CHAPTER 39LeviAureliaLevi
Levi
It had been a brutal week, and Levi could feel every bit of it in the tight coil of his shoulders and the pounding tension headache threatening to settle behind his eyes.
Back-to-back meetings consumed his entire morning, leaving him no time to actually get any meaningful work done.
The hour after lunch had been spent hunched over his desk, poring through a relentless flood of emails and grim updates about Project DL.
His calendar mocked him with one final meeting scheduled late in the day.
The perfect end to a thoroughly miserable week.
And then it hit him.
It was Friday.
A cold dread settled in his gut as he leaned back in his chair, running a tired hand down his face. He worked late every single night this week. He had barely seen Aurelia, let alone spent any real time with her. The sex was phenomenal, but that was all they had time for.
It wasn’t enough.
Isaac’s words echoed in his mind. I think you’re working too much.
He hadn’t wanted to believe it. But what had he been doing? Avoiding home? Avoiding the complicated emotions that surfaced every time he walked through the door and saw a wife he barely knew waiting for him? Or worse…disappointing her before they’d even had a chance to build their relationship?
He kept his troubles to himself under the guise of protecting her, not wanting to burden her with his stress. But maybe that wasn’t as noble as he told himself. Maybe that was cowardice dressed up as chivalry.
Whatever it was, it had to stop.
He wasn’t spending another Friday night buried in work. No, tonight he was going to take his wife out, look her in the eyes, and finally start building something real between them. He pushed away from his desk, already strategizing how to pull together a proper date, when his phone lit up.
Aurelia’s name flashed across the screen.
The tension in his chest loosened a fraction as a smile tugged at his lips. He answered immediately.
“Good afternoon, my wife,” he drawled.
“Good afternoon, dear husband,” she purred in response, her voice rich and teasing. “How’s your day going?”
Levi chuckled, leaning forward, elbows on his desk. “It was horrendous until about thirty seconds ago. Now it’s looking up.”
He heard the warmth in her laugh, and it curled deliciously through his blood.
“Such an astonishing turn of events,” she mused. “Tell me, how’s the rest of your afternoon looking?”
Levi sighed. “Back-to-back meetings until four-thirty. The first one starts in about twenty minutes.”
A low, sympathetic sound hummed through the line. “That sounds dreadful…” Her voice dropped to a sultry whisper. “Unfortunately, I’m about to make it even harder for you. Well… make you a bit harder .”
Levi sat up so fast he cracked his knee against the underside of his desk. He bit back a curse.
She continued before he could recover.
“I’ve been alone in this house all afternoon,” she murmured, her voice a dark, sensual caress, “wearing nothing but thin purple lace that doesn’t cover much of anything…”
His pulse slammed in his throat.
“And it’s definitely not enough to keep me warm.”
He felt the air in his office thicken, heat spiking as her words wrapped around him.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my husband,” she went on, slow and decadent, “thinking about the ravishing he promised me…and how desperately I need it. Right. Now. But apparently, I’m going to have to wait.”
He gripped the edge of his desk, his knuckles bone-white.
“I’m not a very patient woman, Levi. If you’re not home and inside me by five o’clock…” Her breath hitched. “Then I’ll have to start without you.”
He was already on his feet, stalking toward his private bathroom like a man possessed.
Voice low and dangerous, he growled, “If I get home and find you’ve started without me, I won’t be gentle, Auri.”
Her breathless laugh curled through the phone. “Whether you come on time is completely up to you. I’ll be taken care of either way. Have a productive afternoon.”
The line went dead.
Levi stared at his phone in stunned disbelief before a new message came through.
With shaking hands, he opened it.
And there she was—laid out on their bed in nothing but the sheerest purple lace, her wild rainbow hair a halo around her flushed face, full breasts peaked and straining against the delicate fabric. One hand was planted above her head snapping the photo…while the other was slipping lower.
Locked in his private bathroom, he swore viciously under his breath.
And then he lost the battle entirely, unfastening his pants. Groaning, he took himself in his hand, desperate to take the edge off. His eyes never left the screen as his mind filled in every torturous detail of what waited for him at home.
Five o’clock couldn’t come fast enough.
The next three and a half hours were pure torture.
