Midnight Kiss

by Robyn Carr Brashear; Robyn Carr Brashear

  “We’re all going out. Even Noah.”

  Drinks with Noah? “Nope.”

  “Aw, come on, Elise. I want to see you let your hair down.”

  “My hair doesn’t come down,” she lied. Honestly, she would’ve loved to ride that bull. When would she get the chance to do that again?

  Tex narrowed his eyes at her as if he didn’t believe her.

  She smiled tightly. “Take a cab, all right? You can expense it.”

  “Really? What about—”

  “And your meal, but you’d better not turn in a receipt for any other refreshments.”

  “Deal.” He winked. “Happy New Year’s Eve, beautiful.”

  Elise was left staring at an empty doorway, her lips parted in shock. She’d forgotten that moment, when she’d awoken to find Noah in her bed. “Good morning, beautiful,” he’d whispered. As if he were happy.

  But of course he’d been happy. He probably said that to every woman he woke up in bed with.

  She heard the muffled rumble of cars pulling away from the parking lot. Most of the employees were on their way. Her team would be leaving in a few minutes, but she’d decided not to go. Elise closed her door and settled in for a couple more hours of work.

  At least her New Year’s resolution would be simple: get a life outside work. And try not to screw it up so badly this time.

  CHAPTER SIX

  HER PLAN HAD BEEN SIMPLE. Take a ridiculously long shower. Order room service. Go to bed early so she wouldn’t hear the team coming back drunk and late and maybe with new friends in tow.

  But after that freezing-cold walk across the street, dodging iced-over puddles and cars with wreaths wired to their bumpers, she’d sprinted up to her room, turned on the hot water, and found that she couldn’t stop thinking about Noah. In her shower. Naked. Her thirty-minute shower had ended at five minutes.

  Room service had offered more bad news. Two employees had called in sick, and the food wouldn’t arrive for at least an hour. Stomach grumbling, Elise had stared down at the bed for a long time. Finally, she’d given in to fate and pulled on jeans and a sweater to eat downstairs.

  Then disaster had really struck. With an hour wait for the food, she’d expected to walk into the hotel bar and find it packed with partiers. But just the opposite was true. The place was deserted. Not even a bartender stood behind the bar. If it hadn’t been the dead of winter, crickets would’ve chirped.

  Defeat curved her shoulders down.

  A throat cleared from somewhere to her left. Elise turned to see Noah James sitting in the closest booth. The quiet of the room suddenly had weight, and lots of it.

  He cleared his throat again. “The cook is coming back in a few minutes to take my order. You’re welcome to join me if you like.”

  “Oh. I see.” It would be very strange not to sit with him. If she demurred, he’d know she wasn’t as okay about their night together as she pretended to be. He’d know her nerves twisted into jumbled chaos each time she saw him.

  She had no choice. Elise slid into the booth. “I thought you were going out with your team.”

  “I’m not really the line-dancing kind of guy.” He raised his beer. “Domestic is on the house tonight. I think the cook just doesn’t want us bothering him, so he pointed me toward the fridge. Can I get you something?”

  She looked at the bottle, worried even a few sips would turn her into Noah’s love slave again. But it was New Year’s Eve, damn it. “I’ll have the same. But just one.”

  “Got it.” He walked around the bar and grabbed a beer while Elise watched him past her lashes. Like her, he was dressed down in jeans. He wore a faded T-shirt that made him look closer to twenty-five than thirty-six. It clung to his shoulders, reminding her of their strength. As if she’d forgotten. She knew the smell of his skin, after all.

  He delivered the bottle, and Elise closed her eyes and took a long draw of the ice-cold beer, wishing once again that she was somewhere else. Christmas past.

  Neither of her uncles had ever married, so it had always been just the four of them. Elise, her father, Uncle Robbie and Uncle James in the little house her dad had bought decades before. Her dad had cooked the turkey. Robbie had made mashed potatoes, and James had brought store-bought pie. Every year, the same thing. A college bowl game on the TV. Beers in hands. Sweats and T-shirts all around. Lots of shouting and laughter. Robbie would drink too much and sleep on the couch. Her dad would give her a new Christmas ornament that she’d add to the box she kept in her closet.

