Levi pulled Zoe in to his chest and squeezed her so tightly that she felt like he was trying to mold them together. She wanted to stay right there, where she could feel the beat of his heart and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed against her. But she knew it was wrong. He was looking for a replacement for Krissy, and that couldn’t be her. She pushed with all her might, against his chest, until he let go of her.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not her.”

He touched Zoe’s face with the back of his hand. “But you are, you’re a part of her.”

“Maybe. Maybe some weird, cosmic thing did happen and when I touched her that night, part of her went into me. But you can’t be with me because of that. Because whatever part she became of me…is still me. Do you understand?”

“I don’t understand any of this.” His brown eyes were filled with tears and Zoe wanted to drop the whole thing…but she knew that she couldn’t. One thing that growing up with a druggie for a mother and raising herself on the streets had taught her was that she had to stand up for herself. She had to protect herself because no one else was going to do it.

“It’s confusing to me too. But the bottom line, Levi, is that I’m a whole person. I was a whole person before that night. I deserve someone to love me for who I am, not who they wish I was. I’m not her and I never will be. Do you understand?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry. This is all so…”

“Fucked up?” she asked with a smile.

He smiled back and said, “You said it.” He put his hand on her face again, this time letting her hair fall through his fingers. “I know that you’re not her. But I can also feel the part of you that is her…I’m not sure that makes any sense.”

She nodded. “It does. I’m getting used to that part myself. It’s like I don’t even know you, but that one part of me knows everything about you.”

He pulled her back into his chest and she let him. He held her for a minute and when she felt his face lowering down to hers, she didn’t try to stop him. She put her arms up around his neck and she let him kiss her. She kissed him back. It felt so right and so wrong at the same time. Once again, she wanted it to go on forever, but she knew she needed it to stop. She pushed back and stood up. This time, however, Levi wasn’t going to be content with that. He was finished talking, she could see it in his sad brown eyes. He leapt to his feet and wrapped his big hands around her thin waist, lifting her up off the floor and tossing her back onto the bed like a caveman. He leaned down over her with his chest heaving and his eyes locked into hers. He had her pinned to the bed and she couldn’t move if she wanted to…but he didn’t scare her. She was just pissed off that the man she wanted so badly belonged to someone else.

“What are you doing? You’re insane.”

Levi smiled. For a second she was able to imagine that when he looked down at her like that, he saw her…Zoe, and not Krissy. He leaned down further and nuzzled the side of his rough face against hers, and then began to kiss and nibble down the side of her neck and back up to her earlobe. She shivered almost convulsively as he sucked it into his mouth. While she let herself enjoy the feeling of his lips and his tongue and his teeth, she forgot everything else for a moment. He let go of her earlobe and slid his lips up so that they were right over her ear and he whispered, “I’m confused. You’re confused. But…we both want this. Tell me you don’t want this, Zoe, and I’ll leave you alone.” She opened her mouth, but the feel of his breath in her ear still lingered and the feel of his body against hers was front and center in her mind. She did want it. She wanted it so badly that she couldn’t form the words to tell him otherwise. She couldn’t lie about this one thing no matter how hard she tried. “Tell me, Zoe. Tell me to get off you and go away.” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even speak. Levi was running his fingers softly up and down her arm, and the sensation was like tiny little electric currents running down her spine.

After a few more seconds of her not resisting and not telling him she didn’t want exactly what he wanted, he pushed himself up further and used one of his fingers to draw a line from underneath her chin, all the way down her chest and in between her breasts. Zoe sucked in a hard breath as he brought up the other hand and used one finger to draw a slow, sexy circle around one of the hard nipples standing at attention underneath the nightshirt she was wearing. She lay there reveling in the feelings as Levi pushed the shirt up over her hips and stomach, and finally exposed her breasts. He leaned down further and pulled one of her nipples in between his lips. He sucked on it and licked at it and the whole while, he ground his hips into hers, letting her feel how hard he was…For me? She wasn’t sure, but it was like a runaway train; she couldn’t stop what was happening. He bit down on one of her nipples and she cried out as the feelings rushed from her breasts all the way down to her throbbing, wet pussy. She finally put her hands up on his shoulders and began running them down over the tense muscles in his arms. She followed his right arm as his right hand began to make its way down her abdomen, toward that aching pussy. He slid his hand down inside her panties and when he finally reached her burning, aching center, he wasted no time taking her swollen clit between his fingers and putting pressure on it, making her want to scream. He began rubbing it in small circles with his thumb and while she was lost in that feeling, he slid first one and then two fingers up inside of her. That was when she couldn’t stay quiet any longer.

