14. Noah
14
NOAH
“ T hanks for checking on me, Dad, ” I grumbled, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel and asking myself why I hadn’t taken the private jet instead of driving.
Traffic was a nightmare on the way into East Hampton.
“Hey, don’t blame me,” Colton insisted, his voice filling the car’s interior. “It was your sister who made me call to check on you. Everybody else is here already. She worried you were in an accident.” He chuckled before adding, “I told her it was more likely you got distracted by some hot redhead.”
I couldn’t bring myself to laugh at my best friend’s joke. “Don’t send out the search parties for me. I’m stuck in traffic, is all. You said everyone’s already there?”
“The whole group. We’re planning a bonfire out on the beach tonight. Lucian and Evan went out to make sure we were stocked with everybody’s favorite booze. The girls are excited about making us a big dinner.”
All of the girls? If I asked, he would know something was off. Normally, having the group at my parents’ estate for the weekend would be a no-brainer. I would be there in a heartbeat, especially now that Colton spent so much time with my sister. Rose probably felt the same way about a weekend with her girls, hence the reason for her bullying all of us into coming out.
What a shame Sienna was one of the girls.
“Get here in one piece!” Rose shouted from somewhere nearby.
“Will do,” I assured her before ending the call.
If Sienna were a no-show, I would’ve heard about it by now. There was no way around it—we’d have to see each other.
I would’ve looked forward to it if it wasn’t for the way she broke down in her office.
My fingers tapped faster than before as the car inched down the 495. This gave me time to think, even if sitting in an endless line of vehicles was about as much fun as having my teeth pulled.
This would be the first time I saw or spoke to her since the disaster three days ago.
I shouldn’t have done it. How was I supposed to know she would take it the way she did? There I was, thinking we would have something in common, a shared secret, that we might even…
I shook my head at the ridiculousness, growling when the thought entered my mind again. We could even get together again without the disguises this time.
She could’ve given me the chance to explain myself. That, I couldn’t forgive. I’d wanted to tell her how surprised I was when I realized who I had just fucked, that she didn’t have to worry, and it would be our secret. She could trust me. Let’s face it, I had as much to lose as she did if word of my extracurricular activities got out .
Sienna wouldn’t give me the chance because she’d decided I wasn’t worth it a long time ago. I could almost consider thanking her for setting me straight. I’d allowed my dick to think for me yet again, and it left me with the stupid idea that we could take our physical relationship outside the club.
I was supposed to know better than that and be beyond sleeping with the same woman more than once. After a few failed attempts at something close to relationships in college, I’d made the same decision my friends had—there was nothing to be gained from being tied down.
Colton had since changed his mind, but that didn’t make a difference. We couldn’t all find a special someone.
By the time I turned my Bentley onto the familiar wide driveway leading up to the mansion, it was well past seven o’clock, and night had fallen. A crisp night, clear skies, good for a bonfire. What a shame I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.
When all was said and done, no matter how wrong it was and how I questioned what the fuck had happened to my brain, there was no avoiding the truth. I couldn’t forget what happened between us.
Hell, I didn’t want to.
I wasn’t going to give up the way Sienna expected. Not when it was so fucking good. Not only for me, either. She couldn’t deny what I did to her body. She couldn’t pretend it was easy to walk away from that.
There was one thing I felt secure in as I pulled a bag from the back seat and jogged up the front stairs—I didn’t have to worry about her exposing us to anyone. Not a chance. As far as everyone else was concerned, nothing had changed. I was confident enough in that to stroll into the house like nothing was wrong and call out, “Somebody pour me a fucking drink! ”
The shouts coming from the kitchen drew me in that direction. I soon picked up the aroma of onions and garlic, which grew stronger the closer I drew.
“There you are!” Evan called out, sitting with his feet up on the long marble-topped table on the far side of the room. “Thank fuck, I’m starving.”
“Well, then, that was worth sitting in traffic for,” I muttered back, then flipped him off before accepting a hug from my sister, Rose.
“The usual, I assume?” Colton placed a glass of scotch in front of me on the island countertop before wrapping his arms around Rose’s waist. Would I threaten to kick his ass ever again, the way I did when I first found out about them? No, especially not when they were so into each other. Still, the sight of them cuddling always jarred me a little at first, even after three months.
