Duty Bound (8 page)

I collapsed on his couch and stretched out my leg, trying not to remember that we’d kissed on a different couch almost twenty-four hours ago.

He brought ice for my ankle and then sat in the chair beside the couch. He lifted his eyebrows in a dry look. “So did you have enough fun this evening?”

I couldn’t help but giggle a little as I thought about his face, carrying around all the embarrassing stuff. “It was kind of fun.”

“What kind of a reaction were you hoping for?”

“Honestly, I figured you’d be cool and collected—like you were. But I thought you might give up following me.”

“You’re not going to scare me away with feminine hygiene products.”

I laughed again, recognizing something soften in my chest at the sight of the warm smile in his eyes. For some reason, he was more attractive now than he’d been even the day before. More human or something.

I cleared my throat, reminding myself that indulging an attraction to Levi was probably not a smart thing to do. Was
definitely
not a smart thing to do. “You’re a brave man,” I said, keeping my voice light.

“I hope so.”

Something had shifted in his voice, and I could see it in his eyes too. It felt serious, private, intimate. I gave a little nod in response, understanding him even in the way our gazes held.

I had to break the gaze, eventually, though, since my heart began to flutter in a very dangerous way.

Instead, I relaxed and closed my eyes as the pain in my ankle started to subside.

When I opened them again, Levi was still gazing at me.

“What?” I demanded softly, feeling self-conscious.

He shook his head.

“What?”

“I was just wondering when you got so damn beautiful.”

I gaped at him, my heart starting to race.

He continued, his voice low and husky in a way I almost never heard it. “And I was wondering why I can’t be smart and just keep my mouth shut instead of saying things like that.”

“So why did you say it?” I asked, something pulsing in my blood that had nothing to do with the pain in my ankle.

He stood up and stepped over, kneeling next to the couch beside me. “Because it’s true. It’s so damn true.”

So I admit it. My mouth fell open again. I stared at him from where I reclined on the couch, and there was no way in the world I could look away from his hot eyes, his chiseled features, his softening lips.

Then his lips were moving toward me, and I desperately wanted them to. I mean,
desperately
. I’d never wanted to be kissed so much in my life.

I already knew what it was like to kiss Levi. I knew how good it was. And something about the way I felt right now and the way he was looking at me promised even more.

I lifted my shoulders up off the couch so I could meet his mouth more easily. His lips took mine hard and urgent, and it triggered a visceral hunger in me. I reached around to grab at the back of his neck as his tongue slid against my mouth. Then inside.

Feeling and sensation coursed through me, causing my skin to flush and my heart to pound. Levi made a throaty sound and moved over me more so he could kiss me more deeply.

I was rocking beneath him, the compulsion of a building arousal driving my body into rhythmic motion. He was mostly on the couch now too, his chest pressing into mine as I tried to wrap one of my legs around his hips.

I had to turn my head and gasp when I felt suddenly like my head might explode. I couldn’t understand how I’d gotten turned on so quickly, from nothing more than a kiss.

“You okay?” he asked, panting audibly. He straightened up slightly and, when I turned to look up at him, I saw he was searching my expression.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just about to go wild for no particular reason.”

His expression shifted, and he gave me a wicked look. “What do you mean no particular reason? I think there’s a very particular reason.” He reached down to cup my face with his hand and gently caressed my lips with his thumb.

The light touch felt so good I felt arousal pulse stronger between my legs. I gasped again and reached up to grab the couch cushion.

“See,” he said, his smile broadening. “I told you there was a reason.”

“Don’t get smug.” I reached out toward his crotch and was infinitely pleased to find a hard bulge at the front of his jeans. “It feels like you have pretty good reason yourself.”

“Damn right.” With a soft groan, he leaned back down to claim my lips, but this time he pulled me up instead of lowering himself onto me. He easily hauled me up from my position and rearranged me onto his lap. He was incredibly strong—I knew that first-hand—but I’m still not sure how he managed to move me so easily.

