Chapter 5
Noah watched her walk out of the restaurant. The relief he’d felt when he heard her voice after a day and a half of trying to reach her drowned him all over again. He barely controlled himself from grabbing her and demanding answers. He kept his cool until she stopped several feet away from him.
“Hi,” she said.
Hi . Like they were casual acquaintances. Like he hadn’t spent four solid days last week branding himself onto her. Like he hadn’t spent Friday night turning her ass red and her tight little cunt sore enough to make him wonder if she’d ever walk straight again.
Yeah, he’d done all of that. And she’d still walked away from him. To her, he may well be the most casual of acquaintances. The rock-hard stone, which he hadn’t managed to shift from his gut since Saturday morning, grew spikes and churned harder into him as he stared at her.
A part of his brain registered that this was the first time he was seeing her without some form of leather on her body. But she didn’t look any less incredible in the tight green dress that displayed her stunning legs.
She fidgeted under his stare. He hid a grim smile. Now that he knew she hadn’t been avoiding his calls, that she was safe and not in the clutches of her psycho stepfather, he could take his time to deliver the news he’d uncovered.
“Are you going to say something, Noah, or is this going to be a staring contest?”
Ballsy. Fuck, how he loved that about her.
He started to answer and stopped, frowning when her slight slur registered. Straightening, he stepped closer to her. The act of tilting her head to meet his gaze made her sway.
“What the fuck? Are you drunk?” he snapped.
She jumped and nearly dropped the tiny purse she carried. She tried to shake her head and swayed again. Anger roared through his veins. The thought of her in this state, alone with Snyder, dug hot pokers into his gut.
He yanked open his passenger door. “Get in.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
“To get some coffee inside you. I’m not having a conversation with you when you’re clearly drunk.”
“We can get coffee here. I’m… I’m sure Pietro wouldn’t mind…”
Looking over her head, he saw Snyder approaching the door, those lizard-cold eyes on them. Noah’s palms tingled from the urge to cause harm. “No. We can’t. Get in the car, Leia.”
Her gaze lurched from him to the bucket seat, and a tiny part of him dared her to refuse him.
Right then, nothing would’ve pleased him more than to bend her to his will, make her feel a fraction of the turmoil going on inside him.
But she moved, swayed to him and grabbed the door to steady herself .
He cursed under his breath and slammed the door shut the moment she was seated.
Snyder was approaching as Noah walked round to the driver’s seat. The other guy must have sensed that he was on precarious ground. Whatever he’d been about to say died on his lips, and he changed course to the town car parked on the curb.
Noah got in. “Seatbelt,” he snapped.
Once she obeyed, he gunned the engine and accelerated away from the restaurant. He breathed in deep to calm his nerves. When her perfume filled every pore in his body, he dragged his fingers through his hair.
He knew he was transmitting the vibes his ex-shrink had once jokingly referred to as his Asshole-Alpha mode. And he wasn’t in the mood to turn it off. He sped through a yellow light, ignoring the blaring horns of a slow-moving car when he overtook it with a few feet to spare.
“I’d like to arrive at wherever it is you’re taking me intact. If you want to kill yourself, please do it in your own time.”
He didn’t ease off the gas until he was forced to at a red light.
Gritting his teeth, he glanced at her. She faced forward, her hand white around her purse.
He reached over, took the purse from her and threw it on the back seat.
When she glared at him, he raised an eyebrow. “What did you say to him?”
“To who?”
“Snyder. Before we left.”
She sent him a sideways glance. “Does it matter?”
“Not even a motherfucking little bit.” He revved the engine and savored the angry roar of the powerful car beneath him. “I was just making conversation.”
“If you want to make conversation, tell me where we’re going. And why you’ve been calling me. ”
“We’re going to the best coffee place I know in West Palm Beach. To sober you up before I attempt rational conversation.”
She squinted at the dashboard, then blinked his way. “It’s nearly midnight, Noah.”
“What’s your point exactly?” He eased away from the traffic light and turned left onto a street that held a row of trendy bars and coffee shops.
“My point is, I have to be up early to attend a board meeting, so I need to get a good night’s sleep.”
“A good night’s sleep, huh? Tell me, Leia, how did you sleep last night?” he asked softly.
“What? Why are you asking me that?”
