Not so for him.
Levi took a bracing breath, and then headed for the building.
Inside, the air smelled of sawdust, drop cloths covered the floor, and a couple of sawhorses balancing a sheet of plywood comprised the only furniture. Voices echoed from deeper into the space, and Levi followed the sound, stopping at the framed-in doorway when he saw Elise—yoga bag still slung over one shoulder, attention fixed on the carpenter giving her a rundown on the day’s progress.
This was what he’d needed.
Part of it anyway. The rest he’d start working on when the guy with the clipboard took off.
* * *
Her focus was slipping.
From the minute Levi had left that morning, Elise had been forcing herself to function.
Sure, there might have been some going through the motions involved. Her afternoon classes certainly hadn’t been the best she’d ever offered. Not great considering her reputation as an instructor was in no small way going to impact the success of the studio. But with her chest feeling as though someone had taken everything vital from within it, she’d done the best she could.
Now, listening to Ed talking about getting the electrician in and when the flooring would be delivered, the thoughts about Levi suddenly couldn’t be ignored. God, she could almost feel him…smell him… Her eyes closed as a fresh wave of sadness washed over her.
The last thing she needed was to cry in front of Ed.
Under the guise of stretching sore muscles, she ran her hand over the back of her neck, using her cocked elbow to shield her eyes from view as she tried to get the blinding tears under control.
She’d blame it on the sawdust or something.
An allergy.
Possible if she’d been able to limit the emotional breakdown to a single renegade tear or two. Only once the waterworks started, the rest of her body wanted in on the action. She’d barely been keeping it together since Levi walked out the door—dismissing Ally with a lot of brave talk and philosophical rubbish about life and love, until she’d finally driven mother and son from the apartment…but it seemed the levee had burst, and now she couldn’t contain the overflow.
Her shoulders shook as, mortified, she wrestled against the sob working its way out of her body.
And then strong arms were surrounding her, a gruff hush sounding above her head.
“Oh, Ed, no. I’m fine,” she choked, desperate to get a grip—and to work herself out of the hold her contractor had on her. A hold that only confirmed how desperately she missed Levi—because in that moment she would have sworn the medium-build contractor had grown six inches and firmed up in a way that felt all too familiar. Felt like the arms she needed—
“Elise,” came the low rasp of a voice she’d never mistake. “Aww, baby, you’re killing me.”
Blinking wildly, she cleared her eyes enough to look up. Up. Up, into the face she’d been aching for. Her breath leaked out with a fresh batch of tears and her fingers clutched into his shirt. The same soft white cotton T-shirt he’d had on that morning. The same dark jeans.
The same fathomless blue eyes, daring her with the depths she’d never explored.
“What are you doing here?”
Levi swept the pad of his thumb beneath her eye and then nodded to Ed behind her. “I’m sorry, but would you mind giving us a minute?”
Scorching heat erupted into her cheeks as she turned back to Ed, who was graciously jotting a few notes as he stood over by the wall.
Without actually looking at them, he capped the pen and tucked the clipboard beneath his arm, starting for the door. “I’m about through anyway. Any questions, we’ll sort out tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” Elise managed weakly, wiping a fresh tear with the back of her wrist.
One last nod, and then he was gone. Leaving her alone in what would be her studio, with Levi. Who wasn’t supposed to be in this time zone.
Levi slipped the strap of her yoga bag free from her shoulder and hooked it over his own.
“I had classes this afternoon,” she offered dumbly, suddenly at a loss for what to say. Or maybe too afraid to ask the question she wasn’t sure she could handle the answer to.
“I know. Been waiting for you to get through them.” His hand drifted down her arm so his fingers could thread through hers. “I would have picked you up, but I didn’t know your schedule this week.”
“You didn’t leave.” She really was a master of the obvious.
Levi cocked one of those devastating smiles at her. “I couldn’t.”
Her heart did a little flip as hope trod a new path through her veins. “Why not?”
