Chapter 30
Hannah closed the bedroom door and made her way back to Noah’s living room.
Brady had woken up after the helicopter flight and stayed awake while they drove to Noah’s house outside Atlanta.
They’d never even had a chance to bring their things to Trevor’s, which made it easy enough to change her mind when Noah asked her to stay.
The whole way here she’d worked to keep her mind quiet and her questions about their future at bay. Tonight she would let herself love this man and feel loved in return, no matter what came after.
Anticipation made her jumpy. Longing flushed her cheeks.
From the outside the house looked like a modest ranch, but the inside resembled a wooded cabin, with high-peaked ceilings, knotty pine, and dark beams. It was beautiful and it suited him perfectly.
She stepped into the room. “He’s asleep.”
Noah sat in a big leather chair, his legs stretched out on an ottoman and a bottle of beer in his hand. “Do you want something to drink? Or if you’re tired we can go to bed.”
“I’ll take a beer.” He moved to get up and she waved him back down. “I’m up. I’ll get it.” She found the fridge and reached for a bottle, belatedly realizing she didn’t even want one.
She did want to go to bed, though, but it wasn’t fatigue that was driving her decision. She bit her lip and went back to Noah. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Okay.” He finished his beer and came with her, leading the way down the dark hallway to the bedroom at the end. He turned the light on, a king-sized bed drawing her attention and holding it. She clenched her hands in front of her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have…I guess I just assumed…”
She looked at him and smiled. “I want to sleep with you.”
“Good.” He moved toward her, opening his arms. “I want to sleep with you, too.”
She touched his cheek gently. “What happened to your face?”
“I owed Booger an apology.”
“And this is it?”
“Pretty much.” His stare focused on her mouth.
She lifted her head for his kiss, the light scent of beer teasing her nose. He slipped his hand under her shirt and up her back, the feel of his fingers on her skin so good she moaned. “Turn off the light.”
He did as she asked, coming back to her and lifting her in his arms. He laid her on the bed, pulling his shirt over his head before moving beside her.
In the darkness she could just make out the shape of his body, his muscles calling out to her to be touched, and she let her hands stroke every inch of exposed skin before unbuckling his pants and moving lower.
“I want to see you,” he said, again slipping his hand beneath her shirt and pulling it up past her bra. He touched her breasts through the fabric. “So beautiful,” he whispered before bending his head, kissing the skin over her heart and the globes peeking out of the lace.
She reached around to her back, unhooking her bra, and he pulled it down, nuzzling her bare nipple before taking it in his mouth. She bucked against him.
She was beyond foreplay, beyond needing this level of care tonight. She wanted to feel him filling her up, making her body come alive, and she stripped off her pants and underwear, eager hands pulling at his clothes until he was as naked as she.
He kissed down her abdomen, his hand moving between her legs, and she spread them wide for him to enter.
One single kiss on her clitoris and she knew she’d never be able to hold out.
“I need you inside me when I come.” His fingers thrust deep into her body and she gasped, so close to orgasm from that one single move, her body clutching him tightly.
“Jesus, Hannah.” He pulled out, fumbling at the bedside table, the tear of the condom packet like music to her ears. Then he was on top of her, that glorious cock pushing inside her heat, filling her up with everything she needed.
She moved beneath him, matching him stroke for stroke, desperate to become one with this man. She flipped him over and rode him hard, loving the feel of him inside her, the sounds of pleasure he made as she fucked him, his hands on her hips pulling her onto him faster.
She took his hands and held them over his head, kissing him with her tongue as she moved her hips at her own pace.
She slid slowly up and down his thick, throbbing shaft, tormenting him as much as herself, until she couldn’t wait anymore and picked up speed.
Her orgasm ripped through her, hips freezing as sensation overwhelmed her body.
Noah pushed her onto her back and drove into her, drawing out her climax and intensifying it, her entire body tingling from the explosion of sensation.
The slap of his balls against her was loud, his face determined as he forced himself as deep as he could inside her and cried out with his own release.
He collapsed on top of her.
I could get used to this.
Oh, man, she really could. Sharing a house with this man. Sharing his bed night after night until their bodies were worn out from loving.
But what about Brady?
She could take chances with her own heart but not with his. He was already too attached to Noah, and while she understood it, she couldn’t allow it to continue unless Noah was going to stay in their lives.
“Stay with me,” Noah said, and she frowned as if he’d read her thoughts. “I’m greedy,” he said. “I want days with you to do anything we want.” He pushed up on his arms. “I want time, Hannah. I just made love to you and I can feel you pulling away.”
“Brady already loves you.”
“I love him, too.”
I love you, too.
She wouldn’t allow herself to say the words. It was too soon. Ridiculous to think the feelings were real.
But isn’t that the problem?
The feelings couldn’t be real. They were a byproduct of what they’d been through; there was no way they could last. And while she would gladly take any moment she could with Noah by her side—feeling this way about him—it wasn’t fair to put Brady through the same thing.
“I love you, too, Hannah.”
She pushed him off of her. “You’re heavy.”
“That’s it? I tell you I love you and you tell me I’m heavy?”
She licked her lips, wishing this conversation could have been held at bay, willing to do anything to have the whole night in his arms before needing to protect herself from these words. “It’s an illusion. It isn’t real.”
“How can you say that?”
“We were fighting for our lives. We had to rely on each other.”
“I do that shit all the time. I’ve never told anyone I loved them before.”
“Never?”
“No.”
She wanted so desperately to believe it, to make it be true, but nothing he could say would be able to convince her.
Her eyes stung and she needed to get away from him before he could see, before he could console her and give her yet another reason to cling to his side.
She sat up and pulled her shirt over her head.
“Are you leaving?” he asked.
“I’m going to sleep with Brady.”
“Stay with me,” he said again.
“No.” Her voice broke and she hated that he could hear it. She pulled on her panties and her pants, scurrying from the room in the darkness.