Chapter 22 #2
I parked, and he drove into the spot beside me. I kept the engine running as Noah turned off Dustin’s car and got out. I sat there, breathless, as he opened the passenger door and slid in.
“Are we parking?” I’d wanted to sound funny, sarcastic even. Instead, I sounded like I was panting, like it was the best idea ever.
He turned to look at me. “If I said I wanted to fuck you in the car, what would you say?”
“I’d say I’m too old to be screwing in the back seat. I have a bed at home.”
He smiled widely, and I hated myself for never thinking before I spoke. “Who mentioned the back seat?”
My laugh was short. “Well, you aren’t fitting over here, mister.”
My seat belt was off. The armrest was up, and I was lifted out of my seat and was suddenly on his lap.
“Who said I was moving?” he whispered against my lips.
“How did you . . . ?” I looked over at the driver’s seat and back at him. “How was that even possible?”
His eyes gleamed with mischief. “Experience.”
I should have been appalled that he basically told me these were his moves and he’d used them plenty of times. Instead, I felt a thrill of excitement.
“Well, it paid off.” I sat back and looked at him. When he pressed the button on the side of his chair and the seat flattened out, I yelped in surprise, my hands on his chest, stopping myself from crashing onto him, while he rumbled with laughter beneath me.
“Some warning next time,” I scolded.
Noah’s hand caught my chin, sliding around my throat, and fingers settling at the base of my neck. Slow. Deliberate. Giving me every chance to move.
“Next time? Next time we’ll be in your bed.”
He pulled me toward him and kissed me, and I leaned into him as if it were the most natural thing in the world. My hands wrapped around his shoulders as he drew me closer, and I settled against his chest as the kiss deepened.
I pulled my head back slightly. “I’m not fucking you in the car like a horny sixteen-year-old.”
“Okay.” His mouth caught mine. “Fuck me in the car like a horny twenty-four-year-old.”
He swallowed my shout of protest as his mouth claimed mine again. His kiss wasn’t gentle. Not rough either — just immediate. The kind of kiss that came from holding back too long. His lips were warm and soft, and for a second, I went completely still in his arms.
Then I was kissing him back.
My fingers tightened in the fabric of his hoodie as I leaned into him, shifting slightly on his lap. I felt the movement through every nerve in my body.
Both of his hands slid into my hair, and without thinking, I tilted my head so he could deepen the kiss. He made a quiet sound against my mouth — half surprise, half something else — and it went straight through me.
The windows had already fogged slightly from the warmth inside the car. Outside, the parking lot lights hummed, distant and irrelevant.
I pulled back just enough to breathe, my forehead resting against his.
“You’re trouble,” I whispered.
His thumb brushed along my jaw, still holding me close.
“You’re the one on top of me,” he reminded me easily.
My eyes searched his for a moment, and he looked back at me steadily, with no doubt in his gaze.
He pulled me back to his lips as he kissed me again, slower this time, even more deliberate.
It wasn’t rushed now. Not like it had been.
His mouth moved against mine like he had all the time in the world, like he was learning the shape of my mouth instead of just claiming it.
The heat from his body seeped through my clothes where I sat across his lap, his hands still threaded in my hair, gripping just enough to make my pulse jump.
I felt the control in it, knowing that was the dangerous part. Noah didn’t kiss me like a man losing control. He kissed me like a man who knew exactly how much he was allowing himself to take.
My fingers slid from his shoulders to the back of his neck, my nails grazing the short hair there as I leaned closer. The rumble of approval he made against my mouth sent a pulse of heat straight through me.
God. I could get used to this.
I broke the kiss just long enough to breathe, my lips still brushing his.
“You’re very confident about this whole ‘next time’ thing,” I murmured.
His hand slid from my hair to my waist, tightening just enough to pull me flush against him again, letting me feel him underneath me.
“There’s going to be a next time,” he said softly.
Not said with any arrogance, but a quiet certainty, and my stomach flipped at the sound of it.
Before I could answer, his mouth found mine again — harder this time, deeper, his patience running out. The kiss burned hotter, stealing the breath from my lungs as I clutched his hoodie and kissed him back just as fiercely, my hips rocking over him.
When we finally broke apart again, both of us breathing a little unevenly, I stayed exactly where I was, my forehead resting lightly against his.
Neither of us spoke, and the silence between us felt just as charged as the kiss had been.
“We should go.”
I nodded. I sat back, my head bumping off the roof of my car. “Ow.”
Noah laughed, and I lacked any grace as I clambered back to my seat, my knee knocked the steering wheel, and my hand landed on the horn, blasting the silence.
“So graceful,” he murmured, watching me, straightening his hoodie.
“Shut up.” I fixed my clothes. I knew I was blushing. “Is this going to make things awkward?”
“Why would it make things awkward?” he asked, rubbing his jawline.
“I just kissed you.”
“Yeah? And?”
I waited, but he said nothing else. “We should go back.”
“Sounds good.”
He reached for the door handle. I reached over and stopped him.
“Wait. What do you think is happening when we go back?”
This time, he did look confused. “Your place.”
“No.”
His eyebrow lifted in surprise. “No?”
I shook my head, forcing myself to hold his gaze even though my pulse was still racing from the kiss.
“No,” I repeated, a little steadier this time. “Just because we kissed and that, don’t assume the rest is just . . . I dunno, scheduled.”
Something flickered across his face — surprise, maybe, or the faintest hint of amusement — but he didn’t interrupt.
“I meant what I said,” I went on, brushing my hair back from my face, trying to pull myself together. “I’m not doing the whole horny-in-a-car thing. And I’m definitely not letting you assume what the next step is, like we already agreed.”
He leaned back slightly in the seat, watching me carefully now. “So what are you saying?” he asked.
“I’m saying . . .” I exhaled, the heat in my cheeks refusing to fade. “That the kiss was a mistake if it means we suddenly skip the part where both of us stop thinking like adults.”
His mouth curved faintly, but there was no mockery in it. “You didn’t look like you thought it was a mistake.”
“That’s not the point,” I shot back. A hush settled between us, quieter now, less electric, yet still charged with everything left unsaid.
“We have enough going on already,” I said finally.
“Your world, my world, Mason, the investigation, you just got benched — take your pick. The last thing we need is adding sex into the mix.”
Noah studied me for a moment longer, then gave a slow nod. “Okay.”
Just like that. No argument. No pushback.
Which somehow made it harder. He hadn’t argued because he didn’t need to. I’d said no tonight. Noah had heard that, and nothing else.
I opened the car door before I could rethink it and stepped out into the cool evening air. The heat in my face finally started to fade as I walked a few steps from the car.
Noah silently got out of the passenger seat. I turned as he slid into the driver’s side of Dustin’s car.
He gave me a nod and then put the car in reverse and drove out. He waited for me to get back in my car.
I started the engine, relieved it started, and gripped the steering wheel a little tighter than necessary as he pulled out of the lot, and I followed behind.
There was no flirty phone call this time, and the silence felt louder. Lonelier. As we entered campus, he turned off ahead of me, and I kept driving to my usual car parking spot.
He hadn’t looked back.
And somehow, the kiss we’d shared felt even more dangerous because of it.