Chapter 16
Walking backward as he kissed her, Eli drew Noelle into his bedroom. When his legs hit the edge of his bed, he toed off his shoes and pulled her shirt from the waist of her slacks without breaking the contact of their lips. His body was aflame, wound tight with a hunger he’d suppressed for years.
He’d been with other women since Noelle, but none had meant a fraction of what his intimacies with her had meant, and he’d quickly lost interest in pointless sex. When you’ve had something as rich and powerful as making love to your soulmate, anything else felt empty, even like a betrayal.
To have her in his arms again, to be able to touch her, kiss her, savor the sweet connection that two could share with their bodies and hearts joined was paradise to him.
Maybe he could show her physically the truth that his words had not yet been able to convey.
She belonged with him. There was no challenge or difference or past heartache they couldn’t overcome together.
“I’ve missed you, missed this, sweetheart,” he murmured as he dropped tiny kisses along the curve of her throat. Her breath caught, and the sexy sigh that followed stirred the ache in his core to feverish new heights.
Patience. Savor this. Make it count.
He knew he might not get another chance to set things right with her, and he wanted everything about this night to reawaken the feelings she’d once had for him.
He took his time, nibbling the sensitive spot below her ear, massaging her nape with his thumbs, tracing the shape of her lips with one fingertip.
He felt her muscles slowly relax, her body tremble in response to his caresses.
He tested all the spots that had once been her favorite places to be kissed, and he grinned when he won gasps of delight and pleasure from her.
She slipped her hands beneath his shirt and dug her fingers into his back, encouraging him by canting her hips and sliding her body against the length of his.
Patience. Savor this, he told himself again, even as his breathing grew rough and choppy, his libido firing and hungry.
One item of clothing followed another, while they stared into each other’s eyes. Her shirt, then his. Her slacks, his jeans. Her lacy underwear and bra, a wonder to behold both on her and then off.
When they were both naked, he lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. Turning, he tumbled them to his bed and quickly wrapped them in the warmth of his blankets.
Burrowed deep in a snug cocoon of blankets, he let his hands roam, his mouth taste and his gaze worship her. As his passion rose, so too did the tender ache in his marrow that could only be called love. “It’s only ever been you for me, Noelle. In college, now, forever. Only you.”
In the dark of their blanket nest, he heard a hiccupping sob, felt the dampness on her cheeks, and he dried the tears with his kisses. “Only you, Noelle. Only you for me.”
Noelle let Eli’s words sink into her soul and nudge aside the pain that had resided deep inside her for so long. Rejection from her birth mother. Rejection from her adoptive family. Rejection from classmates who saw only her differences in her youth.
The scars created when she was young. The longing in her soul for love and acceptance had shaped so many of her choices in life.
Perhaps the most difficult choice had been to break up with Eli in order to protect herself from what she’d believed to be inevitable pain in the long term.
No one had ever loved her long term. No one had ever kept promises, kept faith, kept her close.
Except Eli.
And she’d pushed him away anyhow.
The stinging truth of that realization, seen afresh some thirteen years later, slashed her with needlelike tines. A sob broke from her throat, and Eli lifted his head from kissing her breast.
“Noelle? What’s wrong? Do you want to stop?”
She curled her fingers in his hair and shook her head. “No. I only… I was thinking how much I’d missed this. Missed you.”
“Ah, love, me too.” Pulling back a corner of the blanket and letting in the dim light from his bedside clock, he continued to stare at her, his eyes intense. “Are you sure that’s all that’s wrong?”
She gave a wry half laugh. “You know me too well, huh?”
He leaned on one elbow, studying her face while he drew lazy circles on her skin with his finger. “I used to, but I’m not sure I do anymore. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“Now? In the middle of—” she waved a hand between them “—and break the mood?”
“We have all night for—” He copied her hand wave between them. “But if something is on your mind, I want to settle it now, before it becomes a problem for us.”
“It’s not…” She ducked her head to avoid his gaze, and he angled her chin back up again.
“Look at me, Noelle. Talk to me. Let me in.”
