Chapter 2

 

Levi

 

“Elle Blackman is here.  Asking for you.  Terrified out of her mind,” Pierce announced into my ear.

I had just left the office and was not even five minutes away when I got the call.

“Talk to me,” I demanded as I maneuvered my truck and started making my way back to the office to get to her.

“Not sure what’s up.  She buzzed at the door incessantly.  I opened, let her in, and all she managed to get out was asking if you were around.  Her whole body was trembling, but I confirmed she wasn’t hurt.  I saw her checking her back before I opened the door, so I asked if someone was following her.  She nearly broke down into tears and said she was unsure.”

“Stay with her until I get there.  Three minutes out.”

“You’ve got it, boss.”

I disconnected with Pierce and hauled my ass back to work. 

Elle Blackman. 

In trouble.

Scared.

And she came to me for help.

Fuck.

The girl had been on my mind since I met her a couple months ago.  I hadn’t seen her much since then, only once, but damn was she beautiful.  Her older brother, Wes, and my younger brother, Zane, were the best of friends who started snowboarding together back when they were kids.  Since then, Zane has become a professional rider and is now sponsored by Wes’ snowboard company, Blackman Boards.  Wes made it very clear to me that he respected me, but was not even remotely interested in entertaining the idea of Elle and me together.  He did this the day that I met her.  She was not happy about it; I can’t say I was either.  Even still, I didn’t want to create tension between the two of them and I respected Wes enough to not cross that line.  It hasn’t been easy. 

She’s so fucking beautiful.

And her voice is something else entirely.  I heard her sing for the first time not long after I met her and, swear to God, it was the most angelic thing I’d ever heard.

We had an instant connection.  It wasn’t something I could explain, but I knew she felt it, too.  This was mostly because I was unwilling to cross any lines with her, and Elle voiced her displeasure on more than one occasion about it.  There’d be no reason for her to get so riled up if she hadn’t felt that connection.   

I got back to the office in record time and hustled to get inside.  When I walked in and saw her face as she sat scared on the couch, I wanted to walk over and wrap her up in my arms.  I wanted to take her back to my place where I’d keep her until I knew she was no longer in any danger. 

I gave Pierce a nod and he took off down the hall to leave me with Elle.

I sat next to her on the couch, keeping my body close to hers.  I didn’t know if it offered her any comfort, but I figured it wouldn’t do the opposite.  I tried to coax the information I needed out of her so I could come up with a plan to best help her.  As soon as I learned that someone had been in her apartment and left one of her signed photos there, I knew there was no way I was letting her go back alone.  According to Elle, nothing indicated forced entry and her place hadn’t been trashed from what little she took in while she was there.  Not a chance in hell that I was going to let her go home alone or spend the night at a hotel by herself.

I managed to convince her that staying anywhere but with me wasn’t an option.  After she put up a small fight, she eventually conceded and I took her back to her place so she could grab a few things to hold her over for the next couple of days.  I expected she’d pack some clothes and all that other shit women used to make themselves look and smell good.

She did.

No surprise there.

What I hadn’t expected was what I was now witnessing.

“What?” she asked, dumbfounded.

We were standing in her kitchen and I was watching her load her arms up with three bags of potato chips.

I narrowed my eyes and stated, “We’re here so you can get the things you need to live for the next couple of days, Elle.  I’m not sure potato chips are part of that equation.”

“Maybe not for someone like you, but they are a necessity for me.”

“Potato chips? A necessity?”

She let out a frustrated sigh.

“Not just any potato chips.  These ones specifically.  And yes, they are a necessity.  I may have an unhealthy obsession with them and I realize they aren’t good for me, but they do wonders for my voice.  I’m performing at Lou’s tomorrow so I need the chips.”

“You eat three bags of chips before you sing?”

“No, but I’m not really keen on coming back here by myself any time soon and I don’t want to inconvenience you further by making you do it, so I figure I should bring a couple bags.”

I grinned at her.  She didn’t want to come back here any time soon.  I didn’t like that she was essentially being forced out of her home, but I didn’t mind that because of it she was going to be taking up residence at my place.

“Is that ok?” she pressed.

My voice was soft when I answered, “Yeah, sunshine.  Bring whatever you need.  Just sayin’, though, you aren’t an inconvenience.  I’m going to need you to stop referring to yourself as one.”

She looked away.

