“And let me guess, that’s not where you want to go.”
“I’m an artist. I want to continue being an artist.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Have you seen my dad?” I laugh awkwardly.
“He seemed a lot more reasonable than my uncle.”
“Do you really think that?”
“Not really.” He lifts a shoulder. “But Uncle’s enemy is my friend.”
I laugh, leaning my head against his shoulder. For a moment, we get lost in the lights in the distance as the Ferris wheel continues its ascendance to the top.
Then, a crazy thought comes to mind. “Levi… did you see who hit me that night?”
“If I did, I would’ve told you.”
I pull back, staring at him. Then I grab both his arms and feel around them. “Were you there at the moment I got hit?”
“I heard the hit.”
“Meaning, you were at the road? Did you see anyone?”
“Believe me, princess, if I knew who hurt you, I’d be the first to fuck them up.”
But a crazy idea won’t leave my mind.
Could it be…?
I lift his long-sleeved T-shirt to his elbows.
He chuckles, “Am I going to be your sugar daddy sooner than agreed?”
My gaze zeroes on the lines in his veiny forearms. I pull it to the shadows and gasp.
The mole near his elbow looks like a small star in the darkness.
My eyes blur as I look at him. “You saved me.”
47
Astrid
Just when I think I have you, everything dissipates into thin air.
* * *
Weeks pass and every day is surreal.
Every day, Levi tests my limits and I test his right back.
We’re like two pieces of a jigsaw, him and I. It’s impossible to have one without the other.
I walk into the school with Levi’s arm wrapped around my waist. Most of the football team surround us like knights.
Dan, Aiden, Xander, Ronan, and Cole are like my own protection and follow me whenever Levi isn’t there. I can tell Aiden doesn’t like it, but Levi forced his hand somehow.
Since that pool punishment, the three others keep quiet around Levi. Apparently, their captain has been out for their lives at practice. I’ve been hoping it’s not because of the orgy joke.
But knowing Levi, that most likely plays a part in it.
Levi isn’t only possessive to a fault, but he’s also the petty jealous type when I as much as look at his teammates. I might have been doing it on purpose to get a rise out of him.
I smile mischievously as I tell Ronan, “When are we going to have another drinking competition?”
“Tonight if you like…” his grin falters when Levi cuts him a glare. “Or never. Yeah, never.” He leans in to whisper. “Come down when Captain is asleep.”
“I heard that.” The look on Levi’s face is that of pure contempt. I can only imagine all the ideas he has going on in his head on how to punish Ronan.
“You’re pathetic.” Aiden shakes his head at his cousin.
Levi flips him the finger.
“Twenty-two hundred.” Ronan coughs and my gaze immediately flies in that direction.
The blonde girl, Kimberly’s friend, hugs books to her chest and walks towards the library. The guys stare at her, but only Aiden and Levi check her out openly.
“What’s the deal with her?” I ask. “An old ex of the both of you?”
A stab of jealousy hits me. Levi said he doesn’t date, but if he has an ex of that level, it makes my self-confidence shaky.
“She’s no one’s ex or current” Xander laughs. “She’s Frozen. An ice princess.”
“Unfortunately for this chap.” Cole nudges Aiden.
He throws him an undecipherable look and scrolls on his phone as if nothing happened.
“She’s sort of like you,” Xander snaps his fingers at me. “Captain had his knickers in a twist because of you.”
“Piss off, Xan,” Levi tells him.
“No.” I elbow Levi’s side. “I want to know more.”
Ronan’s playful gaze bounces between me and the girl who disappeared in the direction of the library. “Do you think she’s pretty, Astrid?”
“Are you kidding me? She looks like a doll.” And I’m glad she has Aiden’s interest, not Levi’s.
Scratch that.
I shouldn’t be glad that anyone has the psycho’s attention.
A lustful look covers Ronan’s features. “As in you’d do her?”
Ronan is the type who makes everything about sex — like Dan. From the time I spent with them, he’s the one with the most heart out of the four horesemen. Xander is too slippery. Cole is too silent. Aiden is too..., well, nothing. I can’t grasp his real character no matter how much I study him.
“Yes, I would.” I keep up with Ronan’s game.
“Take my fucking money,” Ronan exclaims. “I want to watch. First row!”
“In your fucking dreams.” Levi pushes him away with a hand on his face.
“Oh, come on, Captain. You already took away my cake bunny hookers fantasy.”
“Cake bunny hookers?” I chuckle.
“Ronan wanted hookers dressed as bunnies coming out of his birthday cake,” Cole says. “Captain denied it.”
Wow. I don’t even have thoughts about that.
“You killed my fantasy once, Captain.” Ronan talks in his dramatic voice. “You can’t do it une autre fois. Two hot girls will be explosive. It’s a waste if no one watches.”
“Who said no one will watch.” Levi meets my gaze with his darkened, lust-filled one. “I would.”
“I would watch, too,” Aiden says without lifting his gaze from his phone.
I don’t know which one to be more surprised by. Who knew both cousins had this side to them?
When we arrive at my class, Levi pulls me against him by the hips and leans in to whisper in my ear. “Locker room. After practice.”
Last week, I snuck into the football team’s locker room to surprise Levi. The surprise somehow ended up with me sucking him off in the showers before he fucked me against the lockers.
I still have bruises and hickeys to prove it.
My skin throbs and heats at the mere memory of that day.
“That was a one-time thing.”
“I’m making it a multiple-times thing.” His tongue slides to the shell of my ear. “Be there, princess.”
“Or what?” I lick my lips, unable to resist the urge to push him.
There’s this sick thrill about getting under his skin.
“Or I’ll bind you again.” He pauses. “Wait. You’d like that, won’t you?”
I thin my lips in a line to keep myself from screaming hell yes.
He taps my nose twice. The gesture has become an addiction. “I’ll wait.”
Like a lovesick idiot, I watch his strong, broad back as he retreats down the halls.
He’s just too tall and well built, it’s unfair.
My own Viking.
When I turn to get into class, someone slams their shoulder into mine on the way inside. Nicole.