Redemption (The Protectors 8)

I wanted to believe it was an act, but I couldn’t deny his breakdown the night before.

When he’d been talking about his brother.

To have such an extreme reaction to even the mere mention of his older brother had been a telling sign, and I was starting to have my own suspicions about just how much influence Ricky Deming had had the night Seth and his family had been attacked. Before the drug possession charges that had landed Levi in prison just before he’d turned nineteen, he hadn’t been in any kind of trouble. His brother, on the other hand, had had numerous run-ins with the law. Mostly minor things like assault and vandalism.

Everything had changed when Ricky had been in his twenties and he’d been accused of rape on two separate occasions. One of the girls hadn’t even been eighteen years old. Initially, both girls had pointed the finger at Ricky, but when the prosecutor had been ready to press charges, they’d both recanted. And then Ricky’s girlfriend had been discovered strangled to death in her apartment.

It should have been a slam-dunk case, but Ricky’s father had offered an alibi, which had made the prosecutor nervous. So, he’d knocked the charges down so Ricky barely served any time at all. Both Levi and Ricky had been in prison for an overlapping time period, but not in the same prison and Levi had gotten out before Ricky. Luckily, there hadn’t been much time for Ricky to hurt anyone else because Ronan had ordered the man’s termination within a month of him being released.

I glanced over my shoulder at Levi who was in the process of pulling some frozen dinner rolls out of the freezer and putting them on several cookie sheets so they’d be ready to go when dinner was just about ready to be served. “Where do you want these?” I asked as I motioned to the vegetables I’d already chopped. Levi glanced at me and I didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered briefly on the butcher knife in my hand.

“Um, put them in here,” he murmured as he reached into a cabinet above the stove and pulled out a large bowl. His shirt rode up just a little bit and I barely managed to conceal my reaction at the sight of a jagged scar just above his hip bone that ran upwards until it disappeared beneath his shirt. Levi didn’t notice me studying him and I averted my eyes when he handed me the bowl.

“Smells good,” I said absently as I began putting the vegetables in the bowl. The base for the stew had been simmering for a while now. I moved to his side. “You mind if I try it?”

Levi seemed surprised by the request, but he nodded and handed me a clean wooden spoon. I tried the soup and nodded. “It’s good.”

He studied me for a moment. “But?”

“No buts,” I said, handing him the spoon.

“What?” he asked. “Is it missing something?”

“No,” I began.

“Please, tell me.”

“It’s really good, Levi,” I reassured him. At his look of worry, I patted his shoulder and then reached into the cabinet and found the spices I was looking for. “Do you trust me?” I asked as I opened the top of the container of allspice.

The look in Levi’s eyes was hard to acknowledge. I’d meant the question in terms of him trusting me not to ruin dinner, but he was clearly thinking about the question very differently.

He managed a nod.

“A dash of this,” I said as I added the allspice. I reached for the paprika. “And about half a teaspoon of this. It’ll give it just a little more kick.” I stirred the spices in and then got another clean wooden spoon and dipped it into the broth. I took a taste and then held the spoon to his lips so he could try the rest of it.

Levi didn’t move as his eyes held mine and just like that, the air around us changed and I realized why. My dick went from interested to hard as I stared at where Levi’s lips were hovering near the edge of the spoon. The same edge where my lips had been just a moment ago.

I held my breath as Levi finally leaned forward and closed his mouth over the spoon. His eyes lifted to meet mine as he swallowed. The sight of just a little moisture clinging to his lips was my undoing and I was dropping my mouth to his before I could even consider my actions.

The sound of the outer door slamming had Levi jumping back just before my mouth came into contact with his.

“I’m here!” I heard a woman’s voice call out.

Levi stared at me, wide-eyed with flushed cheeks. My own body was screaming at me to grab him, uncaring that we were no longer alone. I gripped the spoon in my hand as if the action could somehow keep me from reaching for him.