Breaking the Habit: The Breaking Series #4

by Leigh, Ember

  But the energy spiked after a while, and it wasn’t because Levi had come sauntering in like she expected. None of the fighters were here yet, though the number of fans continued to grow.

  “Riley!” Melanie the receptionist waved to get her attention and trotted over. “Get over here!”

  “What is it?”

  “There’s a celebrity here!” Melanie craned her neck to scan the crowd. “See if you can get pictures!”

  Riley paused in her prep work and reached for a different lens, one that would be better for portraits. “Okay. Who is it?”

  “She’s a model,” Melanie said, grabbing Riley’s wrist and dragging her toward the crowd. “Her name is Titi—isn’t that cute? Titi.” Melanie laughed as they weaved through people. “Will you get my picture with her? I bet Travis will want to add her to the Hall of Fame.”

  The Hall of Fame was a section of the employee lounge dedicated to pictures with famous people who came through. There were a lot of celebrities on that wall.

  “Yeah, totally. Let’s hope she wants her picture taken.”

  Melanie screeched a moment later, coming to a halt. She didn’t need to say anything for Riley to know exactly who it was.

  Stars really did have a something special about them. Whether it was an aura or a confidence or simply impeccably flawless skin, they possessed something that separated them from the masses.

  Titi was no different. Her skin gleamed, like she’d had the most amazing facial of her life, and that look, paired with high cheek bones and a crop top that exposed a toned, creamy belly, and flared pants that would look ridiculous on anyone other than her, told Riley this woman was a celebrity inside and out.

  “Titi, excuse me, can we talk for a second?” Melanie had a starstruck look on her face. Riley wasn’t sure how Melanie knew who Titi was, But she herself tended not to probe the tabloids anymore.

  “Hi,” Titi breathed, her plump pink lips curling into a smile.

  Riley smiled as Melanie introduced them and explained who they were, how much she loved her recent ad in Vogue, and then asked for a photo with her. Titi complied, offering the peace sign and an effortless grin that made the photo immediately Instagram-worthy. Riley couldn’t help but grin at the happiness in the pictures. Somewhere along the line, she’d turned into a sports and celebrity photographer. She wasn’t mad about it.

  Titi was eventually pulled away by other fans, some girls who had made their way into the mock match. Riley drifted back toward the cage, glancing at Titi every once in a while. Meeting celebrities only reinforced how human they were, despite the something special. Titi went home at night and got into pajamas and maybe woke up in the middle of the night to pee because she drank too many detox juices, like every other health-obsessed Angeleno.

  Attention shifted as Travis entered the gym, followed by Lex, Levi, and Cobra. A few cheers broke out. And then someone started the chant.

  “LE-VI LEAD FIST.”

  The whole gym got caught up in the chanting. Levi grinned and shrugged it off, playing the humble part. Riley snapped as many pictures as she could through the crowd as she worked to regain her spot by the cage.

  She fiddled with her camera’s settings while Travis worked the crowd. He made a few introductions, explained the rules, and the fights began.

  This was a cake walk compared to the high-intensity matches at the arena. There weren’t thousands of people pressing in around her, for starters; no bully photographers trying to put her in her place; and perhaps most of all, Levi’s hair was in a simple ponytail. Not his trademark fight night cornrows. That, over everything, signaled the relaxed nature of this practice.

  Levi fought three rounds—first with Lex, then with two hopefuls from the gym—before he tapped out and other fighters took the stage. Riley kept an eye on Levi off to the side, something telling her not to pack up her equipment quite yet. Dressed in only his skintight fighting shorts and a fine sheen of sweat, he was male perfection embodied. Perfectly marked washboard abs. Biceps that flexed even when he didn’t move. His thighs granite slabs.

  Levi had a small line of fans circling around him, looking for autographs. A few people had the fight night brochure from his fight the past weekend.

  She grinned as she snapped pictures, feeling like a proud girlfriend.

