“Kiss me,” I demanded.
“What?” He pulled away slightly. His whiskey-colored eyes stared at me full of confusion. But maybe there was a little bit of lust there, too.
“You heard me,” I whispered, feeling unexpectedly bold. Noah made me feel that way. “Kiss me. Kiss me and make me forget everything bad.”
He swallowed hard and started breathing a lot heavier than he was moments ago. “No,” he said and stood to his feet.
What the hell! Seriously? The guy chased me down the street, stayed with me while I cried, and then held me tightly against his bare chest like I was already his. Not to mention—one hell of an erection he had in bed with me last night! But he wouldn’t kiss me?
Ellie appeared about fifty yards down the street. She jogged leisurely in our direction. “Hey, guys!” she yelled, waving. “Sorry, I’m slow!”
Standing to my feet, I dusted sand off my hands and then rubbed the tears from my cheeks. I was beyond pissed. “You’re a jackass,” I told Noah, jogging past him and in Ellie’s direction. “Seriously,” I said over my shoulder. “I don’t understand all your crazy mixed signals.”
Noah stood and began jogging after me.
I rolled my eyes and kept running. But so did Noah. He jogged until he caught up with my stride.
“Leave me the hell alone,” I snapped in a whisper at him.
“Fuck, no,” he whispered back at me. “I’m not leaving you alone.”
“Hey, you two,” Ellie said as we met back up with her. For Noah’s sake, it was good thing she was around because I really wanted to slug him in the face. Suddenly all three of us were running together. Well…I was running toward the house, and they both just happened to be moving in the same direction I was.
We jogged in silence after that. And after about five minutes, when I still wanted to throttle Noah, I decided that there was a good possibility that he might be toying with me. I realized I knew very little about the man I’d been snuggling up with the last couple nights. What if he was some psycho who got off on screwing with other people’s emotions? But Ellie trusted him, so I had to rule that theory out.
Or maybe the more probable reason he’d rejected me was that he didn’t like me as much as I liked him. Ouch. A sting shot through me because that had to be the reason. The house came back into view, and I’d never been so grateful to see it. Noah might be a jerkoff or he might not be—but either way he had a tempting-as-hell, muscular body. One that I did not need to see in motion ever again. I had to get away from him as fast as possible.
“Thanks for running with me guys,” I mumbled, splitting away from them toward our house.
“I actually think I want to run a little further,” Ellie suggested.
“Me too,” I heard Noah reply to her. Whatever. They could run all day long for all I cared. I wasn’t going with. I was going inside, and I was already halfway there. Nearly home. Five more feet.
“Let me talk to Georgie for a moment first,” Noah said next. “Give me two seconds.”
WTF?
I caught my breath and stopped running—the front door inches away. I stared at the metal door knob, listening to the sound of his shoes on the sidewalk as he approached me from behind. Maybe if I stared at the door hard enough I could melt into it.
“You don’t have to say anything to me,” I whispered when I felt him standing behind me. God, what must Ellie be thinking watching us from the street? “It’s obvious you don’t like me as more than a friend. I was being stupid and childish before. I’m beyond embarrassed here, so can we forget I ever asked you to kiss me?”
“Fuck, no,” he replied. “Turn around, please.”
What?
I turned around; I couldn’t stop myself.
“Look at me.”
Once again, my body reacted to his command. Our eyes connected.
Then he brought his hands to my face, cupping the sides of my jaw—effectively killing any anger I had left toward him.
“It wasn’t stupid or childish,” he said gently. “But when I kiss you for the first time it won’t be because you were crying. And it won’t be because you’ve asked me to. It will be because I can’t go another minute without knowing what those sweet, plump lips of yours taste like. That’s all. Don’t hate me for needing to wait, pretty girl. I’m already in more pain than you realize.”
“Noah,” Ellie whined from somewhere down the street. “Are you coming or not?”
