“Now she’s done with me,” he continued to talk to no one. “Now she has the big, bad cowboy and she doesn’t need poor Ajax.”
His hands started moving over my tunic, groping and feeling. “What the hell? Get off me!” I shoved his chest and he flailed backward easier than I thought he would. He fell on his ass and started laughing like a lunatic.
“Leave me alone,” I growled at him. “Don’t ever come near me again.”
He stumbled to his feet, swaying wildly from side to side. “Rubita,” he crooned, throwing his hands toward me. “Oh, don’t be like that. I was just messing around. Come on.” He lunged forward, and I screamed, leaping out of the way of his pawing hands and out of control body.
Levi raced around the corner and stepped in front of me. He swung hard at Ajax, landing a punch on his cheek and sending him back to the ground. “She said to back the fuck off. So back. The. Fuck. Off.”
“Oh, my god, Levi,” I gasped, surprised to see him.
Ajax moaned in a crumpled pile in the snow.
He turned to face me, his hands moving over my arms. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head, but I wasn’t sure if I was answering him or if that was the cold making my body tremble. “N-no. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fucking fine,” he growled. He turned a murderous look on Ajax. “Fucking asshole.”
I stared at the unconscious man. “He’s harmless now.”
“For now,” Levi muttered.
“That’s the second time you knocked him out.”
He frowned at me. “The first time wasn’t much of a fight either. He’s a mess.”
“He needs help.”
“Still doesn’t give him the right to fucking touch you.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “True.”
Levi’s eyes swept over me, taking in my appearance all over again. “Where’s your coat? It’s freezing out here.”
“Er, the car,” I said through chattering teeth, my breath coming out in puffs of white. “I was on my way there.”
“Why?”
His tone was so straight-forward, so confrontational, I couldn’t help but add sass to mine. “Because I was leaving. Is that okay with you?”
“Not if it means getting yourself into trouble in a back alley.”
“I would have been fine.”
His voice dropped low to a scary tone. “No, you would not have been fine.” He pulled out his phone. “Don’t move yet.”
“What are you doing?”
“Texting Blake Upchurch to come deal with this sack of shit.”
Of course, Levi had the chief of police’s number in his cell. He was the golden boy after all. For some reason that really irritated me tonight. I was so tired of him being perfect, of him doing everything right. And I was so exhausted from doing everything wrong.
Turning away from him, I stomped off toward my car. It was three buildings away. “I’m fine now. Thanks for your help, Levi. Goodnight.”
He stalked after me, anger radiating off him. “That’s debatable,” he snarled.
We walked the rest of the way in silence, the snow crunching beneath our feet. I wrapped my arms around my body and tried not to catch hypothermia. I had a million things to say to him, but I bit them down, deciding I’d done enough damage to Levi Cole.
