Chapter 11
HARPER
CHAPTER ELEVEN
An hour after my run-in with Levi, I stood in line for the Ferris wheel. This was my worst idea of the night, considering the last time I’d ridden it had been with the very person I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about.
Back then, Levi had bribed the operator to let us have one final ride before they closed for the night. The guy had finally relented and allowed us on, just Levi and me alone under the stars. I could still remember how he’d looked at me that night. Like I was everything to him—the only thing in his world. And I’d been naive enough to think we had forever ahead of us. Joke was on me because he’d broken my heart the very next day.
It’d taken me years to get over him. And I’d done it while I’d been working my way through college, all alone in a strange city with no support system. But I’d learned a lot about myself during that time. The most important of all being I was the only person I could count on when things got tough.
Levi might be a different man than he’d been back then, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that we were stuck together for six weeks. Or that he’d remembered my fear of storms and distracted me the other night while it passed. It didn’t matter that our chemistry still crackled like lightning, my attraction to him burning hotter than the sun. None of it mattered because I had no intention of ever putting myself into a position like that again. And certainly not with a man like Levi.
“Single rider!” Mabel called from the front of the line, a white teddy bear clutched in her grip. “Come on, honey, you’re up.”
I shook myself from the memories and made my way toward her. She stood in front of the gondola, holding her arm out in a way that obscured the other rider from me. And then, because apparently I wasn’t moving fast enough for her, she gave me a little push toward the bench.
I stumbled into the seat, breathing out a shocked huff over the fact that she’d basically shoved me in here before latching the bar without a moment’s hesitation. It was only then that I glanced to my right and realized who sat next to me.
“Seriously?” Levi jerked on the bar, but it didn’t move. “What the fuck, Mabel?”
Panic gripped my throat when I realized I was stuck in here with him with nowhere to escape. Even sharing an apartment, we could keep some distance between us. Being trapped this close to him was only asking for trouble. Especially considering what had happened between us the last time we’d ridden one of these in the pitch black of night. When he’d kissed me until I was breathless. Then he’d made me come on his fingers right there before dragging me to my dad’s car and fucking me in the back seat.
“Mabel,” I said, a warning in my tone. “Unlatch this. Now.”
“What’s that?” Mabel called, cupping her hand around her ear. “I can’t hear you, but you kids have fun! I’ll take care of Teddy.”
With that, she pulled the lever for the ride, sending our cabin lurching upward. I gripped the bar across my front until my knuckles turned white, refusing to glance over at Levi. Refusing to even acknowledge his presence. But I could still feel him there, the energy rolling off him in waves.
I didn’t know if it was the memory of what had happened the last time we’d been on this ride or the proximity of him being so close with nowhere for either of us to run, but my mind spun back to that night. How he’d kissed me as he slid his hand up the inside of my thigh. How he’d moved his fingers inside me, having learned over the summer exactly how I liked to be touched. How he’d brought me to the edge just as we’d crested the top of the ride. I’d fallen along with the gondola, Levi’s name on my lips. But my hunger for him hadn’t been nearly satisfied. It never had been back then.
I shook the thoughts from my mind and shifted in my seat, desperate to hide my reaction to the memory. It wasn’t Levi causing this. It’d just been too long since I’d had good sex—hell, it’d been too long since I’d had a good orgasm, period—and I needed some relief. That was all.
The gondola reached the top of the Ferris wheel, the sparkling lights of the carnival spread out below us, glittering stars spread out above. It was a beautiful night, but I couldn’t enjoy it. Not with him so close I could feel the heat of his body seeping into mine. Not with the memories of that night still breathing down my neck, despite my trying to shove them away.
“Something on your mind, sparrow?”
I slid him a glance out of the corner of my eye. “Just wondering how easy it would be to push you out of this ride.”
A mocking grin swept across his mouth as he settled more comfortably in the seat, spreading his legs wide, the move pushing his thigh directly against mine. He rested his arm along the top of the seat, just a soft caress against the bare skin of my back. “That’s too bad. I was thinking about the last time we were on this ride.”
I swallowed thickly, pressing my thighs together as much for some crucially needed distance from him as to alleviate the incessant throbbing of my clit.