  The thought thudded through her, reminding her of the conversation that still hadn’t happened. Part of her was hesitant to bring it up. It seemed like an unspoken arrangement. They were up each other’s asses constantly—couldn’t they just assume?

  Levi probably felt the same way, which might account for why he hadn’t brought it up. But Riley knew better than to assume. The conversation needed to happen.

  She watched through the viewfinder as Titi approached Levi and sent him a coy grin. Riley’s heart started racing. Levi twisted around, looking either very pleased or sort of confused. Riley couldn’t tell which. Her finger twitched, wanting to take the picture but her heart making her pause. She didn’t want to immortalize budding attraction. Catch Levi looking like a starstruck fool or something.

  She lowered the camera. Titi leaned closer to Levi, whispered something into his ear that made him laugh, and then she left. Levi’s gaze followed her as she walked away, and another fan stepped up to replace her.

  Riley swallowed. Levi commanded the attention of half the gym, even though two new fighters had begun battling it out in the cage.

  So this was jealousy. Pure ice and prickle and foreboding. She’d forgotten, after so long, what it felt like. How undeserved and irrational it was.

  Riley lurked a while longer, catching a few more great shots of Levi and his fans. She couldn’t help but notice Titi cycle around to Travis, talk him up for a few minutes, and then finally leave the gym.

  Good. Riley didn’t like feeling this way. And the easiest way not to was if Titi was gone. Problem solved. It was the easy way out—she knew that. But the way Titi looked at Levi kicked up a dust storm. Reminded her of the murky underbelly of what she and Levi were doing. Undefined. Without a title. Adrift in the crazy passion storm. She was unmoored and totally vulnerable to drowning.

  If she was honest with herself, she’d already started sinking.

  Because what she felt for Levi went way beyond the occasional fuck buddy she’d convinced herself this would be. Oh no. This was boyfriend territory. This was talking about the future territory. This was every bit as far as she’d told herself she shouldn’t go.

  And she couldn’t convince herself to stop.

  Riley knew Levi had more to do at the gym—his training day was far from over—but her job here was done. Levi extracted himself from the fans and caught her in the hallway as she headed toward the door.

  “Ri. Wait up.” Shirtless and still glistening, he jogged toward her. It was when he was glistening that she was the most vulnerable. “Where you going now?”

  “I was gonna head to the studio,” she said.

  “Come to my place after,” he said, knocking her hip.

  He didn’t need to convince her. She’d do damn near anything he asked of her. “Sure.”

  “Bring the Stamos keychain,” he said with a serious look.

  A laugh burst out of her. “Okay…I will.”

  He winked at her and headed back for the gym, leaving her in a dazed and happy mood. It clung to her as she got into her car and entered the midday LA traffic. It followed her into her studio, where she got to work editing pictures.

  But it wasn’t long before doubts elbowed their way in again. This time, holding knives and lobbing threats.

  You don’t know Levi half as well as you think you do. What’s to say he won’t treat you the same as Braden once he makes it big? How do you know he’s not going to leave you in the dust too?

  Braden had dropped enough red flags during their relationship that Riley could have knitted a scarf out of them. Maybe Levi was the same. She pivoted toward the internet. She wanted to wade into all-too-familiar waters: Google s
earching a name.

  Levi’s name, specifically. But never hers. Not after the scandal. She didn’t want to knowingly subject herself to that; not this far out, after putting this much distance between her and that period of her life. It would just ruin her day.

  “Levi Swain.” She mumbled it as she typed it out. Clicked Search.

  And then she read.

  Easily the first page of results was all about him. Searching his name didn’t even ping a more famous Levi, the way it had been for Riley before the cheating scandal. Nope, all these entries were recent news. The most recent being that day, from a very popular online celebrity rag mag, TMI.

  And it was a veritable goldmine of information about Levi, with all the speculation and unverified commentary a person could want. And it wasn’t like Levi appeared once and that was it—oh no, he was all over this site. His name was a frequently used tag, which showed over twenty separate articles about him over the past three months.

