Page 28 of Guarding the Shadows
The bright lights in the room, made me squint as Levi came into focus.
“Take a seat,” he ordered, pointing to a chair, a twin of the one I had sat in when I’d fucked his sister.
Padding slowly, I did what he instructed. “Before you say anything, I have something to say.”
“All in good time. I’m paying for this rodeo, so I’m asking the questions first.”
I let out a long sigh, almost resigned to learn my fate. Leaving Screaming Shadows would sting. It would be like cutting off a limb because I thought of them all as family.
“What the fuck got into you, Raff? Or should I say, Beth?”
I shook my head at his lewd remark. “Listen, I love you … love working with you, but there’s something between Beth and me. It goes all the way back to the tour,” I admitted. I held up my hands. “I never touched her then. I’d never have disrespected her like that … or Gwen. You know me, straight as an arrow.”
“I do. Tell me, are you just messing with her? I mean last week you were still broken-hearted, crying into your beer and moping about the one that got away.”
“Not messing. I risked my job for her,” I reminded him.
“Credit where it’s due, if that’s your honest answer.”
“It is,” I replied flatly.
“You want to date my sister?”
“I don’t need your permission, Levi. Sack me if you want. We’re adults and I think we’ve got more than chemistry going on.”
Levi nodded. “That’s good to know, because if you were just an opportunist, I would have had Bodhi tie you down and I’d have cut the skin off your dick with a rusty razor blade.”
We both fell silent, and I glanced past him to the closed doors to Beth’s bedroom. “So, where does that leave us?”
“With a complication,” he answered quickly.
“Yeah,” I said quietly.
Another pregnant pause ensued. I waited patiently until he thought things though. “Okay, here’s the deal. Can you still do your job without the distraction of Beth?”
I nodded. “She won’t always be with you, and you might even end up in the same position as you were with Gwen.”
“No, I won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Beth’s deal is different. She can plan her gigs for when you guys aren’t on the road, and when she’s not playing, she can visit with me when my downtime allows.”
“Got it all figured out, haven’t you?”
“No, but we will,” I said confidently.
Levi stared me down until it became unnerving, then slapped his thighs and stood. “Right then, you’d better not let me or Beth down. Keep your job, keep my sister—if you treat her right. If not, the next conversation we have on this topic won‘t be nearly as cordial.”
I nodded.
“This is where you’re supposed to say, ‘Thank you, Levi’.”
I chuckled. “Sorry, dude, but that would be weird. It would feel like I was thanking you for letting me fuck your sister.”
Levi bit back a grin. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” he muttered as he wandered over to the room’s dividing doors.
“You can come out now, Beth, I’ve already told him the same as I’m telling you … you can keep him.”
