“Your choice of profession suits you,” she said with a smile.
He tipped his head, his expression curious. “Yeah? How so?”
“I’ve known you for about five weeks now, almost six, and there is just an air of authority about you, without being overbearing,” she said, thinking back on all the details she’d mentally collected on Levi during all his stops at Circle K and, more recently, when he’d been with his brothers. “You’re honorable and loyal. And you’re protective. You make me feel safe,” she admitted softly. Due more to who he was as a man than him being a cop. And that revelation scared her, because she’d trusted other men in the past only to realize that sense of security had all been an illusion.
Levi’s eyes darkened a shade as he studied her face, and even though he was sitting across the table, she shivered as though he’d intimately touched her. “Maybe I’m just protective of you.”
The warm, sensual murmur of his voice added to the awareness suddenly thrumming through her. “You were just doing your job the other night at the store.”
“Yes, I was,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t explain why I still feel protective of you. Why I want to physically remove you from that shitty job and make sure you’re safe.”
Oh, wow. The heat suddenly glimmering in his gaze made her shift in her chair, as did the tempting smile pulling at his mouth. Somehow, the atmosphere between them had changed, and her feminine senses were completely tuned in to his sex appeal.
She abruptly stood up and grabbed her empty dessert plate and fork. He started to join her, but this time she put her hand out to stop him, just as he’d done to her earlier. “You did the dinner dishes. The least I can do is the dessert plates.” And good God, she needed a few minutes to subdue her disorderly hormones.
She escaped to the kitchen and washed the plates and forks, then set them on the dish rack. Just as she finished and intended to turn around, Levi came up behind her, so quietly that she jumped when he splayed his palms on either side of the sink so she couldn’t escape, and oh-so-slowly pressed his body against the back of hers.
She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, unable to stop the rush of longing that worked its way through her system. She was deliciously trapped—in between his muscular arms and against the lean hips tucked against her ass—though she knew with even the slightest protest from her he’d back away. But he felt so damn good. So strong and warm and real. Resisting him was next to impossible, especially when he skimmed his lips across that bare, sensitive spot where her neck ended and her shoulder began.
Goose bumps rose all along her arms. “Levi, what are you doing?” she managed to utter, even as her head tipped to the left to give him more access to the side of her throat.
“I’m not done with dessert yet,” he murmured against her ear. “And you, sweet Sarah, taste better than chocolate.”
Chapter Five
Sarah shivered at Levi’s enticing words, especially when he followed up his husky comment by sliding his warm, damp tongue along her skin while pushing the strap of her dress and bra down her right arm, exposing more surface for him to taste. Another long, slow lick had her thighs clenching against the tingling sensation burgeoning between her
legs, and when he gently sank his teeth into the tendons along her shoulder, she moaned as her entire body jolted from the deliciously arousing edge of pain he delivered.
Her nipples tightened into hard peaks that strained against the thin material of her dress, as if he’d plucked them directly with his fingers. She raised her hand to reach back so she could run her fingers through his hair, but he caught her wrist in a firm grasp before she could reach her destination. Guiding her arm back down, he flattened her palm on the edge of the counter.
“Do not move them again. The only hands that get to touch are mine,” he said in a low, insistent growl near her ear. “Just relax and let me make you feel good.”
Relaxing was impossible, but because she wanted to experience whatever pleasure Levi had to give, she didn’t say a word, just let her body surrender to his seduction, which was incredibly easy for her to do—with him. She already knew he was a man who liked to be in charge, and she was quickly discovering that she was a woman who willingly—and shamelessly—responded to that dominant sexual edge she heard vibrating in his voice.
He slid his hand into her hair, and her heart rate accelerated as he slowly, gently twisted the strands around his fingers until he could control the movement of her head. He pulled it farther to the side and slightly back, completely exposing her entire neck, her throat, and the long line of her shoulder.
“Open your eyes, Sarah,” he ordered softly. “There’s something I want you to see.”
As if he had her under his spell, she obeyed and lifted her heavy lashes, staring straight ahead since she was unable to look anywhere else. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw both of their reflections in the kitchen window. With the darkness outside, it was like looking in a mirror, enabling her to see his devastatingly masculine face beside hers—his intense features and incandescent eyes that gleamed with heat and lust.
“I want you to see how beautiful you are like this,” he said, nipping at her lobe while his free hand glided along the curve of her waist. “All soft and willing and eager. You’re so fucking perfect.”
No, she wasn’t perfect at all. Far from it. But right now, in this moment, she was going to believe that she was everything Levi wanted. Everything he needed. This was her fantasy to take with her once she was gone.
“You ready to come undone for me?” he asked, his voice dark with promise.
She had no idea what he intended to do to her, but there was no stopping the rush of excitement coursing through her, and she didn’t hesitate with her answer. “Yes, please.”
He chuckled, the wicked sound ramping up her anticipation even more. “You don’t need to be so proper and polite with me, because there is nothing civilized about the things I want to do to you. Right now, it’s all about your pleasure, so enjoy it, sweetheart.”
His lips touched down on her neck again, slowly and gently at first, then with increasing pressure as he nuzzled his face along the side of her throat. She felt the light scrape of stubble on her flesh, a subtle burn that elicited another uninhibited moan from her. Unable to help herself, she closed her eyes to savor every thrilling sensation he evoked with his mouth—and good God, the man was incredibly adept at the kind of arousing neck kisses that made a woman a voluntary slave to his desires.
She was pliant and yielding to anything he wanted to do to her. Even when he released her hair and wrapped his hand around her throat and his fingers tightened slightly against her vocal chords—something that with any other guy would have flipped a warning switch—she allowed him to tip her head back even farther, until it was resting on his opposite shoulder. That’s how much she trusted him.
Her back arched and her hips pushed provocatively against his. Through the thin material of her dress, she could feel the outline of his thick, rock-hard erection encased in denim as it pressed along the crease of her ass. With his body crowding hers against the counter, combined with the unrelenting way he held her, she was captured and restrained in the most thrilling, tantalizing way possible.
His lips moved along the curve of her neck, parted and damp, sucking and kissing, his own ragged breath on her flesh so hot she couldn’t think straight. As if that weren’t enough, he added the scraping and nibbling of his teeth, stimulating every single one of her erogenous zones and making her clit pulse with need.