CHAPTER 8
Dear Levi, do you remember that time you sacked that guy on the beach for hitting his girlfriend? Did you know that’s the moment you melted my heart? Did you know that’s the instant I fell in love with you?
“I can’t believe you didn’t just tell him you were the one who’s been writing the letters,” Winnie admonished, exasperated. “I don’t understand what the big deal is now. I could see it before--the possibility of humiliation and all--but now?” She pulled a shrug and shook her head, looking as though she’d like to shake her instead. “I just don’t get it. He likes you, you little neurotic moron. Tell him.”
Thankful that the bakery was empty and that no one was privy to Winnie’s unusually loud advice, Natalie popped a bite of iced sugar cookie into her mouth and nodded. “I will. Really.”
“When?” her friend pressed.
“Today.” Her cheeks puffed as she exhaled mightily. “If the letter does come today, then I’ll tell him.”
“If you don’t, then I will,” Winnie threatened.
Natalie felt her eyes widen, certain that her friend had to be joking. “You wouldn’t,” she breathed, slightly horrified. What the hell was wrong with her? She’d been a bit out of sorts since the moment Natalie had come in a few minutes ago.
Winnie rolled her eyes. “Of course, I wouldn’t. I just hate to see you blow this.”
Marginally mollified, Natalie leaned against the counter. “I’m not blowing it. Didn’t you hear anything I said? He told me that he’d wanted to kiss me for years, that the only reason he’d never made a play for me was because he thought that Adam and I might eventually become a thing.”
Winnie’s eyes widened significantly and she snorted. “Him and everybody else,” she said.
Ah, Natalie realized. Now they were getting somewhere. Adam. “How did seeing Adam go the other day?”
Winnie immediately busied herself wiping down a display case. “Fine.”
“He said you’d come by.”
“I took your advice and fixed him a care package.”
Natalie watched her closely. “Yeah?”
Winnie’s face crumpled in frustration. “I’d been better off if I’d been a petite four,” she all but wailed. “Oh, Natalie, I just need to forget him. I need to move on, to let it go...and yet I can’t. I’ve tried.”
“What happened?”
She smiled sadly. “Nothing. That’s just it. He barely looked at me and had less to say.”
Natalie frowned. “He was unfriendly?” That didn’t sound like Adam.
“Not unfriendly. Just...uninterested. I mentioned coaching my softball team--something he would have been interested in before--but he only grunted. I told him about training for that 10K I’m running in the fall and he muttered a weak congratulations.” Her small shoulders lifted in a fatalistic shrug. “I wish I’d never gone over there. Seeing him was hard enough. Seeing him and realizing that he can’t even drum up the enthusiasm to make small talk with me? That’s worse.”
Natalie tsked under her breath. “Winnie, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. Adam’s just been Adam with me, you know? I just assumed--“
Winnie’s lips twisted with bitter humor and her violet eyes glazed with unshed tears. “He’s always been ‘just Adam’ with you, Nat. You have no idea how much I envy you that.”
“Oh, Winnie,” Natalie said, her voice thick as she pulled her friend into a hug. “I’m so sorry. I wish I knew--“
The bell tinkled over the door, interrupting what she was about to say and Adam’s low whistle filled in the rest of her sentence. “Damn. If I’d known I was going to get to see a little girl on girl action along with one of the best cookies in the world, I would have been coming down here every morning.”
Winnie’s wide gaze swung to Adam and she blinked, then quickly dashed away the lone tear which had escaped.
Naturally, Adam didn’t miss it, Natalie noticed. His questioning gaze swung to her and she aimed an I’ll-deal-with-you-later look in his direction.
He merely blinked innocently. “I’ve been looking for you,” he told her. “I went by the gallery first, but when you weren’t there I figured I’d find you here.”
Winnie turned away and pretended to check on the éclair case.
Torn between both friends, Natalie crossed her arms over her chest. “Why have you been looking for me?”
