Chapter 4 Levi
Levi
Everyone was ready to go home after Weston got into a fight with Savannah’s ex. I didn’t blame him for losing it after I found out he’d basically accused her of sleeping her way through Wild Creek. I wanted to take a crack at him myself for that. Would have, too, if it had been about Tess.
When she and I had made it to the parking lot, Savannah and Weston were making out against Delilah’s Jeep. Tess had brought her hand to her mouth, giggling at the sight of them.
But now she was leaving…and I didn’t want her to, even though I knew I needed to let her go for my own sanity.
“Are you sure you can walk?” she asked, looking up at me with worried eyes. “We can drive you. Emmett didn’t drink anything.”
The way her concern for me made me feel only made the decision to walk more necessary. “I’ll be fine. I live just around the corner. Don’t worry about me.”
Something in her eyes wilted, like she didn’t want the night to end just yet. I selfishly hoped it had something to do with me. The idiotic part of me that completely ignored the line I decided to draw when it came to her.
The line that I forgot existed all day.
After Colt announced his engagement, I was glued to Tess’s side like a magnet.
Seeing her around her family, unguarded and comfortable, was addictive and infectious.
But I understood how she felt that way. Being around my cousins and the Hayeses was like a breath of fresh air.
Everyone was themselves. There wasn’t any contempt or sense of rivalry between siblings like there was in my family.
They were one cohesive unit. A unit I wanted to be a part of. Not just an outsider looking in.
And I think today was a good start.
“Okay,” Tess said, accepting defeat. I hated to disappoint her, but I knew it was for the best. It was my responsibility to keep things between us professional, and I’d done a terrible job so far. “Will you at least let me know when you make it home?”
My chest tightened. Being cared for like this would get to my head if she didn’t stop. No one had asked that of me before. Not any ex-girlfriend. Not my siblings. Not my parents.
Just Tess.
I’d never wanted to break my own rules more than I did right now. Especially with the way those drinks stained her lips a dark raspberry pink.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “Of course.”
Her hand was soft in mine when I helped her climb into the passenger seat of Emmett’s pickup. It didn’t seem to matter that I’d been holding it almost all night while we danced; I still found it hard to let go.
Shutting the door, I looked over at Emmett in the driver’s seat. “Drive safe,” I said through the open window. He gave me a quick nod, and they pulled off, Tess’s eyes locked on me until they were out of sight.
Once they were gone, I scrubbed a hand over my face, sighing.
Tonight was a nightmare. Not because of the fight, but because it was one of the best nights I’d ever had. And I’d had it with a client.
But watching Tess exist without fear and let loose felt like a privilege, one I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
I made sure my car was locked and started towards my house. I might’ve fibbed when I told Tess I lived just around the corner. It was more like three miles, but I needed the time to think anyway. To find a way to survive being around her while maintaining a professional distance.
I wasn’t hopeful I’d find one.
By the time I walked through my front door, I was sweaty, tired, and still at a loss. Tossing my keys on the entryway table, I kicked off my shoes and sent Tess a text that I had made it in case she was waiting for it.
My phone buzzed immediately.
Tess Hayes: Good. I had so much fun with you tonight
I smiled at my phone like a fool and told her I had fun too as I walked to my bathroom. I turned on the shower, needing to wash off the bar and the walk. But the second the warm water hit my shoulders, the exhaustion I felt bled into something else.
Something dangerous.
I lowered the water temperature and turned around, shoving my face under the spray to get Tess out of my mind. But she lingered.
The shy curve of her smile. The way she adored Luke.
How she danced tonight. Unsure at first, like she was scared to take up space, but she eventually let go in my arms. Heat pooled low in my belly at the memory of her head flung back, her silky hair glistening under the lights as it swayed with her movements.
I wondered how my hands would look tangled in it. If it was as soft as it looked.
“Stop,” I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut.
