Levi #2
“Alright,” the attendant said loudly from the other side of the door as he entered, making me wince.
God, the man probably thought we were all over each other while he’d left us alone.
Either that, or Dom was right, and the man was hoping to walk in on something.
The fact that he peeked in quickly before entering proved he had witnessed the whole show and knew Dom had been intentionally putting himself on display, but at least I didn’t see a flash of disappointment on his face.
“I went ahead and got the bill for you as well. It’s itemized, so you can see if everything is up to your standard. ”
“I appreciate that,” I said as I took the paper and looked it over. It was what I’d ordered, down to the very last tie, and I absently handed it to Dom. “Hold that for me, would you? I don’t have pockets.”
“Sure,” he said, taking it, and I watched as curiosity took over, and he glanced at it. I also saw the exact moment he realized what the total was as his eyes went wider than they had when he’d been trying to pretend innocence earlier.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been taken off guard by what I was willing to pay without batting an eye, which was probably good because he was more than happy to bat an eye for me.
There were just some things I wasn’t willing to compromise on, and clothing was one of them.
It wasn’t like I had hauled everything I’d owned down to Cresson Point, and the handful of suits I had brought with me were either ruined or being used repeatedly.
One had been destroyed by the bomb Los Muertos had planted in the warehouse, another had been ruined when a printer had spat ink all over it, and another when Dom had thought it was a good idea to try to fuck me in the woods outside my house.
“This is a down payment on a nice house,” Dom muttered as he looked at the number at the bottom one last time before tucking it away.
“Ignore him,” I said when the attendant blinked at Dom and then turned to me with a smile.
“Oh, no worries,” he said with a bright smile before beginning to take the pins out of the clothes I had on. “We have never tried to portray ourselves as cheap.”
“I sure as shit hope not,” Dom said, letting out a heavy snort. “These clothes better massage you after you put them on for that price.”
Maybe I should have been annoyed that he was being so flippant and dismissive, but against all logic.
..I found it oddly endearing. My background was far more modest than his, but he had stuck with his while I had been flooded with more money than I knew what to do with.
I didn’t flash my wealth, and I looked down my nose at people who did.
His staying grounded in the everyday world, while he was horrified by the kind of money I was willing to shell out, was.
..normal. I found I craved the kind of normalcy he brought to my life, even if I sometimes wondered if it had a shelf life.
“And that takes care of that,” the attendant said. “I’ll leave you to get dressed. When you’re ready, meet me at the front.”
“Thank you,” I told him warmly. There it was, another glance toward Dom, and I rolled my eyes.
Even if I wasn’t smitten with the man, I could objectively see that he was attractive.
When you combined his good-looking face, the obviously well-built body, and his sheer size, it drew a lot of attention.
I didn’t think he realized how much people looked at him until moments like this, when Dom shot me a knowing smirk, and I realized he probably knew most of the time but kept his comments to himself.
“I swear people drool over you because you’re half giant,” I muttered once the door had closed.
“I can’t help that my mom liked her men big,” he said with a shrug. “A shame she’s not still around, the two of you could probably use that as something in common.”
“I would never discuss your dick with your mother,” I said, horrified.
His eyes widened. “God, I just meant like...physically big in general, like...God, Levi. I wouldn’t want you talking to my mom about my dick, and I definitely wouldn’t want you talking to her about my dad’s dick!”
“You’re wondering if that’s where you got your—”
“Shut it.”
It wasn’t often I had the chance to torment him, and I turned with a smirk as I grabbed the clothes and pulled them off with methodical, intentional slowness. “Oh? Is that...disturbing to you?”
“Very,” he said with a wrinkled nose. But I could see the way his eyes were getting darker, which they only did when he was pissed or turned on. I was hoping it was the latter because I didn’t want to piss him off when I was just trying to return the favor. “What are you doing?”
“As I was told, taking my clothes off,” I said as I set them on the nearby rack to be gathered up later and taken to be altered.