“Because I can’t get anything out of my tight-lipped brother and wanted to know how things went last night.”
Natalie pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Things went fine. He liked my lasagna.”
Adam stared at her. “That’s it. I practically shove the two of you together, spend a lonely night at home in front of the television when I could have been watching a miserable chick flick with you and that’s all you’re going to give me? He liked my lasagna?”
Natalie shrugged, enjoying this more than she should. “’fraid so.”
Adam’s outraged gaze swung to Winnie, evidently hoping that she would give him the scoop. Winnie merely grinned. “It’s damn good lasagna.” Her gaze bounced back and forth between the two of them. “But I will tell you this--“
Natalie whirled on her friend.
“--they didn’t watch a chick flick.”
“Winnie!” she admonished, outraged.
A wide grin split Adam’s face and he turned to stare at her. “Well, well, well. If you didn’t watch a movie, just what did you do?”
“She didn’t say that we didn’t watch a movie. She said we didn’t watch a chick flick.”
Adam chewed the inside of his cheek. “What did you watch?”
“I’ll never tell,” Natalie said, because she knew it would infuriate him.
Adam looked to Winnie and she silently willed her friend to be strong. “Well?”
“They watched The Shining.”
Stunned at how quickly her friend caved, Natalie’s mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“You’ve got too many secrets,” Winnie said archly.
“Not anymore,” Adam remarked, staring across the street at the post office. A smug grin she absolutely didn’t trust curled his lips. “Levi’s got a handful of mail and he’s wearing a smile so big I can count his teeth from here. Oh, and look. He’s headed toward your gallery.” To Natalie’s absolute shock, Adam poked his head out the door and bellowed across the way at his brother. “Hey! She’s down here!” He rubbed his hands together, then hobbled over to a chair and sat down. “In absence of popcorn, I’ll have one of those little cake thingies. Come join me, Winnie. We’re about to have ringside seats.”
Natalie gaped at them.
Adam tsked and shook his head. “I can count your teeth, too, but obviously for different reasons.”
“Asshole,” Natalie said. “Would you shut up?”
“You were going to tell him today anyway,” Winnie pointed out.
The sugar cookie she’d eaten only moments before churned in her belly and she resisted the pressing urge to flee from the store. This had been coming. She knew it. She knew the letter was going to get here. She knew he was going to find out that she’d been the one writing him.
She knew it...and yet she wasn’t prepared.
Two seconds later, Levi appeared at the door. His pale toffee gaze--hot and happy and confused--slammed into hers before he entered the store.
She saw the envelope in his hand, recognized her address stamp from where she stood. Nausea hit and, hand over her mouth, she bolted to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, after brushing her teeth--she always carried a toothbrush and paste for this very reason--Natalie steeled herself for what was to come and opened the door.
Levi stood there, leaning against the wall in the small hallway away from the main dining room. He looked up from the letter in his hand.
“You’ve got to quit doing this,” he said, jerking his head toward the bathroom. “This is not the kind of thing a guy wants to inspire in a woman.”
Natalie crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed the back of her calve with her other foot. She gestured toward the letter. “You know perfectly well how you inspire me,” she said. “Especially now.”
Levi’s caramel gaze caught hers. “I don’t understand. You’d put a return address on this one. Why couldn’t you just tell me? I all but asked you last night.”
Natalie looked away, feeling a flush creep up her neck. “Er...the thing is...I didn’t exactly put the return address stamp on there.”
A line emerged between his brows and an unsure smile curved his lips. “I’m not following.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “You can’t always know everything.”
“Natalie.”
“Lacey, my miserable-ass assistant, did it,” she admitted, releasing a pent up breath. “In a rare instance of efficiency, she noticed the letter on my desk, stamped it and took it to the post office along with my other promotional mailings.”
A slow grin slid over Levi’s lips. “You mean this was an accident?”
She nodded and lowered her head. “Of epic proportions. You were never supposed to know it was me.”
