I stared at the doorway he just walked through, confused.
“Stay here,” I told Luke, who was so sucked into his show I didn’t get more than a dazed nod.
When I made it to the kitchen, Levi was braced over the sink, his head hung between his shoulders. I knew then I had to tell him how I felt and what I wanted. It wasn’t fair to him for me not to be honest, no matter how scary it was.
“Levi?” He glanced over his shoulder and started doing the dishes. “Can we talk?”
“Sure,” he said, his voice tight.
But I didn’t say anything because I was a wimp. Instead, I just started handing him dishes to rinse and put in the dishwasher. It went on until the silence was almost painful, and my head hurt from how hard I was thinking of what to say.
“Normally, the person who asks to talk does the talking,” he said finally, shooting me a tiny smile with no sign of the tension he gave off when I walked in here.
I wrung the dishtowel in my hands. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened Thursday, and I want it to happen again,” I blurted before I chickened out.
A fork slipped out of his hands and clanged loudly against the stainless steel sink. He grabbed it quickly and practically threw it into the dishwasher. And when he stood, his neck was red, the color creeping to his ears.
“You said it could mean whatever I wanted it to mean, and I know what I want.” I took a step towards him, my heart going a mile a minute. He was so still that he was bordering on statue-like. “I want you, Levi. Us. This. Whatever it is. I’ve known it since that first time we got ice cream, but I was just too scared to say it. We don’t have to be, you know,married, but I want to be with you.”
He still wasn’t saying anything, so I just kept talking and twisting the towel in my hands. “I don’t have a lot of experience with dating…or…the other stuff. You could probably tell, but I want it with you…the other stuff being, you know,stuff.” My eyes went wide at the ground.I cannot believe I just said that out loud!I palmed my forehead, my face hot. “This is coming out wro?—”
Levi snatched the towel in my hand, yanking me to him. “You know I love it when you ramble,” he said before crashing his lips to mine.
I melted against him instantly, the towel dropping to the floor between us when I slid my hands into his hair. He picked me up and set me on the counter, standing between my spread legs. My head fell back with a breathy sigh as his lips trailed along my jaw. “I want it, too,” he rasped against my neck, and my nails dug into his biceps. “And I want it all, babygirl.”
My heart soared, and I grabbed his face, bringing his lips back to mine. This kiss was slower, deeper, more intense in ways I’d never experienced before. I felt him in every breath I took, in every beat of my heart. I loved him so much I was nearly bursting with it.
We broke apart, breathing hard. He grabbed the nape of my neck, making me look up at him. His gaze was intense, serious, as he said, “I’m a greedy man when it comes to you, Tess. Anything you want to give me, I’ll take.”
His words reverberated through me, jumpstarting my heart. I brushed my thumb along his lips, loving how soft they felt and how they made me feel so many things. I could tell him I loved him now. Really lay it all out there. He said he’d take anything I wanted to give, and I wanted to give him this—the truth.
“I…” I swallowed, catching my breath. But what if I said it, and he didn’t feel the same? I settled for a half-truth. Baby steps. “I like you. A lot.”
His smile was dazzling, both dimples out. “I like you a lot, too.”
I draped my arms over his shoulders, interlocking my fingers. “So, does this make you my boyfriend now? I don’t know if that’s technically an upgrade or a downgrade, considering we’re already married.”
He laughed. “It doesn’t matter to me,” he said, caressing the apple of my cheek. “Just as long as I’m yours.”
“Only if I’m yours, too,” I whispered, kissing him again because he was my boyfriend and I could do that kind of thing whenever I wanted now.
He ran his hands up my legs, his thumbs dangerously close to where I was beginning to ache. I shuddered at the near touch. “We can wait, you know,” he said, his voice rough. I tilted my head, not following. “For sex.”
“Oh.” I looked away, embarrassed. “If that’s what you want to do.”
Levi grabbed my chin, making me look at him. “I want you safe. I want you comfortable. And I want you sure,” he said, driving each point with a kiss that made me dizzy. “That’s all that matters to me.” He kissed along my jaw. Once. Twice. Then a third time that made me arch into him. “There’s plenty of other things we can do until then,” he rasped, slipping a hand between my thighs as I spread them.
“That right?” I didn’t recognize the raspy seductiveness of my voice, but I liked it, and the way Levi’s grip tightened on my thigh told me he did too.
“Yeah, sweetheart, that’s right.” He let out a shaky breath, staring at his hand moving between my legs. My eyes fluttered shut when he found my clit over my pajama bottoms. “I’ve had plenty of time to think it over in the last month that I’ve been obsessing over you. The list of things I’ve imagined doing to you is…long.”
A breathy moan left me, and I leaned back, planting my hands behind me on the counter. “Did any of those things entail you making me come on the kitchen counter?”
He licked his lips, his chest heaving. “Maybe.”
He reached out, brushing his hand along the curve of my breast. I gasped when his thumb ran over my hardened nipple. “Want to check it off your list?”
“Fuck yes,” he answered instantly. His eagerness made me smile.
