Page 34 of Code Name: Typhon

I ended the call, hoping she’d wait for me. If she didn’t, I knew which way she was headed and would catch up.

Once on the lift, it thankfully went straight to the lobby. I raced over to the pub, and after not seeing her at first, I was relieved to find her waiting on a bench right outside the entrance.

When she looked up at me, her brow was furrowed.

“I live over there,” I said, pointing to my building. “I know I seem…too much.”

Eliza finally smiled. “You are…a lot.”

I stuffed my hands into my pockets and looked off in the distance. That she’d smiled was good, but that she agreed was not.

“Leviticus?”

My gaze met hers.

“That seems so formal. May I call you Levi?”

I smiled like she had. “Any name spoken from your lips is like the sweetest music to me.”

“I like your dimples.”

Words struggled to fight their way out, but I’d just told myself I would back off on sexual innuendos. “Thank you.” I motioned to the bag. “Your dinner?”

“Yes, and Niven’s. He insisted I take it, since it would be cold by the time he got home.”

“It is probably cold already.”

“Perhaps, but less so than after a three-hour drive.”

I raised a brow.

“He and his wife live in Alfriston. She’s a vicar there.” She sighed. “She’s also pregnant.”

There was nothing I wanted to know about Saint. If I never heard his name mentioned again, I’d be happy. But not asking after his wife when Eliza said he’d received an urgent call, had to leave unexpectedly on a long drive, and his wife was pregnant, seemed callous since it all added to the pressing departure relating to her or the baby.

“Is his wife all right?”

“I’m not sure.” Her eyes filled with tears.

“May I?” I motioned to the bench, and she scooted over so I could sit beside her. Once I had, I took her hand. “We’ll think positive thoughts.”

She gazed up at me. “You’re a conundrum, Levi. I felt tension between you and Niven, yet your sensitivity for…” She shook her head and looked down at the ground.

“Finish your thought, Eliza.”

She wiped her tears and chuckled. “I’ll sound sexist.”

“Ah, you were about to say for a man.”

“My apologies.”

I brought her hand to my lips and kissed the back of it. “You are correct in your assumption that I am not always compassionate. You bring it out in me.”

Her head cocked.

“Yes, I know it sounds crazy, given we just met, but the protector in me wants to soothe what makes you sad. It’s also the reason I insist on walking you home.”

“It’s very kind of you,” she murmured.

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