Blood Past - By Samantha Young Page 0,37
the room, wondering what it would be like to train with Eden, to wrestle her to the mat, her slender body with curves in all the right places flush with his… he groaned and beat at his pillow.
I had this coming, Noah thought wryly. He’d messed around with so many girls, broke so many hearts and made so many of them cry. This was payback. Growling in frustration he slammed upright, pulling out three pieces of paper each with a Neith girl’s phone number. They’d accosted him at different times during the day, seeming to enjoy his cool perusal, his monosyllabic responses.
Eden would slap him if he ever looked at her like that.
“Balls,” he whispered, crumpling the papers up and throwing them across the room into the waste paper basket with perfect aim. What had that nod meant?
***
“I thought I was sword training today?” Eden asked as Noah led her into the training room the next morning. With the Bank Holiday over, the room was much quieter; all the young warriors back at school, including Tobe and Cameron, leaving a few older ones who didn’t work or worked from home or went to college. They nodded deferentially to Noah as he walked in. Every single mat was being used and he drew to a stop to wait patiently for one to free up.
“Well?” Eden persisted.
After an almost sleepless night, Noah had decided to play it cool with her if he could. She enjoyed messing with him - he could tell - so he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.
Even though he was desperate to know why she was talking to him again.
“Yesterday was good but you need to practice with someone stronger than Tobe or Cameron.”
“Cameron was pretty strong.”
He threw her a quick look. She was smiling smugly. What? Did she have feelings for that little Scottish knob? Noah grunted. “Not strong enough.”
“Well then, who am I fighting today? You?”
Was it just him or did she look a little wary about that? He grinned inwardly. “Yeah. As soon as we get a mat.”
“Hi, Noah.”
They turned and Noah was faced with one of the older Neith girls. Or woman, he should say.
Natalie. She’d been coming on to him pretty strong the first day he arrived at the training centre.
Natalie was Eden’s height with soft blonde hair and huge, gorgeous, chocolaty eyes. She also looked about twenty five, twenty six, and was exactly the type of woman he would have fooled around with before he met Eden. “Natalie.” He nodded politely.
The Neith beamed, clearly ecstatic that he had remembered her. “Nice to see you again. This is James.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of her sparring partner who looked a little disgruntled by her obvious interest in Noah. “We were just finishing up so you can have the mat.” Noah smiled. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”
Grinning suggestively, Natalie stepped a little closer to him and asked quietly, “You know I can stick around if you need someone to spar with?”
At the sound of Eden’s grunt, Noah flicked a look at her out of the corner of his eye. He caught her throwing the Neith a disbelieving and disgusted look. A rush of feeling shot through Noah’s veins. Was Eden jealous of the flirty Neith? He raised an eyebrow at the implications. Hmm. Maybe I should play on this, he mused. He could flirt with the Neith, try to make Eden jealous in order to force her to acknowledge that there was so much more between them.
Wait, what the eff?!
Irritated at his crazy thoughts, Noah shot an incredulous look at Eden. The girl was turning him into an idiot. Noah was not a game player. He was direct, honest and straight to the point. There was no way this- whatever this was - was going to change who he was.
He shot Natalie a cool look. “I’ve got a sparring partner, but thanks.” He took a gentle hold of Eden’s elbow and led her to the mat.
*
Eden couldn’t help it. She was majorly relieved that Noah hadn’t started flirting back with Natalie the Neith with the bedroom eyes. Her relief made her uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with how possessive she still felt towards Noah. The night of Doug Brown’s party pushed its way to the forefront of her thoughts. That sophomore had riled Eden back then and she’d felt so smug that Noah hadn’t been interested, that he’d chosen to find Eden and leave with her. With everything that had happened between them,