Legal Trouble (Texas Hearts Book 1)

Chapter 8

As Noah madethe last turn to Sagrado, his cell rang. He braced himself for another confrontation. If Ethan was calling again about the fundraiser, Noah would lose it. He was finished discussing this with his cousin. Noah had given Ethan the chance to work together, but Ethan had gone back to their Whitlow v. Whitlow plan. And well, he was living with that decision because the board had voted two to one to take Noah’s fundraiser idea and run with it.

A glance at the in-dash display, however, had the frustration of the day melting away. “Hola, Bomboncita,” he said after clicking on.

“Hola, yourself. I had a missed call from you. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that I’m running a bit behind schedule, but don’t worry, we’ll still make our seven o’clock reservation with plenty of time to spare.” Noah pulled to a stop at the wrought-iron gates standing sentry around Sagrado and pressed his thumb to the identiplate.

“About that. I, uh, was wondering if I could negotiate a change of venue, unless that’s too much of a hassle. I don’t know what it takes to get a reservation at some place like Veranda 62.”

He tried not to let disappointment dampen his voice. He’d been looking forward to showing Emma off tonight. “No, we can reschedule. It’s not that big of a deal.”

And it wasn’t. Grandpa Whitlow had made a substantial investment in the business the year it was founded: 1962. Because of Grandfather’s contribution, any member of the Whitlow family had a standing reservation when they wanted.

After cutting the engine, he transferred his call from the car’s speakers to his phone. “Is something wrong? Mamá said you two went shopping, and she bought you a dress for tonight. Did something happen since then to make you change your mind?”

“Yes and no. It’s just, I want to stay in tonight, just the two of us.”

Just the two of them, she’d said, which he was all for. Alone was exactly where he’d wanted her from the night she’d scorched his synapses. But was she ready for what he wanted to do when they were alone?

Steps and stages, he reminded himself, doing his best not to let need get the better of him. Steps and stages.

“Okay,” he said. “Did you have anything or anywhere special in mind?”

“I was thinking of dinner at my place. I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course, it’s okay with me. Would you like me to bring anything?”

“Just yourself and, uh, some protection.”

His hands went numb, and his keys hit the cobblestone walk with a jangle and a thud. It was a miracle his phone didn’t go splat, too, and for a long moment, he didn’t dare breathe, let alone speak. Protection? He couldn’t find a single way to process her request that wouldn’t end with her being naked beneath him tonight.

“Noah?”

“Yeah.” He shook his head clear. “I’m already on my way.”

She’d shocked him,and there’d been something compelling and powerfully feminine in that.

Emma focused on her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Since ending her call with Noah, she’d been a basket of exposed wires, sparking and sizzling with unfamiliar energy. She wanted Noah, and she was finished letting her past get in the way. If they had a chance to make a relationship work, she had to stop letting self-doubt mess with her head.

She was worthy of love simply for being the woman she’d grown into, not because she was one of the best lawyers in the state. She’d had that epiphany while hugging Esme. Placing a hand around her new necklace, that same feeling of acceptance blossomed in Emma’s chest. Not acceptance for a job well done, a court case won, or for graduating top of her class, but simply for being a person who’d made another person smile. And if she could be appreciated and accepted for nothing more or less than being her authentic self, then why couldn’t she be accepted by a sexy man who found her attractive?

“You can do this,” she said to her reflection. “You will do this.”

She’d opted to leave her new dress for another occasion, deciding instead to wear a deep blue satin robe—and nothing else. Well, nothing if she didn’t count the silver skyscraper heels and her necklace. She’d given her hair some big, loose curls and then tousled the locks with texturizing spray to give them a slightly mussed look, as if Noah had already spent some time with his hands buried there. She’d kept her makeup light, using just enough of her favorite mineral makeup to even out her skin tone. She’d finished by applying waterproof mascara and the barest pink to her cheeks and lips.

The area where she’d splurged the most hadn’t been intentional. She’d simply made the incredibly fortunate mistake of telling Esme she wanted to have her nails painted the same shade as her robe, maybe with some silver accents on her ring fingers. The next thing she knew, she was at Esme’s country club, having a mani and pedi, as well as getting waxed, scrubbed, and wrapped in seaweed. When all was said and done, Emma had left the spa smelling like rose petals and with skin just as soft. She hoped Noah liked it as much as she did.

After one last self-check, Emma wandered back through her house to make sure everything was perfect. Bed already turned down? Check. Laverne and Shirley relocated to the guest room? Check. A bedroom bathed in candlelight? Oh yeah.

She’d lit candles in the living room, too, and the gentle strains of piano music wafted from the soundbar on the mantel. A bowl of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries—topped with fresh whipped cream—sat on the coffee table. She’d even made the hibiscus water Esme said Noah liked so much.

