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With Elise, the limits on the bounds of this relationship couldn’t be more clear. He was leaving in less than two months’ time. And she didn’t really want him. Well, damn, she wanted him in the make-me-come-six-times-tonight way. Which was about the way he wanted her too. But she didn’t want a real relationship getting in the way of her priorities.
Which made this perfect.
Which made her safe.
He wouldn’t give her no-strings, because that wasn’t what it was. There were strings, but they were uncomplicated.
Him. Her.
A feel-good bit of escape that would last as long as the distraction continued to work for both of them. And then they’d go their separate ways. No hard feelings. No hassle. No heartbreak.
Nothing he had to worry about when he left this city behind.
So he’d indulged in a couple hours of warm-bodied, close-contact shut-eye with Elise.
And hell, he probably would have kept right on sleeping if it hadn’t been for the bed and the way it amplified every movement with the supports swaying precariously under the slightest shift in weight.
How this thing had stayed up through what they’d put it through he had no idea.
The tumble of curls tucked beneath his chin shifted, tickling his neck as the body they were attached to wriggled around. He could sense her tension rising and didn’t want to give up the comfort that had been between them.
“Thinking about the strings?” he asked into the top of her head.
Elise traced a light pattern over his chest with the tips of her fingers, brushing this way and that. “Probably should have clarified the issue before we …”
The corner of his mouth kicked up as he wondered which words she was trying out in her head.
“Had sex,” he offered, chivalrously.
“Yes.” Tilting her head back she peered up at him. “What is this? I mean, I don’t think I mind, whatever it is. I wanted it—want it. But for both our sakes, a little clarification would probably go a long way. This is a … sex thing, right?”
“Obviously the sex is a big part of it, but it’s not the only part. Yeah, I can’t keep my thoughts out of your panties, but I also just … like you.” Levi brushed his thumb over the fine hair at her temple. “Neither one of us is in a place where we can afford a real relationship. I’m leaving and you’re working like a dog to make your studio happen. But we’ve got this connection. Why fight it?”
“So you’re my boyfriend, but in the loosest sense of the word.”
Why didn’t he like the sound of that? “How about I’m your boyfriend in the exclusive, let’s-just-have-a-good-time-while-it-lasts sense of the word?”
Elise’s brow lifted with the corner of her mouth, and something inside Levi moved with it. Damn, he liked that smile.
“You really don’t want me going out with another guy.”
Not even a little bit. “Only child. What can I say? Never learned to share.”
The second the words left his mouth he about choked. Beyond the offer of the most cursory information, Levi didn’t talk about his life growing up. Hell, he didn’t even like to think about it. But that glib remark was just the kind of opening a dedicated family girl like Elise could jump on.
He didn’t want her to ask about his family. He didn’t want her to know about his mother. He didn’t want all those normally innocuous questions that polite people asked giving away the kind of life he’d led. The kind of man he was.
Only she didn’t seize the opportunity. A small furrow had dug its way between her eyes, and after a moment she asked, “And you? Will you be exclusive too?”
He didn’t blame her for needing to ask. There wasn’t any shortage of available women at his clubs, and nine times out of ten the publicity shots that made the paper pictured him with at least one model-beautiful woman per arm.
But that was PR. Truth was, the club bunnies, while convenient, weren’t particularly difficult to resist. Especially the regulars who put in enough hours to know the staff by name, hitting the lulls where they could strike up a conversation while pouring down their drinks.
“I won’t go out with any other women.”
Elise flopped onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, wearing an amused look of concentration. “So how does it work, then? I call you up when I want …”
Again she seemed at a loss for words, but the devil in him wouldn’t help her out of this one.
“… a distraction.”
Letting out a bark of laugher, Levi rolled over her and, catching her jaw in the cup of his palm, leaned in for a taste. “That’s one way to put it. Or you could say a date. Dinner maybe? I’m starting to feel cheap.”
She coughed a little, that sexy red blazing into her cheeks even as she lay naked beside him. “I—oh, no—I guess I didn’t mean—Darn it, stop laughing!”
He wanted to, but for some reason, whenever he was with Elise, he just couldn’t.
