26. Get You Alone
Chapter twenty-six
Get You Alone
DELANE
Ifelt guilty, that much was true, but not so guilty that I would change my mind.
If I had to go back into that theater, I was going to scream. I was suffocating in there, from the minute I sat down, I couldn’t breathe.
I was leaving.
I had spent three minutes pacing around the front of the snack bar, wondering if my decision was going to piss Chelsea off.
I was not the kind of girl to jump headfirst into the water without a life jacket, so I obviously contemplated the pros and cons of leaving.
I decided that Chelsea would just have to forgive me, because I couldn’t be a part of this circus anymore.
I couldn’t forget the voicemail from Silas, warning me to stay away from Noah from here on out. To say I wasn’t complying to that demand was an understatement, especially when I was crammed into a chair two seats away from him.
Like, who the hell was Noah Hansen anyway?
So, he has a boyfriend now? I remembered him telling me he was single. Did he lie? Or worse, that was his normal turn around rate for finding someone new to warm his bed at night.
I was livid and I couldn’t even place why I was giving this guy so much of my time and feelings.
I shouldn’t care. I didn’t have a claim on Noah Hansen.
For some reason, my idiot self thought we had bonded or had a moment or some shit.
Maybe he treated all girls the same—like he’s their savior, like they are his family.
Maybe I was overthinking it, but I continued to replay those moments in the shower in my mind, over and over, the moments where our eyes had met in a way I had never experienced before.
And now, seeing him kiss another person, I was fuming.
I wasn’t going to put myself through that anymore.
That, and the movie was stupid as hell. Chelsea was never picking again.
I sped to the building’s entrance and was about to push the door open when my right arm was grabbed.
Who in the hell?
“Hey. Where are you going?”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose slowly.
I twisted around, taking my free arm and landing a good punch into the gut of whoever decided they had the nerve to put their hands on me.
This was my first reaction. My attackers all roamed free, without consequence, and I was already unnerved from the unspeakable threats Silas had alluded to during his phone call.
“Let go!” I called out, yanking backwards from the person holding me.
It was Noah, holding my arm as a quiet chuckle escaped his mouth.
I blinked, focusing my attention to make sure what I was seeing was real. Then I smacked him again.
“I said, let go of me, now!”
He cringed and took hold of both my wrists this time, pinning them to my side.
“That hurt, y’know,” he grunted, his jaw muscles flexing.
I tried my luck in fighting him off but stopped resisting after two pathetic attempts to retrieve my arms back. I thought about kicking him, but he must have sensed it, for he smirked and steadied himself.
“Look, the more you try to ignore me, the more of your time I’ll waste,” he challenged.
I shifted, eyeing the glass doors and peering into the darkness outside. Was Silas out there? Would he know that we’re talking right now? That he’s touching me?
“What do you want, Noah?” I questioned impatiently, my tone losing its aggression, replacing itself quickly with panic. I stomped my foot and rotated my wrists in his grasp. His hold became lighter. “I just want to go home,” I said, nearly pleading.
“Not before you hear what I have to say, please,” he implored, desperately trying to catch my gaze with a little crane of his head.
I sighed, throwing in the towel. “What is it?”
Noah bit his lip as if he was thinking for the right words.
“First of all,” he began, looking deep into my eyes as though he was about to interrogate me.
Once he caught my line of sight I was hypnotized, the dark abyss of his eyes like bait, ensnaring me.
“I want to know why you’re avoiding me,” he questioned.
I thought of how I could get out of this.
I couldn’t tell him the truth about the threat, because that might put him back into danger.
Or it might make me a target again. I couldn’t do it.
And if I did, what would it matter? It wasn’t as if Noah would protect me any longer.
He had no obligation to me, nor I to him.
And I didn’t need his help.
His features softened, and he slid his hands from my wrists to my hands, holding them gently, stroking the top of them with his thumbs. “What’s wrong?”
Resisting the urge to keep my hands there, I quickly snapped them down, back towards my sides. “Nothing is wrong,” I said. “It’s not like we really know each other, so why act like we do?” I shrugged the gesture off as it was nothing to me, trying to remain nonchalant to the whole interaction.
His eyebrows furrowed. “So, you didn’t tell anyone? You should have at least told Chelsea about your situation. Why would you keep your assault from your best friend?”
