Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Noah’s cock was still half hard, and he felt drunk on the high that orgasm had given him. But his girl needed some attention. In fact, he felt a little guilty about getting off first. He knew she’d enjoyed the power trip of making him come, though.
Now, it was his turn.
Danica wanted to forget about her family and her troubles. Noah was going to do his best. He wanted to wipe every worry from her mind and give her nothing but pleasure.
“Turn around,” he said.
Danica obeyed, turning to face the shower wall. She braced her hands against the tile. Noah pushed her wet hair aside and trailed kisses across her shoulders, taking a moment just to admire her slender body.
He reached around her to squeeze her breasts. He loved how heavy and round they were, how they overflowed his hands. Then he dragged his palms down her stomach and to her hips.
All of this, for me.
He couldn’t believe how lucky he was.
Noah brought one hand up to the wall. The other teased her inner thighs from behind, nudging so she’d spread her legs.
She looked over her shoulder at him. A new flare of arousal traveled down his center. He wasn’t twenty anymore, so he couldn’t get hard again just yet. But he was already anticipating it.
“Bend over a little?” he asked. Again, she obeyed him, and fuck did that turn him on. Especially because he knew how stubborn and strong she could be. He was the only one who got to have her like this. And she got the same from him—those secret sides of him that nobody else could see.
His fingers met the slick heat between her legs. Danica tipped her head back. “Oh.”
“Is that good?” he murmured, kissing the droplets of water on her neck.
“I need new words. ‘Good’ isn’t enough.”
He moved his fingers over her sensitive folds and clit and in and out of her opening. Danica kept her hands on the wall, her spine arching to give him better access as he finger-fucked her from behind.
They were both soaking wet from the shower, but the moisture between her legs was totally different, slippery and warm while the spray on Noah’s back was starting to cool. He couldn’t resist sucking that sweet wetness from his fingers, even though she protested at the loss of contact.
He groaned at the taste of her. He needed more.
Noah dropped to his knees behind her and replaced his fingers with his tongue. Danica cried out.
He sat back against his heels and pushed her thighs even wider with his hands so he could suck and lick just where she needed it.
The tile was hell on his knees. The water from the shower ran over her back and his face, making it hard to breathe. But he didn’t care. He wanted to worship her.
His tongue pushed inside her, and his hands were tight on her hips. His mouth was unrelenting, taking as much as he was giving.
“Noah.” She shuddered, coming undone as she bucked against his face. More sweetness rushed over his tongue.
He really couldn’t get enough of her. With Danica, there would never be enough.
Once they were dried off and dressed in fresh clothes, Noah carried her to his bed. He was hungry, but first, he needed to lie down with her and cuddle and just be together.
He was lying on his side, facing her. She put her palm on his cheek. He’d been waiting a long time to have her in his bed like this. His to kiss and touch.
To love.
Then Danica said what he’d been waiting so long to hear. “Noah, I love you.”
Those words caught him off guard in the best way.
“It’s scary to tell you, but in a way, I also love that feeling.” She rolled her eyes. “I guess I’m twisted like that.”
He leaned over to kiss her. “I get it.” This was an adrenaline rush, every bit as much as rocketing down the freeway on his motorcycle. Or a HALO jump from forty-thousand feet.
“I don’t know exactly how to make this work,” she said. “But I want to try.”
“We’ll figure it out. I’ll be right there with you.”
They were free-falling together, and they couldn’t see the ground yet. Didn’t know when to open the chute. But he didn’t want to miss a single second.
Noah made them sandwiches for a very late lunch while Danica sat at the kitchen island.
“Do you still hate to cook?” he asked.
“Detest it. Even though I love to eat.”
“Me too, on both counts. I foresee a lot of takeout in our future.” He set a smoked salmon, tomato, and goat cheese sandwich on the plate in front of her.
She grinned at him and took a bite. “This is delicious! You sure you don’t know how to cook?”
“I’m told layering stuff between slices of bread isn’t technically cooking.”
“It’s not? What about putting caviar on potato chips?”
“Well, that’s just good sense.”
They’d been talking for hours about everything and nothing. Neither had mentioned where home would be. Whether it would even be in the same place. He didn’t love the idea of long distance, but if he’d still been in the Navy, long distance would’ve been a given for them.
