Page 99 of They Break Beauty

“Oh shit, you got me.” He tossed the pillow back on the bed. As I walked to him, he lowered himself to one knee and bowed his head, all so dramatically. “I yield, milady.”

I burst out laughing. “Oh my God, you’re something else.”

Grinning, he held out his hand to me. “Join me for a soothing bubble bath, Wildflower?”

“You want to—I thought you were going to work on my laptop?”

“The thing I need is being retrieved as we speak. We have about thirty minutes before it makes it here.”

“Isn’t it in your mansion?”

“Sure is. One of my connections is covertly accessing it. Then it will be delivered to me here.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier just to go home and grab it?”

“No. Then I’d have to leave you.”

My heart melted at his words, the blunt way he’d just stated that outright, like it was a given, like it couldn’t be any other way.

I took his hand and smiled down at him. “Do you want to stay for breakfast after?”

He rose to his feet still holding my hand. “Sounds really nice. I’ll teach you some things while we eat.” Off my look, he said, “No, not those kinds of things, dirty girl.” He stroked my fingers in his and drew closer. “Although, when you’re no longer sore, we’ll get right back to that, believe me. I meant I’ll teach you how to up your hacking game. And, more importantly, your network security defense protocols.”

“So I can keep you out of my phone?”

“I’m actually already out. I have been for a few days.”

“Wow, that’s a big step in the right direction for you.”

“Well, I was giving you space in every sense.”

“And now?”

“And now, I’ll back off. Well, in the intrusive sense anyway.”

“The intrusive sense. Such a mild way of putting it.”

“I’m sorry.”

I gave him a withering look. “You don’t mean that.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “You’re right, I don’t. It succeeded.”

I shook my head. “Toning it down is a work in progress, I see.”

He reached out and stroked some strands of my hair, the way he seemed to like doing a whole lot. “For the record, I don’t usually compromise. So, believe me, it’s more than just a work in progress.”

“All for me, huh?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” He beamed down at me. “Let’s take that bath.”

I looked over at Levi typing away rapidly.

I’d never met anyone who could type faster than me, at least not when I was in the zone, but here he was doing just that.

And as strange as it probably sounded to someone not in our similar fields of study, it was hot as all fuck watching him. The rapid-fire clack of the keys, the determined look on his face like he was waging war and decimating his enemies with absolutely no respite, how he was so confident like some kind of coding God working his will.

Every now and then, he’d reach out with one hand and take a bite of the fried egg sandwich I’d made for breakfast, while not breaking his rhythm with his other hand still flying across the keyboard. Then he’d return to using two like one had never left.

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