Levi had tried desperately to cancel at least his last meeting of the day, but no amount of pleading or rescheduling magic could get him out of it. Another endless Board meeting, the same recycled agenda, and the same power struggles.
The only thing Levi could focus on was the ticking clock and the unbearable ache building beneath his belt.
He was barely holding it together when the room went quiet, every head swiveling toward him. Levi snapped his gaze up from the table to find a sea of expectant faces…and Tyler Faulkner glaring at him like he wanted to commit murder.
“You haven’t heard a single word that’s been said, Lockwood,” Tyler snapped, his face an alarming shade of red. “Do you have more pressing matters than running this company? Or are you too busy playing house?”
If only he knew.
Levi swallowed the smirk threatening to break across his face. His mind flashed to the image of Aurelia sprawled across their bed, that sheer purple lace clinging to her curves. There was absolutely something he would rather be doing right now. Over and over again.
Tyler must have caught the tell—something Levi couldn’t quite keep out of his expression.
“You’ve completely lost your focus ever since you acquired that mail-order bride of yours,” Tyler sneered, his voice oily with contempt. “Maybe it’s time you stopped thinking with the head between your legs and—”
Levi cut him off smoothly, his tone edged with lethal calm. “You’ve taken a really strange interest in my sex life lately, Tyler. It’s becoming…obsessive. Should I be concerned?”
The room went still. Someone stifled a laugh.
“And while we’re on the subject,” Levi continued, standing and gathering his things with practiced efficiency, “you’ve managed to drone on about the same topics for forty-five minutes without a single new idea.
If you’re here to listen to yourself talk, kindly schedule these meetings for a time when I’m less inclined to gouge out my own eyes. ”
Tyler’s face turned a dangerous shade of crimson, which he didn’t think was possible, as Levi checked the time.
4:33 PM.
Shit.
Snapping his briefcase shut, Levi looked Tyler dead in the eye.
“You scheduled this meeting to end at 4:30. I don’t appreciate your inability to run a competent agenda, interfering with my other commitments.
” He paused, his smile sharp enough to cut glass.
“But don’t end on my account. I’d hate to deprive everyone of the sound of your voice. ”
With that, Levi turned on his heel and walked out calm, collected, and in complete control.
At least until he cleared the boardroom doors.
The second he hit the hallway, he sprinted like hell was on his heels. His office was a blur. Papers were shoved into his bag. Backpack slung over his shoulder. He barely tossed a wave toward Ivy as he tore past her desk.
“Don’t ask!” he called over his shoulder as the elevator took a full two agonizing minutes to arrive. He spent every second of it staring at his phone, thumbing over the photo Aurelia had sent him earlier, his version of paradise wrapped in purple lace.
The image was seared into his brain, and no matter how hard he tried, his body refused to calm down.
By the time he slid behind the wheel and tore out of the parking garage, it was 4:49 PM. The house was a solid fifteen minutes away—without traffic. Levi had zero intention of obeying speed limits today.
He cut through the streets like a bat out of hell, one eye on the road, the other on the ticking clock. If a cop pulled him over, he would hand over his license, show them the picture, and beg for mercy.
At exactly 5:00 PM, while taking the last turn home, his phone chimed.
An audio message. From his wife.
He pressed play over the Bluetooth…and almost lost control of the car.
Aurelia’s voice filled the cabin, low, husky, dripping with promise.
“Time’s up, husband.”
Levi floored it.
Aurelia
Aurelia had set out to drive Levi insane today…She just hadn’t expected to take herself right along for the ride.
The moment she arrived home, she slipped into that sheer scrap of purple lace, fully intending to snap a single teasing photo and be done with it. But something deeper, something darker and more primal took hold of her.
She never took it off.
Not even as the hours stretched by.
Not even as the ache between her thighs grew into a desperate, throbbing need.
With nothing beneath it, the silky fabric became a constant, agonizing reminder of the game she started. And she refused to end it early. Her body begged for relief, but she denied herself the satisfaction. Not until 5:00 PM.
She watched the clock like a crazed woman.
By 4:45 PM, she was in bed, draped across the sheets, her colorful hair fanned out around her, the low light of the room painting her skin in soft, golden hues.
At exactly 5:00 PM, she hit record on her phone and sent the message that would light her husband’s world on fire.
Time’s up, husband.
