16. Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Noah
M ine .
I saw Stella in Lev's arms, and wanted to yank her away from him. She was mine .
Like hell she was!
And yet, I didn't want someone else to comfort her. I wanted to be the one she turned to. I wasn't worthy of her; I knew that, but my heart didn't seem to care. Yeah, so apparently, I did have a heart. No one was more surprised than me.
"Noah. How are you, man? Dom and I were just talkin' about you." Lev looked around and grinned. "Glad Eden isn't with you. He fuckin' hates her."
"Why would Eden be with me?" I asked, even though I could guess. The woman needed to stop telling anyone who'd listen that we were together. We were not, and I had no desire to be with her. Sure, she was good looking. And an awesome lay. But after Sweet Stella, how on earth could I go to a woman like Eden or any other?
"Stella?" I said quietly.
She raised her head from Lev's chest. The asshole continued to hold her.
"Please don't ask me if I'm okay. I'm so tired of everyone askin' me that."
She did sound exhausted, weary.
"Okay, I won't." I gave her a small smile.
"Lev, hon, thank you." She went on tiptoe and kissed him on his lips. A brush. My blood heated. My hands turned into fists. "But I'm gonna go home now."
"You sure, sweetheart? I can take you. Tuck you into bed."
Son of a bitch!
She patted his chest and pulled away from him. "I'm fine. Really . I don't know why everyone seems so worried about me."
"Because we care about you." Lev stroked her cheek with a finger.
The man really needed to stop touching her, because I was about to lose my shit.
"Right."
"Stella Bella?" Lev lifted her chin.
Stella Bella? He had a fucking nickname for her? What the fuck? Was he her lover? Had he been her lover? Jealousy raged through me. I felt impotent. I had no hold over her.
I stepped forward and wrapped a hand around Stella's arm. "Stella, I'd like to talk to you about the presentation today."
Lev gave me a quizzical look. "Stell?"
She shrugged. "I'll talk to you later, Lev. Noah, not tonight. Make an appointment for next week. We'll meet at Savannah Lace."
She unwrapped my hand from her arm, and there wasn't much I could do about it without making a scene.
Lev and I watched her walk down the street.
"I've never seen her like this," Lev remarked. "How do you know her?"
"Savannah Lace," I lied, which was easier and less complicated than saying, " We used to date until I fucked her life up."
He nodded. "She was always smiling, always happy. Despite the shitshow at home."
"Shitshow?"
He ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah. Baron is an asshole, and Whitney, fuck, she made Stella's life miserable. Luna and I did what we could, but Stella doesn't let people in. She wouldn't say anything to us about what was happenin' at home, but we could see."
"What was going on at home?"
Lev frowned. "Why are you so curious? I thought you were gettin' ready to announce your engagement with Eden."
"I'm not marrying that woman."
He laughed. "Dom will be pleased. Come on, let's go inside and—"
"Rain check, Lev."
I was going after Stella.
She looked broken, and I knew that I had broken her. Regret was heavy inside me.
I couldn't make right what I'd done wrong, but I also couldn't not do anything.
I didn't bother to look at Lev, and just brusquely walked away, following Stella. I caught up with her at Chippewa Square.
"Stella," I called out a couple of times, but she just kept walking.
I jogged up to her, and fell into step next to her.
"What do you want, Noah?" she demanded.
"Can we talk?"
I had no idea what I wanted to talk to her about, but that was the first thing out of my mouth.
"No."
"Stella, please."
She stopped walking and sighed. She pointed to a bench under an oak tree and all but flopped onto it. "Talk," she demanded when I stood in front of her.
I went down on a crouch, so we were face to face. "You don't look okay."
"How would you look if your life was turned upside down? If you lost your home, your work, your dignity? How would you look, Noah?"
I took a deep breath. "A house is just a pile of bricks. You still have a job you love. And you have your dignity. Nothing we did took that away."
She gave out a laugh, but there was no joy in it, no actual laughter. "You made the sex we had tawdry. You asked me to call myself your slut and your whore; you did it for the video recording, didn't you? I thought you were talking dirty, part of your sexual repertoire. I didn't know that the entire night was about how to angle my tits just right so you could show them to my father. I didn't think that your pounding into me from behind was about hiding your face and showing mine. Yeah, Noah, you took my dignity away. That sex was a violation."
"You were willing," I growled. No fucking way was she going to say I forced her.
"I was a willing participant in the sex but not the video," she told me. "Never that. You did that without my consent. You did that to humiliate me. You succeeded, Noah. I don't know why you insist on talking to me, following me now or outside Old Vic's. What else do you want? Regular torment? Hey, I got that with you taking my place as a partner at Savannah Lace. I don't have my garden. I have nothing , Noah. So, why don't you leave me the fuck alone?"
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to make this right. I'd hurt this woman, destroyed her joy, taken the light away from her—there was just darkness and bleakness inside her.
I straightened.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" I finally asked.
She looked at me with blank eyes. "Yeah. Don't talk to me ever again. Can you do that?"
No , everything inside me screamed. No!
"If that's what you want," I said hoarsely.
"That's what I want. Now, fuck off."
I hesitated for a long moment, and then walked away from Stella. I would distance myself. I'd tell Nina that I'd be a silent partner. No point going into the office and torturing Stella. It was the least I could do.
I didn't think that, with the state she was in right now, she'd listen to me about her house, how I was keeping it for her. There were laws and I couldn't just hand it to her, but I could let her live there. She wouldn't accept and she'd see it as one more thing I'd taken from her. I'd have to find another way to give her garden back to her.
Eden called as I took the long way home, walking in the August twilight.
"Where are you? I thought we were meeting at Artillery?" she complained.
How the fuck did she even know where I was? I had not told her I was meeting Dom this evening. Did she have a fucking tracker on my phone or something? Needed to check that shit out.
"I'm on my way home," I murmured. "I didn't know we were meeting tonight."
"Silas told me that you were going to be there with Dom and Lev. I see Luna, Gabe and Aurora are here as well. I really thought I'd see you."
There was something in her voice that grated on my nerves; a sort of ownership that I'd never given her.
"Rain check, darlin'."
"Why don't I come to your place?" she suggested huskily.
"Eden—"
"We need to talk, Noah," she pleaded.
"Fine," I said after a moment's thought. It was time for a come-to-Jesus conversation with Eden. I needed to tell her again that it was over between us, which was weird as hell, because we’d never even started.