Page 37 of They Break Beauty

He knew me well.

“Point noted.” I kissed his cheek. “Good work.”

Before I could pull away, he grasped my bare shoulder and licked the scar down the left side of my throat, the stud in his tongue rolling over it. “Just helping you get in the zone, Lev,” he said with a smirk as he eased away.

Sure that was all it was.

I returned his smirk. “Much appreciated.”

As I headed past him, he called out, “Don’t scare her off. That duet is on for real now.”

“No promises.”

“Lev.”

I lifted my shoulder. “It depends how she reacts.”

“Aren’t you the master of determining how others react—always in your favor?”

“Not this time. Not with her.”

“Actually, yeah, I’m getting that. Her responses to different provocations are difficult to determine and anticipate. Woman’s more complicated than she seems on the surface with that whole bubbly Barbie thing she’s got going on.”

“Sure is.”

He didn’t know the half of it.

Hell, he didn’t know a mere fraction of it.

There was a whole lot more than met the eye with Brianna Walker.

And I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in it all, in everything that she was.

Be ready for me, Wildflower, because I’m not backing down.

10

~Levi~

“Order up,” I spoke as I approached the seating area with her water and snacks in hand.

She was lounging back in the middle of the wraparound couch, her legs tucked underneath her and an arm slung over the white leather as she played with her hair.

I saw her noticeably tense as I drew close, then put the plate and bottle down on the gold-rimmed glass coffee table in front of her.

Her gaze left me briefly as her attention went to the cookies for a moment.

And when her focus returned to me, a different type of tension took her. She gave herself away as a pink tinge colored her cheeks, while her eyes roamed over my bare chest, taking in every chiseled inch of it, before zeroing in on my all-seeing eye tattoo on my shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat as she obviously recognized it was the exact same design as her necklace, except for the coloring.

She blinked and averted her eyes as though the sight was too much to behold.

I bet it was with all that denial she had going on.

And it was exactly what I’d intended to pull from her.

A shock to her system.

She sucked in a breath, then went to reach for one of the cookies on the plate.

---