by Erika Wilde
His friend nodded in silent understanding, and said, “Go to Natalie. I’ll check out front and the restroom.”
Noah was grateful for his friend’s assistance, but knew Freeman wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to stick around to get caught. He wanted Natalie, and he was teasing her, playing cat and mouse with her memory and her past.
The bastard.
Reaching Natalie’s side, he gently grabbed her arms to pull her hands away from her face so he could comfort her, and she flinched at his touch. Then, seeing that it was him, she visibly relaxed, though the terrorized look that remained in her eyes nearly sent him over the edge with fury at what Freeman was doing to her.
Noah wanted to erase her distress, ached to make her forget the fear written plainly on her expression. But first, he needed to collect the piece of evidence Freeman had sent to her so he knew what they were dealing with.
“Where’s the note, Natalie?” he asked, his voice steadier than he felt.
“I…I dropped it,” she said hoarsely.
The only thing littering the floor was a napkin, and he picked it up. He read the threatening words the other man had written for Natalie, which left no doubt in Noah’s mind that it was just a matter of time before merely stalking Natalie wouldn’t be enough for her ex-boyfriend. Noah jammed a hand through his hair, hating that Chad was so close to Natalie, knew where she worked and, quite possibly, knew where she was living. The man was so brazen in his pursuit, so depraved, Noah suspected he’d dare just about anything at all.
A shiver of foreboding slithered through him. He wrapped his fingers around Natalie’s arm and guided her toward the back storeroom so they could talk in private, without worrying about prying eyes and listening ears. As soon as he shut the door behind them, Natalie turned around, looking too damned vulnerable for his peace of mind.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” she said, her gaze searching his for answers, her posture rigid. “Why is he doing this to me?”
He? Startled by her choice of word, he frowned. “You know who sent this note?” he asked cautiously.
She nodded jerkily and wrapped her arms around her middle, as if trying to hold herself together. “It was the same guy that I ran into at the restaurant.”
He narrowed his gaze, wondering how she’d made the connection. Had part of her memory returned? “How do you know it’s the same guy?”
“That…that note,” she spat, waving a hand at the offending napkin Noah still held. “The words that he wrote were some of the same ones he said to me at the restaurant. When I bumped into him, he said for me to be more careful of my surroundings.” Her voice rose a frantic notch, her eyes wild with frustration and fear as she paced back and forth in the small, confined space. “And what does he mean that he’s watching me and waiting to make me his again? Dammit, who is he?”
She still didn’t realize that the man following her was Chad Freeman. Her ex-boyfriend. A man intent on terrorizing her and doing a damn good job of it. Her mind and memory still suppressed that traumatic time in her life. And that left her too damn defenseless and susceptible to Chad’s mental and emotional game.
Noah stuffed the note into the front pocket of his jeans, knowing that he needed to tell her what was going on with Chad, just enough so she could be more aware of her surroundings and protect herself. Her doctor had suggested that Natalie remember things on her own, but considering how easily Chad had reached her tonight, Noah would be a fool to believe that he could keep her safe at all times. If he armed her with the knowledge of what she was up against, she’d at least stand a better chance of defending herself if the need arose. But he’d rather have that intense conversation at home, rather than here at her work.
He reached out to her, gently wrapping his fingers around her upper arms to stop her agitated pacing. “Natalie, I need you to calm down.”
“How can I calm down when nothing makes sense in my life but you?” She shuddered and slipped her arms around his waist, clinging tightly to him with her face buried against his neck. “Everything else feels like a disjointed dream where I’m lost and I can’t find my way back, and I hate feeling so helpless and weak!”
Tonight, when he revealed her past, he hoped all that would change, that she’d feel stronger and better equipped to handle the threat against her. But one concern weighed heavily on his mind. As she learned about her past, would she come to realize that he’d lied about their relationship? And would she hate him for the deception?
For Natalie’s sake and well-being, it was a chance he had to take.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
By the time Noah escorted her into his house, shut and locked the door behind them, then set the alarm, Natalie was wound up tight. The awful tension from the night’s events spiraled within her, demanding some kind of release. Knowing the one way she could escape all the conflicting feelings wreaking havoc with her psyche, she poured all her anxiety into sexual aggression and focused it on the one man who could make her forget, at least for a little while.
Not giving Noah a chance to refuse her or what she wanted, she threaded her fingers through his thick hair and pulled his mouth down to hers before he could anticipate what she intended. Their lips met, and she instigated a deep mating of tongues that was as demanding as her hunger for him. From there, it took only seconds for her fears and uncertainties to manifest themselves into a searing need that couldn’t be denied. Aching to feel his heated flesh against her, she grabbed at his shirt and pulled it from the waistband of his jeans, nearly ripping the cotton material in her haste. But before she could shove it up and over his head, Noah grabbed her wrists, stopping her.
He groaned deep in his throat and pulled back just enough to break their kiss and so that she could see his eyes, dark and hot with suppressed lust. “Natalie…we need to talk.”
Conversation was the last thing she wanted. Despite his authoritative tone, she could sense his control wavering. Could feel him hanging on to reason by a tenuous thread, and she took advantage of his weakness.