“You should’ve taken the jet with us,” Valentina reminded me. Either she didn’t feel like cooking or didn’t know how. I would’ve bet on the latter since she sat on the counter with a glass of red wine, picking at Rose’s chopped vegetables for a big salad rather than contributing.
“I’ll know better next time.” I wanted the freedom to leave when I felt like it. I didn’t expect things to go south, but I wanted to be prepared.
As it was, Sienna hadn’t acknowledged me. Something about stirring sautéed vegetables was too fascinating, requiring her full attention. She only moved when Aria nudged her aside, sliding a tray of rolls into the oven.
If anything, I appreciated being ignored. It wasn’t far beyond the way things usually went between us anyway. She’d already hated me before we ever set eyes on each other at the club.
Lucian came in from the back patio with a platter of grilled chicken and salmon. It was easier and safer to gravitate toward the guys, bullshitting while the girls put the finishing touches on the meal. I stood with my back to them, which helped me resist the temptation to admire the way Sienna’s leggings fit her like a second skin and made her ass look more delectable than ever.
Sadly, there was no getting her off my mind.
“So, any slander thrown your way lately?” Lucian asked.
Busting balls was what we did best, so I let it go with nothing more than an eye roll. “Not recently. Things are going well.”
“Because Sienna kicks ass at what she does!” Aria chirped from across the room. Why she couldn’t be more reserved like her twin sister, Valentina, was beyond me.
I wanted to ask who the fuck was talking to her but bit my tongue. The girls cheered behind me, and I did my best to look like a normal person with a lot to be grateful for, which I was—all things considered. Aside from our personal issues, things were turning out better than I had imagined and on a faster timeline.
It was a relief when Evan changed the subject to what we would do in the morning, a conversation that carried us into the meal.
Did anyone notice how far Sienna went out of her way to keep from talking to me, looking at me, or acknowledging my presence across the table? It had to be my knowledge of the situation that made her behavior more obvious. Everyone else seemed to overlook it, even Rose, who knew her best.
She couldn’t keep this up forever. That was what I told myself as I half-heartedly helped clean up, then went outside with the guys to light the bonfire. Lucian and Evan carried a cooler while the girls trailed behind us with blankets once the fire was blazing. Their laughter floated from behind us as they descended the stairs leading down to the sand. So long as I wasn’t in Sienna’s face, she could be happy, and for some reason, I wanted that for her.
I stared out over the moonlight-painted water, my thoughts churning.
“Oh shit!”
I turned away from the water and found Sienna in the sand at the base of the stairs, gripping her ankle. “I only rolled it,” she told the girls as they gathered around. Colton jogged over too.” You all right, sis?”
She waved him off. “I’m fine. For real.”
Why did she look my way? “But… I might go up, anyway. I would rather do it now than later if it gets swollen. I’ll come back down in a while if it feels better.”
So long as I don’t have to be around Noah . I could see straight through her.
“There’s plenty of ice in the cooler to make you a pack,” Colton pointed out, but she wasn’t hearing it as she got on her feet, favoring the left ankle.
“I’ll help you up to the house,” I offered, approaching with an arm outstretched. “I left my flask up there, anyway. I’m glad I thought to bring it so I wouldn’t have to drink the cheap shit Evan bought,” I added, shouting over my shoulder and cueing up laughter.
Sienna didn’t laugh. “No, that’s fine.” She tried to back away, but it was no use. She would look ridiculous if she insisted on hobbling up the steps on her own. I draped her arm over my shoulders and started up the stairs with my arm around her waist.
She wouldn’t say a word as I helped her hop from one step to the next. How could she when she was busy grunting and huffing angrily? “Were you planning on ignoring me all weekend?” I asked once we had put some distance between us and the group.
“Shut up. I’m not in the mood.” Her voice was icy, empty. Now I understood there was something more intense than being hated. It was flat indifference.
“Somebody’s going to figure out you’ve got a problem with me. What are you going to say?”
“Nobody will notice. I thought I asked you to shut up.” We reached the patio spanning half of the house’s east side, where she tried to push me away. “I’m fine now. I’ll go up to my room.”
“Let me help you up there,” I offered, caught between fucking with her and wanting very much to have the excuse to get her in the bedroom.
