Page 65 of Hell Storm

“And I’ll have to respectfully disagree,” Levi rebutted.

Arguing with him was exhausting. When I rolled my eyes, the reaction brought a broad smile out of him.

“You can’t insist that, because something’s sudden and intense, it can’t be real,” he argued.

I was actually going to make that very point when a breath hitched in my throat. Levi’s staggering height lowered, and he knelt in front of where I sat on the cot. Face-to-face, there was no escaping how sickeningly handsome he was—how his dark lashes intensified the gleam of his eyes, how he’d just dampened his lips after speaking. He took both my hands in his, making mine appear so, so small. I stared at them.

“I dare you to look me in my eyes,” he stated, and despite myself, I accepted that challenge, meeting his gaze. “Now, tell me this energy vibrating between us isn’t the realest thing you’ve ever felt.”

His stare broke skin, pierced bone, and then finally made a crash-landing in the deepest part of my soul.

“If I’m being honest,” he continued, “I’ve never felt anything like it.”

Like so many times before, he’d left me at a complete loss for words.

“You’re in my every thought,” Levi admitted before pausing to laugh. “Even thoughts that have nothing to do with you,revolvearound you. And I believe the craziest thing of all is, despite being locked inside this cell, under less-than-ideal circumstances, I’m having the hardest time wishing I was someplace else. All because you’re right here with me.”

His hands warmed as they cradled mine. I felt my gaze drifting from his eyes, down to his lips as they seemed to come closer. A fact I confirmed when my mouth was covered by the softness of his.

Yes, he was warm—burning up, actually—and there was no denying the hold he had on me. Or, maybe it was a hold we had on eachother.He took to parts of my personality that others often found off-putting. For one, he seemed to find my sassiness and defiance to be more of a turn on than an annoyance. And I could admit that his arrogance fed the part of me that secretly gravitated toward pompous dicks like him.

I didn’t know. We just … fit.

The points of emerging fangs dragged my bottom lip lightly and the feel of it enlivened every inch of me. Another taste of him, and I lost myself, lost all sense of time, all sense of where we were.

Heat pulsed through my hands when they burned a path up Levi’s forearms, over deliciously broad shoulders, to his neck. My fingers tingled at the feel of the low-trimmed hairs at the nape. I drew him closer, allowed his tongue deeper as my spine bowed, arching my body closer to his. When he finally pulled away, it was the most dizzying and frustrating sensation known to man.

“Deny it.” His breathless challenge reached my ears. “I dare you to tell me that wasn’t real.”

I loathed this authority he had over me. Not bending to his will was almost painful.

“Levi, it’s … I can’t discuss this right now,” I admitted, still unable to open my eyes while recovering from the out-of-body experience his kiss had induced. “You’re making my head foggy, and I need to … I need to think.Weneed to think.”

Leaning away, I scooted toward the back of the cot until my shoulder blades touched the padded wall.

Hoping to lessen the foreboding tension, I shifted the focus back to our original topic of conversation. Levi’s response to the not-so-subtle maneuver was a quickly flashed smile. One loaded with a sense of knowing this thing between us wasn’t anywherenearover, only temporarily interrupted due to our circumstances.

I was also certain he knew the things I said about none of this being real were, basically, a load of crap.

“Have you ever heard of him? Aaric I mean?”

Levi’s brow quirked. “Nope. Never.”

Dead end.

“Neither have I. Which means the only piece of his puzzle that we know for sure is that he’s the leader of this particular faction of Roamers. But we have no idea how deep their network runs, why we’ve been taken, or what they plan to do with us when all is said and done.” The look on Levi’s face made it obvious there were too many unknowns for his comfort. However, there was no room for hesitation.

“I have to do this,” I insisted, reclaiming a smidge more of the energy he’d stolen from me a moment ago. “Besides, it’s not like we have another option unless your powers have returned.”

I didn’t mean to let the small inkling of hope I held out show through, but the look of disappointment inhisexpression let me know he’d sensed the optimism in mine.

He shook his head. “No more than when we discussed it earlier.”

Needing to think, I closed my eyes. “They’ll be coming soon. Jax said these girls would be here to get me before sunset. We need some type of plan.”

Still kneeling beside the cot, Levi let out a sharp breath. “Even though the guard confirmed that they know whoIam, that doesn’t mean they know whoyouare.”

My eyes popped open as I frowned. “How is that possible? They would have seen the broadcast where you made the blood bond announcement, right?”

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