But move me he did. I’d been stretched out on the couch, but in just a few seconds he was seated on the couch instead and I was straddling his lap.

I’ve got to admit it. I had no complaints about this new arrangement. I clawed at the back of his neck and shoulders as his kiss became hot and aggressive. I wanted it. Needed it. Opened more fully to him and met the motion of his tongue with mine.

My body was alive with pleasure, excitement, and increasing need, and I started grinding myself against his groin to answer the deepening ache.

“Harper,” Levi murmured, finally releasing my mouth. “Harper, you’re incredible.”

I gave a silly whimper in response—which was as lucid as I was capable of at the moment—and let my head fall back, arching my neck and dragging in thick gasps of air.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said hoarsely, his big hands sliding down to span the curve of my bottom. “So beautiful and hot and eager. Fuck, how did this happen? I’ve never wanted anyone so much.”

It was exactly what I needed to hear. I rubbed my arousal against the hardness of his, desperate for relief and not caring how shamelessly uninhibited I was in my need.

His hands tightened on my hips, holding me in place from my frantic motion. “Not so fast,” he rasped, “or it will be over before it’s begun.”

I clawed at his neck some more and struggled to move against the strength of his hands. “But I need to come so bad.” I was half-embarrassed to admit it, but the deep need for him was just too strong.

“You will,” he murmured, sliding his hands up to my ribs and then higher to cup my breasts. “Just trust me. You will.”

I breathed deeply to calm myself down, trying to fight the instinct to hump him until I came. I arched into his hands when he started to gently fondle my nipples through my shirt. “I’m not big on trust,” I managed to gasp, the words slipping out without conscious thought, so overwhelmed was I by emotion, sensation.

“Me either.” His words seemed just as unconscious as mine were. “But trust me in this. I want to make you come like you’ve never come before. I want to make you come apart beneath me.” He pulled my head down with one hand and kissed me softly. “What do
you
want?”

“I want that.” Our foreheads leaned together briefly. “But I want you to come apart too.”

“You first.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. And the amusement shook my whole body. I could tell he was smiling as he wrapped his arms around me in what was almost a hug. Finally, he asked, “Should we go to the bedroom?”

“Yes, please.”

He chuckled at the irony of my words, and then he moved me off him so he could stand up. Before I could stand up fully, he’d swung me up in his arms and carried me into his bedroom.

“I didn’t think you would indulge in romantic gestures,” I told him, wrapping my arms around his neck and unable not to enjoy being carried by him this way.

“Just practical. With your ankle and all.”

“Ah. I should have known.”

I liked that he was still himself, no matter how turned on we both were. This had happened fast, but he wasn’t a stranger to me. I’d known him all my life. I knew who he was. He was familiar to me in every way.

Which made doing this with him even hotter, somehow.

When he lowered me onto the bed, he started to slowly undress me, kissing and caressing every part of my body he revealed as my clothes ended up on a pile on the floor. It wasn’t long before I was moaning helplessly and squirming beneath his skillful touch.

I was completely naked when he returned to caress and then suckle my breasts. I’d reached up to grip the pillow beneath my head and was clenching my fingers as I got more and more out of control.

It was harder than I’d expected to trust Levi—even just enough to let him pleasure me like this. I felt like I needed to take control of it, and it was so hard to give it to him.

But he knew exactly what he was doing. My body had never felt like this before, and it was a kind of sensual torment I’d never imagined. Finally, he moved down my body, and his mouth lingered just at the juncture of my thighs.

“Please, Levi,” I gasped, pushing my hips up toward his mouth. “Oh, please.”

“Fuck, you’re so gorgeous.” His eyes raked from my face down to my arousal, which was more exposed now as I parted my legs for him. “I want to see you come apart for me.”

Then he gently explored with one hand, parting my folds and then thumbing my clit. I bucked up toward his touch, but he didn’t linger. Instead, he slipped two fingers inside me.

