Page 35 of The Bad Boy’s Homecoming (The Southern Hart Brothers #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY

Missy

Cover Me Up

L ying in Levi’s arms made her feel calm and safe, but it also revealed a truth Missy wasn’t ready to face.

Somehow in a span of weeks this man had worked his way into her heart.

The entire week he was gone she’d thrown herself into her work, but wanting him had been there under the surface.

Her paintings were inspired by him and how he made her feel.

And just when she wondered if that would fade she wanted to go downstairs and pick up her paintbrush again.

“I can hear you thinking,” Levi said, his voice groggy.

The late afternoon light was shining through her window, casting amber light along the wall. She’d opened the curtains to her window that morning to see the ocean, and now they were bathed in the sun.

“I’m going to get us some water,” she said, rolling from his arms. His hand skimmed over her bare back and down to her bottom. Stirring more desire with the simple touch.

There was no denying the physical attraction between them remained potent.

She could stay in this room in this bed with Levi forever, if she knew he would too.

But he’d already said he had to leave the next day.

And he lived in Florida now. He would be on the road three months of the year for his games.

Not that he was even suggesting they try and work around that.

As she wrapped another painting shirt around herself, she could hear the rhythm of his steady breathing.

He was asleep again. Downstairs she filled a glass of water and walked back into her studio.

After moving the painting she’d been working on aside she set a fresh canvas down.

She wouldn’t worry about what was happening between them until after her exhibit.

Finding out if her work was on par with art that hung in fancy galleries that people paid obscene amounts for was her sole focus.

*

“You forgot to come back to bed.” Levi’s voice broke the silence of the house. The sun had faded hours ago, while Missy sat in her studio working. But now she set down her brush and stretched like an animal after a deep sleep.

Levi’s hands wound around her waist and pulled her into his body. His mouth found her neck and he skimmed it with his open mouth. But then he froze.

“Wow, I don’t know if I should be flattered or worried,” he said looking at the painting she’d done of them.

“Maybe both.”

It would be easy to believe the two people in the painting were other people, depicted in shades of blue. There was only a hint of the intimacy they’d shared, a woman’s back, and the swoop of her hip. The man’s hand gripping her bottom.

Levi’s hands skimmed down her sides and she could feel his bulge behind her. She kept her back to him but turned her mouth over her shoulder and he kissed her with so much need, it gave her power, energy. Reaching behind her back she pulled his hips closer to her backside.

“You forgot your pants.” She smiled as she pushed her hips back grinding over his now very hard length.

“Oops,” he teased.

She tugged on his boxer briefs pulling them down to release him.

At the same time he pulled her panties to the side while one hand remained on her hip guiding her back to where the tip of his cock met her wet heat. He smoothed his free hand along her skin. Pausing, making her want it.

Then ever so slowly he buried his length inside her, her body at first opening to him and then tightening around him.

“Emm…I will never get enough.” His voice was thick with desire for her.

And she could feel him pulsing deep inside her. It was the most intense power to know he needed her, and she began to move. Pushing her hips back in a rhythm with him, she leaned forward and gripped the windowsill in front of her. She could see his flexed reflection in the window panes and smiled.

“You’re mine baby, and I’m all yours for the taking.”

A guttural growl escaped him as he methodically thrust into her harder, faster, until a burst of ecstasy cascaded over her entire body. Her nipples were tight and it was like every inch of her skin was exploding with rapture.

Still feeling the waves of pleasure she’d already taken she bucked back into meeting his thrusts now coming even faster, chasing more.

“Mine,” she breathed.

His hands were on her hips, pulling her back onto him and then his grip tightened on her hips as one hand wrapped around to palm her breast. And suddenly a thousand glittery stars burst behind her eyes as she found another moment of ecstasy as his pleasure rolled into her.

Their bodies melded together and his body wrapped over her back as they both caught their breath. The room was quiet.

“Move with me to Florida, please,” he said in a whisper in her ear.

The haze of desire clouded her thoughts and he was still buried deep inside her.

“What?” She tried to pull back to look into his eyes, but his mouth was on her collarbone and the room was dim. He let their bodies separate but the sensation of him leaving her body had her squeezing her eyes shut. Her body didn’t want to let his leave.

“Move in with me. Come to Tampa, so we can be together all the time,” he said, his deep voice filling the quiet room.

“I can’t just move to Tampa,” she said, feeling the telltale panic she recognized when something rocked the boat of her life.

“Sure you can. You just put your things in your luggage and you get on the plane with me.”

Now she stepped back and created more space between them.

“Don’t freak out, but I need you with me.”

“Levi.” She said his name with a warning.

“I do, and I know it’s fast, and scary, but it’s the truth.”

“You’re just freaking out because you’re starting over in a new city. You’re alone there. You don’t need me getting in the way of you starting a new normal.”

“I want you to be my new normal. I want to be with you.”

She looked up at him but could only make out his huge muscular form in the shadows that had taken over the room now that the sun was set. His hands were holding hers but he let her take the space she thought she wanted.

“Just think about it,” he said. “You don’t have to decide right this second. Think of it as an open invitation.”

He must have sensed her panic, and instead of pushing her, he led her up the backstairs, to the hall bathroom.

Turned on the shower, then stepped back out to unbutton her shirt and let it fall to the floor.

They were in shadow with only the nightlight in the room, and she could hide her fear there.

Of course she wanted to be with him all the time.

She wanted more of him, all of him. But what would happen when he had enough?

She would be stuck in Tampa, in love with a man who didn’t want her anymore. It would be ugly and terrible.

“Don’t shut me out,” he said, then opened the glass door again and walked her into the steam and hot water.

She let him pamper her, soaping up her body, and tried not to imagine having him in her life every day.

Missy knew better than to follow a man’s career.

She’d watched her mother choose one man after another, and each one broke her heart.

While Missy had to watch. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake.

No matter how much she wanted to be with Levi.