He’d learned his lesson in Lake Tahoe, knew how bad it had been to lose her once.
He wouldn’t lose her again.
"Colbie." Her name was a caress on his lips as he smiled down at her beautifully expressive face. "I’ve been thinking about you all week. And now—" He couldn’t stop himself from touching her, from brushing his knuckles across the soft skin of her lightly flushed cheek. "—here you are. My very own wish come true."
"I’ve thought about you, too." She looked away for a moment as though she was embarrassed. "More than I should have."
They were standing in the middle of a crowded bar on one of the busiest nights of the year, but all he saw was Colbie, and all he heard were her quickening breaths as the crowd jostled them into each other’s arms.
Until her friend said, "It’s nice to see you again, Noah."
He was hard pressed to pull his gaze away from Colbie, but when he did, he finally recognized her friend. "Mia Sullivan?"
"I’m glad you remember," Mia said with a grin. "I’m not fifteen anymore, but you’re clearly taken, so I’ll catch up with both of you later. Oh, and Rafe says to tell both of you this one is on the house." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Have fun, you two." A moment later, she’d disappeared into the crowd and he was alone again with Colbie.
"You know Rafe?" she asked.
"He was my roommate in college," Noah explained. "And you—"
"—practically grew up in the Sullivan house."
"I asked him to look for you," he told her.
"So did I," she admitted.
He shook his head. "I don’t understand. Why did you leave me in Lake Tahoe without any way to find you?"
She looked uncertain for a long moment. Finally, she admitted, "I was scared." She bit her lip. "Of all the things you were making me feel, even though we’d just met."
He could tell how big a deal it was for her to admit that to him, and it pleased him to know that she was trying to trust him. At least, a little bit.
"Tell me, Colbie. Tell me what I made you feel."
"The same things you’re making me feel right now," she said in a soft voice that he had to lean closer to hear. Her scent wrapped around him again, drew him in even further. He wanted to breathe her in everywhere, wanted to know what her skin tasted like in all those same places. "Like my heart is going to beat out of my chest just because you’re here."
He knew she was being honest with him, but at the same time, he could tell she was still cautious. Still nervous about being with him. He wanted not only to know all of her secret desires, her secret pleasures…he wanted to know the secret to her heart.
"Don’t run again, Colbie." He smiled down at her. "I’m not sure Rafe would be up for helping us a second time."
As her hesitation gave way to a smile, his breath caught in his throat. Beautiful didn’t even begin to describe the woman standing before him. Stunning didn’t cut it, either.
She was perfect.
"Finding you again like this proves what I’ve known since the moment I saw you." He caressed her cheek again, pausing with his hand just cupping her chin, loving the anticipation in her gaze, the way she was all but begging him to kiss her with that hungry look in her eyes.
"What did you know?" she asked, barely above a whisper.
"That we were a perfect fit." He leaned in close, close enough that he could have kissed her. Instead he said, "And that we belong together."
He could almost taste the sweetness of her lips, was about to pull her soft curves against him, when a flicker of doubt flashed in her eyes at the very last second and she pulled away from him.
Just as she had on the ski slopes right before she’d left him.
He watched her force a laugh, as if he’d been kidding about being soul mates. "I’ve never heard a pickup line quite like that one before. Does it usually work?"
She was clearly pushing for a reaction, trying to see if she could get him to walk away this time. But he wasn’t going anywhere.
"I don’t know," he said softly. "I’ve never said it to anyone before."