“Never?”
“At least not until I was ready to tell you.”
Levi moved forward, put a finger underneath her chin and lifted her head. “Would you have ever told me?”
“I was going to tell you today. You can ask Winnie. That’s what we were just talking about.”
“You could have told me this morning,” he pointed out. “When we were combing.”
Too true, she knew. She was such a coward. “That wasn’t the right time.”
He chuckled softly and she felt that wicked laugh in her belly. “Why not?”
“Because I was thinking about other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like what I’d written in those letters.” Like kissing him, and rolling around the sand with him and feeling his wonderful bare ass beneath her hands and the hardest part of him pushing in and out of the softest part of her. She’d been thinking about licking him from one end to the other and savoring the smell of him and wrapping her legs around his waist.
Levi’s gaze darkened. “You mean like how much you want me?”
An embarrassed chuckle vibrated out of her mouth. “I think we’ve pretty much established that.”
“Do you remember what I told you last night?” he asked, sidling closer to her.
Her gaze searched his. “A-about what?”
He backed her against the wall and planted a hand on either side of her head. He was about to lay siege again, Natalie realized, and he was bringing the heavy artillery. “About not wasting anymore time.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Want me to tell you where I went before I dropped by the post office?”
He nuzzled her neck and her breath hitched in her lungs. Longing knifed through her and heat slickened her folds. Her nipples pearled beneath the thin fabric of her bra. “Wh-where?”
“The drug store. I might not be a Boy Scout, but baby, I’m prepared.”
* * *
Levi started to back her into the bathroom, but Natalie retained just enough sense to halt him. “Not in there,” she said between kisses. She’d just tossed her cookies--literally--in there. “Here,” she said, dragging him toward Winnie’s store room.
She looped her arms around his neck and, with a little jump, wrapped her legs around his waist. Levi determinedly pushed inside the small, darkened room, then closed the door with his foot.
“Lock it,” she mumbled against his mouth.
“They’re not coming in. I told them we’d need some privacy.”
Natalie chuckled, suckling his bottom lip. “Sounds like you thought of everything.”
Levi fed at her mouth, kissed her until every bone in her body felt like it had melted. He dragged her shirt up over her head and tugged the strings of her bikini top loose with his teeth. He growled low in his throat. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dreamed of doing that? This damned bikini drives me nuts. You drive me nuts.”
Pleasure bloomed in her chest as she dragged his shirt from the waistband of his jeans. “You’ve always had a pretty depraved effect on me, too. As you well know.”
“Wanna know a secret?”
“You know all of mine,” she pointed out. “I think knowing one of yours is only fair.”
Levi drew back and his heavy-lidded gaze tangled with hers. She saw desire and need and something else...something more elemental and altogether dangerous. “I wanted it to be you. I would lay there at night in the barracks and picture you doing the things to me that you’d written. It was your face I saw when I read your letters. It was you I wrote back to.” He released a shaky breath. “It was you, Nat, all along.”
“Oh, Levi,” she said, her heart in her throat. He had no idea how much that meant to her. How deeply that “secret” he’d just shared affected her. Though now wasn’t the time, she felt the backs of her eyes tingle.
Levi kissed one lid and then the other, then his mouth slipped lower until it covered her own. His lips brushed hers once, twice, and then it was though something snapped between them. The tentative grasp on control gave way and suddenly he was kissing her until she thought she couldn’t breathe and ultimately, didn’t want to if it meant he’d stop.
Clothes vanished--her bikini top, his shirt, her shorts, his jeans. Her bikini bottom and his boxers later, they were rolling around on the floor of Winnie’s pantry--bits of flour and sugar everywhere--completely naked and completely, totally happy. She landed on top.
Levi bent forward, pulled her nipple into his mouth and suckled. “Damn, you taste good.”
“Not as good as you feel,” Natalie told him, smiling at the sugar smudge on his cheek. She leaned down and licked it off, then purposely settled her sex over the hot ridge of his arousal.