She flushed in the light flowing out from the kitchen. “That’s unnecessary.”
Fuck this. I wasn’t going to beg, and I wouldn’t help her when she insisted on being so fucking stubborn.
“Fine. Crawl up the stairs for all I care.” I continued without her, marching across the flagstone patio and flinging open one of the French doors leading into the kitchen. My flask was in my bag, which I left in the entry hall to carry up later.
She took considerably more time to reach the curved staircase leading to the second floor, but I pretended not to notice as I went through my things. By the time I found the flask of Macallan, she had managed to hobble up five stairs out of many more.
I knew what I should do, no matter how tempting it was to let her screw herself over since that’s what she was determined to do. “I don’t need your help.” She sounded weaker than before, and she didn’t believe herself no matter what she said .
“Which room did you take?” I asked with an arm around her waist and began helping her hop from one step to the next without paying attention to her protests. Eventually, I lost patience, ignoring her ineffectual arguing in favor of lifting her off her feet and carrying her the rest of the way.
“This is stupid!” she groaned out.
“It was either that or spend the rest of the night helping you get upstairs, and I have better things to do.”
She pointed down the hall to one of the guest rooms, and I headed there, not letting her go until we were inside the spacious room across the hall from the room I’d always used. Rose had seen to it the space was aired out, with fresh linens on the bed and fragrant flowers on the nightstand.
“Okay. Put me down.” Her insistence irritated me worse than ever. What the hell was her problem? I had heard of people cutting off their noses to spite their faces, but she was taking it to the next level.
Still, electricity was in the air when I set her on the bed. “Let me take a look at this,” I offered, one hand on her calf, lifting her leg so I could observe her swelling ankle. “There’s probably bandages or something around here. You might’ve sprained it, but you can still move it. I doubt it’s broken.”
“Thank you, Doctor. ” She pulled herself free of my grip and propped on her elbows, glaring up at me. If she only knew how irresistible she was when her eyes flashed and her cheeks flushed, not to mention she was practically sprawled out across the bed.
My dick stirred at the sight of her. “Want me to rub it for you?”
“I want you to leave me alone.” It didn’t sound that way. Her words were hollow, weak, almost whispered. “Please. Be decent and leave me alone.”
“Decency has never been my strong suit. ”
“Shit. I already knew that before you threw the club in my face.” When all I could do was gape at her, she rolled her eyes. “In my office. Don’t pretend that’s not what you were trying to do.”
“I’m not pretending.” I stepped up close to the bed until my knees brushed the duvet, and she had no choice but to spread her legs to make room for me. Oh, she was so tempting. “Now I get it. You thought I was making fun? That’s what you think of me?”
“Could we not turn this into?—”
I shook my head, reaching down to take hold of her knees and hold them apart while I leaned down, my eyes locked on her. Her baby blues widened, her head pulling back until it practically touched the bed, brown locks fanning out around her. “Let me make one thing clear. I was not interested in making a fool out of you, and I’m not interested in it now. Next time you’re confused about something I say or do, talk to me about it instead of throwing me out before I can explain. Understood?”
Eyes narrowing, she asked, “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t talk to me that way.”
In a flash, I reached down and slid a hand under her head, pulling it toward me until our mouths nearly brushed. Her short, quick breaths hit my face while mine did the same to hers. “I asked if you understand. Yes or no?”
She gulped but gave me a slight nod. “Yes.”
“Good girl.” Hunger roared inside me. Fuck, I was touching her again, smelling her skin, feeling her warmth. So far, I had exercised self-control, refusing the intimacy of a kiss. Yet when her tantalizing lips parted, I was nearly knocked on my ass by the sudden, undeniable urge to taste them.
“Not that easy,” she informed me in a shaky whisper. “ You can’t say a few words and think it will change anything.”
“Then again, we’ve never needed words, have we?” My hand slid up her thigh, gliding over the soft leggings she wore, while the fingers of my other hand slid through her soft hair. “We did just fine without them before. Unless you faked it when you came all over my cock.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, shuddering. “Don’t talk about that.”
“Is that going to erase the past? Pretending it didn’t happen? Do you honestly think you could forget how good it was? You loved it. Don’t lie to yourself, especially not to me.” I groaned, pressing my fingers against her supple flesh. “You’re getting wet right now, aren’t you, Sienna? Admit it. You can’t handle being this close to me any more than I can handle being close to you.”
