“Tell me. Is this what you need?” he asked in a taunt that told her he knew exactly what she needed. That this was all part of the game.
“Yes…more.” The answer was half plea and half cry, and was rewarded with the thick penetration of his fingers, stretching her in decadent pleasure. Ratcheting her tension higher until she bowed taut. Making her blind with longing until her throat worked convulsively as she swallowed back the sobs that threatened to break free with his every controlled thrust. Until restraint and control and resistance were crushed beneath desire.
She cried out, a desperate keening sound that found its beginning and end in a place within her she hadn’t known existed. And once tapped gave forth a font of pleas that voiced her every soul-deep need.
The angle of Levi’s thrust shifted, the heel of his hand making sweet contact with the spread of her feminine flesh and that single needy place. The air in the room, in her lungs, in the world around them seemed to collapse into the gravitational epicenter of her body, hold for an instant that rolled over with the weight of forever before releasing, surging outward and pushing sensation to the very extremities of her being. Overloading her nerve endings, filling her so past what she believed her capacity for pleasure to be, she thought she might burst.
Welcomed it.
Wave after wave washed over her, threatening to drown her in a bliss too deep, too wild and too far-reaching to find her way back from. But then Levi was there with her. His powerful arm braced across her torso, holding her tight to him when she didn’t have the strength to stand on her own.
Sucking great draws of air, she tried to find her place in the universe once again. The world spun as Levi turned her in his arms. Opening her eyes, she found him looking down at her, his features taut with barely restrained yearning, and she couldn’t breathe at all.
“That was…” he shook his head, his voice rasping gravel rough over nerves still overcharged and sizzling “…the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
If she hadn’t been staring into his eyes, if the truth of his words hadn’t been blazing in their blue depths, she wouldn’t have believed it.
A man like him. A woman like her.
It shouldn’t be possible, but in that moment it was.
She wanted to tell him it was him—that no one had ever made her feel the way he did. But before she could open her mouth, find the voice that she feared she’d left in the ether, rough hands lifted her atop the desk. Levi reached over his shoulder and, grabbing a handful of his shirt, tore it over his head even as his other hand made short work of his belt and fly.
“And I want to see it again.”
CHAPTER NINE
“ALL I’m saying is that it’s cliché. Not that it wasn’t good.”
Reclined against the black leather sofa in his office, Levi chuckled and looked down to where Elise lay on top of him, her stubborn little chin stacked on her hands over his chest. “It can’t be cliché if it was an emergency.”
One slender brow pushed up into an amused arch. “An emergency? How exactly was that?”
Catching one of those soft loops falling about her face, Levi twisted it round his finger before letting it spring free into its silky coil. “You needed a distraction. And I needed to hear you moan. The office was the closest place to make it happen.”
“Your apartment is next door. Literally attached to the club.”
“Too far.” And it had been. The moment Levi had seen her walking toward him, he’d been ready to strip that dress off her and put her up on the bar. Only he wasn’t a public display kind of guy and the chest-beating beast in him was typically of the mind that if Elise went the rest of her life without letting another man see that unbelievable expression of ecstasy on her face, it would be okay with him.
Hell, he couldn’t even think about her soft parting lips and half-lidded eyes without his groin starting to tighten.
Elise was giggling at his more-than-honest response. That lithe little body of hers moving in a way he couldn’t ignore. And then she let out a soft sigh and something inside his chest tightened too.
So different.
Her lips drifted over the spot and she kissed him there. Softly. And if he hadn’t liked the feel of it so damn much, he would have flipped her beneath him right then.
“Besides,” he added, “Bruno’s over there. You know as well as I do, if we’d gone through that door, we’d have been looking at a walk before we got anywhere near the bed. Plus the guys downstairs would be pissed if I threw off the rotation.”
“The rotation?”
“Yeah, they like walking him. Worked out some kind of system for who gets to do it when.”
A second passed and then another.
“Levi, you’re not what—” Swallowing once, she shook her head, then turned so her sexy mess of hair concealed her face and prevented him from seeing her eyes. It wasn’t the sort of thing he’d normally care about—maybe it wasn’t something he’d even notice—but right now he was curious what she’d been about to say.
Gathering a bit of her hair, he was about to tuck it aside when she shifted above him and then began backing off the couch. “I should get out of here.”
Levi’s brows pulled down as he pushed to his elbows. She wasn’t looking at him as she slipped her dress over her head and let it slither down her naked body.
“It’s getting late and I have to work early.”
Right. It made perfect sense. And maybe the only reason it didn’t feel that way was because he was an arrogant S.O.B. and he hadn’t been the one to suggest it. Maybe he just didn’t like that Elise kept getting the jump on him…even when the out she offered was the one he’d always taken in the past.
Levi swung his feet to the floor and started pulling on his own clothing.
Or maybe what he didn’t like was the way that easy connection between them had evaporated between one breath and the next, and now Elise looked as if she couldn’t get away fast enough. As if they’d completed the sex portion of the program and, uncertain about what came after, she was ready to bolt.
