by Amy Andrews
‘But...’ She frowned. ‘You never said anything. Why didn’t you... mention it after he left?’
‘Because you were devastated. You needed me to be a friend. And I was happy to be that for you. I wanted to be whoever you needed.’
She nodded. ‘And that’s where you stayed. In the friend zone.’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
Levi shrugged. ‘I guess part of me was hoping that you’d start to feel the same way and make the first move because I was terrified that if I did and you didn’t feel the same way, this—’ he pointed between the two of them, ‘our living arrangement, would be over, and being with you on any level was better than not being with you at all.’
‘Were you ever going to say anything?’
‘Yes.’ He gave her a self-deprecating smile. ‘Eventually. Maybe.’ His smile faded as he thought about the spanner that had been thrown into the works. ‘But then Tony came back on the scene and I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate having this dropped on your plate during the season. I know how hard you worked to get into the team and you needed to focus on that.’
‘Ah yeah. It’s definitely... distracting.’
Which didn’t bode well for him. But hell, he didn’t start this. His hand had been forced.
‘So I decided to wait to the end. Until the season was done and you had that grand final cup in your hand.’
She smiled. ‘From your lips to God’s ears.’
Levi returned the smile briefly before he got serious again. ‘But I’ve been worried Tony would pull something... try to get you back.’ He grimaced. ‘With good reason as it turns out.’
She took a step towards him. ‘There’s nothing between us, Levi. In fact, I can’t believe I was ever sucked in by him in the first place. I feel nothing for him. Not even anger, anymore. I feel less than nothing.’
The sincerity in her voice rang like sweet, sweet music and he breathed a little easier. But the bigger question was how did she feel about him? Part of him was terrified to ask in case she wanted to keep him firmly in the friend zone but he’d come this far.
His pulse picked up again, chugging hard behind his ribs. ‘And me? How do you feel about me? Because I swear there are times that I catch you looking at me in a way that seems a little... more than friendly. Like you might be attracted to me, too. And I’m not the only one in this.’
She stared at him for long moments, her cheeks flushed, her eyes as deep and green as a Mediterranean grotto as they locked with his. ‘You’re not.’ She said it so quietly it was almost a whisper. ‘You’re not the only one.’
Levi’s heart chugged to a stop. He could barely breathe. Did that mean what he thought? What he hoped? ‘Please don’t toy with me, Darcy.’
She shook her head as she took a step closer maintaining eye contact. They were close now in a way they’d never been before. Not physically, although she was near enough to smell the sweetness of her shampoo and feel the heat of her body.
The kind of close with potential. That crackled with anticipation. That throbbed with unspoken desires.
‘I have noticed you, as a man, over the last two years. It’s kinda hard not to. As Shayla says, you’re a hottie. The fact you’re not even aware of your sexiness makes you even hotter.’
Levi blinked. Darcy thinking he was a hottie was the kind of thrill he’d thought he’d outgrown in his teens. Darcy telling him he was a hottie with her gaze firmly pinned to his was a serious turn-on.
‘But... I didn’t think you felt the same and, as you said, we were friends and that’s meant a lot to me. I didn’t want to do anything to upset the status quo either. And then you gave me that foot massage and... well—’ She dropped her gaze. ‘I’ve been having some seriously indecent thoughts about you ever since.’
Levi swallowed. ‘Christ... Darcy...’ He reached for her then, his hands shaking, actually shaking, as they slid onto her bare arms.
Adrenaline. Anticipation.
Five years of denial. Two years of pretence.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he whispered, the tremble in his voice matching the tremble in his muscles as his arms came around her and she settled into him, rose on her tippy-toes, snaked a hand around his neck.
She gave a husky little laugh. ‘My heart is beating so fast it feels like it’s going to explode.’
Levi tightened his arms around her. ‘Mine too.’
Whenever he’d imagined kissing Darcy for the first time—and he’d imagined it more than was good for his sanity—Levi had pictured something fast and furious.
