Page 26 of Before

Six

“SORRY,” LEV said atGigi’s left, noticing the hole in the wall of the basement-level stairwell inside the Harlem apartment building. “It’s new—just showed up one morning last week. The building isn’t that great, but it does what I need it to, and it’s safe for the most part. Just old and falling the fuck apart.”

She heard how the tone of his voice changed; it was the same way he spoke back at the bar after last call when Gigi mentioned if they were going home together, it would have to be to his place. Her roommate was back at hers, after all, and Cassie was too nosy for her liking on the rare occasion that Gigi even mentioned a guy, let alone brought one home.

They passed one apartment on the right before coming to a stop at the second apartment on the left side. His place, apparently, if the keys he pulled out of the back pocket of his jeans could be trusted.

“Hey,” she said, leaning her back against the peeling yellow wallpaper on the hallway wall. He didn’t look at her, instead focusing his effort on sticking the key into the deadbolt on the door. She couldn’t have that so she poked him in the shoulder just because. “Hey.”

Those ice-blue eyes of his—cold only in color because his gaze always felt so warm when it landed on her—turned her way. The grin that curled his lips up at the edges was the sexiest thing she had ever seen. The heat growing deep in her belly was made worse when that intense stare of his dropped down the length of her bare legs to the strappy black heels that crisscrossed up over her ankles before tying into bows at the back of her mid-calf. He was such a leg man.

Then, his gaze snapped back up to hers without warning when he asked, “Did you just poke me?”

“I said hey first.”

Without warning, Lev pushed away from the door, leaving the keys hanging from the lock, and stepped up to Gigi. In a blink, his legs pushed between hers while his hands landed on either side of her head against the wall. Her mini skirt inched higher on her hips when his body flattened against hers. That gorgeous mouth of his hovered above hers, making her edgy and needy all at the same fucking time. The fresh, crisp scent of his cologne—with notes of the sea and smoke—pulled into her lungs with every breath she dragged in.

The sudden rush of lust that flooded her veins was only aided by the way he stared at her like he was ready to fuck her right where she stood; as though she was some prize he could claim with his cock or hands or mouth. Any and all of it, she was up for it. With him? Why not?

Look at him.

“What is it with us and hallways?” she asked, hearing the tremor of want racing through her voice like the way her heartbeat thundered at the pulse in her throat. “We’re always ending up in one.”

“Do we?”

“Oh, you forgot what you did to me right outside my door in the hallway?”

Lev laughed a dark sound that dripped over her senses like warm, dark chocolate. “Sweetheart ... Gigi, I didn’t forget a second that I spent with you. That would be impossible.”

And just like that, he took her breath away.

He didn’t have to try.

“You’re something else,” she told him. “Something special, maybe.”

Lev shook his head. “I don’t think so. Look around—here I am, twenty-four, stuck in a place like this, working for a guy like Nickie ... taking home some random girl because it’s all I have time for.”

Gigi arched a brow. “Does twice make it random?”

That made him pause.

“You know I can’t do anything more than this, right? If you came around tonight looking for me because you think I’m in a place to offer you anything more than a night, Gigi ... I can’t. I’m not even in a place where I’m doing a great job of taking care of myself.”

“I’m not asking for more.”

She couldn’t.

Her life was in upheaval, too. Maybe in a different way than his, sure. That didn’t change her circumstances or that she couldn’t afford to get involved with Lev on a deeper level than they currently were together. She didn’t mind his honesty, and if anything, appreciated it.

“And hey,” she said, leaning in close so that her lips brushed his as she spoke, “I don’t mind the building. Or the man I came here with tonight. Don’t worry about it. My mom told me once that it doesn’t really matter where you are or have been because it’s all about where you’re gonna be someday. I try to keep it in mind. You should, too.”

Lev made a noise in the back of his throat. “That’s quite a dream to believe in.”

“It’s a dream that happened to me. Why couldn’t it happen to you?”

Something in her words spurred him to crush his mouth against hers in a bruising kiss that yanked the breath from her lungs. Those hands of his left the wall to find her jaw and his warm palms slipped down to cup her throat, too. Pushing her head to tilt back against the wall, that kiss and those teeth of his traveled down her throat, pulling moans from her chest with every inch he tasted.

And each time, she pulled him closer and pushed into him. Before she knew it, the two of them were acting like a pair of teenagers in yet another apartment building hallway. They couldn’t get close enough. Couldn’t touch enough. Couldn’t get enough. Without shame, she widened her legs again to get his grinding hips closer to her aching center.