“Lena, you are in no shape to work right now. Come on upstairs. Let’s clean you up. I know I need a shower and some clean clothes. You do too. We can toss your stuff in the wash and go in to work by lunch if you insist, but I think we got enough done to play hooky today.”
“But what are people going to think if we both aren’t there?”
“That I’m not working, and I gave you the day off? Why would they think anything else?”
Noah coaxed me like you would a child, out of the car, into the underground elevator, and up. Swiping his key card to access his floor, the elevator opened to thick, elegant carpeting, soft music and lighting, and a grand entryway to what I discovered was the penthouse of the building.
“What is this?”
“My apartment. Come on.” He kicked his shoes off, padded down the hall, and disappeared through a door. I stood there and didn’t touch anything, afraid I’d break it.
“Are you coming?”
I hesitated before leaving my shoes lined up neatly by the door. I took a moment to straightening his shoes too and then followed his voice down the hall to a bedroom bigger than my entire apartment.
“Hey, I left some clothes on the bed for you,” he called. “I’m going to grab a shower.”
I stuck my head into the bathroom, stunned to see him standing naked under a number of shower heads. One extended all the way down from the ceiling, and two more jutted out from the walls. The water ran in rivulets down his body as he washed his hair.
I ducked, pulling my gaze away from his muscular form, his tight abs, and that gorgeous V leading down to what I assumed to be an impressive cock. I had never seen an adult one before, only my little brothers’ when I bathed them as babies, and there was no comparison. I would have trouble wrapping my hand around him. It stood out from his groin, long and thick as my wrist. The root set in a nest of dark hair. His legs were long and muscular, and his shoulders wide.
My face felt hot even though I had run my hands over every inch of his skin last night, and he had done the same to mine. But it had been dark then. Now I was seeing him in all his glory, and I couldn’t believe he had wanted poor, mousy me even if it had just been a drunken tumble. It had to have been a fluke. There was no future in it.
I looked around and the glass and marble bathroom as I scurried back to find the pile of clean clothes on the massive king size bed. Hurrying, I changed into the t-shirt and gym shorts he had left out, pulling the drawstring tight around my slender waist to keep them up as they bagged around me.
“What should I do with my clothes?” I called into the bathroom, unwilling to see him like that again. A shudder rippled through me as I remembered last night and how his skin felt up against mine.
Chapter Fifteen
Noah
I finished my shower, the hot water reinvigorating me after such a short rest. We had probably only slept three or four hours before Lena woke me.
“What should I do with my clothes?” she called from the other room. I had to chuckle. I had seen her come in and then scurry back out as soon as she saw me. I reached down to stroke myself. Just knowing she was in the next room had me hard and ready. I didn’t think she was in the mood, though. She seemed pretty fragile after the showdown with her dad that morning.
“I’ll toss them in the washing machine. I’ll be done in just a second.” I finished washing and turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, and wrapped a thick towel around my waist.
“Here, I’ll take them,” I said, walking out of the bathroom and into my bedroom, toweling my hair dry.
“Eek!” She squeaked, her eyes growing wide at my appearance.
“You’ve already seen it all.” I laughed at her mortification. Dropping the one towel on the bed and holding up the other when it threatened to slip. “Here.” I walked to my dresser and pulled out a clean pair of boxers and some sweats. “I’ll get dressed, and we’ll wash everything.” I disappeared into my walk-in closet, trading the towel for the sweats, and emerged with a laundry basket in hand. “Toss your stuff in here.”
“Noah?” Her one quiet word stopped me, and I turned to look at her standing alone in the middle of the room. She looked tiny in my oversized shirt and shorts, the clothes swallowing her petite form. I raised an eyebrow in question. “What are we doing?” She asked in a small voice.
I stopped. Her question echoed through my head. What are we doing?
“I don’t know, Lena.” I turned back, dropping the laundry basket by the door and moved to sit on the bed. “Here, come sit.” I patted the bed beside me.
She slowly walked to where I sat, standing in front of me. She stared down at me for a long moment before letting me grab her hand and pull her down next to me. I drew her in for a hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head.
“What is going to happen to me?” she asked, looking up.
“We’ll figure it out.” I really didn’t know what I was going to do with her. My mother would never accept her. “Oh shit.” I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I had forgotten all about Haley.
“Noah?” She looked up at me again. “Is everything okay?”
I let out a long sigh, my euphoria from the morning dissipating, my mind moving a mile a minute. “I don’t know what we are going to do. Maybe you can stay with John.”
“With John?” She cocked her head at me. “But I want to go home.”
“I know, and I’ll take you back after work this afternoon. Maybe we can get your father to see reason.”
“What if he won’t? I can’t live with John forever. I don’t even really know John. I’ve never met his wife. They have kids. They don’t need me hanging around.”
“You can’t stay here. Between my mother and Haley…” my voice trailed off as I thought about the ramifications of last night. “What if you get pregnant?”
I felt her sharp intake of breath, and she leaned away to look at me again. “You can’t get pregnant the first time, can you?”
“That was your first time? Oh shit, Lena.” I pulled her closer again, tucking her head under my chin and rocking her. “Yeah, you can.”
