“Because I decided at the end of it all I wasn’t really that interested. No one was more surprised by that than I was.”
“She was beautiful,” Faith said. “Why weren’t you...into her?”
He firmed his jaw, looking Faith up and down. “That is the million-dollar question, honey.”
That same thing that had stretched between them back at the house began to build again. It was like a physical force, and no matter that he told himself she was all wrong, his body seemed to disagree.
You dumbass. You want something harder than she can give. Something dirtier. You don’t want to worry about your partner. You want a partner who can handle herself.
But then he looked back at Faith again, her cheeks rosy from alcohol and the exertion of riding the bull, and maybe from him.
He wanted her.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to change that.
“I have a theory,” Faith said.
“About?”
“About why you didn’t want her.” She sucked her straw between her lips and took a long sip, then looked up at him, as if fortified by her liquid courage. “Is it because...?” She tilted her chin upward, her expression defiant. “Are you attracted to me, Levi?”
He gritted his teeth, the blood in his body rushing south, answering the question as soon as she asked it. “You couldn’t handle me, baby girl.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
“But it’s an important thing for you to know.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what you think. Again, putting you on the long list of men who think they know what I should and shouldn’t do, or want, or think about.”
He leaned in and watched as the color in her cheeks deepened. As that crushed-rose color bloomed more fully. She was playing the part of seductress—at least, in her funny little way—but she wasn’t as confident as she was hoping to appear. That much he could tell.
“Do you have any idea what I would do to you?” he asked.
She wrinkled her nose. “I would assume...the normal sort of thing.”
He chuckled. “Sweetheart, I was locked up for five years. I’m not sure I remember what the normal sort of thing is anymore. At this point, all I have to go on is animal instinct. And I’m not totally sure you should feel comfortable with that.”
She shifted, and he noticed her squeezing her thighs together. The sight sent a current of lust straight through his body. Dammit. He was beginning to think he had underestimated her.
“That still isn’t what I asked you,” she said softly. She looked up at him, her expression coy as she gazed through her thick lashes. “Do you want me?”
“I’d take you,” he said through gritted teeth. “Hard. And believe me, you’d like it. But I don’t wantyou, sweetheart. I just want. It’s been a hell of a long time for me, Faith. I’m all about the sex, not the woman. I’m not sure that’s the kind of man you should be with.”
She squared her shoulders and looked at him full on, but the color in her cheeks didn’t dissipate. “What kind of man do you think I should be with?”
He could see it. Like a flash of lightning across the darkness in his soul. A man who would get down on one knee and ask Faith to be his. Have babies with her. Live with her, in a house with a lot of bedrooms for all those babies.
A man she could take to family dinners. Hold hands with.
A man who could care.
That was what she deserved.
“One who will be nice to you,” he said, moving closer. “One you can take home to your family.” He cupped her cheek, swept his thumb over her lower lip and felt her tremble beneath his touch. “A man who will make love to you.” She tilted her face upward, pressing that tempting mouth more firmly against his thumb. “All I can do is fuck you, sweetheart.”
She looked down, then back up. And for once, she didn’t have a comeback.
“You deserve a man who will marry you,” he continued.