A squeak from somewhere in the back of the house drew her attention. Probably just the girls running in their cage. They could get loud and athletic. Once, Emma had come home from work and found one level of their enclosure lying diagonally across the cage, not that the girls were the least bit phased. They’d just scurried up like it was a new set of stairs.

To add insult to injury, she’d placed them in their smaller travel cage. It wasn’t ideal, but the other cage was too big to move. Maybe she could appease them with—

Her doorbell rang, and her heart plunged into overdrive.

This is it.

A quick check of the doorbell camera confirmed her visitor’s identity. “Just breathe,” she murmured before pulling the door open.

Caught partially between the glow of moonlight and porch light, a half-dozen long stem yellow roses in his hand, Noah looked like a fallen angel, beautiful, otherworldly, and a bit dangerous—and that sinful angel was looking at her as if he were as bewitched with her as she was with him.

He wore slate gray slacks and a tie the same hue. His button-down shirt bore the identical shade of her robe. She didn’t know why the coordinating colors made her feel so ridiculously giddy, but they did.

He eased the back of his free hand along her cheek, his gaze tracking up and down her body. “Dear God, Emma,” he finally said. “I think you broke me.”

“Mission accomplished then.” She took a handful of his shirt and tugged him toward her, but he didn’t budge.

“I feel like this is arguing against my own self-interest here, but once I step in there, I doubt I’ll be able to hold back. So I need you to be very sure you want this.”

“I am,” she said without hesitation. “I want this, Noah. I want you.”

Strong arms banded around her middle, and he crushed his mouth to hers. In his embrace, she felt small and deliciously desired. Somewhere in the distance, a bird called out into the night, and interstate traffic hummed. Otherwise, nothing existed but him, them, this moment, and the allure of the darkness.

He eased her inside, lifting her so that her toes barely brushed the ground. The click of the front door shutting was like an explosion in her head.

She rested her forehead against his. “My heart’s racing. Is yours?”

“You mean you can’t feel it?”

She tightened her hold on him. “This is not me wanting to back out. This is just me asking you to bear with me. I’m gonna try my hardest to keep my mind from getting in the way tonight, but—”

“But a lifetime of negative thoughts don’t just go away because you want them to.”

“Yeah.” He understood. She didn’t have to explain. He just got her.

“How about this? We take a teeny baby step back so that I can give you these?” He held out the roses. The stems didn’t have those tiny flower tubes on the end, which made her suspect he’d picked them right from his garden oasis, which made the gift more special.

She drew the blooms to her nose and inhaled deeply. “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

At her kitchen table, she trimmed the roses and placed them in a crystal blue bud vase. When the arrangement was perfect, she set it on the windowsill.

Taking his hand, she admired the new splash of color in her kitchen. “I love them.”

“Then I’ll make sure you have them whenever you want.”

After moving to the sofa, she poured two glasses of the hibiscus water. “How did your day go?” While she wanted to know, she also wanted to find her footing again. The lingering heat of their kiss still had her blood on a low boil.

“Frustrating.” He told her of arguing with Ethan again about their upcoming fundraiser. Then, he surprised her by asking for her opinion on the idea.

“I think it’s a great concept for a noble cause.” She tucked her legs underneath her as she faced him. “I volunteer a bit of time each month at a local immigration service. It’s not as much time as I wish I could, but there are only so many hours in the day, ya know?”

“I do.” He fed her a strawberry covered in whipped cream.

“If you want,” she said after swallowing, “I can reach out to that immigration service, as well as some legal firms to see if I can’t set something up. I’m picturing something like attorneys pledging X number of pro bono hours for every X number of dollars raised.”

“So, something like they’d be paid for two hours of service and then throw in one or two pro bono?”

“Something like that, yeah. Larger firms are always looking to be seen as altruistic, and smaller firms are always looking for new ways to network. Could be a win-win for everyone.”

“I agree. Have you heard anything from or about Bishop since his meltdown in court?”

“Judge Hutchinson released him from lockup today. Aside from that, I don’t know anything more.”

“I feel like the media is holding its breath on the entire situation, as if they don’t know which way to swing. Are they on our side, or do they want to burn us?”

“You’ll win them back.”

He cupped her cheek. “Said with such faith in me, Bomboncita.”

“Not faith. Knowledge based on previous experience.”

He grazed a palm up her outer thigh. “Well, so long as you have faith in me, the rest will work itself out.”

God, how could she not fall in love with this man?

She set their half-empty glasses on the coffee table and straddled him. “I have faith in you, Noah, and I can’t say that about many people.”

Something decadently primal darkened his eyes, flashing through the irises like a sudden bolt of lightning through a star-less sky. This gorgeous man was hers. Maybe not forever, but for tonight, he was one hundred percent hers.

“Bomboncita,” he murmured, hands cinching her waist.

“Bomboncito,” she returned and covered his lips with hers, tasted, nipped.

His hands trekked over her—the small of her back, her hips, her waist, the swell of her breasts. When he tugged on the robe’s belt, she tensed, and something resembling fear grabbed her by the throat and tried to cut off her air.

