tall, dark, and unbelievably handsome man steps into view, and he just so happens to be looking at me that way. My heart palpitates ten times faster than humanly possible, and it feels as if my arteries are about to burst from the herculean rush of adrenaline. If this pace keeps up, I’ll splatter the walls with all of my affection for him in less than thirtyseconds.
“Levi,” I say his name like acurse.
“Low. You look stunning.” He steps in close, those deep aquamarine eyes are speared so deep into mine they’re penetrating me in ways far more intimate than any other part of him ever has—well, almost. Before I can process another moment of this, Levi is on me. His arms are wrapped so intensely over my person that I struggle to breathe. How I’ve craved the feel of his solid rock-hard chest over mine. How I’ve missed those strong arms roped over me—securing me to him, to the world like a seat belt. His chest bucks, and it’s only then I realize he’s overcome with emotion, and I fight like hell to keep mine in check, but I’m right there with him, my chest bucking against his in a hopeless act ofdespair.
He pulls back. That sad smile on his face is reminiscent of those early days after the arrest, after I landed in his beautiful home. I’ll never forget thinking that Levi Masterson was the world’s most beautiful yet despondent man to ever walk the face of the earth. And now he’s right back to beautiful and despondent where I found him. It’s probably best that way. This is probably the part where we should back steadily away and resume our separate lives before I cast a pall onthings.
But instead, I glower at him a moment, because technically, it was him who cast a pall on this relationship. I wasn’t the one who sent Raven a questionable text. And then, just like that, a breath hitches in my throat as all of those pictures I sent to her claiming they were Evie come to mind. Hey? I guess I was sort of messing with Raven myself. Maybe hedidn’tmean thosethings.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” I toss my hair back the way Lex would, only Lex would most likely be wielding a knife at this degraded point in the relationship. She’s sort of no-nonsense that way, and right now I’m wishing Iwere,too.
“Everything.” He closes his eyes, his arms still holding me tight. “You want to step outside for amoment?”
“Sure.” It comes out reluctant because I know that once we step outside this door, we’re one step closer to his truck, which is just a drive from his home, which happens to house my favorite bed, the one I shared with him. How I miss those heated exchanges, that drugged look in his eyes that made me ten times weaker when he was deep inside of me. Levi made me feel things I didn’t even know werepossible.
We step outside, and the sudden silence is deafening. Levi leads us to an alcove where a few old barrels sit scattered around, staged by Levi himself. Normally, it’s a selfie hot spot, but tonight it’s empty and looking perfectly romantic with the moon washing it white with a kiss. I lean against one of the barrels as a balmy breeze whistles through HollowBrook.
Levi gently cups my cheeks, his body warming mine as he closes the distance between us. “Harlow Hartley, you blew into my life like a twister, and I’ve never been the same ever since. When you walked through that door, it took one look, and I gave my heart away. You’ve made me happier than I ever knew possible. You filled my life with so much joy it took me to heights higher than the moon, and I never wanted to come down.” His jaw tenses, making him look disturbingly sexy, and that sweet spot between my thighs trembles on cue. I hate how easily my body succumbs to his, not that I can blame it. “And then you left.” His features harden, that undeniable look of heartache sweeps through him. “The house was too quiet. I tried playing ‘Key Largo,’ but it wasn’t the same. It just pressed me into hell a little bitdeeper.”
A dull laugh pumps through me. “You listened to ‘KeyLargo’?”
He winces. “I know it’s the song that reminds you of your father but—it’s sort of our songnow,too.”
“We have asong?” My heart melts as I lose myself in his wateryblueeyes.