Paying her zero attention, he smiled at me and inched his body a little closer toward mine. “Is it wrong that I like you a little embarrassed and pissed off at me?” One of his thumbs traced across my cheek. “You have a hell of a lot of passion inside you, Georgie. You’re fierce and a little reckless. Let those sides show more often. Maybe holding everything in is part of the reason you feel so much pain.”
My heart boomed against my ribcage. I had no answer for Noah; my whole body was frozen. Was he right about holding everything in? I continued gazing up at him, lost in the way his eyes stared at my mouth, like we were moments away from kissing.
His hands left my face, skimmed down my arms, and took up a new home resting lightly on the sides of my waist. His voice went crazy low and he said, “I’m tempted to push you against the fucking door and do a whole lot more than kiss you right now.”
My heart slammed inside my chest. But instead of carrying out his threats, he dropped his hands and stepped backward—suddenly and completely.
“I know you start work today. It’s my day off so I won’t see you until later.” He cleared his throat. “I’m looking forward to later.”
With those closing words, he jogged off toward Ellie. I turned and headed into the house, trying to act casual. But there was no freaking way I could even attempt casual. Noah hadn’t kissed me, but he’d still managed to make me forget everything in the world but him. But more importantly, even if Noah hadn’t been there for me just now, I still knew that I would have been fine just the same. It was an empowering feeling. One I hadn’t felt in a long time.
CHAPTER 9
NOAH
Ellie was going to castrate me—rip my balls off, hold me down, and spoon feed them to me. If there ever was someone I couldn’t or shouldn’t date—or fuck, same difference—it was her little sister. And as I slowly jogged in Ellie’s direction, to where she stood waiting by the Turner’s mailbox, I could already hear the earful I had coming my way. I knew what she would say because it was the exact same stuff I’d been thinking to myself all morning.
I was twenty-four. Georgie was only eighteen. I craved stability in my life. She possibly was the very definition of unstable. I had a career and my future already plotted out. I didn’t know if Georgie would go to college at the end of the summer or stay here or join the damn circus. All I really knew was that the girl was a wild card. And I had a strict ‘no wild cards policy.’
But in that moment, and in all my moments with Georgie, I didn’t care.
“What was that about?” Ellie asked as I approached.
I shrugged. “I had to make sure she was okay.”
“Is she okay?”
“I think so. I hope so.”
“You know,” Ellie said, her eyes narrowing at me. Uh oh, here it comes. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Okay,” I replied.
I knew she wasn’t an idiot. Ellie and I had both been excellent students in high school. Two nerds, really. But after graduation, when I decided I didn’t want the debt from all the student loans it would have taken to put me through college, she decided to stay behind with me. I’d tried my damnedest to convince her not to, but she’d been her typical stubborn self. She’d told me, why waste all that money on a piece of paper when I’m happy here in Kill Devil Hills with you. I guess, in retrospect, we’d both made a good choice. Six years later and we were both successful business owners. But truthfully, I couldn’t have done it without Ellie. She was much smarter than she liked to let on so I knew I could no longer bullshit her.
“You made up the rat story, didn’t you?” she asked.
What? My jaw kind of dropped. “Am I that bad of a liar?”
She shook her head. “No, but you’re so in love with your Dyson vacuum cleaner that you probably jack off to the damn thing before bed every night. Which is fine, whatever floats your boat, but don’t try to tell me we have rats when you’re the biggest neat-freak son of a bitch I know. No rat is going to want to make a home at our place. It’s too clean! Anyway, if you wanted to keep spending the night at my parents’ house to be closer to Georgie you should have just asked.” Ellie huffed out a great big sigh and then took off running. “C’mon, drama queen, let’s run.”
“Wait.” I hurried after her, catching her pace in a few short strides. “You’re not going to tell me to stay away from her?”
“No, I’m not. You’re a big boy. She’s a big girl. Do whatever you want.”
“But she’s your little sister. I knew her when she was only ten.”
“So. She’s not ten anymore.”
No. She certainly fucking wasn’t.