It was going to work out. That was his new mantra. His days as a cynic were over.
Danica’s phone chimed. She took it out of her pocket. “Lindley just texted.” The executive director from the museum.
“Yeah?”
Her thumbs moved over the keyboard on her screen. “She asked if we could meet. I haven’t seen her since the gala.”
“I thought we were forgetting about the rest of the world for today.”
She grimaced. “I know. But I hate that I left things so up in the air with the museum. I need to find out what’s happening with our project, the donors… She offered to come here.”
Noah rounded the island and kissed her forehead. “I was kidding. Lindley’s welcome. I should check in with work, too.”
Lindley arrived about an hour later. Danica opened the door for her. Lindley gave them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“It’s the boyfriend! You two have had quite the adventure, I hear.”
“I’ll let Danica tell it,” Noah said.
Lindley put a hand on Danica’s arm. “But was there really a car chase?”
“I was on the back of Noah’s motorcycle.”
“What?”
“If I told you every detail, you probably wouldn’t believe it…” She took Lindley down the hall into the library to chat.
In his room, Noah sat at his desk and opened his computer. He spent some time catching up on work.
But his mind kept wandering to Danica downstairs.
He felt himself smiling as he thought about her and all the things he wanted to share with her.
They both needed a real vacation. Twelve years apart was a lot of time, and even though Noah felt like he knew Danica at her foundations, there were so many little details he’d missed out on. He wanted to know everything.
And of course, more sex. Lots of sex. All the sex.
He was a lovesick fool, like Chase had said. But he was a blissfully happy one.
A text came in on his phone, jarring him out of his reverie.
It was a message from Max. Call me.
“Hey, Max. What’s up?”
“News on Jason Gerrig,” Max said, wasting no words. “The guy with the double-eagle tattoo. We’ve been digging into the documents found in his house this morning, including his other aliases. We got a major hit on one of those identities. He worked for Valoris Security.”
Noah stood up from his chair. “Valoris?” The same company that Rosie and the rest of Danica’s security detail had worked for.
What the hell?
“We’ve got a call in to Valoris’s main office in New York. Waiting on more details. But you needed to know ASAP. Is Valoris still protecting Danica?”
“No. Her father fired her head bodyguard, and we didn’t bring any others with us. We’re at my place now. But as far as I know, some Valoris bodyguards are still at her father’s house.”
“Then maybe I should let Foster-Grant know,” Max said.
“Probably.”
Shit. Was Danica’s family in danger? They weren’t Noah’s favorite people, but he didn’t wish them harm.
Noah’s phone made a noise, and he looked down at it. Chase from West Oaks PD was calling. Maybe Chase had heard about the Valoris Security connection, too. Noah would have to call him back later.
“You just watch out for Danica, and we’ll keep working on this,” Max said. “You’re secure there? You’re in the hills at your family’s place?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Thanks, Max. Let me know what else you find out.”
“Will do.”
Quickly, Noah checked his Bennett Security app. He’d had a system installed on this house after he’d become a bodyguard. The motion sensors and cameras showed no activity outside. Doors all locked.
He exhaled. Danica was downstairs, chatting with Lindley. Everything was fine. The alarm was off right now, but when Lindley left for the evening, he’d reset it.
Noah wanted to tell Danica about this latest development. But he had to think it through first.
Jason Gerrig had worked for Valoris. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
There’d been times in the past week that Danica had questioned whether to trust Rosie. Did that mean Rosie had somehow been involved in the kidnapping attempts?
That was hard to believe. Rosie had helped Danica escape from the kidnappers multiple times. She’d shot at the van that had tried to grab Danica in the hills. And at the gala, she’d shot at the guy with the blue bowtie.
At every step, Rosie had helped thwart the kidnappers, even if she’d sometimes been less than effective.
He remembered what Danica had told him. She’d insisted on hiring Rosie. No, there was no way Rosie had been in on it.
But what about others at Valoris Security?
And that meant—fuck. Danica’s family had made the decision to hire Valoris. Did that mean William or Blake Halston really were involved, as they’d feared before?
Suddenly, the entire investigation was up in the air. Just moments ago, they’d believed Danica’s family was innocent of trying to have her kidnapped. But now? Noah had no idea what to think.