Falling For Him

by Ali Parker

  Me: Okay. I’ll get packed.

  Noah replied a couple of seconds later with a whole row of smiley face emojis, and I fell asleep resembling one.

  For better or for worse, Noah and I were headed off for our first weekend away together tomorrow. As friends.

  I drifted off thinking it was good I was in bed early. I better get my rest. I had a feeling I was going to need it.

  Chapter 21

  Noah

  “Hey,” Maggie said as she walked up to me, pulling a small wheeled suitcase behind her. It wobbled on the grass outside her mother’s house.

  Going to meet her on the lawn, I took the handle from her and pushed it in to pick up the bag. “Hey, you. Thanks for agreeing to come with me.”

  “Yeah, sure. You should be thanking my mom, though.” She smiled and tipped her head back to indicate the house. “If not for her, we would have had a chick accompanying us this weekend.”

  “A chick?” I lifted an eyebrow, then caught sight of Lydia standing in the open doorway behind her, and I started laughing. “What the…”

  Maggie shrugged, a soft smile playing on her lips. “She woke up and decided it was a good day to be a chicken.”

  “I see.” Seeing Lydia wearing a yellow tutu and a yellow shirt with actual feathers on it didn’t mean I understood why, but I’d learned that asking those kinds of questions wouldn’t get me anywhere. “She looks cute.”

  “She does,” Maggie agreed. Turning to face Lydia and Gayle, who had just come up to stand behind her, she lifted her hand in a wave. “Bye, guys. We’ll see you on Monday morning. Be a good girl for Meemaw, Lydia.”

  “I will.” She grinned and reached for Gayle’s hand. “We’re going to the park later and everything.”

  “Sounds like fun,” I said, also giving them a wave. “Thanks for agreeing to watch Lydia this weekend, Gayle. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem.” Gayle flashed me a wide smile. “You two kids have fun, you hear? We’ll be fine, so no need to worry or call to check in every five minutes.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes, but I could see they had grown misty. She ran back to hand out more hugs, lingering as she held Lydia and kissed the top of her head.

  It took ten more minutes before we hit the road, but I didn’t rush her.

  Glancing at Maggie from behind my aviator sunglasses, I flipped the indicator once we were in the car and turned us onto the main road out of her neighborhood. “You okay?”

  She let out a quiet sigh, nodding once. “I’ll be fine. It’s just that this will be the longest I’ll ever have been away from her. I’m trying really hard not to freak out about the fact that I won’t be seeing her again until next week.”

  Emotion thickened her voice. Almost as if I couldn’t help myself, I reached out to rest my hand lightly on top of her thigh. “Do you want me to take you back? It’s okay if you don’t want to be away from her for that long.”

  She inhaled deeply, bringing her hand down on mine as she shook her head. “No, I’m fine. It’s got to happen sometime, and I know she’s in the best possible hands. Just… distract me. Tell me about this event we’re going to. Who’s it for? What will we be doing all weekend?”

  I turned my palm up under her hand and laced my fingers with hers. Holding hands was something we’d been doing since we were kids, but this felt different somehow. For a moment, I was distracted by the feel of her small hand in mine, by how good it felt to have it there.

  But then I remembered that I was supposed to be the one distracting her, not the other way around. “It’s for a group who’s really important in the business world. They’re the guys who pioneered a lot of the development and modernization in the industry and whose companies still rule it. Getting the nod from them will be huge for me.”

  She tilted her head. “Why? I thought your system was huge already.”

  “It is, but at the moment, it’s just another water filtration system on the market. If these guys put their stamp of approval on it, it could become one of the top-rated systems in the world.”

  “Wow.” She tightened her grip on my hand momentarily. “That’s a really big deal, Noah. I feel kind of honored now that you invited me to share it with you.”

  “I’m honored you said yes.” I grinned. “But seriously, I doubt you’ll be feeling too honored for most of the weekend. Despite their money and power, they’re not the most interesting or exciting of men to be around.”

  “Maybe, but I’m guessing the boatload of money you stand to make off them makes up for it.” Her tone was light and teasing. If it were any other woman who had made a comment about my money, the little hairs on the back of my neck might have stood on end. Knowing that I didn’t have to worry about her only being after my money was a massively freeing feeling.

  Gratitude to finally have someone real in my life swelled in my chest. Years of never knowing if it was me or my money that people were after, only to be disappointed when I found out, every time without fail, that it was the money, had left me jaded and cynical about people’s intentions.

  With Maggie, I didn’t need to worry about any of that. It was incredible how knowing that she was here just for me made me feel like I was worth something to her and not just my money.

  “Yeah, it soothes the sting a little when you know how much their possible investment stands to make you.” I navigated us onto the highway, relaxing when we were finally on the open road. “To be honest, though, it’s not about the money for me anymore. I’ve got all that I need.”

  “So why do it then?”

  I lifted a shoulder, my fingers resting lightly on the steering wheel. “It’s about the importance of keeping up the brand. I don’t know when or even if I’ll ever come up with another product, but this one was engineered to help people. In order to keep doing that, people need to respect the brand.”

