Perfect Kiss (30 page)

“Shelby, look I know this looks bad, but—”

She interrupted. “When, Levi?”

“The day after he got here.”

“Why?” She thought she knew, but she wanted to hear it from him.

“Because I love you. Because I was terrified that something would happen to you because I didn’t have all the information I needed to protect you. I know I should’ve come to you, but I didn’t want to put you—”

“Thank you,” she said quietly as tears filled her eyes.

“What?” Levi stepped closer to her.

She wasn’t sure if he really hadn’t heard what she’d said or if he needed to hear it again. Trying to keep the emotional avalanche that was attempting to bury her, she cleared her throat and then repeated a little louder, “Thank you.”

“You’re not mad?” he asked in shocked disbelief.

“Mad?” Shelby shook her head, and it must have loosened the barrier holding the avalanche back, because tears began pouring down her face. “All you’ve done since the day I showed up broken, scared, and damaged is support me, protect me, and love me. You never judged me. You never pushed me. You never demanded anything from me. I should be the one apologizing.”

Wiping her face, she tried to pull herself together so she could get through this without flooding Levi’s office with tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the whole story. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the baby. Or the texts. I was going to tell you about the pictures. I just… I didn’t want to upset you. I tried to take care of it on my own. Today, I went to the police station to talk to Eric Maguire, but he wasn’t there. I was going to tell you tonight.”

Levi pulled her into his arms and held her as she cried against his chest. She wasn’t sure where all the tears were even coming from. It was like a faucet had turned on and Shelby had no way of turning it off. So instead of fighting them, she surrendered. She held onto the man she loved and she cried.

“Shh,” he said comfortingly as he ran his fingers down her hair and rubbed her back. “You don’t have
anything
to apologize for. I can’t even begin to imagine going through what you’ve gone through and then trusting someone again. Thank you for trusting me, loving me, and letting me protect you, support you, and love you. That’s all I want to do, Shelby. For the rest of my life, until my last breath. I’m yours. You’re mine. I love you—forever.”

“I love you, too. Forever.” Sniffing, Shelby left the warmth and comfort of Levi’s chest and looked up at him as a clarity she’d only felt around Levi hit her. “This is really real, huh?”

He smiled down at her, looking at her like he thought she was adorable. “Yeah. It’s really real.”

She loved that he got her. And she got him. He understood why she hadn’t come to him about the pictures. She understood why he’d investigated Kevin without coming to her. It wasn’t just at the bar, while babysitting, or while remodeling a cabin that they worked together seamlessly; it was also in real life. Because life didn’t get more real than this.

“This is so real that I would marry you tonight if I could,” Levi rasped.

Shelby laughed, thinking that he was just saying that, not that he really meant it.

Levi didn’t laugh.

Instead, he cupped her face and wiped her drying tears with his thumbs, his golden-brown eyes earnest as he spoke. “I’m serious, Shelby. I would. I want to be yours and I want you to be mine legally. I want you to be my wife more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I don’t want to freak you out, and I’ll wait until you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, that’s fine, too. I’m yours.”

“I’m ready,” Shelby said without hesitation.

“What?” Levi drew back a little, searching her face, her eyes, her soul.

Her lips pulled up in a smile as she repeated, “I’m ready.”

“You are?”

“Yes. If you’re proposing, then my answer is—”

“Wait.” Levi moved away from her and took a painting off the wall.

Shelby thought this was an odd time to choose to redecorate. “Levi?”

“Hold that thought,” he said, repeating the words she’d once told him.

Then she saw what was behind the painting—a safe. After he typed the code in, it clicked open and he reached inside of it.

When he closed it, he had a small box in his hand.

Her heart started racing and her palms were sweaty. But she wasn’t nervous. And she wasn’t scared. She was excited.

Getting on one knee, Levi opened the small case, revealing a stunning princess-cut diamond ring. Shelby’s hand flew to her mouth as she stared down at him, her eyes watering once again.

“Since the day we met at your brother’s wedding, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I don’t know the exact minute that I started falling in love with you, but I know that it was on that dance floor. I can’t change the things that happened when we were apart. But I can promise that it will never happen again. No one will ever hurt you again. I will protect you, love you, and cherish you for the rest of your life. Shelby Kellan, will you marry me?”

