Chapter 5 #2
Her flinch made his jaw clench harder. “A clean escape?”
“You’ve proved so far that not only are you a faithless liar, you’re also a nifty little thief.”
She glared at him. “I’m neither of those things! I realize you’re upset?—”
He laughed.
She glared harder and raised her chin in cute defiance.
Noah shook his head. “You realize I’m upset?
Why would I be upset? You had a chance to be mine.
You promised me you were mine, but you walked away the moment things got a little sticky.
Well, now I’m free to fuck any woman I choose.
Hu-the-fucking-ray to me.” He looked at his watch.
“In fact, there’s a little club I know not far from here.
Once we’re done with our little chat, I might swing by, find a willing, baggage-free piece of ass for the night.
While you’re lying in your cold, faithless bed, you can think about me, pounding my cock into another woman’s pussy, making her scream as loud as you did?—”
“Stop!”
“Is that too much for you, baby?” he asked softly .
“You don’t need to be an asshole, Noah.” The plea was laced with anger. Looking down, he saw her nails digging into her palm.
Good.
He smiled. “This was never going to be pretty, baby. I don’t play fair and I can’t promise that I won’t tear chunks out of you every time I see you.”
“You can actively choose not to.”
“Really? Where’s the fun in that? I’ve never aspired to be the strong, silent type. Pissed and very vocal is more my speed. Now, about my T-shirt.”
“Is it worth me saying that I never intended to hurt you?”
“Fuck, no. Intention or not, harm was done. And I’m fucking, hugely pissed. My T-shirt?”
“I… I’ll have it couriered to your condo tomorrow.”
“You could do that, but I don’t live there anymore.”
“What?”
“You’re not deaf, Leia.”
Questions flitted over her expressive face as she stared wide-eyed at him.
A couple of times she opened her mouth to ask them but then shook her head.
Noah knew his caustic behavior had made her wary but perversely, he wanted her to ask.
Because asking meant she was still interested in his life. In him.
When she opened her mouth for the third time, he held his breath.
“Two coffees and a bottle of water, on the house.” Red set their order down in front of them.
Noah nodded thanks without taking his eyes off Leia, who had better manners and smiled at Red.
“I’ll leave you two to it, then.”
His friend retreated and a minute later, he heard the back door close and the motorcycle she rode gun to life .
“You have a question, spit it out.”
She drank half of the water, then picked up her cup. Her eyes caught his as she took a sip. A new tension drifted across her face. He didn’t need a crystal ball to guess where her thoughts had veered.
They were alone. In a place with enough surfaces to accommodate any type of fucking either of them chose to initiate.
The thought hadn’t escaped him. And as much as he’d wanted her to believe that spiel he’d given a moment ago about finding a willing fuck tonight, there was only one woman his cock was interested in.
And she was sitting less than three feet from him.
She drank a few more gulps and cleared her throat. “Umm… where… where are you staying? I mean, where would you like me to send your T-shirt?”
“You don’t want to know why I’ve moved out of my condo?”
“It’s really none of my business.”
A hurt-laced dart arrowed between his ribs. “Right. Of course not.”
She set the cup down with a thump.
“What do you want from me, Noah? You told me she had no hold on you. Turns out you were wrong. She has the ultimate hold on you. I’m trying to do the right thing and all you can do is condemn me for it?”
“The right thing by whose standards?”
“By normal human beings’ standards!”
“That’s just another fucking excuse! People deal with broken relationships and the fallout from them all the time.
So yeah, mine’s fucked up beyond description.
The bottom line is I thought we had an understanding.
We accept each other the way we are. The rest is background noise.
Or at least it was supposed to be. You were supposed to take me, just me, no one else.
I was supposed to take you as you were. I was even prepared to tolerate Snyder, as long as he stayed out of my fucking way. ”
“It’s not that simple, Noah.”
“Yes. It. Is.”
“If you truly believe that, then I’m not sure I even want to contemplate being with you.”
His sluggish heart picked up its pace. “Tell me that means you’ve thought about it? That you haven’t written us off?” The hopeful words spilled out before he could stop them.
“I know you think I am, but I’m not a heartless bitch capable of turning my emotions on and off at will.
Everything I felt for you when I woke up on Saturday morning is still there.
But that doesn’t mean I can ignore reality, or my feelings about what’s happening here.
” She paused. “But for the sake of conversation, if you want to tell me why you’ve moved out, I’d like to know. ”
He forced himself to release his stranglehold on the cup.
Her words swirled through his head and he was sure he was missing something.
Something important. But fuck if he could think straight in the midst of hating himself for wanting her as much as he did, for barely managing to keep seated when he wanted to bend her over the barstool, bury himself in her wet pussy and let the rest of the world go to hell.
He shook his head and forced sanity back.
“Ashley needed a place to stay. I gave her the condo.”
Several emotions flitted across her face. “So you confirmed it? She’s really pregnant with your baby?” The words were hushed.
“Yes, she’s pregnant. Whether it’s mine or not is yet to be determined, so you might want to hold off on the congratulations.”
Her eyes darkened, but they stayed on his long enough for him to see that the alcohol was wearing off. Long enough to once again get the sensation that he was missing something when a dart of pain clouded her eyes, right before she lowered them.
She drained her cup and set it down in the middle of the table. “Let’s get this over with. Why did you want to see me?”
“My PI found out some things yesterday that I thought you should know.”
“Your PI? You mean you still went to the appointment?”
“Once he called me with the info he found.”
“What info?”
Noah thought about how to play this without alarming her. If his PI’s investigation turned up something other than what Noah suspected, he would’ve alarmed Leia for nothing.
“Something we can possibly use to track Willoughby down.” She opened her mouth but he shook his head. “Before I tell you, I need you to tell me about your stepfather. Every single thing you can remember from the moment he walked into your life.”