“We need to talk,” he said, striding toward me.
I steeled my spine and stood like a statue. “I don’t think we do. There’s nothing to say.”
“Bullshit. There’s plenty to say.” He was now close enough that the heat emanating from his body curled around me, drawing me toward him like a magnet.
I firmed my lips and shook my head.
“If you’re not going to talk to me, then you can listen. We can do it here, or we can go up to your apartment where we have some privacy.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
He dragged his fingers through his hair, leaving it a mussed-up mess. “Christ. I’m not going to try anything, Aubrey, I only want to talk. To find out what I did wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said, my voice sounding small. “It was all me.”
“I don’t understand.”
The desperation in his eyes told me he deserved an explanation. If he knew, then maybe both of us could walk away without any more heartache.
“We can talk inside.”
Chapter Seven
Noah
It took all of my willpower not to drag her to me, not to press my lips, my body against hers, but I would follow her lead and take everything at her pace.
Her eyes couldn’t hide her emotions. I could see and sense how much my being here affected her. How torn she was. How much she wanted to be with me, but she held herself back, and I was determined to discover why.
I followed her up to her apartment, neither of us saying a word. Once inside, she gestured for me to sit on the sofa, but I stood with my hands shoved into the front pockets of my jeans.
Whatever was on her mind weighed her down so much she sagged like she carried fifty-pound sandbags on each shoulder.
Unable to stand the silence between us any longer, I spoke first, “Why did you run from me when I kissed you?”
She closed her eyes and rolled her lips between her teeth. I didn’t miss the tremor that ran through her.
“I’ve never had a boyfriend, and I’ve never dated. I—” She turned away and faced the window.
“Don’t shut me out,” I said softly. “Whatever it is, you can tell me. I thought we had something. I think we still could.”
Several more tremors ran through her.
“Please look at me, Aubrey.” I didn’t care that I sounded like a man on the edge.
With her head hung low, she turned around but didn’t make eye contact.
“Did someone hurt you?” My blood boiled thinking about someone laying a finger on her, of someone harming a single hair on her head.
She inhaled a shaky breath, started to speak but then stopped.
“You can tell me, baby. It’s okay.”
She swallowed hard and gave a minuscule nod. “When I was a toddler, a scalding urn of coffee tipped over and burned the left side of my body from the shoulder down. It left me scarred for life.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Jesus, Aubrey, I’m so sorry.” Now I understood why she covered herself up the way she did, but I still didn’t understand why she’d bolted the night we’d kissed.
“I was in and out of hospitals for years and years. Freddy Krueger, dragon, and lizard were just a few of my nicknames.” All emotion had drained from her voice as if she was resigned to how people saw her. To how viciously they’d treated her.
Sadness and anger moved inside me. I hated that she had to deal with that kind of scrutiny and cruelty. I hated that the nasty words of others had crushed her spirit into the ground. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to rage and hurt someone the way she’d been hurt.
Before I spoke again, I reined in my anger. “Is that why you hide yourself away? Why you’ve tried to cut me out of your life?” I stepped closer and waited for her to answer.
“I vowed I’d never let anyone close enough to see what I really looked like. I’m hideous.”
I took another step and another until I stood directly in front of her. I reached out and tipped her chin up, willing her to look at me, but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine.
“I want you to listen to me, and I want you to hear what I have to say.” My voice came out low and rough like I’d swallowed rocks. “You’re beautiful inside and out. You light up the room with your smile, with your laugh. Everything about you is more than I could ever want.”
She pffted then huffed out a laugh. “You say that now...”
I was close enough to press my lips to her forehead. “I’ll say that forever. Show me, Aubrey.”
“What?” She shook her head and took several steps back, but I followed, not allowing her to escape.
I grasped her waist. “I’m attracted to you. All of you. You’re the one who keeps me up at night. You’re the reason I can’t focus at work. Twenty-four hours a day, it’s you. All you.”
For the first time since I’d stepped foot inside her apartment, her wide, green eyes lifted and met mine. If I hadn’t been as close as I was, I might have missed her subtle nod.
I lowered my hands to the hem of her sweatshirt and eased my fingers beneath. She jumped at my initial touch, but when she didn’t protest, I slid my hands higher and traced my fingertips across the scarred skin she was so ashamed of.
Under my gentle hand, she trembled like a leaf on the first day of fall. “The second you say stop, I will.”
“I don’t want you to,” she murmured.
We both shook at the enormity of what was taking place between us.
I loved Aubrey.
Plain and simple.
“Are you okay?”
A mixture of fear, desire, and lust warred with each other in her eyes. “I’m okay.”
“I’m going to kiss you now. After that, I’m going to kiss you again and again and again.”
“I-I’d like that.” For the first time since the night of the ball, she smiled. It was the kind of smile that reached her eyes, brightening them.
I lowered my lips to hers, but I didn’t kiss her. We simply stood there for a few seconds gazing at each other.
My hand remained on her ribcage below the curve of her breast. The thud, thud, thud of her heart vibrated through her skin into mine.
She inched forward, and our lips met. At that first touch, a groan rumbled at the back of my throat, and my dick stood to attention.
Kissing her, touching her was like every Christmas and birthday I’d ever had rolled into one.
She curled her arms around my neck and burrowed her fingers through my hair as we devoured one another like we were starved of affection.
She broke away—her lips swollen from our kiss, her eyes as dark as emeralds.
“Don’t run away. Not now. Not ever.”
“I’m not. I won’t.” She chewed on her bottom lip for a second. “Just—please don’t hurt me. Promise me that.”
I cupped her cheeks in my hands and kissed her lightly. “I swear on my life I will never do anything to hurt you.”
She took my hand and led me toward her bedroom.
Chapter Eight
Aubrey
The one thing I swore I would never do was show a man my body. I’d resigned myself to remaining a virgin for the rest of my life. But with Noah, I could finally let all my guards down, and I could let him in.