Page 32 of Reaper and Ruin
The door opened.
I snapped my head up, a sudden realization that I was alone and if Lynx followed me in here, I’d be trapped.
But it was Levi’s green eyes that met mine.
Relief flooded me as he locked the door and stood behind me, wrapping his arms around me.
I couldn’t stop my brain shouting of dangers lurking just outside the door. “What if—”
His hand lifted from where it was tight against my chest and shoulders to press a finger against my lips. “I know. I know all the what-ifs. They’re running on a screaming loop inside my head too.”
But my heart rate wouldn’t slow. My breaths wouldn’t calm. I forced his fingers away. “All this shit happened after you got out of jail. If Lynx got out not long after…It feels like all the pieces are there, but I just can’t work out how they fit together. Dickson was there that night. He was in prison with you too.” I shook my head. “I don’t understand. I thought this was all about me, but what if it’s not? What if it’s Toby? What if it’s you?”
“What if it’s all of us?”
“I can’t keep doing this,” I said miserably. “The stress is too much. The constant not knowing. The constant edge of fear that never goes away. All I wanted for tonight was to go on a date like a normal couple and not worry about any of this shit, but it follows us everywhere. When is it going to stop?”
My chest heaved, trying to suck in breaths that it couldn’t seem to hold.
I knew what a panic attack felt like, and this one had me in its grips.
“Breathe, Vi. Nobody is going to hurt you. Not in here.”
My brain latched on to that. The safety in his words. The promise in his voice that I believed without question.
I couldn’t go back out there like this. Palms sweating, eyes wild.
Levi kissed my neck.
I nudged him with my elbow. “Stop it.”
“You wanted a proper date, right? That was all you wanted tonight. To just be normal?”
A tiny smile tugged at my lips. “Yes.”
He kissed my neck again. “Fucking you in the bathroom mid-date is normal, right?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think so.”
His tongue slid up my neck until his lips brushed my ears. “I disagree. I think you wore that dress tonight, knowing I was going to find it irresistible to take off you.”
“I wore it because it makes me feel pretty.”
“Let me make you feel pretty with it rucked up around your waist.”
He’d asked for permission, but he hadn’t waited for me to give it. He’d lifted my dress with one quick bunch of his fingers in the fabric. His hands roamed the globes of my ass in the panties I’d picked out, knowing he’d see me in them. They were sexy, half my ass cheeks showing.
He hummed his approval, palms skating over my skin, tugging the panties into the crease of my ass to expose more of each cheek.
The tight pull of the fabric had the added bonus of putting pressure on my clit and asshole, the silky fabric wrapping tight around his fingers.
“We shouldn’t,” I whispered, only because I knew it was the words I was expected to say.
But no part of me wanted to go back out into that dining room. No part of me wanted to see Lynx’s face while I tried to choke down a meal, the entire time wondering if everything we’d gone through was because of him.
I just wanted to stay here with Levi. Here, where all I had to think about was his hands on my body and how that made me feel. I gripped the sink tighter.
His hand switched from caressing my behind to dragging across my hip to my front, and sliding down beneath my dress and panties to cup my mound. His other hand found the untucked hem of my top and groped beneath it, taking a handful of my breast, tweaking my nipple through the soft fabric of my bra.
