by Chloe Walsh
"Your blood is on my cock," he said flatly, gesturing to his crotch. "And your thighs are smeared with it," he continued. "So stop fucking lying about who's been inside you, Teagan, when it's perfectly clear the only person who has had the pleasure of fucking you is me."
I think I died a little when he commented on my thighs.
"Go screw yourself, Noah," I spat, focusing so hard on the elevator door that my eyes became crisscrossed and my vision blurred, and that's exactly the way the control panel guys found us when they opened the doors.
"You already took care of that, Thorn," Noah called out after me as I rushed out.
****
Chapter 17
Noah
"If I do this," I told her, clutching her jaw in my hand. "Then no one else does." It was a warning – one I hoped she would hear because I had no intentions of letting her go. "Be sure you want me."
I'd never felt so exposed in my life. Hell, I'd never told anyone about what I went through with my mother – Low didn’t even know the half of it.
But Teagan…Jesus, it felt like she just shoved her hand through my chest, clutched onto something vital inside of me and wouldn’t let go. I was still fucking reeling in emotion as I held her face in my hand and waited for her answer.
She touched my lips with hers and that was the only sign I needed.
Lifting off her, I quickly stripped my clothes off and rooted in my pocket until I found a condom in my wallet. Jesus Christ, my hands were trembling as I rolled it on, the thought of being inside her was making me go a little crazy and the sounds she was making as she writhed on the elevator floor were close to making me lose it.
Grabbing her my hips I pulled Teagan towards me and settled in between her legs. She was so soft and warm and fucking perfect. Too good for me but I wasn’t letting her go now. Teagan had driven me crazy for months, frustrated the hell out of me, but the way she was making me feel right now made everything else just fade away…
"Are you sure you want this?" I managed to croak out, pressing the head of my cock against her entrance.
"Uh-uh." She moaned as she rolled her hips enticingly.
"Open your legs, Thorn," I whispered.
She rested her weight on her elbows and spread herself further.
"Wider," I purred as I began to thumb her clit. Jesus Christ, she was so smooth and tight. The moment I heard her breathy moans I couldn’t wait any longer and buried myself inside her heat.
Teagan cried out and bucked her hips upwards. Her fingernails dug into the skin on my back and I had to bite back a groan as I slid out slowly before pressing deep inside her.
"You have no idea how badly I've needed this," I confessed. She was so goddamn tight and snug that I had to calm myself or I was gonna fuck it all up. I'd been with other girls, many, but no one had ever felt like this – like Teagan...
She mewled and groaned as her hands wandered all over my skin and I swear I'd never felt a sweeter touch. The eagerness in the way she moved against me gave me comfort on a level I never knew existed.
"Noah…" she sighed, arching upwards. "Yes…"
Resting my weight on one elbow, I used my other arm to hitch her thigh up. "Are you okay?" I panted against her ear as I plunged into her. I knew I was close to coming – I'd been close since I pushed inside her, but the noises she was making and the way her tight little pussy clamped me made it impossible to hold off any longer.
The elevator floor jerked beneath us, causing Teagan to cry out and me to shudder in pure fucking pleasure as I came hard inside of her. Teagan's body trembled as my orgasm flooded into her and I couldn’t stop myself from claiming her lips with mine.
And then the lights flickered on, I saw her lying underneath me looking into my eyes with such innocent confusion that my heart constricted in my chest. "They must've fixed the elevator," I told her in a voice thick with emotion. She flinched as I slowly pulled out of her. Damn, she was so tight…
I reached for my gym bag and pulled a black shirt out, sliding it over Teagan's head before helping her stand. I dressed myself quickly before grabbing her shorts. Teagan was being abnormally quiet and I was growing concerned. "You okay?" I asked her, holding them out for her to step into.
"I…" She shook my head and held onto my shoulders as she stepped into her shorts. Her hazel eyes were wide and she nibbled on her lip, studying my every move as I pulled her shorts up her thighs.
