Willa opened her mouth, about to respond, when a familiar, deep voice interrupted her.
“Now why would you ever want that?”
15
Noah
WHEN I’D LEFT Gallagher’s tonight I had one goal in mind: to work out a quick legal way that I could get out of this fucked-up situation that Harry had put us all in. But as I stood in the entryway of Willa’s sitting room staring at Laurel’s curvaceous figure, every thought other than getting closer to her instantly left my mind.
I leaned against the doorframe, knowing there was no way Laurel hadn’t heard me, and when she finally turned and I caught the obvious flush in her cheeks, my suspicions were confirmed.
“Please, don’t stop on my account.” I started toward her as though being drawn like a moth to a flame, and when the tip of her tongue worried her plump lower lip, my body responded as though she’d just flicked it over the head of my cock. “I believe you were discussing wanting someone?”
“Um…” Willa popped up from where she was sitting. But my eyes were firmly locked on Laurel. “I think that maybe I’m going to, you know, go. Unless of course you, um, need something, Noah?”
“I’m good, thanks.” I ran my eyes down Laurel’s chic dress. “I’ve got everything I need right here.”
“Okaaay, then I’m leaving.”
Laurel didn’t say a word to stop Willa, which surprised me. I almost expected her to protest. All week she’d gone out of her way to make sure we were never alone, and if we were, it was only for a handful of minutes each time. But as Willa left the room and the two of us remained, the only movement from Laurel was her fingers, which had tightened around her frosty cocktail glass.
“Did you have a good night?” she finally said, angling her chin up a fraction, revealing the lovely lines of her elegant neck.
“No, actually, I didn’t. But I have a feeling that’s about to change.”
“Oh?”
“Hmm. What are you drinking?”
Laurel took a sip from the straw poking out of the glass, and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the thing. Even as a teenager, her mouth had always fascinated me.
No, that was a lie—as a teenager, her mouth had fucking tormented me. With her pouty, bow-shaped lips, it had been a never-ending source of distraction. That clearly hadn’t changed over the years we’d been apart, and I wasn’t about to let her leave tonight until I’d had a taste of them.
“A Screaming Orgasm,” she said, and the smile on that fantasy-inspiring mouth almost brought me to my knees. Fuck, she was gorgeous.
“Felt like one of those tonight, huh?”
“I’ve felt like one of those all week.”
And just like that, I had a sudden flash of Laurel naked and writhing under me as I gave her exactly what she needed to have a screaming fucking orgasm.
“You should’ve told me. Maybe I could’ve helped you out.”
She chuckled, and the sound was husky and sensual, unlike the professional tone she used around me at work. “I don’t think that would end very well.”
“On the contrary—I think it would end very well. In fact, I’d lay bets on it.” I took a step closer. Laurel backed up and her legs hit the edge of the wingback chair, and she fell down into it.
Her breathing was coming a little faster now, and her grip on the glass was so tight that I was surprised it hadn’t shattered. But, not about to let the moment pass me by, I placed a hand on the arm of the chair and leaned down until Laurel’s spine was flush against the back of the seat.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting a little closer, so I can memorize every inch of you for when I’m upstairs in bed tonight. I want to get it just right.”
She sucked in a gasp of air as I trailed my fingers along her jaw to her chin. Then I gripped it gently, held her in place, lowered my head, and ghosted my mouth over the top of hers.
A soft moan left her as she parted her lips for me and pushed up a little from the chair. My cock jerked in response, and I wanted nothing more than to drag her to the floor and take her on the plush rug beneath my feet. But I’d be damned if I rushed this.
Instead, I nipped at her lush lip and then raised my head.
“This mouth of yours has haunted me. The way it feels, the way it tastes.” I speared my fingers into her hair and held her in place. “And I’m not leaving here tonight until I know both those things again.”
When she slowly slicked her tongue over her lips, my erection got impossibly harder, then I took her mouth the way I’d wanted to from the moment I saw her again.
Hot, fiery, and full of pent-up lust, the kiss was like a lit match thrown inside of a can of gasoline. Flames heated my skin as I slid my tongue into her mouth for a deeper taste, and when Laurel’s tongue tangled with mine, I knew this was just the beginning.
I sucked, bit, and licked at her lips until she moaned in a way that made my balls tighten. She was too fucking sweet, and too damn sexy. A combination of the woman I now knew and the girl I remembered. Add in the way she was arching up into me like she wanted to crawl up my body and never leave, and I knew if I didn’t stop now, this would all be over before I could blink.
I reluctantly released her and pushed her back in the chair, and when she looked at me, her eyes were full of desire and confusion. I circled one of her knees with my fingers. “I like these.”
I traced my fingertip up the sheer stocking covering her thigh. When I reached the hem of her dress, I grinned at her. “I wonder what other secrets you have on under here?”
Laurel swallowed as I flirted with the tight hemline, but at the last moment, I removed my hand and straightened.
“Maybe one day you’ll let me find out. For now, enjoy your Screaming Orgasm. I think I’m gonna go and enjoy one of my own. Good night, Laurel.”
16
Laurel
THE SUN WAS not welcome the following morning, as it slipped through the billowy curtains of Willa’s Jane Austen suite and woke me from the thirty minutes I’d finally managed to catch in dreamland.
Sleep had eluded me last night, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why. After Noah had wound me up and then left me high and dry, there was no way I was getting any kind of sleep—and he knew it.
I’d tossed and turned all night, imagining him one floor up, stretched out in bed, naked and hard and thinking of me. It had taken every ounce of willpower I possessed to stay tucked safely away behind my locked door like one of those good girls from an Austen novel.
But it was for my own good. I knew what it was like to fall under Noah’s spell, and I could only imagine how much more potent it would be now that he’d had all these years to perfect it.
Hell, ten minutes in close proximity with him and he’d sparked something inside me that had left me aching and wanting in ways I hadn’t felt…ever. I’d tried to push it aside and talk myself into believing that my response had been due to my lack of love life. But the insistent throb between my thighs, even this morning, was a glaring reminder that not just any man could elicit this reaction—it was Noah.