I swallowed nervously. “How do you know I didn’t tell her?”
He gave me a pointed look that read, I am not that stupid.
“If she already knew that you and I had met each other, why would she bother to introduce me? You’re a terrible liar,” he confirmed.
I scowled. “It’s my business, not yours. And what if I had told her? She might have told someone else, and that could have caused more issues. Issues that could have consequences for you, too. I didn’t want that.”
Noah observed me as I took a breath before I continued. “Thanks for helping me through it, but I don’t need anything else from you. I’m fine now. So, what do you want?”
We seemed closer somehow. I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny.
“I want to get to know you,” his lips formed a warm smile.
My heart started a heaving pulsing that I felt in my cheeks. Noah leaned forward, emphasizing, “More.”
I nearly threw my hands up in indignation. This was the messiest game of tug of war I’d ever been part of. “You can’t be serious. Look, Noah, I don’t think your boyfriend would be very happy if he knew you asked me that.”
Noah raised an eyebrow, unfazed. “Oh, Alex? Nah, he’s not my boyfriend.”
His words were like a slap to the face. I wasn’t that ignorant.
“Okay, it might take me a bit longer to understand some things, but you two were literally making out,” I snapped. I hadn’t been staring directly at them, but I knew exactly what they were doing before I was directed to get more popcorn.
“You of all people should know how clingy your friend is,” Noah spoke playfully. He looked as though he was enjoying my discomfort. “Alex is my best friend. I brought him so that Chelsea would leave me alone. I didn’t know you would be here. This kiss, well–”
He winked, “I needed a distraction that she’d believe, so that I could come out here and talk to you privately.”
My cheeks flushed.
“Wait– So you’re not...g-gay?” I questioned meekly, afraid to offend him.
He shook his head. “Bi, yes. Gay, no.”
I stared at him icily, completely confused. “How do you know that?”
“Delane,” he said with a little laugh, “I know.”
“But how can you be sure?” I persisted, unbelieving. I knew what a true kiss looked like, at least, I thought so. What I witnessed seemed too passionate to be faked.
“Because I’ve sampled both women and men,” he grinned wickedly, “and I like not having to choose.”
I was too stunned to speak. Noah inched closer to me, and I mirrored his motion with a step backwards.
A fire blossomed down within me—slowly, like embers searching desperately for oxygen to ignite them.
Noah’s confidence wasn’t just visible, it radiated off of his body, like heat from the pavement in a blinding summer.
He had no problem explaining his sexuality to me, in fact, he spoke about it with ease, and that only fed my fire.
It made me ache to understand him, to peel back the layers, as if learning more about him might quiet the chaos stirring inside me.
“I do find certain men appealing, but…” his eyes skimmed over my blouse, resting on my chest area.
My breath escaped me as his eyes returned to mine.
“I cannot disregard my...intense attraction to women. I build connections with people, regardless of gender. I only care about the feelings two people can make together.”
I said nothing as he took another step, a predatory gleam forming in the corners of his eyes. I shivered, but made no move to walk away this time.
“And might I say, Miss Delane, you have thoroughly spiked my interest.”
My ears weren’t really processing what I heard.
“I–” I stammered.
He stepped closer again, too close for comfort now, and I countered in reverse only to be met with the smooth surface of a wall behind me. He laughed quietly as I squished myself against it, trying my best to bleed through the annoying solid to get to the other side.
It didn’t work, unfortunately.
“Don’t tell me you aren’t curious,” he purred, slipping so close that I felt his cool breath touch my chest. “About me. About everything. Don’t you want to know me?”
“I know enough.”
He seemed enthused. “Do you?”
“Yes,” I squeaked out.
He crossed his arms. “Well, that doesn’t seem very fair: that you know so much about me, and I know so little of you.”
“I’m sorry, but–” I shifted nervously on my toes.
My breathing was fast. I was cornered. I didn’t really know if I was afraid...
or perhaps just overwhelmed by his attitude.
I had never in my life met someone like Noah.
I had no idea how to perceive him or his intentions.
As it was, he was reading me perfectly. I did want to know him more, but I didn’t want either of us to get hurt.
Not only that, but his level of experience was no match to my own. Someone like Noah had to have had multiple partners. I had no clue what I was doing in the dating department, let alone this level of…
…chemistry? Could I even call it that?