"I'm not sure," Teagan finally replied in a small voice. Brushing her hair behind her ears she bent down and grabbed her bra and panties and slipped her feet into her sneakers before letting out a whimper.
Her entire frame was shaking and I had no clue of what to do. I wasn’t used to this response. I didn’t get it. Had I hurt her? Fuck, concern churned inside of me.
I went to put my arm around her but Teagan shimmied away from me and stood in the far corner of the elevator with her nose cocked in the air.
"You can't be serious?" I said flatly as I gaped at her. "You're really going to pretend that nothing happened between us just now?"
She didn’t answer me.
"Teagan," I snapped as I took a step closer to her.
She shook her head "Don’t touch me."
"Jesus Christ, Teagan," I hissed in frustration as rejection coursed through me. "All I want to do is take …" I stopped talking…I stopped fucking breathing when I noticed the blood smeared on her thighs. I glanced down at myself and bit back a curse. "You were a virgin."
I'd taken her virginity on a goddamn elevator floor…"You were so tight, but I just thought…" I shook my head and stepped closer to her, as a mixture of remorse and delight coursed through me. She'd only been with me... "I didn’t realize…"
"I was not a virgin, Noah," Teagan spat, red-faced. "I was with my last boyfriend for three years. We had…"
"Stop talking," I warned her. "Don’t talk to me about other guys."
Why was she being like this?
Why the hell was she trying to pick a fight with me?
"Sex," she taunted. "He fucked me – a lot. Sorry to burst your little virgin bubble."
"Your blood is on my cock," I said in a flat tone, gesturing to my dick. "And your thighs are smeared with it," I added, furious. "So stop fucking lying about who's been inside you, Teagan, when it's perfectly clear the only person who has had the pleasure of fucking you is me."
Her face paled and I immediately felt like a dick. "Go screw yourself, Noah," she spat.
The doors opened, Teagan rushed past the control guys as I roared, "You already took care of that, Thorn," regretting each poisonous word as it spilled from my lips.
****
Teagan
Striding towards the front door of the hotel, I willed myself not to look back at Noah, even though he was calling out my name – at the top of his lungs.
What the hell had possessed me to give Noah Messina my virginity? Oh god, my heart was racing so fast I felt faint, but the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach were much worse. They were huge, demented, Noah-loving butterflies that went bloody berserk whenever I thought of him, which was constantly.
"Teagan, will you just stop for one damn minute…"
Oh god. I upped my pace.
Keep going…
Almost there…
Reaching the exit, I swung the door open forcefully before marching outside.
The sharp sting of the night air hit me full force in the face and I wrapped my arms around myself before starting off in the direction of The Hill, though I wasn’t one bit surprised when Noah's hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me to a stop.
Even the slight touch of his fingers on my elbow caused my skin to burst out in a serious case of goose-pimples. I couldn’t stop my body from shivering, nor could I stop the teeny-tiny part of my brain that was pro-Noah from reveling in the fact that he came after me.
"You're not walking in the dark a week before Christmas. I'm taking you home," he said sharply before leading me down the str
eet towards his Lexus – his sparkling paint-free Lexus.
My eyes narrowed as awareness hit me full force in the chest. I stopped walking and swung around to glare at Noah. "Is this why you had to work that night?" I demanded, pointing at the car and then at him. "You fought to make enough money to fix your stupid car?"
"One, my car is not stupid." Noah unlocked the car, opened the passenger door and gestured impatiently with his hand for me to get in. "And two, what I do is my concern, Teagan." His let out a discontented sigh. "My business is exactly that. Mine. Nothing to do with you. Now get in the car."
I didn’t move.
Noah rose a dark perfectly curved eyebrow at me and I met his stare head on. "Christ, Teagan, just trust me and get in," he finally muttered in exasperation.