“I don’t want to talk or think right now, Noah. What I need is you.” She touched her fingers to his lips, so soft, warm, and wet from their kiss. “I want to feel your hands touching me, your mouth on my breasts, my stomach, my thighs. I need you, deep inside of me.” Her request was explicit and shameless, but she didn’t care. Being brutally honest with Noah was the only way she could make him understand the fierce need to be possessed by him. Not gently, but physically branded, so she knew she belonged to him and no one else.
“Make me your love slave,” she whispered huskily, tempting and teasing him with a reminder about their bet at the bar.
His breathing deepened, his nostrils flared, and she watched in pure female fascination as his discipline snapped, unleashing a dark, dangerous kind of passion she welcomed.
The next thing she knew, he had her pressed up against the wall in the foyer. With her trapped against his hard, unmistakably aroused body, his mouth came down on hers, swift and demanding. The kiss was rough, wild and unrestrained, and it excited her all the more to know that Noah wasn’t going to hold back with her tonight.
Adrenaline spiked in her blood, rushing through her veins like a heated aphrodisiac, spurring her to a higher level of arousal. This time when she attempted to remove his shirt he let her, and with a little help from him, hers wasn’t far behind. Her bra followed as his lips and teeth grazed her neck, and as soon as her breasts were freed, his mouth was there, drawing a nipple into his hot, wet mouth. He flicked the aching tip with his tongue, then suckling her strong and deep, instigating a slow burn in her belly, between her thighs.
She shifted restlessly, her entire body pulsing, demanding more. The air around them crackled with intensity, and she smoothed her hands over his taut arms, dug her fingers into the muscle and sinew along his shoulders. Releasing her nipple, he knelt before her. She sucked in a quick breath as his teeth scraped along her ribs and then his tongue found her navel and dipped ins
ide, probing in an erotic, sexual way that made her squirm and groan and grow impossibly wetter.
Deftly, he unsnapped and unzipped her jeans. Curling his fingers around the waistband of her pants and underwear, he dragged both down to her knees, exposing her to his gaze. Without hesitating, and instinctively knowing what she craved, he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to her mound and unfurled his tongue along her cleft with a long, heated stroke that made her gasp and tremble.
The pleasure of his intimate kiss was immediate and electric, and she tangled her fingers in his hair, unconsciously drawing him closer still. She tried to spread her legs wider, but couldn’t because of the constricting jeans. Desperate, she tilted her hips, angling toward his sinful mouth for better contact. His breath was hot on her sensitive flesh, and his tongue slid deeper into her sex, finding her clit with unerring accuracy and stroking rhythmically.
She twisted mindlessly against him, seeking an end to his sensual torment. Then it happened, and her head rolled back, his name escaping her throat on a low, ragged moan as her orgasm ripped through her. A rush of liquid desire swamped her system and scorched her nerve endings, leaving her dazed.
Noah abruptly stood and braced his hands on either side of her head, and she caught a glimpse of his disheveled hair, the flushed color slashing across his cheekbones, the molten heat in his gaze. He looked savagely male, and as he leaned into her with the press of his hard, lean body, she could feel the length of him vibrating with sexual tension.
Without preamble, he captured her mouth once again, his tongue finding and tangling with hers. The mingled flavor of Noah’s aggressive need and her own female essence was heady and darkly seductive, and she reached between the crush of their bodies and cupped her palm against the thick erection confined within his jeans. She rubbed the length of him, slow and firm, and felt him pulse and grow impossibly harder.
“I want you inside me,” she panted as her fingers fumbled with the button and zipper on his jeans. “Right here, right now.”
A low, primitive growl rumbled up from his chest, and he clamped his fingers around her wrist to stop her illicit caress. His damp mouth skimmed across her cheek to her ear. “Let’s finish this in the bedroom.”
His bedroom seemed a mile away, and her body was on fire for him. “I can’t wait that long, and I don’t think my legs are steady enough to climb those stairs.”
He chuckled against her neck. “We need a condom,” he rasped, obviously thinking more rationally than she was. “And the only way to get one is to head upstairs.”
She groaned her disappointment, then gasped when he bent low and hefted her over his shoulder, caveman-style, with her jeans and panties still bunched around her knees. He bounded up the stairs with an agility that amazed her when she felt so limp and boneless. Once inside the room, he flipped her onto the middle of his bed, turned on the lamp on the nightstand and quickly pulled off her shoes, socks, jeans, and underwear. In the next instant he shucked his own clothes, then retrieved a condom from the drawer beside the bed and sheathed himself.
She expected him to come up and over her and take her hard and fast, but instead a slow, sinful smile made an appearance and she knew that Noah intended to take his sweet time with her this time around.
“Turn over onto your stomach, slave,” he murmured.
She rolled onto her belly, and when he told her to lift up her hips so he could shove a pillow beneath her, she submitted to his request, unbearably excited by the thought of engaging in such an erotic position with him.
She shivered as his fingers brushed across the sensitive crease at the back of her knees, then feathered up her legs. His warm lips joined in on the provocative journey, following the path of his splayed hands with damp, openmouthed kisses and gentle nips of his teeth. She arched her hips higher as his thumbs dipped into the crease between her thighs and grazed the soft, swollen folds of her sex. Then she moaned when he increased the pleasure with a slow, leisurely lap of his tongue.
