Never Stay Past Midnight

More thanks? She could keep them. He couldn’t quite bring himself to accept praise for knowing whose body he’d been buried in a week ago. “Sweetheart, what can I do for you?”

“I know this is going to sound crazy and it’s sort of in violation of the unspoken one-night agreement, but I need a huge favor and you’re the only person who can help me.”

Levi’s head tipped to rest against the leather back of his chair. He couldn’t wait to hear this one, especially knowing the kind of tizzy she’d worked herself up to just calling. “What kind of favor are we talking about?”

His mind was already working through a few ideas in explicit detail. And if they were on the same page … he was feeling very generous.

“I’ve become Bruno’s temporary owner, but I still can’t quite handle him.”

The dog again. Well, he couldn’t knock the tactic. It had, after all, worked before.

“You’re the only guy I know who doesn’t work in the afternoons. I’d like to hire you to walk him today.”

Hire him?

Levi sat up in his chair, his mouth twitching against his barely restrained laughter. Damn, she was good. He was no stranger to women looking for excuses to get back within jumping distance of his bed, but, to date, he’d never had one offer cash as an incentive—not that he’d actually take it, but this was too good. “You want to hire me to walk Bruno? How much are we talking?”

Her sigh filtered through the line, heavy with relief. Gratitude. A nice touch. He liked a woman who didn’t skimp on the details.

“I was thinking fifteen bucks for thirty minutes at the park.”

“No.” As a rule, games weren’t his thing. But this one was too much fun not to play—And the truth was, he could have really used this call about twelve hours ago. So maybe he wanted to make her squirm a little. “I’ve already proven I can handle Bruno. Call it an even twenty and I’ll run him, too.”

That ought to throw a wrench in her plans. No chance of a long intimate talk if he was running down that beast of a dog. Let’s see how she wiggled out of this one.

“Deal. That’s perfect.”

Sure it was. He couldn’t wait to see what she came up with next. See if Bruno was there at all. Not that he cared. She’d scored major points for style and originality—despite the sporadic awkward factor he was coming to recognize as pure Elise. So she’d fabricated an excuse to reconnect with him, big deal. Whatever it took for her to make the call, he was on board with one hundred percent, because the fact remained … He just hadn’t had enough of her yet.

CHAPTER FOUR

“YOU’RE serious?” Levi stared down at the leash, empty newspaper bag and crumpled twenty she’d stuffed in his hand and let out a laugh that was equal parts irritation and incredulous amusement. He should have seen it the second she’d swung open the apartment door, greeting him with that wide, grateful smile. No makeup, her hair stuffed in another one of those elastic things. Ratty jeans and a not too tight T-shirt. “This is actually about the dog?”

Elise blanched, her chin pulling back. “You thought it wasn’t about the dog?”

What a chump. This was not how it went with him.

He liked to be in control. Hell, he was man enough to know he needed it. And, this thing with Elise. He was most definitely not in control.

But, based on the Olympic-level hand-wringing happening in front of him, neither was she.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he shook his head. “Not to sound like an ass here, but it usually isn’t. The dog, the lost earring, the house keys—” misplaced thong “—whatever it is, it’s usually an excuse.”

Shaking her head, she gave him one of those earnest looks that made him wonder how he’d ever gotten past it. Then she swallowed, licking her lips—oh, right, that was how—as she geared up to something big.

“I swear, that wasn’t my intention. I mean, yes, I like you.”

Ah, hell, he knew where this was going … held up a staying hand, thinking his ego really wasn’t up for the speech he’d given too many times to count.

“You’re an attractive man and the other night was incredi—”

Her words cut short as Bruno barreled into the room, his huge body skidding into Elise’s knees from behind—taking her down over his back.

“Elise—” He was at her side in a second. “Are you hurt?”

“No, no,” she grumbled, trying to wave him off even as he caught her.

Fingers moving swiftly, he checked her wrists and elbows, worked his way over her arms … to her shoulders … the slender column of her neck … and the loose, silky spirals falling around it.

Gray eyes fringed with dark ash locked with his.

“I’m fine,” she answered quietly, looking away as she pushed to stand. “Getting used to it even.”

Right. Following her to his feet, Levi brushed his hands over his thighs in a weak attempt to replace the velvet-soft feel of her beneath them.

Bruno’s nails were already clicking frantically over the hardwood as he scrambled to get his lanky legs back under him following a tight turn.

“Sit, Bruno.” The dog dropped at his side, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Elise ducked to rub a hand over his knobby head. “Good boy. He just doesn’t know his own strength yet.”

