Page 21 of Aching for His Discretion

Beverly nodded as she stood up as well and grabbed her things before we walked to the door. “He seems nice…to you.”

“He is… I’ll text you later.” I waved, and Beverly waved back silently, her eyes lingering on Levi leaning back against his car for a moment before she walked away.

Levi opened the door for me. “What do you want to eat, Tesoro?”

I shrugged, putting on my seatbelt as he stood at the door. “Anything is fine.”

He leaned down for a moment and tilted his head.

“What do you want to eat?” he said much more sincerely, and I bit my lip as he was only a few inches away.

“Pizza, please…” I whispered, and he nodded, closing the door and going to his side of the car.

After we’d finished eating at my apartment, I put Grayson down for bed in my room as he’d fallen asleep on the couch. I walked back over to the living room and noticed Levi leaning over on the couch as he spoke into the phone. His shoulders were tense, and he seemed very angry.Maybe this wasn’t a good time to ask him to help me study my flashcards.

Walking over to him slowly, I kneeled on the ground, to which he simply gazed over at me and took a deep breath before ending the call.

“Why is it that you like to be on the ground so much, Tesoro?Is it because you’re trying to be a little tease?” he asked, annoyingly switching to Italian to keep me out of the loop. I simply shrugged my shoulders, scooting closer to him as I sat on my legs.

“I wanted to ask if you could help me study.”

He sighed, looking at his watch. “It’s getting late, baby. I need to get going, and you have to be up early tomorrow.”

“But it’ll only take a few minutes,” I said, as I didn’t want him to leave yet.

He looked down at me for a moment before speaking.

“If I stay, what’s in it for me, Tesoro?”

I shrugged once again. “Whatever you want.”I just didn’t want him to leave so soon.

“Hmmm... well, I think we should make your studying into a reward system,” he began, and I listened intently. “For every correct answer… you get a kiss, and for every wrong one, you get some taken away. Before I leave, you get to tell me how many kisses you want now and how many you want to save for later, hmm?”

I loved it.But he couldn’t know that. Then he’d know how much power he truly had over me and how much I wanted him to stay.

“Who says I want that as a reward? What if I want something different?”

He leaned in closer as I bit my lip, and I jumped as he placed his hand on my chin and pulled my lip from my teeth. He smoothed it over softly with his thumb, gazing into my eyes.

“I say… that this is precisely what you want, Tesoro. Otherwise your eyes wouldn’t be begging me to stay just a little longer, your face wouldn’t be as flushed, and your lips wouldn’t be craving to have just anothertasteof mine.”

I huffed, and a small smile came to his face, causing me to melt internally.

“Fine, you win. I don’t want you to go, and maybe I do want a kiss or two,” I said, mumbling the last part, and he chuckled as he grabbed the flashcards.

“The glucocorticoid of choice for antenatal therapy is?”

Thinking about it for a moment, I answered, “Betamethasone.”

“Good girl… that’s one kiss,” he muttered, and I smiled as he read the next few questions.

Soon, I’d gotten six in a row, to which he seemed very impressed until…

“Trisomy... eighteen. No. It’s thirteen,” I replied, and Levi tilted his head.

“Final answer?” he asked, and I thought for a moment again before shaking my head.

“I change my mind. It’s eighteen.” He nodded, and I got excited before he turned the card, only for it to readTrisomy 13for Patau syndrome.

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