Reaper (Dark in You 8)

He shrugged. “That elephant’s not exactly gonna leave the room, is it?” He lifted his bottle and took a long swig.

Her lower stomach clenched when he swiped his tongue over his wet lips. Ugh, did she really have to be so attracted to him? Wasn’t the situation complicated enough? She thought so.

Piper would have felt a little better about it if she’d thought the attraction was mutual.

“She’s not my type.”

Piper almost flinched at the memory. Which was stupid. It wasn’t like she’d been in love with him back then, or that she’d thought she had a chance with him anyway. And yet, the offhand, dismissive way he’d spoken those words—as if Piper didn’t even register on his radar—had seriously stung.

She wasn’t going to hold it against him, though. It wasn’t like she could blame him for her not being his type—that was out of his control. And she wouldn’t expect someone to be attracted to her just because she was drawn to them. That would be plain narcissistic, and there were bigger things in the world to concern herself with.

Like how her mother and stepfather might not take the identity of her anchor well, for instance.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his gaze steady on hers.

“I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how my family will react to us being anchors.”

“If you want them to hear it from you, it would be best for you to tell them soon. People are going to see me coming and going from here. It’ll get back to your family. They might not conclude that we’re anchors, they might instead assume we’re … involved. You’d then have to explain the situation, and they’d be disappointed that you weren’t upfront about this. You might as well get it over and done with.”

“It’s easy for you to say that. You won’t have to deal with the aftermath.”

Surprised she’d say that, Levi leaned forward and rested his forearms on the island, liking how her pupils dilated. “Now that’s where you’re wrong. For one thing, I’ll always be here for you when you need someone. For another, I have every intention of being present when you tell your family.”

Her brows drew together. “You want to be there?”

“Of course.”

“It could get ugly. Like really ugly. Why put yourself through it?”

Levi’s chest squeezed. He didn’t like that Piper expected so little from people, from him. “I get that you’re not used to having someone at your back, but that changed for you the moment I realized you’re my anchor. No matter who or what shit you’re dealing with in the future, you won’t be dealing with it alone. I’ll be in front of you, next to you, behind you—whatever you need. And I will always be on your side. I will always back you in whatever you want or need to do.” That got to her, he sensed. That touched her where it counted.

She swallowed, eyeing him closely. “And you’re truly okay with us taking the time to get to know each other before we form the bond?”

“I’m not thrilled about it, and I can’t promise I won’t pester you to give in—that would be a vow I’d break for sure. But if it’s important to you to wait, I’ll deal.” For now. “It’s not as if my claim to you doesn’t count as things stand. You and I are tied by fate with or without the bond. Demons come in pairs. You know, part of me feels sorry for you.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to drive you nuts. I will want your trust. I will want you to turn to me. I will want you to rely on me. But you already know that, don’t you? It makes you uncomfortable, because you’re not used to depending on people.”

“Well give the reaper a cookie.”

His mouth twitched. Being around her … he liked it. Liked just looking at her. Liked knowing that this woman belonged to him. It satisfied him on a visceral level. Even steadied him.

Mentally, he’d been in a bad place all day. Examining Diem’s death scene, feeling what she felt, experiencing what her killer felt, having to accept that the killer could well be the same person who murdered his aunt … All in all, it had been a mind fuck.

Not wanting to come to Piper in a black mood, he’d tried shoving it all aside, but it had repeatedly crept into his thoughts. As he now sat opposite his anchor, though, the shit fest had no hold on him. Her hold was simply that much stronger.

Recalling Larkin encouraging him to be open with Piper, he thought about raising the subject of his aunt; thought about running some theories by her. But that would be lumbering a lot of heavy shit on her, and they didn’t know each other well enough for her to feel comfortable with that.