Her shoulders rose and fell on a heavy breath as she turned in the small space between us to face me. Her breasts brushed against my chest and my body reacted like a damn fifteen-year old, my cock twitching behind my zipper.
As her gorgeous hazel eyes focused on me, the color only slightly tinted by the glow of the red lights, I saw determination flicker in her gaze. That goddamned shield of hers was falling into place right before my eyes and my jaw hardened at the sight of it.
“Please move back,” she repeated. Her voice was much stronger this time so I heeded the warning, but only giving her a few extra inches.
A relieved whoosh of air passed through her plump lips at the added distance. “What do you want, Noah? Huh?”
“I want you to stop acting like I don’t fucking exist,” I answered in frustration.
Her face softened just a touch, her tone was a little less harsh when she said, “I’m not acting like you don’t exist.”
“Bullshit, Harlow. You run in the other direction every time you see me. You put more distance between us than you would someone carrying the bubonic plague, for Christ’s sake.”
“That’s not true,” she replied.
“Really?” I argued. “Then what would you consider it? Didn’t we agree we didn’t want things to be weird around each other, or did I just imagine that conversation?”
“We did… it’s just…”
“Just what?” I asked, stepping into her space once again. My gut was telling me I was finally getting somewhere, and if this was my shot, I was damn well going to take it. “Come on, wildflower. If I’m wrong, then explain it to me.”
Harlow’s hand came up and ran through her hair agitatedly. “Jeez, Noah. Have you always been this pushy?”
“Only when there’s something I want at stake.”
“See?!” she shouted, sidestepping me and moving a few feet away. “This is the problem right here! I don’t know what to do with you. You can be so… intense. I don’t know how to react or how to feel. It’s like my head’s spinning whenever you’re around. I don’t know what you want from me!”
“I think you do,” I told her, getting so close I could feel the warmth of her body. Reaching up, I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and leaned in. “I think you know exactly what I want from you. And I think you want it too.”
Her breath stuttered and her lips parted, drawing my attention. “You’re kinda freaking me out,” she whispered.
“Tell me you don’t feel it,” I whispered back. “Tell me you didn’t feel it in the break room that day. That’s why you’ve been dodging me.”
“I… I d-don’t.”
I smiled as her throat bobbed with a swallow. “You’re still a shit liar, wildflower.”
“Am not,” she snapped.
With another step her body was flush against mine and I was able to see her eyes dilate with lust. “Do you remember the last time we were in here?” She gasped again and I knew she remembered, but I still wanted to paint the picture for her. “I do. God, I wanted you so bad. All the fucking time, Harlow. I couldn’t keep my hands off you. We were so caught up in making out that we didn’t even hear Ms. Sandusky come in.”
“I remember,” she said on an exhale and I knew I had her.
“I still want you like that.”
I tilted her chin up and crashed my lips against hers, my tongue diving between her parted lips. God. She still tasted as sweet as I remembered. Harlow’s body went pliant and I wrapped my arms around her to keep her from falling as I devoured every inch of her mouth. Her arms went around my shoulders and her fingers dug into my scalp, just like she’d always done whenever she went wild for me. The lingering worries I had that she could possibly push me away deteriorated and relief swept over me the instant she returned the kiss.
At the sound of her needy whimper I completely lost myself, reaching one hand up and twisting her long, silky hair around my fingers and yanking her head back so I had the absolute perfect angle to swallow down every one of her delicious noises. I held her even tighter with one arm around her waist, feeling everything in my body strung tight as our tongues dueled against each other. The kiss was out of control. All of my baser instincts were muted down by my need to touch her harder, taste her deeper.
I took a step forward, shoving Harlow back into the counter behind her as I cupped her ass and picked her up, placing her on the surface so her legs could wrap around my waist. The heat from between her thighs made my cock impossibly harder. Her hips ground against me, causing her to let out a loud, ragged moan that nearly drove me insane. I was at serious risk of humiliating myself and blowing in my pants.
“Holy shit!” I heard mere seconds before I felt the crotch of my pants grow wet.
Oh sweet Christ, please tell me I didn’t just... “What the fuck?!”
“I’m sorry!” Harlow shouted, her voice full of laughter as I stepped back and investigated the gigantic wet spot covering the front of my pants from nuts to knees. “Oh, God, Noah. I’m so sorry! I accidentally knocked the bin off…” Before she could finish her sentence she burst into a fit of laughter.
“Shit,” I muttered, swiping at my pants, fruitlessly before shooting her a glare. “Glad you find this so funny.”
“I’m sorry,” she giggled. “It’s just that you look like you pissed your pants.” Then she broke into hysterical laughter once again.
“I still have two more classes to teach!”
At that, the devil woman leaned over, clutching her stomach and snorted. Until right then I’d forgotten just how much I loved the sound of her laughter. Even with that god-awful snort, it was one of the most beautiful sounds I’d ever heard.
“What?” she asked, having gotten a hold of herself long enough to catch me staring.
“Christ, you’re so fucking beautiful.”
