Page 80 of Wicked Enemy

And nearly leaped out of my skin.

Lightning crackled around my hands as I jumped backwards, ready for an attack.

But then my eyes focused on the lethally handsome face that belonged to the muscular body sitting on one of my kitchen chairs.

“Fucking hell, Levi!” I blurted out, my heart still thrashing wildly in my chest. “You couldn’t have announced your presence by, I don’t know, clearing your throat or something?”

Amusement lurked at the corner of Levi’s lips as he cleared his throat.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “A bit late now, don’t you think?”

It looked like he wanted to chuckle, but he suppressed it and instead just nodded towards the lightning still crackling around my hands. “You going to shoot that at me?”

“Pour me a glass of wine and I might just let your little break-in slide this time.”

To my surprise, Levi actually got up from his seat and started towards the pale wooden cabinets above the counter behind him. I raised my eyebrows and let the lightning fade out as I watched while he opened two of them before finding some glasses.

Snapping out of my stupor, I walked over to the table and sat down while saying, “Third one on the left.”

Levi moved over to that cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine. The glasses clinked faintly as he grabbed both of them with one hand while taking the bottle with the other, and then returned to his seat. Setting everything down, he poured the rich red wine into the two glasses before handing one to me. I took it and then watched him curiously while he sat down again.

When I studied him, I realized that both his hair and his clothes were dry, which meant that he must have been here for a while.

“Have you been here long?” I asked, taking a sip of wine.

“About two hours,” he replied. His intense gaze drifted down to my hips, where my white leather pants were visible right by the edge of the table. “Were you at work?”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkwardness around us that normally wasn’t present. Something that made the conversation feel stilted. But after everything that had happened these past weeks, I supposed that neither of us truly knew where we stood anymore.

“Your boss is keeping you late,” he remarked.

“I have a new boss. And he’s a bit of a dictator.”

Levi winced, as if suddenly remembering what I told him about Ulric’s forced retirement. “Ah.”

“We’re also preparing for a full-scale attack on the south side, which requires a lot of time and manpower.”

“I can imagine.”

Awkward silence descended on the room. For a while, Levi and I just watched each other from across the pale wooden table. The oil lamp above cast flickering light over his face, making his gray eyes shine like flame-covered steel. Outside, the wind howled and the rain continued pelting the windows.

I took a long drink of wine before setting down my glass with a thump. Heaving a deep sigh, I shook my head slowly while holding his gaze. “Why are you here, Levi?”

“I, uhm…” he began, but then trailed off.

Raising his glass, he downed almost half of the wine in it before setting it down again. Then he raked a hand through his hair and cleared his throat.

Confusion swirled inside me. The only time I had ever seen him this hesitant, thisinsecure, was when he had taken me out to dinner that first time. So why was he acting that way now?

“Look,” he began, letting his hands drop back down. His eyes were full of uncertainty as he searched my face. “I know that I have no right to ask this of you, but if your attack were to be launched in the next two days, could you make sure that it’s focused on the east side of the city?”

I arched an eyebrow. “So that you can set up an ambush and slaughter all of my colleagues? No, I can’t do that.”

“No, no.” Raising his hands, he shook his head. “That’s not at all what I meant. None of them would get hurt, I swear.”

And when the King of Metal promised something, he meant it.