Perfect Kiss (12 page)

Last night, he’d seen that same spark flare back up with even greater intensity when Shelby had asked him if she could move in here. She’d looked more than determined. She’d looked unstoppable.

Was her moving in here the best idea in the world? Hell no. This was the one place he’d been able to go these past weeks to escape her now that she had marked every inch of the bar.

Even the apartment he lived in above the bar was no longer Shelby-free since she’d had to come get him on multiple occasions because of deliveries or customers who needed to talk to him. Several times, he’d been asleep, which was why he hadn’t heard his phone when she’d tried to call or text him, so she’d found the spare key he left in the plant out in the hall and let herself in. That girl was nothing if not resourceful.

Yes, she’d been in the B&B, but only once, and she hadn’t even stayed ten minutes. Now, she’d be
living
there. There was a very real possibility that he’d be working and she’d be naked in the next room. Showering or changing. If this past few weeks had been a trial of his self-control, this was going to be a grand jury indictment.

Shit.

“Hey,” Shelby’s soft voice came from behind him, startling him into spinning around.

“You’re early,” he said, much more gruffly than he’d meant to.

Blinking—probably in shock at his tone and his words of welcome—Shelby pursed her lips and turned to leave.

“No.” He quickly reached out to stop her. When he did, he saw her jump and duck her head.

Levi felt like he’d just been sucker-punched in the stomach. Before this second, he thought he had a fairly clear picture of what had happened to Shelby to turn her into a shell of herself. But now, his worst fear had just been confirmed.

Someone had hurt her. Badly. And if Levi ever got his hands on the son of a bitch, the guy wouldn’t be breathing by the time he got done with him.

Quickly pulling his hand back, Levi apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t going to…”

Shelby looked up at him with bright-red cheeks, which might have been caused by fear or embarrassment. He wasn’t sure.

He wanted to say more. To tell her that she had no reason to be embarrassed. That nothing bad would ever happen to her again. But he couldn’t. Because she hadn’t actually shared anything that had happened.

Levi could see in her eyes that she knew he knew. Or at least that he had a pretty good guess.

Jumbo from Barnum & Bailey’s Circus had nothing on the elephant that was in
this
room.

She lifted her bag up between them like a protective shield, her voice barely audible as she said, “I’ll come back later.”

This time, she turned and he made sure not to stop her. When she’d raised her bag, he’d noticed that her knuckles where whiter than a load of laundry washed in bleach.

Trying to keep his tone even, he calmly stated, “You really don’t have to do that. I’m glad you’re here now. I had a few things that I wanted to go over with you before I handed over the key.”

He could see the fight-or-flight look in her eyes. Standing still, he waited to see which would win. Would she bolt or fight the urge to escape and face the situation? Even though his instinct was to assure her more, make sure she felt safe, he remained quiet. He knew she needed to work this out on her own.

Slowly, her neck bent back as she hesitantly nodded. Taking in a deep breath, she squared her shoulders. “Okay.”

“Good.” Not wanting to show how happy it made him that she hadn’t given in to the panic, he kept his expression unreadable as he moved to the small bathroom that was attached to the room she would be staying in. Flipping on the light, he stepped inside and explained, “Everything is in working order in here. Just a heads-up though, it does take a while for the hot water to heat up, so you might want to turn the shower on a few minutes before you get in or else every morning will feel like an ice bucket challenge.”

“Okay. Yeah, I always turn the shower on before I get undressed.”

Levi took a deep breath in through his nose and tried to think of anything other than Shelby naked in this bathroom. He knew she hadn’t meant for her innocent comment to sound as seductive as it had. Well, his head above his shoulders knew it; the one below his belt was not so aware of the motivation. In fact, his anatomy down south was sure that her words had been an invitation.