  Which, as Riley scrolled for the next hour, was more than Kim Kardashian had yielded over the same period.

  Oh Lord. This is worse than you thought.

  It was the only thing she could hear as she fell into the Levi hole on TMI Celebrity News. Each article pointed to at least three other articles. Each match yielded coverage, but more than that, each skirmish with the police had its own coverage too.

  And it turned out that Levi’d had more run-ins with the law than she’d imagined. One particularly informative article pulled Levi’s background report from Chicago. His past was peppered with incidents. Drunk and disorderly. Resisting arrest. Public urination. Public indecency.

  The only thing in his favor was that the bulk of these arrests were when he was younger. But since knowing him, over the past three months? He’d gotten into trouble with the law at least twice.

  Wasn’t that a little much?

  Riley forced herself to stop the snooping once she realized a full two hours had gone by in this spiraling click hole. Paparazzi were already trailing Levi with regularity. The more recent articles had pictures of him walking into Holt Body Fitness, leaving a lunch spot in Beverly Hills, and even hanging out the window of his car in traffic.

  The tone was clear: Levi was a sought-after MMA hottie. The next Conor McGregor, but taller, with better hair and a different accent. And he boasted tons of fans that extended way beyond the contact sports world.

  She could see the writing on the wall. It was only a matter of time before the marriage proposals started rolling in. The private messages on his Instagram, sending naked selfies in an attempt to woo him.

  Did she trust Levi? Her gut reaction to that question wasn’t good. A virile, drop-dead gorgeous man like him, when faced with temptations like that, did things they weren’t proud of. Because these temptations were coming. If they hadn’t started filling his inbox yet, they would. He could count on it.

  And sure, things had been nice. They’d felt almost fated for a time.

  The truth was that the sex was bomb, and he was the kind of man who could get every single woman who looked his way. Not just most of them, but all of them. Riley had tried to be the exception to that rule…and failed.

  Which meant her window for having a normal pseudo-relationship with Levi was rapidly shrinking.

  In fact, if she had any smarts left, she’d realize it had already closed.

  Chapter 24

  Levi couldn’t catch his breath the entire day. Anxiety had his pulse streaking.

  It wasn’t just the sex-a-thon, though that had been amazing. It wasn’t the fact that he was in the final round of the league, set to square off against the second-best WFC fighter and possibly rake in fifty thousand dollars as the league’s title holder.

  No, it was largely about the fact that Riley was on her way over, and they hadn’t seen each other for mere hours. The time apart made him desperate and wild. So hungry for her he might devour her when she showed up.

  It didn’t make sense to him. He only knew that he wanted her around. Always.

  Even when he was training or hanging with Gage or going grocery shopping, Levi wanted Riley around. He thought about her constantly. No amount of her was enough. And that shit was scary.

  But Levi didn’t have time to be scared. He only had time for now. So why not invite Riley a little deeper?

  A soft knock came at front door. It had to be Ri. Levi trotted toward the front door of his apartment, muscles still burning from the day’s workout, and pulled it open.

  Brown eyes peeking out from under pitch-black lashes. A sexy smirk waiting for him. And then her style, which today featured a flowy, black cardigan over jean shorts and a very tight black crop top. Levi sucked at his teeth, grabbing for the sliver of skin exposed by her top.

  “There you are.” He tugged her inside the apartment, kicking the door shut with his foot. He cupped her face in his hands, coaxing sweet kisses from her lips until a sharp “Ew!” broke the reverie.

  Gage had arrived.

  “Nobody asked you to look,” Levi shot back, leading Riley by the hand toward the living room.

  “Hi, Gage,” Riley said, pure sweetness and smiles for him.

  “Hi, Riley.” It was fun to see Gage get a little shy whenever she directed her charm his way. Hell, even Levi felt that way sometimes.

  “Did you have a good day at school?”