There was a conspiratorial glint to Levi’s eyes as he leaned into her space, dropping his voice to answer. “I left my jacket with my ticket in it hanging on the back of your bathroom door.”
Elise blinked, her lips parting, though she didn’t have the breath to pass through them.
He’d missed his flight. Which meant this goodbye that had been torturing her slowly for the past two months had been given another reprieve. Another twelve hours, maybe. Another chance to break down the last reserve of strength she’d mustered.
Another night in Levi’s arms.
“When I got to the airport—”
“Let’s get out of here,” she urged, cutting him off.
It didn’t matter how badly she was going to hurt tomorrow. If they had tonight—if they had the next seven minutes—she’d take them.
She had the rest of her life to get over this man. And deep down, that was exactly how long she imagined it would take. Which meant making the most of right now.
A burst of something that felt a lot like adrenaline shot through her system, pushing her heart to pound and her skin to heat. There wasn’t any time to waste.
Stepping into Levi’s body, she wanted to linger over the heat and strength he radiated, but instead she pushed to her toes and reached up to catch the back of his head with her fingers.
“Elise.”
“Or we could stay,” she whispered, thinking of the new wall in the back hallway. It probably wouldn’t hold their weight, but it would offer privacy from the street. And Levi was more than strong enough to hold her up.
Her body surged to life at the memory of his hands on her thighs, her body moving at his direction. The thrust of his tongue between her lips and the hunger in his eyes as he filled her—only then it wasn’t the hunger or heat in his eyes she was thinking about. But the soul-shattering tenderness that had filled his stare that last time they’d made love. The way he’d looked at her after. As if on some level, he’d wanted to love her.
Throat constricting, she tried to shake off the emotions. Tried to focus on the physical. On the feel good. On the back-against-the-steering-wheel out-of-control chemistry that could almost make her forget about everything else.
Hands riding the frame of her hips, Levi searched her eyes—without making a move to close the distance between them. What was he waiting for?
Her heart began a frantic pace. She didn’t want any more tears. Didn’t want any more heartbreak. Fingers curling into the short silk at the base of his skull, she just wanted—
“Elise.”
She shook her head.
“No more talk, Levi.” They’d already said everything there was to say. “We don’t have time.”
His gaze lowered, his brows drawing down, hooding his eyes in shadow. “We have as much time as you’ll give me.”
Elise ceased her attempts to bring them into closer contact and, bracing her palms over the powerful chest before her, pushed—craning back, needing to see as much of Levi as she could take in. Searching his face and body for the visual clues to decipher the words she didn’t understand.
He meant tonight. As much time as she’d give him tonight.
It was what she wanted. What she’d been trying to accomplish pulling at him with everything she had… But sudden unreasonable bitterness rose at the carelessness of his words.
Didn’t
he understand how desperately she would grasp at even the thinnest evidence he’d meant more?
“What if I want forever?” She threw the words back at him, more broken plea than the confrontational challenge she’d intended them to be.
“Forever?”
Levi’s face blanked and renewed dread hollowed her stomach, until slowly that stunned expression began to lift with the left corner of his mouth. And her heart began to thump in a way that resonated throughout her entire body, the surge of emotion and need threatening to override any reason-based organ.
All her goals and ambitions surrounded her—finally within her grasp. The tight-knit fabric of her family stretched across this city. They were there for her, as she was for them. Priorities she’d built her life around.
But with Levi standing before her, that little-boy smile on his man’s face rooted in the words forever…she couldn’t let him go. She couldn’t give him up. Not without ripping the heart from her chest.
“You said we could make it work. That we could find a way.” Swallowing past the nerves and emotions, she licked her lips… “I want to go with you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LEVI didn’t get tongue-tied. He wasn’t the kind of guy to find himself at a loss for words.