Her brows drew together, almost like she was in pain. “You don’t need to be.” Who did she think she was kidding? She was trembling again, the innocent fawn cowering in the face of what she couldn’t resist.
“Then tell me to get away. But make me believe it,” I added when she took a breath, prepared to do just that, and her arguments dissolved into nothing but a whimper. She couldn’t lie to me or herself, and she knew it.
It was too much. I couldn’t fight it another second, not when she was right there, helpless in the face of what we shared. What she couldn’t forget. What I didn’t want to forget.
The first touch of her lips was a rush, going straight to my head and making it spin while a flash of heat came close to melting my skin off. At the same time, it was so right, like slipping into an old pair of jeans. Something that fit so perfectly I couldn’t do anything but stretch out on top of her before drinking in another kiss, then another.
She melted the way I knew she would, falling back against the bed, nails digging into my shoulders before running through my hair. My tongue stroked hers until she moaned into my mouth, a guttural sound that made my cock jump and twitch. With one leg wrapped around my hip, she pulled me close, her greedy body betraying her useless attempts at fighting the inevitable. We were never going to walk away like nothing happened. It wasn’t possible. Not when the same electricity that had hummed between us sparked and crackled in the air as I rolled onto my side, and she went with me.
Her hips jerked, her pussy grinding against my covered cock, and I couldn’t help but press my hand against her mound. Her desperate cry left me pressing harder, grinding the heel of my hand against her slit, which wasn’t enough for either of us.
Our friends and family partied outside while I worked my fingers inside her leggings, finding the place where it was hot and wet, pushing aside the crotch of her panties to dip inside her sopping pussy.
“So wet for me,” I rasped out after breaking the kiss to gulp in some air. She buried her face in my neck, nearly sobbing by the time I sank two fingers deep into her juicy cunt, working her clit with my thumb, playing her body like the exquisite instrument it was. Teasing her earlobe with my teeth, shuddering the way she did. “Are you going to come for me? Are you going to be my good girl and come over my fingers?”
She clung to me tighter, hips bucking, hot breath against my skin. “Yes!” she gasped out.
“You like the way I make your pussy feel?” Fuck, I would come in my pants if this went on much longer, building her up with every stroke and word I whispered into her ear. “Tell me,” I urged, stroking her G-spot while tracing circles over her bundle of nerves.
“Oh God!” she cried out, clawing at my back. “Yes… yes, I do! Oh, God, Noah, please!”
“Please what?” She was so close I could barely move my fingers once her muscles began to clench around them.
“Please, let me come!” she sobbed, fucking my fingers wildly. I liked her better this way, being able to hear her greedy desperation while I worked her body into a frenzy. There was nothing like the satisfaction of feeling her go stiff, hearing her breath catch in that last moment before she shuttered, trembled, and coated my palm with her juices. By the time I pulled my slick fingers free from her pussy, she whimpered and trembled against me.
“Good girl,” I whispered in approval. “You come so well for me.” She whimpered against my neck, wrapping her body around mine until I gritted my teeth against the desire to take her the way she so clearly wanted. Not here, not now, when anyone could disturb us. The thrill of fingering her was one thing, but I had to be smart enough to leave things where they were.
“Where are you going?” There was disappointment in the question when I sat up, leaving her alone.
“Back outside before anybody misses me. Take care of that ankle.” If I didn’t leave her then and there, the slim thread of self-control I clung to would snap. As it was, I barely made it across the hall to my room before my aching dick demanded release from my shorts.
I unzipped my khakis and shoved a hand inside my boxer briefs on the way to the attached bathroom, pulling my erect cock free. Precum coated the head, and I used it to fuck my fist, already close enough that the familiar tingle had begun at the base of my spine. I could see her in my mind’s eye, still hear her moans, and smell her on my skin.
All at once, the rush came over me, and I went with it, spilling my seed in one spurt after another against a hand towel. By the time I finished, I was weak-kneed, leaning against the sink for support, my ragged breath the only sound in the otherwise empty room.
One thing was clear before I ever managed to catch my breath.
I would need to have her again and as soon as possible. She was the sort of habit a man couldn’t break—not that I wanted to try.