No warning, just wham.

Flashes of the past attempted to claw their way into the present. Her father’s voice screamed through her head, telling her she wasn’t smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, good enough.

No.

No.

She raked in a deep breath and fought to lock the words away. They weren’t true. She refused to let him ruin this moment.

Noah pulled back. “What’s wrong? You tensed.”

“I did, but I’m okay. Just old memories taunting me. I don’t want to stop. I don’t want to let him win.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. There may be a few stops and starts along the way, but I still want this.” She caught his face between her hands and kissed him. “I still want you.”

Those golden-brown eyes on her, he walked his fingers up her belly, through the valley between her breasts, over her collarbone, and eased the robe from her shoulders. At the last moment, just before the material cascaded free, she clenched her eyes shut.

She silently cursed herself—she was in control, dang it—and made herself open her eyes, to watch him as his gaze wandered over her. His mouth went lax, and his eyes widened as if he were trying to take in every inch of her simultaneously.

“Emma…” Reverence choked his voice. “Stand up. I need to see all of you.”

Her thighs trembled as she pushed to her feet, and the robe slid free, pooling on the ground like a lake at midnight. Noah scooted to the edge of the sofa—and every muscle in his body went rigid.

He lifted the necklace from where it had hid between her breasts. “Where did you get this?”

“From your mom.” She couldn’t quite translate his expression. Was he angry? Did he think she’d stolen it? “She gave it to me today before we went shopping. I can give it back if—”

“Don’t you dare.” He practically growled the response as he rocketed to his feet and yanked her against him. “It’s yours, Emma Morgan, as you are mine.”

Before she could process his sudden possessiveness, he took her mouth in a kiss that stole the very breath from her lungs, and she didn’t fight him.

She was finished fighting.

“Bedroom?” Desire darkened his one-word question.

She had just enough brainpower left to assure they ended up in her bedroom and not the guest bath or coat closet, although she wasn’t sure she’d notice if they had. Lost in him and the emotions he so easily commanded, she doubted she’d care if they dropped to the ground and made love right here.

They tumbled onto the mattress in a tangle of limbs. Her pulse thundered fast and erratic through her veins. She was on the verge of spinning out of control, but she’d never felt more alive. When he tried to roll to his side, she buried her hands in his hair and beckoned him back to her. She wanted his lips on hers, his body pressing hers down.

She wanted him inside of her.

“I need a moment,” he said, “just a moment to take you in. You are simply breathtaking.”

She wasn’t breathtaking, but she felt that way when he looked at her, which was another first. It wasn’t as if she were magically “fixed” because some handsome boy thought she was pretty. It went deeper than that. Somehow, he did what years of therapy hadn’t been able to do: lowered the volume of her father’s denigrating voice so that her inner voice could finally make itself heard.

Eyes on hers, Noah traced his fingertips over her left nipple. “Thoughts of you distract me night and day. Earlier, while I was stuck in yet another endless meeting, which I usually thrive on, all I could think about was seeing you again.”

He teased his hand down her rib cage, down the swell of her belly. At the first brush of his fingers over her sex, her breath caught. Jolts of pleasure pulsed outward from where he touched her, goosebumps racing in their wake.

Her eyes crossed, and he split into two people. And wasn’t that just what she needed? Two Noah Whitlows to tempt and torment her. The idea was too much. He was too much. Losing the battle, she closed her eyes and focused solely on the pleasure of his fingers inside of her.

“Eyes on me, Bomboncita,” he commanded. “I want you looking at me when I make you come undone.”

But she was already coming undone. Didn’t he see that?

Basking unashamedlyin the glory of her climax, Noah took in every gasp, every jerk of Emma’s limbs, every tremble of her lips. He wasn’t na?ve enough to believe this was her first orgasm, but he would be her first lover—and her last, as she would be his last. He was pretty sure part of him had known the latter since the day he’d glimpsed her at the gala. His mamá certainly knew it.

Why else would she have given Emma the necklace?

His gaze dropped to the tangle of diamonds resting between Emma’s voluptuous breasts. The necklace’s significance wasn’t lost on him, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. The present beckoned him. He’d figure out the future tomorrow.

“Noah, please.” She seemed to fight for words and air. “I want you inside of me.”

“Soon. I need to make sure you’re ready.”

“I am ready.”

“Emotionally, I think you finally are, but physically…” He paused and made sure he had her full attention. “Once I’m inside you, Emma, I’m afraid I’ll lose control, and if I do, I could hurt you.”

“You’d never hurt me.”

If only that were true.

He’d already destroyed one girl’s life. He didn’t want to destroy Emma’s, too.

Dropping to his elbow, he kissed her as he pushed his fingers deeper inside her. I won’t hurt her, he swore to himself. I won’t hurt—

The sharp crack of breaking glass and the acrid scent of smoke shattered the moment.