For about the millionth time in my life, I was in awe of Ellie. Her big heart had a way of continuously surprising me. I shouldn’t have expected her to be anything but accepting. “You’re the coolest person, you know that right?”
“Save the sappy shit for my sister.”
I laughed. “Maybe I will.”
“But know that if you ever hurt her, then I will hurt you.”
I almost opened my mouth to say, I would never hurt her. But the truth was—relationships never ended well with me. And it was me who was the problem. I broke hearts. No matter how hard I always tried not to, it always happened that way. I couldn’t let Georgie become another one of my casualties.
Jesus Christ.
Feeling almost comforted that I hadn’t given in and kissed her earlier, I decided that my small obsession with the girl and her wellbeing was becoming borderline unhealthy. I needed to quit her cold turkey. Tomorrow.
Tonight will be your last night sharing a bed with her, I assured myself. And then you’ll have to end things with her. Cleanly and gently. And even if my whole body ached because I hated that decision, I was going to have to follow through with it. Because I would do anything to protect Georgie—even if that meant protecting her from myself.
* * *
It was my day off so I did the usual—morning at the gym, the grocery shopping, followed by lunch at Chancy’s Claw. The place was right on the water, indoor and deck seating, with a very ‘beachy’ atmosphere. As cliché as it was, it was my favorite bar in the whole Outer Banks. Rhett and his cover band played a gig there about once a week. They weren’t half-bad, but Rhett also had to work as a bartender at Chancy’s to make a living. Whether he was working or not, the place was his second home, and I knew I’d find him there.
I needed some company and a distraction.
And sure enough, Rhett was there. He sat perched on his usual barstool—the one toward the back of the restaurant. And he had…his head resting on the bar top? Was he drunk at noon in the middle of the week? Not his usual.
“Hey,” I said cautiously. He was an emotional drunk. The worst kind.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he replied, coming alive at the sight of me and maybe not as drunk as I’d initially thought. “I need your advice.”
“Okay?” Sitting down in the seat beside him, I nodded at Luce, the bartender currently working. She knew me, and she knew what I liked to order. She grabbed a pint glass and started filling it with one of Chancy’s craft beers.
“What’s going on?” I asked Rhett.
“I’m in motherfucking love.”
Okay then. Not what I ever expected from him.
Luce, overhearing Rhett and obviously shocked by his words, dropped my full glass of beer onto the bar top. It spilled everywhere, including on my shorts. Great. Fantastic. Where was Ellie with her camera? My shorts were soaked and for the second time this week it looked as if I pissed myself. Luce apologized, brought me some napkins, and then a replacement beer. At least the napkins worked better than computer paper, but I still had wet shorts. Whatever. “What were you saying about love?” I asked Rhett instead of dwelling on my uncomfortable situation.
“The blonde. The one who stayed over the night you chucked one of our glasses at the rat. I’m in love with her, but I don’t even know her name or how to find her. She used me for sex. Mercifully. And now she’s gone.”
He wasn’t making any sense. The girl he’d had over that night…she’d looked familiar to me. “I thought the blonde was one of your bar bunnies.”
“My what?”
Lowing my voice, because Luce was also one of his bar bunnies, I whispered, “It’s what Ellie calls the girls you screw around with regularly. You know, like Luce and Chelsea…and maybe that brunette named Allie, too. I don’t know how many of them you fuck.”
“No.” He sipped at the bottle of Bud he’d been palming since I walked into Chancy’s. “She was different. She was more than sex. I spent the entire day yesterday going to every business from Nags Head all the way up to Duck searching for this girl. Nothing. I met her here first. So after yesterday’s mad search, I decided that I’d probably have better luck staying in one place. I’m not moving from this seat until they kick me out.”
That was a bit crazy, but I liked it. “What advice did you need from me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. You’ve always got your shit in control. I need some of that to rub off on me right now because I feel like I’m spiraling out of control. I’m trying to ignore the possibility that I might never see this girl again.” He tipped his beer back and guzzled the remainder of his drink.
I finished my beer as well.