I took a few steps closer to her and brought my hand up to cup her cheek.  When she was looking at me again, I continued, “Elle, you’re in trouble right now.  I intend to help you and keep you safe.  I don’t want you thinking that you are bothering me.  You came to me for a reason.  I’m good at what I do.  Let me do my job while you worry about eating potato chips for your job.  Deal?”

She nodded and gave me a small smile before she requested, “Speaking of jobs, we need to discuss payment.”

“Payment,” I repeated because it was absurd that she thought she was going to pay me. 

“Yeah,” she started.  “You just said this was your job.  We have to discuss your fees and how you expect to be paid.”

“Let’s get you packed up and out of here right now.  We’ll talk about payment later.”

“Ok.”

At that, Elle finished packing up her things and we got in my truck to head to my place.

The drive to my house was quiet.  It wasn’t awkward or tense, just quiet.  Every time I’d been around Elle prior to now she had always been forthcoming with conversation.  I think the reality of her current situation was weighing on her mind and, while I didn’t want her worried, I figured I’d give her the ride to the house to live inside her head.

By the time we got to the house and I unloaded her bags from the truck, it was approaching dinner time.

“Are you ok with homemade pizza for dinner?” I asked as we walked into the house from the garage.

“What?”

“Dinner.  Will you eat homemade pizza?”

“Oh, Levi.  You don’t have to feed me, too.  This is too much already.”

I was beginning to get pissed.  If she insinuated one more time that she was putting me out I was going to lose my shit.

“Elle?”

“Yeah?”

“Do…you…eat…pizza?”

She stared at me in silence a moment before she whispered, “Yes.”

I shook my head and turned toward the kitchen. 

“I’ll get it made and in the oven.  While it cooks, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”

“Can I help?” she asked softly.

Fuck.

That angelic voice.

I turned around, took in her beauty, and responded, “Sure.”

Elle and I spent the next fifteen minutes assembling pizzas on flatbreads.  Generally, I was strict about my diet.  Given my line of work, I felt it was important that I not only made sure my mind was sharp, but that I took care of my body.  Situations arose on occasion that required a degree of physical fitness that wouldn’t be achieved by me eating shit food.  I allowed myself indulgences on occasion, but mostly never had the desire for the sweet stuff.  Pizza is one of the things I wasn’t prepared to give up, so I figured out how to make it work for me so that I could still have it and not see my physical performance suffer.

During our pizza-making extravaganza I learned that Elle was the complete opposite of me when it came to food.  Of course, I already knew about her obsession with potato chips.  I was willing to accept the whole ‘chips are good for my voice’ excuse, but then she made a pizza and loaded it with cheese.  It wasn’t just extra cheese, either.  It was insanity. 

I didn’t understand where she put it.

Elle was petite.  She had to be around five feet five inches tall with long white-blonde hair that I had always seen her wear in loose waves and a set of sparkling-rich, honey-colored eyes.  She always wore loose-fitting clothing.  At least, she had every time I was around her, but I could tell she was tiny under all of it.  As I allowed my eyes to scan her from top to toe, I realized how much I wanted to see what was underneath all of the oversized sweaters I had always seen her in.  We lived in Northeast Wyoming and it was usually pretty chilly, but now that it was July I was thinking I might get lucky enough to see a hint of her skin.

I popped the pizzas in the oven and moved to get Elle’s bags.  She followed behind me as I walked her through the house and up the stairs.  When we got to the second floor, I took her bags and put them in the guest bedroom next to mine.

“Will this work for you?” I asked her as I set the bags down.

“Levi, your home is beautiful.”

“Thanks.  There’s a bathroom just across the hall,” I told her as I pointed in the direction of the bathroom.

“Thank you for doing this for me.”

“No problem, sunshine.  Make yourself at home.  If you forgot anything at your apartment and need something, just ask.”

She nodded.

“Come on.  I’ll show you the rest of the house.”

I took Elle on a tour of the house.  I wanted her to know where everything was and that she was free to use it as if it were her own.  It wasn’t her fault she had to uproot herself out of her apartment so I figured I’d do what I needed to do to make sure that change wasn’t any more difficult than it already was on her. 

We finished the tour just in time because the scent of pizza had filled the kitchen.  After pulling it out of the oven, I grabbed a couple of plates, a large cutting board, and transferred the flatbreads over to the board.  I cut them and took them into the family room.  Elle followed behind me with the plates and napkins.

“What do you like to drink?” I asked as I set the cutting board down on the coffee table.

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Whatever you’ve got.”