He was a man who always knew what he was after, had a plan to get it, and the smooth rap to make sure it ended up his. Of course, the usual rules didn’t apply when it came to Elise, as evidenced by the fact that she’d left him stunned, shaking his head in disbelief as he pieced through the six words she’d spoken, puzzling over how he must have misheard them.
Only as he looked into her face, saw the cascade of emotions rushing over it—fear, hope, love, and faith—he realized he’d heard her correctly.
Sliding his fingers into silky coils of her hair, he tipped her face to his and kissed her, slow and soft, before pulling away to meet her eyes.
“I can’t ask you to give up the life you’ve built here. I wouldn’t want to.”
“But—” she started, her voice little more than a broken whisper.
“Don’t.” He stopped her with his thumb across her soft lips, and then his mouth. “Let me finish, sweetheart. I couldn’t ask you to give up everything you love here, everything you’ve been working for—”
Stubborn girl wouldn’t be silenced. “I love you.”
Damn, he’d never get tired of hearing that. And he believed it. Felt it in the way she clung to him, saw it in the glittering emotion pooling in her eyes. Tasted it in the desperation of her kiss.
It was so much more than he’d ever imagined it would be. More than he’d believed he could have. More than he’d thought he’d feel.
His palm cupped the smooth skin of her cheek.
But it was there—love—wrecking his chest and tightening his throat, so the words that finally escaped it were heart-and-soul rough with their depth of feeling. “I love you too.”
This time it was Elise who’d been struck dumb. Levi savored the moment, his mouth hitching as she stood wearing that baffled expression on her beautiful face.
Not one to waste a perfectly good opportunity to press his point, he gripped her shoulders and pulled her flush against him, took her mouth in a firm kiss and then held her away, enjoying the unrelenting tug of the smile at his lips.
Yeah, that felt good.
“I don’t want you to have to give up anything you love. I know how important it is to make your dreams a reality. The satisfaction of achieving your goals. I don’t want you to have to sacrifice your commitment to your family, so you can commit to me.
“When I look into your eyes like this—when I see what I’m feeling shining back at me in them—I want you to have everything.”
More than that, he wanted to give it to her.
“But what about Seattle? SoundWave? What about your dreams and goals? What you want?”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” He caught a soft spiral between his fingers, giving it a gentle tug. “I’m not a nice guy. I’m not selfless. So you better believe, I am going after exactly what I want.”
At the flicker of those smoke-soft gray eyes, Levi let out a gruff laugh, catching Elise’s face gently between his hands. “And before those nerves of yours conjure up some wildly unflattering and totally outlandish scenario about what I mean, let me make it perfectly clear. I’m talking about you. You are what I want.
“The clubs are a job, and I’m done making them my whole life. My development team has brought SoundWave this far, they’re good enough to take it the rest. Yeah, I’ll have to make a few short trips out, but I want to make Chicago my base.” Levi swallowed hard. “My home. As for my dreams and goals—the only goal that matters to me is learning how to become the kind of man who’s good enough that some day these dreams I can’t get out of my head become a reality.”
Turning her head, she nuzzled into his palm. Kissed the hollow there. “Tell me about your dreams.”
“They feature this gorgeous yogilates instructor. Sometimes they’re about all things her bendy little body can do. But mostly, they’re about the smile on her face. The sound of her laughter.” Levi bowed his head, pressing his brow to hers. “I dream about the kinds of things I can’t ask you for now. The kinds of things that come with forever. I want them. I never thought I would, but, Elise, I want them and I’ll do anything to make you want them with me.”
Elise pinched her lips together. Swallowed once. Then twice more in an effort to regain some semblance of the composure she’d lost even before Levi’s admission. How could he not see? How could a man so wildly self-confident not get that he was everything she wanted already? She’d well and truly been willing to give up the most important things in her life in order to be with him—and he’d made it so she didn’t have to. “I love you, Levi.”
She could hear the smile pushing those sexy lips in his cocky demand. “Say it again.”
Pulling back so she could meet Levi’s soul-deep stare, she replied, “I love you. And I want forever and everything that comes with it, so long as I have it with you.”
