Chapter Twenty-One
Abby
Levi covers my body with his own, the coarseness of the hair on his legs tickling my overly sensitive skin. My heart is pounding in my chest, I’m sure the neighbors can hear it.
“You’re sure? I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I want to make sure you’re really okay with this,” he says softly, running his hand along my jaw and pushing a strand of hair behind my ear.
God, I love it when he does that.
“I’m sure. There’s no one I trust in this world more than you,” I confirm. His eyes smile down on me moments before his lips claim mine. And holy cow, do they claim. Each kiss is more possessive, more dominating than the one before.
Wrapping my legs tightly around his waist, I feel the pierced head of his erection press against my wetness. A gasp slips out from the onslaught of sensations it creates. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t gotten this much action even in the few weeks’ worth of dating Colton.
Without saying a word, I feel him flex his hips and slide into my body, stretching me just as much as he did the previous two times before. I try to relax, to allow my body to adjust to his incredible size, but that piercing moves against the walls of my girly parts and causes my body to go haywire. Whoever said those things heighten the feelings during sex definitely knew what they were talking about.
Our eyes remain locked as he reaches for the guitar leaning against the side of the bed. Taking the instrument in his hand, he places it above my head, never once faltering in his hip movements.
Yeah, he’s that talented.
“Reach up,” he tells me, gently thrusting into me. Placing my hands above my head, he sets the neck of his favorite guitar in my hands. “Grab it.” And of course, I do. “Don’t let go,” he adds before giving me a wicked smile.
Then he starts to move. He’s slow but deliberate, precise each time he fills me, completely. I’m hypnotized by the way his eyes watch me. He scans my face, his eyes lingering on my eyes, before falling slowly down to where we’re joined together. The way his hazel orbs flare with heat as he watches causes me to flex and tighten around him. My grip on the guitar turns white-knuckle taut as I gaze down and see what he’s watching.
When his eyes return to mine, they’re soft and full of unspoken emotions that remind me of something deep and heartfelt. I’m sure it’s just the sex that has that look on his face, but I can’t help but wonder if that look means more than the typical friendship vibes I usually get from him.
“Damn, that’s fucking sexy,” he says, flexing his hips expertly, his eyes locked on where I grip his guitar. His hands trace my arms from my shoulders all the way up to my hands. When he gets there, he wraps his hands around mine and holds me tight.
Words that I shouldn’t say spill to the tip of my tongue, threatening to let fly everything that I’m feeling. We crossed over the friendship line and are toying with a relationship, but this? This is so much more than just caring for someone.
I’m falling in love with him.
Hell, I’ve always been in love with him. Way before I even knew what love was, I’ve felt a connection to Levi. What started off as friendship, early in our youth, has slowly blossomed into full-on love. I know it; I feel it.
I just don’t know what to do with it.
I can’t risk saying it and scaring him off for good. Levi’s skittish about this whole relationship thing in the first place, but to throw labels and titles and big words like love around? That’s suicide for us. So, I bite my tongue and hold in the words I long to say and just revel in the way he makes me feel.
Levi’s piercing hits my G-spot, and I practically see stars. I’ve heard all about this mythical, magical place, but never experienced it firsthand. With Levi, he’s shown me over and over again that it really does exist. And right now, the small barbell of his apa piercing is rubbing me in all the right ways.
I feel myself clenching around him as I get closer and closer to an orgasm. I’m lost in a sea of wonderment when he bends down, whispers words of how gorgeous I am in my ear and plays with my nipple with one hand. His other hand remains locked on my hands, holding on to me as if he doesn’t ever want to let go.
“Only my name,” he whispers, flexing his hips and rotating them in this delicious way that makes me see stars.
“Levi,” I whisper just to see how his face lights up again.
I’m rewarded with a small smile and a deeper thrust. Words evade me as I climb higher, my body tightening around him, taut like a guide wire. Panting, I explode, my eyes glued on his as I detonate like a bomb. He holds his breath as he watches me come, but continues to move inside me. His jaw tightens, his mouth a thin line, yet he continues to watch. Euphoria fills me completely as he finally lets go, releasing himself inside of me with a grunt and the whisper of my name.
He collapses, his weight pinning me to the mattress. His skin is hot and sweaty and sticking to me, but I don’t mind. My entire body is dead weight, even if he wasn’t on top of me. Smiling against his shoulder, I give him gentle kisses. Unfortunately, my own shoulders start to burn, and it’s then that I realize my arms are still pinned above my head by one hand.