  Gage shrugged. “Yeah. It’s been good. We had a huge school meeting about Instagram.”

  “Again?” Levi asked.

  “Some kids are taking their following too far, and apparently the hot girls started mass-unfollowing the smart girls until some sort of war broke out.” Gage heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I don’t know. I was too busy studying to notice.”

  “Oh, sure, act like all you do is study.” Levi and Riley sat on the couch as Gage maneuvered into the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge.

  “I get straight A’s. I don’t know what you’re on,” Gage shot back.

  “He’s trying to impress you still,” Levi told Riley.

  Gage sighed tersely, his gaze in the fridge. “Levi?”

  “Yes?”

  “Where’s my orange soda?”

  Levi had tossed a half-empty bottle the night before. Now his brother would probably make a scene. “Um…in the landfill where it belongs?”

  Gage sent him the meanest look possible. “That stuff is gold around here, and you threw it away?” The crack in his voice told Levi Gage was about to get emotional. He stifled a groan.

  “What do you need?” Riley asked, sitting up. “I can go get it.”

  “No, Ri,” Levi said, shooting out an arm.

  “I would love a crisp and perfect orange soda,” Gage said, death rays still aimed toward Levi, “but someone won’t let me enjoy it.”

  “Gaaaage,” Levi said into his hands.

  “Let me go—” Riley began.

  “I’ll call the delivery service,” Levi shouted, hopping to his feet. Riley wasn’t leaving within minutes of arriving, and hell if Levi was going to make the trek for the sugary shit. “But just this once. And I swear to God, Gage—” Levi pointed at his brother. “You better savor every last drop.”

  Gage grinned, whizzing past them, headed for his room. “Let me know when it’s here.”

  Once Gage’s door shut, Levi deflated. He shook his head, swiping through screens to order his brother’s favorite drink of all time.

  “Why the big deal about the orange soda?”

  “It’s bad for him.” Levi fisted the front part of his hair as he completed his delivery order.

  “But so is alcohol, and you do a lot of that,” Riley said.

  He glanced over at her. The comment was strange, but there was no malice in her voice. It was just sort of…factual.

  “I’m sober right now,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah, right now,” she said. “But on your off days, you go wild.” She crossed her ankles on the ottoman, looking up at him. “And you’ve already had tw
o lawsuits started against you for drinking-related charges.”

  Levi blinked. “And…?”

  “I’m saying, in comparison, orange soda isn’t so bad.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, sinking back onto the couch beside her. “He’s sixteen, and he has muscular dystrophy. I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t put unnecessary shit into his body until he’s old enough to choose how to abuse himself.”

  Riley gnawed at the inside of her cheek, picking at something invisible on the couch. “I’m not trying to be a smart ass. It’s…” She paused, shaking her head.

  “What?”

  She lobbed a sigh, sinking back onto the couch. “It seems like a double standard. So I wonder what other sorts of double standards there might be with you.”

  There was something confrontational about her now. But it wasn’t her words. It was her energy. The lilt of her tone that begged him to dive in. The glint in her eyes that said she was up for a different sort of fight.

  Levi caught on quick. He looked down the hall to Gage’s closed door, and then he jerked his head that way. “Let’s go into my room.”

  Riley followed him, and once he shut the door he leaned against it.

  “What’s going on, Ri?”

  “Nothing.” But her response was half empty, as if her true meaning had floated off into space.

  “You’re acting weird.”

  She shrugged, picking at his comforter now, gaze snagged on something that wasn’t there. “I’m trying to be logical.”

  “Logical?” Levi sat on the bed next to her, but with a few inches between them. He pushed at her knee. “Can you logically explain what’s going on in your head?”

  “Levi, when I got here, there were four photographers sitting outside your apartment building,” she said in a burst, as if the words had been waiting to tumble out. “Almost every day when I go to the gym, photographers are waiting for you. They’ve already followed you to my studio. It’s probably only a matter of time before they follow you to my house. Until my name gets dragged into something.”