“Were you worried?” Levi asked as he washed a bite of cake down with a swallow of milk.
“I was curious,” Piper said. And worried, but she kept that piece of information to herself.
“I should have called you.”
Damn straight, Piper thought. Rather than sound like a petulant nag, she remained silent and waited for him to continue as she let a mouthful of chocolatey goodness melt on her tongue.
“When I left Darcy’s office the team waited in the hall.” Levi laughed. “Every single one of them.”
Levi went on to describe the scene, painting such a vivid picture that Piper felt she’d been there.
“Dylan kissed you?” Piper asked.
Levi nodded, sending her a sardonic smile.
“You should have returned the favor.”
“Not you too,” Levi said, rolling his eyes.
“You have a bromance, not a romance. Yet, when you get the chance to kiss a man as sexy as Dylan Montgomery, you shouldn’t let the moment slide.” Piper grinned. “I wouldn’t.”
“You like Dylan?” Levi slowly set down his fork. His eyes narrowed to a thin slit. “Since when?”
“Everyone likes Dylan,” Piper said with a casual shrug.
“You aren’t everyone.” Levi crossed his arms and waited. “Go on. Answer my question. How long have you had a thing for Dylan? Does he know? Have you been on a date? Without telling me?”
“Down, boy.” Piper chuckled. “You needn’t worry. You’re not in danger of losing your playmate to me.”
“Who said I was worried about losing Dylan?” Levi muttered.
Pleased more than she wanted to admit, Piper smiled.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him. “Like you, Dylan and I are just friends.”
“Just friends?” Levi asked with a raised brow.
“You know what I mean.”
Stacking Levi’s empty plate on top of hers, Piper stood and moved to the kitchen. She placed the dirty dishes in the sink before taking a roll of plastic wrap from a drawer. Carefully, she covered the cake before setting it aside.
“What did you wish for when you blew out the candles?” She asked as Levi cleared the table. “You get to start Sunday’s game, so not that.”
“Even if I hadn’t been named starting QB, I would never waste a wish on something that’s out of my control,” Levi told her as he loaded the dishwasher.
“Sometimes you’re too pragmatic for words,” Piper scoffed. “Not everything should be cut and dried. A wish can be impractical. Or whimsical. Or a heck of a lot of fun.”
An odd twinkle entered Levi’s gold-flecked eyes. Intense, yet the kind of look that made her feel bubbly—as though she’d just downed a glass of champagne in one gulp.
“I know how to have fun,” Levi assured her, his voice deep with smokey undertones. “Let me show you.”
Holding her gaze, almost daring Piper to look away, Levi lifted her hand to his lips. Slowly, torturously so, he licked a dollop of chocolate from her finger. Like the frosting, she melted. With her free hand, she gripped the edge of the counter as her traitorous legs wobbled.
Piper forced a laugh, desperate to keep things light.
“What are you doing,” she asked, tugging at her hand.
“Playing,” Levi told her. His tone was matter of fact while his gaze continued to sizzle. “Aren’t you having fun yet?”
With an athlete’s speed, Levi reversed their positions until Piper’s back was flat against the stainless-steel refrigerator door. Inching closer, he pressed his body to hers. Hot on one side, cold on the other. She let out a shivery sigh.
Somehow, Piper had lost control. Of Levi, and herself. Closing her eyes, she focused on regaining the upper hand. When she lifted her lids, all she saw were his lips, inches from hers and her mind went blank.
“I… Um…” Piper stuttered, and Levi grinned. The jerk. “Did something happen that I don’t know about? Did you hit your head?”
“No.”
“Then who are you?” Piper demanded. “What did you do with my Levi?”
“I’m the same man I was yesterday. And the day before,” he assured her.
As Levi spoke, his lips brushed Piper’s ear. She bit back a moan.
“Let me go,” Piper whispered.
“All you have to do is slide down a few inches and walk away,” Levi told her. “I won’t stop you.”