"Trust you." I snorted, probably not the most attractive move, and folded my arms across my chest. I was still internally reeling from the sex. "Uh…yeah, trusting you is what I'm gonna do," I retorted sarcastically. "It's right up there with shaving my head and swimming with sharks."
"You sure as hell trusted me earlier when I was buried to the hilt inside you," he snarled.
"Classy," I hissed, red-faced and mortified. "Very classy, Noah."
"I didn’t mean that…God, you make me say things… I need a filter…shit…" Noah shook his head in frustration before sighing heavily and waving his hand between me and his car. "Just get in the car and I'll take you home."
"Keep shaking your hand in my face and I'll show you where you can put it," I warned him. "It rhymes with pass, so keep on doing it, I dare you."
"God you're a fucking handful," he muttered, exhaling heavily. "I pity your poor uncle."
"Yeah, well I pity myself for ever letting you touch me," I hissed through clenched teeth. "No, scratch that, I don’t pity myself because that would involve me having to actually feel something for you. And I don’t."
"God, you can be such a bitch, Teagan." Noah let out a harsh laugh clearly frustrated with me and moved closer. His chest rose and fell quickly as he towered over me. "Why don’t you just admit how you feel about me so I can kiss you already?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied.
"You care about me," he accused me as he stared down at me. "I make you vulnerable and that scares the hell out of you."
"No." I shook my head refuting his accusations. "I'm not...I don’t care about you."
"Admit it, Teagan," Noah urged as he stepped towards me. "You're vulnerable and you're pissed off because I do that to you." He let out a sigh. "You ran out of there because you hate the fact that you want me. You hate the fact that you were wrong about me." He stepped closer. "I'm exactly what you want – crave – and that rebellious streak inside your brain fucking hates it."
"Shut up," I snapped. "You have no idea how I…I wasn’t wrong…"
"You want me to be the asshole you've concocted in your head," he taunted, interrupting me. His tone of voice was one of anger, but his eyes…they told me a different story. His eyes showed his confusion, and his…hunger?
Heat…
He made my skin burn by just looking at me.
I was in serious trouble…
"And now you've realized that I'm not that guy and you're reeling because that changes everything," he husked as he reached up and stroked my chin with his thumb. "Tonight changed everything."
"I'm not sure why I ran back there," I admitted, curling my fingers around the back of his head, still reeling from what had happened between us.
I had a list of things that logically I knew I should be feeling. Shame, disgust and regret were the three major emotions I should be feeling, but those feelings were absent inside of me right now.
Instead I felt exhilarated, confused and incredibly reckless. My body was hosting a gymnastics competition between the contents of my stomach and my heart seemed to be winning, fluttering like a crazed butterfly inside my chest…"I'm just…I'm confused as hell about you – about how you make me feel," I admitted in a torn voice. "You scare me."
Noah's eyes softened as he pulled me closer.
Cupping my cheeks with the palms of his hands, he pressed a toe-curling kiss to my lips and I couldn’t stop myself from sagging against him. "I really don’t think you have a clue of what you're doing to me," he said gently as he looked into my eyes and tucked a tendril of hair behind my ear. "Of how far astray you're leading me." His eyes danced with humor. "You're a bad influence on me, Thorn."
"I'm the good one here," I told him with a smirk. "You're the one who partakes in criminal activities in a place ridiculously named the Ring of Fire…"
"That's not my choice, Thorn," Noah replied in a serious tone. His brown eyes burned into mine. "I have to do that."
"Why?"
The street lights illuminated a faint scar above Noah's right eyebrow and I couldn’t stop myself from raising my hand and cupping his cheek.
"Noah," I sighed as a heavy weight settled on my chest. "You're worth more than this bullshit life you're living," I told him, surprising us both when my voice cracked slightly.
Noah visually shuddered from my touch. He stared down at me like I was some strange creature he couldn’t remember the name of.
"Why do I…" I paused and asked myself what the hell I was doing, but the words just slipped out. "Why do I get the feeling that you need someone to fight for you as ferociously as you fight for those men…?"
