“Where do you think you’re going?” I snagged Phoebe around the waist and dragged her down on top of me. Her soft laughter wrapped around me like a blanket. I wanted to bask in it. Drown in it. I wanted to bottle it and keep it with me always.
It was official.
Levi Hunter had lost his balls.
No, I hadn’t lost them—I’d handed them willingly to a girl with ink on her skin and scars on her heart.
Phoebe.
My honeybee.
My every-fucking-thing.
It had been a week since the wrap party. One week since I’d gotten up on stage and sung a love song to the girl who owned me, heart, body, and black fucking soul.
It had been the best damn week of my life. No fangirls, no paparazzi, no media. It was just me, my girl, and our closest friends and family. Letty had organized the entire thing.
Two weeks at her family’s beach house on a secluded beach situated on Long Island.
It was perfect.
Well, it would have been if it wasn’t for Molly’s unexpected arrival.
We were still in the dark about her sudden appearance that night. All Eva had told us was that something had happened back home, and Molly needed to lay low for a while. Of course, we weren’t going to send her away.
Not that Hudson would ever have allowed it.
He’d gone into full alpha protector mode since we found her that night, standing outside the club with tears rolling down her cheeks.
It was their business though. I was just relieved to be spending two weeks with my girl. We had the best fucking bedroom, with a balcony overlooking the ocean. I’d fucked her on it more times than I could count. Sometimes hard, fast sex, reveling in the way her cries filled the salty air; other times it was slow and deep with her riding me back to front as we both stared out at the horizon.
Sex was our language of love. We didn’t need words or lyrics to tell the other how we felt. It was all in the way she kissed me, or the way I touched her.
I couldn’t get enough.
“Yo, lovebirds, breakfast is here,” Hudson yelled.
“No,” Phoebe murmured, tucking herself back into the crook of my arm. “I’m not ready to get up.”
“So we stay in bed,” I said, dropping a kiss to her hair.
“No, we should join them. I feel like I’ve been stealing all your time.”
“Seriously?” I nudged her out of my side and stared down at her.
“I don’t mean it like that. I just... they’re your bandmates, Levi. This is your vacation.”
“And you’re my girl.”
That made her smile. “I am, aren’t I?”
“You so are.” I brushed my lips over hers. “And now the whole world knows it.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” Phoebe grumbled, and I chuckled.
The story had run two days after the event, and it hadn’t taken long before a journo reached out to the label for comment on the rumors that Levi Hunter was officially off the market.
I’d told Alistair to confirm it. Phoebe had refused to talk to me for an entire day. Until I’d pinned her to the bed and done wicked things to her body as way of an apology.
She’d gotten me back the next day though, when she’d called her dad and made me clear the air with him.
That had been a fun conversation.
One I didn’t ever plan on reliving.
But Mr. Halstead hadn’t hung up on me, which is more than I could have hoped for. He made me promise never to break his daughter’s heart, and I made him promise never to take her away from me again.
We ended up agreeing to disagree.
My therapist called it progress. I called it my girl owning me by the balls.
Phoebe pressed a lingering kiss to my lips before climbing out of bed. My eyes feasted on her curves as she pulled on some bootie shorts and a band t-shirt.
“Thank God for bootie shorts,” I mused, and she smirked over her shoulder. “Keep looking at me like that, Bee, and we’ll never make it to breakfast.
Her eyes lit up with mischief as she darted for the door. “You’ll have to catch me first, rock star.”
Phoebe
By the time Levi arrived in the kitchen, I was already tucking into a stack of pancakes.
“Morning,” he said to everyone.
“Rough night?” Rafe asked, and my eyes immediately went to Levi’s very bare, very marred chest.
Heat flooded me.
“What can I say? My honeybee likes to bite.”
“Too much information for breakfast,” Damon grumbled. “Go put a shirt on, Jesus.”
“Relax, Donnelley. You just need to get laid, remove that stick from—”
“Levi.” Rafe shook his head.
I held out my hand, beckoning Levi to me. He came willingly, wearing a wolfish grin.
“You ran, Bee.”
“You should have chased me.”
He laughed. A real honest-to-God laugh. It made everyone stop what they were doing, all eyes trained on Levi.
“What?” He frowned, rubbing a hand down his face to hide the slight stain to his cheeks.
“You are so freakin’ adorable,” I whispered.
“It’s good to see you like this, bro,” Rafe said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Something passed between the two Hunter brothers. But then Molly stepped into the kitchen, taking all the air with her.
“Uh, hey, sorry... I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Her arms were wrapped around her waist like armor.
“You’re not interrupting.” Eva rushed to her side.
Two seconds later, Hudson appeared. His hair disheveled, wearing nothing but some black shorts.
Eva bristled at the sight of him, and he let out a heavy breath. “It’s not what you think, Angel.”
But it was something.
Molly was broken. Quiet and skittish, nothing like the voracious outgoing girl I’d met before.
But no one was telling us anything. Just that she needed some space.
Eva tended to Molly while Hudson went straight for the liquor cabinet.
“Seriously?” Levi balked. He hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since we’d arrived. Every other day, he disappeared for ninety minutes for his session with Fiona, and every day, he searched me out afterward.
He was changing.
Healing right in front of my eyes.
Levi still had a long way to go, but he was trying, and that was all any of us could ask for.
After Zephyr, I’d truly believed love couldn’t fix a person. That I wasn’t enough.
But love was a reason to fight.
It was a reason to try to change and lay your demons to rest.
Love was strength.
And I was enough.
Every day… every touch… every kiss… every time Levi sank inside me, I felt it.
My love hadn’t been enough to save Zephyr, but it was enough to make Levi want to fight.
In the end, love was enough to save him.
Thank you for reading Ruin.
Pre-order Hudson Ryker’s story, coming in May 2021
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