Freefall (Santa Cruz Skydivers Book 1) (5 page)

“Taylor.” He greeted her simply, and unlike hers, his Aussie accent was thick and proud, pronouncing her name more like Tay-lah. “Should have known you’d be here. Couldn’t miss a photo op, hey? The hospital stunt not enough publicity for you?”

“Fuck you, Levi,” she retorted, her American accent slipping momentarily. Clearly, there was no love lost between these two. “I don’t have to take your crap. I’m leaving. Ben, are you coming?”

She looked at Ben, her artificially plumped mouth pinched and her perfectly plucked eyebrows raised expectantly. She then stomped off in the direction of the exit without waiting for Ben to follow.

Immediately, my curiosity was piqued about their story, but I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself in case they gave away some small details. This was better than an episode of
The Bold and The Beautiful
. Obviously, they had forgotten we existed. Lili and I continued to stand there, observing their banter and trying to blend into the background.

“What do you think is up her ass?” Lili whispered to me behind her hand.

“She must be sugar free,” I joked, to which both Lili and I broke into laughter, causing both boys to look at us again. Oops, busted.

“Babe, wait,” Ben called to her as she disappeared into the crowd. He turned to Levi. “Bro, I gotta go with her. You know what she’s like.”

“No worries.” Levi shrugged his shoulders. “You do what you gotta do. I’m gunna stay here and keep Andi company.”

Ben looked dumbfounded at his comment. He didn’t need to vocalize the obvious—I saw it written on his face. But I asked myself the same question that he obviously had on his mind. Why would Levi want to stay with me?

Chapter Four

Andi

Levi rubbed his hands roughly over my body. I arched my back, pushing my hips up to meet his. I was on fire, burning for him. Wrapping my arms around him, I ran my hands up the length of his back and gripped down hard on his shoulders.

“Andi.” He sounded sexy as all hell when he talked. Especially when he said my name.

Lili elbowed me hard in the ribs.

“Ow.” I rapidly blinked my eyes back into focus and glared at her while I rubbed the sore spot. “I think you just cracked one of my ribs.”

“Toughen up, princess,” she said. “Levi just asked you a question.”

“He did?” I quickly turned back to look at him. “You did?”

He was grinning at me ear to ear, highly amused. I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Like a bite from a zombie, his smile was infectious.

“Um, sorry, guess I just zoned out for a bit. What did you ask?”

I hadn’t zoned out, not really. I had merely disappeared into an X-rated fantasy involving Levi and me. I smiled at him coyly like I had been busted doing something naughty. Which I had.

“Can. I. Get. You. Another. Drink?” He pronounced his words very carefully and serious, like I was mentally challenged. Smart-ass. “Or perhaps you’ve already had too many. Didn’t take you for a lightweight.”

Levi lounged lazily against the bar like he owned the world, casually holding the neck of his bottled beer between his fingers. As he took a swig from the bottle, hints of black shaded tattoos peeked out from underneath his wrist cuff, taunting me. There were more on his neck, just peeking out from under his collar. How far did those tattoos go? As I continued to openly ogle him, a smile on his face formed, daring me to bite back at his drinking comment. Was he flirting with me? I wasn’t sure. Maybe he was just always self-assured and cocky? Normally, I wouldn’t have the confidence to even talk to a guy like him I had just met, but considering I had already had a couple of beers and I was feeling relaxed, I couldn’t help myself. I had to bite.

“I take offense to that, Levi.” I played along with him, poking him in the shoulder with my finger. “I could drink you under the table any day of the week.”

“Is that a challenge?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

Uh oh. Wait. What? A challenge? “I walked right into that, didn’t I?”

After the comment he made to Ben about wanting to keep me company, I had been hoping he might be attracted to me. But up until now, I still hadn’t worked out why he wanted to stay with me or why he was even here, for that matter. He didn’t fit in with this social crowd. He had tattoos, and quite possibly piercings, somewhere under his shirt, plus he was almost thirty years younger than the average guest here.

Having thought about it some more, I think he was actually just looking to pass the time. Play some drinking games, although I wasn’t sure if this was the place for a game of quarters or beer pong. Perhaps that’s why he wanted to stay with me. Lili and I were the only two females that were close enough to his age. You wouldn’t hear me complaining, though. He could annoy me any day of the week. However, it didn’t answer my question of why he was even here.

“Well?” he asked me, his eyebrows raised. “If you think you’re not up to it...”