“I’m gonna be honest here.  I’m a bit health conscious and I get the feeling based on your chip and cheese consumption that you don’t down the water the way I do.  That said, my mom drilled into my head that I should always be prepared for company.  So, I’ve got beer, wine, and sweetened raspberry tea if water’s not your thing.”

“I’ll have the tea,” she answered.

I grinned.

I knew that’s what she was going to choose.

“Have a seat.  Start eating.  I’ll be right back.”

I went back to the kitchen and grabbed drinks.  When I returned to the family room, Elle was sitting, but hadn’t started.  I gave her a look.  She must have noticed my concern because she spoke.

“I’m not going to be rude, Levi.  I can wait until you get back to start eating so we can eat together.”

I smiled at her and handed her the tea.  She thanked me as she took it out of my hand.

After putting pizza on each of our plates, I handed hers to her and we both started eating.

Once we had both taken a few bites, I asked, “So what do I need to know about tomorrow?”

“I’m sorry?”

I took another bite of my food, chewed, swallowed, and explained, “You said that you were performing at Lou’s tomorrow night.  What time do you need to be there?  When does the performance itself start?”

“Oh.  I start at nine, but usually get there an hour ahead of time.  Why?”

I continued to eat as I raised my eyebrows at her.

She stared back at me as she slowly chewed her food.

“Seriously, El?”

She nodded.

“I’m going to be there with you to make sure nothing happens to you. Depending on what my boys find between now and then, I may have an extra guy or two on hand tomorrow night as well.  Lou’s is usually packed just because of what it is.  I’ve seen what it’s like when you perform.  There’s hardly standing room.”

She swallowed hard and fretted, “Levi, it’s not snowboarding season.”

My brows pulled together, confused at her statement.

“Unless there’s a snowboarding contest, Wes, Charley, Zane, Emme, and the rest of their friends all come to watch me.  He’s going to see you there and know something is up.”

“You aren’t going there alone, sunshine.  I think you’re going to need to figure out quickly how you are going to break this news to him.  I know you are worried that he just came back from his honeymoon, but I’ve got to be honest, I think he’s going to be pissed you didn’t tell him what was happening the minute you knew something was wrong.”

“I won’t be alone.  They’ll all be there,” she retorted.

“Not saying they don’t all love and care about you, but none of them has the training and experience that I do.  If something bad went down, I’m liking your chances of survival more with me there.”

“Survival?” she repeated nervously.

She set her plate down on the coffee table.  She hadn’t even finished eating.

Fuck.

“Sorry, Elle.  I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Do you think they want me dead?”

Fear was written all over her face.  Her eyes got wet and her breathing grew shallow.

I leaned forward and dropped my empty plate on the table.

After I leaned back on the couch, I held my hand out to her and demanded, “Come here.”

She immediately crawled over to me and curled up into a ball next to my side.  I wrapped my arm around her back and held her tight.

She was terrified.

I could feel her body shaking.

With her head on my chest I offered gently, “I don’t know yet what we’re dealing with, El, but no matter how bad it is I will protect you.  I promise you I will keep you safe.  Do you trust me to do that?”

She nodded and pressed her body further into mine.

“I promise, sunshine.”

Her body had so much tension coursing through it.  I did what I could and held her close.  I alternated between running my hand up and down her back or through her hair.  Eventually, she began to relax.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

She pressed her hand into my chest and pushed off.  When she pulled her face away, she looked at me and apologized, “I’m sorry.  I’m ok now.”

“There’s no reason for you to apologize.  You didn’t ask to be put in this situation and it’s normal to feel scared.  I just want you to know that I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She nodded her understanding before she decided, “I usually try to get a good night’s sleep the night before a performance.  It’s been an exhausting day for me.  I think, if you are alright with it, that I’d like to go up and unpack some of my things, take a shower, and get to bed early.”

She needed time to herself.  I’d give her that.

“Sure.  I already told you to make yourself at home.  I’m going to go change and then head down to the weight room to get a workout in.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely not going to do that, but you have fun.”

I gave her a grin, happy to see she was no longer looking frightened, and then moved to take the cutting board and plates to the kitchen.  Elle followed behind me with the glasses.

The two of us climbed the stairs.

She went to the guest bedroom.

I went to my bedroom.

After changing my clothes, I walked out of my room and knocked on her door.

“Yeah?” she called.

I opened the door and saw her sorting through her bags.  “I’ll be working out, but if you need anything just yell.”

“I will.  Thanks again, Levi.”

“No problem, Elle.  Good night.”

I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me.  I needed to get a workout in immediately.  The frustration was building and I needed a release.  Nothing a tough workout wouldn’t cure.