But the moment she pressed send, her carefully maintained control splintered.
Her hand slipped lower, fingers trembling as they found their mark. She let out a strangled moan, her touch instantly igniting the need she held at bay all afternoon.
There was no finesse, no slow buildup, only determination and precision as her fingers moved faster, her body climbing toward that blinding peak she had denied for hours.
So close. Need one more second—
The bedroom door slammed open.
Levi appeared like a storm rolling through her sanctuary, eyes blazing, chest heaving, his shirt gone, and his pants barely clinging to his hips before they joined the trail of discarded clothes.
He was over her in an instant, pinning her to the bed with his body, and then—with a single, brutal thrust—he buried himself deep.
Aurelia cried out, her head falling back, her hips arching to take him even deeper as her orgasm detonated through her.
Levi was relentless, his pace savage as he took over the rhythm her fingers had started. His hand shot out, catching her wrist and dragging her slick fingers to his mouth. He groaned low and dangerously as he tasted her, his tongue swirling over her knuckles before he bit gently down.
Wild-eyed, he watched her writhe beneath him, her legs locked tight around his waist, her body soft and trembling beneath his brutal onslaught.
His focus dropped to her breasts, the lace doing nothing to hide the hard peaks begging for attention. With a feral growl, he bent down and captured one between his lips, his tongue flicking before his teeth lightly tugged the sensitive tip.
Aurelia cried out, her nails raking down his back as her hips bucked against his with frantic urgency. She was undone, completely lost in pleasure, panting his name like a prayer and a curse all in one breath.
Levi drove into her harder, faster, his control hanging by a fraying thread as he felt her body tighten around him, her second climax crashing into her as violently as the first.
With a raw, primal roar, he thrust once…twice…and spilled into her with a force that left them both shaking.
He sank onto her, his face pressed into the crook of her neck, mouths parted from breathless gasps. Their bodies remained entwined, slick, and trembling from the storm they’d unleashed.
In that moment, nothing else mattered.
Only this. Just them.
Levi
“I’m impressed you made it home so early.”
Levi smiled against the soft tangle of hair beneath his chin. Neither of them had moved, content to stay wrapped in each other’s arms, their bodies still humming from what they’d shared moments ago.
“Considering the ultimatum you gave me, I was hard-pressed to stay any longer,” he murmured, his voice still rough with the aftermath of pleasure.
Aurelia tilted her head, her lips curving into a mischievous grin. “If I recall correctly, that’s not the only thing you were hard-pressed with.”
A low, rich laugh rumbled from his chest, vibrating against her bare skin.
“Well,” he drawled, his fingers tracing lazy circles along her spine, “I’ve been working late all week. I figured by now you were either desperately pining for me or had completely forgotten what I look like.”
She snorted against his skin, but he caught the way her arms tightened around him.
“Since I couldn’t bear the idea of my beautiful wife wasting away from longing, or worse, mistaking me for some handsome intruder, I had every intention of surprising you with a real date tonight.
” His lips brushed her temple as he added, “That was the plan…until I received the most provocative phone call.”
Levi felt the blush rise along her neck before he saw it, and it lit him up from the inside out. That gorgeous flush painted across her skin because of him.
He smoothed his palm along her back, savoring the moment.
“A date actually sounds perfect,” she admitted softly, her breath warm against his chest. “It’s been a long week…”
“Good, because I’m starving, and not just for you this time.” His mouth curled into a grin as he glanced at the clock. “I made reservations for seven at Fondue Rendezvous. We’ve got about fifteen minutes before we need to head out.”
She pushed up on her elbows, her eyes widening with delight. “You got us into that place? I’ve been trying for months!” Her expression shifted into playful suspicion as she narrowed her eyes. “Did you shamelessly abuse your billionaire powers for this?”
Levi feigned a dramatic look of offense. “That cut me deep, Auri. What’s the point of being rich and powerful if I can’t use it to spoil my wife with melted chocolate and inappropriate things to dip into it?”
She rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face was impossible to hide. “Let me freshen up, and then you can continue your salacious attempts at wooing me over dinner.”
As she stood and padded toward the bathroom, Levi’s gaze lingered on the sway of her hips, a warmth spreading through him that had nothing to do with desire.
Yeah, he could definitely get used to that.