  “Or else?” There was keen curiosity in her tone. The kind I hadn’t heard from anyone else before. If I really thought about it, I’d never discussed the system this way with anyone else.

  It had been born from passion, but all anyone else had ever seemed to care about was the money it could make me. This was refreshing.

  “Or else it could get used for something other than what it is. The company is set up so that for each unit purchased, one is donated to an area sorely in need of clean water that’s not able to afford it otherwise. We do provide the system at cost to those in need, and we donate a whole lot more, but the need out there is impossible to keep up with.”

  “You know,” she said quietly. “You sounded just like your Dad there. I remember how big he was on morals. It was one thing I always loved about him.”

  I held her hand tighter, nodding my head as I took a few deliberate breaths. The fact that she knew where I was coming from with what I was saying and why it was as important to me as it was? I hadn’t gotten teary eyed in years—since the last time I’d cried about my father on her shoulder actually—but I felt the pressure behind my eyeballs now.

  “Yeah, me too,” I said finally when it no longer felt like I had a country growing in my throat. “Fuck. Mags...”

  I didn’t need to say anything else. She squeezed the hand she was already holding and placed the other over both of ours.

  Minutes passed in silence after that, but it was a comfortable silence. The kind that neither of us felt the need to fill.

  We just sat there together, both lost in our own thoughts. When Maggie finally did start talking again, she directed the topic away from anything that could make either of us emotional and instead told me funny stories about her life in New York pre-Lydia.

  The drive passed in no time at all, and we pulled up outside a hotel that looked like the very definition of old-style grandeur. It was situated on acres of land with no other buildings on it. The two-mile-long driveway was lined with thick oak trees that only let through mottled light.

  There were marble columns on the colonial-style wraparound porch and staff wearing
tuxedos waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The building was only three stories tall, but somehow, it seemed as imposing as a skyscraper.

  “Wow.” Maggie peered up at it through the windshield, looking like a kid who just wanted to press her nose up against the glass and gape. “I guess I shouldn’t have bothered to pack jeans. This is not the kind of place where jeans are acceptable attire.”

  I waved a hand, feeling my lips tilt into a smirk. “Anything you wear looks gorgeous, but I’m not opposed to having you in no attire at all while we’re in our room.”

  “Too bad. That wasn’t where I was going with that thought at all.” She laughed, shooting me a look before she turned to climb out of the car. “I was going to ask you to take me to the nearest town to stock up on corsets and petticoats.”

  “The corsets, I can do.” Her door slammed closed behind her before I could say anything else. Smiling as I got out too, I held out my elbow for her like the gallant gentleman I wasn’t and led her inside while the staff insisted on getting our bags.

  The interior of the hotel was as luxurious as it had seemed from the outside. Plush maroon carpeting beneath out feet, polished gold banisters, and rich wooden surfaces. Out of all the events I’d been to, none of them had been anywhere close to this.

  The differences, in fact, were remarkable and stretched to everything from the venue, to the clientele inside it and the overall feeling I got when I walked in.

  Maggie’s breath hitched as she took in the stained-glass windows and the opulent furnishings. She bent her head closer to mine and kept her voice low. “I feel like someone’s going to ask why I’m wearing pants and how we dare share a room if we’re not married.”

  “The answer to that would scandalize them.” I winked and guided her over to the receptionist with my hand at the small of her back. “Hi. We’d like to check in under Sims.”

  The woman gave me a condescending smile when her eyes flickered to Maggie’s left hand and found a certain finger bare. Well, I’ll be damned. Looks like Maggie was right.

  Just as I was about to attempt some explanation, she turned and took an actual key from an actual hook on the wall behind her. “Room 303. It’s a suite.”

  Without so much as asking me to sign anything, she answered the phone when it started ringing and politely waved us off. Maggie shrugged. “I guess breakage deposits and rules aren’t an issue here.”

  “Guess so. They have my credit card details from the booking, so I assume they just charge any breakages or fines for breaking rules we don’t even know about.”

  Maggie smirked. “Thank God we didn’t come here a decade and a bit ago. We’d have taken it as a personal challenge to figure out what the rules are and how to break them.”

  “True, but it also wouldn’t have been my card getting charged.”

  She elbowed me playfully in the side. “It’s not like you can’t afford a few fines, Mr. Moneybags.”

  Again, from anyone else, a comment like that would have frozen me up. Since it was coming from her though, I threw my head back and laughed. “Also true. Does that mean you’re accepting the challenge?”

  “Nope. Too scared they’ve stashed a principal away in here somewhere to deal with errant young people who dare to cross their threshold.”

  Maggie and I were still laughing and joking when we got to our room, but then we both went silent as soon as we saw it. It was huge, but that wasn’t what was so breathtaking about it.

  Our view, however, absolutely was. The suite was set near the back corner of the hotel, and the trees outside were so tall that it felt like we were living in a fancy as fuck treehouse. Beyond the trees were manicured green lawns and expansive rose gardens.

  A king-sized bed sat in the center of the room, positioned so that we would be able to wake up to that view. A bathroom and walk-in closet were situated on one side of the room, while there was a sitting area, bar, and balcony on the other.

