Kindred Spirit - Noah Harris Page 0,21

was something almost amateurish about the painting, colors that bled where they shouldn’t, shapes just a little off. He could easily mark it as a matter of style, but he couldn’t help but wonder who would choose a style that, while not necessarily bad, it didn’t look particularly developed or skillful either.

Gun behind!

Levi dropped the painting, threw himself onto the bed. His shoulder hit, and he rolled with the momentum. His feet hit the carpet, and he crouched beside it.

“Woah. Levi?”

Jacob’s voice brought Levi’s head up over the edge of the bed warily. Almost immediately, he found himself wishing he’d tried talking without looking.

Sure enough, Jacob had a gun, though it was down at his side, his finger off the trigger. It was the very wet, very fit, and very nearly naked body on the other end of the gun that had Levi’s sudden attention. He’d known Jacob took good care of his body. That was obvious from how well the man fit into every piece of clothing he put on. The reality of seeing it with only a small towel wrapped around Jacob’s narrow waist was something else entirely.

The towel hung low, and Levi’s eyes instinctually traced over the deep lines at his waist and down the sweep of red hair disappearing beneath the hem of the towel. The hair continued up over a flat stomach with the barest hint of lines across it and up to a thick patch on Jacob’s broad chest.

Well, at least he knew there was nothing fake about the stubble on Jacob’s head.

“Uh,” Levi began, realizing his mouth was dry.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jacob asked, cocking his head.

Levi glanced toward the door. “I knocked! But the uh, the door swung open, guess I knocked a little too hard. Always told them they needed better doors, damn things don’t fit the frames very well.”

Jacob’s gaze followed his, frowning. “It opened? Jesus, that’s safe.”

“Yeah,” Levi said, eyeing Jacob’s gun and thinking the guy was plenty safe.

Jacob turned his frown on him. “So, you just decided to come in?”

Levi’s face grew warm. “I was...going to leave when I realized you were in the shower. Wait outside. But then I saw the painting sitting over there and…”

“You felt nosy.”

“Curious!”

Nosy.

Levi groaned, thumping his head against the edge of the bed. Bad enough that he’d been busted by Jacob snooping through his things. Even worse was the fact that he was crouching beside the guy’s bed, staying there to hide the very obvious reaction his body was having to seeing Jacob’s extremely distracting near nakedness. The cherry on top was to have Lou there, adding fuel to the fire and actually agreeing with Jacob.

“Can you…” Levi muttered into the bedspread. “Get some clothes on?”

Jacob snorted. “You break into my motel room and tell me to get dressed?”

“I didn’t break in!” Levi protested.

“Walked in,” Jacob corrected, and Levi could hear the amusement in his voice.

“Yes, exactly. And I’m sorry I walked in without your permission. Now, can you please put on some clothes?”

“My clothes are out here.”

“God. I’ll just wait outside.”

Levi made a show of pushing himself to his feet, but really, it was an attempt to try to hide the front of his pants. He couldn’t help but glance over one last time as he slipped out the door. Jacob continued to stand there, and God save him, the man looked positively smug as he smirked at Levi’s retreat.

Very smooth.

“You could have told me he was out of the shower!” Levi hissed as he hopped into the truck.

I didn’t know he was. I was looking at the painting too.

At least Lou’s sense of danger was still on point. The spirit was a pain in his ass sometimes but was an excellent security system. Precogs might be able to catch glimpses of the future, but Levi would take Lou’s eyes and ears over that any day. At least whatever Lou saw was clear and could be communicated instantly. The few precogs Levi had met were always frustrated with the misty ambiguity their sight gave them.

The steering wheel felt cool against his burning face. “I cannot believe that just happened.”

You think he noticed you had a boner?

“Oh my god,” Levi groaned, thumping his head against the wheel a few times.

He was never going to live this down.

Jacob

Grunting, he hefted the thick beam up and over his shoulder. Lifting it alone probably wasn’t the smartest thing for him to do, but he was starting to enjoy himself. He hadn’t realized just