I looked up at him and saw steam rising from the mug cradled in his hands. “It’s hot cocoa. I added some marshmallows because they make everything better.”
He smirked when I sat up a bit straighter, taking the mug out of his hands. The heat from the ceramic felt amazing against my icy fingers. Levi sat down next to me and reached for the hem of my sweatshirt. I sniped, “Hey, give me a few minutes and then we’ll start the striptease.”
I expected Levi to laugh, but his expression turned cold and stern. Nearly parental. And because my libido had short-circuited about the time I met Levi last week, my dick started to come to life.
“I’m only trying to get you out of your clothes so you can warm up a bit.”
“Yeah, right,” I scoffed, inching away from him on the couch. “Does that line work on other guys?”
“If I was trying to seduce you, you’d know it.” He placed his hands on his lap and sat up straighter. When he next spoke, his voice was a bit deeper, his words measured. “You need to get out of your clothes because they’re sopping wet. I have a blanket right here that we’ll wrap you up in to take off the chill. If you’d like, you can even grab a quick hot shower before we get started.”
Oh yeah.I wished I’d stayed in bed this morning. I’d known as soon as I’d woken up that it was going to be an off day, and now I had to somehow hold my shit together through this photo shoot with a guy who had me all sorts of confused. “A shower would be nice, thanks.”
There. That didn’t sound weird or anything. Levi didn’t roll his eyes or call me out for getting the couch wet, he simply stood, holding out a hand and leading me through a door on the far end of the loft.
“These are Denny’s living quarters, but he won’t mind us using them,” he explained, guiding me into the bathroom and once again reaching for my sweatshirt. This time, I let him because I trusted that he wasn’t going to take advantage of me.
You’d let him even if he was,a little voice in the back of my mind taunted.
Levi kneeled in front of me, untying my shoes. He tapped my right calf and I lifted my foot so he could take off my shoe. As he repeated the motion on the other side, I stared down at him, wondering what it was about this guy that was so different. I usually worked hard to prove I could take care of myself, but with nothing more than a simple gesture, I felt like putty in Levi’s hands.
When he reached for the button on my jeans, I froze. He’d seen my body the other day, but that was work. This felt different. This felt more personal. Levi backed away, motioning for me to continue undressing myself.
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to help you get warmed up,” he explained as he started messing around with the water taps. “You seemed a little out of it when you got here. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” I insisted. For some reason, I didn’t want Levi to know what a wreck my head was. It was bad enough that my brothers and John always eyed me warily, as if they were waiting for my next calamity. For some reason, I wanted Levi to be the person who looked at me and saw me as a normal person. “Thanks for your help, but I’ve got it from here.”
“It’s no problem at all,” Levi responded softly. “Why don’t you finish up and I’ll go figure out which outfit we’re starting with today.”
Levi focusing on why we were here was exactly what I needed. I had a job to do, even if John wasn’t paying me much, and I wanted to show him that he hadn’t made a mistake by asking me to do this for him. I thanked Levi as he stepped out of the room, but I wasn’t sure he heard me. When the door snicked closed, I let out a sigh of relief. I needed a few minutes alone to forget how many times over the past few days I’d caught myself thinking about Levi.
I took my time drying off after my shower, waiting for Levi to return. I didn’t have a brush or anything else, so I ran my fingers through my wet hair, trying to tame the mess the best I could. After staring into the mirror for a while, I realized I was being ridiculous. I wrapped a towel tightly around my midsection, opened the door, and peeked outside. It felt like an intrusion to wander through Denny’s personal space but there wasn’t much else for me to do. Levi still hadn’t returned, and I couldn’t hide out in the bathroom all day.
I was almost to the door leading from Denny’s apartment to the studio area when there was a bright flash of lightning, a loud crack of thunder, and the entire room plunged into darkness.
“Goddamnit!” someone shouted from the other side of the wall. I felt my way through the room, wishing I’d taken the time to observe my surroundings on our way in so I didn’t have to worry about tripping and breaking something. The door opened, and above the narrow beam of light I was able to make out Levi’s features. He announced, “Power’s out.”
Even though he couldn’t see me very well I dramatically looked around the room, wide-eyed. “Yeah, I sort of figured that much out on my own.”
Levi chuckled. He kept walking across the room until he was standing directly in front of me. He held out his hand, and I noticed he had dry clothes for me. “This isn’t what you’ll be wearing today, but I grabbed you something out of my gym bag since your clothes are still wet.”
“Why don’t I just get dressed for the shoot?” As grateful as I was for something to wear, I just wanted to get this over with.
“Until we know how long the power’s going to be out, there’s not much point. We can’t exactly shoot without the lights.” That made sense, and once again I felt like an idiot for missing something so obvious. “And I thought you might be more comfortable not sitting around in a skimpy little outfit while we wait.”
Levi guided me through the back of the loft to the living room, which wasn’t as dark thanks to the huge windows.
“Thank you. That was kind of you.” I placed a hand on Levi’s shoulder for support, ignoring the zing that shot down my arm. The sweatpants he’d given me were too long and too big around the waist, so I tugged at the drawstring and shoved the cuffs up over my calves. “So, what do we do now?”
My mind was already racing with all the things I’d put off doing today so I could take part in the shoot. If we weren’t going to be able to do anything, I should take off and head down to Marino’s to help them get ready for the lunch rush. Tony had been cool when I’d asked for the day off, but I still felt like I was leaving him in a lurch.
“Hopefully it won’t be very long, but I thought maybe we could get some breakfast in you. I’d be willing to bet you forgot to eat this morning.” He wasn’t wrong, but I hated that there was something about me that radiated forgetfulness.
Unlike the other day when there’d been more people bustling around the loft, today it seemed to be just the four of us. The guys who’d been busy taking pictures of individual products set up in light boxes weren’t needed today, so I doubted there was a spread of food laid out, and I didn’t want Levi going to any trouble for me.
“Come on,” he said once I was fully dressed. He slipped his hand in mine and guided me out of the apartment. “I might’ve stopped on the way here to pick up some donuts. I thought those might be more to your liking than what Denny had catered in last week.”
“I don’t suppose you picked up any with chocolate frosting and sprinkles?” My brothers always picked on me for being addicted to what they called the “little kid donut,” but I could seriously eat a dozen and not get sick of them.