“Oh, Levi! Jesus! Fuck!”

Her eyes were almost closed, but open enough that she could see him smiling up at her. He slipped his fingers out and tasted them and then put them back up inside of her and began to move them in and out while rubbing her clit with his thumb the whole while…hard. She was bucking her hips up off the bed, barreling toward an overwhelming orgasm and a scream that might send the neighbors running to her rescue. Levi’s breathing matched the intensity of hers as he increased the pace of the fingers moving in and out of her hot, wet tunnel. She bucked and moaned and whimpered and ground her pussy lips into his knuckles. Levi was still smiling as he leaned down and bit one of the nipples. That did it. She was suddenly lost in the haze of the most intense orgasm that she’d ever experienced, and it took her several long seconds to realize that the ear-splitting scream had come from her body as she came.

Levi waited until she came down, and then he pulled his fingers out of her and put them to his mouth. He licked each one of them and then said, “You taste like honey.” Zoe was panting and gasping for air, staring at him like he was a God, or an alien. What am I doing? How can I give this up? I can’t. She knew she should, but she just couldn’t. When he lay down next to her, she curled her body into his and let him wrap her up in a tight embrace. He held her there until the breathing of both of them was back to normal and then once again, he kissed her. This kiss was almost frenzied, with both of them sucking and biting at each other’s lips. After the orgasm she’d just had, she should be satisfied for a year, but she wanted more. She wanted to feel him inside of her. She wanted to feel like she was a part of him. He kissed her until she had to fight for breath again before he pulled away. When he did, he got to his feet and began stripping off his clothes. When he finished undressing, he stepped close to the bed and she reached for him. He grabbed her hand and stopped her. “If you touch me, or put me in your mouth, I’m going to come. I want to be inside of you when that happens. I want to feel that sweet, tight pussy wrapped around me when I explode.”

Zoe had to fight the lump in her throat as she swallowed. He took her other hand and used both to pull her to her feet, and then he sat down on the bed and pulled her down so that she was in his lap, facing him. After another hot kiss with his throbbing, hard cock pressed up against her pussy, he held her around the waist and lifted her up. She held onto his shoulders as he positioned her over his cock and then lowered her down, letting her pussy devour him inch by delicious inch. Once he was all the way inside of her, she let out the breath that she’d been holding. He smiled at her and used the hold he had on her waist to move her up and down. At first it was slow and sweet, but they were both too excited for that to last. She pressed her feet against the floor, and used them and her hold on his shoulders to move herself up and down in time with the thrusting of his hips. Her pussy was so wet that he nearly slid out of her each time he moved her up to the tip, but she’d never been so happy about gravity every time he let her go and she slid back down his shaft until she felt the tip of his thick cock, pressing into her as deeply as it could reach. Her clit was throbbing and her pussy was stretched to its limits and every nerve fiber in her body was alive. She felt like she was burning up from the inside out and even as she felt another orgasm building, she never wanted any of it to end. Levi’s hands began to move in exploration of every inch of her body as he rocked up into her, and she closed her eyes and let the feelings wash over her until they all collided once again in a soul-wrenching climax. She was afraid that she’d drawn blood because she’d held onto his shoulders so tightly, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Once he’d coaxed the second orgasm out of her, he didn’t hold back. He drilled up into her over and over with primitive-sounding grunts until she felt his body tighten and the hot, thick, creamy evidence of his orgasm begin to run down along her inner thighs.

Levi continued to hold her in his lap as he pressed his forehead into hers. She had a broad smile on her face even as she sucked in one breath after the other…right up until she heard him whisper, “Krissy, I love you.”

The screeching of her alarm caused Zoe to sit straight up in the bed. It took her several minutes to calm down the rapid beating of her heart and realize she was at her nana and papa’s house, in her own bed. Levi wasn’t there. It was a dream. Another dream. A hot, wet, realistic…and heart-breaking dream. She used the top sheet on the bed to wipe the sweat off her brow before reaching for the phone and turning off the alarm. She had the day off from work but she had an appointment with the school counselor. She had to get on with her life. She had to figure out what to do about Patrick. She had to stop thinking about Krissy, and she had to stop dreaming about Levi. She’d told him what she needed to tell him and he was going to return the pendant, hopefully when she wasn’t at the diner…and then they could both just get on with their lives, she hoped.