Ruin:Part One(10)

"Do you know Noah Foster?" I interrupt him.

"Do you know him?" It's a challenge woven into a nervous chuckle.

My eyes don't leave his face. He knows Noah. I see it now. That's who he looks like. "I know him," I offer quietly. "He loves my best friend."

"Noah is in love?"

I nod slowly. "You're related to Noah, aren't you? You look like him."

His expression doesn't change but his eyes give something away. "You need to rest."

My hand darts to my mouth and I wince at the brush of my fingers against my swollen lip. "You're him, aren’t you?"

I see the resignation in his expression the moment the question leaves my lips. "I'm who?" he asks, frustration lacing his tone. "Who do you think I am?"

"You're Noah's twin brother."

He scrubs the back of his neck with his right hand. "Yes. Noah Foster is my brother."

"I live with him," I offer although the moment I say the words I realize the implied meaning in them.

"You what?" His brow cocks with the question. "You live with my brother?"

I pull my hands together as I see the nurse push the curtain aside again. This time she's holding a rectangular tray in her hands. She reaches to hand me a paper cup containing two small pills. I tenderly take it, popping both of them into my mouth. She replaces the cup with one filled with water. I grimace as the liquid touches my open lip before I swallow it. The bitter taste of blood floats over my tongue.

"I need you to call Noah," I say as much to the nurse as to Ben. "He'll be worried about where I am. I mean, Alexa will be worried."

Ben's hand flies over me towards the nurse. "I'll handle this."

She hesitates before she turns on her heel, walks towards the curtain and disappears behind it. I lean back instantly aware that I have to explain to Alexa that I had a one night stand with Noah's brother. He's the brother that she's been longing to meet for months and I hooked up with him.

"I can't believe you're Noah's brother," I mutter the words. "They were just talking about you tonight."

"Who was talking about me?" He doesn’t raise his eyes to meet mine. He's holding a tablet in his hands, his fingers jutting over the screen quickly.

"Noah and his fiancé." My eyes sting with tears. My head is throbbing, my lip feels bigger than my entire face and I know that tomorrow my new job will be in jeopardy because Vivian won't have anyone to run to the corner deli to get her a sandwich. "Can I please just go home?"

"Wait." His index finger taps my hand. "Did you just say Noah is engaged?"

Why am I the one providing all of this information to him? Shouldn't Noah be sharing the news of his impending marriage with his twin brother? I don't want to be caught in the middle of this. It's bad enough that I have to explain to Alexa and Noah that I crawled into bed with Ben without knowing his last name. I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed and I want to get this entire mess out in the open as soon as I can.

"When is he getting married?" His fingers brush against my forehead. "What's she like?"

I can't do this. I feel as though I'm betraying Lex. I'm giving this man information that should be coming from her. "You should talk to Noah."

His hand leaps to his own forehead. His index finger traces a pointed path along his brow. "I haven't spoken to Noah in years. I can't talk to him."

My loyalty isn't to him. Once I walk through the doors of this hospital and back into my life, our connection will cease to exist. I'm a one night stand with a complication in the form of a head wound. "I can't talk about Noah to you. I need to call him and Alexa now."

"Is there someone else you can call?" he asks, pulling on the collar of his sweater.

"No," I concede. "I'm staying with them. They'll be worried about me."

He exhales audibly. "Let me think for a minute."

I sense immediately the anxiety that has overtaken him. It's the same reaction Noah had at the restaurant when Alexa pressed him about his brother.

"Just please let me call them." I sit up swiftly again, my hand bolting to the edge of the bed for stability. "Can't they take care of me tonight?"

The darkness around his eyes lifts. "No, but I can."





Chapter 8




"I thought you were going to take me to the hotel." I hold steady to his arm as he guides me into an apartment with a Park Avenue address. "You live here, don't you?"

"Yes," he quietly acquiesces. "That hotel is a shit hole. I won't stay there."

The words bite although they shouldn’t. This is the place he raced to after he'd f*cked me that night weeks ago. He'd left me there because I was a random that wasn't worthy of this.

I stay silent as he flips on the light switch. The room fills with warm light giving me my first glimpse into his real world. The space is opulent and masculine. Rich dark furniture sets the tone. Beautiful artwork hangs from the walls, which are painted a deep shade of gray. It matches what I imagined it to be to a tee.

"What did Noah say when you called him?" His hand is pressing on my lower back, guiding me further into the space.