Lena whimpered and the asked in a small voice, “Who is Haley?”
Lena
“Clothes are done,” Noah called from the laundry room.
“Can you take me home now?” I asked. All I wanted to do was get away. I can’t believe he is engaged. How could he sleep with me when he’s engaged to Haley? I don’t care how drunk we were.
“Yeah. Here.” He tossed me my clothes and disappeared into his room to get dressed, reappearing moments later. “Ready?”
I tucked my blouse in and slipped my shoes on, picking up my purse as I walked to the door. “Let’s go.”
“Are you ever gonna talk to me again?” He pressed the down button on the elevator.
“I don’t know.” And I didn’t. I took responsibility for my part of last night, but I couldn’t get past his fiancé. I never wanted to be the other woman.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t plan last night, and I honestly didn’t think about Haley. I was drunk. It’s not an excuse, but I just got engaged, and I don’t want to be.”
“What?”
“It’s an arranged marriage. My mother wants me to marry the daughter of a friend of hers. Right now, I’m going along with it to keep her happy, but I’m trying to figure out how to get out of it. I’m not ready to marry anyone.”
“But your mother?”
“She’ll get over it. I’ll figure it out. Come on. Let’s get you home.”
He helped me into the Porsche again. The motor revved as he backed out and turned, tires squealing to zoom out of the garage and across to the wrong side of town.
Noah held my hand as we drove, squeezing it gently as he pulled up again in front of the apartment. “You want me to come in?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Please, just go. I’ll make this work.”
“Okay, but call me if you need anything. And
Lena, I want to know if we…”
I blinked at him. “I’ll let you know, but I don’t think…” I couldn’t think it much less say it. There was no way I could be pregnant. “Just go. I’ll deal with my dad.”
“I’m not comfortable just leaving you here.”
“You have to go. It will just infuriate my dad to see you again. I can handle him.” I swallowed, not at all convinced I believed a word I said, but I did know I had to get Noah to leave, or I didn’t stand a chance.
I stood for a few minutes, watching Noah walk back to his car and climb in before I turned, straightened my shoulders, lifted my chin, and walked into the apartment.
Shutting the door quietly behind me, I set my purse on the counter and tiptoed into the living room. My forehead wrinkled in confusion. Where is everybody?
“You came home, Lena, when I told you not to.” His voice rumbled out of the dark. I peered through the gloom. The curtains were pulled over the windows, masking the sunlight that tried to shine in. I finally spotted him sitting in the darkest corner with his legs crossed and his fingers steepled.
“Daddy.” I took a step into the room, craning my neck, trying to spot my mother.
“I sent your mother next door with the others. You and I need to have a talk.”
I lowered my head, my shoulders slumped in defeat. I knew his version of “talk” would be painful, but I had to do something. Even with my raise, I couldn’t afford a place on my own yet.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I had to work late. Noa— um, Mr. Hendrix needed me to stay and take notes. I called…”
“No one has business meetings until six a.m.. Don’t play me for a fool. You were slutting around with your boss.” He stood, his beer belly leading the way as he stepped toward me, limping slightly on his bad leg. I shrank back, my skin crawling when he lunged forward and grabbed me by the throat.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I croaked out as I felt his fingers closing off my air supply. My hands clawed at his, trying to get him to release me.
He released me for just a moment, and I gasped for air before his hand raised again, slamming into my cheekbone and knocking me into the wall. I slid to the floor at his feet. “If you want me to let you come crawling back—” He aimed a kick to my ribs, and I curled into a ball. I heard his belt snap!as he pulled it from his waist. I protected my throbbing face and put an arm up to block his first swing. “You will conduct yourself as a young lady should.” Smack! The leather struck my bare skin, wrapping around my arm before he violently jerked it back for another swing. “You will not whore yourself out.” Smack! He struck again just as the door slammed back against the wall, and Noah flew in, enraged.
“What the hell?!” he screamed, tackling my father to ground and wrestling the belt away from him. “How dare you beat your daughter?” He whipped my father with his own belt as he yelled at him. Noah reached to take my hand and pulled me from where I cowered on the floor.
“You can’t stay here, Lena.” He threw the belt at my father and turned to me. As he swept my shaking form up in his arms, I buried my face in his neck and sobbed.
I never looked up as he carried me from the only home I’d ever known.
Noah
“Hang on, sweetheart. We’re almost home.” I couldn’t believe she had been living with that monster the whole time she had worked for me and never said a word. How could someone as sweet and smart and beautiful as Lena come from THAT?
Lena whimpered and let out a low moan as she leaned her head back against the head rest, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. She had pain lines across her forehead and her cheek was swelling rapidly, turning a dark shade of purple.
I made the turn into the garage on two wheels and carried her up to the penthouse. Laying her gently on the couch, I rushed to the kitchen to fix her an ice pack. I had no idea how wounded she was, and I was worried she had serious injuries I couldn’t see.
I had gone around the corner before parking and walking back. Something told me going home wasn’t going to be as easy as she said. I was loitering outside the apartment, debating whether or not to knock on the door when I first heard her scream.