“Yes! Yes!” Shelby cried as she hopped up and down.

Levi slid the ring on her finger, and it fit perfectly. Standing up, he pulled her into his arms and picked her up.

She wrapped her legs around him as he claimed her with a devouring kiss. His tongue swept in, illicitly stroking hers with fierce hunger. He captured her needy moans in his mouth as she met him lick for lick.

Pleasure whipped through her as she was being lowered to his desk. His mouth never left hers as he expertly removed her pants, pulling them off without breaking their kiss like a sex magician.

One of his large hands wrapped around the back of her neck, holding her in place with just enough tantalizing pressure to send tingles shooting to her core. As his tongue licked and sucked hers in a drugging kiss, his other hand slipped between her thighs. Then his fingers moved over her slick folds, increasing the delicious sensation building inside her.

Grabbing at his shirt, she leaned back so she could pull it off him as she sucked in ragged breaths. Stepping away from her for a moment, Levi hastily removed not just his shirt, but his jeans, too. While he did that, Shelby tore her shirt and bra off. Dropping them on the floor, she looked up to see Levi, in all of his naked glory, standing still and staring at her.

“What?” she asked, not really sure why there was a break in their regularly scheduled programming.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed in awe. “I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

Placing her hand over his heart, she told him, “I’m the lucky one.”

Shaking his head as if she didn’t understand, he spoke again. “No, Shelby, I meant it—” But he was interrupted when Shelby decided that they could discuss it later.

Wrapping her fingers around his jutting erection, she moved her hand to the base of his shaft and then up to his bulging head, where she felt a drip of moisture. Squeezing even tighter, she smiled as she said, “No, Levi
. I
mean it.”

With a groan, he dropped to his knees, and before she knew what was happening, he’d spread her legs and was kissing the pink lips between her legs with as much passion and hunger as he’d kissed her lips located farther north on her anatomy.

“Oh my God!” she cried out as his hand reached up and laid her back on the desk, causing her sex to press harder against his mouth.

Wild heat spread through her as his tongue mastered her body with suctioning swirls. Her thighs trembled while he licked her with increasing pressure and his hands kneaded the nipples on her milky-white mounds. His tongue expertly jutted in and out of her pleasure core, mimicking what Shelby thought he was about to do with his hard-on.

She could feel the heat rising from her core. Her entire body felt like one big nerve that was waiting to explode. Just when he’d brought her to the edge, he slid his finger in her and began stroking her in and out.

That was all it took. She exploded in rippling ecstasy. Opening her mouth in a silent cry, she fisted her fingers in Levi’s hair, holding him in place. Her hips bucked against his mouth as she rode out the waves of sensation cresting through her. Her body milked his finger as passion erupted from her core, stretching out through her limbs from the top of her head down to her toes.

After the final shudder had seized her, she collapsed on the desk and tried to catch her breath. When she opened her eyes, Levi was standing over her, looking down with so much love in his eyes that she felt it in her soul.

“Make love to me. Now,” she managed to instruct through pants.

Without hesitation, Levi positioned himself at her opening and thrust into her in one driving push, filling her completely.

“Yes,” she rasped as she looked up into his eyes, feeling more connected to him than she ever had with anyone.

He was hers. She was his. Forever.

*

As Levi began to move inside Shelby’s body, he tried to keep the pace as slow as possible. He wanted to draw their pleasure out as long as possible. He’d only given her one big O so far, and he wanted her to have many, many more. She had just agreed to become his wife, and he would do anything and everything to make her feel all the pleasure she deserved.

Leaning over her, he cupped her breasts in his hands as his hips continued to move at a steady and slow rhythm. Taking first her right nipple and then the left in his mouth, he sucked, licked, and lightly bit each, giving them both equal attention.

Shelby’s hands ran over his shoulders and threaded through his hair as he spent his time in unhurried exploration of her luscious mounds. Her back arched as he squeezed the full flesh of her breasts and flicked her pointed peaks with the hardened tip of his wet tongue. When he pulled her taut nubs between his teeth and nipped them, he immediately soothed the sting by laving his flattened tongue across it.