Then after a pause, she shook her head. “Look, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have called, but no one else was available. You’d handled him so well at the park, and I really needed—”

Yeah, he got it now. “You really needed help.”

Crouching down, he snapped the leash onto Bruno’s collar. Leveled the beast with a no-nonsense stare. “You’re on my list, dog. No more knocking women over.”

Bruno met him with woeful eyes even as his puppy feet kept moving. Definitely time to get this dog out.

As he stood, Elise checked her watch, a furrow pulling between her eyes. She walked over to the little catch-all table by the door and pulled out a ring with two keys. “These are the spares for downstairs and the front here. I’ve got to change and leave for my class in about fifteen minutes. Any chance you could let Bruno back in after your walk and then just make sure the door locks behind you after?”

Levi looked at her outstretched hand and back to her face, irritation taking fast hold of him. “Your house keys?”

“You could just leave them on the side table by the door.”

Shaking his head, he tamped down the impulse to take her by the shoulders and shake a sense of self-preservation into her. Instead he shoved his fists into his pockets, making it obvious he wasn’t taking her keys. “You make a habit of giving these out to strange men?”

Hip cocked, she narrowed her eyes. “Only the ones I’ve already invited into my body and who rescue me two days in a row.”

Invited into her body … Yeah, he’d been there. Was fast on the way to a mental return even as she stared him down. Forcing his jaw to unlock, he blew out a strained breath. “Look, when are you going to be back?”

“About three hours.”

That ought to be enough time to get his head screwed on straight. Especially if he ran for half of it. Looking Elise over in all her casual disarray, he amended, Ran hard … for most of it. “I’ll keep Bruno and we’ll meet you back here then.”

Her mind was officially in the gutter. And it was wholly Levi Davis’s fault.

Never, in all her years of yoga and Pilates, had Elise had the difficulty she’d experienced in maintaining her focus through her classes today. She’d been an utter charlatan, preaching that yogic breathing, or pranayama, promoted clarity of mind and balanced emotions, while revitalizing the entire body.

Ha.

From the minute her hands and knees hit the floor for Tabletop, through every Forward Extension, Downward Facing dog, Plow, and Bridge, Levi had been in the studio with her. A sensual phantom infusing her every stretch and held position with tantric potential.

By the close of the second session she was about as far from clarity of mind as she was from purity of thought. It was bad and she wasn’t any better by the time she’d gotten home.

Levi wasn’t supposed to want her again.

He was supposed to be the kind of sexy commitment-phobe she could count on, post one-night, to gently but firmly maintain an arm’s-length distance between them. Just in case she couldn’t quite manage it herself. Not show up at her apartment ready to play along with whatever absurd scenario she’d concocted to get him there.

Huffing out a breath, she scanned the deserted sidewalk from her perch at the front window. Once they were in sight she’d jog down to meet them at the street. Thank Levi and say goodbye. He’d probably want to bring Bruno back inside himself, but that wasn’t happening.

The man tempted her in ways she’d never had to ignore before, and, while she wasn’t interested in a “real” relationship, she didn’t think she could handle the kind of casual on offer.

One more go—just for the heck of it—wasn’t her style.

And she couldn’t really imagine what more would have brought Levi back. Sure, the sex had blown her mind, but Levi’s experience was vast.

Two hard knocks sounded at the front door. Stumbling back, she hissed at her own stupidity. She’d literally been staring out the window waiting for him … and hadn’t seen him coming.

That kind of distraction was dangerous.

Didn’t matter. She just wouldn’t invite him in.

“One sec, I’m coming.” She’d lay it out straight. Apologize for the misunderstanding. Thank him again for helping out. And then a no-touching goodbye.

Swinging the door just wide enough to put herself between the gap, she opened her mouth for the straight talk and no-nonsense dismissal—only to find Levi, propped on one strong arm against the frame, mere inches away. He’d changed out of the track pants and athletic shirt from earlier and into a pale blue oxford open at the neck and rolled at the sleeves, and a pair of worn, asset-hugging jeans like the ones he’d been wearing that first night. His hair was slightly damp, falling in the kind of tumbled half-curls that indicated a quick shower and even quicker towel dry.

Wow, this guy was trouble.

And he wasn’t just handing off Bruno’s leash.

While she’d been standing there ogling him, Bruno had pushed past her legs and Levi’s wide palm covered the curve of her hip as that cocky smile loomed closer.

