Page 59 of Second to None

“I drew you a lizard,” Emily said.

I blinked and turned to look at her. Already in her pajamas, hair damp from a bath, her eyes were drooping with tiredness. She was smiling, though, sleepy pride in how she shoved a sheet of paper at me.

“Didyou?” I asked, glancing at Levi who was hovering behind her. He must have fulfilled his bedtime reading obligations to her satisfaction.

“Look,” she said.

I crouched down to do so. Hmm. The drawing was… well. Abstract, so to speak. A brownish-green sausage with eyes and some stick legs. But it had a certain charm, and I was stupidly touched by how she’d tried to capture the tiny reptile we’d seen in the gorge. “That’s awesome,” I told her. “You got the tail just right.”

“You can keep it.” She said it like parting with the paper meant a great sacrifice, so when I thanked her, I made sure my tone reflected the gravity of her offer.

“I’ll find a nice spot at home for it.” I wasn’t even kidding, and maybe Levi could tell because he ducked his head, but not before I caught the smile washing across his face.

Emily nodded like this was the least I could do, and then she gave me a quick hug that took me by surprise, her arms looping awkwardly around my shoulders. I patted her back before she went off, pad-padding across the tiles back to Levi.

“Time for bed, little miss,” he said, voice thick with affection.

I waved and watched them disappear inside, and then it was just me again, propped back against the heavy stone table as I ran my thumb along the edge of Emily’s drawing before I carefully set it aside. Voices drifted out of the house—Emily’s high lilt, Levi’s lower murmur, Cecily and Geoff saying goodnight. It wasn’t that late, but Geoff liked to rise early, had just returned from a bakery run when I’d emerged from my room this morning.

This morning. Levi slipping into my bed, telling me it was just a bit of fun.‘Nothing heavy.’Well, yeah—too late for me. But I pretty much pretended for a living, so what was one more lie?

He returned some minutes later, bare feet quiet on the still-warm stone floor, pausing just out of reach to stare at me. Something about the set of his shoulders resonated oddly in my chest, and I tried to mask the quiet tug of anticipation with a smile. “She asleep, then?”

He took half a step closer. “Yeah.”

“Your parents?”

“Just turning in for the night.”

I inhaled and raised my chin by the slightest bit. “So. Just us, is it?”

“Just us.” His voice carried a strange note, but before I could wonder what it meant, he pushed right into my space, crowding me up against the table. Dim pool lights played across his face.

“Lee.” I exhaled and parted my thighs, his fingers grabbing at my ass. “Should we maybe?—?”

He flicked a look at the open doorway. With a sharp nod, he peeled himself away—but only to pull me over into the shadows, where a pizza oven sat under an arched roof. Darkness and a distant glitter of coastal lights.

Then he turned me around, pressed me up against the balustrade framing the space. The stone edge dug into my stomach as he shoved up against my back, and God, this wasnothinglike this morning. No kisses and slow touches, half-swallowed moans—this was his body hard against mine, his hand down the front of my shorts, bringing me off in rough, urgent pulls while he rutted against my ass. I dropped my head, caught between wanting to shove forward into his hand and arching backward against his weight. His teeth skimmed along the back of my neck.Jesus.

“Levi,” I managed, and he slapped a hand over my mouth so I’d be quiet. It felt like when we’d snuck around backstage, urgent and risky, his fingers in my mouth to muffle my sounds, his face pressed into my neck to stifle his own.

I gripped the balustrade, dragging harsh breaths through my nose, his hand rough and sure on me. He rocked against my ass, clothes whispering with each push. Arousal wound tight in my gut. Each jerk of his wrist sent sparks up my spine, and it was too fast, too good, too fuckingmuch. I couldn’t—wasn’t gonna—love you, love you.I shaped the words against his palm and knew he wouldn’t hear them. Knew he didn’t want them.

My legs were shaking. I came with a choked groan.

He kept moving, hot little twitches of his hips against me. I pushed into it, a little sluggish now, spread my thighs a bit more so I could reach back and press my hand against the underside of his cock. I felt him shudder. A strangled hiss close to my ear, then he went still, pressed up behind me.

I exhaled and leaned back into him, his hand dropping from my mouth. We were a mess. Mostly dressed, yeah, but my shorts were damp and tacky, my T-shirt rucked up to my ribs, both of us breathing harshly in the still night air. He removed his hand from my shorts and wiped it, not too delicately, on the fabric.

I wrinkled my nose. “Seriously?”

He gave a faint snort. “Sorry,” he said, not at all sounding like he meant it.

“No, you’re not.” I breathed out and chuckled, soft and low so as not to disturb the quiet space. “Okay, so what brought this on? Not that I’m complaining.”

“Been wanting you all day. Bit pent-up, that’s all.” He stepped back, and I turned to watch him tug at the bottom of his shirt, fanning it a bit, before he grimaced down at himself. Yeah, he’d come in his pants too—like we were teenagers all over again, unable to keep our hands off each other. I wasn’t sure why it felt like a revelation.

He wanted me. And maybe it was mostly physical, but it was astart.

---