Shelby moaned, “Please,” as her hips rolled faster and her body writhed beneath him.

He loved to hear her beg, so this time, he used his fingers to flick each of her nipples, bringing her a pleasure-slash-pain that would have her teetering on the verge of climaxing.

He flicked her left nipple while he gently rubbed her wet core between her legs. Then he licked at her right nipple while biting and sucking the spot on her neck just below her ear.

He knew that, if he continued, he could take her up and over the edge like this. But he didn’t want her to plead with him, her body squirming as it sought release. He wanted it to crash over her. He wanted it to overwhelm her. He wanted it to claim her so hard that there was nothing she could do but hold on for the ride.

Standing up, he moved away from her.

Her eyes opened in irritation. “Hey?!”

He smiled, loving the fact that, if she didn’t like something, she had no problem letting him know. Without answering, he spread his hand over her flat belly. Her lids grew heavy as his hands slid over her hips. When he pulled her closer to him, she bit her lip and let a little gasp out.

Then, reaching around her waist, he pulled her up so she was standing, her soft, naked curves molding against him. Her crystal-blue eyes looked up at him as she tried to wrap her arms around his neck and lift up to kiss his lips. Before she could, he trapped her wrist and spun her around, pressing his hand on her back so she was bent over his desk, her ass in the air.

Since the first day she’d shown up in Hope Falls, Levi had wanted to take her like this—face down, ass up. He’d imagined it more times than he could count. But as his eyes traveled down the slope of her back and over the rounded curve of her backside, he realized that his fantasies had not even come close to the erotic image presented in front of him.

“Damn,” he whispered as he traced one hand along her spine and over her cheek while the other gripped her hip. Sucking in a breath, he hissed in appreciation.

Shelby glanced over her shoulder and grinned. While he stared into her eyes, he plunged into her glistening, moist center. In one thrust, he filled her to the hilt as her body took all he could give her.

Laying her head down, Shelby gripped the edge of the desk as he sank into her again and again. His fingers dug into the flesh on her hip as his strokes increased in speed. Her back arched and her hips thrust against him as he pounded into her.

“Oh yes. Like that!” she cried out, her legs shaking against his.

Arousal coated his throbbing member as he continued his measured, insistent rhythm. He kept hitting that spot inside her. He knew that constant pressure would bring her over the edge very soon. He knew that, in addition to the constant pressure, Shelby’s moans of pure, unadulterated ecstasy would push him to heights unknown.

He knew he was close, but when her body clamped around him with a viselike grip, he slammed into her one last time, smacking her beautiful butt cheek, turning it pink. This whole exchange caused his entire body to stiffen in climax. He shook in staccato spasms as he exploded in the most intense orgasm of his life. White-hot volts of ecstasy exploded as pleasure lashed though him, spinning with tornado-force winds.

His mind, body, and soul were completely enraptured in his release.

When he finally came back down from his natural high, he looked down to see that Shelby was lying face first on the desk, her back rising and falling in rapid breaths.

“Are you okay?” he asked, wanting to make sure he hadn’t hurt her.

Instead of answering, she lifted her hands in two thumbs-ups, which made him laugh. God, he loved her.

Wanting to hold her, to be closer to her, he slowly pulled out of her and picked her up. Sitting down, he pulled her onto his lap. She immediately nuzzled against his body, and he realized that the feeling of her warm breath fanning his neck as she snuggled against him might be his favorite thing in the whole world.

Running his hands down her long, silky hair, he began to breathe normally. His heart slowed to its normal pace, and he knew that life wouldn’t get much better than this. Everything he’d ever wanted was in his arms.

“So…did you just have this lying around or…” Shelby asked as she looked down at the ring on her hand.

“That’s my grandmother’s ring. She gave it to my mother before she passed away after battling cancer for three years. My mom never got married, but I remember her trying it on a lot. I never knew my grandmother because she died when my mom was only twelve. And normally, my mom didn’t really like to talk about her, but whenever she had the ring on, she would. She’d tell me about how funny, smart, and tenacious her mom was. About how strong and brave my grandmother had been at the end. In her will, my mom left the ring to me with very specific instructions to give it to the girl worthy of carrying on my grandmother’s legacy.”