Slide and walk. Slide and walk. No problem. Except Piper’s body refused to cooperate with her brain’s command. Searching for a reasonable excuse, she latched upon the first thing that came to mind.
“I need answers,” Piper said more for her benefit than Levi’s. “You save the broody, sexy routine for other women. Not me. Never me. Why now?”
“Why do you think?” Levi asked, his mouth hovering over hers.
Piper jerked away but she had nowhere to go. The back of her head rapped against the refrigerator. She winced. Levi grinned.
“Don’t you dare kiss me,” she warned. “Don’t you dare.”
“Let me,” he whispered. “Please.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m sad,” he said.
“You were sad,” Piper argued. “Past tense. For the past hour, you’ve been back to your old self.”
Head cocked to one side, Levi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Red is my favorite color,” he sighed.
Well, crap. How was she supposed to mount a logical argument when Levi knocked her legs out from under her with such sweet sincerity? The man was killing her!
“Don’t change the subject,” Piper said, her fists curling into a ball.
“If I start to feel overwhelmed during practice tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, the memory of your lips on mine will be my lifeline.”
As a buffer, one last act of self-preservation, Piper placed her hands onto Levi’s chest. Almost immediately, she regretted her choice of action. His shirt did nothing to stop her palms from tingling or her breath from hitching in her throat as the hard, hot flesh filled her hands.
“Blackmail?” Piper scoffed as waves of sexual awareness converged in every corner of her body. “I can’t believe my ears.”
Levi didn’t defend his actions. Instead, he brushed his lips across Piper’s forehead, doing the same to the tip of her nose. Nothing new. He’d given her similarly placed brotherly kisses more times than she could remember. Tonight, the difference was palpable.
Nothing about the way Levi held her, or looked at her, or touched her was remotely the way a brother would treat his sister.
“Is your answer no?” he asked. “Five seconds.”
“Levi—"
“Five.” He began the countdown. “Four. Three.”
Stop him. Tell him no. Piper knew the smart thing to do. But as her time ran out, her logical brain lost the war with the carnal needs of her aching body. One kiss. One time. Get it—the curiosity she’d always felt—out of her system, once and for all.
“Two.” Levi gave her an extra second. Then another. When she remained silent, her lips parted, he let out a sigh of relief. “One.”
Telling herself not to give in, to remain stoic, passive, unengaged, Piper did her best to keep her eyes open. She lasted three heartbeats, counting each one before she lost track and her lids fluttered shut. Numbers were her thing, her joy, her comfort. Yet one touch of Levi’s lips against hers, and she was hard-pressed to figure out the solution to the simplest of equations.
Two plus two? No idea. Piper was too busy dealing with Levi, one on one.
Piper slid her arms around Levi’s waist and sank into the kiss. Oh, Lord, she thought. He knows what he’s doing. Deep, slow, sensual. His tongue enticed, entreated, seduced. He taught a master class and she was his willing pupil.
Cupping the back of Piper’s neck, he pulled her closer. He tasted like the richest, most intense dark chocolate. He tasted like
heaven dipped in sin. He tasted like…
“Levi.”
Piper sighed his name. Her skin was flushed, her pulse raced; she was more alive than she could ever remember. If the world could change in an instant, so could a person’s heart. Hers had always belonged to Levi but only as a friend. Now? She would figure out the answer later when she was back in control.
“I’ll stay the night,” he said, backing away.
Levi looked fine, unaffected by their kiss. Damn him. Piper forced herself to move. Concentrating on each step, she was relieved when her legs held her weight and carried her across the room. The more distance and pieces of furniture that she could place between them, the better.
With her back to Levi, Piper shook her head. She knew they needed to talk out what just happened. They had to agree nothing like that would happen again while establishing a whole set of rules for their relationship heading forward. But not now. Not when she wasn’t sure how she felt or what she wanted.
They would talk tomorrow.
“Go,” she told him. Her voice wasn’t strong, but unlike her nerves, it was steady.
“Your apartment in cozier than my big, empty house,” Levi said as he headed down the hallway toward the spare bedroom. “Sleep tight.”