Quick and dirty. Deep and wet.
He hadn’t been prepared for the preciousness of the moment their lips met. For the desire to just be still, draw out that first butterfly touch of their lips for an eternity.
He hadn’t been prepared for perfection.
Chapter 9
Darcy drew in a shaky breath as she pulled away from the press of Levi’s mouth. As far as kisses went, it had been about as chaste as they came. But her entire world had just shifted on its axis. The room spun, the sun dimmed, the planets realigned.
She’d just kissed Levi. Her friend of seven years, Levi.
A hundred different sensations swirled and clashed inside her. She’d known him for seven years and never known he could kiss her and knock the world out of orbit.
Of its own volition, her left hand slid from his neck, finding his mouth, her fingers caressing the softness of his lips. She’d felt those lips in every cell of her body. Hell, those lips had rewritten her DNA. Rewritten it with his own code. So no other man and his kiss would ever do.
‘Wow.’
She never knew a closed-mouth kiss could be so damn... cataclysmic. The way he was staring at her, looking as nonplussed as she felt, it seemed he might be on the same page.
‘Yeah.’ He smiled and her fingers fell from his mouth. ‘Wow.’
‘Could we do that again?’
‘I think I’ll die if we don’t.’
Their lips met again. Not so still this time. In fact, Darcy’s mouth opened eagerly, needing more of him now. Needing to know what kind of havoc they could create when they let themselves go, feeling the promise of it in her bones, hearing the possibility of it echo in the surge of her blood.
She needed deeper, longer, wetter. She needed tongue. She needed to hear the rasp in his breathing and a groan rumbling up from the back of his throat. And he gave it to her—all of it—his head twisting and turning, branding her mouth, owning it from every possible angle.
His tongue swept into her mouth, thrusting and stroking against hers, dancing and playing, making her pulse beat double time and her breathing come too fast. Making her moan and clutch at him, making her nipples crazy hard and her inner thighs buzz.
Making her half mad for more.
Her senses filled up with him. With Levi. Her lovely, Levi.
All his usual Saturday morning scents—the taste of coffee on his breath, the aroma of chlorine on his skin and soap powder in his clothes—were so much more intoxicating when his mouth was on hers. Better than anything that could be shoved in a bottle.
Levi. Her heart pounded to the rhythm of his name. How had she not known it would be like this? Why had she closed her mind to the possibilities?
She shifted against him, trying to relieve the tight ache of her nipples and the hot ache between her legs. Trying to dampen her arousal, which was charging way ahead of where they actually were. They were only kissing but it felt like they’d already jumped to third base.
But shifting didn’t help with the ache. All it did was make her aware of his arousal. Of how thick and hard he was, pressed into her belly. How big he was.
How much she wanted that.
To look, to touch, to taste. Man, did she want to taste. To open her body to him, to feel his weight and the thrust of his hips and to hold him as he shuddered and spilled himself inside her.
She moaned as the ache intensifie
d.
Panting in frustration, she grabbed for the back of his T-shirt and pulled it, breaking off their kiss as she dragged it over his head and yanked it down his arms, throwing it on the ground.
Oh yessss.
Darcy’s breath hissed out in appreciation. That was better. Warm, bare flesh. Broad shoulders and long, leanly muscled torso. Skin lightly bronzed in the way of someone who liked the beach and getting outdoors to exercise.
Darcy had seen Levi’s naked chest on and off over the last seven years. But she’d never seen his chest under these circumstances. The kind where she didn’t have to look away and pretend she wasn’t gawking. The kind where she could look all she wanted. Where she could touch.
Hell, she could lick him if she wanted.
And she wanted.
Leaning forward, she placed her hands on his rib cage and pushed her nose into his sternum. His chest was hard and smooth and he slid his hands into her hair, cradling her head, as she pressed a kiss to his skin. She inhaled the warmth and aroma of his flesh, her scalp prickling with goosebumps as his fingers dug in a little.
