Chapter 16

Frankie

I drifted slowly into consciousness, one heartbeat at a time. It seemed the most natural thing in the world that my body rested on something soft and my head on something hard, and that the faint drum of a heartbeat that wasn’t my own pulsed through my ears.

In my half awake, half dreaming state at first it didn’t matter to me whose chest I was lying on. I was sleepy. He was comfortable. End of story. But as the events of the night before threaded together in my mind, a feeling of dread settled into my stomach.

The arms wrapped loosely around my torso belonged to Levi. My sworn nemesis.

My eyes flicked open, and I glanced from his sculpted, tattooed chest to his head, propped up on the pillow. His eyes were closed, lips slightly parted. He was still peacefully asleep, and from the darkness of the room, I surmised it was early out.

I had sex with Levi. I had amazing sex with Levi. I could hardly believe it.

Tawdry memories from the night before flooded my mind and filled my core with heat. It was everything I could do not to wake him up and go for another round, but it was bad enough that we’d done it once already.

Sure, I agreed that I’d finally satisfied a craving that had been pestering me since I’d first laid eyes on his gorgeous face, but now what was going to happen? I couldn’t face the inevitable awkwardness of us waking up in the same bed together. Actually, awkwardness wouldn’t be the worst result. Worse would be if he woke up and was cold to me, like we’d done nothing more than shake hands. I was the one who’d said that us having sex wouldn’t change anything, but I couldn’t face seeing indifference in his eyes after he’d looked at me last night like I was the most beautiful thing in the world. I definitely couldn’t deal with it while I was naked.

I slowly extricated myself from his grip, inching back until my feet met with the edge of the mattress. Levi let out a sigh but otherwise didn’t stir. I wondered if he would even show it if he did wake up or if he’d just pretend so that he wouldn’t have to face me either.

I fumbled through a strange array of emotions on my way to my bedroom. Part of me longed to crawl back into his arms admitting that last night had changed something, but I feared his rejection more than I feared my own loneliness. I wondered if I’d given into my lust too easily, but remnants of that lust still burned under my skin and I knew it wasn’t that simple. Things between Levi and I were intense. It was like we’d uncapped a bottle, and a whole hurricane came roaring out. Now I was in the middle of the rubble trying to figure out what the hell happened.

I tiptoed into my room and put on some clothes, then grabbed my laptop and made for the door. I didn’t let myself breathe audibly until I reached the hallway.

It was too early to go to the bar, so I followed the signs to the hotel’s café near the lobby. I found a cheerful, bustling room, filled with the sounds of clinking plates and the hissing of the espresso machine. At the far side of the room, a collection of mismatched armchairs formed a fan around a majestic stone fireplace, in which a fire burned steadily and filled the room with dry heat. I ordered a coffee from the counter and found a table near a window. It was still snowing outside, though what could I expect? Now that Levi and I had had sex it would probably never stop. We’d be stuck up here together for the rest of eternity. No amount of sledding would be able to stop us from killing each other if that came to pass.

I booted up my laptop and checked the comments on my last blog post while I waited for my coffee to cool. My tips on handling a cranky member of the wedding party were a hit. I’d kept it simple, reminding my readers that everyone had their own set of problems. Sometimes those problems bled into their behavior. Getting to the root of a miser’s moodiness was better in the long run than going on the attack.

Funny that instead of taking my own advice, I had sex with my cantankerous groomsman. I wondered if I should add a note to the article warning readers not to do that. Then again, it remained to be seen whether our affair had affected Levi’s attitude. Maybe he’d wake up a new man.

Heh. As if.

I opened up a blank Word document and considered what to write about next. After several minutes of staring at the steam twirling above my coffee mug, I came up with nothing. At least, nothing blog-worthy. I thought about weddings and clients and anything that might inspire me to write, but Levi’s black gaze kept flashing in my mind instead. I saw his muscled chest above me, the wrought-iron bars he called arms flexing as he thrust into me. I could almost taste his kiss. His sweat.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I jumped. My heart raced as I dug it out, wondering if Levi was calling to find out where I’d gone. Valerie’s name was on the screen instead, and I answered.

“You are just the person I need to hear from today,” I said.

I still hadn’t even gotten to the issue of whether I should tell Val what happened with Levi or not yet. Part of my conscience warned me not to, both for professional reasons and personal ones. The fewer people I told, the less real it felt. Then again, I could never keep anything from Valerie. I didn’t think she would want me to either.

“Things not going so well up there?” Val asked. “I am so sorry, by the way. You wouldn’t be alone up there if it weren’t for me. When I found out the roads were closed, well, suffice it to say I was pissed at my dad for calling me in.”

I could practically feel the aftershocks of last night’s orgasms still rattling through me. If my vagina were in charge of speech, it would answer that things were going very well, thank you very much. The rest of me was in despair.

“Something…happened last night.”

“Oh no,” she gasped. “Did you kill Levi?”

“No! Of course not!”

“Don’t take it off the table as an option,” she replied. “Garrick and I have a bet going for who’s going to make it out alive.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“Hey, at least I’m rooting for you.”

A smile scored my lips.

“So what happened last night?” she asked. “If not murder most foul?”

My smile vanished. I took an anxious sip of my coffee and tried to decide how best to approach the topic. Did I ease into it? Gauge her reaction to a lesser sin first? Or did I just go for it?

