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S he couldn’t imagine a more perfect day.

The man sitting across from her at the table was just about perfect in her opinion, and it had only taken a few hours for her to fall.

Levi had gone to the restroom and changed into blue jeans, black work boots, and a dark blue t-shirt from a go-bag tucked inside the SUV.

He looked yummy. The way the t-shirt molded to his corded arms left her breathless.

She wanted to ask him about the woman outside of the event that night, but she was reluctant to go there. Asking would certainly put a damper on today, and she wanted to enjoy every single moment she could with him.

“Why don’t we go here?”

Levi spoke and she found him holding out his phone. She took it, and a picture of a local farmers market was on the display screen.

“Really?” She sounded surprised, but she couldn’t help it. He didn’t strike her as the type to go to an outdoor market. But then she didn’t know him very well.

“Yes, really.” Humor laced his blue eyes when he smiled.

It was more of a smirk or half smile because Levi didn’t smile all that much. She had heard him chuckle today at the beach, so she figured that was a win.

“Unless you don’t want to?” He frowned.

“Yes, I want to.” She grinned, handed him back his phone, and took a bite of her pancake.

On the drive to the farmers market, Levi’s phone rang.

The man pressed the earpiece in his ear that Sara had noticed earlier.

“Huxley,” Levi said.

He stared out the windshield at the road and his hands suddenly clenched around the steering wheel. She thought for a moment it was Rebecca calling. It wasn’t like they were exclusive, but she thought she heard a man’s voice coming from the earpiece. It could be her imagination, though. It could be her wishful thinking.

She turned away and gazed out the window.

“Got it,” Levi said after several more moments.

When he reached for and caught her hand to link their fingers, Sara turned back from the passing view.

Lines bracketed his mouth, and a frown line etched between his eyes. He looked stressed and a bit irritated.

“All good?”

Levi squeezed her fingers and answered gruffly. “Yeah.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but she let it go.

He was hers…at least for today.

The market was packed. The place had a band playing on a small stage. Several groups had taken over picnic tables. Tables and vendors lined the area and were crowded with people.

Levi had seemed to have shaken off whatever the phone call had been about.

“Want to go somewhere else?” she asked, gazing up at him.

“No, why?” He looked puzzled.

She shrugged. “I just figured since it’s crowded…” Her voice trailed off.

“Struggle with patience much?” he teased and she giggled.

“You wish,” she argued, and he pulled her back against him, closing his strong arms around her shoulders and hugging her tightly.

The day turned out perfect, and the fact that he climbed up to her balcony later that night was icing on the cake.

Sometime just before dawn, Levi rolled from Sara’s bed.

Quietly, he dressed in his briefs, discarded jeans, and t-shirt.

He moved back to the bed and found Sara watching him.

Her eyes filled her face as she sat up with the bedsheet and bedding clutched to her breasts.

He lifted her phone, pointed it at her face, and when it opened, he put his phone against hers and transferred their contact information.

Handing her the phone, she clutched it against her breasts.

Levi tucked his own phone away, sat in the chair across the room, and put on his boots.

If he thought too much about the bruises on her thighs, he wouldn’t be able to leave her, and he really needed to go. Not to mention, Nash had called in the middle of their day together. He had things he needed to settle with Nash.

“You’re leaving? Stay for breakfast,” she squeaked and then cleared her throat.

He looked skeptical, frowned, and then shook his head.

“Your roommate has two kids, I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate me sneaking in here two nights in a row.”

“She won’t mind.”

He stood and came back to the bed, keeping a tight rein on his desire to climb back in the bed with her.

“Are you going back to Seattle?” Sara asked, chewing her bottom lip.

The question made him smile, and he tipped her chin up and dropped a kiss on her swollen lips. He palmed her cheek for a moment before stepping away.

“Not yet. Lock the slider when I leave,” he ordered softly and stepped out onto the balcony.

Leaping over the edge, he landed below and gazed upward.

She wasn’t there looking down at him, and the balcony door slammed a bit sharply.

He frowned.

He didn’t have time to go back up there and find out why she was mad at him.

He had to get to his hotel, shower, and change before meeting Nash.

Nash had a game plan up his sleeve about Sara and the Velvet Lounge, but Levi was going to make damned sure that she wasn’t involved in any of it.

Aries and the DEA could damned well catch Kevin Wilson, Chester Miller, and their boss Edward—whatever the hell his name was—without involving Sara.

But before taking down the Velvet Lounge’s owner, Levi would use every resource in his power to find the men who had attacked Sara.

Sara slammed the patio door and then grimaced. It was too early and she hoped she hadn’t woken Mandy and the kids.

She was pissed.

Never before had she been treated like a piece of ass by a man she was starting to like. Scratch that, she did like him. She wanted to be with him, and lately, he was all she could think about.

But when Levi left without saying he’d be back or anything, she was burning mad.

To hell with him!

Their lovely day apparently meant squat.

She went to the shower and scrubbed off every scent of the man and then some. She washed her hair twice for good measure, and when she got finished, she felt like a new woman.

Levi’s scent was gone.

And it only made her sad.

She sighed at her reflection in the mirror. The scent of Levi might be gone, but his touch still lingered.

First order of business was to get a new pregnancy test.

It was stupid, really, to take the test now when she’d once again had unprotected sex with him. She’d thought about using protection last night, but then Levi would have asked about their first night—and if she wasn’t pregnant, then she didn’t want to start that conversation.

If she was…she honestly wasn’t sure what to do. But she needed to know.

Her period was late.