CHAPTER 34LeviAureliaLeviAureliaLevi #2
The matchmaking profiles had only scratched the surface, neat little summaries that left out the cracks and scars that told the real stories. If he wanted to understand his wife, he would have to earn that knowledge the hard way, through time and trust.
But first…they had to survive dinner with his friends.
Aurelia insisted on bringing dessert despite his assurances that it wasn’t necessary.
“I’m not showing up empty-handed. That’s bad manners,” she said, giving him the kind of glare that made it clear this wasn’t a topic open for debate.
Levi had wisely decided this wasn’t the hill to die on.
When he returned to the house with the first load of bags, he found Aurelia at the stove, stirring something thick and suspiciously lumpy. A faintly sweet, lemony aroma filled the air, but the texture…he couldn’t hide the skepticism on his face even if he tried.
Aurelia turned, immediately spotting the look. One hand perched firmly on her hip while the other brandished a wooden spoon at him like a weapon.
“What’s that look for?” she demanded, arching a brow in challenge.
Levi lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Nothing! I’m merely wondering what sort of weird, lumpy concoction you’re brewing over there. I thought you said this was dessert ?”
Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. “This is the dessert,” she hissed.
“Oh. Right.” He cleared his throat, trying, and failing profoundly, to sound convincing. “Looks…delicious?”
She scoffed, leveling the spoon at him with deadly precision. “You’ve obviously never had rice pudding. And it shows.”
So many things he could have said, yet he had chosen that . Fantastic.
Levi tried to backpedal. “Well, by all means, educate me on this prestigious rice pudding. I’m a willing student.”
“Absolutely not.” She turned back to the stove, her tone smug. “You lost the privilege of an advance tasting. You can try it later— with your friends .”
He held up his hands again in surrender, grinning despite himself. “Message received, ma’am.”
“Good. Now hurry up and finish bringing your stuff in so you can start preparing me for whatever shenanigans I’m about to walk into tonight.”
With one last wary glance at the mysterious pot, Levi turned and dutifully headed back out to the car. Some battles weren’t worth fighting, although he had a sneaking suspicion rice pudding might become one of them.
Levi was starving by the time he finished unpacking and headed back into the kitchen. He was about to start rummaging for lunch when Aurelia, still standing at the stove stirring her mysterious pot of rice pudding, spoke without turning around.
“There’s a sandwich in the fridge for you, along with some fruit salad,” she said casually, as if she hadn’t just rescued him from the brink of death by starvation.
His stomach growled in gratitude, but experience made him pause. With this woman, food had already proven to be dangerous territory. “What kind of sandwich?” he asked warily.
Aurelia let out a dramatic sigh and gave a little shake of her head. Levi watched her shoulders rise and fall with exaggerated patience before she finally answered.
“It’s roast beef with mayonnaise.”
Levi’s eyes widened in shock. “That’s my favorite sandwich. How did you know that?” He knew he hadn’t put that anywhere in his matchmaking profile, and it definitely hadn’t come up in conversation.
She cast him a haughty look over her shoulder, her eyes glinting with mischief.
“Easy. I asked myself what my least favorite cold cut was, and the answer was roast beef. Since you enjoy the worst possible foods, it felt like a safe bet. And you look like the kind of man with unresolved childhood trauma involving mustard. So…mayonnaise.”
Levi could only gape at her, completely speechless.
That victorious little smirk tugged at her lips as she turned back to her pudding. “Glad to see I nailed it,” she tossed over her shoulder like a parting shot.
Of all the shit to say …And the worst part? She had nailed it. He wasn’t sure if he was more offended by the accuracy or the fact that it made the sandwich taste slightly less special now.
Over the next couple of hours, they settled into an easy rhythm. Levi walked her through detailed introductions to each of his friends, complete with colorful anecdotes and background stories that probably should have come with warning labels.
Aurelia listened attentively, asking sharp, thoughtful questions between finishing the rice pudding. He had to admit…now that it was nestled in a glass casserole dish, topped with a delicate sprinkle of cinnamon, it looked divine. The entire house smelled of warm vanilla and fresh lemon.
He might have… faintly regretted his earlier skepticism.
Unable to resist, Levi tried to sneak a taste straight from the dish.
Without even turning around, Aurelia smacked his hand with the wooden spoon like some kind of domestic ninja.
He was beginning to believe she had eyes in the back of her head.
When he finally finished his rundown of the gang, Aurelia wiped her hands on a dish towel and leaned against the counter.
“Let me make sure I’ve got this straight,” she began, counting off on her fingers.
“Isaac is the stoic, brooding one. His wife, Grace, is the sweet and probably terrifying one who runs everything behind the scenes. Ivy is a lovable, sarcastic bitch, and Owen…Owen is basically a stray puppy you brought home from school one day and never got rid of.”
Levi blinked. “I mean…when you put it like that…” He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying not to laugh. “Yeah. That about sums it up.”
“Fantastic.” She gave him a dazzling, utterly unapologetic smile. “We should probably get ready to go. You shower first while I clean up.”
For a long moment, Levi stood there and stared at her, wondering how he ended up with someone so effortlessly perfect for him.
And then he laughed, shaking his head.
She was going to be fine tonight.
Possibly a little too fine. And that thought made him both excited and very, very afraid.
Aurelia
Aurelia sat at her bathroom vanity, applying her makeup, dressed only in a sheer lace bra, matching panties, and a loosely wrapped silk robe.
The robe barely clung to her shoulders, its delicate fabric a poor guardian against the tension humming through her body.
