Dialogue Option Tree
Levi’scheekpressedagainstthe cold metal of the wall, his breath coming back at him off the surface in damp bursts. Asher’s weight held him there; chest to spine, close enough that Levi could feel his heartbeat through the layers of uniform between them. It was steady. Controlled. Nothing about Asher’s heartbeat matched what was happening.
His fingers found Levi’s face and turned his head, not gently, but not to hurt either—just enough to see his face. His eyes moved over Levi’s face in the dim light, and the tension went out of his shoulders.
“There you are,” he said softly. Asher’s hand slid from Levi’s jaw to his throat, and he spun him, slamming him into the wall hard enough that the back of his skull connected with metal, thethudringing through both of them. “You walked away from me.”
Levi grabbed Asher’s wrist, his fingers scrabbling at the grip, and found only the tendons and the heat of skin, as Asherwatched him try — furious and fascinated at the same time, his thumb shifting against Levi’s jugular. “I was trying to—”
“You walked away,” Asher said through his teeth. His grip tightened, and Levi saw black dots dancing in his periphery. “You kissed me, and then you walked away.”
“Asher—”
“You left me!” Asher shouted and punched the wall next to Levi’s head. Levi flinched, his eyes squeezing shut as a whimper escaped his throat.
Asher pressed his forehead to Levi’s, his fingers still around Levi’s throat, but his thumb was moving now, tracing the tendon, the hollow of his throat, his Adam’s apple. Levi opened his eyes as Asher pressed down just a little harder, feeling the pressure of cartilage pressing inward. Warmth pooled in his belly, and Levi bit the inside of his lip, hating himself for this part. He hated that he could fear for his life and still be aroused. It was an incredibly stupid thing for his body to do, but it did it nonetheless. The pressure at his throat, the impact to his skull, the proximity…his vision blurred as tears started to streak down his face.
“Asher, please…”
Asher pulled back just far enough to look at him. The rage was still there — in his grip, in the set of his jaw, in the dent he’d left in the wall — but his eyes tracked the tears down Levi’s face with a focus that had nothing to do with anger. His thumb came up and caught one at the corner of Levi’s mouth. “You’re so beautiful when you cry,” he murmured, tilting his head.
His hand moved from Levi’s throat to his hair, pulling back hard enough that Levi’s neck arched and a gasp tore out of him before he could close his mouth around it — sharp, involuntary, pulled from his chest by the pain.
Mostly the pain.
Asher’s breathing changed.
Not from rage. From Levi. From the arch of his throat and the flush climbing his neck and the sound he’d just made. His tongue traced a path down Levi’s neck and back up to his jaw. Levi’s hands came up, fisting the front of Asher’s uniform.
“I couldn’t find you.” The words vibrated against his skin.
“You did find me.” Levi’s voice came out weak. “You always find me.”
Asher lifted his head. “I had to find someone who knew this place first.”
Levi tried to glance over at the blanket, but Asher pulled his head back further. “I’m sorry—
“I had to find out where things were,” Asher whispered as he kissed Levi’s jaw. “Where you would be. How to get to you…” His teeth grazed just below his ear again — deliberate now, a reminder that the capability was there, that it could go further than pleasant. “Where the weapons are stored.”
Levi’s stomach dropped. Not from the words — from the tone, matter-of-fact against his skin. A task completed. A task described with his mouth still on the person he’d completed it for.
“You were somewhere on this thing, and I couldn’t—” Asher’s head lifted again to watch Levi’s face with an expression that looked like grief and hunger wearing the same face. “He was helpful.”
Helpful.
“It took a while,” Asher said, loosening his grip. His fingers spread, moving through the strands instead of gripping, and Levi’s scalp couldn’t tell where pulling ended and petting began.
“And then I found you. Sitting in there. Drinking coffee. Laughing.” His fingers kept moving through Levi’s hair. “You laughed at something Jasper said.”
Oh no.
“I stood in the corridor for thirty minutes.” Asher’s fingers stopped, and his palm cupped the back of Levi’s skull where it had hit the wall, cradling the bump his own violence had left. “I watched you for thirty minutes and you didn’t look for me once.”
“I didn’t know you were—”
“And thenhetouched you.”
Levi’s breath caught.