“Fuck, you’re so wet. I can’t believe you want me so much.”

There was no denying this fact, so I didn’t even try. I tried to ride his fingers until he held my hip with his free hand. I grew still beneath his touch as he lowered his mouth.

I was moaning on his first touch, and my verbal response got louder and more uncontrolled as he pleasured me with his fingers and mouth.

Then I finally lost it and came apart completely as the sensation coiled down tight and then released. I cried out and thrashed on the bed as the sensations rushed through me, and I was gasping breathlessly when I finally came down.

Levi was grinning as he straightened up at last, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Don’t get smug,” I said, since—seriously—it just had to be said.

He chuckled and moved up so he could gently kiss my lips. “I think I deserve to be a little smug.”

“Okay. Just a little. But don’t forget. It’s your turn to come apart now.”

“I can’t wait.”

I felt washed with a warm, full satisfaction, relaxing every inch of my body. There was a delicious kind of irony here.

What we’d already done was undoubtedly the best sex of my life.

And it wasn’t even over yet.

Levi

Nothing had ever felt so good, so fucking incredible. A million thoughts raced through my head, and they were all saying the same thing.
I need more of Harper.
Now
.

She was sprawled across my bed—naked, flushed from an orgasm, and gasping for breath. All I wanted to do was make it happen again. Sex had always been enjoyable for me, and I was used to being in control. But being with Harper like this…it was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

My hands were almost shaking as I reached over to the nightstand and yanked the drawer open to grab a condom. With less finesse than I care to remember, I stripped off my jeans and sheathed myself before diving back in for another round.

I wanted to taste her again—every inch of her, from head to toe.

And linger along the way.

Starting at her painted pink toes, I ran my tongue up to the sensitive spot behind her knees. She squirmed restlessly, and I had to put a hand over her flat stomach to hold her still. As I continued my journey back up to the sweetest part of her, I couldn’t help but smile as she spread her legs open a little further in invitation.

She was sweet.

She was hot.

She was wet.

With one flick of my tongue, she cried out my name, and all I could think was “
And she’s mine.”

I ached to be inside her, but I needed this just as much—to make her shatter again. She was so sensitive to every stroke, every flick of my fingers or tongue, and I could feel her getting ready to come again. It turned me on even more. A small part of me wanted to hold back, make her wait, make her beg, but it was just too much to handle.

“
Levi!”
she cried out, and I knew I was a goner. No sooner had my name crossed her lips than I was right there, kneeling between her legs with my arousal throbbing at the first contact with her wet flesh. Her beautiful blue eyes opened and looked at me. “Please.”

I buried myself inside of her. The clasp of her body was perfect, and we fit together in a way that had us both sighing. Normally, at this point in the game, I’d be focused on getting my own release, but then Harper’s eyes met mine and she smiled.
Shit.
All I could think was that I wanted this to never end. I wanted to keep her beneath me, panting and begging…and smiling.

With each thrust, she met me.

With every stroke, she made a throaty sound. Almost a purr.

I had to close my eyes because the sight of her was going to make me come very soon, and I didn’t want that. I wasn’t ready for this to end.

She reached out a hand and cupped it around my neck to bring me down for a searing kiss. Her tongue tangled with mine and mimicked what our bodies were doing.

“Let go, Levi,” she whispered urgently. “I need you. Harder.”

Shit. If I did what she asked, we’d be done in the blink of an eye. I needed her to come again—just once more—and I swore to myself that then I’d be satisfied. I adjusted my position so I could support myself on one arm and reached between our bodies. I ran a finger down to where we were joined before settling over her clit. “Come for me, Harper,” I demanded, my voice ragged even to my own ears. “Come for me now.”

“I can’t,” she said as her head thrashed from side to side.

“Now, Harper. One more time for me.” At any other time, she would have argued, and I realized I was coming to like that about her. Part of me, even now, wanted her to argue, just so I could tease and pleasure her more.