If not for the lighting in the room, I had no doubt I would have seen her cheeks blush in embarrassment. “Noah—”
“Have dinner with me,” I interrupted and watched as her eyes flared in surprise. It wasn’t necessarily what I had expected to say, but now that it was out I decided to roll with it.
“What?”
“Dinner,” I repeated. “Let me take you out, Harlow.”
Her head jerked back as her brows dipped in confusion. “Like on a date?”
“No like about it, wildflower,” I teased on a grin. “Is it really so hard to believe that I’d want to take you on a proper date?”
She shook her head, her long, glossy hair whipping around her shoulders, just begging to be touched. “Well, yeah, considering we’re not even together.”
I stepped into her space once again, the huge wet spot on the front of my pants completely forgotten. “Then let’s change that,” I told her, my voice sounding gravelly to my own ears.
Harlow took a step back, her ass bumping into the countertop as her eyes narrowed in a glare. “You’re being pushy again.”
“Say yes and I’ll stop.”
“No,” she answered firmly.
“Why not?”
Her eyes darted from side to side before focusing on my shoulder, refusing to meet my gaze. “Because…”
“Come on, baby,” I chuckled, unable to mask my humor. “You’re gonna have to do better than because.”
Annoyance flashed over her face and I felt myself growing hard again. That fire inside her always turned me on.
“I’m busy,” she said haughtily.
“Oh yeah?” I asked skeptically. “Doing what?”
Her arms folded over her chest, pushing up her cleavage in a way that made it difficult for me to breathe as she answered. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m meeting Chloe for dinner at the Moose.”
“Reschedule with Chloe for tomorrow,” I all but demanded.
“Go away,” she shot back and I felt myself grinning as her fire began to grow even brighter.
“I’m pretty sure you know that’s not going to happen.”
&nb
sp; “Fine,” she huffed. “Then I’ll leave.”
Before I had a chance to stop her, Harlow darted to the side and into the rotating doorway, leaving me alone in the darkroom. Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my cell and scrolled to the familiar number.
“What’s up?” I heard coming through the line.
“Derrick, you on tonight?”
“Nope,” he answered. “Why? You got something in mind?”
“Yeah. Drinks at the Drunken Moose,” I answered. “You in?”
“Sure, if you’re buyin’.”
If that was what it took, I was buying.
I was going to need a wingman tonight.
“I need to get laid!” I announced a little too loudly.
Chloe, bless her heart, had been sitting across from me for the past hour as I sucked down my beer and lamented about Noah’s pushiness and my traitorous va-jay-jay favorable reaction to his somewhat alpha behavior.
That bitch was going to get me in some serious trouble.
To my compassionate friend’s credit, she’d put in a valiant effort to talk me off of the ledge. She’d asked questions and showed concern about everything happening in my life, but there was just one thing she couldn’t wrap her brain around.
“I just… I can’t… that’s…”
“Spit it out, Chlo,” I grumbled as I dunked one of my fries in mayo and stuffed it into my mouth.
“I can’t believe you haven’t had sex in almost six years!” she yelled, drawing the attention from the tables all around us. Not that I cared, really, considering I’d already announced to half of the Moose just how badly I needed sex.
“Why don’t you yell a little louder? I think there’s a partially-deaf eighty year old in the back that didn’t quite hear you.”
“Sorry, sorry,” she whispered as she leaned across the table. “It’s just crazy!” she exclaimed quietly. “You’re like, revirginized.”
“Re-what-inized?” I asked in bewilderment.
“You know,” she waved her hand around in a circle. “It’s when you go without sex for so long you basically turn back into a virgin.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out if she was being serious or not. “That’s not a real thing.”
“It totally is!” she declared excitedly. “I read it in Cosmo or something like that. I think the cut off for revirginization is five years. So since you’re almost at six, I think it’s safe to say you’re a virgin again.”
I paused, actually considering what she’d just said and stupidly thinking there was some validity to it before my rational mind kicked back in. “That’s bullshit.”
“It isn’t! It’s science.”
“Well, science is full of shit,” I told her, snatching up a handful of fries, dunking them, then stuffing them in my mouth before talking around the food. Because I was totally classy like that. “I’m not revirginized,” I said through a mouthful of chewed up potato.
Chloe’s face scrunched up in disgust as she watched me eat. “Ew, don’t talk with your mouth full. And stop dipping your fries in mayo! It’s gross!”
“Mmmm,” I moaned as I dipped more fries and shoved them in my mouth, causing her to break into a fit of giggles that I quickly followed, although it wasn’t so easy for me to laugh, seeing as my cheeks were stuffed as full as a squirrel who was hoarding nuts.
“Well, what do we have here?” a deep voice drawled. Our heads shot sideways to find a very amused looking Derrick standing next to Noah. The two of them standing in the middle of a room by themselves was a sight to behold. Having them side-by-side was enough to make ovaries erupt throughout the entire restaurant.
“See you still love mayo, wildflower,” Noah said, humor heavily laced through his words.
I lowered my eyelids into narrow slits, trying to show my annoyance as I worked at swallowing the massive mound of food in my mouth. “And I see you still don’t listen for shit, party crasher.”
I looked to Chloe for some moral support, only to find her eyes wide and mouth agape as she stared at Derrick, lust written all over her betraying face.
