The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,45
her cart. She covered the child’s ears, and, with a glare for both of them, strolled quickly away.
“Oops,” Lyndi snickered as she shifted her gaze dancing with humor back to him, daring him to join in on her irreverent fun. “Humans. So easily offended, you’d think they were dragon shifters.”
All he’d heard was just the fucking. He didn’t want to start there, but it seemed to be the only place she could, and he was running out of time. He left in two days.
Two damn days.
“Come on.” Leaving his half-full cart in the middle of the produce section, he grabbed her by the wrist and came damn close to dragging her out of the store, her shorter legs moving at almost a run to keep up.
But she didn’t pull away or try to stop. “Where are we going?”
He opened the passenger side door of the truck and settled her inside in grim silence. Still not saying a word, he got in the driver’s side, started the truck with a low rumble of the engine, and put it into gear.
“Where are we—”
“My cabin,” he said without turning his head to look at her.
Lyndi said nothing to that. But she didn’t protest, either.
“Just fucking…” He reached across the console between them and took her hand in his, needing the contact more than he was willing to admit. Almost like trying to ensure she didn’t disappear. “Tell me no now if you’re not sure.”
She tipped up her chin again, lips buttoned tight, and he gave her a slow smile, satisfaction washing through him, laying him bare to sheer, building need.
He hit the gas.
Some cabins, like Finn’s, could only be reached from the air. Levi’s had a private road because he’d bought it from a human family who didn’t want to deal with the regular upkeep. Each roll of the tires down the bumpy gravel only jarred his heavy erection, growing harder and thicker with each passing second. He and Lyndi didn’t tend to be the silent types, and, not for the first time, he wondered what the hell she was thinking.
Most likely, she was overthinking her way out of this.
He pulled up behind the cabin, the front door facing away from the drive, out into the woods and a gorgeous view of a small pond and the rolling Sierra Nevada mountains. Still in silence, he helped Lyndi out and took her by the hand again, not only because he needed to touch her, but also because this moment felt bigger than what it appeared to be. Like the day he’d been given his commission as an enforcer.
He hadn’t expected that then, either.
Lyndi had been here before, of course. All the team had. For fun, grilling out, smores around a campfire on chilly autumn nights, that kind of thing. So he didn’t think much of it as he pulled her inside the unlocked cabin.
Only she paused at the threshold.
“I always did love this place,” she murmured. “Something about it reminds me of an oasis.” She turned to him, a blush rising in her cheeks.
Levi brushed his thumb over the fluttering pulse point at her wrist. “I bought it with that in mind.”
The natural pine siding, trimmed in green that almost looked like peat moss, blended the house in with the surrounding trees. The same natural shiplap covered the walls and ceilings, along with stonework around the fireplace and a wall in the kitchen. Smaller than most of the other houses the guys owned, it only had one bedroom taking up the entire upstairs loft area, but also a porch with a creaky swing that faced the pond, and comfy second-hand furniture you could put your feet up on, and no technology. Silence and peace in a perfect escape.
Levi took one step up the steep and narrow stairs to the bedroom, tugging her up with him, but he paused and turned. “Tell me you want this.”
She stared at his face for a long, long second, then twisted her hand to lace their fingers together, skin soft against his, hand delicate in his larger one, and raised dark eyes flickering with red sparks. “I want this.”
A start. He’d take every inch she was willing to give him.
…
Given the way last time had gone down, Lyndi expected to be hustled up the stairs, stripped, and fucked, in short glorious order.
Instead, he pulled her past him on the stairs to situate her two steps above him, putting her lips right at his level, and proceeded to drug her