Chapter 14 #3
He must have drowned as a child, how horrible! “Oh, I’m so sorry.” He enters the pool house, and I notice a telescope there as well. “You like gazing at the stars and planets?”
“As a child, I’d stare at them in the forest while lying on the grass and wondering about destiny. So I figured I’d better get a telescope and study them closer.”
“You’re interested in space?”
I was obsessed with studying different planets and astronomy back in high school.
“Not really. Earth is enough for me.”
Huffing at his cryptic reply, I ask, “What are we doing here anyway?”
“This is my sanctuary. I never bring anyone here, that includes my family and friends.” An odd sense of satisfaction rushes through me at hearing this. “I want to finally make you mine here. Let nature act as our witness.”
For a second I’m too stunned to speak, just blink at him like an idiot and finally croak, “What?”
He starts to unbutton his shirt, gradually exposing his muscular chest to my view, and my stomach flips while goose bumps break on my skin in preparation of something wicked.
The sun shining brightly on him shows him in all his glory as he reminds me of a flawless statue with his carved six-pack, like the sculptor himself molded him into the perfect shape. “We have some unfinished business.”
My brow furrows. “Unfinished business?” And he has to be shirtless to discuss it why, exactly?
“Yes. Last night you ran away before I could fuck you and satisfy this sexy body of yours. That’s unacceptable. My woman comes on my tongue and cock.”
My jaw about hits the floor at his nonchalant voice as if it’s the most normal thing to say, and I stop staring at his body as he removes the shirt and tosses it on the chair while toeing off his shoes in the process.
“You brought me here to have sex?” And why does this idea send an odd thrill through me?
My scandalized tone does very little to faze him as he undoes his belt buckle next. “I thought it was obvious from the start, moy cvetochek. Why else would I bring you home?”
Has he lost his damn mind?
But also…
Why else, indeed?
I step back when he takes off his belt with a loud whoosh, making it really hard not to notice his growing hard-on, the thick and hard erection prodding against the zipper of his jeans, and I hate how my core contracts at the sight, imagining what it would be like to have it inside me.
Somehow this angers me even more. “Forgive me, I’m a bit inexperienced when it comes to random hookups. I didn’t know agreeing to go somewhere with you meant having sex.” To my relief sarcasm coats my tone, hoping it scares him away and he understands what I truly think about all this.
Even if my body really, really, really likes the idea.
“There is nothing random about us. Besides, it’s for the best.”
“It’s for the best,” I repeat after him, distracted, finally giving up my fight of not looking at him and freeze at the sight of the various tattoos on his scarred skin.
Countless and countless scars, some red and prominent while others are small and faint, but still scars all over his chest. “Oh my God,” I whisper, stepping toward him and extending my hand, only to snatch it back.
“I’m so sorry.” I hate these words because they don’t really mean anything to the one bearing the scars.
“What happened to you?” I shake my head.
“No, please don’t answer that. You don’t owe an explanation.
” The only thing worse than people staring at my scars is them asking how I got them.
He probably had some accident as a child, plus he was living and breathing football, right? So he must have gotten some bruises there.
Either way I shouldn’t ask, period, unless he wishes to tell me, and he clearly doesn’t because instead of explaining he says something else entirely.
“When I saw you for the first time back on that beach, I couldn’t look away.
You reminded me of an angel coming straight from heaven and falling into my hell.
Beautiful, innocent, and so conflicted you didn’t know how to live among us all.
” He catches the skirt of my dress, yanking at it and hauling me closer until our chests connect and I gasp at the embrace, his masculine scent filling my nose and his massive form wrapping around me like a twisted web.
“All these polite smiles that didn’t mean shit, hiding your emotions behind this indifferent facade.
” His arm flexes around me. “I wished to demolish this indifference and see what happens when you lose control. When I make you lose control.” He grips my chin and tips it up while my heartbeat speeds up.
“These exquisite emerald-green eyes were lifeless until they landed on me.” I swallow as his thumb caresses my chin, causing for more goose bumps to pop on my skin while every hair on my body stands up, electric volts sizzling them up.
