Page 22

L ater that same night, Sara searched through her purse for her room card and finally found it tucked into an inside pocket.

Ana and Carla were parking the rental car and would meet her in the lobby.

Clutching the card in her hand, Sara came to an abrupt stop when she spotted a tall, familiar figure.

Levi Huxley leaned against the outside wall of the hotel. He looked sexy as hell wearing blue jeans and a thick black leather jacket. The man had one knee bent with a black work boot planted on the building’s surface.

“What are you doing here?” Sara hissed, squeezing her purse strap and the card.

Her feet were killing her and the last thing she wanted was to stand out there and have a heart-to-heart with Levi, much less take him inside the hotel.

She was pretty sure the bulge in the man’s jacket was a holster with a gun. Was that the weapon he’d used to kill Chris? Had he used his bare hands? Her gaze lifted from the bulge, she’d seen the gun in question first hand. He had taken his holster off both times before they ended up in bed.

Cutting off any further thoughts of the two hot nights spent heating up the sheets, she glared and shifted to take her weight off of each foot respectively. She should have worn her new sneakers instead of wanting to look fashionable while going to dinner with the girls.

“We need to talk,” Levi said gruffly.

“About what?” She glared, letting him know she wasn’t taking any of his crap right now.

“About the fact that your family is worried about you.”

That caught her off guard.

There were so many more important things to talk about than the fact that her family was worried about her.

What about them? Were they even a thing? Her body was reacting to his nearness, and she wanted to curl up in his arms. How in the world had she fallen for this man so fast? She was better than this. She had backbone. He was everything she had ever wanted. Or at least, she thought he was.

Sara stayed where she was and shoved thoughts of them together away before she took a breath and responded to him about her family.

“I doubt my family is concerned for me. More likely, they are worried about their pocketbook,” she said, snapping the words out.

Levi frowned and Sara smirked. He glanced at her shifting feet, and she tried to keep from grimacing.

Stalking forward, he caught her around the waist and lifted her sideways into his arms. She was so startled, she latched her arms around his thick neck and hung on.

It put her face close to his and she was tempted to brush her lips against his perfectly groomed beard.

Instead, she kicked her feet. “Put me down this instant.”

The words came out with a hiss as she tried to keep her voice down. The last thing she needed was to draw attention.

Levi didn’t listen. Instead, he carried her in his arms like some knight in shining armor towards the street.

“Your feet are hurting you.”

She stopped struggling and hung on. When they reached a black SUV parked at the curb in front of the hotel, he opened the passenger door with one hand and lowered her down to sit.

She sprang forward to get out, but he planted one hand against her chest and stopped her.

“Stay put,” he said, his voice a low, sexy growl.

His fingers splayed wide, his palm pressing against the top of her breasts. Through her blouse, she felt the touch like a branding iron.

Jerking away from him, she stayed put, but that was only because she wanted to!

Levi rummaged around for something in the backseat and then came back with a small box of Band-Aids.

“I can do it.” She held her hand out.

“Be quiet,” he said and lifted one foot to remove her shoe. Her ankle appeared delicate and tiny in his large grip.

His touch, as always, sent her pulse racing and her body reacting as if it had found its counterpart. She felt like a magnet against a steel surface, unable to pull away.

She made a sound in the back of her throat and he glanced up. Something possessed her, and she gripped the front of his shirt and tried to yank him closer.

Only, Levi didn’t move closer, and no matter how much pressure she applied to try and pull him close, he kept his distance.

That was when it hit her.

He regretted what they had done.

She could see something swirling in his cool blue eyes.

It had to be regret.

Was he once again going to become the cold-as-ice bodyguard? A knot formed in her throat when she thought about the first time she’d met him and of how he’d treated her so coldly.

The encounter had been after her stalker boyfriend had attacked them and run. It had been while the cops had been milling about inside and outside of her house.

