“I’m game as long as it makes your life miserable.”
“Who says it will?” he murmurs the words straight against my earlobe. His breaths tickle the skin, but his lips never do.
The freaking tease.
I clear my throat. “So where are we? The cemetery? I’m warning you, my stepmother calls me a cat with nine lives. She does it behind my back of course because she has her snobbish image to keep and all that jazz. Don’t tell her I know. So anyway, it might take a bit of effort to finish me off.”
“Are you always a drama queen when nervous?”
/> “Nope. Only when I’m kidnapped to the middle of nowhere. You know, by a devil minion and all that.”
Still holding me, he spins us around so I’m facing a cottage-like house on the unkempt ground. The car’s lights highlight the antique, cosy architecture with the rain pounding down on it.
“Okay. I’ve got to admit it’s a nice hideout for a serial killer.”
“This is our Meet Up,” he says with amusement. “Usually, the team would be here if it weren’t game night.”
“Right. No serial killer activities, I guess.” I peek at him. “Why did you bring me here?”
“You asked about my father and I brought you to the best place to feel it.”
“Feel what?”
He drops me to my feet, and I slowly turn around.
In the middle of nowhere, under the pouring rain, Levi opens his arms wide and tilts his head back. Water soaks his gorgeous face, the hard tendons of his collarbone, and his Viking hair.
His white shirt becomes complete see-through, sticking to his muscles like a second skin.
And he’s smiling.
It’s not one of his cruel fake smiles. This one is genuine like he’s… happy?
The view grips me by the gut. My heart pumps so loud, it’s a miracle he’s not hearing it.
This posture. This same posture.
I’ve seen it somewhere.
But where?
“The rain,” Levi whispers, still closing his eyes. “My father taught me to feel the rain.”
19
Levi
You make me lose control and you’ll pay the price for it.
* * *
Watching Astrid in my space, my compound, stirs a strange part of me.
I lean back against the counter with a glass of vodka in hand as she sits on the sofa right opposite me.
Drying her hair with a towel, she watches our surroundings like a curious kitten.
Aiden and I have kept the place simple with just a few sofas, two poker tables, and a bar. In short: all the fun Jonathan won’t allow us at home.