Using me and what I did to try to alleviate what he did. Of course. The bastard was still playing the game, even now. It shouldn’t surprise me, but it did.
“Just because we regret them doesn’t mean our mistakes go away,” I muttered. I was slow to reach for my phone, even though two of his fingers still lingered on it, holding it down. Life wasn’t magical; you couldn’t say sorry and have everything miraculously be better. It didn’t work that way.
“I never said they did.”
“Then what do you want, Levi?”
Levi didn’t miss a beat, didn’t hesitate when he said, “I want to hear you call me Blue again.”
Blue? The stupid nickname I’d given him because I hated his real name? That’s what he wanted? I started to smile in spite of myself, though I knew I shouldn’t. I just couldn’t help it. Who knew everything could be solved with a nickname?
“You,” he whispered, the word the softest-spoken syllable ever. The addition to his previous statement made the breath catch in the back of my throat, my heart speed up, and my cheeks flush. “I want you.”
“But—” I stopped myself from saying it, from finding all of the excuses I had to tell this man no. Levi Harlen was no boy; he was the man who had my heart, and he still held it in his hands, as much as I hated to admit.
Levi spoke, “I know there’s a thousand reasons we shouldn’t be together, but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything. From the moment you walked away, the only thing I could think about was you. How to get you back, how to make you stay, how to make you believe that I would never hurt you.”
Heartfelt. His words were heartfelt, and I…I felt so stupid, but I believed every single one of them.
“I don’t want anyone else touching you,” Levi stated, as if he was the master to my self, my whole being. As if he had every right to tell me who could or couldn’t touch me. “You’re mine, Kelsey, even if you don’t see it yet. Even if you don’t want to be.”
He should be angry, shouldn’t he? He should be telling me off or swearing at me or…something. This, this felt different than I expected it to. This felt so real it was unreal.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, and I’m not saying it’s not going to be hard, but…I need you. I need us to try,” Levi said, his fingers finally releasing my phone, allowing me to pull it towards me, cradling it to my chest like a long-lost child.
If I agreed to what Levi said, if I told him yes, I knew things would escalate in a matter of seconds. He and I would find the first empty room, maybe that unisex bathroom I knew was around the corner near the apparel shop, and get to know each other’s bodies again. Hot skin and greedy fingers, we’d never get enough.
It was one reason why I couldn’t say yes. Why I couldn’t agree to what he said.
“What about Mel?” I asked. “What about Dean?” Just the thought of being with Levi again made me excited and giddy, but hesitant because of Mel. I’d kept him from her once; I couldn’t do it again.
And, of course, this was provided that he and I could get past each other’s baggage and mistakes, of which there were many. Neither of us were innocent, but I supposed that was the point. We were both wild, both stubborn, both unwilling to admit that we were wrong. This must’ve been difficult for him; it certainly was for me.
Who knew that when two unstoppable forces met each other, they both just…stopped?
“I’m sorry,” I said, jerking to my feet. My head was spinning. I needed air. I needed to breathe away from him, to cool myself down. “I need to go. I have stuff I need to do. Homework stuff.” Homework stuff. Oh, yeah. I was a regular silver-tongued Don Juan, wasn’t I?
After sliding my phone in my pocket, I quickly tossed on Mel’s raincoat, but not before Levi got to his feet, towering like the tall, sexy, dangerously attractive man he was.
“Wait,” he said, starting to walk after me when I hurried away.
I didn’t want to say anything else, didn’t want to hear anything else. Why couldn’t he understand that? I couldn’t deal with this right now.
A strong hand grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. Levi’s hand did not loosen on my arm, even as I turned to look at him, so I knew better than to pull away. “Stop running from me,” Levi practically growled out, the sound not unwelcome to my ears.
Not going to lie. I found him immensely attractive when he was being all alpha on me. That night when he tore Grady off me and pinned me against the car? Nothing hotter.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” I told him.
Levi was slow in letting go of my arm, his lips turning into a frown. Never before had I seen a more handsome frown. This man could make anything look sexy. “Please, Kelsey.”
My heart skipped a beat. Levi didn’t seem like the type of man who ever pleaded for anything, let alone a girl. “I need time. I need to think.” It was more than obvious that I couldn’t think straight while around his impressive presence.
Plus, my eyes kept wandering to places they shouldn’t.
Those jeans hugged him really well.
Now it was my turn to beg: “Please, just give me some time. I’m