His heart thumped strong and sure and she was conscious of every beat. Conscious of the snap, crackle and pop between them. Of the lull before the storm.
She turned her head to find his flat brown nipple, closing her mouth over it and sucking. He inhaled sharply and her pulse spiked, her toes curling at the deep rumbly growl that rattled around his ribcage and vibrated through her palms and lips.
Urgent hands on her face broke the contact as he ushered her higher, bringing her mouth to his, claiming it deep and hard, her neck bending all the way back as their passion flared like a firework in the night, popping behind her eyes and sizzling through her blood stream.
But her hands had the taste for adventure now and they roamed. They touched. They sculpted. From the ridges of his ribs to the smoothness of his sides, to the bony narrowness of his hips to the hollow of his lower back. From the waistband of his trackpants to the firm, round bulk of his glutes.
She squeezed them through his clothes and he groaned and kissed her harder. But it wasn’t enough and she pushed her hands beneath the waistband of his trackpants and his underpants and palmed the naked flesh.
Hallelujah.
His butt cheeks bunched beneath her palms and Darcy squeezed them again, eliciting another deep, sexy groan, before smoothing her hands around to the front, heading for the part of him she wanted most. But he grabbed her hands before she had a chance to make contact, wrenching his mouth from hers.
Darcy mewed a protest and he chugged out a half laugh. She tried again but he tightened his holds on her wrists.
‘Wait, wait, wait,’ he muttered, breathing hard, a very satisfying glaze to his eyes.
A glaze she’d put there.
‘I think maybe we should slow this down, a little?’
Slow it down? ‘Why?’ It’d taken them seven years to get here.
‘Because I want more from you than some quickie on the floor of the apartment, which is exactly where this is heading.’
Darcy contemplated the floor. It was horizontal. And she’d vacuumed it last night. ‘So do I.’ But right now the floor was looking pretty damn good.
Still with her hands manacled in his, she pushed up on her tiptoes, zeroing in on his mouth, desperate to connect again, to show him just why going slow was stupid. But he was on to her, averting his face, her lips finding his neck instead.
As a substitute, it wasn’t bad. It hadn’t been her target but it’d do.
‘I want to start at the beginning with you,’ Levi continued, the rumble of his voice buzzing her lips as Darcy licked down his trachea. ‘Go on dates. Get to know you. I want to court you, like I would if I’d just met you.’
Darcy pulled away, blinking up at him. He returned her startled look with a steady serious expression. Court her? God, he was sweet. She loved that he was prepared to ease into things between them despite his obvious erection and her willingness to do something about it.
Why had she never noticed what an old-fashioned guy he was?
Because he hadn’t dated anyone in a long time and prior to that she’d been wrapped up in Tony.
‘So you don’t have sex on the first date?’
He blinked. ‘No.’
His affront was almost comical and Darcy bit back a smile. ‘You’ve never gotten carried away and thrown caution to the wind? Thought what the hell?’
She’d certainly been guilty of it on a couple of occasions in her pre-Tony days.
He shook his head. ‘Not until right now.’ The admission made Darcy inordinately happy. ‘I like to get to know a woman first.’
‘Levi.’ Darcy wriggled her wrists against the restraint of his hands. ‘I promise I won’t try and take any more of your clothes off.’ God knew, the scenery was pretty damn good already. ‘For now.’
She grinned at him as he eyed her dubiously for a second but he released her anyway. ‘I’m trying to be serious, Darcy.’
Darcy sighed. ‘I know but... you know me better than anyone, Levi. I know you better than anyone.’
They’d been in each other’s pockets the last two years. Shared their lives—the good, the bad and the ugly. She already knew she liked Levi. A lot. They were already friends. It was perfectly okay by her to skip to the next bit.
This wonderful, surprising-yet-somehow-not, totally right thing was happening and Darcy didn’t want to wait.