Renewed desire took hold, making her tingle from head to toes. Anticipation coiled low and tight, throbbing for release. Yet he merely continued stroking her flesh, his palms gliding over her buttocks, along her waist, then up the center of her spine. His hands were pure magic, his firm caresses as erotic as they were tender, making her grow restless with a longing to feel him deep inside of her.
She attempted to spread her legs to make room for him in between, but he straddled her thighs instead, keeping her legs together. He aligned his hips to hers so that his erection probed between her legs and slid along her slick flesh, teasing her until she clutched the bedspread in her fists and begged him to satisfy the aching need he’d incited. The head of his shaft found her core, and he slipped inside her an agonizing inch as he settled his weight over her from behind, keeping her pinned to the mattress with the length of his body.
He swept her hair to the side, exposing her nape, along with the vulnerable curve where neck met shoulder. Then he opened her hands so she released the bedspread and intertwined his fingers through hers so that she felt physically bound to him. His hot breath grazed her cheek and his mouth touched her jaw and glided down to a vein throbbing in her neck. His teeth nibbled, and she closed her eyes and shivered, her stomach constricting with excitement as she wondered if he intended to mark her again in such a possessive, carnal way. It seemed appropriate, considering how inherently primitive their position was.
She was on edge, frustrated that he was completely in control while she was a bundle of restless energy just waiting to come apart. For him, with him. “Noah, please. Don’t make me wait any longer.”
“You feel so damn tight, so hot and wet,” he murmured into her ear, then flexed his hips against her bottom, lifting her pelvis higher. The dampness of her own desire eased his way deeper, making them both groan at the exquisite friction he created. Then he withdrew almost all the way out and pushed slowly back inside her, until he was buried to the hilt and she felt impaled by the hard length of him. He pulsed within her, breathing raggedly against her neck as his mouth sought a tender place to brand her.
She quivered, waiting, and when he finally sank his teeth into the tendon of muscle at the curve of her shoulder, she moaned long and loud. Her eyes rolled back, and she felt the erotic pull all the way down to her sex, making her inner muscles contract around him.
Finally, he drove into her, hard and deep, wringing another cry from her. He thrust again, his hips working like a piston, too quickly for her to catch her breath. He groaned her name. A demand. A plea.
And she answered him with a whispered “Yes.”
He gave one last violent thrust, spiraling them both into a vortex of all-consuming pleasure that seemed more vital than each rapid heartbeat, more essential than each labored breath she drew. She shattered right along with him, blinded by delirious sensation and intoxicated by his wild need for her.
For a brief time as they made love, he made her forget the threat surrounding her. But in the back of her mind, the fact remained that someone was after her, and she had no idea who, or why.
* * *
It was nine thirty the following morning before Noah heard the upstairs shower turn on and assumed that Natalie had finally gotten out of bed. As for him, he’d been awake since before his alarm clock had gone off at six. He’d taken his own shower, had quietly gotten dressed for the day, then left Natalie burrowed deep in the covers while he headed downstairs. He wanted to get some work done in his office before she woke up and he finally explained her past relationship with Chad Freeman.
Last night, the woman in his bed had been completely and utterly insatiable to the point of exhausting them both, he recalled with a smile. They’d made love three times, and once their passions had cooled, peace and calm had settled over her. When she’d snuggled up to him and asked him to just hold her, he hadn’t been able to shatter the cocoon of intimacy with a serious discussion. He knew there would be plenty of time for that later.
Like t
his morning, just as soon as she came downstairs.
With a resigned sigh, he closed out his email on his laptop, then grabbed Natalie’s case file and headed into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee for her, and himself. He could use another dose of caffeine to get him through the next hour or so.
By the time the coffee was done percolating, Natalie walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of cotton drawstring pants and a blouse she hadn’t bothered to button up all the way. Her hair was still damp and combed away from her freshly scrubbed face, and she greeted him with a soft “good morning”, an affectionate kiss on the cheek, and a sweet smile he knew he could get used to seeing every day for the rest of his life.
His heart thumped hard in his chest, the knowledge that he’d fallen in love with this woman undeniable. She fit so perfectly in his life, in a way he’d never imagined any woman could. For years he’d embraced his playboy, bachelor image, enjoying brief relationships that made no demands on his carefree lifestyle and emotions. No attachment beyond sexual pleasure meant no potential heartache to deal with, and that motto had worked just fine for him.
Until Natalie. He’d taken her in, made her a part of his life, and now he was in so deep every fiber of his being tensed at the thought of losing her, which was a distinct possibility. Their relationship, their affair, had been instigated under false pretenses, and it was only a matter of time before everything came to a head and she realized the truth. He could only hope and pray his feelings for her would be enough to repair any damage he’d done to her emotions.
She withdrew two mugs from the cupboard, finding everything in the kitchen, in his home, with ease after nearly a week in his care. “I can’t believe you let me sleep in so late,” she chastised lightly.
He poured the coffee into their cups, and she added the creamer. “You obviously needed it.”