Page 40 of Assassin's Mark
Chapter Nineteen
He couldn’t be serious. And yet, looking into that face, I found it impossible to tell. This man that I’d been able to read clearly earlier today, when his fear for his brothers had shredded his control over his temper, and minutes before, when my mouth had crumbled his control over his body, was now an enigma I couldn’t decipher.
He didn’t wait for me to. His big bodyloomed over me, crowding step by slow step into my personal space, stealing every molecule of air, every bit of choice. That was all it took to force me into the bedroom. My stomach fluttered with anticipation and cramped with intimidation at the same time, all of it mixing with a sense of inevitability I couldn’t quite shake. Every step I’d taken, every move I’d made had led me here, literally andfiguratively.
The only question was, now what?
The hard push of the mattress into the backs of my knees startled me out of my fixation on the enemy. Thrown off balance, I fell backward onto the bed. Levi leaned a knee on the edge. "Scoot back."
I scrambled for the feeling of control I’d had mere minutes before. “No.”
"Do what I say, Abby."
"No."
But a denial couldn’t keep a man like Leviaway. As if he was lifting a five-year-old, he gripped my arms and shoved me farther onto the bed, his massive torso following. I tried pushing him back, only to have both hands gathered into one of his and planted firmly above my head.
Trapped. Why was I always trapped by this man?
Because you don’t really want to get away?
I closed my eyes against that voice—and against the breathtaking sightof Levi above me. Whatever I imagined we’d shared in the shower, it would never be real. In the morning it would all be smoke, just like that first night.
“Don’t play the coward with me now, little bird.”
My eyelids snapped open. Satisfaction lit the eyes mere inches above my own. Bastard. He wanted me to be brave? Fine. "This is just another game, Levi. I'm tired of games." I wanted somethingmutual or nothing at all. "I'm done with other people controlling me. Just leave me alone."
Dark brows narrowed to a vee as he stared down at me. “I should. I really should.” His gaze shifted to my mouth. “So why do I find it so fucking impossible?”
I opened my mouth, but he didn’t give me time to reply before his lips met mine.
God, I loved how he kissed—and hated how thoroughly it rippedthrough my defenses. His tongue thrust inside, reminding me of his relentless invasion of my body just last night. The sensation lit me up from the inside out, destroying my resistance in an instant. Instead I strained toward him without thought, needing him deeper, needing to devour him as thoroughly as he was devouring me. If my mouth had been free, I’d beg him to take me, to fuck me—anything tomake me forget the fear, the helplessness, but most of all, to forget how much he didn’t care. No one cared; the sooner I accepted that, the better. The pleasure Levi gave me was a cheap imitation, but it would do for now—if he let go. The slower he went, the more time I had to think. Mindlessness was my only refuge right now.
Levi’s lips left mine. He moved to my ear, my neck, my shoulder, atrail of hard, sucking kisses that sent shafts of sensation straight to my core. I held my breath, waiting, wanting, a cry of need at the back of my teeth, and then his rough lips were gliding down my skin to meet my nipple. The tip crinkled up hard beneath his breath, begging where I would not.
Levi didn’t let it beg for long.
His mouth surrounding me brought tears of relief and torment tomy eyes. The cry I’d held back escaped in a sharp burst of air. My hands went to his head without thought, pulling him harder against me, urging him to take more, always more. And it wasn’t enough. I needed him inside me, filling me. I wrapped my legs around his narrow hips and pulled.
Levi sat up. Cold shock pierced my lust-fogged brain, jolting me back to conscious thought. “What—”
A hardpalm landed on the flat plain of my stomach and pressed me firmly into the mattress. “I'll give you my cock when I’m ready, not before,” he growled, the words gravel rough, dark…dangerous.
Exactly who he was. How could I forget?
I lay there, conflicted, bereft, staring at the ceiling, trying to push away the sense of loss. The need to hide swamped me, and yet I couldn't turn away, not with himbetween my legs, holding me down. But I could turn my head. Deny him with my words.
“I don’t want to play games.”
There was a pause. Weighted silence. And then Levi was leaning over me once more. “Abby, look at me.”
I didn’t want to—or rather, I didn’t want to want to. But there was something in his command…
That was it. The words were a command, but the tone…he was asking.
I turned my head.Met his eyes. In the dark I couldn’t read him well, so I waited for the words, the tone, once more.
“This isn’t a game,” he said. There was something almost…hesitant in the statement. Tentative. Except this was Levi we were talking about. There was nothing hesitant or tentative about the hardened assassin between my legs.