The words were barely out of my mouth when Noah was pulled backwards and dragged away from me.
"We've been looking for you," a huge red-headed man snarled as he grabbed Noah by the back of his neck.
"Teagan, get in the car," Noah managed to say before he was shoved face down on the sidewalk by the huge man who'd dragged him away from me.
I didn’t get in the car.
Instead I screamed like the banshee and prayed someone somewhere would have the common sense to call the police.
"My father wanted us to remind you what happens to defectors," the man added before nodding his head in my direction. "Consider this your first, last, and only warning."
He then held Noah down as another three men came forward and formed a circle around his body.
"Hey, get the hell off him," I roared, my tone frantic, as I rushed towards the men who were now kicking and punching him.
"Noah," I screamed as I thumped my fists against one man's back, desperately trying to break through and get to him.
My stomach lurched when I saw Noah being held face-down by the scruff of the neck and beaten to a pulp.
There was blood caked all over his hair and face.
An overwhelming feeling coursed through me, urging me to shield him – save him – without thinking twice about it, I scrambled over to where he was laying and, shoving the man's hand away from Noah's neck, I covered his head and shoulders with my body.
Some asswipe managed to catch the side of my face with his boot and I cried out in pain, but remained exactly where I was.
"You got your pussy fighting your corner, kid?" One of the men – the one whose leg's I managed to squeeze under – sneered. "George told you…"
"You can tell George to go fuck himself," I snarled, not having a goddamn clue who I was talking about. I looked up at their faces and grimaced. My eyes locked on the man in the blue shirt with the red hair. He looked familiar, but I just…I couldn’t remember where I'd seen him. "Because if I ever meet the man in the flesh he's going to be walking like a constipated cowboy with a boot shoved up his ass."
"Teagan," Noah warned in a quiet tone as he slowly pulled himself to his feet, taking me with him. He warned me into silence with one look and the slightest shake of his head.
"Teagan?" Blue Shirt whistled in surprise. "The next-door neighbor Teagan?"
Noah stiffened beside me.
"You've got more balls than brains, kid," the man chuckled. "You saw what happened to Kruger's career when he got involved…"
"This has nothing to do with her, JD,"
Noah said stiffly, limping forward so that he was blocking me from the men's view. His stance was protective more than aggressive. "And you can tell your father that I haven’t forgotten a damn thing."
Blood was dripping down Noah's face and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and protect him from this crazy fucking world he seemed to have fallen into.
"I'm sure George will be very interested to hear about your little friend here," Blue Shirt said with a grin as he leered at me briefly before returning his gaze to Noah. "We'll be seeing you, kid," he chuckled before turning around and walking away with the other men.
"Call the cops," I blurted out the second the men were out of sight.
Swinging around to face him, I looked up at Noah expectantly. "Noah, call the cops now. They can't get away with this." I moved to cup his cheek, but he pushed my hand away, backing away from me.
One of Noah's eyes was practically swollen shut, his cheekbone was flecked with ugly dark bruising, and blood was flowing from the gash above his right eyebrow.
"No cops," was all he said before limping back to his car and opening the passenger door.
I dropped my hand to my side and bit down hard on my lip, desperate to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill.
Temper tears, I assured myself.
"Why the hell not?" I managed to choke out. "Noah, those men could've killed you…"
"Just drop it, Teagan," Noah snapped, cutting me off mid-sentence, and I flinched from the coldness in his voice. "The cops can't do a damn thing to help me."
"But you're bleeding," I screamed. "Your face is destroyed." I shook my head in disgust. "Those men just beat the shit out of you, Noah."
When he didn’t reply I kind of lost it.
"Oh my god, there is something very wrong with you," I screamed in frustration. "You're a complete disaster, Noah. Why the hell are you allowing those creeps to get away with attacking you – us?"
Noah's facial expression changed the minute those words passed my lips – a vein his neck throbbed – and he stared at me like I was a stranger.