Trailer Park Heart

It was all smoke and mirrors, promising fulfilment and delivering nothing real or enjoyable.

Those girls were supposed to be Kristen’s best friends and they didn’t even respect her enough to stop talking bad about her in front of strangers.

They made me thankful for Coco and Emilia. My number of friends might be small, but they wouldn’t gossip about me in a public bathroom.

They wouldn’t throw me under the bus the first chance they got to snag some dude. Even if he was Levi Cole.

I finished in the bathroom and washed my hands before preparing myself to leave it. Deciding I would quickly find Coco and Em and say goodbye to them before Ajax could find me again, I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

“Having fun?”

I jumped at the dark voice coming from the corner of the even darker hallway. “God, Levi, you scared the hell out of me.” I whirled on him, planting a hand on my hip and wondering what the hell he was doing hanging out by the girl’s bathroom.

He pushed off the wall and stalked toward me. “Is that why you didn’t want to go to dinner with me? That tool out there grinding on anything with boobs?”

“Okay, Mr. High and Mighty, let’s tone down the judgment.” I took a step backwards, so over this night.

He grabbed my wrist before I could get far and dragged me deeper down the hallway. The men’s and women’s bathrooms were in separate corridors, with the girl’s leading to the back entrance of the bar. The further we walked toward the exit door, the quieter it got. There was nobody back here. There was barely enough light for me to make out Levi’s angry expression.

But God, he was still so gorgeous it hurt to look directly at him. Especially like this. Especially with his eyes blazing green and his muscular jaw ticking.

“Woman, you drive me crazy.” he’d growled seven years ago, the day before we graduated. I’d stopped by his locker while he’d been cleaning it out and kicked over his stack of books. It had been petty and juvenile, I’d known that, but I still couldn’t help myself. He’d grabbed my waist and pushed me against the locker. His eyes had dipped to my lips for a long, lingering moment in which I thought my heart would pound through my breastbone.

“It was an accident.” I blinked innocently.

“Yeah, right.”

His gaze had flickered to my mouth again, and then lower, to the tiny bit of cleavage my scooped neck tee revealed. He had been doing that more and more, looking at me like I was attractive—like he was attracted to me. It didn’t make any sense. He had Kristen March and she was the prettiest girl in school.

But because I was a brat and I really had just made a mess of his locker, I pushed out my chest and whispered. “Promise.”

His expression twisted into a tortured version of his normal smugness and when he met my eyes again, there was a crazy look in his bright greens. Wild. Feral.

“Come to Kristen’s party tomorrow night,” he ordered.

I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

He leaned closer and I sucked in a sharp breath. “It’ll be fun.”

“For you maybe.”

His jaw clicked together, his teeth grinding in frustration with me. “Logan will be there.”

Trying not to appear too interested, I said, “I haven’t seen your brother in forever.”

“So, come,” Levi coaxed, that wild look in his eyes practically frantic.

I’d pushed away from him and said, “Maybe.”

But obviously I’d gone. That night had changed everything.

He had that same look in his eyes now—untethered from rational thought… completely barbaric… savage. Seven years later, I still couldn’t determine what it meant, but it made my heart pound just as hard as it did back then. Maybe more so.

It wasn’t anything like Ajax either. Ajax was booze-soaked and drugged. His wildness felt scary… lethal. Levi was in control of his judgment and motor skills. He knew exactly what he wanted. And for how long he’d wanted it. Comparing the two of them was crazy. Ajax made my bones feel cold. Levi set my entire body on fire.

Levi settled me with my back to the wall, his body caging me in. He felt gigantic like this, tall and muscled and wicked. “Is he your boyfriend?”

I blinked at him, trying to figure out who he meant. Nothing existed in my head except Levi. He was the only man that was real. The only man that mattered. “Who?”

“The asshole you’ve been dancing with all night?”

I heard it then, the ragged tone to his voice, the… hurt. Levi Cole was jealous.

“He’s just a friend.”

“Ruby…” His voice dipped low with warning.

“Fine, he’s not a friend, but he’s not my boyfriend either. God, we’re not twelve anymore.”

Levi’s hand settled on my waist, squeezing tightly. It didn’t hurt, but the pressure was there, possessive and constant. “You did date him?”

His question made me uncomfortable. No, I had never dated Ajax. That was too sophisticated of a word for anything we had done. But I didn’t want to admit that to Levi of all people.

Instead of explaining, my shoulders bristled with the interrogation and I bit out, “You don’t know how lonely it is, being a single parent. I can’t exactly join Tinder, okay? And it’s not that I ever thought anything would happen long term with Ajax, I just wanted to… not be alone for a bit.”

His hand dragged up my side until his thumb rested just beneath my breast. His fingers splayed over my ribs and reached to my back and somehow in that simple touch, I felt like he held all of me.

His free hand dropped to my hip, tugging me against him, pressing my body into his and reminding me of how very female I was compared to his overwhelming maleness.

“He’s a creep,” Levi growled.

I let out a shaky laugh. “I know.”

“Then why are you still with him?”

“I-I’m not. I just… we just danced. That’s all.”

His head lowered and I felt his breath on my lips. “I can help, you know?”

I thought he meant with Ajax at first, but his thumb started rubbing circles on my hip bone and my thoughts tangled together. “Help with what?”

His lips brushed against mine and I shivered. “The loneliness,” he whispered right before his mouth took possession of mine.

Just like the first time, we exploded with carnal need. His mouth demanded control, hungry, devouring. There were lips and teeth and tongue and all I could do was wrap my arms around his neck and hold on.

We skipped whatever soft, sweetness was supposed to be in a first kiss and went straight to the lust-curling, butterfly-blinding desperation.

Our mouths moved in sync, as if we’d always kissed, as if we instinctively knew exactly what the other person wanted—needed. His tongue dragged over my bottom lip and I retaliated by nipping at his with my teeth. He made a low rumble in the back of his throat and pushed me against the wall.

My breath whooshed out of me in surprise, but he didn’t relent. We kissed and kissed and kissed until my lips were swollen and I had to press my thighs together to survive the building need.

His lips moved against my mouth with an intimate knowledge of what I liked… what I needed. Our tongues tangled together in a dance that was so much better than anything that had happened on the dance floor tonight. He was my perfect other half in this. He was the one good kiss I could remember being totally lost in and now, seven years in the future, it was like he’d picked up exactly where we’d left off.