My family is here.” And even if she wasn’t leaving for good, a few months was too long to risk being gone. Too much could happen in that time and what if they needed her? This week with her mom alone demonstrated just how quickly things could change. No. She couldn’t leave.
“Besides—” she pushed all the confidence she could muster into her voice “—the loan’s going to go through, right?”
“Right.” That cocky smile closed in on her and then Levi pressed a quick, hard kiss to her lips before striding from the room.
She’d blown him off, thank God.
Heart slamming in his chest, fists locked around the edges of the porcelain sink, Levi stared hard into the bathroom mirror.
What in the hell had he been doing, suggesting Elise come to Seattle? It made no sense. Her life was here. Firmly and solidly rooted in all the things she’d never give up. And he was a rolling stone. Practiced in kicking off the moss that amounted to a superficial collection of employees, acquaintances, and belongings accumulated during the development of each club.
It was what he did.
He moved on. Alone.
So what was he doing asking Elise to come with him?
Sure, it wasn’t as if he’d been proposing. He’d basically invited her to a two-month, off-site tutorial on how to set up a new business—and only if her current plans fell through. He cared about her, of course. She was a sweet girl with ambitions he could respect and a struggle he could relate to. So he’d offered some help, figuring it would give them both time to get their fill of whatever it was between them.
He hadn’t been trying to keep her.
Never expected her to agree.
Truth be told, the fact that Elise turned him down flat made her all the more appealing. He hadn’t thought it possible, but she wanted even less from this relationship than he did.
Perfect.
Man, he was a head case.
Pushing back from the too intense guy in the mirror, Levi shook off the tension from his close call. Ignored the nagging tug at his gut and the faintly bitter taste of something he couldn’t quite swallow in his throat.
Maybe tomorrow he’d ease back some with Elise. Only as he swung open the door and caught sight of the bare length of skin exposed as she leaned over the pasta—the tentative smile that seemed to stretch wider with his own—he forgot about any plan he had beyond being with her.
RESTLESS beneath a cover of thin cotton, Elise followed the streak of late-night headlights as they stole through the slats in the blinds and cut a path across her bedroom ceiling.
Though Seattle hadn’t come up once in the week since Levi mentioned it, the moment was never far from her mind.
He hadn’t been pressing for a commitment. She knew that.
Levi had been clear about the temporary nature of the invitation extended. That all he was talking about was a couple of months. A little more fun.
Except Elise couldn’t stop reading it as more than that. She couldn’t stop her thoughts at the point where Levi told her they’d play a little longer before he sent her packing back home with a shiny new plan for a future that would take place in a different state than the one where he resided. No, she couldn’t leave well enough alone. She’d had to take it a step further … to the fact they shouldn’t have been anything but a single night. But already it had been a month and still Levi didn’t think he was going to be ready to give her up by the time he needed to leave. He’d reconsidered his plans, again.
Queasy nerves stirred her belly and Elise rolled to her side, tucking her knees up close.
Now Levi was suggesting—albeit, only as an alternative if her loan was denied—they turn the single month that remained into another three? What then?
Nothing was as set in stone as she’d believed entering the relationship. Levi had destroyed the security she’d had in knowing that, no matter how much she’d begun to care for him, there were those hard and fast rules, inflexible boundaries that kept her from getting in too deep. From finding herself in another position where she had to choose.
By changing the rules, he’d given her license to envision possibilities she never would have before. Scenarios that revolved around forbidden words like somehow, what if, and just maybe. Words that dared her to hope and all but promised heartbreak.
The phone beside her bed flashed bright with a text alert and her belly did a little flip, her body coming alive as all the doubts and worries weighing on her evaporated into thin air. “You awake?”
She dialed him back. “It’s two in the morning. Of course I’m awake.”
A gruff laugh answered, then, “Hmm, so not sleeping … but tell me you’re already in bed.”
“I am,” she murmured, adjusting the pillow behind her head. “Where are you?”
“In my car. I was on my way home and thought I’d swing by if you were up.”
This time it was Elise laughing. “On your way home? Considering the only thing between your club and apartment is a layer of concrete and some insulation, I’m wondering how you found yourself in the car.”
“Call it a driving urge … but enough about that. What are you wearing?”
Her thighs shifted together in a sensual rub that was all about anticipation and the low, gravel-rough sound of Levi’s voice. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I’ve got about five minutes until I get there and I’m about to give you some very detailed, very specific instructions. Timing is everything.”
Elise smiled, her eyes drifting closed. “In that case, I’m not wearing anything at all.”
Hours later Levi woke alone in Elise’s bed, that sleepy contentment he always felt waking there crumbling at the sound of a muffled voice down the hall. Following it, he stopped at the front room.
Elise stood with her back to him, phone at her ear. Spine rigid beneath her thin robe. The tension radiating off her hit him before her words. “How long?” Then, “No, I’m not ready. Give me ten minutes … I’ll call you back.”
“Everything okay?” he asked when she’d disconnected the call and begun pulling on her jeans without her underwear. He was a dog for noticing when something was clearly wrong, but he was also a guy. And guys didn’t miss that kind of thing.
Unwilling to look at him, she nodded once. “That was Ally. There’s a … situation. I’ve got to take off. I’m sorry, but you should probably go home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“There’s a situation. At four in the morning. And you think I should just take off?” Crossing to her, he caught her chin in his palm, forced her to face him and saw the shadows in her eyes. Shadows he’d only glimpsed in her most unguarded moments. The ones he’d wondered about, but were gone so quickly, he’d always just let pass. But not tonight. “There’s no way I’m leaving without finding out what’s going on.”
And short of some husband she’d forgotten to mention being on his way home, he wasn’t leaving then. Okay, chances were good he wouldn’t leave regardless.
Her chin took on a stubborn set and he wondered if she’d refuse him flat. Tell him to take a leap. Only beneath that stubborn jut broke the barest tremor. A crack in the façade she was trying to maintain.
Pulling her into his chest, he ran a hand over the tumble of curls that framed her face against his pillow like a wild halo. He’d half expected her to pull away, but her hands crept up between them and her forehead