I moved my finger once, twice, and then she was soaring again. It was all too much—her cries, the clenching of her so tightly around me—and I just about lost my mind. I pounded into her with such ferocity that I had to hold an edge back so I wouldn’t hurt her, and yet I just wanted more. To be deeper. To be so firmly embedded in her mind and body that she’d never forget this night.

She called out my name one more time as I finally let myself go. I can’t remember ever coming so hard or for so long. Afterwards, I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.

I collapsed on top of Harper simply because my arms gave out. Instead of asking me to move, she wrapped herself more tightly around me—her ankles locked behind my back, her arms around my shoulders.

It felt almost as incredible as what we’d just done. Even more intimate. I kissed her temple as I struggled to get my breathing to slow down.

“I’m crushing you,” I murmured and did my best to disentangle us. I rolled over and tucked Harper in beside me. She let out another one of those soft purrs that I was really beginning to love and snuggled in closer.

“I didn’t mind,” she said quietly.

This was a first. Since coming home, since Gavin’s funeral, the silence between us was comfortable. I knew I couldn’t speak for Harper, but the more comfortable my body got, the more my conscience started to beat me up.

There was never any doubt in my mind that this was going to happen. Harper had attracted me since the funeral. I fought against it and knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, for either of us, and yet it was inevitable.

The real problem was the timing. Gavin was dead. Harper was threatened. And I’d been walking around in an aroused state ever since that first kiss.

“Levi?” she said softly.

I looked down at her face. Her beautiful face was already making my heart rate kick up again.

The normally confident woman wasn’t the one looking at me. Instead, she looked almost uncertain. “Are you okay?”

That made me frown. “Yeah, why?”

“You’re quiet. And you’re frowning. I can’t imagine frowning after sex is a good thing.”

I couldn’t tell her the real reason I was frowning or what was going on in my head. But I could see that she needed some reassurance. “I’m good,” I said and gave her a small smile. “How about you?”

She blushed. She actually blushed, and it was as sexy as she’d been just moments ago, when she was writhing beneath me. “I’m good, too.”

“That’s good. Really…good.”
Shit
. Why couldn’t I speak like a normal person? Right now, I sounded like a complete idiot. True, it could be that I’d just had my mind blown by the most powerful orgasm of my life, but really, I should have been able to pull together a normal sentence.

The silence returned again, and this time it wasn’t quite so comfortable. I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say, and it wasn’t until Harper started to stir beside me that I realized she was trying to get up. “Where are you going?”

She didn’t meet my gaze. “I, um, figured I’d get dressed.”

“Why?”

Now she looked at me. “Because that’s what you do.”

“Who?” What the hell was she talking about? I could still feel the sheen of sweat on my body from all of the exertion, and she was getting ready to leave?

Harper rolled her eyes. “What do you mean, who? People. No one stays in bed forever. You…have sex.” She gestured to the messy bed. “And then you get dressed and go.”

Maybe someone who didn’t know Harper like I did wouldn’t have heard the slight tremor in her voice. But I did. I reached out and tugged her back down beside me and hugged her close. She didn’t resist, but I could feel a stiffness in her body that wasn’t there moments before.

In that instant, I wanted to find every man she’d ever slept with who had jumped up and left her after they were done with her and kill them.

“Levi?” The uncertainty and the tremble were hard to miss this time.

“You’re not leaving.” Normally that tone of voice was enough to get her riled up, but this time it seemed to soothe her instead. She finally relaxed against me. I placed another kiss on top of her head, and just to make sure that she understood what I was saying, I added, “I don’t want you to go.”

“I’m glad,” she said with a sigh. “I just thought that…”

“What?”

She shrugged. “It’s just been my experience that guys don’t normally want to, you know, linger or cuddle after sex.”

The way she said “sex” felt wrong. Who the hell had she been sleeping with? Where was she finding these assholes? “Well, I can’t say that I’ve ever been one for
cuddling
.” I made the word sound faintly repulsive. “But I can say that I am all for the lingering.” I shifted so that I could see her face. Her eyes were still a little uncertain. “Maybe I’m not done with you yet.”

