Page 66 of Whips and Chains
Her surprise quickly turned into annoyance. “Levi? What are you doing?”
I shushed her, which only made her eyes, still filled with unshed tears, blaze with anger. But I’d expected to piss her off. “Shh. Everyone is sleeping.”
Well, almost everyone, but that detail wasn’t important right now.
“What are you doing in here? Get out!” It was a whisper, but it was an angry one.
I closed the door behind me. “No.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “What do you mean, no? You can get out or I can scream for my brother.”
“You aren’t going to do that.” I folded my arms across my chest and stared down at her. “I know you won’t because you care more about other people than you care about yourself. You know they’ve probably been up half the night with the baby. And your screams are going to wake them all and that would be the last thing you want to do.”
Her anger and irritation with me were practically palpable, even in the soft lamplight. But I didn’t care. There was blood all matted in her hair, courtesy of the cuts she’d suffered from flying glass. They didn’t seem to still be bleeding, but just the sight of her injuries had my fingers clenching into fists.
“You don’t know anything about me, Levi.” She shook her head sadly, gazing down at her hands twisting in the quilt.
“Bullshit.”
She glanced up at the harshness of my tone.
But I was so done with this fucking back-and-forth between us. I’d screwed up and I knew it. But I was over her pretending there wasn’t a connection between us. Something that went so much deeper than anything I’d ever experienced before, and one I wasn’t willing to give up.
I stalked toward her, but then kept going into the en suite connected to her room. I went straight to the bath and turned it on, running my fingers beneath the water, checking the temperature was warm enough.
Water flowed from the faucet, and while it was filling the freestanding, claw-foot tub, I hunted around what was clearlya guest bathroom, searching for something that smelled nice to put in the water.
“What are you doing?” Violet asked from the doorway.
“Running you a bath.”
Her lips pursed together. “I can see that. But what I actually meant was, why are you running me a bath?”
The caveman inside me roared it was because I wanted X off her body. I’d watched him fuck her, her fuck him, her take him deep inside while he filled her.
And though it had gotten me hot, there was a base desire inside me that demanded I erase all traces of him and fill her with my own.
But the bigger part of me was more evolved than that.
“I’m taking care of you, because you’re so determined to not take care of yourself.”
She glared at me. “I’m perfectly capable of running myself a bath, Levi.”
I spun around and moved in close, crowding her against the wall. “It’s not about the fucking bath and you know it.”
Her breath hitched.
But I just kept going, pressing right up on her because I couldn’t fucking stop myself. I wanted to be all up in her space, so every breath she breathed was of my scent. I wanted that smell of her body permanently imprinted in my brain. I wanted to feel every rise and fall of her chest, her soft tits against me. “It’s about the fact you could have gotten killed tonight because you were so hell-bent on avenging Toby’s death that you didn’t even stop to consider you could be walking straight toward your own.”
Her bottom lip trembled, but her eyes remained hard. “I’m in danger all the time anyway. What the hell does it matter?”
I could see the fear behind the fury. Feel her terror behind the brave face she was putting on. I could practically hear the screams she was keeping inside.
“Oh, Vi.”
She crumpled, her shoulders slumping forward, her head falling against my chest.
I had my arms around her in a heartbeat, her tears soaking my shirt while she sobbed in my arms.