  “I feel like I keep saying this today, but wow.” Maggie’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  I nodded my agreement, and when I saw our bags had already been delivered, I realized we’d made it here early and had nothing to do until the gala this evening.

  “Hey, we’ve got a couple of hours to kill until it starts. You want a drink? Since we have our own bar, it feels like we should use it.” I grinned. “Also, I might have forgotten to mention that we’re going to have to look like a couple tonight, so you might want to have a few drinks in you for that.”

  Maggie laughed, but then her expression changed completely. Heat crept into her eyes as she walked up to me. “Do you think this will help?”

  She grasped the front of my shirt and yanked me flush against her before lifting herself up on her toes and sealing her mouth over mine. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she was kissing me again and that she tasted and felt like heaven wrapped in a candy store when I felt her hands tugging my shirt out of my waistband.

  Next thing I knew, our clothes were in a pile on the floor somewhere, and I was moaning into her mouth. “Yeah, I think it’ll help a lot.”

  Chapter 22

  Maggie

  Kissing Noah was a revelation, a full-body experience that left me a desperate, panting mess. His body was hard against my softer one, his arms a steel band around my waist.

  My nipples tightened into peaks as they brushed against the warm skin on his chest. Arms around his neck, I arched my back to get somehow closer to him, despite the fact that my breasts were flat from being pressed so tightly against him.

  He moaned into my mouth and took a step toward the bed without breaking the kiss. It was slow going, but fortunately, there were no obstacles between us and the bed, and we made it there without breaking any of the undoubtedly expensive lamps or other trinkets around the room.

  The mattress was firm beneath my back when Noah laid me down on our giant bed, keeping his mouth sealed to mine as he crawled onto it above me. Our kisses were deep and hot and heavy, both of us grinding and writhing against each other, but the way he cradled me was tender.

  Even though this was only the second time Noah and I were in bed together, it already felt natural to be with him like this. Almost like we’d been doing it for all the years that we’d been apart.

  His rock-hard erection ground into my mound, and he let out a shuddering breath, lifting his lips from mine to look into my eyes. “Any objections to taking it slow this time?”

  My clit throbbed in response to his question, my entire pussy slick and aching, screaming at me to say yes. “How slow?”

  Noah’s hazel eyes were dark with lust, his pupils blown up so big that there was only the tiniest rim of color left in them. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see he was as desperate as I was, but his lips curved into a smirk. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it worth your while.”

  Without answering my question, his lips lowered to my neck. He lavished my skin with soft kisses, dragging his mouth from my neck to my collarbone and finally down to my chest. Swirling his tongue around one painfully sensitive nipple, his fingers pinched the other.

  I cried out, though I couldn’t tell if it was because of surprise, pleasure, or that tiny bite of pain. I could feel Noah smile against me, but he didn’t let up.

  I’d never thought of my nipples as a particularly erogenous zone of my body, but the sensations Noah was eliciting by what he was doing to them was proving me wrong. It was like I could feel every flick of his tongue on my clit, every slide of the flat of it against my slit.

  Wetness pooled between my thighs. I pressed them together and gasped as a tiny bit of relief rocketed through me. The hand that wasn’t busy driving me up the wall with its ministrations on my nipple slid between us.

  “Noah,” I breathed, feeling his fingers inch slowly to my aching heat. “Please. Please touch me.”

  He groaned, his hips jerking forward inadvertently as if he needed the contact as badly as I did. My skin was flushed and hot, but I swore i
t nearly melted off from the surge of heat that ripped through me when his fingers finally—fucking finally—slid into me.

  “Jesus.” Another shuddering breath came from him. “I can’t wait to get inside you, Mags. You’re so fucking wet for me. It’s going to feel so good, I might just come from thinking about it.”

  “Why not get inside me then?” I reached down and wrapped my fist around his cock, so thick and hot, and it twitched from my touch. “He clearly agrees with me that taking it slow it stupid.”

  Noah’s muscles were locked, his Adam’s apple moving as his throat worked. Eyes screwed tightly shut, a thin line appeared between his eyebrows. I thought I had him when he opened his eyes again and the need in them was so intense it made my pussy clench.

  But then he shook his head. “I want to kiss every inch of you first, taste you and watch you come on my hand before I see you do it again on my cock.”

  He dragged a deep breath into his lungs, his gaze burning into mine. “It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this, Maggie. Last time, I couldn’t help myself. I was too shocked that it was happening and too afraid that it was all just a dream to do all the things I wanted to do.”

  While he talked, his fingers ran up and down my slit. They brushed against my clit, and the tips pushed at my entrance. My hips bucked against his hand, and my brain was so foggy with how badly I wanted him that I struggled to understand his words, but one thought filtered through the haze.

  “I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this too.” Forcing my tightly wound body to relax, I spread my legs wider for him and pushed my head back into the pillow. “So okay, Noah. You win. Just don’t stop touching me, okay?”

  “Never,” he promised, bringing his head up to plant another kiss on my lips before he buried it between my legs.

  “Noah!”

  His finger pushed into me at the same time that his tongue darted out and licked me from bottom to top. The primal, carnal growl that ripped out of him was probably the sexiest sound I’d ever heard.