Making things even worse was the fact that Shelby had left her suitcase in the bedroom and followed him into the small space. Just her scent filling the enclosed area was enough to put his hormones into overdrive. Couple that with the feeling of her hair brushing against his arm as she looked around and he was worried he was going to be sporting wood so embarrassingly large and un-ignorable in a second that it would give the elephant in the room a run for his money.

Now,
he
was the one facing a fight-or-flight internal battle. So he strategically turned away from her as he slid past her to escape before he did something stupid—like run the backs of his fingers along her soft cheek. While he did, he adjusted himself so that his
excitement
was not as obvious. It was then he realized that this situation was going to be even harder than he’d originally thought.

Literally.

*

Shelby felt a little dizzy as she followed Levi out of the bathroom. Her current lightheaded state could easily be attributed to the fact that, in the past five minutes, she’d been strapped to an emotional roller coaster. That was a totally reasonable explanation.

First, she’d been so nervous that she was surprised her teeth hadn’t chattered like one of those windup toys. She’d stood at the front door of the cabin for almost a full ten minutes before gathering enough nerve to go in. She’d spent her time staring at the front door, trying to come up with alternate solutions to her living situation.

Mountain Ridge, and the sole apartment above Sue Ann’s, the only two places that rented rooms in town had no vacancy, thanks to the summer out-of-towners. She couldn’t really afford to rent a small house or an apartment. And as much as she loved her brother, her sister-in-law, her nieces, and their dog, staying at their house even a day longer was less appealing than sleeping in her car.

Uncle Henry would have let her stay with him. The problem with that was he had a habit of asking a lot of questions, that, up until now, she’d been able to avoid by being busy or distracting him with one of the twins. If she lived at his house, he’d have ample opportunity to give her the third degree without interruption. If that happened, she knew she wouldn’t last a day without spilling everything like she was a guilty Catholic in a confessional booth. Staying at the cabin truly was the lesser of the evils.

After pushing past her porch paralysis with her internal pep-talk-reality-check, she’d finally made her way inside the cabin. She’d immediately been met with a great view of Levi that, with each shift she worked with him, she grew fonder and fonder of. His backside. Not just his butt—which was so round and perfect that she wanted to slather it in butter and bite into it like a biscuit. That on its own would have been enough to morph her nerves into arousal all by itself! The thing that really had her hormones hopping around like Mexican jumping beans was the outline of his chiseled back beneath the thin shirt that covered it.

Much like triceps, Shelby would never have considered herself a “back girl”—if that was even a thing. But it seemed like Levi was exposing all kinds of things she hadn’t known about herself before. When she’d seen him standing, his legs planted shoulder-width apart, his arms crossed in front of him, showcasing the lines of his muscular shoulder blades like they were an exhibit in the Smithsonian, she’d almost tripped over her tongue, which had been hanging out of her mouth like a wolf in a cartoon when he sees a sexy siren.

Finally, to top the ride off, in a loop-de-loop she had not been prepared for, Levi had turned around and barked at her that she was early. His reaction to her being there had made any arousal she was experiencing vanish. She’d wished she could be like her overworked hormones and disappear. Be invisible. She would have done anything to have Rick Moranis point a laser at her so she could shrink,
Honey I Shrunk the Kids
–style.

That would have been bad enough, but then, when Levi had reached out to stop her, she’d gone off a flashback cliff. In the blink of an eye, she’d been she transported back to Arizona like Scotty himself had beamed her there. She was in the small house she and Kevin shared. Helpless. Terrified. Humiliated. It didn’t matter that, somewhere in her consciousness, she knew that that was not the case. All it took was opening her eyes to see that she was in Hope Falls. Hundreds of miles away from that terror. Physically, she was in California, but, emotionally, she was in Arizona.

When the ride slowed down, she could have sworn that she heard the click, click, clicking of the roller coaster pulling back into the station. The only thing she’d wanted to do when the lap bar lifted and she was no longer crippled by fear was to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Ignoring every voice in her head screaming for her to leave, fighting against every cell in her body that wanted to be anywhere but in that cabin, she stayed.

