Page 56 of Assassin's Mark
I didn’t hear Levi return, but I felt him. Funny how that worked. It was as if he charged the molecules in the air around him,sending off a signal the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck picked up the minute he walked into a room. My skin became sensitive in an instant, my belly clenched, and that most secret part of me heated. Rivulets of water streamed over my budding nipples, teasing them, mimicking the trace of Levi’s tongue.
My reaction was insane—I’d almost been killed, seen someone die for the first time,and here I was, what? Lusting after a killer?
That’s exactly what I was doing. And for once, I refused to feel guilty about it.
I cleared my throat as quietly as I could. “Coming in?”
The question hung for a moment in the air; then came the rustle of clothing, thethunkof boots—one, two—hitting the floor. I kept my back turned when Levi climbed in behind me, but couldn’t resist a peek overmy shoulder.
He looked grim. My heart tripped.
“Are your brothers okay?” Please don’t let them have been hit too.
Levi’s hands landed on my tense shoulders, giving them a squeeze, then shifted down my back to my hips, meandering, almost as if his fingers couldn’t resist the feel of my skin. A cool chill followed his sigh as the air hit my spine. “They’re fine. Safe.”
A little of my tensionleft me. Levi stepped close to my back, his palms sliding around my hips to settle low on my belly, and a new kind of tension took over. “And Leah?” I’d forgotten to ask about her in the chaos of the past few hours.
“She should be back with her daughter by now.”
I covered his hands with mine and pressed them into me. “You’re a good man, Levi.”
The statement startled us both, but as it settledbetween us, I realized I truly believed it. Had we met under the best circumstances? No. Had Levi’s actions been justified? Oddly enough, I couldn’t answer an unequivocal no to that one. If my sibling had been targeted, revenge might’ve looked like a good option to me too.
What he’d done had hurt, but if it had led me here, to this moment, to this feeling, would I have chosen another path?
No.
“Don’t make that mistake, Abby.”
I swallowed hard. “What mistake?”
“Thinking I’m good.”
A chuckle hiccuped in my throat. “Levi…” How could I explain this to him when I was only beginning to understand it myself? I thought hard for a moment. “My first boyfriend tried to take me to bed. I was sixteen, but I knew something wasn’t quite right about him. When I refused, he took great pleasure intelling me how my father had paid him to date me, how the money wasn’t enough to put up with a cock tease. Ever since—” My laugh came out this time, but strained. There was nothing I could do about that. “If I’d been someone else, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but I’m not, and I couldn’t trust anyone to be genuine. They were all connected to Derrick in some way, you know?”
I threadedmy fingers through his against my belly, mimicking the connection I sensed between us every time he came near me.
“So am I.”
“You are, aren’t you?” I pressed our hands into my stomach until it felt like the imprint would be there forever. “But you’re not like them. Like him.”
Levi brushed his body against my back, the move at once sensual and threatening. His breath whispered in my ear. “I’mjust like Derrick. Just because I took your virginity doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you to get to him.”
Why would I expect anything else?Because of this,I wanted to say, clenching his fingers between mine.The connection of our bodies, deeper than anything I’ve ever felt before.But the feeling was the problem, wasn’t it?
“No, of course not.” I untangled my hands and reached for the soap. “I don’texpect you to feel anything, Levi. That’s who you are, Mr. Ice. We wouldn’t want emotions to bother you in your complicated killer world, right?”
