Page 5 of Assassin's Mark
When the kiss ended, I could only hang there, a broken reed in his hands, desperate for Levi to put me back together.
“Let’s go.”
My laugh trembled as much as I did. “I’m supposed to walk after that?”
Levi grinned. “Don’t worry. I can carry you if necessary.”
I eyed the broad stretch of his shoulders. “I bet you can.”
We’d just reached the end of the hall when I caughta glimpse of the front doors, situated to our left. One side opened, and in walked Charlie, my dad’s chauffeur. My ride was here.
I jerked Levi to a quick stop. “Maybe we could go out the back?”
His dark brows knotted up. “Your friends will wonder what happened to you, won’t they?”
My heart thumped in my throat as Charlie surveyed the crowd, frowning. He was just as capable as Levi of haulingme out of here, willing or not. He’d never had to do more than threaten before. “I’ll text them.”
Suspicion tinted his gray eyes. He scanned the bar, his hand tightening around mine. Whether he noticed Charlie or not, the tension in him rose, and he turned back to the hall, his arm coming around me. Without a word, without question, he protected me in a way my father never had. Stranger or not,he’d just given me something I’d never had before, and the fear of the unknown, of leaving this building with a man I’d met a mere hour ago, with the intent of making myself as vulnerable as a woman could get with him, disappeared.
I was going to defy my father, and I was going to have sex with the hottest, most intriguing man I’d ever met. And nothing was going to stop me.
Levi’s car waitedacross the street, low and black and gleaming in the streetlight’s faint glow. The barest glimpse of a limo parked in the no-parking zone in front of the bar entrance had me ducking my head, a low sigh of relief leaving me as I settled into the passenger seat of Levi’s vehicle. The door closed with a solidclick, and then he was rounding the back to take his place behind the wheel. The growl ofthe engine rumbled through me, beneath me, vibrating things already sensitive to sensation. I fought the urge to squirm in my seat, barely managing to stay still despite years of practice at controlling myself in public, never moving the wrong way or saying the wrong thing. I couldn’t control the need to reach out, though, and lay my hand on Levi’s thigh, absorbing his heat and strength throughthe denim, feeling the play of his heavy muscles beneath my touch. What would they feel like when he was pushing inside me?
My fingers clenched against him.
Levi shifted the car into the next gear, then settled his hand over mine, threaded his fingers between mine. I focused there as he navigated through the dark city streets, trusting him to take us where we needed to go. I’d never had a hook-upbefore. What did I know about places to have sex? But Levi knew; in too few minutes he pulled the car into a crowded hotel parking lot.
Levi parked. I couldn’t decide where to look—at those looming glass doors leading to the lobby, the man taking up so much space next to me that I could barely breathe, the dark street that offered anonymous escape. I deliberately turned away from that last option.I didn’t want escape, no matter how nervous I was. And yet…
“Hey.”
Levi cupped my chin, tilting my head until his gaze trapped mine. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” Hopefully the darkness hid the shakiness of my smile. “It’s just…umm…”
A glint of amusement lit his eyes. My cheeks heated. “Not used to the walk of shame?”
“Something like that.”
“Don’t worry.” He stroked my flushed skin, his gaze followingthe movement as if fascinated. “I’ll take care of you.”
The deep timbre of his voice shivered through me, his words wrapping me in silken threads as unbreakable as the thickest, strongest rope. “I know. I trust you.”
Did I? Maybe the words were automatic, what you were supposed to say when you were planning to sleep with the man you said them to. Tomorrow they wouldn’t matter, but I didn’t wantto think about tomorrow, so I reached for the door latch.
“Wait, let me.” He was out of the car and around to my side before I could draw a full breath.
Inside, the clerk barely glanced up while he assigned us a room, sparing me the embarrassment of having to meet his eyes. Levi guided me to the elevator with a hand at my back. His heat both steadied me and made something deep in my core clenchwith excitement. I stepped through the sliding doors and turned at the back of the elevator, but he stopped just inside, reached for the button to our floor, and pushed, all without taking his heavy-lidded gaze from my face.
How could a glance make me feel so vulnerable? I wanted to cross my arms over my chest and squeeze down, protect myself—from what, I didn’t know, because I also wanted tospread my arms wide and let Levi crawl inside me.
“Abby.”
Two syllables. So little, just my name, but that was all it took for my nipples to throb and a warm melting to suffuse my most feminine parts. And then he surged toward me, his big body pinning me to the back of the elevator, his mouth hard and demanding on mine.
Thedingof our arrival barely registered through the roaring in my ears.
I chased his lips as they left mine. Levi was all electric heat and searing pleasure, and I wanted more, as much as I could get. Everything he had to give. I wouldn’t deny myself anything, not tonight. I didn’t hesitate as he gripped my hand tight and dragged me from the elevator. I caught a desperate glance at the key card, the door numbers, and then we were at the end of the hall, last dooron the right. He fumbled the entry, a fact that told me he was just as anxious as I was. We’d started stripping each other before the door clicked shut.