Wiggling my hands to gain blood flow, Levi lifts his head and glances up. “Oh, shit. Sorry,” he says sheepishly before letting go of my hands and moving the guitar to the side. Taking my hands in his own, he shakes my arms and moves my fingers, placing a kiss on the end of each of my ten digits.
As exhaustion starts to settle in, I find myself cocooned in the security of his arms. He pulls me snuggly into his chest, my legs tucked between his. I’m wrapped in comfort as my eyelids droop and eventually close. Levi’s hold on me never relaxes, even as he starts to drift off to sleep.
My last conscious thought is not how amazing this feels–and wow, does it feel pretty spectacular–but how will I ever go back to sleeping solo after this.
* * *
Sisters’ night isn’t going the way we planned. It’s not a good day for Meghan, as tomorrow would have been Josh’s birthday. She tried to cancel our plans, but we’re a lot more tenacious than to allow her to sit at home alone, drowning in her tears and wallowing in her misery. This is the first special occasion without him, and his birthday nonetheless.
Meghan’s trying to be strong, but the tears just keep coming. That’s why we’re at her house instead of doing one of the other activities we had planned for tonight. Payton ordered pizza with all of our favorite toppings, Jaime brought six different quarts of ice cream, and AJ and Lexi brought booze. Lots of booze. And me? Well, before Levi went to work, he made me a batch of his famous spinach dip with fresh, warm bread.
“You guys should go out and have fun. This isn’t what these nights are for,” Meghan says between sniffles. She’s sandwiched on the couch between AJ and Payton, each of them taking turns filling up her plate or her glass when either starts to empty.
“No, these nights are for whatever we need, and tonight, we need this. I’d rather be here with you, holding you while you hurt, than getting drunk in a bar and failing at playing putt-putt golf,” Lexi adds from her seat beside me.
“Agreed,” we all say in unison.
“Someone tell me something good. I need to hear something that’ll make me smile,” she whispers, her desperate green eyes bouncing from one sister to the next.
“Okay, so Brielle might have started to call me…Mom last week,” Payton says, her eyes alive with happiness.
“What?” we all ask at the same time.
“That’s amazing,” I tell her.
“It is. She asked Dean if he thought I would be okay with it. Dean told her the only way to know for sure was to ask me. It took all of the strength I had not to cry when she asked. Her voice was so strong and steady, and I’m pretty sure she held her breath when she waited for my answer. Of course, there was only one answer to give her, and before we were done talking, she called me Mom; you know, just to try it out.” Payton, our oldest, fearless sister, has tears swimming in her eyes and leaking down her cheek. Funny that it took a five-year-old girl to bring her to her knees.
“That’s beautiful. You’re going to be an amazing mother to that little girl,” Lexi whispers, tears in her own eyes.
“Well, ummm…I might have found a receipt in Ryan’s work pants this morning. A receipt from Casberry’s,” Jaime tells us.
“Casberry’s Jewelry?” I holler way too loudly. (Bad, alcohol. Bad.)
“No, Casberry’s Egg Farm,” Jaime retorts with a look. “Yes, of course, Casberry’s Jewelry.”
“Well, maybe he bought you some great earrings to go with the necklace he got you for Christmas,” AJ says, levelheadedly.
“In August? My birthday was months ago. If he were going to get me them, wouldn’t he have done it already?”
“It’s totally an engagement ring,” Meghan whispers beside Payton. “He looks at you as if you hung the moon and the stars. That kinda love? Well, it’s once in a lifetime.” Her face falls slightly and tears fill her green eyes, but she offers her a small smile. “Believe me, I know. What you have with Ryan is what I had. He loves you so much that he’d crawl to the end of the earth just to make you smile.”
The lump in my throat feels suffocating.
“Payton,” Meg says, turning towards our oldest sister as the tears start to fall. “You’ll be next, I know it. Dean knows exactly what kinda amazing woman he has with you. Not only do you love him unconditionally, but his daughter too.” Tears brim Payton’s eyes before slowly sliding down her cheek.
“And you,” she says, turning her attention to me.
“Me?” I ask, my throat clogged with so much emotion. “Don’t give up on Levi. I know you keep saying you’re just friends, but I’m here to tell you you’re not. He loves you, even if he doesn’t know how to say it or show it.”
“Actually…” I start, not quite sure if this is the right time to tell them, but unable to keep it to myself any longer. “Levi and I, well, we’ve sort of been…seeing each other.”
“Of course you have,” Meg says, giving all of my sisters a real smile.
“And you two. Your happy ending is coming too.” Meg stares straight at Lexi and AJ.
