Page 105 of Just Between Us

Levi holds me closely and I swallow, the truth on the tip of my tongue but Cole is in New York, and he’ll only be back on Sunday. I’ll talk to them both then, I decide.

I swallow, “I do.”

Levi’s jaw clenches and unclenches once before he stands. He looks down at me for a long moment, before reaching out his hand.

“Come with me,” he says levelly.

It’s easy to do as he says.

We end up in Cole’s office. The shelves of books that I have barely begun to make a dent in loom over us as Levi switches on the desk lamp.

“What are we doing in here?” I ask, looking at him as he rounds the desk and leans against it, crossing an ankle over the other. A look I recognise falls over his eyes and my entire body flushes with heat.

He is intimidating in a way that is completely different from Cole.

If Cole is ice, then Levi is fire, but they both have my skin rippling with goosebumps, the anticipation of the promise of something dangerous moving through me.

“Getting you out of your head,” he says simply.

I stare blankly at him; the lamp casting shadows over his face.

“You know before I started dating Cole, I had a thing for guys like you.”

I’m not sure why exactly I feel so turned on by Levi looking at me like that. Maybe it’s because he’s usually sweet, even in his dominance but right now, there’s something different in the way he’s looking at me, something that has my skin buzzing.

His jaw ticks and I can’t tell if he’s angry at me, but I stand still, trying to keep my breathing level.

“Guys like me?” I ask.

“Pretty boys who are desperate to lose control.” His smile is short. “I want to strip you completely of that control you keep holding onto, Kai.”

Everything Cole does is because Levi lets him. After watching them for a while now, I understand their dynamic a lot more. Our dynamic. Levi only gives up what he wants to but he’s the one in control. He lets Cole take charge because Cole gets off on it, but the truth is that if Levi told Cole to burn the world and everything in it, Cole would do so without any hesitation. I realise I am dangerously getting close to that too. The feeling that I’d burn anything down if he asked—if either of them asked.

My teeth sink into my bottom lip. “And how will you do that?”

He looks at me for a second, his lips spreading into a smirk.

“Kneel.”

I’m in grey sweat shorts and whilst the rug under my feet is plush, my knees will start to burn after a few minutes, but I do as I’m told anyway because not thinking about things too hard is incredibly easy and I’m becoming terrifyingly accustomed to it when I’m around them.

He gazes at me, arms crossed and his muscles strain against the plain black t-shirt he’s wearing. I eye his tattoos that span his entire arm, and his hair is messy in that perfect way it always is, wondering where this is going exactly. The anticipation could kill me.

“Did you like it when Cole cut you?” he asks.

My mind flashes back to the day Cole pulled out a switchblade and cut just under my pectoral muscle. I liked the sting, the fear and the rush that coursed through me. I liked the way he looked at me like I was something to possess—own. I liked the idea that I was his to do whatever he wanted with.

I nod. “I did.”

Levi smiles like he’s particularly proud. “Tell me, how did it feel?” he asks, voice level.

I don’t miss the way my knees have already started to sting slightly from the kneeling, but I do my best to ignore it.

“Good,” I say, trying to think of the right words. “I don’t know, it felt like he wanted me to see him completely, like somehow, he was letting me into who he is. I felt good. Special.”

Levi nods and walks over to me, his feet softly padding on the carpet. I watch him and look up at him through my eyelashes, my heartbeat picking up pace. My mouth waters, anticipation and something akin to fear rollicking inside me. He runs his thumb over my lips and looks down at me.

“Cole craves control and so do I, just in a different way. And I know what you crave, Kai. You crave surrender. That’s why you liked Cole cutting you, that’s why you’ll like whatever I’ll do to you. You belong to us, baby and you can’t hide, no matter how hard to try.”

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