that was heavy with satisfaction. Noah put my panties back in place and cupped me gently with his palm, the touch warm and a possessive, and through the aftershocks of the orgasm my body thrilled at the feel of it.
Then I felt the breeze on my skin, and I remembered where I was: on the deck of Noah’s house, under the dark L.A. night, with my hair down and my dress pushed up past my hips. And Noah Pearson was on his knees between my legs, and he’d touched me, and then…
“Oh, my God,” I said.
I looked down at Noah, who grinned up at me. Dear God, he was gorgeous. “That’s good for my ego,” he said.
I sat up, strangely nervous, my pulse beating rapidly in my throat. “Noah, I should go.”
His eyebrows rose. “You should?”
“Yes. Definitely.” I nudged him and he retreated from the spot between my knees, standing. I put my legs together, pushed my skirt down, and stood, smoothing the fabric. “I can’t stay,” I said, babbling. “I have to catch a plane in the morning. I have a lot of work to do. I should go back to my hotel room.”
He sounded unsure. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No. I’ll get an Uber.” I was flushed, my neck uncomfortably hot, my body jittery. Where were my shoes? My purse? I’d left them inside. I left the deck and went back into his nice house, walking through his lovely living room unseeing. “I have to go,” I said again.
“You can stay,” Noah said. “Relax. I won’t touch you again.”
Something about those words twisted in my gut, and I kept my gaze down as I put my heels on. “No, it’s fine. I’ll just go.”
He didn’t push, but as I turned to the front door, pulling my phone out of my purse to summon an Uber, he put a hand gently but firmly on my wrist, making me pause. “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Did I do something to make you uncomfortable?”
Oh, Jesus. I wasn’t handling this right, and now I had made him feel like a creep. Nice work, Emma. I made myself turn to face him, look up at him.
His features were shadowed in the dim light, but I could see that he was laser focused on me, his eyes searching my face. His brows were drawn down, his mouth pressed into a line of worry. He thought I was freaked out because he had harmed me—actually hurt me. He had no idea how wrong that was.
Even though I was falling apart in that moment, I couldn’t let him believe that. But how could I explain? I couldn’t think of the words for what was going on inside of me right now.
So instead of speaking, I put a hand on the back of his neck, rose up, and pulled him down to me. I kissed him on the mouth. He paused in surprise, and then he kissed me back, his lips firm and warm. He didn’t put his hands on me.
I broke the kiss, but I didn’t pull away. My lips still brushing his, I said, “Thank you.”
And then, before he could speak, I turned and walked out the door.
Six
Noah
* * *
It had been a week since Emma Riley had blown through my life, and I was still thinking about her. How could I not? She was sexy, hot, and completely fucking intriguing. She had let me blow her mind on one of my deck chairs. And then she’d vanished.
I’d gone over and over it in my head as I went about my business, taking meetings around the city and occasionally dropping in to the office I kept there. I wasn’t exactly an office guy—I didn’t keep a desk and a bunch of employees, like Aidan did in New York. Instead I had a generic single office in a bland building that rented them by the month, and for an extra fifty bucks I got to use their communal reception and message-taking service. I didn’t have coffee machines or boardrooms, and I had a single filing cabinet where I kept signed contracts and legal stuff. Every once in a while I made myself go sit in the chair, turn on the computer and answer emails, and then I’d leave again.
I made myself stay cool whenever I talked to Aidan, even though I had the urge to ask him if Emma had said anything to him about me, as if we were in high