Page 83 of Kiss Me Tonight

Based on how quickly a smirk finds its way onto my face, Levi might as well be the antidote to my pissy mood. “Disappointed?” I tap my beer bottle to my chest. “Don’t worry, Coach, I’m more than willing to bring you to the Underworld for a spin.”

She pats my forearm, her fingers lingering noticeably before she splays her fingers over the bar. “My very own Charon,” she purrs with subtle sarcasm, “how very generous of you.”

“I can be generous when I want to be.” I shift on the stool, angling myself to get a good look at her. Whereas her blue eyes are almost always tinged with sadness, today they’re on fire. Needy. Absolutely present. My cock thickens behind my zipper, the relentless bastard. “Didn’t I swim you and that kayak out into the bay?”

The curve of her bottom lip deepens. “I rowed myself, thank you very much.”

Humor eases the always-present pressure in my chest. Setting my beer bottle down so I can free both hands, I drop my forearm to the bar and invade Levi’s personal bubble.Pop.My eyes fall to her lips. Fuck, I want her. We’ve played the cat-and-mouse game for days now. Correction: we’ve been at it forweeks.

Flirting. Teasing.

A weaker man would have buckled and given in on that very first night.

“What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve ever done?” she asks, catching me off guard.

“Ever?” I echo, my eyes locked on hers. So damn blue they’re almost black in the candlelit pub. “Or recently?”

“In the last year.”

I tilt my head toward the TV behind me. “Besides going on a dating show, you mean?”

As though it pains her to think of me with someone else, her brows furrow. “Yeah, besides that.”

Giving her question only a moment’s thought, I lift a hand to her face. Cup her jaw, my thumb tracing the hairline scar that bisects her upper lip. “It’s ridiculous how much I crave touching you,” I utter in a low voice, unable to look away. Not even Savannah Rose had a grip on me like this. I liked Savannah. I cared about what she thought of me. I wanted to be the sort of man she looked at and thought,Yeah, he fits in my world.

With Levi, worlds aren’t even a factor.

I crave the feel of her skin on mine.

I want to know what’s going on in her head at all times, even when she’ll push and prod at my walls until I’m being just as vulnerable.

I like knowing that soft as she is, as warm as she can be, she’s a total hard-ass too.

Shaking my head—and shoving those thoughts away—I drag my thumb across her plump bottom lip, mussing up the shiny gloss she’s wearing. She blinks up at me, and damn it if I don’t love the look of her smudged lip gloss paired with her big blue eyes.A perfect match.Yeah, I wouldn’t mind being the one to dirty her up real good.

Focus.

“I went skydiving a few months ago,” I finally answer. And, knowing that Levi is the sort of person who always pushes for more, I elaborate without her asking for it: “When you’re free-fallin’ like that, no one gives a shit about who you are or what you’ve accomplished in life or where you’re from. End of the day, it’s you, a parachute, and the rush of wind in your ears.”

Levi reaches for my beer and pulls back only long enough for a sip. “Give me something else,” she prods, bottle neck dangling from between two slender fingers. “Doesn’t have to be something recent.”

Casting a quick glance over to the people filtering into the pub—it’s still relatively early for a weekend night—I cup the back of my neck, idly rubbing the muscles there. “I’m gonna go with the trip I took after my physical therapist gave me the go-ahead with my leg.” I knock the heel of my right boot against the bar stool’s leg. “You ever heard of Hua Shan in China?”

Levi takes another drag of my beer. “Can’t say that I have. Is it a monastery or something?”

“Better. So much better.” Remembering the edge of anticipation that had my lungs pumping for days in advance, I scoot forward so she won’t miss a word. “Hua Shan is a mountain ridge. An adrenaline junkie’s dream. Loads of articles have coined it the world’s most dangerous hike.” I lift a hand, illustrating the invisible line of a sharp peak. “Narrow paths are carved into the mountain side, and there are these . . . real narrow planks that are bolted to the cliffside.”

“It sounds . . . dangerous.”

I flash her a small grin. “I prefer to think of it as thrilling.”

“You would, Mr. Living On The Edge.”

“You tellin’ me that you wouldn’t risk it all for the best sunset in the world?”

She doesn’t even bother to hide her eye roll. “C’mon. For asunset?That doesn’t seem very . . . you.”

“Why? Because I’m a jock?”

---