CHAPTER 13
Eight weeks later...
Dear Levi, I saw the boat today. Love the new name. Would it be tacky of me to ask for a third helping? Fourth even? Though I’ve tried to “diet” I still find myself very hungry...
Levi dropped is duffel bag on Natalie’s front porch and prepared to ring her doorbell. It had been two months since he’d last seen her, though he’d gotten dozens of letters from her during that time. Letters that had made him laugh, made him smile, made him miss her all the more. Letters that had made him hard, letters that had literally enflamed him.
Despite the fact that he’d told himself that thing wouldn’t work between them, that they were each too invested in their own lives, Levi couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t stop thinking about what his brother had told him. That a non-traditional relationship would be better than nothing at all.
Initially, he’d rejected the idea out of hand. How could he ask her to live like that? To do things so very differently from their own parents? To live apart for long stretches of time, but still be essentially...together?
Then again, how could he not?
Because doing it the way they’d been doing it for the past two months had just about killed him. He could not--and didn’t want--to live without her.
Natalie Rowland filled a void in his life that Levi had never even been aware existed...until she wasn’t there anymore. She completed him. Made him more. Made him want to be better.
More than anything, though, he just wanted to be with her. Whenever he could. Period. And as Adam had so insightfully pointed out, that was better than the nothing they had now.
So no, this definitely wasn’t going to be a conventional relationship--they each had things that were too important to simply give up--but they could make it work. Or at least, he wanted to try.
And there was one fantasy of hers that he’d never fulfilled, one of the very first ones she’d ever written to him. He’d committed it to memory, because he wanted to get it just right.
Dear Levi,
I dreamed about you again last night. I dreamed you were home and, more importantly, mine. I dreamed you wanted me, really wanted me, that you walked through my front door, our eyes locked, and a second later you were on me, taking me hard and fast against the door. You kissed me as though you needed my breath to breathe, you took my breasts into your mouth and suckled the peaks until I almost came. You slipped your wickedly talented fingers into my panties and I rubbed myself against you, satisfied...but not, wanting more. Needing more. I’m hot and muddled now, remembering.
Then that made two of them, Levi thought as he finally summoned the courage to ring her doorbell.
He heard her approach, knew the exact instant her eye went to the peephole and discerned who was there.
She opened the door, her face a mask of shock and hope and joy.
Levi’s gaze locked with hers. He showed her everything he had--the frustration, the longing, the desire, the love. Bared it all, and knew when she recognized it because she gave a soft little gasp.
He strode inside, purposely shut her door, then whirled her around and backed her up against it.
Then he kissed her.
Hard and deep, long and slow, he tangled his tongue around hers, giving her everything he had. Sweet Lord, how he loved her. She tasted so damned wonderful.
She came alive in his arms, feeding at his mouth, running her hands through his hair. She kneaded his shoulders and rubbed herself against him, just as mindless, just as desperate as he was.
Levi freed himself from his pants, lifted her up and pushed her sundress out of the way, then nudged her panties aside. A moment later he was in heaven. He was in her. And he could breathe again.
“I need you,” he said, pushing in and out of her, flexing his hips as she welcomed him deep inside her hot little body. “We have to figure out a way to make this work.”
Natalie whimpered against him, tightened her greedy feminine muscles around his shaft. “I agree. But could we finish this first? Because--” she gasped “I want-- I need--“
“Me,” he finished for her, pistoning in and out of her. “You need me. You want me.”
With a long slow howl, he levered in and out in and out, frantically racing for release, for the absolute pleasure he’d only find with her. Her breathing came in broken little puffs and he could feel her nearing climax, could feel it gathering in his own loins.
A cry suddenly tore from her throat and she spasmed hard around him, an insistent grip and release that triggered his own release. He bucked hard and angled up, planting his feet firmly beneath them to keep from falling down as the orgasm washed through him, threatening to buckle his knees. He went weak, God help him, almost dizzy. With effort, he pulled away from her and righted her dress.
Natalie kissed him tenderly, reverently and her brown eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I thought we’d already established that I wanted you,” she said, her voice thick.
Levi brushed a kiss over her temple and sighed heavily. His gaze tangled with hers. “The thing is...what we haven’t fully established is that I’m in love with you.”