“You remember, don’t you?” he murmured, his voice low and rough, as if he were just as lost to the memory as he wanted me to be. He leaned closer, his breath ghosting across my bare shoulder and sending goose bumps scattering across my skin. “When I slid my hand inside your panties and found you soaking wet? You wanted me to get you off right here. Wanted me to slip my fingers deep inside you and make you come. Begged for it, didn’t you?”
I glared at him, my arms crossed over my chest to hide the no doubt very obvious points of my nipples. “Why are you doing this?”
“Tit for tat—that’s your rule, right? You soaked me at the game. Figured I needed to repay the favor. Is it working?”
“Fuck you,” I bit out, though the words lacked heat, especially when I could recall exactly how much he’d wanted it that night, too. Could still hear his soft groan muffled against my neck when he’d found me ready for him. And his eyes, full of need and hunger and a bit of awe, as if he couldn’t believe he had the privilege of being with me. As if he couldn’t believe I was his.
“I did. Right in the back of your dad’s car, if I remember right.” His words stirred up the memories I’d been valiantly avoiding, and I could practically feel the worn leather seat against my knees, Levi’s hands gripping my hips as he guided me over him. His lips against mine, open but not kissing. Just breathing in our shared oxygen and looking at each other like we were everything. Everything.
In the end, we were nothing.
I lifted a shoulder in a shrug, feigning disinterest. “Wasn’t all that memorable, to be honest.”
“You sure? So you don’t remember when you told me to shove down the front of your dress? To suck on your tits while you rode me? Don’t remember how I had to press my hand over your mouth to muffle your screams? I worried the whole town was going to hear you coming apart on my cock. Turned out, I’d been right.”
I stiffened at the roundabout mention of what had happened that night. When Levi had pulled out of me just as red and blue flashing lights illuminated the car’s interior. I’d fumbled with my dress while Levi had hastily done up his jeans. And then there’d been the sharp rap of knuckles against the steamed-up window, leaving no question as to what we’d been doing.
We’d known we were screwed even before my dad arrived at the station. But what I hadn’t known was that it was the beginning of the end for us.
I offered him a sympathetic look. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I was faking it.”
He chuckled lowly, swiping his thumb across his lower lip, bringing my attention to his mouth. “Keep telling yourself that, but we both know the truth.” He leaned close until his lips brushed my ear. “You loved coming apart on my cock and screaming my name while you did.”
“You’re such a?—”
“What? What am I?” he asked, a taunting lilt to his voice as he leaned closer. So close I could see the flecks of gold in his ice-blue eyes. Could count each one of his ridiculously long eyelashes. Could feel the ghost of his breath against my mouth.
I didn’t know who moved first, but before I even realized what was happening, my hands were in his hair and he was cupping my nape, tugging me to him as he crushed his lips to mine. The kiss was frantic, all bottled-up passion and aggression exploding from both of us. There was nothing soft or sweet about this. It wasn’t comforting like the kisses we’d once shared a lifetime ago.
I gasped into his mouth, the familiar taste and feel of him momentarily short-circuiting my brain. Which was the only explanation for why I kissed him back just as fiercely, giving as good as I got, a decade’s worth of rage and heartbreak pouring out of me. Our mouths met over and over, the kiss full of anger and desire. Of frustration and buried pain and everything left unsaid between us.
I tugged hard on his hair, pulling a groan from his throat that shot straight to my pussy, making me throb with need. And God help me, but I wanted more. With Levi, I’d always wanted more.
Before I could make an awful mistake—like climb into his lap and beg him to fuck me right then and there—the ride jerked to a stop. We broke apart, chests heaving and eyes wide as we stared at each other.
Mabel was talking a mile a minute, but I couldn’t pay attention to anything she was saying. Not when Levi’s eyes bored into mine like he was trying to see into my fucking soul. Not when I was still trying to catch my breath after that kiss.
Not when it felt like we’d just taken a step we could never go back from.
Then, without a word, Levi tore his gaze from mine, shoved the bar off our laps, and stalked off. I sat there stunned, my lips still tingling from his kiss, a riot of emotions churning inside me. And through it all, I could only stare at his retreating form, wondering what the hell I’d just done.