He could tell her to stay. Wake up with her in his bed. Have her again and then drive her back in the morning.
Instead, he reached over and tugged her closer so she stood between his knees and he could rest his hands at the backs of her thighs. “I’m glad you came tonight.”
Light fingers trailed down his chest. “I was worried about interrupting you at work. I won’t make a habit of it.”
“Stop by any time you can.”
Elise wasn’t the type to show up at four in the afternoon and stick around until closing, sucking back drinks and getting stupid. Hell, she barely drank at all—which was one of the reasons he could actually relax around her. There wasn’t any gauging reactions and weighing responses. No questioning judgment or keeping an eye on her for her own good. He didn’t have to work when they were together and he liked that.
“Won’t I get in the way?”
Maybe if he were at the start of his project, rather than the end. But the truth was, HeadRush and its staff were virtually running without him. “No. Besides, everyone needs a break once in a while, right?”
She met his eyes. “I needed a break like you. Like this.”
Yeah, so maybe he’d needed it too. His palms coasted up her legs beneath her dress to— “No panties.”
Even in the dim light, he could see the blush rise to her cheeks. “I haven’t found them yet.”
“Is that so?” A quick glance across the office and he located the scrap of silk in a little heap against the base of his desk. Urging her closer, until her shins met the front of the couch, and then further still so all she could do was let out that soft breathy laugh and crawl back onto his lap—her knees straddling his hips as they sank into the leather cushions—he shook his head. “I don’t think it would be right to let you leave until we found them.”
“Oh, really?”
Really. He settled back into the cushions, pushed the bunche
d fabric of her dress even higher than it had ridden on its own. Ground his molars down. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
She arched that sexy brow at him, silently telling him she couldn’t wait to hear this.
“We’ll check the couch here first. Thoroughly. Then have a look around my apartment.”
“Your apartment, hmm. What about Bruno?” she asked, that sinful smile doing things to him that suggested the trip to his loft was a ways off.
“We’ll walk him first and then resume the search. I’ve got a good feeling about the bed. But if we don’t find anything…you’ll just have to stay the night.”
CHAPTER TEN
LEANING against the concrete pillar just outside the studio, Levi offered another acknowledging nod to the women clearing out of Elise’s class.
Shortly Elise herself exited with another woman, presumably the owner, who hung back to lock up.
“I wasn’t expecting you guys,” she said, jogging over with a wide grin.
“Yeah, well, Bruno was getting all riled up. So I thought we’d just swing by and walk back with you. Grab some Thai from that place on the corner.”
Elise reached down to rub Bruno’s knobby head. “That would be great. I picked up a late shift at the coffee house this evening, but I’ve still got a couple hours before I need to be there and I’m starved from skipping lunch.”
Over the past week, he’d been surprised by the complexity and extent of Elise’s schedule, and that for the first time in his adult life, he was the one doing the accommodating. He’d known she taught classes throughout the day at a couple of Chicago’s upscale fitness clubs and local studios, but the peripheral jobs she held to boost her income had been a surprise. Her odd shifts at a trendy coffee place and waiting tables one night a week meant she was pulling somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty plus hours, most days starting as early as five for the before-work crowd and, on waiting-tables night, finishing after midnight. She was relentless.
But the faint shadows around her eyes suggested she wasn’t tireless. And experience told him that once the contracts got signed, she wouldn’t be slowing down any time soon. Not if she was anything like him.
He respected the hell out of the way she was going after her goals. Giving them everything she had. It was the same way he went after what he wanted. But he couldn’t help wonder if her body could take what she was demanding of it.
She’d assured him her classes were varied and broken up throughout the day, and that she spent more time correcting form and posture for her students than actually holding the poses herself, but even so— “You shouldn’t skip meals, the way you work.”
“I know. And normally I don’t, but today I had to run over to a property with Sandy and I didn’t have time.”
Sandy, the partner fronting the other half of the cash they needed for the space and equipment. “I thought you had a place?”
Elise glanced off to the side for a moment in a way that made him think the meeting hadn’t gone the way she’d hoped.
“She’s having second thoughts about the location and wanted to look at something different.”
When she told him the address, he ran a hand over the back of his neck. He knew the neighborhoods pretty well from when he’d been scouting locations for HeadRush and the one she’d mentioned landed only a few rungs above barren wasteland…and nowhere near up-and-coming. There wasn’t much in the way of pedestrian traffic. It was cheap—industrial space going for probably a quarter of what they’d have to pay for retail—but it wasn’t the kind of spot Elise had been talking about.
As if reading his mind, Elise glanced back at him. “We talked about the money up front. About what kind of place we wanted to open.” Blowing out a frustrated breath, she met his eyes. “Our business plan is based on projections from an area like this one. It’s based on that location specifically. We’d have to withdraw our loan application and resubmit with a new plan. New numbers. More waiting. But I don’t know if I’m even interested in what she’s suggesting.”