“Then they turned stormy. From that moment on I knew we were inevitable.”
It’s hot. Why is it so hot that I can hardly breathe or think? Listening to his voice wipes away all common sense and only my cravings remain.
And what I crave is Levi Scott, as disastrous and wrong as it sounds.
“This is a mistake,” I whisper. “We shouldn’t do this.”
“Moy cvetochek, we’ll do it sooner or later.
I won’t have your first time at some random fucking place where anyone can hear you scream for me.
” He grips my waist while scraping his teeth over my chin, giving it a light nip and kissing it right after my whimper.
“It belongs only to me. You belong only to me and the sooner you accept it, the better it would be for both of us.”
Oh God, his words serve as a healing balm on my internal bleeding wounds, even if they are lies.
We can’t be anything but temporary.
And if the need equally consumes us both, making us act reckless, should’t we satisfy it and forever put it behind us?
Otherwise this need would make us wonder and that wonder will blow up at some point.
“Levi,” I whisper as sensations slam into me from every corner, pulling me toward the temptation calling my name and begging me to surrender to a carnal hunger only this man can sustain.
My body burns from the inside out, desperate for pleasure it only read and heard about, and all these emotions combined threaten my self-control. Because they tear down all my internal walls, exposing me to this man in my most primal need where I can’t hide my vulnerabilities.
And him seeing them is way scarier than my inexperience could ever be.
“What do you want, Lavender?”
He asks this question again, the confusing and disturbing question rarely anyone has asked me over the course of my life.
Because what I wanted never mattered but for some reason, this hot and virile man cares. I know I should get the hell out…I can’t.
You can resist the temptation for so long before your resolve snaps and shows you that underneath it all you are a young woman who wishes to explore all her deepest desires and discover what physical intimacy entails.
I’ve been free from my self-imposed prison for almost a year and some men expressed their interest in me. However, I never wanted to take them up on their offer.
Levi awakens the feminine part of me that begs me to let him teach me something I have no idea about.
Because all the media in the world cannot teach you without the experience.
He cups my cheek, and our gazes clash, his determined and possessive while mine must be so lost, and yet I find the strength to voice my wish, hoping it will end the hunger that has consumed me ever since I saw him for the first time.
“Teach me, Levi.” I step away from him again, gulping for air, and then slip off my flats, the cold floor grounding me to the present because my nerves speed up my pulse so much it’s a wonder I can stand straight.
“Teach me about sex, Levi.” Reaching for the zipper of my dress, I pull it down and it slides off, presenting my scarred and naked body sans nude panties with a bow to his intense and wandering stare as his heated eyes roam all over me.
The muscle on his cheek twitches and his face darkness as he watches me for several beats and finally reaches me in two short strides, fisting my hair and tugging on it before connecting our mouths, his lips sweeping against mine and his tongue nudging between them, so I open them under the sweet pressure.
He captures my moan when his free hand grips my ass cheek, the touch shooting arrows to my clit while his mouth explores mine as our tongues entwine in a sensual kiss that is a statement in itself.
The harsh, possessive stabs ruin me for anyone else as if he wants to engrave it in my head that no one else would ever want me like he does and he’s claiming this territory, warning everyone away because he came here first and he intends to stay.
His cock nudges into me, the rough texture of his jeans tickling me just as he retreats, my protesting groan rocking between us turning into a surprised squeal when he spins me around, my back to his front, and I still when I see a barely visible reflection in the glass wall.
My first instinct is to bolt but his brawny arm wrapped around my waist halts my movements.
Once I heard a man call some woman’s body a work of art that should be admired by many, and it hurt me because I knew without a shadow of a doubt I could never be called a work of art.
Levi gathers my hair with his fist, rubbing it against his cheek before throwing it over my shoulder, and his lips land on my nape, trailing over my scares back and forth until tension starts to ease out from me and I relax into him more.
Several beats pass with him peppering small kisses all over my neck before his mouth drifts to my shoulder and he splays his palm on my stomach, caressing it up and down. “You’re beautiful, Lavender.”