Chapter 120

LEVI
“Is this how you intended to keep my poor driver waiting?” I asked, letting a hard-edge seep into my voice, a weak disguise for the nervous energy beneath it. She had after all kept me waiting and was indeed making it a habit. No one else does that to me but her.
Isabella crossed her arms in that dramatic way she always did when cornered, eyebrows knotted in disbelief. “You said your driver would drop me off. Why are you here?”
Oh wow. What a smart reply. Now she doesn’t have her truck to blame. It was starting to get dark as the driver drove out her street, weaving into the road.
“Is that a logical answer to my question, woman?”
“Don’t call me woman like that...” She snapped. “Besides, I hadn’t expected to see you. Why are you here?”
“Now that you see me, do you want to terminate the contract?” I challenged, eyebrows raised, a defensive wall to keep me from falling further under her pull. Distance was a trick I’d mastered over the years, a trick I relied on. But now it seemed less and less effective, and I realized I had done the same thing she had done — smoothly evading her question by giving a different answer.
“Is that a logical answer, Sir.” She said bitingly.
I knew she would catch up to it. Always such a smart mouth, huh.
I turned back toward the windshield, forcing myself not to linger on her, afraid I’d break out a smile and let her know just how much I loved those lips of hers.
Nonetheless, I noticed everything from my peripheral vision: the rich softness of her brown hair falling in waves over her shoulder, the sophisticated simplicity of her black dress, its tailored cut resting just above her knees. Jenna would have gone dramatic, ostentatious, but Isabella chose simplicity, pure, unaffected, and it made something in me twist, something I hadn’t felt in years, something I hadn’t believed I was capable of feeling.
I liked it. I liked her style, the effortless confidence beneath her softness, the way her presence seemed to illuminate every corner of the car. But I pushed that admiration deep down, forcing it into submission. She was perfect, far too perfect for a man like me, a man riddled with doubts and desires I barely kept in check.
She scoffed under her breath, a small rebellious exhale that made me want to close the space between us, lift her chin with a single finger, and discover what lay behind that spark. To breathe in her scent and let it overwhelm me.
“I have a question,” she said, her voice clearing the tension. It was rich and firm yet trembled with uncertainty, and that made her all the more compelling. I sighed, bracing myself for whatever she would ask. I turned to face her but immediately looked back at the road, my jaw clenched. Her lips, painted a deep seductive red, were an invitation I had not prepared for. The perfect curve of her mouth seemed designed to break down every wall I had built. My pulse raced and my knuckles whitened against the leather.
“Did you hear me?” she pressed again, her eyes searching mine.
How could she not see that I was barely holding myself together? Having her this close made it hard to breathe. I longed to tell the driver to pull over, to step away into the night, so I could close the gap between us, press my lips against hers, and fuck her so hard until we both gasped for air and lost it.
I stayed silent, wrestling with need. Her question drifted into the background and all I could focus on was the image of her in my head—her soft skin, her bold lips, the intoxicating nearness of her. I had never wanted anything more.
I pressed my knuckles against my thigh in a silent bid for calm, trying to ease the nervous energy that seemed to ripple just beneath my skin. There was something about her, something I hadn’t felt in a very long time. A strange tug of familiarity, a feeling I couldn’t quite place.
For a split second, a picture crossed my mind, a face, a car driven in snow, icy air against my cheeks, a woman in my arms as I made love to her in my car… It felt so real, as if I’d lived this moment once before.
Then it was gone, slipping away just as quickly, a ghost of a memory. Fuck. My head tightened briefly, a pressure blooming just above my eyebrows. I pressed two fingertips against my forehead, trying to will it away.
“Are you all right?” she asked quietly, and in her softness I felt something tremble within me.
For a moment, I nearly answered honestly—that I was not all right, that something was shifting under my feet, something I hadn’t felt since my accident. But instead, I forced myself back into silence, into control, letting the silence hang thick and heavy between us.
My pulse jumped at the softness in her voice. The air conditioning flowed cold against me, but under my shirt, I felt an unmistakable rush of warmth. Whatever it was, whatever I’d briefly remembered or felt, I hadn’t meant for it to undermine me. I hadn’t meant for her to see me falter.
I kept my sexcapedes private. My encounters with women in the past were meant to be simple, physical—nothing more. I would never be careless enough to fuck a woman in my car, not with the media obsessed with me. Except I was so taken by her that I had lost control. Was that woman Isabella? Who had she been to me?
Or was I losing it… or was something else going on? Was it pure attraction, or something more—something buried in the memories I hadn’t gotten back? The one year that seemed to be the most memorable of my life after I was made CEO of Ferrari.
I pressed my thighs together, trying to control myself, to keep my face neutral. I noticed the driver glancing back in the rearview mirror, and her, sitting quietly beside me, unsure what to say or do. I couldn’t afford to come apart here, not in the back seat of my own car.
“If it’s about the incident at the hospital you want to ask me about”—I kept my voice firm, though my heartbeat was still unsteady, trying to put a wall back between us—“I don’t want to hear it.”
“What incident?” She sounded truly confused, charming in a naive way. “I have no questions regarding that.”
“Then what is your question?”
She pressed her lips together briefly, then asked quietly, “This whole contract, when it’s over, how do we break up without being dragged all over the internet?”