International Player(42)

And we weren’t a couple. She’d been clear about that.

Although we were friends.

I wasn’t sure where the line was.

“Tomorrow night would work,” she said, and my heart lifted in my chest. She growled as she pulled her car keys from her bag. “No, I’ve said I’ll go and see Abigail tomorrow. Give her a rundown of what’s happening at the foundation. Obviously, I only tell her the fun stuff. Otherwise she worries. Maybe after?”

“Sounds good.” She didn’t need to know that I might just drop around for a beer at Rob and Abigail’s before as well.

“How was your meeting?” she asked, scanning the car park as if she’d forgotten where she’d parked.

“Interesting.” I pointed out her car and she grinned.

“Are you thinking of founding some kind of healthcare business?”

“Maybe. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. There are new treatments available that the center doesn’t have because of funding and then the ones that aren’t available yet but will be soon—more people should have access to this stuff. I need to figure out if I can make that happen.”

“Not even all your money can solve the problem,” she said. “You can’t give everyone the ability to walk, Noah.”

I chuckled. “Right? I thought I was rich but this . . .” We reached her car and I paused.

“Being rich is about more than having money. The fact that you’re interested and . . . It’s nice. That’s all.” She stared at her feet.

“Back at you,” I said, enjoying the blush my compliment elicited.

“It’s my job.”

We both knew that wasn’t the whole truth. Truly had said herself that she liked to be excellent at what she did, so no job would ever be just a job for her. And I could imagine that this kind of work was as heartbreaking as it was rewarding. No amount of money would ever be enough.

She lifted her eyebrows. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

I nodded. I wanted to kiss her, and not just on the cheek to say goodbye. I wanted to be closer to her. I wanted to take her face in my hands, and press my lips, my tongue, my body to hers.

I wanted to communicate without words.

She turned and pulled open her car door.

“See you tomorrow,” I said, then stood and watched her pull away instead of moving along to my car.

This wasn’t me. I wasn’t the guy who lusted after some girl and sat back while she dictated what kind of relationship we were going to have. I was the one who set the boundaries. I said when we were done. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact I could still feel her smooth skin under my fingers, or that I could still remember the way my body tightened as I came inside her that made her different.

Maybe it was the way that she looked sexiest in a worn t-shirt despite looking incredible in a ball gown.

Or was it the way I’d found her diving into Fantastic Mr. Fox when I’d expected her to be sweating over spreadsheets and pouring over PowerPoint presentations.

I’d abide by her rules for now, but I wasn’t sure how long they’d last.





Twenty-Four





Truly


“B-r-u-n-c-h,” Noah spelled out as he sat on the edge of the bed and put on his socks, which were always the first thing to come off and the first thing to go on.

And he thought I was a geek?

I watched him in the reflection of my dressing table mirror as I smoothed moisturizer over my neck. “Thanks. Now I know how to spell brunch, I just don’t know why.”

“So, we don’t starve. It’s not like you have any food in this place. Were you planning on being somewhere?”

Instead of answering, I focused on making a perfect circle of tinted moisturizer in the palm of my hand. “Maybe,” I said. He shouldn’t even be here, staying the night should have gone down as one of the things we agreed not to do. But last night, my body had been so wrung out that every muscle had melted into the mattress—I hadn’t had the energy to kick him out, and apparently he hadn’t had the inclination to move.

He caught my eye in the mirror. “If you have plans then . . . do whatever, I guess. But if you don’t, let’s have brunch.”

“You want to ask Rob?” I asked. If Rob was there it was just a group of friends having a meal. If it was just Noah and me that was . . . different, wasn’t it? I wanted to keep our relationship simple, not pretend to myself that it could be something else.

“Nope,” he said, pulling on his jeans. “I want to have brunch with you, and I don’t want to listen to plans for when the baby’s born or how Arsenal are going to do this season. I just want to hang out. Take the piss out of the way you order. Relax together.”

His bronzed torso stretched wide as he slid his arms into a blue t-shirt that slowly covered the line of blond hair that created a trail down to my favorite part of him. I definitely should have sent him home last night.

“So basically, you want me to entertain you.” I pulled my mascara wand out of its case with a pop as he held my gaze in the mirror.

“You can see it like that,” he said, stalking toward me. “Or you can see it as hanging out with a friend and having fun.”

Before Noah had gone to New York, we would have gone to brunch without me second-guessing it. But at that time neither of us had seen the other naked. Could hanging out be a part of a casual sexual relationship? I was pretty sure spending time with a non-boyfriend who was the best sex that you’d ever had, and who was still the only man who could turn your legs to jelly with a single glance wasn’t a healthy idea. But if he was just a friend?