“No, I’m not all right,” she blurted. “I’m pissed. I’m pissed as hell. We’ve gone through weeks of work to get your ankle stable. You go to the X Games in a week, Noah, a week. And you start a fight with Goliath? What in the hell is wrong with you?”
Just voicing the reality wound her tighter. But Noah hardly seemed ruffled as he pressed a button that lifted the privacy glass so the driver wouldn’t have to listen to them argue.
“This is your career, your livelihood, your life,” she said. “You could have reinjured yourself. You could have ruined all the work we’ve done. You could have seriously killed your career, for what? What were you thinking?”
He slouched against the seat at an angle, body loose, looking so goddamned sexy in that suit, his hair mussed, a confused expression carving that vertical line between his brows. “I was thinking that the fucker was abusing you. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to stand by and let him have his way until your head cleared enough to set him straight.”
“Just because I didn’t go in for the kill at the first sign of trouble doesn’t mean I wasn’t prepared to do it,” she lied. “I was fine, Noah.”
But she wasn’t fine, and they both knew it. She wasn’t even close to fine. The adrenaline was wearing off, her concern for his well-being fading now that she saw with her own two eyes that he was in one piece, free of pain, and the source of her shakes had transitioned from anger to fear. Fear of what would have happened if Noah hadn’t come into the hallway. Fear of who saw the exchange and what rumors that would bring. Fear of what sick game Phillips would play now.
“Dammit, Noah. All you did was piss him off even more. Now he’s going to think I’m not strong enough to stand up to him, which is only going to give him the green light to come after me with twice the vengeance. I should never have come to this stupid event. Fucking Drake. Every time I listen to him, my life goes into a tailspin.”
Her brain felt like a ball of strung-out Silly Putty, and her emotions bounced between anger and guilt and fear and shame…
Noah leaned toward her, sliding one arm behind her shoulders, the other beneath her knees, and drew her across the seat toward him.
“Stop it.” Julia pushed at his shoulder. “I don’t need a savior, dammit.” But all her squirming and struggling in the small space only succeeded in repositioning herself from sitting on his thighs to straddling his lap. “I’m fine.”
But his arms held her tight. “Maybe I’m not fine.” He slid his hands over her hips, up her sides, and cupped her face. His gaze was deep and dark and overflowing with emotions—anger, residual fear, lust. “Because seeing you with him scared the ever-loving shit out of me.”
He pulled her head down and fitted their lips together. Julia tried to pull back, but Noah slipped his hand behind her neck and held her there as he swept his tongue into her mouth. His other hand curved around her hips, tucking her tight against the hardening rod of heat behind his zipper.
His tongue swirled in hungry waves; lips suckled and sipped. Julia tasted lime and desperation and raw Noah. Heat gathered between her legs; pressure climbed. His arms were tight, his body warm, his mouth hungry. He was holding her, loving her, all without question or accusation. That combined with the adrenaline still pumping through her body set Julia on fire.
She leaned in, sinking her hands into his hair and scraping her nails along his scalp the way he loved. Then she pressed the front of her body to his, wrapped her arms around his neck, and tilted her head to take more of his mouth. Noah groaned in approval, tightened his arms, and lifted his hips, rubbing his stiff cock against her heat.
But it wasn’t enough. Her body raged with sensation, and she needed more. She pulled out of the kiss and went for his belt, button, and zipper. She needed him inside her, filling her. Needed his arms around her. Needed the safety he offered. The unconditional acceptance. Need, need, need. She needed so much—and it all came from one source: Noah.
Noah grabbed her wrists before she reached skin. “I’m not doing another one-off with you, Julia. I want more. Need more. I care about you, goddammit.”
Lust made her mind float and fizz. “This is all we have. You said yourself, we live four hours apart—”
“Give me the rest of your time here. One hundred percent together every minute of the time we have left.”
Why? She had to swallow hard to keep the word from coming out. Sure it was only another week or so, but after what he’d learned about her tonight, she didn’t understand why he’d want more than casual sex without strings.
But one of his hands moved beneath her dress where it rode up on her thighs, his fingers slipping beneath the band of her panties and sliding over her ass. His hands were warm and strong, and Julia sighed with the sensation, until his fingers darted directly to her heat and stroked her opening, making her groan with an urgent hunger. Everything inside her ached with the craving she’d suppressed for weeks, but now she needed his comfort, his trust, his belief. She needed to feel him inside her, filling that empty space that lived at the center of her chest, the one she’d ignored for too long.
Leaning away, she reached for his boxers again.
Noah caught her wrists and held them tight while his open, hungry gaze drilled into hers. “Mine,” he said. “For the time you’re here.”
The thought both thrilled and terrified her. Everything in her mind said no. But her body, her heart, her soul screamed yes. Her brain urged her to make him promise he’d be discreet, but he hadn’t questioned her about Phillips, and he deserved the same unconditional belief.
She nodded her answer.
Something flickered in his eyes, something dark and sexy. His hands released hers to grip her face firmly, his gaze lowering to her mouth. “Say it.”
She drew a shaky breath. “I’m yours.”
He exhaled in a whoosh, as if he’d been holding it back, and tension ebbed from his shoulders. He kissed her hard, his hunger loose and raging, only breaking out of the kiss to pull a condom from his pocket.
Julia reached inside his boxers, curled her fingers around his thick, hot length, and drew his cock free. Her mouth watered. Her pussy clenched. Her heart spiraled into a knot. She’d never felt as desperate or vulnerable as she did now, needing to feel him inside her to right her world again.
Noah must have felt the same urgency, because he rolled a condom on quickly, pushed her panties aside to clear her opening, and pulled her down onto his cock, impaling her in one thrust. Julia’s throat closed around a gasp. Her fingers dug into the shoulders of his jacket. Sensation swamped her, and she closed her eyes and arched. Noah stilled, breathing hard.
He drew her mouth to his with a murmured “Mine,” against her lips before he kissed her—long, slow, deep kisses that made Julia wet and restless.