“How was class?” he asked, those dark eyes intent on hers.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, warning sirens were sounding loud, and yet, when he closed that last distance between them, bringing the mass of his chest into brief brushing contact with hers, she’d long since spent whatever breath it would have cost to protest.

The pressure at her hip guided her back a step, just enough for Levi to continue past her into the apartment.

So much for her plan.

“Kitchen this way?” he called, already halfway down the hall. “Bruno got some water at my place, but we had a pretty good run, so he might need more.”

The tap sounded and then a few low-spoken words of praise before her short reprieve was over and Levi was headed back.

Tall. Strong. Overwhelming the narrow width of her hall and sucking the oxygen from the air between them so no breath she took seemed enough to fill her lungs.

Bruno followed him halfway down the hall, before stopping and stretching out on the floor. In the blink of an eye, he fell asleep. It was enough to break that slow-building connection and bring Elise back to the here and now, and Bruno all but collapsing beside her.

Focus shifting between man and beast, she remarked, “I’ve never seen him conk out like that.”

Levi shrugged. “We ran awhile.”

Guess so. “Thank you, very much, for helping me out today.”

“Yeah, well, I was here.” Levi’s mouth pulled to the side, wry humor tingeing his words. “And, apparently, you really needed it. So, I’m glad I came.”

This was the point to tell him to go. She could see in the slanted gaze he’d fixed on her—he was waiting for it. Only when she opened her mouth to say goodbye, she found herself asking instead, “Why did you come?”

Running a palm over his jaw, he shook his head. Good question.

He didn’t like to lead women on, so he’d generally made it a rule to leave one-nighters at one night. But with Elise … it just hadn’t been enough. And when she’d provided such a perfect excuse … when he’d seen a way back in without having to think too much about why he wanted to get there … he’d taken it.

“The dog thing.” He laughed. “With the offer to pay me. That was … unique.” It was also only part of the answer. The rest, he didn’t want to examine too closely, but suspected had a lot to do with the way the air seemed to hum with a kind of energy between them.

“The money?” She half gasped, chin pulling back in an expression fast on its way to horror. “You came back because it … excited you to be paid?”

“What?” Whoa, had that squeak come out of his mouth? And she couldn’t really be asking if he— Only the look on her face said that was exactly the conclusion she’d jumped to.

Like that, the humming energy shorted out, leaving a sort of vacuum in its stead.

“Oh, God, were you playing out some kind of a fantasy?” She looked as if she was about to choke, only the damn words just kept coming. “Like you’re a gigo—”

“Elise, I’m begging you. Stop.” Desperation ran thick through his words. “Just close your mouth before you say another word.” Before she ground the last bit of his masculine pride into the hardwood beneath her little bare foot.

She was a verbal train wreck. How could he want her like this?

It was physical. As she’d said in the park.

That crazy, bendy body had gotten under his skin, was all. It couldn’t be the twists and turns of her mind getting him so tied up in knots. Half the time it was as if they were speaking different languages. And the other half … hell.

But even with the way her mouth ran when she got nervous, he wanted another night. A whole night. He wanted her to stop spewing ego-shriveling assumptions and get her head back in sync with his.

Her mouth popped open again, making his gut clench. “You should just take the twenty—”

Enough! He’d crossed to her before her next breath, preempting the completion of her thought by catching her around the shoulders and surprising a sharp “Eep!” from her.

“Damn it, it’s not the money, Elise.” Looking down into those smoked-glass eyes, he searched for that same heat that had been there the first night. Found only confusion. How was he blowing this so badly? “It’s just … hell, it’s just you. You’re different. I don’t know what it is. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since last week. And seeing you yesterday—” His jaw clenched. “It was all I could do to walk out of here, but I did because I’m just as wrong for you as I was that first night. I’ve already got one foot out of Illinois, the other one ready to go. I don’t have anything real to offer you. And whether you want one right now or not, you’re still a real relationship kind of girl.”

He should have left it at that. Said goodbye and gone. Only his hands were already on her, his thumbs brushing over the bare skin of her upper arms, and he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. “Aren’t you?”

She stared up at him—pupils dark and wide, an erratic flutter at the hollow of her neck—leaning in with each shallow breath. Her gaze dropped to his mouth and the pink tip of her tongue wet her bottom lip.

His heart kicked hard as that connection between them began to untangle. Smooth and pull taut.

Her eyes slid closed. Her next pull of breath drawing him in with it—bringing him closer to those bare naked lips. Parted, ready for him to take—

“I’m seeing someone.”

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