It’s too bad we’re going to have to stop it.
Sloane clears her throat, forcing my focus back to her. I hate that I let that yebani blyat pull me away from her for even a moment.
“Should I get you guys your usual orders?” she asks.
Her lashes flutter and her cheeks flush when I stare at her. But I can’t help myself. She’s so beautiful and innocent, it kills me that I can’t have her. That I even want her to begin with.
But I will not ruin something so perfect. She deserves a proper fresh start, a life away from crime. It’s best for me to stay away and help her from a distance. Her little crush on me will fade soon enough. But my infatuation with her, this pull I can’t seem to shake, it’ll stay right where it belongs: out of reach.
“Please,” I tell her, and she nods and hurries off.
Lev’s eyes stay on her, tracking her like he can’t let her out of his sight yet, and something tightens in my chest.
He’s still worried about her. He keeps so much inside, and most of the time I’m left guessing.
Sloane returns with our drinks, setting them down carefully and making sure the straw in Lev’s is exactly where he likes it. To see her care for him too, to notice these little things, it means more than she realizes.
She remains a second longer, her fingers brushing the edge of the table, eyes flicking between Lev and me.
“I didn’t expect you guys today,” she finally says.
My hand tightens at my thigh. She notices that too.
“He wanted to make sure you were okay.” My palm settles on Lev’s knee. “He was worried about you after the other day.”
Her hand flies to her chest. “Oh my God.” Her eyes soften as she looks at him. “I just love you, Lev. I hope you know that. Thank you for thinking about me. That means so much, but I’m okay, I promise. Especially now that I’ve seen you.”
Lev gives her a tiny smile, shy and proud at the same time. His fingers close around the headphones resting against hiscollarbone while his gaze drops to the salt and pepper shakers and he starts lining them up until they’re just right.
“I’m so sorry,” she says to me, words tumbling out. “I-I meant to thank you for the phone and then…well, you and Jace happened and it completely slipped my mind.” She lets out a small, breathless laugh. “You didn’t need to do that. It was really kind. I don’t even know why you did it, but…thank you.”
The color creeping into her face does something lethal to me. When she gets flustered, unsure where to put her hands or her eyes, my mind takes that softness and drags it somewhere it has no right going. I imagine how flushed she’d be beneath me as my cock eases inside her until her composure cracks and she comes apart for me.
Why the hell am I doing this to myself? The plan is tostopthinking about her like that, not give these thoughts more life every time they surface.
But I can’t stop. The more I fight it, the stronger it gets until it’s all too real. Because no matter what I tell myself, she’s the first woman I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, and I hate myself for it.
“You don’t have to thank me for taking care of you, Sloane. Consider me a friend now.”
Yes. Friends. That’s right. Very platonic friends…
“Thank you…friend…” Then that shy little smile appears, and I’m a goner. My damn pulse won’t stop beating harder, like I’m a sixteen-year-old boy all over again.
Chto ty so mnoy delayesh?What are you doing to me?
She bites the corner of her lip, and my teeth grind.Iwant to be the one to do that. To pin her to the wall, my hand curling around her throat while the other has its way with her, touching her until she’s moaning my name.
Hell, this obsession has got to stop. I should tell her to go check if our food is done, but I just don’t want her to go.
She turns to leave, and my chest pulls at the thought of it, like the second she steps away I’ll feel it.
“Sit with us for a minute,” I say before I think better of it.
She pauses. “Oh, I don’t know. I still have a couple tables.”
“They’ll wait.”
The edge in my voice surprises both of us. It’s not sharp, but it isn’t a suggestion either. She hesitates just long enough for Lev to reach out, asking her for the same thing, his small fingers curling around her hand, tugging gently but insistently.