Beside me, Lili was laughing, and moved in close to Levi, placing her hand on his bicep. “Do it Andi. I think this Aussie needs to be put in his place.”

The decision was made. I had always found it hard to say no to peer pressure.

“You’re on.” I held out my hand to him, ready to shake on it.

He shrugged Lili’s hand off his arm, and with his free hand, the one that wasn’t busy holding his imported Mexican beer, reached out, took my hand, and pulled me into him. We were now standing about an inch apart, almost chest-to-chest—well, my nose to his chest. I tilted my head and lost myself in his eyes. He leaned over until we were standing cheek to cheek. Lili’s laughter died away and all I could hear was my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

“I’ll take it easy on you, I promise,” he whispered, sending little shivers down my spine.

I swear my heart skipped a beat.

“Are you still talking about the drinking competition?” My voice, too, came out in a whisper. Oh God, he smelled good. Sweet, dark candy musk. I instantly wanted to lick him to see if he tasted as good. He made me think and want to do things I’d never imagined before. And I had a great imagination.

“I’ll leave that one up to you to decide,” he replied mysteriously before letting go of my hand, and stood back up to his full height. He drained the remainder of his beer and practically slammed the bottle down when he was done.

“Bartender, two tequilas,” he called out dramatically, holding up two fingers to the bar staff.

I swallowed hard. If I wasn’t drunk now at this exact moment, I was about to become extraordinarily shit-faced.

Lili clutched my arm while Levi waited for drinks. She frowned. “Promise me you won’t make a scene. Actually, come to think about it, I’m not sure this is a really good idea.”

I mirrored her expression. “I only agreed to it because you told me to.” Well, small white lie, I probably would have agreed just to spend more time with him. “I can handle a few drinks. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to embarrass you or Scotty.”

She muttered something under her breath that sounded like “that’s not what I’m worried about,” and before I could ask her what she meant by that, Levi called my name. His voice was a lot louder than I would have liked, resulting in a few of the party guests turning their heads our way.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lili staring at me, giving me a solid bitch face. I wasn’t sure what her problem was, but she was certainly being uptight.

“I hope you have nothing planned for tomorrow, because we are in for a hell of a night.” Levi handed me my tequila shot. He licked the back of his hand with the tip of his tongue, giving me a flirty wink, and then shook salt onto the spot before holding up the shaker for me. “Salt?”

“Please,” I replied. He wanted to play? Well, two could play at this game. I licked the back of my hand, but instead of winking at him, I closed my eyes and dragged my tongue up the length of my hand, finishing up the show by flicking my tongue up and running it along my top lip. I opened my eyes slowly and tried to look seductively at him under hooded eyelids. Not entirely sure I didn’t look like someone half asleep or on drugs.

I must have succeeded. His smirk was gone, wiped off his face, and his green eyes stared intensely at me like the first time we had met tonight. I held my hand up for him to shake the salt onto, but in one swift movement, he grabbed my hand, pulled me in tight against his body, shook the salt onto the back of my wet hand, then lifted it to his mouth and licked the salt clean. Before I had a chance to process the warm feel of his tongue on my skin, he discarded the saltshaker, then wrapped his hand around mine holding the glass and made me administer his tequila shot. Some of the amber liquid spilled on the palm of my hand and ran down my wrist. Without skipping a beat, he brought my hand to his mouth and licked the spilled liquid clean. He started at the base of my wrist, then lapped at my palm, swirling the tip of his tongue around and in between the grooves and lines on my hand, and finished up by taking my finger in his mouth and sucking on the end until all traces of said spilled tequila were gone. All the while, his eyes never left mine, only breaking eye contact to take a slice of lime from the bar to chase the shot.

I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say or do, so I just stood there, my mouth agape. I should have been grossed out, but I wasn’t. I was completely turned on. The feeling of the wetness of his tongue on my hand was only second to the feeling in my panties. That was the first time I had ever had a guy do that me, let alone a sexy hot one. I could only imagine the things he could do to me with that sexy mouth.

As soon as he removed the lime from his mouth he held up his salted hand and the other tequila shot. “Your turn.” His sexy voice was low and rough.

“Ummmm.” I hadn’t had enough to drink to do that, yet.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” he encouraged, pushing the shot into my hand. “Besides, it’ll be the second best thing you do with your mouth tonight.”