“Glad to know there’s at least one woman in this town that’s immune to your charm, Murphy,” Derrick teased good-naturedly. However, his statement was like punch to the throat. It was hard enough seeing Noah almost every day and having to deal with the tumultuous feelings roiling around inside of me, but thinking about him with another woman was straight up torture.
“Harlow,” Noah spoke, pulling my attention back to the conversation at hand. “This asshole next to me is my soon to be ex-friend, Derrick Anderson.”
“We’ve met.” I offered Derrick a small, tight smile as he reached out to shake my hand.
“Good to see you again, beautiful.” Oozing far more charm and charisma than was healthy for one mere mortal, he lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a light kiss to my knuckles. I was so caught off guard by the bold move that it took me a few seconds too many to realize Chloe’s normally cheerful expression had morphed into one of pain. I knew it was more than likely a harmless gesture, and from the way his smiling eyes cut to Noah, I knew he was doing it mainly to tease his friend, but I still couldn’t sit by and let my friend be hurt. At the same time I snatched my hand back, Noah’s elbow connected with Derrick’s ribs, causing him to grunt and bend slightly in pain.
“Keep your fucking lips to yourself or I’ll rip ‘em off and kiss my own ass with them,” he growled in a warning so ridiculous Chloe and I both choked on our laughter.
Ignoring his friend’s discomfort, Noah turned back to the table and offered us a brilliant smile. “Mind if we join you lovely ladies?”
“Yes, we mind,” I bit at the same time Chloe—the disloyal whore—scooted to the side of her booth to make room, eyes on Derrick as she insisted, “Not at all!”
Not needing any further invitation, Noah plopped down next to me and pushed me into the corner, sitting so close he was pressed against me, hip to thigh. And damn if my va-jay-jay didn’t cry out in joy at his close proximity.
I tried with all my power to shoot laser beams from my eyeballs as Noah casually snatched up a handful of my fries and began chowing down before turning to Chloe and giving the bitch a hard, swift kick to the shin under the table.
“Ow! Shit!” she yelp, turning to glower at me.
“You okay, Sunshine?” Derrick asked and Chloe’s head shot to the side, her cheeks flushed as she smiled shyly.
“Yeah,” she mumbled. “Just bumped my leg.”
For the love of God, that girl had it bad. I don’t think I’d ever seen my friend turn into such a simpering female around anyone other than Derrick. It would be adorable if I didn’t hate her disloyal ass.
“You smell fantastic,” Noah murmured in my ear, giving me a start.
“Can you please move over?” I asked, hating the way my voice quivered. How could I expect him to take me seriously when my request sounded weak to my own ears?
“I like it right here,” he said in a low, seductive voice.
“You just don’t stop, do you?” I asked, scooting as close to the side of the booth as possible, freeing up no more than a measly few centimeters of space between us.
“I told you,” he started, all playfulness having disappeared from his voice. “Not when something so important is at stake.”
I could feel the irritation seeping out of me.
“You’re not playing fair,” I leaned in to whisper.
Noah smiled and I felt it in the pit of my stomach. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied cheekily.
I frowned skeptically as I looked over at our two friends, so lost in conversation they weren’t even paying attention to us. “Really? So you’re telling me, living in such a small town and all, that you’ve never, not once, noticed Chloe’s complete inability to form a coherent sentence whenever your friend is around?”
I raised one brow in challenge as Noah’s warm eyes lit with laughter. “I might have noticed
once or twice.”
“Be hard not to, seeing as she lights up like roadside flare every damn time,” I found myself joking, my own lips tilting up to match his. It was almost impossible not to feel somewhat lighter whenever he was around and in a playful mood. For some reason, we just fell right back into our old routine.
I watched carefully from the corner of my eye as Derrick muttered something quietly to Chloe, causing her whole face to burn bright red before she broke into a loud laugh, quickly followed by his deep, attractive chuckle.
“She really likes him,” I told Noah as I turned my attention back to him. “Your friend better not hurt her.”
“Derrick’s a good guy, baby. You can trust him.”
I studied his expression, looking for any signs of dishonesty and finding none. “I’ll take your word for that then.” I replied softly.
“You can trust me, too, you know.”
Closing my eyes against the riot of emotions I saw in the honeyed depths of his, I tried to breathe through the sensation of my stomach plummeting. It felt like I was on a rollercoaster and falling from the highest peak.
“Stop pushing,” I warned weakly as I met his gaze once again.
He leaned in, his lips just a hairsbreadth away from mine as he spoke. “Never.”
I shifted to face the table and picked up my beer, downing the rest as I wracked my brain for a change of topic before coming up with the perfect subject. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened to your football career?” I asked as I placed the now empty beer bottle on the distressed wood table.
“Depends,” he responded casually. He leaned against the back of the booth and stretched one arm along the top of it, his fingers dangerously close to my hair. I had to fight back my instinct to lean into him.
“On what?”
“On if you’ll go to dinner with me.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a laugh. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure we’re doing dinner now.”
“Call me old fashioned, but I’d prefer our next dinner not be under duress.”
Wildflower (Colors #4) Page 9