Her eyes widened and she seemed to melt against him. “You’re right. I don’t think we’ve established that.”
He pretended to think about it. “Right. Well, I’m here to correct that.” He cupped her jaw. “I’m in love with you, Nat, and I know the logistics are going to be a nightmare, but I was sort of hoping that a.) you loved me, too and b.) you’d want to try and make this work.
A cautious smile faltered over her lips. “Make it work how?”
He shook his head. “First things first. Do you love me?”
She framed his face with her hands, the gesture so simple and heartfelt that he felt a nebulous obstruction gather in his throat. “You must not have gotten my latest letter.”
He drew back and looked at her. “Oh?”
“Yes, because if you had, you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I do love you. With every fiber in my being.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “I like every fiber in your being.”
She grinned softly. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
“What question was that?”
“How are we going to make it work? I’m here, you’re--“ she gestured helplessly “--where ever you are next.”
“Germany.”
Her eyes widened. “Germany? Really. Er...”
“Here’s what I was thinking,” Levi said. “I was thinking that you could marry me and we would split time between here and, in the immediate future, Germany.”
“Split time?”
He squeezed her for emphasis. “We can make it work, Nat. I know that it won’t be an ordinary arrangement, but I can’t stand the idea of the alternative.” His gaze searched hers. “I love you. I want to be with you. The rest--“ he pulled an unconcerned shrug “--it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re mine.”
“You would be happy living like that?”
“I’ll be happy with you,” he said. “We can have both, you see? It doesn’t have be either or. We can have it all. My question is, can you live that way? Would you even want to?”
Her coffee-colored eyes searched his, consideringly. “I’d have to be home in the summer. It’s the high season and--“
He nodded succinctly. “Done. Home in the summer, whether I can come or not. But winter with me?” he asked cautiously, a hopeful element he refused to hide in his voice.
She smiled and happiness infected every nuance in her woefully familiar face. “Of course. I’ll need you to keep me warm.”
“You never answered my question,” he reminded her.
A line emerged between her delicate brows. “What question?”
“Will you marry me?”
“Oh, Lord, yes,” she said, as though it were a foregone conclusion.
His chest expanded almost painfully and the smile that slid over his lips had to make him look like an utter fool. But he was her fool. He glanced around her living room. “We’re going to need a bigger place.”
“We are? For what?”
“For all the children we’re going to have.”
She laughed delightedly. “We’ll have to build up, then, because I’m out of room on the lot.”
Levi chewed the inside of his cheek. “No you’re not.”
She drew back and gave him a suspicious look. “What?”
“I talked John into selling me the lot next door.” He looked up and pretended to think about it. “Actually, I called to talk to him about buying it, but when I asked him for your hand he gave it to us as a wedding gift.”
She gave him that melting look again. “You asked my dad for my hand?”
“I did.”
Natalie kissed him again. “You really are a hero, you know that?”
He shrugged. “Hero, second helping. Doesn’t matter so long as I’m yours.”
Natalie threaded her fingers through his and gently tugged him toward her bedroom. “You definitely are. And I’m hungry.”
Though he didn’t believe he could be distracted from her, Levi’s gaze landed on the stag. “You moved him into your room?”
She smiled again, just the faintest quirk of her lips. “I did. I wanted you in here with me.”
“Me?” Levi asked, staring at the beautiful, hauntingly familiar work of art.
“Yes, you. He’s my interpretation of you.”
Touched beyond words, Levi looked down at her. “Natalie, I don’t know what to say. It’s... It’s remarkable. I’m honored. Thank you.” He frowned as a thought struck. “Where’s the doe?”
“She’s still in the studio. I’m not done with her yet.”
Oh, no. Levi thought. That wouldn’t do. He went to get her, then brought her back into the bedroom and carefully deposited her next to the stag. “You can’t separate them,” Levi told her. “It makes them miserable.”
Natalie smiled and considered the two pieces side by side. “You know what? I was wrong. She is finished...now that she’s with you.”
“I love you.”
She smiled at him. “So you’ve said.”
Levi picked her up and tossed her on the bed, then followed her down. “Some things bear repeating.”
“Like second helpings?”
He nuzzled her neck. “Definitely second helpings.”