It hadn’t been easy. There had been a moment there that she’d been sure she was about to throw up. But she hadn’t. Yes, she was shaky. Sure, the room was spinning like she was on the Teacup ride at Disneyland, but she was still standing. It was just another baby step in the direction of her final destination of getting back everything she’d lost—mainly herself.

“I still have a lot to do in the kitchen. The fridge and microwave are working, but I need to replace the stove.”

Levi’s voice was so deep that it sounded more like a late-night radio host for a love line than a landlord and boss. With just one sentence, the timbre in his tone caused her world to spin for an entirely different reason.

She seriously needed to get it together.

Clearing her throat, she hoped her voice didn’t betray her attempt to sound unaffected. “I’m not really known for my skills in the kitchen, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Turning back towards her, Levi grinned. “What are you known for?”

Her first thought was to come back with,
My skills in the bedroom.
There was no way she would say that, but she had to admit that it felt good to have that be the
first
thing she thought to say. All the fake flirting she’d been doing the past few weeks while bartending, to get bigger tips, seemed to have a two-fold benefit. Not only was her bank account growing, she was also easing back into her old self.

Shelby’s heart was pounding under the stare of his big, brown eyes. Smiling, she nervously licked her lips. Levi’s eyes grew darker as she did.

“Definitely not cooking,” she replied a little more breathlessly than she’d intended.

With a small nod, his smile grew bigger as he said, “Good to know.”

As much as she was enjoying their small flirtation, she was very aware of the fact that being around Levi was as combustible as tossing a hot match into dry brush. What started as a tiny ember could quickly roar into an out of control forest fire. She thought it best to toss some water on it while the flame was manageable, and there was no better way to do that than to talk money.

“We didn’t discuss rent, but I think three hundred is fair—”

“I’m not charging you rent,” Levi said with a finality that suggested that this subject was not up for discussion. If that’s what he thought, he was sadly mistaken.

There was no way Shelby was going to feel like she owed him anything. Well, at least not more than she already did, since he’d given her not only a job, but also a place to stay.

“Yes, you are,” she insisted.

“No. I’m not,” he countered firmly.

The conviction in his voice told her that he would not be easily swayed. As much as she wanted to stay here, she wouldn’t be in debt to him more than she already was, and the last thing she wanted to do was have a fight or confrontation over it. So there was really only one option.

“Fine.” Turning on her heel, she headed back towards the bedroom to grab her bag and get out of there.

“Where are you going?”

Looking up, she saw that Levi was standing in front of the door. How he’d gotten there so fast was a mystery, but in a flash he was blocking her exit. She waited for the panic to rise up in her throat like bile. Waited for her limbs to go weak as fear overtook her. Waited for her brain to switch into bargaining mode to try to contain the situation as much as possible. She waited, but none of those things happened. No fear. No panic. She just felt…stubborn.

Score two for Shelby.

“I’m not going to stay here without paying my way,” she stated calmly, her voice as steady as a neurosurgeon’s hands.

Letting out a small sigh, Levi raked his fingers through his hair. She was sure his gesture was borne out of frustration, but that didn’t change the fact that it gave her a glimpse of his triceps, which dripped, like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day, with sexy. The sensual sight caused her lady parts to tingle with excitement.

“I can’t charge you to live in a place that is under construction. I can’t, with a clear conscious, have a paying tenant here while I’m doing reno projects starting before six am.”

Shelby did her best to ignore the sensation between her legs, but it was now spreading through her body and limbs like a shot of whiskey. She might be stubborn, but she also listened to reason, and he actually made a fairly valid point. “Okay, so if I’m not a tenant, then—”

Levi cut her off before she could finish her thought. “You’re a
friend
who needs a place to stay.”

Her lips turned up in a smile. “I was going to say employee, since I plan on helping you fix this place up. But
friend
works, too.”

Now all Shelby had to do was constantly remind herself that they were
not
friends with benefits. She could do that. Yep.