They headed to Chassis offices straight from the ranch. Levi left Natalie in his office while he went to the R&D area to figure out the server issue with the devs.Mark was there, overseeing the whole operation."What's the ETA?" Levi asked as they stood in front of the TV screen, watching live feeds of all their game servers in several countries."Four to five hours," Mark replied. "How was the meeting with the folks? Did Natalie survive the in-laws?""Let's talk in there," Levi pointed at an empty meeting pod. The other was occupied by a crew of technicians, their faces and hands permanently glued to their laptops.Angela came in as soon as they sat down to deliver their refreshments."Did Natalie eat?" Levi asked."No," she shook her head. "Ms Taylor's not feeling well. She threw up again, and she's lying down now.""Take care of her for me," he instructed her. "I'll be up shortly.""Yes, Mr Van Holt," Angela smiled and excused herself.Mark turned to him when they were alone. "Wha
Natalie wasn't as good as new, though. She woke up extremely exhausted and spent most of Sunday in bed. Levi catered to her every whim, brought her snacks and turned on her favourite shows.She laugh-cried the whole time she watched Hoarders while Levi worked quietly beside her on his laptop."Am I disturbing you?" she asked at some point, convinced she was laughing way too loudly. But he shook his head and smiled, and she leaned in to kiss his dimple. It didn't take long before they were wrapped up in each other."I missed you last night," he grunted as he took her from behind.Natalie had missed him too, and to show him just how much, she leaned back, pressing her back to his chest, his arms coming around her to caress her breasts.She turned her face into his and kissed him hungrily. He growled and flipped their positions, holding onto her waist as he thrust upward in deep strokes."Oh God," she cried and held on tight to his neck, contracting all around him. Within moments she fel
Natalie was distant again, and no matter how hard Levi tried to get her to open up, she wouldn't. He figured she was pissed at him for earlier, for showing up on her floor unannounced.She sighed and gazed outside the window at the traffic crawling on the overhead bridge."Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, glancing in the rearview mirror, at Mark flashing his lights behind them.Her response was firm and final. "No!"They both fell silent, and Levi thought back to the weekend. With the server going down and Natalie being so sick over the past few days, they'd barely had a chance to sit and have a debrief about their weekend getaway. He wanted her to like his mom. It was important that they get along, so he asked her, "How did it go with my Mom? Did you enjoy the little time we spent at the ranch?""She's nice and loves you very much," Natalie replied."Just nice?""I like her," she said, still staring outside."And she likes you too," Levi smiled and took her hand. He kissed it
Levi eased out of bed, tucked Natalie in and threw on a pair of joggers and a T-shirt.The light in the situation room was on, and as he made his way to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee, he could hear Mark and Seth chatting in hushed tones."What are we looking at?" he asked when he walked into the room and handed both men their coffee mugs."Dreams, Vivienne and Paul," Mark filled him in."Are we really doing this?" he murmured as he absently stared at the board. Taking down Dreams was never his plan. He'd only wanted to find his twin. But Mark wanted to go all the way, and Levi knew he'd never find peace until Dreams was nothing but a bad memory for all of them."I can't let it go!" Mark fumed. "Not after they got her hooked on drugs and pimped her out. I was ready to walk away if she'd gone into Dreams willingly. But now that I know the truth. No way I'll let them get away with it.""There are other women who depend on Dreams," Seth warned him against making hasty decisi
Natalie asked Emily to drop her off at Safe Haven after work, and she'd either walk back to Levi's penthouse by herself or take an Uber; there was no need to wait for her."What kind of bestie would I be to let you go for your first checkup on your own?" Emily said as they pulled into the parking lot and made their way inside the single-story building."How did you know?" Natalie asked."Well, your sessions with Sam are on Thursdays," Emily pointed out.The receptionist was happy to slot Natalie in Sam's diary. But she'd have to wait at least an hour. So they sat on the plastic chairs in the waiting area. Emily drank vending machine coffee while Natalie read every poster in the room.By the time Sam called them in, Natalie was an expert on domestic violence and knew all the support centres' phone numbers off by heart."Natalie," she smiled as she showed them to her office. "I was surprised to hear from you. Our appointment is on Thursday, right?"Natalie assured her this had nothing t
Two hours later, Natalie fell head over heels in love with Levi again over their dinner at Skyline. As if once wasn't enough.He was the perfect date, attentive to a fault, and if she didn't know his stance on children, it would have been so easy to tell him she was expecting.But she'd already seen their ending. They were on different paths and didn't want the same things. It wasn't anyone's fault, though. It was just as Levi had said— the timing wasn't right.After their scrumptious dinner served on the rooftop in front of a roaring fire pit to keep them warm, they headed to the cinema a few blocks away, and Levi let her choose the movie. She settled on a horror flick, shocking him out of his head with her macabre taste."Are you sure? It's very dark." He tried to push her on the romance end of the scale. But she was okay with horror. It wouldn't break her already fragile heart like a rom-com would.He held her hand as soon as the movie began, even though she wasn't scared. At some
Levi's parents had booked a table at the Spanish restaurant in the hotel's West Wing. They were already enraptured by Mark's stories when they arrived.His mom was only concerned about Natalie. She ran to her, hugged and kissed her on both cheeks. She was over Colleen now. After all, they'd spent almost every waking moment together over the last two weeks. Leviticus, too, was happy to have his little girl back."Let me look at you!" his mom gushed as she held Natalie away from her.Levi watched them with mild curiosity, noticing how uncomfortable Natalie looked. He wanted to swoop in and rescue her from his mom's coddling. But Mark stopped him before he could and handed him a glass of whiskey."She's besotted with Natalie," Mark drawled as they watched them leave the room. Apparently, she had something to show Natalie."It's the strangest thing, watching them together," Levi agreed."That must help alleviate the pressure of your decision, knowing they get along," his friend said and g
Levi was gone when Natalie woke up. He had a full day executive committee meeting, and she'd taken a day's leave. She and Colleen had to meet Sam's contact down at the police station to officially lay a case of assault on Paul. Sam had agreed to meet them there.She checked her phone and read the texts from Emily. She was dying to know how her evening at the Empress had gone and whether she'd told Levi yet.She didn't want to entertain Emily so early in the morning, but if she kept quiet, her friend would keep pushing.Reluctantly, she typed up a brief text, keeping the details to a bare minimum. 'His mom confronted me, I told her the truth. Levi proposed, and I said no.'Like Natalie knew she would, Emily called immediately."Oh My God! Mr Scissors proposed?" she screamed on her end of the line.Natalie held the phone away from her and snapped, "Keep your voice down. Do you want the whole company to hear you?""Sorry," Emily whispered. "And you had to take leave today! I want all the