Taking a breath for courage, she admitted, “I was thinking how I should have fought harder to overcome my concerns about us when I had the chance. You were good to me, and I let worries about the future, clouded by my past, stand in the way.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What about the future?”
Here, she hesitated. After a taut moment of silence, she said, “Your family. Whether they’d accept me as more than a college girlfriend. If my own family couldn’t love me, how could I think anyone else’s would?”
“Noelle, sweetheart…” He drew her closer, held her firmly in his arms and kissed the top of her head.
“My family would love you. Didn’t my mom and dad welcome you today?
And you’ve met one of my brothers and my cousin Kansas.
Granted, Parker was teasing a bit about having caught us making out, but that was directed at me. Brother stuff.”
She shook her head. “It’s easy to be polite and kind in the short term, and a whole other matter to welcome someone…” she hesitated, almost said different, but went with “…new into their ranks. Especially someone like me who hurt you once and who never—”
He stopped her with a kiss. “If that is your concern, then I can ease your mind with conviction.” He laced his fingers with hers and kissed her knuckles one at a time as he said, “My. Family. Will. Love. You.”
She rested her forehead against his. “Easy enough for you to say. Harder for me to believe considering my experiences with…rejection.”
“Fine,” he said. “You don’t have to take my word for it. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I deal in facts. Proof. Evidence. So, allow me to show you the truth.”
“How?” she asked, narrowing a skeptical look on him.
“My mother’s birthday party Sunday. You’ve been invited by more than one family member.
Come with me and meet the family. All of the family.
I think you’ll see why I’m so sure after you’ve spent time with the whole motley crew for a while.
Give them a chance. And if you’re convinced, then give us a chance. ”
“I—I want to, but…can you afford to go to a family party with the investigation at this boiling point? With Scott out there—”
“The case takes priority, of course. But if we’re not actively following a tip of a sighting or other time-sensitive leads, I can take a few hours off to toast my mother’s health with the family.
I’m only a phone call away if anything with the case changes.
So…” Eli kissed her again, long and deep. “What do you say?”
She let out a sigh, feeling a bit of tension inside her release, as if by making the decision to move forward with getting to know Eli’s family, she was taking the weight of a years-long uncertainty off her shoulders. “Okay. You win. I’ll go with you Sunday.”
“Good.” Eli slid a leg up her calf and rolled on top of her. “Now that we’ve decided that…where were we?” He trailed his lips, his tongue along her throat. “Oh, yeah. I was about to rock you to your core, pretty lady.”
He caught her giggle when he took her lips with his. When he moved on to nibble her shoulder, she teased, “Bold talk, Mr. I-deal-in-facts. Where’s your proof you can rock anything?”
And for the next several hours, he presented his very convincing case.
The next morning, Noelle woke, sore in places that hadn’t been sore in thirteen years, but feeling a hopefulness and happiness she hadn’t known in the same length of time. She rolled on her side and watched Eli sleeping in the light that seeped in from the window.
Light from the window? She furrowed her brow. If the sun was up, it had to be almost 9:00 a.m. She hadn’t slept this late in months. And she and Eli had work to do on the investigation to find and bring in Scott Montgomery.
She was just debating whether to wake Eli now or let him sleep until she finished her shower, when his cell phone jangled on his nightstand.
Jolted awake, Eli squinted at the daylight and reached for his phone. “Yeah? I mean, Agent Colton. Oh yes. What can I do for you?”
Noelle shivered in the chilly bedroom and pulled the covers up to her chin as she listened to Eli’s end of the conversation.
“Oh? Anything helpful? Really? Uh, yeah, that should work. No, it’s no problem.
Saturday or not, casework comes first. I’ll be in shortly.
” Eli cut a glance to Noelle as he disconnected his call.
“That was the lead investigator with the police department. As I asked, he’s been working on the evidence recovery at Montgomery’s house, and this morning they found a good bit he thinks will be helpful for the Fiancée Killer case.
I’m meeting him at my office as soon as I can grab a shower.
” He shifted to face her and ran a hand down her bare back, sending delicious thrills spiraling inside her.
“I hate to leave you by yourself, especially since we believe Scott is gunning for you. You can come with me if you want.”