“You forgot your ears.”
She looked at him. “Sorry?”
“You forgot to clean them. There are flecks of dry blood in this one. You’ll probably have them in your other ear.”
Inwardly groaning, she grabbed the pot of earbuds.
“Let me.” He took one of the buds, wet it with water from the tap, and then very gently wiped away the blood. And she let him. Because right then, he seemed so damn lonely. A feeling she understood, since she’d been wracked with it since the distance between them first appeared.
She ignored that her nerve-endings were enjoying his touch and closeness a little too much. Ignored that her hormones were all stirred up and ready to roll. Ignored how unbearably conscious she was of his close proximity and richly masculine scent.
Finally done, he chucked the used buds into the small trash can.
“Thanks.” Piper’s brow pinched as she stared into his eyes. There was a dark, tortured look in them. “What’s wrong?”
He exhaled heavily. “I can’t stop seeing it. That moment when you went limp against me … and I had no clue you could die.”
“I’m okay, thanks to you and Maddox. He might have been the one to heal me, but you were the one who shielded me and then got me the help I needed. As you yourself once said … as anchors go, you’re not half-bad.” Her lips twitched at the memory. It was of a time when things were easier. A time when she’d been hopeful that they could be good friends.
A time when she’d had no idea that having him inside her just once would damn her to hell and back.
“So long as you don’t wish your anchor was someone else,” he said.
She frowned. “I would never wish that.” It would be so much easier on them both if they’d been paired with others, but she could never long for that.
“Good. Neither would I. Now come here, I need to hold you for a minute.”
His arms settled around her as he moved closer. With his warm chest pressing against the side of her face and his chin resting on the top of her head, she felt safe and snug and cared for.
“You can’t die,” he said, the words like crushed rock.
“It’s not in my plans.”
“I can’t lose you. But sometimes I feel like I already have.”
An ache lanced through her chest. “You haven’t.”
Maybe it wasn’t wise but Piper closed her eyes and sank fully into the hug, slipping her arms around his waist. This man had curled his body over her unconscious form. Had solidly taken hit after hit after hit in shielding her. Had gotten her the help she needed when he realized she’d been seriously hurt. It was safe to say she would be dead right now if it wasn’t for Levi.
He swept his hand up her back and began massaging her nape. She almost moaned aloud. Those fingers were all too clever. They knew what they were doing in other places too. Something she really shouldn’t be thinking about. But it was difficult to be around Levi and not think sexual thoughts—they constantly flitted through her mind, unbidden.
As if he knew … or as if he was having some X-rated thoughts of his own … his cock began to thicken against her. Piper opened her eyes, unsure what to do. She didn’t want to draw attention to it, though she doubted he’d be embarrassed or anything. She also couldn’t exactly ignore that he was getting hard.
Her body certainly wasn’t ignoring it. Nope. It was responding in turn. Her pulse was speeding up, her nipples were tightening, and lots of very sensitive places were getting all tingly and achy. Which, yeah, could be a lot to do with how she kept remembering how good it felt to have that long, thick cock inside her.
He slowly trailed his mouth down the side of her face and over to her ear. “Sometimes, I wake up in the night and reach for you. Then I remember I don’t have all of you anymore.”
She’d done that a time or two. Woke. Rolled toward the other side of the bed. Found it empty. And felt like she’d been punched in the gut when reality smacked her.
“You don’t know how many nights I almost came to your room, feeling like I’d go insane if I didn’t have you,” he added, his voice dropping an octave. “Instead, I jacked off. And I saw you in my head the whole time.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d often gotten herself off thinking of him. She wouldn’t tell him that, though. The situation was too precarious while sexual hunger had turned the air static, leaving them both balancing on a ledge. Piper had the distinct feeling that any explicit confessions from her would send them both hurtling off it.