Chapter Thirteen Lila #2
For all his playfulness and prankish behavior back at the station, Noah doesn’t fool around for a second. The maneuver over the edge of the rooftop is slow and methodical. There’s no jolt as I tilt backwards in his arms, and for a moment I almost don’t even feel like we’ve begun falling.
But then he shifts, bracing his legs against the side of the building as we angle completely off the ledge.
The only thing keeping me from certain death is the strap tethering me to him and the iron-tight grip I’ve got around his neck.
If the latter is uncomfortable for him, he doesn’t so much as flinch.
Instead, he smiles easily up at the camera, which Jake is now aiming over the side to get the shot. The lights swivel, washing over us at a better angle.
Then there’s a quiet curse from up on the roof.
The lights flicker ominously. I gasp.
Unbothered, Noah uses the belay device to propel us farther down into the alley below. The sun has fallen fast, and the streetlights are too far to reach the back of the warehouse, leaving the ground below coated in pure shadow.
I try to breathe slow, focusing instead on the steady thrum of his pulse. I can feel his heartbeat, since my face is practically buried in the crook of his neck.
“You’re doing great,” he hums in my ear, not loud enough to be picked up by Jake’s mic. My skin prickles at the low murmur of his praise.
We glide down another five feet or so.
The lights flicker again.
“Cut!” Jake shouts.
Noah halts our progress. I open my mouth to call up to the crew, but then the lights flicker a third time. It’s followed by a strange zap sound.
Then, darkness.
Dangling halfway down a narrow, unlit alley, we don’t have the privilege of the city’s light pollution spreading out from all corners. I can barely see anything at all, other than the vague outline of Noah’s face.
“Must’ve blown a fuse,” he muses, much too casually. “Too much stuff plugged in.”
“You okay down there?” Lou calls down to us.
I look up at her, basically clinging to this man like a koala, but my face is too shrouded in shadow for her to catch the please don’t enjoy this too much warning I want to communicate with my eyes.
“We’re fine!” Noah assures her. “Should we wait here, or…?”
“One sec!” Lou disappears again.
“It’s weird,” he says to me. “I was mostly being dramatic earlier when I mentioned the old wiring. Last month, we had a massive fan plugged in for PPV during a smoke training. It was totally fine.”
There’s some rustling around above us, but Noah holds us firm, twenty feet below the ledge.
I breathe in the scent of him, pleased to discover that his cologne is a lot more tasteful than what most guys his age might choose.
But, mixed with his natural musk and a hint of sweat, I’m going a little dizzy in his arms.
Not necessarily in a bad way.
“This is cozy, at least,” Noah muses, clearly trying to keep things light.
Lou’s shape reappears a moment later. “Jake’s trying to figure it out, but I think you should just rappel the rest of the way down and meet us back up here. If we need to schedule a reshoot somewhere else, it’s not the end of the world.”
At least one person at Hartstrings is easygoing.
“You got it!” he calls back. Then, for me alone, he whispers, “Into the dark we go, Blondie.”
“What if there are rats down there?”
“Rats go where the food is. These alleys have been swept to clear debris for training exercises.”
“If you say so.”
And we glide down farther. He doesn’t seem to have any problem navigating in the darkness, though, moving as though he could run this scenario in his sleep. In fact, he probably could.
While the others deliberate at the top and the shadows slowly consume me and Noah, it suddenly feels like we’re the only two people in the world. It’s quieter down here. Colder, too. I shiver a little in his arms.
His breath ghosts across my cheek. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Not at all.” I realize it’s the truth. “I’d dive into the dark anytime with you, Lieutenant.”
Noah chuckles. “That’s sweet.”
There’s a subtle jolt as Noah readjusts the belay before allowing more rope to feed into it.
“That’s me. Sweet as…”
I’m too disoriented to finish the simile.
“Sweet as sunshine?”
“Sunshine doesn’t have a taste.”
“But you’re sunshine, and I’m sure you’d taste nice.”
My breath catches. Noah coughs lightly, dropping us a little further.
“Sorry,” he quickly adds. “I didn’t really mean it like that.”
I press my face into his chest to muffle a burst of laughter. “Yes, you did.”
