Page 79 of Havoc

“Thank you for telling me.”

“What do you think about all of it?” She bites her lip, watching me, waiting for a reaction.

“That I’m going to make Titan pay for every single thing you just said.”

“You don’t hate me? Or—” She drops her gaze. “You aren’t regretting what we’ve done now that you know the extent of it?”

“Fuck no. I don’t regret anything other than leaving you, Aimee.” I tip her chin up.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

“I should have known you wouldn’t disappear like that. I’m sorry. But you need to know that what happened doesn’t change a damn thing when it comes to how I seeyou, Aimee Landry. And it sure as fuck doesn’t change my feelings for you.”

“Oh yeah?” She slips her arms around my neck, a glimmer of confidence sparking. “How do you feel about me, Levi?”

“I fucking love you, that’s how. Always have.”

Her brows furrow. A hint of sadness. Hope. All swirled with a hundred things I can’t decipher in the dark.

“You do?”

“With my whole twisted heart.”

She doesn’t say it back, and that’s fine for now. Her lips meet mine, and she pulls me closer instead of pushing me away.

It’s enough.

She’s enough.

26

Aimee

Love.

One word shouldn’t be so complex. So hard to scrape from my tongue when my heart has sung those letters for this man almost my entire life.

But I can’t say it.

Not after everything else I admitted tonight. This final wall is all I have left. The only barrier that will protect me when the time comes for me to walk away from him. So I let my body show him how I feel instead. I shed my secrets with this kiss. With a slip of my tongue in his mouth. With my acceptance of his hands on my skin.

Trust.

I trust him with this body that’s been held without care.

Touched without permission.

Cut into and ripped apart.

A body I’d completely disconnected from until Levi made me feel safe enough to settle back into it.

His kiss deepens, and I twist in his lap until I’m straddling him. Knees pressed into the cushions on either side of his hips. He wraps me in his arms, and I let him be the shimmer of peace I forgot could exist.

I ride the wave of bliss. Tipping my neck back so he can kiss from my jaw to my throat.

Levi groans as I roll my hips in his lap, and when our gazes connect, for a heartbeat, I feel my worth.

I’m something to someone, when I so often struggle to even be something to myself.