  This year, she’d finally put up her own tree, and hung all thirty ornaments up. Whenever she looked at it, all the happy times with her dad enveloped her heart. Maybe she’d leave that tree up forever.

  “Are you okay?” Noah asked.

  Elise forced her eyes open. “Of course. Sorry.”

  “Are you sure?” Frowning, he studied her.

  She cleared her throat and smiled to distract him. “So weren’t you a little tempted to go to the bar? I admit I considered it for a moment, just for the chance to see Tex ride the bull.”

  “You’ve got a point there. But I’m sure one of the others will record it on their phone.”

  “You’re right. I always forget about those high-tech phones. There’s no such thing as privacy anymore.”

  Noah’s mouth finally edged toward a smile. “True. I, for one, am damn glad camera phones weren’t common when I was in college.”

  “Oh, God,” Elise laughed. “It’s a miracle anyone has the guts for a one-night stand anymore. I don’t think I’d want to risk that kind of…” Her words slunk away from her throat when she realized what she’d said.

  Two minutes at the table with him and she’d already broached the subject of their illicit coupling. Heat rushed through her so quickly she felt dizzy and sick.

  What the hell was she doing here in a deserted restaurant with the one man she shouldn’t be alone with?

  “Well,” he said.

  She had to look at him. She couldn’t keep staring at the table. But when she finally raised her eyes, Noah didn’t meet her gaze. He was slumped against the booth back, concentrating on tearing the label slowly off his bottle.

  “We’re not going to talk about this, right?” she blurted, unable to handle the awkwardness a moment longer.

  His gaze finally lifted, his blue eyes snapping with anger.

  Anger?

  The heat left her as quickly as it had come, chased away by awful fingers of ice. “Noah, you don’t have a girlfriend this time, do you? I figured, after you moved to Denver…”

  His bark of laughter made her jump. “No, not this time.”

  “Oh, thank God. You looked so mad for a second.”

  “Did I?” His voice got softer when he was angry, and he was obviously angry now. Unfortunately, she loved that tone. It struck her like a cross between a growl and a purr.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been…weird.”

  “Is that what you’re sorry about now?”

  She pulled her chin in. “What does that mean?”

  A man in a white apron and a hairnet shuffled into view. “Sorry for the wait,” he interrupted. “What can I get for you?”

  Elise and Noah stared at each other for a long time. She frowned. He glared.

  The cook shifted. “Maybe just another beer?”

  “I’ll have the turkey sandwich,” Elise answered.

  “Fish and chips,” Noah muttered.

  By the time they were alone again, Elise was beginning to register what he’d meant. That she was sorry about sleeping with him. That he didn’t like that. But why?

  The silence of the empty restaurant stretched with impossible tension. A pot banged on the other side of the swinging door. Christmas music floated by as someone drove past in the parking lot.

  “We work together,” Elise said, her stomach somersaulting like a gymnast.

  “Yes.”

  “So…that shouldn’t have happened.”

  “Because we work
together,” he said flatly.

  “Yes.”

  His expression offered no hint to what he was thinking. “We’re allowed to date.”

  “You live in Denver. That’s not dating, Noah. That’s just sex. I don’t need my coworkers thinking of me that way. It’s easier for you.”

  “Oh, yeah? How many jokes about flight attendants have you had to put up with this week?”

  Right. “Maybe that was a bad idea. I apologize. I panicked.”

  “I noticed.”

  Elise remembered the look on Noah’s face just before he’d left her room. You want me to sneak out the window? He hadn’t been laughing.

  What a mess. “It wasn’t a good idea, Noah. Surely you can see that.”

  He raised his hands like he was going to say something important, but he stopped just as his lips parted. He took a deep breath, then placed both hands on the table very slowly. She couldn’t help but look at them, at the fingers spread wide, at the hard knuckles punctuated by the occasional scar. His nails were squared off well below the tips of each finger.

