Chapter 16 #2
Noah pressed harder, exerting all of his lean muscle strength into blocking Warren’s windpipe. “You want me to stop? You sure about that?”
Her breath shuddered out, her fear for him making her heart stutter. “Yes.”
“Think about this carefully.” Despite his easy stance, she couldn’t mistake the deadly threat behind the words. “I let him go, everything changes for us. Are you ready for that?”
Her heart hammered. “Noah?—”
“Those are my terms. You want me to spare this piece of shit despite him putting his hands on you, I will. But there will be consequences.”
He didn’t have to spell them out. His eyes blazed with an all-encompassing dominance that told her once she stepped into his orbit, there would be no going back .
A shiver drenched her from temple to toes. “Let him go. Please.”
His gaze raked her face slowly, imprinted the force of his will on her until she feared she’d drown in the sheer magnitude of it. Coolly, he stepped back, straightened his bow tie and cuffs.
Warren rolled over to his side, coughing and sucking in desperate breaths. One corner of his mouth trickled blood, and his jaw and throat were red and swelling.
Reaching into his pocket, Noah extracted his phone. “I have some trash that needs taking out. South side entrance.” Icy blue eyes met hers. “Discretion preferred but not completely necessary.”
Two men appeared minutes later, one she recognized as the driver from the night before.
They lifted Warren like a sack of potatoes and headed down the stairs to where a dark grey SUV idled on the driveway.
Still caught up in how fast everything had gone down, she stood dazed as Noah followed them.
Hands on his lean hips, he watched them push Warren into the back.
The SUV executed a tight turn and accelerated down the driveway.
Noah stormed up the stairs toward her. “We’re leaving.”
She shook her head. “We can’t. You’re the keynote speaker. You’re due to give your speech in ten minutes.”
“Fuck the speech. Look at me, Leia.” He held his hands out to her. They were trembling. His rapid pants heaved in and out as if he couldn’t catch his breath. “How the hell am I supposed to stand up and talk about giving juvenile offenders a break when I’m feeling fucking homicidal?”
“But… you can’t just leave…”
“Watch me.”
Tugging his phone out again, he spoke into it. An usher hurried out and Noah passed him a note from his pocket, presumably his speech.
The limo she’d used yesterday pulled up. He led her to it, yanked open the door and rasped, “Get in.”
Every nerve in her body jangled in warning of imminent… exciting danger. Her mouth dried as she looked up at him. Despite his ferocious expression, her heart squeezed for him.
He stared down at her, his teeth bared in complete, emotionless savagery. “Would you like me to repeat the request?”
Leia slid inside the car, wincing when she inadvertently leaned on her injured wrist. Noah slammed the door and reached over to secure her seatbelt.
For several minutes, he stared down at her damaged wrist in silence. Then he lifted it gently and turned it over, examined every inch of the bandage. His jaw clenched, and the corners of his mouth quivered with rage. “Is it broken?” His words were so gruff, they were barely coherent.
She shook her head. “No, just a sprain.”
“Did you have it checked out?”
“The doctor at the hotel examined me earlier this evening.”
His gaze sharpened. “Hotel?”
“I’m staying at The Celestial. I… moved out of the Palm Beach house this morning.”
He inhaled and exhaled, his eyes never leaving her face.
“In an hour or so, when the urge to kill isn’t riding me so high, you and I will have a very long talk.
” He started to rest her wrist on his thigh, then cursed when she winced again.
Carefully setting it down, he pressed a button.
A compartment slid out from beneath the seat.
He grabbed a packet of pills, popped out two tablets and poured a glass of water.
“They’ll help with the pain. ”
She swallowed them.
After putting the glass away, he cradled her hand on his thigh and yanked his bow tie free. Tossing it aside, he opened the first two buttons of his tuxedo shirt and rested his head against the seat.
Silence reigned for almost twenty minutes before she realized he didn’t plan on speaking.
Leia couldn’t keep quiet, not when one question burned holes into her. “You didn’t answer me before.”
He slid her a glance, which still held an unhealthy amount of fury. “Sorry, I must have been off my head with rage. Ask away.”
Beneath the waves of volatile energy flowing from him, she nearly faltered. “That… that redhead…” She licked lips gone dry and tried in vain to calm her nerves.
“What about her?”
“Did you fuck her? Not tonight, I mean. In the past. And before you think of denying it, let me remind you that two people who’ve fucked have a way of looking at each other that makes it un-fucking-deniable.” She spat the words out.
His jaw flexed. “I wasn’t going to deny it. Yes. I fucked her. Back when she was my shrink.”
“Were… were you going to fuck her tonight?” Why the hell was she doing this, driving poisoned knives between her own ribs?
“Frankly? Yeah, the thought did cross my mind.”
By the savage satisfaction in his eyes, she knew her raw, anguished reaction to that news was plain to see on her face. She tried to snatch her wrist away. He imprisoned it against his thigh, the other curling around her nape.
“You can’t handle seeing me with someone I fucked long before I met you?
I’ve watched you take that ass-wipe’s side over and over again.
I’ve spent every night this past week drinking myself into oblivion because I didn’t want to think that might be the night he finally crawled into your bed.
So don’t you fucking dare look at me with that broken look in your eyes. ”