I put in a brutal workout attempting to tamp down some of what I was feeling.  I had been pissed off and angry that someone was targeting Elle.  My mission now was to protect her and make sure I didn’t see that look of fear on her face again.  On top of her stalker issue, I now had her staying with me.  I needed to keep myself focused and professional, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how all I wanted to do was taste those lips of hers.  She had all those damn lip products in her car earlier.  When I first saw them, I thought she was crazy, but then I assessed her lips and realized that she clearly knew what she was doing.  It wasn’t just her lips either.  It was her sexy-as-fuck, honey-colored, bedroom eyes that I wanted to look into while I brought her to the height of pleasure.

My workout was doing little to help with the mix of emotions I was dealing with, so I decided to call it quits just over an hour later when I was dripping with sweat.  I grabbed my t-shirt that I’d removed in the middle of my workout and went to the kitchen.  I downed two glasses of water and went upstairs to shower.

When I made it to the top of the steps, I walked toward my bedroom.  The bathroom door across from the guest room opened.

Fucking fuck me.

Elle walked out and stopped dead in the middle of the hallway.  Her eyes roamed my body and I watched as they turned to liquid honey.  I was now fighting an internal battle with my brain and my dick because my little ray of sunshine was standing there looking at me with her sexy bedroom eyes wearing nothing but a delicate satin, yellow nightie.

Yes, she most definitely was a ray of sunshine.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Seeing her now without the oversized, loose-fitting clothing confirmed what I already knew to be true.  Shapely slim legs, a trim waist, a great ass, and a perfect set of tits were all that made up her gorgeous body. 

And then there was her neck.

Slender and exposed.

I wanted to run my tongue along the skin of it, up her jaw, and to those lips.  I wanted to do that while I was buried deep inside her.  My dick was hard at the sight of her, but thinking what I wanted to do to her sexy little body had me struggling to appear unaffected.

Neither of us moved.

I watched as her hardening nipples poked at the satin fabric covering them.

Fuck me again.

She was just as turned on as I was. 

Finally, she spoke.

“You don’t have an ounce of fat on you,” she exclaimed, her voice husky.

“I eat well and I exercise.  Though, you do the exact opposite and, judging by what I’m seeing right now, that’s not exactly been a bad thing for you.”

Her face flushed and she looked away.

I walked toward her.  When I stopped in front of her, she tipped her head back to look up at me.

Those fucking eyes.

I couldn’t help myself.  I pressed a kiss to the top of her head while my fingers wrapped around the hair at her neck. 

I pulled back, saw the liquid honey, and with my throat tight I rasped, “Good night, sunshine.”

Her voice was just a touch over a whisper when she replied, “Good night, Levi.”

My hand fell from her hair and I walked into my bedroom.  I sat down on the edge of my bed just to try and catch my breath. 

What the hell.

Ten minutes later, I was still sitting on the edge of my bed trying to get my head together.  I needed to figure this shit out and I needed to do it quick. 

A nice cool shower is what I convinced myself I needed.   

I stood and was about to walk into my bathroom when I heard it.

Elle.

Her moans.

I was convinced that I must have done something bad in my life to deserve this kind of torture.

Elle Blackman was in the bed in my guest room touching herself.

She was in the room right next to my bedroom doing that while I did everything I could to stop myself from going in to watch her.

It wasn’t even two minutes later when she climaxed.

Fuck me if it wasn’t the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

In that very moment, I made a decision.

Tomorrow, this was changing.  I was going to do whatever I had to so that I could keep Elle safe.  There were no doubts about that.  I was also going to do whatever Elle needed me to do to help her deliver the news to her brother, sister-in-law, her parents, and her friends about what was going on and the fact that she had someone who was actively stalking her to a level that was of great concern.  And lastly, I was going to make sure that Wes knew that while I planned to do everything in my power to keep Elle safe and find out who was targeting her, I was also not going to hold back any longer and continue to fight the attraction between the two of us.

I didn’t need Wes’ permission and no matter how he responded I wouldn’t back down from her, but I respected him enough to not do it behind his back.  I also didn’t want Elle being in a position where she felt she needed to hide whatever would happen between us.

On these thoughts, knowing that Elle was likely fast asleep, I jumped in the cold shower.

My efforts to quell the heat and sexual tension I was feeling by taking a cold shower were futile because all I could do was thinking about her little body in that nightie, liquid-honey eyes staring up at me, and the moaning coming from the guest room only minutes prior.