Lexi diverts her eyes, trying to hide her pain. But I see it, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s any closer to reaching a decision about leaving Chris. Last time she was at my place, she was seriously considering it, and I know when she’s ready, she’ll make the right choice.
AJ snorts and rolls her eyes. “Not me. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be single forever. The last guy I slept with was so bad I fell asleep, Meggy.”
“You fell asleep?” I ask, recalling how boring sex had been with Colton years ago. But Levi? There’s no way I could even comprehend how someone could fall asleep when you have someone like Levi delivering the best orgasms of your life.
“Yeah, Dexter definitely isn’t all he’s cracked up to be,” she snorts, rolling her eyes.
“Dexter? Levi’s drummer Dexter?”
AJ looks a little sheepish and a whole lot mortified, but she confirms, “Yeah. He was awful.” Suddenly, we’re all laughing, and laughing hard.
When the laughter dies, we all look around at each other, drinks in hand and tears drying in our eyelashes.
“You’ll find it again, Meggy. You have the most beautiful heart of all of us, and you’re destined to love. I know it’s hard to think about it now, but you’ll find your happiness again.” Payton’s words cause that lump in my throat to swell in size.
“My love died in a car accident six months ago, Pay. I honestly can’t even imagine feeling that kind of love again. And that’s okay. No one will ever measure up to Josh,” she whispers, closing her eyes as memories of her lost love plague her mind.
“You don’t have to think about that now, Meg,” I say, getting up and crouching before her. “Someday, you’ll find someone who’ll consider himself the luckiest man in the world because he gets to love you. It might not be now and it might not be easy, but I believe with all my heart that you’ll have your happily ever after.” Glancing around at my sisters, I add, “We all will.”
The next thing I know, I’m surrounded by five pairs of arms as we shed tears and hold each other in only the way sisters can do. We comfort each other in our times of sorrow and celebrate when the time calls for rejoicing. We’re a mixture of happy and sad, but that’s the way life goes.
“I love you,” I whisper to no one in particular.
“Love you too,” they all repeat one after the other.
We embrace each other for several minutes, wiping our tears of joy and grief. When we’re left with nothing but smiles and sniffles, Lexi turns to Jaime and says, “You realize Grandma’s going to want to plan your bachelorette party, right?”
Again, we all burst into giggles, each of us smiling so big it hurts. After a few moments, the laughter dies down and Meghan turns to me. “I kinda want to hear all about Levi and Abby.”
My face burns with a brutal flush, but their eager and hopeful eyes encourage me to speak. “Let’s just say, it was so hot, it felt like my body was touching the sun,” I start to a chorus of girly giggles.
“And then he grabbed his guitar…”
* * *
The fogginess in my head keeps me from glancing at my alarm clock, but seeing the sunlight filter through the cracks of my eyelids, I can tell it must be mid-morning. My head throbs with the aftermath of a night in with my sisters. I know I drank more than normal, but the conversations were a tad heavier than our usual sisters’ nights.
Dean delivered me to my building somewhere around one this morning, helping me into my apartment before securing the lock and heading out to take his girlfriend home. They were probably doing dirty things to each other before they even got out of my parking lot. That’s what happens when you’re in love and can’t keep your hands off each other.
I never really saw that with Lexi and Chris, but I can justify that with being away at school when they were deciding to move in together immediately after high school. And Meg and Josh were a little less PDA and a lot more cutesy hand holding and kissing discretely in their coupledom. Understandably, I never really saw the appeal of wanting someone so bad that you’d risk a public indecency charge just to give road-head.
But now? With Levi? The thought of driving down the road and needing to taste him, bring him to the point of explosion just because we can’t wait another five minutes to get safely home, definitely holds some appeal. In fact, I might want to try the whole blowjob thing on our next outing.
Needing to cross my legs to ebb the desire I suddenly feel, I’m startled when my leg encounters a much hairier one. Before I can scream out for help (you know, because there’s an ax murderer snuggling me in my bed right now), I’m pulled into strong arms and a muscular bare chest. Familiarity slides down my spine, sending all of my senses on high alert.
And then his scent hits me. He smells like woodsy soap and mint toothpaste, and my already overly sensitive body is suddenly aching with need. My hands slide up his bare chest, caressing each abdominal muscle that God graced him with. He tenses beneath my touch, but relaxes just as quickly, as if he knows who’s touching him, even in sleep.
His eyes are closed, a peaceful look etched on his gorgeous face. His sandy blond hair is askew from sleep or going to bed with wet hair. My fingers itch to slide through those soft locks.