“Okay, fine.” There’s an obvious smile in his voice, even though I can’t see it. “I meant that.”
“Noah—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he interrupts. “I know flirting is punishable by death by the Hawk or whatever. But you can’t really think that I could spend all this time with you and not want you, Lila.”
I shiver again, but this time it’s not from the cold. Just yesterday, I admitted to Hale that it’s not only him and Evan that have my head spinning, but also Noah. Of the three of them, I assumed that my undeniable attraction to Noah was the most harmless.
But it might be a little more complex than that.
“I think I don’t know what to say,” I admit.
“That’s okay.” He sounds like he means it. “By the way, we made it.”
Sure enough, Noah’s feet land on solid pavement. He straightens up, loosening the belay rope, and then I’m extricating myself from the human knot I’d tied myself into around his torso. When my toes touch the ground, my first thought is to step away from him.
But the tether hooked between us means I can’t go much farther than six inches or so.
Noah chuckles when my motion tugs him toward me. My eyes aren’t adjusting fast enough to the thick darkness down here, and he’s the only thing I dare to reach for.
He catches me by the waist before I can make us both stumble again.
“All clear,” he whispers in my ear, sending goosebumps skittering down my spine. “That’s the command I’d give if this was a real drill. And then I’d hand you off to Reyes.”
“What?”
“Or whatever EMT is responding,” he clarifies.
“Totally.”
I think I catch a glint of humor in his eyes, but it might be the dark playing tricks on me.
“Lila?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s just—I can’t help feeling like a few stolen minutes in the dark with you is a sign that I should do this…”
I don’t need to ask what he means. “Do it, then.”
Noah moves me carefully, backing me up against the alley wall that I hadn’t noticed was so close behind me.
I’m caged in by the warmth of his strong arms, and his face hovers so close that the tip of my nose brushes against his.
That single, fleeting touch sends a spark of electricity down my spine.
I wonder in the back of my mind if the wild chemistry between us is what cut the power.
“I know I shouldn’t,” he whispers.
Probably not, is what I’m supposed to say.
Instead, I reply, “It can be our little secret.”
Oops.
That’s the only encouragement he needs. Noah closes the distance between us without another second of hesitation. His lips are soft and smooth.
The first kiss is a little crooked, a little clumsy in the dark, but it only makes both of us laugh softly as we readjust based on the touch of lips against lips alone.
But then Noah presses his firm, muscular body against mine and coaxes open my lips with a swipe of his tongue.
I dig my fingers into his hair, pulling lightly as I tilt my head for better access. He moans when our tongues collide.
My heart flips at the feel of him hardening against my abdomen, my blood simmering with desire.
His hands roam boldly, gliding down my waistline. He tugs on one of the harness straps to pull my leg up and curl it around his hip. And when that makes me smile into the kiss, he nibbles on my bottom lip and then breathes, “Let’s just stay down here for a while.”
I won’t have a client fucking me against a dirty alley wall, the responsible Lila intends to argue.
Except, when I really think about it, that sounds insanely hot.
I’m far too intrigued by the thought of being taken against a wall.
In answer, I squirm against him, winning a groan from deep in his throat.
He sucks in a breath, probably to say something filthy and mischievous, but then there’s a bizarre snap-thwoomp noise overhead.
Half a second later, the electricity hums back to life. The filming lights flood the alley with a glow that reaches far enough to reveal us wrapped around each other.
Noah has fast enough reflexes to yank his body away from mine, but he’s forgotten the tether between us.
When he jerks back, I come tumbling forward.
My shoe catches on a crack in the concrete, sharping the angle of my trajectory.
Noah catches me, nearly trips too, then steadily plants his feet.
He pulls me against him to prevent another clumsy lurch.
It leaves him with his back pressed to the wall and me draped over him like a fainting Victorian lady.
“You made it!” comes a shout from above.
We crane our necks.
Rimmed by the now-functioning lights, Jake is leaning over the ledge of the roof, camera held aloft and angled directly at us.
And this makes the third time I’ve been caught literally falling into a hero’s arms.
So, clearly, I’m in need of some saving, too.