Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
LEVI
“Finally, things are looking up,” I say to Locke as he walks through the door.
“And you’re causing quite a stir again.”
I lean back in my chair and laugh.
We’re in our private lounge at the club. We make it a point to meet here every Wednesday evening for an hour to go over figures. On the other nights, we take turns to manage the place. That way, one of us is always here.
Locke and I do a lot together outside of Vale Global. Wicked Dares is one of the best ideas we’ve ever had.
It’s also the first to solve a major problem for me in a way I never imagined.
My club of dares brought me Piper Andrews, the angel who fixed one of the biggest problems.
“You talking about this?” I hold up today’s newspaper so Locke can see, then lay it on the table. I smile at the image on the front cover of Piper and me kissing at the event last night.
“Damn right I’m talking about that.” Locke chuckles. “Everyone is talking about that.” He moves over to the counter and pours himself a glass of scotch.
The press went wild starting early this morning. My PR team contacted me at the crack of dawn wanting to know if they should clean it up, like they usually do. Instead, I told them to fan the flames, spread the story to all corners of the country so everyone would know. And they did.
I grabbed the newspaper on my way to the club as a keepsake.
I gaze at Piper.
In her gown and her pristine hair, she looks like the dashing princess, and I look like the rogue who stole her.
My eyes drag over the photo. The slope of her neck where the gown leaves it bare.
The flush still high on her cheeks from the kiss.
The way her fingers curl against my lapel, gripping the fabric like she didn’t want to let go.
The photographer caught her at the exact second she stopped pretending. I see it. Anyone with eyes would.
Together, we look like a very real young couple in love. No one could say that we weren’t.
The headline above the image reads:
Levi Vale Finds His Perfect Match
I hate the press and the annoying-as-fuck paparazzi, who always want a piece of me, but for the first time ever, I’m inclined to agree.
Levi Vale did find his perfect match, but she’s supposed to be fake.
I feel like I’m in limbo with Piper. Like she was only supposed to orbit my world, yet I keep pulling her closer, refusing to think with my head.
Tonight is one of those things. I know full well inviting her here is asking for trouble, but I’m probably fanning the flames on that, too.
There are so many to choose from. I even have a fucking list.
But her…
I can’t fucking stop thinking about her. Kissing her last night nearly did me in. I almost forgot where we were and that there were eyes watching. When we got in the car, I don’t know how I stopped myself from taking her right there on the back seat.
The worst thing about this?
I can’t forget what she tastes like. And what she looks like when I’m buried deep inside her.
My body remembers her in pieces—the heat of her mouth, the way her breath caught when I pulled her hair, the pretty, little sound she made the first time I bottomed out.
I can be mid-sentence in a board meeting, and one of those pieces will surface, and my cock will go hard under the table like a fucking teenager’s.
I’ve had her once, and I’m already a problem.
It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but she fucking ruined me.
Locke moves closer, grinning back at me as he scans the picture. He raises his tumbler in a toast, swirling the amber liquid inside. “This is cause for celebration.”
I laugh. “I’m just happy I’m not screwed. This whole thing could have gone sideways and ruined me if Piper hadn’t stepped in.”
“Ruin us. Not just you. I think Dad would have appointed a new head of division and we’d have to wait even longer to run the department how we want.”
“I know.”
“But you came through, though.” Locke raises the glass higher.
I throw him a smug smile. “More than came through. Arthur recommended me to five of his friends today.”
Locke does a fist pump in the air. “Hell yeah.”
“And Dad’s happy. Although he totally recognized Piper from the meeting last week and wanted to know how she and I came to be a couple so fast.” I dodged the question, guiding him to focus on the fact that I practically had Arthur Lockwood in the bag.
I told him about the tour, but I left out all the parts about Arthur wanting Piper to join me.
“I hope you’ve learned your lesson, though.” Locke bites the inside of his lip.
“Believe me, I have. Though I don’t suppose I’ll get myself into such a situation again anytime soon.” Lying about a girlfriend got me into shit I didn’t ask for. On the plus side, it kept Piper Andrews in my life a little longer. “I’ve never needed to try and secure a client before.”
“And hopefully, you’ll never have to again.” Locke downs the rest of his drink and looks me over. “You like this girl.” He says it like it’s more of an observation, not a question he needs to clarify.
“She’s great.”
“Levi, come on. It’s me you’re talking to. You’ve been different since she came about.”
I rest my hands on the table and slide my thumb over the newspaper. “She fascinates me.”
His smile brightens, as if he’s getting ideas. “Pray tell. I’d love to know how.”
It was like I said to Arthur, she wants none of my wealth and doesn’t care that I’m Levi Vale.
I’ve never met a woman like that. Fuck, she even needed time to think about accepting my offer.
I figured she only came to her senses when she did the math and realized she’d be closing the door on money that would change her life.
“She’s a challenge,” I answer, folding my arms behind my head.
“You want her because she’s a challenge?” Locke gives me a deadpan stare.
“Correct.”
“You really like to make life harder, don’t you?”
“Not always.”
“You sound pussy-whipped.”
I shake my head. “Nah, it’s not that. This is different.”
Different in a way that made me want to find out more about where Piper Andrews came from.
I’m the kind of guy who can get intel on a person within a few seconds, but I haven’t looked her up yet out of respect. I know she went through some stuff with her ex. But I want her to tell me. I don’t want to research or probe. Not with her.
My phone rings in my pocket. That must be the doormen. I told them to call me when Piper arrives.
I retrieve my phone. “Hey,” I say.
“Piper Andrews is here, boss.”
“I’ll be down in a minute.”
I hang up and return my focus to my brother. “Got to go. My girl is here.”
“She’s here to see you?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, I’ll be doing the accounts by myself, then.”
“You’re a real saint.” I snap my fingers toward him and stand.
“Careful, Levi. Don’t fall for your own stunt.”
I don’t answer. It’s too late for me.
I head downstairs. The island club mix wraps around me the moment I reach the hallway.
The bass climbs up through the floor and into my chest, settling there like a second pulse. The lights are doing their slow red sweep across the walls, and the place smells the way it always does at peak—perfume, sweat, top-shelf liquor, and the sugary syrup they use behind the bar.
I walk out onto the first-floor balcony and take in the crowd of dancing people on the floor below.
The place is packed as always. Since the day I opened, there hasn’t been a night when the club wasn’t brimming with people, all of them excited to dare each other and get up to all sorts of delicious trouble.
I scan the floor, and my gaze lands on the beautiful young woman I’m looking for.
She’s by the bar, looking nervous and sexy as hell even though she’s slightly more dressed down than the night I met her.
Tonight’s dress is simple—a black bandeau playsuit-looking thing that flirts with her thighs. But the sexiness is all coming from her.
I stop, taking a moment to watch her.
She has her hair down tonight and straightened so it falls down her shoulders like strands of rain. The look makes her stand out even more in the crowd, reminding me of the butterfly again. Like people, no two butterflies are ever exactly the same, even within the same species.
She tugs at the hem of the playsuit with two fingers, that little nervous tell I noticed the first night. Her shoulders are pulled in slightly, like she’s trying to take up less space at the bar. She has no idea how she looks. None.
The bartender and a few other guys have clocked her twice already, and she hasn’t noticed. My jaw tightens.
I don’t want anyone looking at her besides me. I don’t care what our arrangement is. She feels like mine.
Piper Andrews has me hooked the same way she did that first night.
And look at her here, unknowingly choosing me again. The pretty butterfly flying right back into my lair.
I smile to myself, feeling like a predator. And like all predators, I’m going to chase my prey.
Doesn’t matter when I catch her.
I will.
I’m patient. I can wait.