CHAPTER SEVEN (#ulink_552f3387-0be3-5792-bed1-3339fbbb14f9)
“YES, I get that it wasn’t much of an introduction to the family,” Elise assured, winding her way through the throngs of book lovers populating the annual Printer’s Row Lit Fest.
Ally huffed beside her, one hand resting lightly on Dexter’s head where it peaked above the front flap of his baby sling. “He hung up on me.”
Wrestling against the grin pushing at her lips, Elise offered an acknowledging nod. “Yes.”
“Called me. And then hung up,” she snapped, her diligently nurtured outrage at a high-polished shine. “How did he think I’d feel about that?”
“At the moment, I’m not sure the impression he was making was foremost in his mind.”
Stopping at a cozy booth beneath one of the enormous white tents running down the center of Dearborn, Elise scanned the bounty of titles on offer, once again wishing she had more than this single hour to spend at what was essentially the largest free outdoor book fair and literary event in the Midwest. But she had two classes that afternoon, with a few hours of working the club’s child daycare in between.
Ally cleared her throat in indication she was waiting for Elise’s full attention.
Getting it, she prompted, “He said he was your boyfriend.”
Pulling her mouth to the side, Elise wagged her head a bit. “We’re exclusive. But the kind of emotional connection and relationship potential you and I would normally associate with that word … it’s not really what he had in mind.”
Ally’s eyes went wide and she gently covered Dexter’s tiny pink ears. “You’re talking about that full-body meltdown thing again, aren’t you? Oh, my God, is this just about sex?”
“No.” Elise bristled, even knowing she’d asked the question herself. She thought about the call she’d gotten between classes the day before. Levi inquiring what she was wearing and just how tight it fit in certain places … but then segueing into questions about the various jobs she’d held. Wanting to know which had been the best, the worst, and why. And then he’d had her in stitches as he’d shared the same with her.
It wasn’t just sex. Only— “I don’t know exactly what it is, Ally. Except it’s fun and it feels good and I just couldn’t help myself.”
Ally cocked her head to the side, affection and concern shining in her eyes. “Be careful. I know you’re going into this with your eyes open and all, but this doesn’t really sound like you. And I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Elise shrugged, tamping down any evidence of her own worry. “I seriously doubt I’ll have a chance to lose my head. Between our schedules and the probability of the novelty wearing off fast, there just won’t be time.”
Seemingly satisfied, Ally gave an understanding nod and they moved on to the next booth.
Then, all nonchalance and eagle-eyed, “So you didn’t see him yesterday.”
“Well, no, I did. But everything just happened the day before. It was the whole newness thing. I’d be surprised if I saw him again this week.”
Elise wasn’t going to call.
Fingers drumming the tabletop, she found her gaze once again pulling toward the digital readout over her oven. Eight thirty-six. Two minutes past the last time she’d checked.
Her legs crossed one way.
Then the other.
Picking up her fork, she pushed at the long-cooled vegetables on her plate. Gave up and swept the plate off the table to take to the sink.
She followed the steps of her routine. Washing her dishes. Stacking her plate back in the cabinet. Cleaning the sink and wiping the countertop.
Eight-forty.
Shoot.
She absolutely was not going to call Levi. She’d seen him six days in a row since trying to hire him. They’d even worked out a schedule for Bruno. He’d been coming by to pick up the puppy beast before she left for her afternoon classes and then meeting her back afterwards. Spending a few hours making her shiver and moan, and simply reminding her what a spectacular arrangement they had, before heading back to the club for the night and leaving her to either sleep, or, on nights she offered a late class, dropping her off.
But today she’d had to pay back the hours she’d swapped earlier in the week, and hadn’t seen Levi at all. He’d picked up Bruno using the spare keys, and kept the beast at his place with the plan to bring him back tomorrow.
Which was fine.
Except apparently her body hadn’t gotten the memo and had been working itself into a heightened state of readiness since almost the moment she woke that morning, thinking about the sound Levi had made when he’d taken her in the shower the day before. That low groan was all hunger and need, and the memory of it had her belly hollowing and her toes curling as a ripple of goose bumps raced across her skin.
This was ridiculous. It was one day.
She could go one day without him.
No matter how good he made her feel. No matter how hard he made her—
One day.