“So what did she have to say about it?” He would have liked to have been there. He could read investors like a book. Ten minutes with this Sandy and he would have known exactly what the situation was.
“She keeps coming back to the money.” After a deep breath, she shook her head and stared off into the sky. “I’m worried. We’ve been talking about this for so long and now that we’re finally moving forward, I’ve let myself—”
“What? Get your hopes up? That’s good, it’s how you should be. And maybe she’s just got cold feet. It happens, especially with first timers, and often they get past it. Give her a call tomorrow and talk to her. Tonight just try not to worry about it.”
With a tight nod, she agreed. But by the time they’d reached the restaurant, she hadn’t relaxed. “I hate to do this, but would you understand if I asked for a rain check on dinner?”
She wanted to go over the business plan. That was what he’d want to do if it were him. Hell, that was what he wanted to do right now—so the solution seemed simple enough. “How about you pick out something to eat from the menu here and then we’ll head back to your place? If you like, I’ll stick around and we can talk it through. If you’d rather be alone, at least you’ll have food.”
Soft gray eyes blinked up at him, too grateful for what he’d offered. “You really wouldn’t mind?”
Not when she looked at him like that. Hell, no, he didn’t mind.
Ninety minutes later, the cold remains of their Shu Mai, Kee Mow, and Pad Thai littered the far end of the small kitchen table where they’d set up Elise’s laptop and the files she’d put together on her plan for the studio. Levi had sorted through the details asking questions here, offering an opinion there, and in between reminding her to eat.
Now, leaning back in her chair, she watched as he closed the laptop and eyed her across the open cardboard containers. “I could talk to Sandy with you.”
“No. Thank you, but I’d like to talk to her myself. After this—” she waved her hand between them “—I feel more confident with what I want to say.”
That and she didn’t want to risk Sandy feeling ganged up on. Levi could be intimidating when something threatened not to go his way.
Levi pushed back from the table and started closing the flaps on the various carryout containers. “Not sure I really helped that much. I’m impressed with the business plan you’ve submitted. I’m sure the bank will be too.”
Elise walked around to the fridge to put away the leftovers he handed her. “You helped. I put a lot of work into gathering the information we’d need, but I just don’t have the experience behind me to know if I’m missing something vital. So another set of eyes makes a huge difference to me.”
Then, propping a hip against the sink, she swallowed past the unexpected well of emotion. “I need this. I need it for myself.”
Levi set down the silverware and, wiping his hands on a dishcloth, reached for her. Took her fingers in that loose grasp and rubbed a thumb over her knuckles. “Tell me why?”
She wanted him to understand. Only when she opened her mouth to explain, she didn’t think she could.
As if sensing her hesitance, he leaned back just far enough to give her a bit of that devastating smile that flirted with her will. “Okay, how about we start small? Why yoga and Pilates? How’d you get into that?”
Easy enough. “I’d been taking classes with my girlfriends back in college. It started out socially, just something we did together, but when I realized how it cleared my head and strengthened my body, I was hooked.”
“College?” Levi looked past her and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. The facts flipping through his consciousness. She’d told him she didn’t have a degree.
“I only got three terms in.”
“What happened?”
And that was where it got sticky.
“My parents had some…financial issues. And the money we’d thought we’d have for my educ
ation, wasn’t there. It wasn’t their fault,” she added quickly, hating the conclusions Levi might jump to. “It wasn’t anyone’s. Just how it worked out.”
Levi gave her a moment to elaborate, and, when she didn’t, simply took her answer at face value and moved on. “Did you like school—while you were there?”
She thought back to that first terrifying day, when she’d been so filled with nerves and apprehension she’d begged her dad to take her home. He’d walked beside her, promising that he and her mom were only a short drive away—that they’d always be there for her—but she needed to stay. Joking until she’d relaxed enough to put her fears behind her. She’d never doubted him.
And then there’d been the late-night study groups, the quad, her dorm and her friends. All that excitement and intensity around a future that was theirs for the making. Even now she felt the surge of it like an echo inside her.
So much had changed. So fast.
“Yes, I did.” She shrugged, because, really, what more was there to do? “But we were going to lose the house.”
It was only half the story. And that Levi wanted to press was evident in the faint lines between his brows, but she knew right now he wouldn’t. So with a simple shake of her head she went on. “Ally only had one semester left and a job lined up for when she was done— It just made sense for her to finish. My parents needed my help and I wanted to stay close…but I needed an income too. Something flexible. Which made me think of the yoga and the offer I’d had from one of the instructors to pick up a class. Well, that’s what I ended up doing. Along with a lot of other odd jobs. But the yoga stuck. I enjoyed it. My classes got more popular and pretty soon I had full load.”
“Had you chosen a major yet?”
“Business,” she offered with a little smile.
Levi nodded back to the files on the table. “You’ve got a head for it.”
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