“That sounds made up.”
He made an X on his chest. “I swear it’s not.”
The server returned with glasses of water for both of us, and we thanked him. When he had cleared out, Noah asked, “Do you want to try it?”
“Sure.”
We leaned over and began staring into each other’s eyes. Even if people did normally leave him alone here, I had the feeling somebody was going to call in a padded wagon if we kept doing this. I felt silly.
Until I didn’t. I was focused on his light-brown eyes, the way there was a darker-brown ring around his pupils and another one surrounding his iris. How had I never noticed that before?
He spoke, and it startled me because I was so caught up in staring at him. “I love your eyes. The way the color seems to swirl between green and brown, depending on how the light hits it.”
Why did this make me uncomfortable? Him seeing me this way? I pitched forward slightly so that my hair would fall like a curtain around the sides of my face. “They’re just eyeballs. Almost everybody has them.”
“It’s not just your eyes. Do you know how beautiful you are?” he asked, reaching up to lift my chin, and then tucked my hair behind my ears.
I accepted myself, flaws and all, and considered myself pretty average, but for him to call me beautiful? That did something to me. Some kind of exhilarating free fall was happening in my gut. Like he’d somehow infused me with some of his confidence and strength. I believed him, that he thought I was beautiful. His words shifted something inside me, and I found myself saying, “I want you to kiss me.”
There was only a slight glimmer of fear, so faint I almost didn’t feel it. There was more anticipation than anything else. I knew what would happen after, but I was willing to risk it.
“I was planning on it.”
He wasn’t understanding what I was saying. I put my hand on top of his. “No. I mean, I want you to kiss me.”
I saw the moment when comprehension set in. “Now?” he asked.
“No, not now.”
“In the van?”
“We can’t kiss there,” I said.
“Why not? A lot of kissing happens in cars. Are you worried people will see us?”
“Maybe.”
“And that they’ll judge you?” he asked, and it was a bit annoying how perceptive he was and how he seemed to understand things about my psyche that I hadn’t even considered. “No one’s going to judge you or laugh at you. If anyone does notice, they’ll just be jealous that you’re kissing me.”
He was teasing, and it was a bit on the egotistical side, but also quite possibly true. However, I also didn’t want to end up on a magazine cover with him. Because even though he thought himself safe here, I’d seen enough paparazzi photos to know that they sometimes lurked and got personal moments on film.
The server arrived then with our food, and it was enough to completely cover our table.
I picked up my burger and took a bite and couldn’t help but let out a little moan of appreciation. This was amazing.
Noah asked, “So was I right or were you wrong?”
“Okay, yes to both, and I am definitely eating my words, because this is worthy of being offered as a sacrifice to the old gods. But good doesn’t necessarily equate to healthy.” I waved my hand at the stuff he’d ordered.
“If I’m not eating right, at least I’m eating a lot,” he quipped back. “I don’t see any vegetables on your plate.”
I pointed at my ranch sauce.
“Ranch dressing is not a vegetable.”
“I eat it with vegetables, so it’s basically the same thing. Your onion rings aren’t vegetables, either. I think the healthy parts are negated after you dip them in batter.”
I was halfway through my cheeseburger when I realized he hadn’t eaten anything and was looking around for our server.
“What are you doing? You’re the one who said this place was amazing.”
The server came over, and Noah said, “Can you box all of this up and bring us the check?”
“What?” I laughed.
“We have plans,” he said with a wolfish grin. “I wanted you to have a chance to eat it hot, and you did, so now we can go.”
I wanted to ask him if he was being serious, but it was plain that he was. The server brought over a mountain of boxes and two bags while I ate a bunch of my fries and put the rest of my burger into a box. I didn’t take the fries, because they were never good once they were cold. Noah was busy shoving boxes into bags until everything was packed up.
He stood up, throwing several (American) hundred-dollar bills on the table, while I marveled at how well this server was about to get tipped. He grabbed the bags with one hand and mine with the other and said, “Let’s go.”
I was surprised by how excited I was to leave with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Noah definitely was in a hurry. He even asked me about how committed I was to the idea of driving the speed limit. “I’m against tickets, so I’m practically married to it,” I told him.
“I could pay the fine,” he said and I wanted to laugh, but he was kneading the back of my neck with his long, clever fingers and his touch was turning me into a pool of jelly. We weren’t going to break the law; I was going to get us into an accident.
It seemed to take forever to get back to his house, but when we arrived, everything happened very quickly. In a matter of minutes, Noah had paid Joe and sent him on his way, put the food away, and grabbed dinner for the dogs. While I stood in the kitchen and watched him. Like his touch had numbed my mind and made it so that I wasn’t thinking clearly and couldn’t pitch in and help.
He took off his bomber jacket and hung it up on a hook.
Then he came over and said, “Let me help you with your coat.” He turned me around and slid it off slowly, and it fell to the floor. Then he pushed aside my hair with one hand and pressed his lips to the back of my neck.
It was like being held against a live electrical wire—sparks popped all along my skin. It felt incredible.
“Oh, wow” was all I could manage.
“This is pretty good for me, too.” He murmured the words near my hairline and those sparks turned into currents, snaking along my nerve endings. I closed my eyes against the onslaught of sensation from him running his lips across that sensitive skin.
“I can, uh, I can see why people pay you to be the romantic lead in movies. You’re very, very good at this.”
I felt his smile against my neck. “You’re not even getting my best stuff.”
“Someday, I will.” And whether that was a promise to him or to my misfunctioning brain, I didn’t know.
Thinking of him in the movies prompted me to ask him something I’d been wondering about. “You said once that you could be anyone I wanted when you kissed me. What did you mean?”
“I meant that I could be, like, aggressive.” One of his hands went to my hip and pulled me straight back against him, and I gasped at the contact. “Taking control. Knowing exactly what to do to push all your buttons and drive you wild.”
He released me and then gently ran his fingers up my right arm. “Or I could be shy, unsure of myself, but eager. Using light, feathery touches until I figured out what you liked.”