In the end, I’d always been more comfortable with taking a direct approach to my problems.

“Levi and I had sex is what happened.”

I tensed, waiting for her reaction, but she went silent. Had I given the poor girl a heart attack?

“Val?”

“Woah!” she boomed. “You had sex with Levi?”

I had to pull my phone away from my ear in order not to go deaf. A woman at a nearby table peered up from her newspaper, and I quickly looked out the window.

“Could you say that a little louder?” I grumbled. “This time for the NASA satellites on the other side of the planet.”

Val laughed. “Sorry, just…wow. I was not expecting that.”

“As you shouldn’t have,” I replied. “It was completely unprofessional of me, and I feel horrible.”

“Unprofessional? Please don’t ever worry about being unprofessional with me. You’re a dynamite wedding planner, and I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without you. If it were anyone other than Levi I’d be throwing you a parade.” She sighed. “I only wish that man deserved you.”

Cool relief swept through me. Val wasn’t mad. If anything, she was concerned for me, and that made me feel all fuzzy inside.

“It’s not going to happen again,” I said. “We agreed that it was just because we’re stuck and had some unresolved tension between us. It’s been resolved now.”

“Yeah. Sounds like you resolved it all night long.”

“Val!”

She dropped her voice to a purring whisper. “Was it good?”

Heat splashed my cheeks, and I considered pressing my face against the window to cool down a little. I looked around the café to make sure Levi hadn’t snuck up while I was on the phone and, satisfied he was nowhere within earshot, indulged in a little girlish giggle.

“It was amazing,” I admitted. “That’s part of what’s making me so confused.”

“A good dickin’ will do that to a girl.”

I scrunched up my nose. “I had no idea you could be so vulgar.”

“Now you see why I don’t get along with all those society bitches,” she said. “Too bad Levi was a star in the sack. At least if he’d been crap, you would have something over him.”

“I know, right? He’s annoyingly good at everything.” I traced the vein of the wood tabletop with my fingernail and sighed. “The worst part is we had this, I don’t know, breakthrough yesterday. By the end of the night, we were having fun together.”

“Yes, you said.”

“No, I mean we were having fun before we had sex.”

Val hummed in thought. “Are you saying you wanna have his babies now or something?”

“God no!” I said, jerking back in my chair. “I’m just confused. Anyway, it’s a moot point because I’ll bet you that the next time I see him, he’ll be back to rude and crude. We got whatever it was out of our systems and from here on out it’s business as usual. But hopefully with a bit more civility.”

“I can’t tell how this is going to affect my odds of winning the bet,” Val muttered.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be a boring case of both of us arriving home in one piece.”

She laughed. “Bummer.”

I chatted with Val a little more about what I was missing at home. They got quite the dump of snow too, and she and Garrick had plans to build a snowman and watch Christmas movies later. Still no word on the road up the mountain opening anytime soon, though Val said the forecast looked optimistic. It called for heavy winds tonight but the worst of the storm had passed. I promised to let her know if anything else happened, and we ended the call.

I stayed at the café for another half an hour and managed to hammer out a rough draft for a post on the challenges of winter weddings, including potential weather mishaps. When I finished, I chugged the rest of my coffee and went back to the room.

I had no idea what to expect when I got there. Would Levi still be asleep? Would he be waiting for me, naked, in a pile of rose petals?

What I found instead was an empty room. Or at least it appeared so upon first glance. Then I noticed the light coming from under the master ensuite door and got close enough to hear the sound of the shower.

With nothing else to do, I grabbed a book and retreated to the window seat. I didn’t know whether when Levi came out we were supposed to talk about last night or not. I figured I would leave the ball in his court. If he came out of the shower and wanted to chat about our evening, he could, but if he didn’t mention it, that was also a-okay with me. I was impartial. It meant nothing to me. Oh, Levi and I had sex? I’d already forgotten.

I was a few pages into my book, snuggled cozily under a blanket with my back resting on a throne of pillows, when Levi sauntered out into the living room.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” I replied coolly.

His damp t-shirt clung to the lines of his chest, and I had to force myself to keep my eyes from wandering.

Levi looked past me out the window, where the snow was still falling, albeit a little lighter than the day before.

“We were supposed to go skiing today.”

I snorted. “There’s no way. I’m a horrible skier.”

He shrugged. “Fair enough. I’m not great either.”

He sank down onto the couch with a sigh.

Huh. So there was something in the world Levi Wheeler didn’t excel at. I filed away that piece of knowledge.

“Mind if I watch TV?” he asked, tilting his head back against the couch.

“Nope. Just don’t turn it up too loud.”

He chuckled and flicked on the TV.

It was a peaceful way to spend a morning, but I felt anything but peace. I tried to focus on my book but couldn’t stop myself from sneaking glances at the top of Levi’s head. It was the least interesting part of him, and I still couldn’t leave it alone.

Neither of us talked for hours. The longer it went on, the more I found my mind wandering back to last night. I would get to the end of a page and realize I hadn’t absorbed any of the words on it, and sometimes it took me two or three tries before I could move on. I didn’t want to admit it, but Levi was under my skin. Staying away from him had seemed like such an easy thing to do when I was sitting in the safety of the cafe this morning.

I redoubled my efforts. I wouldn’t fall to temptation, especially not when it came wrapped in the 6’3” package of my nemesis. Even if he was smokin’ hot.