Tess was my client. She trusted me. She opened up to me with information I knew she hadn’t told anyone else.
She was a vulnerable young mother who needed my help.
But she was also kind. She was soft in every sense of the word.
And she was stunning. Sexy in a way that clouded my judgment.
Like she didn’t know how special she was.
Completely unaware that a look from her could bring me to my knees and nearly had multiple times tonight.
I forced myself to ignore what was happening between my legs. Refusing to give my thoughts any ground to stand on. The water was so cold that it was barely tolerable while I washed the smoke off my skin. My eyes rolled shut when my hand brushed against my hardening dick.
Bracing against the wall, images flashed in my mind like a slideshow.
Tess in my bed, her dark hair fanned out on my pillows, giggling like she had in the parking lot.
Tess pressed against me like she had when we danced, her body small and delicate against mine.
Tess’s eyes wide with joy and excitement because of something I’d said.
The one that stuck, though, that had me biting my lip to suppress a groan, was Tess here in the shower.
Her body wrapped around mine, while I showed her how she was supposed to be treated.
Like someone to worship, not someone to own.
Her fair skin covered in water droplets, her eyes hazy with lust, her hair like ink spilling over her shoulders.
I’d give up anything to experience it. Just once.
But I knew one time with Tess Hayes wouldn’t be enough.
I let out a low groan in surrender and gripped my cock, pumping it once. I was rock hard. Harder than I’d been in a while.
This was so wrong. So fucking wrong.
But I couldn’t stop.
My jaw dropped with a moan, imagining her dainty hands tangled in my hair, her legs wrapped around my hips while I drove into her.
I stroked myself with the same pace I’d use on her.
Hard but just slow enough to make her beg for more.
Her little moans would bounce off the tile when I delivered.
They’d be soft like her voice at first, but then loud and desperate the closer she got to coming.
God, I was so hot for her, I was shocked the water wasn’t steaming off my skin.
I gripped myself harder, picturing how tight she’d feel while she fell apart, moaning my name. My fingers curled against the tile, my mind going blank as I came harder than I had in months, maybe even years. Her name nothing more than a shuddered gasp on my lips.
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the water and my own breathing, while I remembered where I was. Who I was. Who I just fantasized about.
What have you done? I shook my head, not knowing the answer.
I was her lawyer. She was depending on me to protect her and Luke, not get off to the thought of having sex with her.
It didn’t matter how she looked at me or how her laughter felt like basking in sunlight.
None of that mattered when I was the only thing standing between her and a man who terrified her.
My forehead met the cool tile, and I let the water run over my back, disappointed with myself.
Tess deserved better than this. Than me. She didn’t need more men complicating her life. I was supposed to be safe, reliable. Not another guy who blurred the lines for his own comfort and needs.
But I couldn’t stop remembering how her eyes widened when I told her I loved her rambling. Like I might’ve been the only person who’d ever listened to it. The thought of someone stifling her, silencing her, broke my heart.
It made me want to be the man who listened to her forever.
I dried off in silence and pulled on a pair of boxers before I got in bed. My sheets were cold. The bed too big. The house dark and quiet.
If only my mind could’ve been the same. Normally, I detested the silence because it was a reminder of how alone I was. But now, I was begging for it.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Her laugh at the bar. The way she froze when I touched her knee at Colt’s. The way she watched Luke play with a tender look in her eyes.
I didn’t know how I was going to handle this.
But one thing was for certain: Tess meant far more to me than any other client ever had.
And that terrified me.
The next morning, I was exhausted after probably the worst night’s sleep of my life. But I knew I’d only feel worse if I sat and wallowed, so I got dressed and went for a run.
I ran back to the Bull Pen, and it felt like going back to the scene of the crime.
Glimpses of last night flashed through my mind.
Memories of Tess and the way her joy made me feel.
I shook my head, clearing my mind, and drove to the Wild Creek Diner, starving and in desperate need of a distraction.