Page 76 of Heartbreak Hero

At some point, she needed to have the baby conversation, but not right now and certainly not tonight. What she desired most was to strengthen their connection.

Not necessarily in bed, but that was a place to start.

She rapped again on the door; if he didn’t answer this time, she’d talk to him in the morning.

Levi opened it the next instant and pulled her inside. His foot shut the door with a slight thud. His hair was damp, he was shirtless, and water dripped down his chest. He’d pulled on a pair of jeans, but the top button was still undone.

“What took you so long?” he grumbled.

“That was my second knock. Were you waiting for me?” She arched one brow at him and walked past him to place the jacket and shirt on an accent chair by the window.

“Yes…” His voice sounded like a raspy frog.

“Why? Because you’re my official bodyguard?” She spun and shot him a challenging look.

Before Max had gone back to Seattle, the man had put Levi on the job of protecting her.

Levi hesitated, staying near the door, and frowned.

She loved the fact that she could catch him off guard.

“If you think you’re going to get into my panties again that easily, then you’re wrong.” She kept her tone light and her words clear, but he got the gist of it.

She may not be fighting with him right now, but she was far from wanting to jump in his bed. Which was a lie, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I don’t understand why you’re mad at me,” Levi said, releasing a heavy sigh.

“I know. And I’m not ready to talk about it yet. But I’m willing to get to know you better.” She crossed her arms, glad she’d worn both a bra and a shirt so her traitorous nipples wouldn’t give her away.

“Okay…” his voice trailed off.

“For starters, I have questions,” she began and lifted the jacket and shirt before sitting on the accent chair.

He came over and took both from her and hung the jacket, then tossed the shirt in a pile of clothes near the door.

“I’ll try to answer as honestly as I can,” he said.

She nodded and pulled at her bottom lip with her fingers. He held her gaze, and the honesty in his blue eyes was easy to see.

“I know you guys do some type of covert work for the government that involves…getting rid of bad people,” she said instead of saying the words “killing bad people,” she phrased it differently.

It wasn’t like they were a bunch of killers running around ending random people.

Levi walked over and sank down to sit on the edge of the bed, not far from her chair. He faced her as he spoke.

“That’s correct.”

“You called in the cleaners to make everything disappear.”

“Yes,” he rasped.

“And your organization is called Aries? I’m not sure about that part, but I overheard the name a while back.”

“Yes.”

He was giving her one-worded answers, but that was okay, she could work with that. She needed him to trust her enough to understand that she was stronger than she looked. She could handle a hell of a lot more than the average girl.

If her past hadn’t broken her, then nothing Levi did could. That wasn’t to say they wouldn’t have future arguments.

---