Don't Let Go(92)

“Not fair,” I whispered.
Noah’s eyes smiled as he picked up the paper at my feet and rose again only inches away. “Never claimed to play fair,” he said.
His smell enveloped me, subtle and oh so sexy, making my senses take off like a tornado. I wanted to climb inside his jacket and live there forever. But that wasn’t an option. For days I’d waited. Waited for this moment. For him to leave again. To tell him good-bye. And now—what the hell did he just say?
My mouth worked with rapid-fire questions pinging my brain, but it wouldn’t form the words.
“Shayna’s gone,” he said.
“You said that last night,” I said. “I’m sorry. I know you wanted that.”
“We weren’t going to make it, Jules,” he said. “We both knew it. It was a last-ditch effort we were making for the baby.” His jaw tightened. “But now—”
“You could have been—”
“I’m taken, Jules.” Noah’s hands landed on my upper arms, and the heat branded me through the thin fabric. “I always have been, I was just too bullheaded to face it.”
“So what are you saying?” I asked, my head swimming.
“Clearly not enough,” he said, laughing. “Did you miss the part earlier when I said—”
“No, I heard you,” I said, my fingers landing on his lips to keep him from saying it again. “That’s back where my heart stopped, I’m pretty clear on it.” His eyes darkened with desire at my touch, and that along with the feel of his mouth under my fingertips sent heat to every inch of my body. Was it possible to sweat in forty-degree weather with nothing on but a piece of faux silk? I dropped my hand but he caught it, holding it against his chest. Yeah, not better. “I just—it’s not that simple, Noah.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” he said, using my hand to pull me closer. “It’s what I should have depended on back then, and I didn’t.” His gaze bored into mine. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
“But your job interview,” I began. “It—you got what you wanted, didn’t you? I can see it on your face.”
“Really? I’m that eaten up that my job is what’s on my face right now?” he said. “Because that is very much not what I’m trying to say.”
“So you did get it?”
“I did,” he said, so close that I could feel the heat from his body.
My breathing quickened. “And?”
“And it’s a job, not a life,” he said. “I’ve had it the other way around. This time’s different. Part of the deal was that I live wherever I want,” he finished. “With the woman I love.” His hands slid upward into my hair, holding my head as he leaned his face toward mine. “I . . . am . . . taken,” he said softly, not blinking. “Do you understand?”
My heart was thundering in my ears. “Starting to catch on.”
His lips brushed my forehead and then moved down my cheek. “Thank God.”
“Hmm,” I whispered, my hands moving upward to his face all on their own. “No more obstacles?”
“Nothing.”
“No girlfriends—”
“Maybe one girlfriend, if she’ll have me,” he said, his lips touching mine lightly and making my bare toes curl on the sidewalk.
“No ‘Love Shack’?” I said against his mouth.
“I’ll throw my phone in the toilet,” he said, claiming my lips with his. “I’m yours.” It was the friggin’ sexiest thing anyone had ever said to me.
His mouth was warm and electric and on fire. And mine. He was mine. Hot emotion burned my eyes at that realization as I wound my arms around his neck and pulled his head in tighter to me. The ground left me as he lifted me off my feet, kissing me like a man starved.
“We should probably go in,” he said finally on a breath, then kissing me again. “Mrs. Mercer’s going to have cardiac arrest.”
“So might I,” I breathed.
“You don’t have a man upstairs again, do you?”
“Not today, it’s been a slow week.”
He chuckled and drew my bottom lip between his teeth, running his tongue along it and making my fingers tingle. “For me, too.”
“We should remedy that.”
Noah groaned against my lips, and I felt his fingers flex in my hair and around my waist where he held me up. “Is that an invitation?”
It was everything in my power not to wrap my legs around him right there in the front yard and hump him like a dog. God, I’d never wanted or needed anyone more than I wanted him. Right there.
“I love you, Noah,” I said with every ounce of everything I had in me, and relishing the rush of emotion that passed across his face.
“Those are good words,” he said, his voice a whisper.
“Yeah,” I whispered back.
Gently, he set me on my feet and took my hand, and we walked up the porch steps and through the front door. Harley was back asleep on the couch, guard dog that she was, but I was grateful. I didn’t want the distraction. I didn’t want him to have to stop for anything.
I didn’t even pause to turn around as he closed the door behind us. I walked steadily up the stairs, letting the robe slip off me as I went.
“Jesus,” I heard him mutter under his breath before the sounds of footsteps followed me.
By the time I reached my bedroom, my need was cranked so high he could have made me orgasm from the stairway. And the look on his face when he reached the doorway and I turned to face him just about did it.