He stepped back, and I heard the door latch click when he reached around me. “Let’s go home.”
A few minutes later, I learned that the small space in a car could feel incredibly crowded. The air felt heavy, almost like a charge about to go off.
I was hot all over with my skin prickly. Need was racing through my body in a loop, and I needed a way to discharge the intense, unfamiliar feeling. I had vague memories of that old high school boyfriend who got me pregnant. When you were young, sex was kind of hit or miss. It wasn’t great, but I did remember the excitement before, feeling like maybe something good would happen. The few sexual encounters I’d had since then—dating relationships that went nowhere—had left a lot to be desired.
My endless to-do list was always hovering in the back of my thoughts. I just couldn’t relax enough to enjoy sex. Noah had this strange effect on me, leaving me more turned on than I’d ever been. And I knew him. I knew him well even though I hadn’t seen him in years. Maybe it was my younger self who thought he was so handsome and unattainable. Maybe it would turn out to be a disappointment, but I was going to grab this chance.
Because this week would end, and I would return to my life. The ticker of my to-do list would click on like a clock in the background of my life. Every minute counted.
This didn’t have to be anything but a suspended week in my life. Even if it was only one night. I didn’t care. I wanted it too much to let anything else get in the way.
“Just one night,” I whispered, my words landing like sparks on dry kindling.
“One night won’t be enough,” Noah said flatly, pouring fuel on that kindling.
“How do you know?” My eyes whipped to his as he rolled to a stop in the driveway in front of the house.
He pressed a button, and the engine went quiet. “I just know.”
Staring at him in the glimmer of light cast from the porch light, I felt my mouth go dry and my belly spin. As if I were falling from a great height and didn’t know how to slow my fall. Despite, or perhaps because of my internal turmoil, my need felt as if it were ramping up inside, suffusing me and spinning through my veins.
“Oh,” I finally said.
A moment later, Noah was walking beside me as we crested the top stair on the porch. I was reaching for the doorknob when Noah caught my free hand. Glancing over, I lifted my brows in question.
“If you don’t want this, all you have to do is say so.”
His gaze searched mine, and my heart kicked out a wild rhythm. “I do, though,” I finally said.
A whining sounded from the other side of the door. My cheeks got hot. “First, I have to let Matilda out.”
Noah’s chuckle sent heat racing through me.
“Of course.” He opened the door, and Matilda dashed out, circling us excitedly in greeting before leaping off the stairs and running to the side of the snow-covered lawn she’d identified as her preferred bathroom area.
Noah waited with me on the porch, and we watched together as she ran through the snow, yipping and snapping at the snow that flew up around her. A few minutes later, I watched as Noah tucked crumpled paper under the logs he’d just placed in the fireplace before tossing the match in. In another moment, the flames were crackling to life.
After we came in, Matilda had happily taken the chew toy Noah tossed her way and settled on her bed in the corner of the living room, focused on the task at hand. Meanwhile, I was a bundle of nerves. Anxiety was tangling up inside my desire, and I didn’t like the feeling. I felt a little rusty when it came to sex. My bold proclamation earlier was now feeling ridiculous.
I lifted my wineglass off the coffee table and took a big gulp. The single margarita I’d had at the bar hadn’t done anything to soothe my rattled nerves. But then, I didn’t want any of my senses muddled. Perhaps I was nervous, but I wasn’t about to back down.
Noah turned toward me. His eyes landed on mine immediately. It felt as if sparks were lighting the air between us, snapping and crackling from the taut tension.
I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. I stared right back, lifting my chin slightly. “How come I never noticed you before?” he mused, almost as if to himself.
“Because you were four years ahead of me in school. Way out of my league,” I said with a little laugh. “There’s also the fact we haven’t seen each other in years.”
“Is that it then?” he murmured as he crossed the room.
My pulse kicked up a notch. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “Maybe.”
He took another stride and then sat on the couch beside me. “This couch wasn’t here before,” I said incongruously.
It was a large U-shaped sectional, a perfect size for the expansive room and situated facing the fireplace. With plenty of cushions, it was very comfortable. I didn’t even feel bad about Noah sleeping down here.
“No, we didn’t have this before. We just got it last year.” His arm stretched across my shoulders, and we fell quiet. Desire curled around us like wisps of smoke. While almost nothing was happening, my breath felt short and my pulse skittered out of control.
Noah’s fingers began tracing along my collarbone, where his hand rested on the edge of my shoulder. All of my awareness narrowed to that strip of skin under his fingertips. Who knew my collarbone was an erogenous zone? I certainly didn’t.
Heat radiated like licks of fire from that one point, and I almost moaned when his thumb dragged in a lazy stroke along the base of my throat. This was seduction by increments, and I didn’t know if I could take it.
Restless, I turned to him. “Kiss me,” I whispered in a raspy command.
“As you wish.” He held my gaze when his lips brushed over mine, and it felt as if lightning sizzled through me, every nerve set alight.
And then, we tumbled into kiss upon kiss upon kiss. It was all sensation—bold strokes of his tongue, lazy nibbles on my bottom lip, hot kisses dropped at the corners of my mouth, and then his lips sliding over mine again and his tongue claiming my mouth.
I was lost, spinning in a riptide of need and fierce desire. I distantly heard little sounds coming from my throat, a broken moan, a ragged whimper. Somehow, I found myself straddling him on the couch. I felt the hard press of his arousal just under my core, and I wanted him inside me. Now.
“Noah,” I gasped, “I need…”
I was lost in another devouring kiss as he cupped my breasts with his palms, his thumbs brushing back and forth across the tight peaks of my nipples. I tried again. “I need…”
He dipped his head, his mouth closing on my nipple through my shirt. With a gasp, my fingers speared his hair. My hips were rocking restlessly, and I felt as if I were already standing on the precipice of a cataclysmic release, which I knew would shake me to my core.
Then he lifted his head, his lips stringing kisses along my sensitive collarbone before he nipped lightly at my ear. I shivered all over, restless and needy in his lap. “Noah, I need…”
Apparently, I was a broken record.
He lifted his head, and I felt his palm slide up to cup my cheek. “Look at me, Sasha.”
His gravelly command had my eyes dragging open with an effort. His gaze was hot and deliciously commanding. “We’re not rushing. I’m in charge.”
My mouth dropped open. “What if I want to be in charge?” I retorted.