‘I know you use organic daffodil washing powder and floss twice a day. That you try to kick coffee at the beginning of every year. That you say your favourite singer is Kurt Cobain but we both know its Cindy Lauper and you barrack for the Lions but your heart belongs to the Swans. I know your favourite book is a biography on the Dali Lama and that you reread it every year. And you’re the most awesome Christmas present buyer.’
Her new number plates were her pride and joy. They were the envy of the Banshees.
‘I could go on. And I bet you could name about a hundred things you know about me. Hell, you know about Vlad.’
Levi grimaced. ‘Don’t remind me.’
Darcy laughed. ‘Does it help to know I haven’t even taken him out of his packaging?’
He blinked. ‘You haven’t?’
‘Nope.’
‘I’ve been lying in bed at night torturing myself with images of you and Vlad.’
‘Oh, really?’ Darcy waggled her eyebrows at him.
‘Yes, really. It’s been hell.’ He tried to stay indignant but a smile broke through. ‘So... he was a waste of money then?’
‘You could say that.’ He smiled bigger and she rolled her eyes. ‘Not to mention exceedingly unfulfilling.’ She quirked an eyebrow as she trailed a finger down the centre of his chest. ‘Care to help me with that?’
He lost his smile pretty damn quick, swallowing as he folded his arms across his chest, displacing her hand. ‘Sure. After the season is done. You don’t need this kind of distraction right now, Darcy.’
Oh, screw that. Talk of Vlad had only made Darcy more aware of how her body ached for Levi and if he thought she was going to wait till season’s end to take this where they both knew it was heading, then maybe he didn’t know her that well. She could handle a little distraction.
Which meant it was time for action.
Grabbing the hem of her pyjama top, she yanked it up and off, tossing it on the ground next to Levi’s shirt. She told him she wouldn’t try and take his clothes off. She hadn’t said anything about hers.
‘Holy. Fuck.’
The words were whispered like some kind of benediction as his gaze fell on her bare breasts, her nipples beading shamelessly beneath his rapt attention. ‘Don’t make me open the packaging, Levi.’
This time, when she raised herself up on her tippy-toes and sought his mouth, her bare nipples rubbing against his bare chest, he didn’t turn his cheek. Oh no. He ploughed a hand into her hair, held her fast and took control.
His kiss scorched h
er from the ground up, flaring like the strike of a match then catching and burning everything in its path, ravaging her body, her mind and her soul. Consuming her, consuming them both, until they were breathless and rubbing up against each other like rutting animals, friction and desperation crackling like live wires between them.
Suddenly the ground shifted and she was swung up into his arms. ‘Which bed?’ His rough pant went straight to her clitoris. ‘Yours or mine?’
Darcy only had one stipulation. ‘The closest.’ He was going to have to figure out the rest because her brain was not capable of calculating distance at the moment.
He chose her room, striding towards it, kissing her all the way, capturing her mouth and not relinquishing it until her feet touched the ground and she was standing beside the bed. But she barely had a moment to register it before Levi was ducking his head, his mouth closing over first one nipple then the other as he tugged off her boxer shorts and underwear and she somehow managed to shimmy them down her legs and kick them off her feet.
Darcy whimpered as his mouth left her but it was only to step back and look at her, his gaze sweeping from the top of her head all the way to her toes. The urge to cover herself tingled through her fingers, suddenly shy about her full frontal nudity, but his reverent, ‘Christ, Darcy, you should see yourself,’ stopped her.
The man obviously liked what he saw.
Darcy looked down at herself. She could see the stiff peaks of her nipples, still wet from his mouth and looking thoroughly wanton. She could feel the slippery wetness between her legs.
‘Lay down.’
Darcy did as he asked. Considering her legs were about to give way, it was a timely suggestion. He watched her as she settled, flipping her hair out from behind her to form a halo around her head. His gaze snagged on her breasts and trekked to the juncture of her thighs before heading back to her breasts. Heat flared between the two points as her nipples responded in shameless abandon.
The look on his face was the perfect blend of desire and anticipation. She couldn’t believe that Levi was looking at her naked and it wasn’t freaking her out.