Levi must sense my wakeful eye, and slowly cracks open his own. I’m rewarded with a soft smile and the happiest hazel eyes on the planet. “Hey,” he mumbles, pulling me into his arms.
“How’d you get in here?” I ask, sleepily, as he draws me deeper into his embrace.
“The spare key I made you give me so I had it if you ever forgot yours,” he mumbles, running his nose along the shell of my ear.
“Oh. That’s convenient.”
“Mmmhmmm. Is it okay that I’m here? I didn’t like the idea of sleeping in my bed alone.”
Well, if that doesn’t set my heart a flutterin’.
“Yes. I like that you’re here,” I tell him, his arms wrapping even tighter around my abdomen.
“Did you have a good night with your sisters?” he asks quietly, closing his eyes once more.
“Yeah. What time did you get here?” I ask, unable to keep myself from touching him any longer. My hand goes to his hair and there’s no missing the way his eyes flutter dreamily when I toy with his shaggy locks.
“Got off at six. Showered at my place, but I couldn’t sleep. Crawled over here about seven.”
Glancing over his shoulder, the clock on the wall reads eight-thirty. “Go back to sleep. We can talk more later.”
“Stay with me here?” he asks, pulling me even closer into his body until I’m not sure where I end and he begins.
“Always,” I whisper, continuing to play with his hair until he drifts off to sleep.
Then, like some crazy high school stalker, I watch him sleep, taking in every flutter of his eyelids and movement of his uber sexy mouth. A few times he whispers, but I can’t understand what he says. Before I can stop myself from going there, I wonder if he’s dreaming about me. Lord knows I’ve had plenty of nights where I dreamed of him.
After another thirty minutes, my bladder can’t take it any longer, and it’s very necessary that I get up. It’s almost physically painful to slip out of his arms and scoot undetected out of bed. He reaches for me, even in deep sleep, but doesn’t wake up. It’s easy to get lost in watching him; well, until I realize I’m about to pee my pants.
I take care of business in the bathroom and brush my teeth before heading into the kitchen. I’m surprised when I reach the coffee pot, mostly because I didn’t prepare it before bed last night–or this morning. Whatever. There’s only one person who could have done it, and that thought causes those butterflies to take flight in my stomach and warmth to spread through my body.
Smiling, I start the coffee maker and throw a slice of bread in the toaster. There’s a small pile of mail on the counter, and after tossing away all of the junk, I have three new bills to pay. My toast pops up, slightly on the burnt side to Levi’s dismay, and I grab a jar of homemade apple butter. Levi and I made a bunch last fall after someone brought in several buckets of fresh apples from their tree, into the hospital. The result was a dozen jars of cinnamony apple butter that goes perfectly on an English muffin or toast.
I make a mental note to check into getting more apples, since I’m halfway through my last jar.
Instead of heading into my room to watch Levi sleep like a completely hopeless loser, I grab my coffee and toast and head into my office. I finish off my toast while my computer fires up, and before long, I’m staring at my desktop. Emails await me, this I’m sure, but it’s the dating site app that I find my mouse hovering over. Two clicks later, and the site pops up on my screen.
Ignoring the new “matches” the system has chosen for me, I bring up the message screen. Not surprising, I find one from SimpleMan. Instantly, I recall Friday night when Levi started to play the song, his arms wrapped around me. Funny that they have the same song, right? I mean most people when they have their pick of any Skynyrd song either pick “Sweet Home Alabama” or “Freebird.”
Clicking on his message, I smile.
SimpleMan: It’s early in the morning and I’m just heading to bed. Hope you have an amazing day, Angel.
Just going to bed?
The message was sent at 6:56am.
I wonder what kind of job SimpleMan has? When we were getting to know each other, he said something about public service but he’s never really said what that is. Maybe he has a job like Levi’s where he works odd hours.
Weird, right?
Shaking off the strange feeling settling into my gut, I type out a reply.
AngelEyes: Just heading to bed? What do you do exactly? My day will consist of laundry, lunch with my family, and maybe dinner with a friend. Sleep well, Simple.
Uneasiness stirs in my stomach causing my coffee to not settle well. Heck, that could be from the drinking last night too. Shutting down the app, I bring up my email. After scanning through and deleting the junk, I send two replies to my boss regarding my current project before logging off completely and heading towards the living room.
Unable to stop myself, I gawk openly at the man sleeping in my bed. I still have this odd feeling that I can’t shake as he softly snores against my spare pillow. Why, I’m not sure, but something tells me I’m missing something. Something big–and not in the good way.
I just wish I could pinpoint what.