  “You’re right,” he finally said. “We shouldn’t talk about this.”

  She was lost. Reeling. Why did he sound so flat and resigned? What was going on here?

  Her hands felt too light as she nervously shifted her bottle around on the table. If this were work, she’d just demand to know. She wouldn’t tolerate this silence. Maybe…

  “Pardon me,” he murmured, sliding out of the booth.

  Still caught in her uncertainty, Elise watched him stalk toward the bathroom. By the time he returned, their food had arrived and the moment was gone.

  Her sandwich was a dry mess in her mouth, despite the gobs of mayonnaise slathered on it. Noah glared at his fried fish like it was the number-one suspect in his accounting investigation.

  “We should meet tomorrow,” she blurted. “I want to know exactly what you’ve found so far.”

  “Sure.”

  “How about nine o’clock?”

  He tossed her a hard glance. “Your room or mine?”

  “The conference room,” she snapped.

  “You got it, boss.”

  Stomach aching, she watched Noah toss his napkin on top of his half-eaten food. He reached for his wallet.

  She shook her head. “I’ll get it.”

  “Happy New Year,” he said as he walked away, his tone implying the New Year was a curse instead of a possibility. Elise understood perfectly. The year stretched out before her like three hundred and sixty-five opportunities to screw up her interactions with Noah. And the worst thing was, now she didn’t even know what she was doing wrong.

  Everything, probably.

  Elise finished the last drops of her beer, then leaned back in the seat, listening to the faint sounds of dishwashing leaking through the kitchen door. A phone rang behind the bar. Nobody answered it. Cars roared by on the street, their horns honking in a bright staccato celebration.

  Elise waited a long time for the bill. When it finally came, the cook shot a meaningful glance at the empty seat across from her. “You know, there’s a singles’ party at the VFW hall tonight.”

  “Pardon?”

  “For people who don’t have a date on New Year’s.”

  She stared at the curls of white chest hair that had escaped above the grimy collar of his T-shirt. He had to be close to sixty. “Are you asking me out?” she whispered, unable to make the words louder in her tight throat.

  “Ha!” he barked. “Lady, I have a date tonight. But you should go. Have a good time. Live a little.”

  Unbelievable. Brain spinning in horror, Elise paid the bill, added a twenty-percent tip just to prove she didn’t resent his suggestion, then tossed down twenty bucks in cash for the three beers she was about to grab from the fridge.

  The first day of possibility for the New Year was going to lean heavily toward bleary-eyed hangover, and Elise didn’t feel the tiniest bit of regret about that. She planned to do a good job of earning it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AFTER PACING HIS ROOM for thirty minutes, Noah gave up on his plans for getting a good night’s sleep. Instead, he headed for the tiny hotel gym. He didn’t come across a single soul. Even the registration desk seemed deserted. Maybe the blonde receptionist was in back primping for a New Year’s date. Noah hoped so. Nobody else should have to be stuck in this ghostly building tonight.

  He ran on the treadmill for an hour, and every beat of his pounding heart was like a hammer driving Elise’s name deep into his brain.

  She’d said it was a mistake. A mistake. Because they worked together. Because he lived in Denver. Because it could only be one night.

  Not because she didn’t want him.

  Was she lying because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings? Or was she telling the truth about not wanting to hurt her own?

  Noah hit the stop button on the treadmill. He slowed to a walk, then laid his arms against the front panel to rest his forehead on his hands. His lungs strained for air. Sweat dripped slowly from his hairline. His heart beat so hard he could feel it shuddering in his chest.

  Did she want him or not?

  He lived in Denver now. It didn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter.

  But rationality had never had anything to do with his feelings for Elise. He’d left his girlfriend on the basis of a brief kiss. He’d been emotionally unavailable to every woman he’d dated afterward. He’d moved halfway across the country to try to leave her behind.

  But now he couldn’t get the taste of her out of his mouth. The feel of her hands off his body. He couldn’t shake the impossible pleasure of being deep inside her.