“Yes,” he whispers as he breaks into a quiet laugh. “And we have the greatest nicknames for each other, and we’re damn good in bed. So I think we should forget about that idiotic text I sent to my sister—which I swear on my dead father’s grave had absolutely nothing to do with you.” He closes his eyes and shakes his head as if he were still kicking himself. “Please, believe me when I say this, I apologize from the deepest part of my heart, from the marrow in my bones. I’m so sorry you thought that had anything to do with you. I love you, Harlow. I love you deeply, intensely, with a never-ending ache that hurts in a good way. I worship the ground you walk on, and whether or not you decide to come back to me, I’ll continue all of the above because not one part of me wants to stop. I can’t.” His dimples go off as he gives a pained smile. “Come back to me,Peaches.”
A sorrowful laugh bubbles through me. It’s sort of my MO to laugh at all of the disasters in my life. “I’m sorry things got so out of hand. I’m sorry if you think I overreacted. It’s just that I’m sort of used to people leaving me, dying on me, firing me, asking me to leave, and just all around rejecting me. Outside of my sisters, Raven has sort of been the one that forgot to take off. She’s been a steady friend, a sister in the truest sense. I guess that’s why I opened up to you so wide and so fast. I figured you and your sister were cut from the same cloth.” I give a little shrug as a naughty grin perks to life on my lips. “I guess I wasright.”
Levi bucks with a silent laugh as his whole body relaxes. “I promise you were right.” His jaw redefines itself once again, and this time I can’t resist him. Levi is so freaking handsome. At any given time we’re together, there are ten different girls who want to gift me thefinger.
My lips tremble, and I’d do anything to calm them with his. “I think I’m going tokissyou.”
“And I’m damn well going to let you.” Levi dives in first. His impatience, his hunger, those deep, dark kisses spell out something far more telling than that apology he offered up. Levi’s kisses are charged, electric, a tall, cold drink for a thirsty soul. My dress glides up my thighs until I’ve leashed my legs around his waist, and I’m right there with him, so damn thirsty I can never getenough.
He pulls back with his lids heavy in that stoned way I’ve grown to appreciate, and my insides pinch tight. “I love you, Low.” He touches his forehead to mine. “And I will never let you feel anything less than that,loved.”
“I love you, too, Levi.” An unexpected lump grows in my throat the size of one of these rusted-out barrels, and I force myself to push past it. “Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but Raven mentioned that there was something I didn’t know about you. Is there something you want to tell me before I haul you out of here and give you a good lashing with mytongue?”
His brows knit with a mixture of confusion and delight. “That’s quite a promise. One that I’m going to hold you to.” Levi takes in a huge breath. “There is something I’ve been holding back. It might explain a few things as far as my grumpy mood for the last few years, certainly the window in which me met. Soon after Mer and I were married, we were expecting a child.” He pauses, and my mouth falls open because I can’t see this ending well. “We had the baby, a boy. He was stillborn at six months, three months too soon. He had a congenital heart defect and died in the womb.” He slaps the back of his neck and looks to the ground a good long while as he struggles to hold ittogether.
“I’m so sorry. You don’t have to go on. I can see how painful this isforyou.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s a part of who I am.” His eyes meet with mine, powerfully sad, desperate to be heard. “We buried our child, and I buried my heart right along with him. I shut her out, and that’s when she turned to my brother. Yes, it was a terrible thing they did, but it was born of terrible circumstances to begin with.” He takes in a ragged breath as the breeze licks away at our silent tears. “And you know the rest. The day you walked into my life, those first few seconds before we ever said a word, a light came flooding into the darkness, and I felt alive again for the first time in years. You healed me before we ever saidhello.”
I shake my head through a deluge of tears. “You healedme.” My mouth finds a home over his as we make things right, start over, pick up where we left off, all of theabove.
Levi pulls me in tighter than before and we continue that heated exchange right up until we take off in his truck. I send a group text to Lex and Raven to let them know something unexpected came up—like areconciliation.
Raven texts back with ahell yeah!And Lex texts back withmake sure he knows you’re familiar with the working end of a kitchenknife.
I marvel at the fact she’s kept with two running themes in her life, her panache for all things psychotic and the quasi-food-related gaffe that encompasses akitchentool.
