And I hate it. I hate that the only man who can make my heart race is the one who broke it not long after sleeping with me.
Even if he didn’t technically do anything wrong, the bruise on my heart is still too fresh to excuse his actions or words.
When nothing reduces the ache between my legs due to Noah’s fixed gaze on me, I’m glad the group has scattered, with the guys finding someone to go home with, and my brother, who left a few minutes ago, with his girlfriend.
I was about to leave with Aurelia when she got wasted, but Sebastian intervened and offered to take her to the hotel she’s staying at with Jackson. I get the sense that there’s something going on between them, and it worries me because she has a boyfriend, even if I think dating a goat would be better than dating him.
I sometimes think she hides something about her relationship with Jackson, but I know better than to poke around when I myself have secrets that are best kept hidden. If she ever wanted totalk, she knows she has me. At least I hope she does.
I’m almost done with the night, too, and I plan to make a neat exit when I feel Noah walk out the back entrance ofThe Tapwith hurried steps, like a bull charging at a red flag.
While I’m staring at his retreating figure, a tissue paper flies over the counter to me. With scrunched brows, I pick it up. The words on it make my blood run cold.
‘I’m watching you.’
I look around the bar, searching for the one it belongs to because it certainly can’t be for me. When I don’t find anyone, I shrug and leave the tissue on the counter.
I apologize to Dave and grab my purse to go back home, wishing him the best night and forgetting about the bizarre thing entirely. I head over to the back entrance even though I know better than to do that.
Not that I’m going after Noah. He might’ve already left, seeing that he has no reason to stick around.
Shoving the back door open, I let the gentle breeze cool down my body, sliding through my phone to get an Uber.
“What are you doing here?”
Noah’s voice has me squealing like a pig with wide eyes as I swivel on my heels to look at him, to find him leaning against a wall. “You scared me,” I breathe with my hand on my chest, trying to calm down my suddenly racing heart.
His angry eyes glare at me as he repeats, “What are you doing here, Andie?”
I roll my eyes at him, knowing that he hates it. His eyes flare at the action, his jaw clenching as he holds his words back. “Waiting for an Uber. It’s easier to get them on the back of the bar,” I lie through my teeth, cringing internally, because even the animals know it’s easier to hail one at the front of the bar.
“That’s bullshit,” he growls, taking a step closer, his hands in a fist beside him as the air makes his wavy hair fall over his forehead.
My chest burns with indignation. I know that! But he doesn’t get to act all high and mighty when he’s the one who pushed me away. I get that we’re not dating. But I would’ve thought that we were at least friends with the way we had been spending time in and outside the bedroom.
I take a step forward, my hands crossed beneath my breasts. His eyes drop to thembefore getting back at me, and if I didn’t know it was anger in his gaze, I’d have thought it was heat.
“Why don’t you mind your own business, Noah? And leave mine to me?” I spit, tilting my head and narrowing my eyes at him in false bravado. “After all, that’s what you said, didn’t you? I have no right to pry into your life, and you don’t get to ask me questions.” I point my index finger at my chest.
“Oh, were you here, hoping that yourdatewould follow you?” he taunts, his muscles ready to tear through his shirt with the way they’re flexing. He says date like it’s a curse.
He has no idea the hell this week has been for me. How much I have missed him, even if I resented every second of it, even if he hurt me.
So, him saying that I was hoping to get some action with some random guy I met today has my heart dropping low in my stomach. That hurt soon turns to anger. And I embrace it. “So, what if I did, huh? What if I let Dave take me home tonight? I was waiting here for him anyway,” I shrug my shoulders, letting my anger take the reins and spout utterly false nonsense.
A deep grumble emanates from his chest, andhe charges at me. He hauls me by my shoulders and twirls me, pressing my back against the hard concrete as the length of his body touches with the entire length of mine.
Arousal skates down my spine as an honest-to-God gasp falls out of my mouth, my hands finding purchase on his very warm and very muscled chest that flexes under my touch—the chest that brushes against my piercings, sending a sensitive shiver through me.
I tilt my head up to look at him. “What are you doing?” I seethe, despite the way my heart hammers in my chest, hoping he won’t be able to tell.
“Punishing you!” he growls, his eyes turned into slits at me as if I have personally offended him and not the other way around.
“What do you me—” Before I can complete my question, he interrupts me in a rather caveman way.
Because oh my holy canoly in pan!
Noah slaps the inside of my thigh, causing goosebumps to erupt on my skin when he palms my thick thighs, with his other hand caging me against the wall. My eyes widen in horror—or pleasant surprise, as my libido would say—as Ipeer up at him through my lashes.