  Oh, hell. His heart was already long gone. Noah had nothing to lose at this point. He may as well take a chance.

  “GAH!” Elise sat up quickly, alarmed by the loud trilling in her ear. Her head was jerked to a halt with a brutal snap. For a moment, she thought she was under attack. Then she realized that she’d trapped her hair under her own arm. “Good grief,” she groaned, collapsing back to her pillow.

  The phone stopped ringing. Elise shifted around until she freed her hair from its trap, then sat up and rubbed her eyes. Had she drunk too much and passed out?

  She looked at the clock. It was just after ten-thirty, and the clock sat framed by two unopened beers. The other bottle was open next to it, only a few sips missing.

  No, she hadn’t partied too hard and passed out. She’d just fallen asleep at eight o’clock on New Year’s Eve. Well, at least the New Year hadn’t started yet. She was still well within her rights to be pitiful.

  Elise pushed her hair out of her face and took a deep breath that was cut off by the renewed ringing of her phone. She fished it out of the pillows and scowled. Noah. What kind of havoc did he want to wreak now?

  “Hello?” she asked warily.

  “Hi, Elise. Are you busy?”

  A glance around showed her open laptop, her abandoned beers and the TV silently playing out fireworks that had exploded behind the Eiffel Tower hours before. “Kind of.”

  “Listen. I thought maybe… Would you like to go for a walk?”

  “A walk?”

  “Yes.”

  “What? It’s cold. And dark.” And you’re you.

  “I think…” He took a deep breath. “I think maybe we should talk about this, after all. And it’s a beautiful night.”

  “It’s cold,” she said again, her pulse tripping with questions.

  “Yeah.”

  He left it at that. He didn’t say another word. Noah just waited. And Elise waited, too. Waited to be brave enough to say yes. Yes to a walk. Yes to talking. Yes to the question hiding in his voice.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  She had the fleeting thought he’d hung up, but he finally answered. “I’ll stop by your room in five minutes.”

  The phone clicked dead, and Elise wasted a good thirty seconds just staring at it. A walk. With Noah. In the middle of a dark night. Then she realized what
he’d said. Five minutes.

  “Oh, crap!” She was half-naked and sleep-squashed. Vaulting out of bed, she raced for the bathroom and found even worse news there. She’d fallen asleep on her hand and left three clear finger imprints in her cheek. “Crap!” she screeched.

  It took her a full two minutes to pull back her hair and scrub at her face until the finger marks disappeared. She brushed her teeth. Then she had another minute to tug on her jeans and pull a sweater over the tank top she wore. A touch of make up, a few brushes of her hair—

  A knock rang through the room. “Just a second!” Elise tugged on her socks and her boots and lunged for the door.

  “Hey,” Noah said as the smell of fresh soap drifted to her nose. The edges of his hair curled damply against his neck. Her mouth watered.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Your cheeks are really pink.”

  She touched her face in embarrassment. “I was rushing. Sorry. Let me just grab my coat.”

  As she whirled away, she had the fleeting impression that Noah had been reaching toward her, and her whole body stuttered at the thought. Had he been reaching to touch her cheek? Had he meant to pull her toward him for a kiss? Surely not. No. Elise shoved the thought away.

  “So…” His low voice rumbled over her as she pulled on her coat. “Looks like I interrupted quite an evening.”

  Elise glared at the remnants of her pity party before she rushed through the door, slamming it behind her. “Shut up.”

  “Did you steal those beers from the bar?”

  “No!”

  Noah grinned and fell into step behind her. They were down the side stairs and out into the night before Elise’s cheeks finally cooled. She tugged on her winter hat, squared her shoulders, and took a deep breath. She was ready for battle.

  NOAH DIDN’T FEEL THE COLD. He didn’t feel anything past the numbness that had slipped over him when Elise had stepped into the pale circle of the security light. Her skin looked white, her cheeks and mouth pink as roses. And with her blue knit hat pulled down over her forehead, she looked about eighteen years old and impossibly sweet. Like an angel.