Next to me, Lili gasped at his comment. It may have been her shock and her disapproval of me engaging in the drinking challenge, or maybe just his goading me, but I took a firm hold of his salted hand and licked the absolute shit out of it, threw back the other tequila shot, and then took the lime slice in his hand that he had just removed from his mouth and sucked on it. The expression on Lili’s face made it worthwhile. In fact, her face looked so sour I had to check that she didn’t have one of the lime wedges in
her
mouth.

Levi laughed and took the empty shot glass from my hand.

“I believe I may have just met my match. Ready for round two?”

I opened my mouth, ready to reply, “Bring it on,” when Levi’s cell phone rang from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He took it out, looking at the caller ID.

“Shit, sorry, I’ve gotta take this.” He looked at me apologetically, and then walked outside onto the balcony to take his call.

Lili and I watched him walked away, his broad shoulders and tight ass filling out his suit very nicely.

Lili forcefully grabbed me by my arm and confronted me as soon as he was out of earshot. “What has gotten into you? What do you think you are doing?”

I pulled my arm from her grip. “What do you mean? I’m just trying to have a good time. That’s not a crime, is it?”

“Well have some decorum about it.” She stood up straight, forcing a tight smile on her face after a guest standing nearby overheard our conversation. She turned so her back was toward the guest and lowered her voice. “This is Scotty’s big chance, in case you have forgotten. This isn’t exactly the place to pick up and slut around.”

“I can’t believe you just said that.” I was hurt beyond words. “I am not slutting around. Besides, I didn’t exactly notice you missing Scotty while Levi was here.”

Scotty chose that moment to slide up beside Lili and place a kiss on the nape of her neck.

“What’s up, girls?” he asked. “Having a good time?”

“Something like that.” I glared at Lili.

Lili mumbled something incoherent and pushed Scotty’s hand away from her waist.

Levi came sauntering back to us, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Sorry, girls, I’m going to have to call it a night. I’ve just been called into work tomorrow. Andi we’ll have to rain check that drinking competition.”

“Sure thing. Another time.” My head dropped, disappointed that he was leaving and knowing there was no way I’d ever meet him again. And given the way Lili was behaving, it also looked like my night here was over, too.

Levi noticed Scotty staring at him from behind Lili and stuck out his hand. “Sorry, mate, didn’t see you there.” He shook Scotty’s hand. “Levi. Pleased to meet you.”

“Scott. Likewise,” Scotty said, returning the handshake.

Seeing the two of them standing side by side was comical. They were both the same height, but that was where the similarities ended. Levi oozed sex, and even though he was wearing a suit, you could tell by the way it hugged his body he was all muscle. Scotty, on the other hand, was long and lean with fair skin, and his suit just hung off him, like it would a coat hanger.

“I work for the paper and tonight I’m covering the event.” Scotty held up his camera, simultaneously showing Levi a laminated ID on a lanyard that he had hanging around his neck. “Do you mind if I take your photo for the social pages?”

Levi smiled. “Sure. Take one of me and Andi.”

Levi wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in tight, my head inadvertently resting on his chest. Automatically, I wrapped my arm around his waist. And even though my heart was pounding, and I could barely remember my own name, this position felt natural and right. Being this close to him, my theory about his body was also proven true. It was tight and firm beneath my touch. I resisted all temptation to lower my hand and run it over his ass.

“Smile for the camera, Andi.” Levi gave me a little squeeze and lifted his hand ever so slightly so it was now resting just below my breast.

Levi didn’t need to tell me to smile. I was beaming so hard my cheeks were starting to hurt. My knees shook and my stomach somersaulted. It was every clichéd moment I had read about in my romance novels all rolled into one. I didn’t remember ever feeling this way about a guy, not even Ben, or that guy from high school I had so unceremoniously lost my virginity to in the broom closet at Lili’s eighteenth birthday party. Every other guy I had ever crushed on ceased to exist. Levi was all I could think about. My heart was now pounding so hard the material of my dress shook with every beat.

We both looked at Scotty, who snapped a couple of pictures of us, and then immediately looked at the LCD screen on the camera.

“Scotty, don’t forget to crop that photo and cut out the bottom half, please,” I instructed him as soon as my voice returned. “If I’m going to be in the paper, I want to look my best.”

“Don’t let me hear you put yourself down again,” Levi interjected quickly, not allowing me to explain about the need to not have photographic evidence of the dress I was wearing.