Levi caught her left hand in his, rubbing the thick pad of his thumb over the sensitive skin at the base of her fourth finger. “Forever?”
Butterflies danced through her belly as she nodded.
Then splaying a hand across the width of her abdomen, gaze steadier than his voice, he prompted again, “Forever?”
The hope and desire shining in his eyes had her heart thumping wildly in her chest. Smoothing her hand over his where it rested over her belly, she envisioned a little boy with those same perfect-day, blue-sky eyes snuggled against Levi’s broad chest. “Yes.”
A slow grin pushed to Levi’s face. “I don’t have any doubts, Elise. I love you. And I’m never going to give you up.”
Pushing to her toes, she whispered against his lips, promising everything she had to give, because she knew without doubt the man who stood before her was going to spend the rest of his life doing the same. “Forever.”
EPILOGUE
ELISE squinted into the morning sun, watching as Levi cut across the dew-covered field, already twenty yards ahead. If she’d had more energy she might have caught up with him, but chasing a man bent on his own purpose simply wasn’t worth the exertion.
She’d tried to talk reason…but Levi wouldn’t listen.
Closing in on a cluster of activity, he raised a hand in greeting, calling out to the man almost as tall as he was.
“Nate.”
“Hey, man. Thought you were leaving town this week for that opening in Dallas.”
Some sort of masculine hand-slapping, knuckle-bumping ritual ensued and Elise chuckled at the easy exchange.
“Nah, sent my VP instead,” he answered, shooting a backward glance her way, his grin stretched so wide she wondered how it didn’t break. “He plays better with the press. Besides…”
He turned, eyes holding with hers.
She knew what he was working up to. Even though she’d
suggested he try to wait this time…he just couldn’t seem to stop himself.
It was one of her favorite flaws.
Levi’s already impossibly wide shoulders expanded with his held breath.
God, she wondered if she’d ever get tired of watching him. Not likely.
And then he was digging in his jeans pocket, and suddenly it was her breath that caught.
No. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. Not again.
The soft padded squeeze of the small hand in hers drew her attention down to the wide perfect-day, blue-sky eyes blinking up at her. “Mommy, why’s Daddy’s wavin’ the baby stick at Coach Evans?”
Elise’s lips twitched. “It’s just Daddy…excited.”
Excited. Elated. And apparently out of his head as well. Just as he’d been finding out about Marissa. Danny. And then Danny actually being Danny and Dane. Only she’d thought they’d agreed he’d stop dragging the pregnancy tests out for show-and-tell.
Nate’s eyes went wide as, laughing, he took a quick step back, hands coming up to cradle the little bundle of boy, strapped securely into his baby sling. But then just as quickly, he dodged the test stick, the “Levi Davis Productions” diaper-duffel, and the double stroller with the twins Levi had been pushing—and caught her husband in a genuine, back-clapping, one-armed hug.
Another curly-lashed blink, and then their five-year-old daughter, Marissa, burst into a grin that matched her daddy’s, staring after Levi with unabashed little-girl worship. “He gets really excited.”
Elise nodded, her throat going tight with emotion as she gazed across at the best rule she’d ever broken. “About us he does.”
Heading over to the sidelines, she spread a blanket. Returned a wave from Nate’s wife Payton, who had been summoned to center field. After duly inspecting and admiring the pregnancy test, she jogged over to Elise, eyes still watering from her laughter.
“Congratulations,” she said, offering a tight squeeze before stepping back and pulling a mock frown. “Only you do realize that Nate’s going to be begging me for another baby after this.”
Elise chuckled, knowing it was true. Between Nate and Levi, she didn’t know which of the guys was a bigger family man. And Nate, like Levi, had the tenacious mentality that usually got him most anything he wanted. But then, Elise didn’t imagine there’d really be all that much begging required, as Payton had been hinting about wanting “just one more” since their youngest was born six months earlier.
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