“Oh, really?” She gave me a teasing smile.

“Yeah, really.” There was no teasing in my tone. I wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

Her expression changed from one of sass to confusion. “I thought…I mean, I didn’t think…”

“What, Harper? What did you think?” When her eyes looked away I reached out and put my finger under her chin and gently forced her to meet my eyes. “Tell me.”

“I didn’t think you’d…want me again.”

Anger raged inside of me again at the faceless men who were clearly so blind and selfish that they hadn’t realized what they’d had in their arms. I took one of her hands in mine and guided it down over my erection. “What do you think?” At first she looked shocked, but then she smiled again. And began to gently stroke me.

It would have been easy to just roll her beneath me and have her again. We’d both enjoy it. But I wanted to understand her. I needed to know why it was that she was doubting herself. I couldn’t even say why it was so important in that moment, but it was. I never had to say a word. She read the question in my eyes.

“I’ve never been with a guy who really wanted a second round.” I knew that admission cost her a lot.

“Then they were crazy.”

She made a face at me. “I don’t think so. It’s me.” There was vulnerability in her voice. “I scare guys away.”

“Harper—”

“I’m not all soft and feminine like most women. I’m too independent, and that freaks guys out. I know I can come across as intimidating, but no one has ever wanted to see if there was more to me than that.” She looked up at me. “There
is
more to me than that. Why doesn’t anyone get that?”

I did. I wanted to know everything about her. What made her tick? What made her laugh? What made her cry? “Like I said, Harper, they were crazy. Those guys weren’t worth your time.”

“If it was one or two guys, I might agree. But almost every man I’ve dated—not that there have been masses of them, but still—has only wanted one go-around.”

“You mean these guys broke up with you after sleeping with you?” The fury was building. I was ready to jump up out of the bed and start taking names.

“No, no, no,” she assured me as she placed her hand on my chest to calm me down. “I mean that, while we were seeing each other, our sex lives were just…”

“Ah.” Now I understood. No heat. No passion. “Seems to me like that was their problem. Not yours.”

“How can you say that? If I had been more feminine, more in touch with my softer side, then maybe…”

“Maybe nothing. As the man who just had you and is about to have you again, I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with you.” Now I did pin her beneath me. “You are incredibly soft,” I said as I lowered my head and nuzzled at her breast. “And beautifully feminine.” I rubbed my erection against the juncture of her thighs and watched as she sighed with pleasure. “And if no one else appreciated that, then all the better for me.”

She was about to speak, but I cut her off with a kiss.

We were done talking.

***

Two days later, I was waiting on Sebastian.

I didn’t mind waiting. I actually could use the time to get my head on straight. Harper and I had been sharing a lot of private time together, and between that and the physical aspect of working construction, I was exhausted.  I was used to going without a lot of sleep, but it was starting to catch up with me.

I told Harper that I was meeting up with Sebastian tonight and that I wouldn’t be seeing her. I just didn’t tell her
why
I was seeing him.

“You look like shit, man,” Sebastian said, as he slid into the booth opposite me.

“Thanks, I’m fine. And you look pretty, too.”

Sebastian gave me a smile that was almost blinding. He could have been part of the Osmond family with that damn thing. He came from money, and a fortune had clearly been spent on his teeth. “I know.”

A waitress came over, took our drink orders, and was gone before I even could register what she looked like.

“Seriously, Levi, you look like hell. What’s going on?”

“Lack of sleep.”

He arched a brow at me. “Really? Anyone I know?”

“Shut up.” I leaned back and ran my hands through my hair because I didn’t know how to ask what I needed to ask.

Sebastian continued to study me until after our drinks came and then took a sip of his beer before leaning forward on the table and meeting my gaze head on. “It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the two hour drive to get here, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d say this isn’t a social call.”

Time to cut to the chase. “It’s not. I need your help.”