Hot, hard and huge. Her lids fluttered shut as sweet sensation bolted through her.
She couldn’t believe this was finally happening. After all these years, all of her pining away for him, after all of her letters...he was finally going to be hers.
And it couldn’t happen soon enough.
She didn’t want slow and easy--they’d have time enough for that later.
She wanted him now. “Prepare yourself,” she said, widening her eyes meaningfully.
A bark of laughter bubbled up from Levi’s throat. He did as she instructed, smoothing the protection into place. A second later, Natalie hovered above him, then sank slowly onto the long, hard length of him. The air left her lungs in a slow hiss as she seated herself firmly onto him.
Levi’s fingers dug into her hips and his lips peeled away from his teeth in a feral sort of smile that was strangely sexy. Their eyes locked and in that moment, everything inside of her seemed to click into place. She looked into his eyes and saw her future children, her happiness, her very world. This was happening here and now for a reason, Natalie realized as she bent forward and licked a flat, masculine nipple.
Levi flexed beneath her, pushing deeper. His hands slid around and shaped her rump, almost possessively, and the sensation was nothing short of amazing. He was hot and hard, soft skin and lean muscle and for the moment, completely, utterly hers.
And that thought simply did it for her.
Natalie leaned back and worked herself up and down the length of him. Her clit tingled and her breasts grew heavy and her neck suddenly didn’t feel like it could support her head, but none of that mattered because she was close, so very close to--
Levi upped the tempo beneath her, bucking deliberately. He bent forward and took the crown of her breast into his hot mouth and laved her nipple with his tongue. He palmed her other breast, abrading the sensitive peak, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger.
Little sparklers started dancing behind her closed lids and her belly grew impossibly more hot and muddled. The first flash of impending climax quickened in her womb and she felt Levi harden more inside of her.
She rode him harder, up and down, up and down, pushing, reaching, desperate for the release she’d waited so very long for.
“Levi, I need--“
“Me,” he said, pushing deeper, holding her hips as he took over and pistoned in and out of her. “You need me.”
Oh, Lord, yes, Natalie thought. She did. She needed him. Loved him. Had always loved him. This was what she’d been waiting for. Him. Inside her.
Harder and faster and harder still, he kept on, pushing into her heat, pummeling her sex, nailing her swollen clit with every single relentless drive of him deep inside of her.
He pushed again, one, two times, three, then squeezed her rear and she literally came so hard her back felt like it would break from the impact.
She stiffened above him, her mouth opened and a long, keening cry ripped from her very soul tore from her throat. Levi bent forward and caught that scream of release with his mouth, ate it and savored it. She felt him pulsing deep inside of her, then he suddenly went rigid and joined her in the wonderful world of Orgasm Land.
Breathing hard, Natalie collapsed on top of him. She could feel his heart pounding beneath her chest and there was something so affirming about that steady thump-thump-thump that tears inexplicably burned in her eyes.
At last. And it was everything she’d ever dreamed of and more. So much more.
His long, talented fingers stroked down her back, then up again and tangled in her hair. She could feel him testing the strands against his fingers, curling the length of it around his hand.
“This makes me want to drag you back to my cave and never let you go.”
Natalie grinned and kissed his chest, then gave her feminine muscles a gentle squeeze. “This makes me want to let you.”
“That was amazing,” he said, his voice a bit rusty.
“I won’t be lodging a complaint.”
His breathing slowed and he continued to play with her hair. “Do you have plans tonight?”
She drew a half-heart on his side. “Not until you ask me to do something.”
His chuckle vibrated under her cheek. “Come out on the boat with me,” he said softly. “Me, you and the moonlight. What do you say?”
Yes, yes, yes. “So long as you’re prepared, I’m there.”
Levi’s laugh stirred her hair and that sexy chuckle settled warmly around her heart. “You bet.”