“This is the winery, Noah.” She looked at me, alarm stamped all over her expression. “Why are we at the winery?”
“This is where we’re having dinner.”
Laurel’s eyes widened as she turned in her seat. “I’m not having dinner in there with you. Are you out of your mind?”
“Not last time I checked. And why don’t you want to have dinner in there? Is the food bad?”
“Of course the food’s not bad. It’s the finest dining in town.”
Her indignation was adorable as she stood up for her place of employment and, well, my family’s legacy.
“Then why would I want to take you anywhere else?”
Her words came to a dead end, before she seemed to regroup and shake her head. “I’m not going in there.”
“Why? Everyone else is gone for the night.”
“But—”
“But what?” I unbuckled my belt and pushed open the car door. “What’s more private than here? Plus, you owe me a taste testing, and I’m about to collect.”
22
Laurel
WHEN NOAH PULLED up at the winery, I’d thought he was insane.
But when we drove inside the gates and headed up the drive, the calm and peace of the night seemed to envelop us. There wasn’t a car or building beyond the villa directly in front of us, and as I climbed outside and took in the vast property, I realized that we were well and truly alone out here.
“Still want to leave?”
I looked across the hood of the car to see Noah was watching me, and that laser-like focus made my heart thump. I knew that tonight was probably a mistake. A decision I’d made when my guard was down. But as I looked at him standing there, finally within touching distance, I shoved aside any doubt and decided to live in the moment for a change.
“No. I actually think you might be onto something.”
Noah walked around the hood of the car and held his hand out to me, and I took it. His skin was warm to the touch, his hand large and strong. I took a step toward him.
“I had another reason for bringing you out here tonight.”
“You mean other than the fact that there’s no one for miles and miles and miles?”
Noah grinned. “Yes, besides that.”
“And what might that be?”
“Nostalgia. This is where we had our first kiss.”
I narrowed my eyes. “No we didn’t.”
“Yeah we did.”
I let out a soft laugh as he started walking me toward the front door. “You’re trying to tell me that I remember it wrong? Our first kiss was behind the science department, second semester of our junior year. It was my first kiss ever. It’s not exactly something I’m going to forget.”
When we reached the front door, he unlocked it and turned to lean back against the wood. Then he flashed the most roguish heartbreaker of a smile and shrugged. “Okay, so it was our first kiss…with tongue.”
I scoffed and shoved him in the chest. He laughed, opened the door, and stepped aside.
As I went to walk by him, Noah leaned down and said by my ear, “You have to admit, that day out in the vines was pretty amazing.”
He wasn’t wrong about that, and while it hadn’t been our first kiss per se, it was the first time a boy had touched me intimately—and I had been brave enough to touch him back. We’d spent hours out there on a picnic blanket, each learning what the other liked. I could still remember the feel of the sun warming me as Noah’s mouth and hands set my world on fire.
After that, we’d been inseparable. We’d fallen hard and fast, and I thought we’d be together forever. He had thought the same. It had been devastating to discover just how wrong we were.
Noah straightened, and I moved into the front entrance of the villa, then looked back to see him admiring my dress. Or what little of it there was.
“That dress should be illegal.”
He walked toward me like a man in a trance, but I stood my ground and let him look his fill. After all, that was why I’d worn it. I knew how provocative this dress was. The silk molded to every inch of my body like a second skin, and was held up with two simple straps over the shoulder that were secured under my arm by the curve of each breast.
The back was cut low to where it barely covered my tailbone, and as sleek and formfitting as it was, it left no place for anything other than the bare minimum when it came to lingerie.
“I’m sure in some places it would be,” I said.
Noah reached out and, using the straps as a guide, traced his finger along my bare skin down over my shoulder blade. Goosebumps covered my body as he continued along the curve of my breast, then he followed an invisible path down to the center of my back.
I took in a shaky breath when he placed a hand on each of my hips, and then he pulled me back a step until his front was flush against me. His erection was thick and hard against my ass, and I closed my eyes in an attempt to regroup, but Noah was having none of that.
“Some time tonight,” he said by my ear, “I don’t care when, I want to do the exact same thing I did just now, but with the tip of my tongue.”
A moan escaped my lips as I dropped my head back against his shoulder.
Noah smoothed his hand around to rest it against my stomach. “Tell me, how am I supposed to sit across from you and eat dinner when all I want to do now is eat you?”
“I don’t know,” I said on a sigh.
“That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” Noah lowered his hand between my legs and massaged me over the top of my dress. “To drive me crazy?”
I turned my head so I could look him in the eye, and the untamed arousal staring back at me nearly made my legs give out. Noah was looking at me like a starving man would. Like he was hungry and I was the only thing that would satisfy his craving.
I knew exactly how he felt. His hands, words, and mouth were driving me so close to the edge that the strip of black lace I wore beneath my dress was soaked through. In fact, if he didn’t stop what he was doing, and soon, he’d feel my arousal against his fingers any second now.
“I suppose I should stop, shouldn’t I? Let us go eat? That does seem to be the game we’ve been playing.”
That might’ve been true before tonight, but I was worried I might not survive if he stopped now.
The sexy chuckle in my ear told me he knew exactly what I was thinking. Then he whispered, “I promise I’ll make it worth it,” and let me go.
I closed my eyes, counted back from twenty, and willed my body to get under some kind of control. But it was no use. When I opened my eyes and saw him moving around in front of me, the ache returned tenfold.
In his light grey suit that did nothing to hide his arousal, Noah was the very epitome of sex and class. The confidence radiating off him as he held his hand out only added to the wow factor. I slipped my hand back into his, and his smile was nothing short of wicked.
“Let’s go.”
Noah turned on his heel and guided us down the hall toward the tasting room. But instead of stopping there, we kept right on going, past the door to the kitchen and the stairs that led up to the guest rooms, until we came to a stop by the wooden door beneath the stairs—and I knew exactly where he was taking me.