Page 100 of They Break Beauty

He’d kept to his promise of not touching me so I could have time to recover, which had been an impressive feat seeing as though we’d taken a bath together in my tiny bathtub. Wet, naked, and wherein I’d spent the majority of it on his lap. He’d wanted to be close to me, not wanting the physical separation. And, honestly, I’d been right there with him on that. Although neither of us were virgins, it had felt different and incredibly intense when we’d come together last night. It hadn’t just been physical by any means. God, it had been all-consuming being with him, letting go with him.

Another impressive feat—on my end—was the fact that I was actually able to remain in my seat at the kitchen table and eat while he was sitting there shirtless, all that hard and defined muscle of his hot-as-sin chest on display.

I sucked in a breath, trying to push down the primal memories of last night, trying to focus.

“Still picturing it, hmm?”

I blinked to see Levi looking up from my laptop with that devious smirk I’d become so well acquainted with.

“What’s that?”

“You know very well. Or were you feeling it as well as picturing it? Vividly?”

“Stop,” I said, shoving my sandwich into my mouth and taking a big bite to avoid answering.

“Saved by that delicious sandwich. Nicely done.” He gestured at my laptop. “Just waiting for my program to run all the way through your system. A couple more minutes and everything will be recovered and back to normal.”

I nodded and smiled as I continued to chew the ridiculously big bite I’d taken.

He stared at me as I ate, his hot gaze wandering over me in just my pink zebra-print robe, my hair mussed in its still damp state from the bath we’d taken just a little while earlier.

I finished eating, then asked, “So, who did you lose to?”

He arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Last night you said that you’ve lost one fight in your life.”

“Ah, that.” He shifted his weight. “Talk about a jarring change of subject. Fighting temptation, hmm?” He thumbed his chest. “Want me to put my shirt back on?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine. And I really want to know.”

“My dad. It was to my dad.”

A shudder went through me. “Your dad... beat you?” It didn’t compute. Of course, I knew Roman Knight was a ruthless man when he needed to be. Anyone who’d been in my dad’s business circles back then had needed to be. But there’d also been a respectful gentleness to him whenever he’d encountered me, anyone who held less power than him—so long as they weren’t a threat, anyway. “The times I met him, he seemed so—”

“No. It wasn’t like that. He thought it was for my own good—the fight we had, I mean.”

“How the hell could that possibly be?” I demanded, unable to check my vehemence.

“Aww, look at you getting all riled up for me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Levi.”

He certainly had a fondness for changing the subject when he was uncomfortable, or didn’t want to reveal specific pieces of information.

“Remember me telling you it took me a couple of years to stabilize after what happened in that hellscape?”

“Of course.”

“Well, a few months afterward, once I was physically healed, I was determined to find mental and emotional healing as well. For me, I believed that to be through dealing out damage to those who’d wronged us.”

“Shit, you tried to go after them?”

“Stupid at my young and rather naïve age. Something my dad demonstrated to me the only way I would listen to at the time—through action.”

“A man challenging a boy to combat, though? That’s—”

“It was exactly his point. I wasn’t a man. I stood no chance of being able to go up against them back then. He saved my life that day.” He looked at me with a bittersweet smile. “Twice that year I had my life spared.”

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