Then eventually Noah joined Rick, who was already with Wilde & Wicked…and never looked back. They sent their mom the money she needed to live—a hell of a lot, but they never complained—and reveled in their success. Never once having any sort of loving, nurturing relationship with their parents or any other family. Hell, most of the time they fought like cats and dogs.
So a loving, long-term relationship with a woman sounded like pure fantasy to Noah. A fantasy he definitely didn’t want to indulge in.
“That’s all my parents have ever tried to provide me,” Natalie said, her soft voice tearing him from his thoughts. He watched her, how she bent her head, her long, dark blonde hair falling forward, her gaze downcast. “They were so overprotective, it was ridiculous. I was always a good girl—I always did what they said. Except for one time.”
“What did you do that one time?” He had to know what pushed her to do something naughty. Good girls weren’t his type. He liked them bad. The bad ones were easy. They’d do anything he ever asked them to.
But there was something about this particular good girl that intrigued him. Corrupting the good girl had never been on his radar, yet this one…he had a feeling she’d be fun.
Natalie lifted her head, her steady gaze meeting his. “I lied to them my senior year in high school. I told them I was spending the night at my best friend’s house, but really, a bunch of us snuck out and went to a concert. A band my parents forbade me to even listen to on my iPod. I wasn’t allowed to own their songs while I lived in my parents’ house, they hated them that much.”
His skin prickled with awareness and he had a feeling he already knew the answer. “What band was it?”
Her expression completely neutral, she admitted, “Wilde & Wicked.”
Chapter Five
Natalie watched as a myriad of emotions crossed Noah’s expressive face. He appeared fascinated, taken aback, slightly horrified and the tiniest bit pleased at her confession.
She couldn’t really believe she actually just said what she did. How lame was she, admitting that the worst thing she’d ever done was go to a Wilde & Wicked concert? All while eating ice cream with the freaking lead singer of Wilde & Wicked on a Friday night in Vegas.
Yeah. She was beyond lame. Any other woman would have him between her legs, working his notorious magic. The man was supposedly good with his hips, and not just on the stage.
So why the hell was she wasting time eating dessert with Noah Wilde when she could be doing something a lot more interesting?
“How were we?” he finally asked.
“Huh?” She frowned, wondering what he was talking about. Thinking about getting him between her thighs was messing with her head. She couldn’t focus, having that gorgeous face staring back at her. The entire night had felt like a dream so far. She’d even taken to pinching herself every few minutes, seeing if she’d wake up.
But she was already awake. This was all really happening and she still couldn’t freaking believe it.
“The concert you disobeyed your parents to attend,” he explained, his expression neutral. He leaned his forearms on the edge of the table and laced his fingers together. “How were we?”
“You were amazing,” she admitted softly.
Noah raised his brows. “We didn’t disappoint?”
“No way.” She shook her head. “You sounded so good live. My friends and I were beside ourselves, screaming and yelling the entire night.”
She remembered how full of adrenaline she’d been that evening. How sneaky she’d felt, taking off with her friends to Los Angeles, swigging contraband wine coolers they’d stolen from one of her friends’ house, a little drunk and a lot excited when they finally made their way into the stadium. The moment Noah Wilde had strutted on stage, she’d been entranced. Lost to the music, the sound of his voice, the way he moved his body, she’d stared at him the entire ninety minutes of that concert. She recalled feeling jealous of the girls he pulled onstage with him.
More than anything, she’d wanted to be one of those girls. It hadn’t mattered that she’d been seventeen and hadn’t even tongue-kissed a boy yet—she’d felt a yearning for Noah to the very depths of her soul.
Eventually she’d blown it off as teenage puppy love. More like puppy lust. And why was it called puppy love anyway, because that sounded sorta gross when she was talking about an actual guy.
Her mind was veering way out of control.
“How old were you?” Noah asked, his deep voice breaking through her thoughts.
“What? Oh, I was seventeen.” And she’d been super horny, though deeply confused by the horniness. She’d never experienced anything like it before. None of the boys at school made her feel like that. The boys she spent time with in her church youth group most definitely never made her feel like that, all anxious and tingly and overwhelmed.
Sort of like she was feeling right at this very moment.
“Seventeen.” Noah tapped his lips thoughtfully with his index finger, regarding her thoughtfully, his intense gaze locked on her. “Young and pretty and oh-so innocent.”
That described her perfectly. Well, maybe not the pretty part, because she’d always felt plain next to everyone else. Her pale skin and dirty blonde hair made her feel like she looked washed out. Boring.
Boring, boring, boring.