Our gazes clashed from across the small space and his lit on fire, burning so hot and so bright I felt them on me like a physical thing. I wasn’t even dressed in anything spectacular. Just some leggings and a large hoodie I’d had since high school. My hair was up on top of my head, knotted in a wild messy bun. I did have makeup on, but it was minimal. Yet, he looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, like I was special and precious and worthy.
The rest of my resolve dissolved. I couldn’t deny the hot surge of lust rocketing through me. I couldn’t deny that I wanted Levi fiercely. I couldn’t even pretend that I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
I did.
I was going to kiss Levi Cole. And I was going to enjoy every single second of it.
18
Mood Killer
Before Levi could ask me what I was doing, I crossed the room and climbed on his lap, my legs straddling his tapered hips. His look of surprise mingled with white, hot lust. I shivered from just that, from the way his eyes flashed, and his mouth parted and the way his hands automatically gripped the backs of my thighs.
“Ruby, what are you—”
I cut his question off with a kiss, afraid that if he made me explain myself I’d chicken out. Taking his face in my hands, I pressed my lips to his and ran my tongue over his bottom lip. A shiver ran through him, making his whole body vibrate beneath me.
He responded immediately, not hesitating even for a second. His mouth opened, and our tongues tangled together, a desperate push and pull of lips and teeth and tongue. I held his face in my hands, relishing the feel of his stubbled jaw against my palms and fingertips. My stomach pressed against his hard chest as I tried to get as close to his body as possible. My legs cradled his hips, feeling the parts of me that were so female rub against his oh-so maleness.
It wasn’t a gentle kiss or a sweet moment. We went from zero to sixty the second our bodies touched. His splayed hands gripped my hips, tugging me tighter against his body. I moaned into his mouth at the feel of his overwhelming hardness. His entire body was made from cut stone, it had to be. I had never felt muscles like these, never experienced such relentless power in one human being.
My hands moved to his shoulders, so I could prevent my body from toppling over. God, he made me dizzy with his passionate kisses and greedy pleasure. But not just dizzy… it was worse than that. It was a full-body kind of vertigo. He completely upended me.
He took everything I thought I knew about him and this town and this life I’d carved out for myself and turned it upside down.
What was I going to do with him?
His mouth moved over my jaw, kissing, sucking… teasing. He found the sensitive spot just below my ear and paid careful attention while I writhed on top of him and tried to keep from trembling.
Our mouths crashed together a second later and I gasped for breath as his kisses made me delirious with want. “Levi,” I groaned against his mouth.
One of his hands slipped beneath my sweatshirt, finding bare skin. I shivered against the feel of his hot hand against my stomach. And then again as he moved it slowly upward, over my ribs, to just beneath my breast.
My thighs moved further apart, and I settled myself more firmly on him. His other hand gripped my ass firmly, digging his fingers in until it was almost painful, but deliciously so.
“I want you,” he told me plainly, his voice a low rumble of need.
I kissed him again, my teeth grazing his bottom lip. “I want you, too,” I told him in a rasping voice I hardly recognized.
He made a sound of approval in the back of his throat and shoved my bra aside, so he could palm my naked breast, his thumb flicking over my pert nipple. I gasped at the sensation and jolted upright.
His chuckle was wicked and taunting. He did it again, and when he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, I thought I would die right then and there from too much sensation.
I made a sound that didn’t even make sense, begging him for more or to stop or I had no idea what. God, it had never been like this before. Never. Never so intense and electrified and consuming. Never had I been so desperate for a man, so utterly greedy to feel and taste and experience every single inch of him. And we were still completely clothed.
Abruptly, I questioned if this was a good idea. Could I even survive Levi Cole? Or would he be the end of me?
Oh, he would most certainly be my end.
But was it worth it?
With the brief separation of our bodies, his hand left my breast and I mourned the loss until his finger brushed between my legs, finding the most sensitive area of my body in an expert move that had me dropping my forehead on his. He pressed his fingers against my core, moving them in the best way.
“Levi,” I gasped, desperate for more.
“Ruby,” he teased, reminding me of high school for some reason. The push and pull. The give and take. The constant rivalry between us.
He pulled his hand back and gripped my thighs again, tugging me tightly against him. His arousal was unmistakable, and I moved against him accordingly. His mouth found mine again and I moaned into him, wild and wanton and all the things I had never been before. Oh, my god, Levi Cole was perfect in every way.