He swung the car onto a side street and parked in the employee area behind a one-story building. Killing the engine, he turned to her, sliding a hand behind her headrest.
“Tell me you slept like a fucking baby last night after you walked away from me.” His smile felt like it was carved from granite. Moving his hand, he caught a strand of hair between his fingers and caressed its silkiness. “Tell me that so I can congratulate you. Or call you a fucking liar.”
“Noah…”
“Or tell me you stayed awake, your gut turning to stone every time you thought you’d never see me again. Tell me that so I can accommodate the fact that you’re a tiny little bit human.”
Her eyes widened and her breath rushed out between shocked, parted lips. “What good would that do either of us?” she whispered.
“It would make me feel a helluva lot better knowing I wasn’t crazy. That I didn’t spend last week losing my head over a heartless bitch.”
A deep tremble shook her body. She looked down and locked her fingers together. Noah waited for her to speak, for her to tell him everything that had happened in the last thirty-six hours had been a mistake.
He stared at her exquisite profile, her perfect creamy skin, and smashed down the need to grab her.
Finally, she sniffed and raised her head. “Are we going to get this coffee? If not, I’d like to go home, please.”
The spikes in his gut grew longer, sharper, until his whole body flamed with excruciating pain. He continued to stare at her for another full minute before he yanked his door open and stepped out.
What the hell was he doing trying to rationalize a woman’s behavior? He’d needed therapy after being dragged through the fucking quagmire because of one woman. And he was stupid enough to be asking for more pain?
He slammed his door and stalked to the back entrance that led inside Red’s. Inputting the code, he entered. He heard Leia’s heels clicking on the asphalt as she followed him.
Passing two storage rooms and the kitchen area, he walked into the large bistro, which during the day and evening teemed with customers looking for the best lobster bisque and crab club sandwich in Miami.
“I thought that was you.”
He turned toward the voice and saw Rita Mancini, or Red, as her customers called her because of the flame-red short, spiky mane she sported. She nodded at the security camera above the bar that showed the parking lot and other parts of the bistro.
“Hey, Red. You’re closing?” he asked when he saw the stacked chairs on top of tables.
She raised an eyebrow. “It’s nearly midnight, buddy. I’ve been shut for over an hour, and I have to be up in four hours to open up again. ”
Leia entered, and he heard her footsteps slow. Red looked from her to him, a question on her face.
“Can I trouble you for two of your best coffees? If you need to go, I’ll make sure the place is locked up tight before we leave.”
“Firstly, all of my coffees are my best. And secondly, you own a huge chunk of this place, so you don’t have to reassure me that you’ll secure it.” Again, her shrewd eyes darted to Leia and back to him. “Two coffees, extra-large, coming right up.”
“Can you throw in a bottle of water, too? Thanks.”
He knew his smile missed its target by a mile.
Red nodded anyway and set up a table by the middle set of French doors that led to a wooden deck, which served as an extra seating space during opening hours.
Beyond the doors, the waters of the marina glinted under the lights strung up along the walkway.
When Red went to get their coffees, he pulled out the nearest chair for Leia and took the seat opposite. “Sit.”
She sat, her arms resting on the table between them. Tense silence stretched, broken by the hissing of the industrial-sized coffee machine Red had switched on.
Eventually, Leia cleared her throat. “So, you part own this place?”
Noah nodded.
“I thought your investments were much larger and riskier than a bistro?”
“Red and I… we have a little history,” he replied and shrugged. “But sentiment aside, this is still a good business that earns a healthy profit.”
Red had left her birthplace of New York under a cloud, just like him.
An ex-attorney with a client base that included senators, media moguls and rock stars, she’d wielded more power than some people deemed wise.
A couple of people had done something about it.
He wasn’t ashamed to admit that his kinship with her past had been the drawing power for him choosing to invest in her business.
“How far back do you two go?” Leia asked.
He watched her fingers playing over the hair above her ear. He gritted his teeth. “You want to make small talk, here’s a question for you. I seem to be missing a T-shirt. You know anything about that?”
A guilty blush crept over her face and leaked down her neck. “I… I didn’t think you would miss it.”
“You thought wrong. I’m aware that we weren’t together long enough for you to know that it’s more than just a T-shirt to me. Maybe if you’d stuck around, you would’ve found out. Or maybe I should be counting my lucky stars that I got a clean escape.”