Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(48)
CHAPTER 19
ANDIE
Thump! Thump! Thump!
I was in a small bedroom of my cottage that I’d converted into an office and my yoga studio when I heard the pounding on my door.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
“Damn!” I cursed as I pulled myself out of my current stretching position.
I hated stopping in the middle of a yoga session, but whoever was at my door didn’t sound like they were going to just go away.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
“You could use the doorbell,” I mumbled to myself, annoyed as I rose to my feet.
It wasn’t terribly late, but I didn’t usually get visitors after dinner unless I knew they were coming.
I was hoping it was Owen or Layla, because I wasn’t exactly wearing visitor attire. I was dressed in a pair of skin-tight, stretchy yoga pants and a breathable tank top.
I jogged awkwardly to the door and yanked it open. I planned on giving somebody an earful for pounding on my door instead of simply ringing the doorbell.
However, I couldn’t say a word as I saw exactly who was knocking like a maniac.
Noah.
He hadn’t had a thing to say when I’d visited him earlier in the day. What did he want now?
“Noah,” I finally choked out breathlessly.
He looked dangerously pissed off, but I had no idea why he would be.
The man barged in like he owned my place. “We need to talk,” he said in a fierce voice that surprised me. “Did you think I was just going to walk away after the bomb you dropped on me?”
Well . . . yes. I actually had expected him to back off, and his silence earlier had just solidified that assumption.
“Honestly, yes.”
He turned to look at me. “You thought wrong. Jesus, Andie. It took me forever just to process everything you said.”
“I told you that you didn’t need to say anything.”
He sent me a sharp glance. “Oh, I have plenty to say. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, whether you want me to be around or not.”
My heart started to soar, and I had to pull it back down to earth. “It wasn’t my intention to make you feel sorry for me.”
“I don’t feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for myself. Somehow, I managed to let the best thing that ever happened to me just walk away. I won’t make the same mistake again.” His voice was harsh, and his eyes were wild with some kind of emotion I couldn’t decipher.
Noah was . . . different. Almost . . . bossy.
I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Flustered, I walked into the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Several shots of tequila?” he grumbled.
I smiled. “You’re out of luck. I’m out. But Owen left some beer.”
“I’ll take one,” he replied.
I was still a little sweaty from my yoga, so I grabbed myself a water, and got Noah a bottle of beer.
I handed it to him. “Have a seat,” I suggested, waving at the table.
“I don’t know if I can sit,” he said, his voice still irritable.
I sat and watched him prowl around my kitchen as I chugged some water.
I was nervous, and almost wished I had that tequila right now, too.
“Is everything okay?” I finally asked, concerned.
“No. Nothing is okay, Andie. I spoke to Owen after you came to the house. He told me what you’d been through, without candy coating it. I’ve been fucked ever since. Do you have any idea how much I hate what happened to you? I hate that you were alone. I hate the fact that cancer almost took your life. I hate everything right now.”
I smiled because he did look like he was pissed off at the whole entire world, and I’d never seen him like this before. “Do you hate me, too?”
“Hell, no. I feel like an asshole over the way I treated you, but in my defense, I could have never even imagined why you feel the way you do. But I did get to know you, and I should have known that there was more to the story. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I almost did,” I confessed. “But when you said you couldn’t imagine your life without me in it anymore, I thought telling you everything would be pretty selfish.”
He finally plopped in a chair at the end of the table. “So you thought it would be better for me if you just dropped the whole relationship?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.” I hadn’t wanted him to hurt more if it turned out that I didn’t have forever.
“Well, dammit! It’s not better. I’m willing to wait. I’ll give you time. We’ll spend time together. Date like normal people do. But I’m not walking away again. Not unless you tell me that you can’t stand the sight of me anymore.”
Noah had this whole bossy alpha thing going on, and I had to admit that it was attractive on him. It was a hidden part of him that I’d never seen before, and I was intrigued. “Will I get any say in all of this?”
“Yes. No. I’m not sure if I want you to have any say. You might say no.”
He looked so torn that I had to hold back a grin. Not that there was anything remotely funny about how he was acting, but part of me was blissfully captivated by the fact that a man like Noah felt this way about . . . me.
Why?