It would be easier to get through if she was tired and could just sleep off the rest of the hours.
Only walking past her bedroom door, she found there were two problems with that. The first, she wasn’t tired. The second, one glance at that bed and she was thinking about what Levi had done to her the last time they were in it together.
Her breath leaked out on a shaky sigh.
Less than one week, and he’d already made her an addict.
The walls of her apartment seemed to crowd closer as the minutes passed. Her skin felt hotter with every wayward thought, memory, fantasy … all of which seemed to be wrapped around the hard body and intense blue eyes of Levi Davis.
She turned back to the living room, determined to find something on television to get caught up in. It was one day. She could absolutely make it one day.
The live band was one Levi had handpicked, always enjoyed, and brought a huge local following. Hell, like many of the bands he booked, they were already on their way to making the big time … but tonight the hard driving beat reverberating through the floors, walls, and bones in his head was too much.
He was edgy. Irritated. Prowling the club looking for trouble when he’d trained just about every employee too well himself to actually find any. Either that or word had spread like wildfire that he was on the rampage and everyone had wised up enough to make sure he didn’t find any slack.
Rounding the center bar, he checked the stock as Finn backed out of his way, quickly moving toward the customers at the opposite side. Trying to look busy. Or, more likely, just busy.
They were low on Grey Goose. Levi raised a hand to get Finn’s attention, but lowered it again as one of the barhands jogged up with a full bottle, then took a quick step back when he saw Levi.
Nice. He needed to wipe the scowl off his face and ease up. His people were doing a bang-up job and the fact that it hadn’t worked out to hook up with Elise today didn’t have anything to do with them.
Truth be told, it shouldn’t have mattered a lick to him. It never had before.
He wasn’t seventeen, so the driving force below his belt that was hammering his patience into dust didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Par for the course when it came to Elise, it seemed.
No sense in fighting it, making himself and everyone around him miserable. He’d give her a call. Let her know Bruno was all set, getting walked every two hours and enjoying his stint as the HeadRush mascot. He even had a lead on someone who might be interested in taking the dog, so it wasn’t as if he was calling just to hear her voice.
Hell no. He had a purpose. And if he happened to want to know what color her panties were when he got her on the line, then whatever … Or find out if she’d take them off for him if he asked just right … Okay, so maybe he did want to hear her voice. He wanted to hear what she sounded like as he learned just exactly what he could convince her to do with the sound of his voice alone.
The phone was out and he’d just finished texting the floor manager that he’d be off for the next thirty or so when he saw her. Little Miss Extraordinary Distraction herself, crossing the dance floor. She moved toward him, the rhythmic swing of her hips, short dress and high heels a seductive call to action.
Damn, she looked good. Almost as good as with the mud.
Sliding the phone back into his trouser pocket, he rounded the open-horseshoe end of the bar to meet her. He leaned close, drawing on that instant spark like a conduit. “Hello, beautiful. Isn’t this a nice surprise.”
“I hope you don’t mind.” Her voice barely registered over the noise from the band, so he wrapped a hand around her waist, urging her against him.
“Not at all,” he assured, letting his grip tighten the slightest degree. “Can I get you a drink?”
She shook her head, slowly brushing her cheek against his in a sexy, light caress. The contact felt good, only Levi pulled back, wanting to see her. Wanting to witness her reaction to the club he knew she’d never entered before.
His work. His creation.
Only she caught his sleeve and pulled him close again. Slid her hand down his arm and drew his palm to the lower curve of her hip.
His gaze dropped to his fingertips skimming the bottom hem of the simple sheath.
Damn. “What exactly are you up to, Elise?”
She leaned closer so her breath washed over the column of his neck as she answered him. “You look like you could use a distraction.”
There was nothing remotely subtle about their exit. Some poor kid in one of those bar uniforms came up with a question just after Elise had pulled the most brazen move of her life, but before the guy even had a chance to speak Levi told him to find the floor manager for whatever he needed. He was taking the night off.
And he’d said it without ever looking away from her eyes.
Now the hand she’d blatantly rubbed over her thigh was locked around her fingers, towing her through the far end of the club toward what appeared to be a service area congested with people. People who wanted Levi.
“Hey, boss—”
“Yo, Levi—”