She had told herself she needed time to choose what to wear, but really, she was stalling, trying to slow the frantic beat of her heart.
Tonight, she would meet Levi’s friends. His real life, his people.
Through the mirror, she caught her own reflection—the flush high on her cheeks, the uncertain flicker in her eyes. Her pulse fluttered beneath her skin, right when the bathroom door creaked open behind her.
She startled in her chair, spinning slightly toward the sound.
Levi stood in the doorway, tall and utterly still, his eyes locked on hers through the mirror.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low and slightly rough. “I should have knocked, but I can’t find…” His words completely trailed off as his gaze shifted—slowly, deliberately—downward.
Aurelia’s brows drew together. “Can’t find what?” she asked, her voice a faint whisper.
But Levi didn’t answer.
He took a slow, predatory step forward. The air around them thickened, humming with electricity as his eyes tracked lower—watching her robe slide farther off one shoulder, revealing the delicate emerald lace of her bra.
Her breath hitched.
It was a bra so sheer it might as well not have existed. Her hardened nipples pressed visibly through the thin fabric, and when she caught Levi’s darkened expression in the mirror, something bold and incredibly reckless ignited inside her.
Without breaking his gaze, she reached up and pushed the robe off her other shoulder, baring herself completely to him.
Levi’s hands found her shoulders in the next breath, his palms broad and warm against her flushed skin. His thumbs moved in slow, teasing circles, his voice a low growl against her ear.
“You’re tense about meeting my friends,” he murmured, eyes locked with hers in the mirror. “I think I know how to fix that.”
Aurelia gasped softly and gave a tiny nod, unable to form words as his hands began their sinful work.
What started as a firm massage quickly became something far more dangerous. His fingers drifted under her bra straps, brushing against sensitive skin, then lower as they trailed along the curves of her breasts, teasing her already aching nipples.
Up and down, he moved with maddening patience. Grazing. Rolling. Tugging.
She pressed her thighs together, desperate for relief, but the mirror…oh god, the mirror made everything worse.
She couldn’t look away.
Couldn’t tear her eyes from the sight of Levi’s strong, capable hands as they pushed her bra cups down, freeing her breasts completely to his touch.
Her breathing turned ragged. Every stroke of his fingers felt like it was tied directly to the pulsing ache between her legs, pulling her tighter, winding her up unbearably.
Levi never looked away from her face. Every gasp, every tremble studied with intense, ravenous focus.
“They won’t mind if we’re…a little late, will they?” she whispered, her voice breathless and breaking.
She stood abruptly, turning into him, her fists clutching the front of his shirt as she dragged his mouth down to hers in a fierce, consuming kiss.
That was all Levi needed.
With a low growl, Levi scooped her up and seated her on the vanity counter, his hands already working at his belt with practiced urgency. His jeans hit the floor in a blink, and then he was there, his hand sliding between her thighs, pushing aside the last barrier of lace.
He drove into her hard, his movements primal and desperate.
There was nothing soft about this—nothing sweet. Nothing other than raw, relentless need.
Aurelia moved with him, her hips rising to meet every thrust, their bodies locked in a frantic, consuming rhythm. They didn’t care about the time. Didn’t care about dinner or obligations or appearances.
They only cared about the edge looming before them, the inevitable descent—
And the blissful freefall they took together, lost and utterly undone.
Levi
Levi was still reeling as he pulled himself together for the second time that afternoon, trying to look presentable after what could only be described as the most sinfully delicious delay of his life.
He hadn’t been prepared for how utterly insatiable his wife was…nor how little self-control he seemed to possess around her. Every plan, every ounce of logic, scattered the second she touched him.
Yes, they were clearly in lust …and that wasn’t a bad thing.
It proved they had chemistry, that undeniable pull between them.
But it also left Levi feeling a thread of unease.
He experienced enough to know that no relationship could survive on passion alone.
Lust burned like a double-ended candle—and burned out fast if there wasn’t something real beneath it.
And yet…they had barely known each other for forty-eight hours. It was absurd to worry about how fast things were moving when their entire marriage had begun in a rush. Jumping in headfirst was the whole point of this arrangement.
Still, as he adjusted his shirt and glanced at himself in the mirror, Levi made a silent vow:
This won’t be driven by desire. I’m going to do this right. I’m going to learn every single thing about the woman I married.
The drive to Grace and Isaac’s home passed in a companionable silence. Levi held Aurelia’s hand the entire way, his thumb brushing over her skin absentmindedly. She seemed lost in thought, her expression unreadable as she stared out the window.
Levi used the quiet to map out his next steps.
Real dates. Real conversations. Real time together, he decided.
He would take her out the way he would have if they had met under normal circumstances—late-night dinners, museum strolls, lazy Sunday coffee runs. Anything and everything to discover who she truly was beyond the bedroom.
It also meant something far more challenging: he would have to restructure his life. Starting with his unforgiving work schedule.
The thought of the disaster waiting for him in his inbox tomorrow morning made his stomach tighten.
The issue from his wedding day still loomed over his head like a dark cloud, and he had purposefully ignored it all weekend.
He never ignored work. Come morning, the full weight of it would hit him like a freight train.
But staring at Aurelia now, her fingers loosely entwined with his, her lips pressed together in that soft contemplative pout…Levi knew there were more important things to fight for.
I’m going to woo the pants off my wife…literally and figuratively , he thought with a half-smile as he pulled into the driveway of Grace and Isaac’s home.
Time to deal with the shenanigans. And this time, he wasn’t walking in alone.