“I learnt a trick or two from spending time here.”
“You don’t live with Aiden and your uncle?”
“I do, but I don’t call that house my home.” He reappears with a pan and utensils and heads to the stove.
“I also don’t feel like Dad’s house is my home sometimes.”
He tilts his head. “Sometimes?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but at times, it does feel like home.” When only Dad is there. When I don’t see Victoria and Nicole’s faces or hear their taunts. When I help Sarah out in the kitchen like I used to do with Mum.
When Dad comes to wish me goodnight.
I hop down my stool and join Levi behind the counter.
One. The view from here is more gorgeous.
Two. I want to help.
“Just sit down,” he pushes me back but I nudge him.
“This is my way of living the moment. Let me.”
It’s an epic failure.
I end up with flour all over my face and arms because Levi’s definition of living the moment is playing around and feeling me up.
At first, I tried to fight it, but there’s no fighting Levi. His intensity runs too deep, it’s like being sucked whole with no way out.
It’s frightening sometimes.
It’s thrilling most of the time.
I’m always buzzing out of my skin, waiting for the next thing he’ll come up with.
He’s a high that I’m not sure I want to come down from.
I know Levi is dangerous. I’ve seen it in that black gaze and his closed off features. I felt it in the way he takes whatever he wishes without looking back. I’ve heard it in his sinister voice and unapologetic words.
All of that was supposed to push me away. Instead, I keep gravitating towards him like a moth to a fire.
He’ll burn me.
He’ll destroy me.
But I’ll keep coming back for more anyway.
After breakfast, we play chess. He has this huge glass board in the middle of the lounge area and we sit across from each other.
He narrows one eye before we start, “I warn you. I crush my enemies.”
“Humph,” I tuck my knees underneath me and puff my chest. “Show me what you got, King.”
As if I lit a fire, his eyes gleam with a challenge. His posture turns uptight, and his entire stance sharpens for the battle.
After fifteen minutes of trying to outsmart him, I lose.
He takes down all my defences and then kills my queen in the most brutal way.
I sulk, staring at his main pieces that remain intact.
He chuckles when I continue sulking. “You’re doing it all wrong.”
“How?”
“You’re protecting your king when you should be protecting something far more important.”
“The queen?”
“Could be.” He tilts his head to the side. “But if you really want to win, then you need all your battalion.”
“How about sacrificing for the greater good?”
“A true warlord sacrifices soldiers, not generals.”
I mimic the tilting of his head. “How did you come to love chess so much?”
He’s silent for a moment. “It runs in the family, I guess.”
“Your uncle plays?”
“He does, but he didn’t teach me, my father did. It was one of the few things he taught me.”
I straighten, feeling the tension behind his words. “So you weren’t close?”
“We were when he wasn’t having his manic episodes, which wasn’t very often.” He stares at me as he’s surprised he just divulged that.
My lips part.
What Aiden said makes sense now. Levi doesn’t have mental problems, but he lived in the shadow of a father who did. Maybe that part of his father rubbed off on him, too.
Before I can say anything, Levi smiles in a challenging way. “Do you want to go again? I promise not to crush you this time.”
“Bring it.”
We go at it for hours. It’s the most time I’ve spent in one place – aside from the art studio – without going out of my mind. In fact, I have fun.
Even though Levi wins every time.
I try to distract him by pushing the jersey up my thighs or pulling it down or licking my lips. Even though his eyes darken with lust, he wins the game, pushes the board away, and scoops me in his arms.
“Were you seducing me just now, princess?”
I look away trying to hide the goosebumps covering my skin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were playing dirty.”
“I… wasn’t.”
“Do you know what happens to bad girls who play dirty?” His lips find the lobe of my ear and he sucks before biting down.
I moan, my head falling against his neck. It’s crazy how