Page 61 of They Break Beauty

All I could do was stare back at him as his words rolled through me.

And then his arms were around me, pulling me into him, holding me protectively. “You’re marked now.”

“Levi—”

He gripped me tighter, urgency spilling from him. “You. Are. Mine.”

Oh no.

What the hell had I done?

14

~Colton~

Hell had frozen over.

Lev had actually slept through the night.

He’d even slept in actually.

He was usually the guy who would go for a run, shower and dress and even make breakfast by the time Mason and I rolled out of bed and stumbled downstairs into the kitchen.

But here he was just walking in now to the kitchen shirtless and in a pair of just his deep-red satin boxers as Mason and I sat at the table eating our breakfast fully-dressed and ready to get our days underway.

Well, he wasn’t just walking—he was skipping, really.

And to add to the shock of it all, he was also whistling.

Mason looked up from the papers out in front of him, spinning his pen in his hand in a casual way that I knew was anything but casual. It was more like a tic with him, when he was worried or agitated. He either did that or stress snacked on Cheerios. Seeing as though he was making his way through the omelet he’d cooked for us, the latter wasn’t an option right now, so he was settling for the whole spinning pen thing instead.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Hellraiser,” he spoke.

I grimaced. Using that name was him calling Lev out.

It had me tensing as Lev walked to the table and leaned against the back of the chair opposite me and beside Mason.

But then he smiled.

Genuinely.

Not in the usual conniving or sadistic way.

Was he actually… happy?

“Some sweet dreams kept me asleep a little longer than usual.” He gestured at our plates. “Sorry I didn’t get down here in time to make breakfast, but you clearly had it covered.” He eyed me. “Well, fortunately, it was Mason who had it covered, or there’d be food poisoning all around on the menu this morning.”

“Hey, that was one time.”

“One time too many,” Mason grunted.

It had Lev laughing.

Again, a real, heartfelt laugh.

Mason and I exchanged a look. What the shit was going on?

He pushed away from the chair, then went to grab himself a coffee, starting to whistle again.

---