Piper had few options. She could follow and insist he leave her apartment. If he flat out refused, which was more likely than not, her options were reduced to nothing. Arguing with him would be pointless, and potentially embarrassing, depending on what was said in the heat of the moment.
Physically, Piper had no recourse. She couldn’t throw him out and though she knew he’d never hit her back, kicking him in the shins would make her look like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum.
The best solution was to retreat to her bed, relax, sleep. In the morning, she would be back to her calm, reasonable self, not hopped up on the aftereffects of Levi’s kiss.
Studiously, Piper went through her usual nighttime routine. Face washed, teeth brushed, wearing her favorite nightie, she climbed beneath the covers and settled in, closed her eyes, and waited for blessed sleep. And waited. And waited.
Frustrated, Piper turned on her side. Picturing Levi’s too handsome face, she punched the pillow. Falling asleep was never a problem. She’d been known to will herself into an unconscious state in the noisiest, most uncomfortable, inconvenient locations. Yet alone, in the comfort and quiet of her bedroom, she could only stare into the dark and curse the source of her newfound insomnia.
Damn you, Levi Reynolds.
CHAPTER SEVEN
▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲
SLOWLY, PURPOSEFULLY, LEVI rotated his head in a slow circle. When something cracked, he winced but wasn’t deterred. With the same deliberation, he changed direction and suffered through another series of popping noises.
Levi hadn’t waited until the crack of dawn to arrive at the Knights’ workout facility. Instead, after five solid hours of sleep, he left Piper’s apartment well before the sun’s first rays of light crept over Mt. Rainer’s familiar peak.
Standing to the side of a circular track, Levi stretched, loosened his muscles. Taking a deep breath, he hit the timer on his watch and took off, running at full speed as though his life were on the line. During a game, with the opposing defense out for blood, his death—at least the death of his career—was a definite possibility.
At the quarter-mile mark, Levi checked his time. Not bad for a thirty-two-year-old man. For an elite quarterback, he was middle of the pack. Determined, he reached down for more and made his legs move faster.
Half-mile. Three quarters. Spying the end, Levi pushed himself farther, harder. Three yards from home, he found one last burst of reserved energy and burst across the finish line, simultaneously stopping the timer.
Gasping for breath, he collapsed onto the grass that covered the inner part of the circular track and rolled to his back. Sweat dripped from every part of his body and oxygen was at a premium, his chest rising and falling, his heart pounding with the force of an out of control jackhammer.
Levi gasped for breath. Raising his arm, he checked his time and grinned. Not bad. Not bad at all.
“Don’t get too cocky,” Dylan said, sprawled on the ground. He handed Levi a bottle of water. “In case you’ve forgotten how the game works, once the center hikes you the ball, you won’t have the luxury of running in a straight line.”
Downing the liquid in four gulps, Levi poured what was left in the bottle over his face.
“Just needed to make certain the speed was still there. What I need to work on are my bobbing and weaving skills.” Levi sat up. “Back in the day, I had moves that left linebackers eating my dust.”
“For the sake of the team and my sanity, don’t try anything fancy on Sunday,” Dylan said, his expression unusually serious. “Let your offensive line do their jobs and pass from the pocket.”
Levi knew Dylan was right. He wasn’t ready, mentally or physically, for anything fancy. No one in his right mind would leave the on-field decision making up to him. Not in the first game, at least.
Mac and his coaching staff would put together a basic game plan. Quick, short passes and a lot of handing the ball off so the running backs could do their jobs. Levi would shelve his ego and do whatever was asked of him.
“I won’t try and be a hero,” Levi assured his friend. “However, even the best plays sometimes break down at some point. If I’m not prepared to scramble, I’ll be dead meat.”
“Quarterback roadkill,” Dylan said with a sage nod. “You’re right. Work on your moves. I’ll help. The team needs you upright and healthy.”
“I can still play with the big boys.” Levi rolled to his feet. He held out a hand to Dylan.
