Page 39 of Between Never and Forever
Levi twists. Torren hits the sand. I feel the Earth quake. He yells something, vulgar and rude, then tries to stand.
“You’re a damn pathetic mess.”
I can hear the patronizing tone in Levi’s voice, the disgust, and my lips turn down. My eyebrows grow heavier. He’s stern again. Scowling and angry.
“What the fuck?”Jonah.
Jonah falls to the sand next to Torren, looks at Sean, then looks up at me. His jaw drops, and he whispers my name, then turns an angry face back to Sean and Torren. Angrier than I have ever seen Jonah.
I glance down at myself. My shirt is off one arm. My bra is askew, barely covering me. The button on my shorts is undone. The ocean breeze dances over bare skin—more than there was before—and my cheeks are cold. Wet. Like I’m crying.
Sean did this?
I look at Levi, but he’s staring daggers at Jonah, Torren, and Sean. He flings a finger at all of them.
“Get him out of here before I kill him,” he says, and I shiver. He’s not lying. I can feel it in his tone. “He’s fucked up. She saidno. Hehurther. He tried to—”
“I wasn’t hurtin’ her,” Sean defends, at the same time Torren shouts, “dude, calm down.”
I feel eyes on me, but I keep mine on Levi. My chest aches at the look on his face. Anguish. Fear. Rage. He whirls on Torren.
“Calm down? You’re trying to fucking protect this fuck when you should be protecting, Savannah,” Levi growls. “Do you see what he did to her?”
Torren looks at me.
“Savvy, I—”
“Don’t fucking talk to her. Don’t look at her. Go home. Go the fuck home and take that guy with you.”
I don’t hear anything else from Torren, Jonah, or Sean. I don’t look at them. I just watch as Levi stalks toward me and then stops in front of me, shielding my body from the guys. Carefully, with a touch that’s impossibly soft, he buttons my shorts back up, then rights my shirt and buttons it up to my neck. His skin never touches my skin. The colors remain swirling thickly between us.
“You okay?”
I look into his eyes and breathe a sigh of relief. Dark, dark brown. I nod.
“Yes. Thank you.”
His eyes search mine. His eyebrows still slanted and harsh. I reach up and smooth my thumb between them, erasing the lines there before tracing my fingers over both eyebrows, down his jaw, over the cute little dimple in his chin, and back to his lips.
Softly, he presses a kiss to my fingertips, then nods. He pulls my body under his arm, and I sink into his warmth once more.
“I’ll take you home.”
I follow him, through the sand and up the beach. He finds my boots and slips them on my feet. We step onto pavement. We walk on a sidewalk, then stop at a curb where a car waits, exhaust mixing with the briny, humid air. Levi opens the back door, maneuvers me inside, then climbs in next to me. I rest my head on his shoulder and keep my eyes shut for the drive. I focus on the way his hands feel on my arm, trailing sparks up and down. The weight of his cheek resting on my head.
When the car stops, he slides out, then helps me out to stand next to him. I look up at a familiar building and smile. My house. We walk to the door, and he turns the knob.
“Damn.”
My foggy brain knows it’s locked. My roommate is working tonight.
“The frog,” I say, and raise a heavy hand to point at the little ceramic frog holding a pin wheel to the right of the door. Levi looks where I’m pointing, then bends down and lifts the frog.
“Thank you,” he mumbles as he fits the key into the knob, then swings the door open slowly.
He shuffles me into the house, and I cling to his hand, leading him to my room.
“Will you be alright?”
