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I reach for it and press the power button, sighing in relief when the screen comes to life.
My fingers close around the phone when a voice slices through the silence, sharp as broken glass. “Idiots,” it sneers from behind me, and I freeze.
“Sleeping with their best friend’s daughter.” Levi’s words wrap around me like a vine, thorny and uninvited.
I don’t turn right away, not yet. Instead, I let out a slow breath, bracing myself for the storm that is Levi Griffin.
“Levi,” I say, my voice steady despite the chaos he always stirs within me. Finally, I pivot on my heel to face him.
He’s a vision of raw power. Water drips from his wet hair, trailing down the valleys and peaks of his muscles, a towel slung low on his hips. It’s a battle to keep my eyes up, to not trace the water’s path with my gaze or my fingertips.
I swallow hard, the air in the room suddenly too thick, too charged. The rush is undeniable, a heat unfurling between my thighs as if his mere presence commands it. I curse my body for its betrayal, for reacting to Levi Griffin of all people.
A man who’s made it clear he doesn’t like me.
“Making coffee?” I venture, hoping to sound unaffected, casual even.
“Observant,” he grumbles, not looking at me. His hands are skilled and sure as he scoops the grounds, the rich aroma filling the space between us. My senses are heightened, every sound and scent amplified.
“Mind if I—” I start, gesturing toward the inviting steam.
“Yes.” His voice is deep, husky, laced with something like disapproval—or is it disdain? Hard to tell with Levi, always playing his cards close to his chest. “I do mind.”
“I don’t think it would hurt you.”
“Unlike you, I know choices have consequences, Brielle.”
What is that supposed to mean?
“Look, Levi,” I start, my voice firmer than I feel. “You don’t need to worry about me or what I do. I can handle myself.”
He moves, a predator’s grace in his step, closing the distance between us until I’m acutely aware of every inch of space he occupies. The hum of the refrigerator fades against the drum of my pulse, loud in my ears.
“Can you?” His voice is low, a challenge wrapped in velvet.
“Absolutely,” I shoot back, but it’s like throwing feathers at a storm.
“Whatever you say.” His breath fans across my face, smelling of coffee and something darker, something like temptation. It’s dizzying how quickly he can make the air thick, charged with an electricity that buzzes under my skin. “You can leave now. Can’t you tell when you’ve overstayed your welcome? You got what you wanted, didn’t you?”
My heart stutters, my defenses splintering. I stand my ground. “You can’t just kick me out, Levi,” I say, but my voice trembles like a leaf in a storm. I hate that he hears it, that he knows how he affects me.
Levi’s laugh is a low rumble in his chest. It’s mocking, a sound that scrapes across my nerves. “Your father always said you were bright, Brielle,” he says, and the way he rolls my name off his tongue feels like a caress I shouldn’t crave. “Clearly he doesn’t have a clue who his daughter really is or the men she enjoys fucking in her free time.” His words make my heart clench. “You’re just like every other girl, aren’t you?”
“Every other girl?” The term stings, festers under my skin. I’m not just some girl. I’m different.
“Desperate.” He steps back, arms folded across his chest. His abs tense under the damp towel, taunting me with what I’ve tried so hard to ignore. “Just another joke, looking for trouble where you don’t belong.”
I bristle. “I am not desperate.”
“Sure,” Levi drawls, a cruel smile playing on his lips. “Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” His eyes rake over me, leaving a trail of heat in their wake. “But we both know the truth, don’t we?”
Levi’s steps are a countdown, each thud against the hardwood floor a tick on the clock of my shame. He doesn’t glance back, doesn’t see the way my shoulders slump, my armor crumbling.
“Levi, wait—” My voice is a whisper lost in the vast space between us.
But he doesn’t wait. The door to his room closes with a soft click, a definitive period at the end of our fiery exchange. Isolation wraps around me like a thick, suffocating blanket. I’m alone in a kitchen that suddenly feels as cold as the ice in my veins.
I’m raw, exposed nerve endings and a pulsing heart laid out on the countertop. The silence is deafening, louder than any words Levi has thrown my way.