Busting in, I found her cowering on the floor as her father beat her. How someone who treated his own daughter that way could call himself a man or a father was beyond me.
“Here, sweetheart.” I laid the ice pack against her cheek, and she winced. Moving carefully, she held her arm tight against her side. “Can you hold this?” I asked, and she brought her other hand up to hold it in place without ever opening her eyes.
“Hurts,” she croaked as a single tear escaped from under her lashes.
“I know, baby. I know. Here…” I lifted her head to put a pillow under her. “Let me take a look. I gotta see what is wrong.”
“Why?”
“Why what, baby?” I asked as I started to unbutton her blouse, sucking in a breath when I exposed the black handprints around her slender neck.
“Why would he do this to me?”
I bit back my first reply, schooling my features before murmuring, “I don’t know, sweetie, but first we gotta take care of you. Let me see your arm.” She held the one tight to her chest, and I was having trouble getting her shirt off to get a better look. The fabric was torn and blood had seeped through. I hoped the bone wasn’t broken.
Lena opened her eyes a bit to look up at me before slowly releasing her arm with a whimper to let me work her blouse down and off.
Her arm was a mess—blue and purple with open wounds, but her ribs were worse. An entire section of her torso was a deep black.
“Oh, baby.” What her father had done to her was criminal. “We need to call you a doctor.”
“No! No doctor.” She shook her head and tried to sit up before falling back in pain.
“You really need to be looked at.”
“No, I’ll be fine. Just let me sleep.”
“Fine, but you’re staying with me, and I’m keeping an eye on you. If you get worse, I’m calling a doctor.”
“Mmhhh,” she grunted, and I took it as agreement. I slid my arms under her, picking her up and carrying her into my room. I laid her down on the bed, slid her skirt off, and tucked her in.
“I’ll be back in a minute. I want to get you something for the pain and another ice pack for those ribs.” I needn’t have bothered; she was already out cold. Sleeping the sleep of exhaustion, she made a tiny little snuffling noise, her nose stuffy from the tears.
Lena
After two weeks, Noah finally agreed I’d healed enough to go back to work. I felt self-conscious when I walked through the entrance to the elevator, imaging everyone’s eyes were on me. I was sure they all knew what Noah and I had done the last night I’d been there and that I was currently sharing his bed. I dropped my gaze and took the elevator up to the 3rd floor, slipped into the office, and took a seat at my desk before I accidentally ran into anyone I knew.
“Oh, hey, Lena. Noah said you’ve been sick. How are you feeling?” John stopped at my desk as he wandered in, sipping on a coffee and peering at me through his thick glasses.
“Better, Mr. Alexander. Thank you.” I smiled at the friendly man.
“Good. Glad to hear it. Hey, my wife has a great chicken soup recipe. I should get her to make you some. You still look a little pale.”
“That would be lovely. I look forward to meeting her some time.” I held my pleasant grin as he nodded and wandered off back to his office.
I took a deep breath and dove into my inbox, which overflowed with memos, inter-office messages, invoices, and reports Noah and John had ignored the entire time I had been out. I immersed myself in my work, tuning out all the intrusive thoughts that wanted to worm themselves to the front of my brain and set me to worrying. I couldn’t screw up this job. It was the only stable thing in my life.
“Good morning, Lena.” Noah came through the office door and set a coffee next to me before moving on into his office.
“Good morning, Noah,”
I whispered, picking up my coffee. It was just the way I liked it. My heart did a little flip flop in my chest.
Lena
I felt conflicted. I needed to find a place to live, but every time I brought it up, Noah found a reason to postpone my search. The longer I stayed with him, the harder it seemed to leave.
“Mr. Hendrix’s office,” I sang happily as I answered my desk phone on the second ring. “I’m sorry. He is not in at the moment. I’d be happy to take a message.” I scribbled down the name and phone number on a carbon copy message pad, jotting a quick note that the call referenced the researcher positions John had advertised last week. I placed a pink copy in Noah’s box, the original in John’s box, and kept the yellow copy for myself.
The phone rang again. “Mr. Hendrix’s office.”
“I’m on my way. Bringing lunch when I come. Be there in ten,” Noah said before he hung up.
I smiled at the sound of his voice and wondered what surprise he would have this time. Last week, it was Mexican food. The week before, Greek. I had mentioned one night that I had never traveled or really done anything outside our little neighborhood, so Noah made it his mission to expose me to new things.
“No, we need to keep the teams separate. We can’t have the same people checking their own work. If they’re independent, and both get the same outcome, then we know it’s right.” John and Noah blew in on a cloud of cold, damp air.
“But John, the budget is getting out of control.” Noah bickered back as he furled his umbrella, leaving it to drip in the corner of my office. He placed a steaming bag of food on my desk and ran his fingers through his wet hair, showering me and my space with frigid drops of water.
“Oh!” I squealed, rolling back in my chair and trying to block the water from landing on my face. Seeing what he’d accidentally done, Noah got a devilish gleam in his eye and did it again intentionally, showering me one more time.
Noah Page 6