Levi had been standing in her kitchen, and Sara had tried to convince him not to go out when he was wounded.

“Get out of my way,” Levi had snarled down into her face, but Sara stayed firm. She couldn’t have him out there getting hurt more, and she hadn’t fully understood why at the time. They hadn’t known each other all that well, but Levi had made an impression on her with his cold, stony exterior and blistering blue eyes.

“You got hit in the head with a gun,” she desperately pointed out.

“Look, I have to go after Chris and stop him before he hurts Lily. And nothing you say or do can stop me,” Levi snarled.

She gripped him, but Levi jerked her hands away and put distance between them.

Sara felt like crying, but she held it in and tried one last time. “He has your gun.”

“Keep your voice down. If you’re trying to protect him, you can fucking forget it.”

Protecting her best friend’s stalker had been the last thing on Sara’s mind, and it had been a knee-jerk reaction when she slapped Levi in the face.

Her wrists were caught and he had backed her up against the wall, lifting her arms over her head. Bowing her back, her breasts had pushed against his muscled chest. Her nipples had tightened, and she felt the heat gather between her legs.

That had been her first rush of desire for him.

When she gasped and searched his cold blue eyes, he tightened his grip around her wrists as he spoke.

“Now stay the hell away from me,” he snarled, released her, and walked out the door.

“Asshole!” she yelled after him.

His rejection had sent her into a spiral. Which was ludicrous because they had been nothing more than acquaintances.

Looking at him now as he squatted near her feet in the cool San Francisco weather, she slowly released his shirt and glanced away.

She had to remind herself that Levi was already spoken for, that he and Rebecca had a baby on the way.

Humiliation stung her cheeks.

Levi pressed first one band-aid and then the other on her heels.

“Sara,” he said softly, but was interrupted from saying more when Ana’s aggressive voice came from behind them.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” Ana snapped.

Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and Sara almost smiled, but she held it back.

Good! She hoped he was uncomfortable.

Maybe Levi needed a good dose of Ana. Because if he thought he could have sex with her when he and his girlfriend argued, then he had another think coming.

Which reminded her of everything he’d done.

She shoved him hard and Levi fell on his ass on the asphalt. Sara scrambled out of the SUV and hurried over to Ana.

“If you think you can come sniffing around her, you need to get your head checked!” Ana’s eyes were fiery, and Sara thought for a moment Ana was going to hit Levi.

“It’s not like that.” Levi kept his eyes on Sara. “Rebecca is—”

“A bitch,” Carla said, coming up to stand next to her and Ana.

“Yes, she is,” Levi agreed.

Sara gaped, she couldn’t help it. That had been the last response she expected coming from him.

“We all agree with that,” another man said, coming to stand next to Levi.

The guy was tall, muscled, with dark hair and piercing gray eyes. The guy reminded her of Levi, and when a second man stepped up to flank the first, she realized they were actually with Levi.

Both Ana and Carla’s eyes went wide at the addition of testosterone on the scene, but Ana was the first to recover under the onslaught of sexy maleness.

“That’s the first sensible thing I’ve heard yet,” Ana said. “But that doesn’t excuse his behavior.” She pointed at Levi, but spoke to the man with the gray eyes.

“Can we discuss this somewhere more private?” the man asked.

“And you are?” Ana asked haughtily.

“King, and this is Rowan, and over there are Nash and West.” The man pointed at two other men waiting off to the side.

“There’s a lounge in the hotel,” Carla offered tentatively.

“We need somewhere a bit more private than that,” King said.

It was enough to have Levi striding to the hotel front desk and inquiring about a room.

He knew without a doubt that Sara wasn’t going to speak with him alone.

King moved him out of the way and spoke to the woman behind the counter.

Levi tried to catch Sara’s eyes, but she avoided him.

Her body language suggested that he could go to hell.

But that was far from where he was going.

He was going to do whatever it took to get her to forgive him.

For what, he hadn’t a clue.