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How long was I going to punish myself and this amazing man for something neither of us had done? Killian wasn’t Jonny. He was nothing like him. He was charming, talented, and the most humble, easygoing guy I’d ever met, and somehow I’d turned him into an angry, moody version of himself. I hated myself for that.
“Well,” Killian said, and his tone was bitter but also kind of…defeated. “I’m here. What did you need, Levi?”
Knowing it was now or never, I took a step toward him and sent up a silent prayer that I wasn’t too late. Then I swallowed around the lump lodged in the back of my throat and said, “I read your song.”
Forty-One
Killian
“I READ YOUR song”?
That was what Levi had to tell me that was so important? Seriously? That was it? Heartfelt lyrics I’d written for him, and what? No reaction? Nothing but an I know what you did last night lashing to show for it when he’d arrived.
Man, I’d read this thing wrong. And for the first time, maybe ever, I felt like a fucking idiot. I’d put myself out there, shown this guy my heart, and he didn’t give two shits.
I squared my shoulders and crossed my arms over my chest, feeling defensive and far too vulnerable. “So?” I said. Like I didn’t care one way or another what he thought, when we both knew that wasn’t true.
I counted on him brushing me off, telling me what he read was nice, but… Instead, what came out of Levi’s mouth was nothing I expected.
“I was wrong.”
Three seemingly simple words, but ones that were sometimes the hardest to say, and it piqued my curiosity.
“Wrong,” I said, testing the word on my tongue. “What were you wrong about, Levi?”
He hesitated, staring down at my crossed arms. “So much.” Before I could call him out on being vague, he continued. “I was wrong to push you away that first night back in Atlanta. Wrong to make you adhere to rules that were made because of my mistakes, not yours. I was wrong to compare you to a man that isn’t even worth thinking about. But most of all, I was wrong to think I’d ever be able to be around you and not fall completely and utterly in love with the man you are. Because that man is the very best man I’ve ever met.”
As Levi’s words penetrated my brain and began to settle in, I uncrossed my arms and opened my mouth to respond—but nothing came out.
Was this some kind of joke? A parallel universe, where I’d stepped outside my condo and into the world I really wanted, where Levi was standing in front of me telling me he loved me? Because if it was, I’d gladly give up everything else to make that world my reality.
Just as I was about to tell him so, Levi took a step toward me. Then he brought a finger up and placed it over my lips, his beautiful brown eyes imploring me to let him finish.
“You scare the hell out of me, Killian Michaels.” The confession was whisper soft. “From the first time we talked over the phone to the moment we met, I knew I was in trouble. And not because you were this big-shot rock god who threw his fame and fortune around like it somehow proved his dick was bigger than everyone else’s in the room.”
I arched an eyebrow, and Levi smirked and trailed his fingers along my jaw and down the side of my neck.
“But because you didn’t do that. I’ve been in this business for years, and worked with the biggest and most badass of them all. Yet the day we met, when you had every reason to act like you had the whole world at your feet, you went out of your way to make me feel comfortable, and it only got better—or worse, if we’re looking at my stubborn resolve—from there.”
Levi glanced to where my shirt was open at my neck and fingered the top button, and before he could pull his hand away, I brought mine up to cover it.
“I tried to stay away,” Levi whispered. “I tried to convince myself that what I was feeling would only lead to trouble. But Killian?”
It was the first time he’d actually addressed me, and this time when his thick lashes rose and his eyes met mine, I somehow found my voice long enough to say, “Yeah, Levi?”
“When I look at you, I lose my ability to think. You make me feel like I’m sixteen again and back in high school crushing on the sexy guy in the band.”
I couldn’t have stopped my grin if my life depended on it, because hot damn, I loved the idea of making the always proper, always professional Levi Walker lose his mind.