Rhett knew very little of my past. Ellie knew more than most because she was nosy, but I still had my secrets and I worked hard at maintaining the control I had in my life. So it was a damn good thing I’d already decided to end things with Georgie. Tomorrow. And I told myself, even if it felt a little like a lie, that I never wanted to find myself in Rhett’s position.
“Let’s play a game,” I suggested, nodding at Luce for another beer. “Every time a girl walks in the front door and she isn’t your girl then we take a drink. Sound fun? We’ll see how drunk we can get before she shows.”
That got a chuckle out of Rhett. “Game on, Noah.”
* * *
My pulse was pounding in my ears and it felt like someone had hit me over the head with a sledge hammer. One beer with Rhett had turned into…damn, I couldn’t remember how many it had turned into. I’d lost count and track of time. But I was in bed now. Soon Georgie would be here with me and that was all that mattered. I wondered how long I’d have to wait before she snuck downstairs and crawled in under the covers. She would come to me tonight, right?
She’d better or I would go find her.
Images of her flushed cheeks and tear-filled eyes flooded my mind. I should have kissed her when she asked. I should have kissed those tears away for her. Why had I been so stubborn? She’d been hurting and seeing her hurt was the worst fucking feeling on the planet. I wouldn’t let it happen again.
Wait. Why was I in my own bed? Not my bed at the Turners, but my actual bed at my actual house. Not to mention, it was still really light outside. That was weird.
Standing up, the blood rushing to my head, I stumbled out of my room. I guess Rhett and I drank a little too much. Where was Rhett? My memories were foggy and I had a gap in time. And then I saw Ellie standing in the kitchen—one of her damn cherry Pop-Tarts in her hand.
Fuck. It was tomorrow.
“What time is it?” I demanded.
She glared at me like I just told her to go screw herself. “Don’t take your hangover out on me,” she snapped. “I’m the one who picked your drunk ass up last night. You’re welcome.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “But why did you bring me here?”
“Where else did you
want me to bring you? Disney World?”
Groaning, I turned and rushed for the bathroom. Up until this very moment I’d been unsure of what Georgie meant to me. Sure, she was fucking gorgeous and I felt strangely protective over her. But I’d been resisting her—resisting because everything inside me screamed that something real with her could never work. I’d get hurt. Or worse, she’d get hurt.
But like it or not, something profound had happened to me when I found her on that bathroom floor, moments away from death. I still wasn’t sure what that something was or why it meant I couldn’t get her out of my head. All I knew was that I hadn’t been there for her last night. I hadn’t held her in my arms. I hadn’t woken this morning to her bright blue eyes. And that wasn’t okay. It was about a million fucking miles from okay. And the sinking feeling that formed in my stomach because of my lapse in judgment—it was pretty damn unbearable.
I stripped and jumped in the shower, hurrying through the motions of cleaning myself. I brushed my teeth, dressed, and then went for the garage—my Ducati was parked there, and it was much faster than my car. I had to work today and was already two hours late. It was Ellie’s day off. I also knew—since I made the schedule and figured Ellie would have given Georgie all Patrick’s old hours—that she should be working today. I was a jackass, but I hoped like hell that she hadn’t quit on account of my stupidity.
Revving my motorcycle’s engine, I sped off toward work. It was only a few short miles away, but…shit, I had butterflies the entire ride. And no, it wasn’t from the wind in my hair. Butterflies weren’t something a real man should ever admit to, but I couldn’t deny the fluttery anxious-nervous feeling I had going on in my stomach. That sensation poked and scratched my insides like I’d swallowed a bunch of pine cones. It was a mixture of self-loathing and excitement over the fact that I was about to see her while I now knew exactly what I wanted.
Her. I wanted her.
Screw ending things. From the way my stomach was aching, I knew that wasn’t the solution. I reached the parking lot, found a spot, but couldn’t bring myself to walk inside. Jesus Christ! Stop being such a pussy, Noah, I told myself. She’s just a girl. A beautiful girl, but still only a girl.
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