It didn’t take long until I was down to my boxer briefs, which were short cut. Earlier, Dom had been too distracted by a conversation on the phone to watch me while I stripped, and now his attention was locked onto me.
“Those don’t leave much to the imagination,” he noted, his expression hungry. “When did you put those on?”
“This morning,” I told him as I bent to retrieve my clothes from the chair.
“I don’t remember those,” he said, and I knew his eyes were sweeping over my ass like it was a last meal.
“Probably because you didn’t spend the night with me,” I reminded him.
It was something both of us had to deal with, the nights or days when I was unavailable.
I was attempting to run a criminal empire in a city where another criminal empire was trying to sabotage me and gain its own foothold.
That was enough, but considering I didn’t want him anywhere near my business dealings, where I could help it.
Because I didn’t want anyone in the Family to go running back to Augustine with stories about Levi’s new boyfriend, one who Augustine would recognize from description alone, it was inevitable that we would have to spend time apart.
The topic was something we mostly avoided.
He knew where I stood on the matter, and he hadn’t said much about how he felt, but I knew he wasn’t happy with it.
It wasn’t like him to keep his opinion to himself, or it never had been, anyway.
We were both busy learning more about one another, exploring each other’s bodies, and discovering how much fun it was to share them.
So far, nothing ugly had risen to the surface, but I was constantly waiting, watching for any signs of it breaching the surface so I could prepare for when it did.
“I don’t remember seeing them before,” he said, and I heard the chair creak. “Like, I’ve seen your underwear drawer, I don’t remember them.”
“You don’t know what all my underwear looks like,” I told him as I stood up, unfolding my slacks and finally turning to face him.
Sure enough, his eyes were locked onto me, and I wondered if poking this particular bear had been a bad idea.
See, Dom wouldn’t hesitate too much to grope me or worse in the dressing room.
And because of how things worked between us, I would only be able to put up a token resistance as he blasted through my defenses.
If I wasn’t careful, I could find myself bent over a chair or on my knees.
He smirked. “Your face might not give you away, but I can see the tight underwear is getting even tighter. So maybe...share what’s on your mind?”
“No,” I said calmly as I bent to put my slacks on. “What I’m going to do is get dressed, and you’re going to stay right there and keep your hands to yourself.”
That had been stupid, and I barely had time to realize that before he was approaching me with a grin on his face.
He was on the small stage in a heartbeat, wrapping his arm around my lower back and pulling me in for an intense kiss.
I gave his chest a push, knowing full well it wouldn’t make a difference, not just because I could never push him away, but he knew the push wasn’t genuinely meant.
We could be back here for an hour, and no one would think to check on us, and if I emerged with flushed cheeks and my hair out of place, no one would say anything other than the usual professional back-and-forth as they waited for me to pay.
There were plenty of criticisms to be had about a place like this, but with the type of clientele they relied on, discretion was as important as respect and quality.
“Stop,” I said between gritted teeth when he pulled away, only to cup my ass possessively.
Yes, possessively because in so many ways that encompassed how he acted with me. He was never so bold as to ‘lay claim’ to me in an obvious way, but he found little ways to slip it in. It never went into the realm of jealousy.
No, jealousy was not his style, and I wouldn’t have tolerated it anyway.
Instead, he found ways, like slipping his arm around my waist to squeeze it quickly and quietly, without fanfare or attention.
It was in the way he would pat my ass when I bent over to get into my car, or, even simply, smooth my hair on a windy day, unfazed by the intimacy and familiarity of the gesture.
I wouldn’t admit it, but my personal favorite had been when we entered a store, and he held the door open, requiring me to duck under his arm, and slipped a quick kiss in.
The act had shocked me because neither of us was all that big on public displays of affection, but he’d done it as if it were the most natural thing.
Even when I realized we had been seen, the warmth in my chest and stomach hadn’t wilted, but grown stronger.
Here I was, out in public with this absolutely gorgeous man who felt no need to try to possess me but wasn’t shy about showing the world that there was, in fact, a claim on me.