“You’re preaching to the choir.” Dylan chuckled. “You have an entire team of acolytes. No doubts, no worries.”
“I appreciate the cheerleader routine,” Levi said as he pulled his sweat-soaked t-shirt over his head.
“Sis-boom-bah, buddy.” Dylan waved a pair of imaginary pompoms. When Levi snorted, he shrugged. “Old school, I know. I never could get the kicks right, so I gave up on becoming a cheerleader.”
“The football world is grateful for your sacrifice,” Levi said with a straight face.
“Big sacrifice,” Dylan agreed. He winked and flashed his smile. “Don’t think I didn’t do my part. Instead of joining, I dated the cheer squad. I still have a soft spot in my heart for a woman in a short, pleated skirt.”
“You dated the entire squad?” Levi asked. “How did you manage that without causing a riot?”
“Talent.” Dylan shrugged. “Charm. Sex appeal. And enough natural magnetism to light up the streets of Broadway.”
Shaking his head and smothering a smile, Levi grabbed a towel.
“I’d tell you to get over yourself, but what would be the point?”
“What’s the point of taking a shower?” Dylan called out as Levi stepped into one of the stalls. “You’ll just get messed up again once practice begins. Once the defense has their way, you’ll be a freaking dirtball—head to toe.”
Knowing Dylan was only half-joking, Levi put the image out of his head. He was prepared to get knocked on his ass—and eat some dirt in the process. Pain and punishment were all part of the game. He could hardly wait.
Levi lifted his face toward the showerhead, sighing with pleasure as hot, steamy water washed the drying sweat from his skin. From the time he was old enough to dream of a career in football, he’d worked hard to transform his body into a machine he could count on to do the job.
During a game, Levi’s reflexes needed to be automatic, second nature. While his brain had to think four steps ahead, his body needed to be in the moment.
Levi didn’t have any illusions about Sunday’s game. He would make mistakes. There would be moments when he failed. Playing the game of football could not be compared to riding a bike. Once you learned, you could forget. Especially when you’d b
een on the sidelines for as long as he had.
But Levi knew something his detractors didn’t. He wasn’t idle for the past ten years. Though his body wasn’t in the game, his mind was an active participant. Every snap, every throw, every run, he played along.
Levi was prepared. He’d take the lumps and bumps and bruises. He’d fall, then, he’d get back up. And if he screwed up a play, the next time, he’d do better until he found his rhythm again.
No, football was not like riding a bike. But in his case, Levi knew one thing was true. Once a quarterback, always a quarterback.
“Did Piper like the present you bought her?” Dylan asked as Levi exited the shower.
“I didn’t have a chance to find out,” Levi said as he dried his face. The towel hid his smile.
“You dragged me across half of London and through four different jewelry stores to find the perfect pair of earrings,” Dylan groused. “Then you forgot to give them to her?”
“I didn’t forget,” Levi said. “We, um, sort of got sidetracked.”
“Selfish bastard.” Dylan punched Levi’s arm with more force than he considered necessary. ‘You spent the entire evening talking about yourself, didn’t you?”
“Watch it,” Levi warned as he rubbed the offended spot. “Starting quarterbacks are precious commodities.”
“Precious, my ass,” Dylan snorted, not the least bit impressed.
“As for Piper, she’s a true friend.” The tips of Levi’s fingers tingled as he recalled the feel of her in his arms. “Last night, she gave me exactly what I needed.”
“And what did you give Piper?” Dylan asked.
I gave her what she hadn’t realized she needed, Levi thought with a chuckle. Not that he expected Piper to agree. Not now. Not yet.
“You look like the cat who swallowed the canary.” Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do to my Piper?”
“Excuse me?” Appalled, Levi rounded on his friend. “Since when is she your Piper?”
“The lady handles my money—with an expert hand, I might add.” Dylan released a happy sigh. “The intimacy involved in our financial transactions is indescribable.”
The Backup Plan: A Friends to Lovers Sports Romance (One Pass Away: A New Season Book 2) Page 7
