Page 43 of Levi

“Fuck, Q, you’re going to destroy me,” he says, his forehead against mine right as we hear voices getting closer.

My eyes widen, but I just stare back at him. “Maybe I’m not destroying you. Maybe I’m just shining the light on you like you’ve deserved your entire life.”

He pauses for a moment, like he is unsure how to react to what I just said. He grabs my shorts, helping me slip them back on just as Nash and Cooper walk into the kitchen that is open to the dining room. I have just enough time to grab his hand and pull him out the opposite door and down the hall to his bedroom, and we hear the cackles of the guys, definitely not hiding what just happened. Maybe I'm not quite done being reckless tonight.

I guess I’m still processing…

What the fuckity fuck are we doing?

Oh well, I guess we won’t berightback.

CHAPTER18

QUINN

“I don’t want to go.”I groan as Levi helps me slip my jacket on as I finish getting ready in his bathroom.

“I know, Angel, but we kind of have to,” Levi says.

“I know…but I don’t wanna.”

It’s just not worth the ass-chewing I would receive if I skipped out on tonight’s dinner. My uncle would be pissed if I bailed.

He’s already been such a dick about this dinner, telling me I ditched the last one and believing my sister when she lied and said I told her I’d be there. She just wanted me to look bad, to make it look like I was choosing Levi—a man they both hate—over my family. I know her games; she’s been like this since we were teenagers. I just keep hoping that one day she’ll snap out of it and stop acting like we’re against each other.

There are times when I see the old Ally, little snippets that give me hope, and it’s almost cruel because all it does is make me miss her, make me miss my sister being my best friend even though it hasn’t been like that for years.

“Who’s all going to be there again?”

“Just my aunt and uncle, Ally, and her boyfriend,” I say, checking myself in the mirror. I dressed casually compared to what Ally will probably show up wearing, but it’s not like we’re going to some five-star restaurant. It’s Nashville. I went with a pair of wide leg, high waisted jeans and cute buttons up the sides. I paired that with a tank top and a leather jacket, and this is about as fancy as I feel like getting. But I can’t shake the usual self-doubt, comparing myself to how effortlessly pretty and put-together my sister always looks. It’s a messy game, one that always ends in me feeling less than.

“What are you thinking about?” Levi asks, tilting my face up toward his—a simple gesture he does often, even just to talk. But it’s one I find so sexy. Maybe it’s because I love looking into his deep blue eyes, but it makes me feel close to him, connected in a way.

But also exposed, like he can read every thought and every emotion. And in this moment, I hate it.

“I just don’t want to go.”

“But why? Do you really think your he is going to give you that much of a hard time?” Levi asks.

“It’s not him I’d prefer not to see. It’s Ally.”

“I wish, for your sake, that you two got along better. I hate that you don’t and that you lost someone you used to be close with,” Levi says, his hand gently brushing down my hair, a tender gesture that makes me feel cared for, supported. Something you don’t do with your fake boyfriend or girlfriend.

But nothing we’ve been doing lately has really felt fake. Even just hanging out, the touches have become more common—casual touches here and there, little kisses on my forehead or in my hair. It’s all made me feel so close to him that if thisisfake, I don’t want to know.

“Me too, but at this point, I think pigs will fly before my sister is nice to me. Can we not go? I don’t want to hear her tell me my outfit sucks or I look silly or something.”

“She would really say that?”

“She has before,” I tell him, shrugging it off.

“You’re fucking stunning, Quinn. If she’s saying anything like that to you, it’s because she’s jealous. There is absolutely no other reason because it’s so false, it’s not even funny.”

“Oh, stop,” I say, slipping from his hold and heading out toward the living room. “Don't be ridiculous, Levi.”

“Me?” I hear from behind me as I grab my purse and take one last look in the entryway mirror only to see Levi walking up behind me.

Stalking would be a more appropriate term, but who has time for semantics?

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