“...She had a heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere." -Robert Browning
Levi was never jealous before he met you.
Sure, he'd had lovers, and with all of them he had asked for exclusivity. Even so, if a soldier got too handsy, or a recruit got wandering eyes, it never meant much to him. It was just a side-effect of having a partner; once a person has a pie, everyone they know wants a piece of it. It was normal, natural. Levi had never seen it as a cause for concern.
Now though?
He walked through the barracks snarling every day of his life, wishing every man around him would drop dead for so much as looking at you. He knew they wanted you. He knew they thought, deep in their hearts, about having you. It was enough to drive a man to insanity.
You, of course, walked around without a thought or care in the world about what anyone else thought, and that just made it worse. How was he supposed to keep you from them if you didn't understand the latent wanting in every blink, the salacious hint in every smile? No, it was up to him to protect you from such things. He would not kill your kind heart and sweet smiles, but he would kill any man who thought they were for him.
Levi only wished he could bring himself to say something to you about it, to bare his soul, his weakness to you.
But no— he would not do such a thing. Levi would tell it to you in a way that made words inconsequential to the comprehension of his meaning. Instead of moving mouth and wagging tongue, he would use his body, his hands to tell the tale; if his fingers were paintbrushes, your body would be a canvas fully painted, worshiped with clear artistic intention and gentle devotion. He loved you quietly, passionately, and often, so thorough in his attentions that he often left you gasping, fighting for air and begging for release after such blazing intensity. He loved you, coveted you. He made sure that you knew no other man could ever make you feel the way he made you feel, know you the way he took the time to learn you; he made sure that he was the best for you, because you deserved no less.
And, at the end of the day, when all the looks were had and the rest of the regiment was fast asleep, you were in his arms, happy and safe and in love with him. Only him. Your eyes, ever faithful, were always his, and your smiles the same. Even from across the room, you somehow made him feel as though he were the only man in the room with a laugh and a wink, and he knew you were his as much as he was yours.
It is so surreal to me that I got to me THE Ali Hazelwood while she was on her US book tour for “Love, Theoretically” and y’all, she is just the sweetest human being!!! She gave me a friendship bracelet 😭 and during the signing, I had the chance to give her this Aliverse sweatshirt my sister and I made.
Her books mean the absolute world to me because I feel more connected to my sister, who is studying neuroscience, through them. Ali writes in a way that makes the world of STEM easier for me to understand and for that, I will be forever grateful.
I absolutely LOVED “Love, Theoretically,” so make sure to watch this space for my review later this week 👀 It might just be my favorite Ali Hazelwood book yet! What is your favorite book from the Aliverse?
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