Page 140 of Fifty First Times (Sharing You 0.40)
“Isn’t that why you came here? To stop me from getting married?”
“No. Honestly, no, Noel. I came here because it was my last chance to make sure you knew how I felt—still feel—before it’s all really over. I never dreamed . . . You chose her once. I expected you to do it again.”
He frowns. “I was so angry at you that night of the party.” Noel reaches out and picks up my hand, threading our fingers together as though it hasn’t been years since we’ve touched, and the feel of him swishes that familiar blend of contentment and desire through me. “It took me a year to realize you didn’t love me. That we had never been, were never going to be serious to you. My relationship with Alice was solid—I felt good. Then you showed up and turned my life into kindling.”
“Why did you let me stay at your house? That was bonehead.”
Pale pink spots spread into his cheeks. “I thought it would prove I was over you, if you stayed and nothing happened. To you and to me. But you . . . it’s never easy. Anyway, I was in trouble with Alice for lying, feeling guilty about the fact that I couldn’t deny there was still something there. Most of all, I was angry because you’d chosen that moment—when I was finally moving on—to decide you cared.”
“What made you change your mind?” I whisper, blinking back tears and clinging to his hand.
“You’re different, but the same. The same passion, same spirit. But last night, I felt good with you. Talking and listening. When you told Alice that you hoped we’d be happy . . . I believed you.”
Every word swells my heart with a dangerous hope. “I meant it. After everything I put you through, you deserve to be happy.”
“I’m hoping that means you’re still volunteering to be the one to make that happen.”
Fear and exhilaration tingles euphoria through my limbs. This is happening. “Noel, I love you . . . I started to fall for you on our first date, I think, when you show
ed up early to buy the tickets so we wouldn’t have that awkward who’s-paying moment.”
His fingers squeeze mine so hard they pinch and start to go numb, transmitting pure, undiluted joy. “I love you, too.”
THE EMOTION OF having my love returned combined with the burst of outlandish pleasure of his hands on the bare skin of my legs made my eyes roll back in my head. Noel’s full mouth lands on mine, hot and demanding, his tongue parting my lips and playing with mine. I open my body the way I opened my heart and yank his shirt up over his head. My palms brush down over his hard chest, roaming the tight stack of his abs before diving for the button on his shorts. Those are gone a moment later, and he shoves me onto my back against the pillows, fingers digging into my hips.
“Jesus Christ, I’ve missed you.”
The raw desire in his words shudders through me, drips heat between my thighs, and I tighten my arms around his neck, desperate to reassure myself he’s really here with me. He rolls off to the side, tugging my almost-naked body against his, and electricity pops between our skin.
We go slow, kissing and touching, retracing lines grown over with time, opening familiar grooves, reveling in the rediscovery of a treasured possession.
When Noel runs a hand down my hip and cups my rear, lifting my hips level with his, it presses his hardness against my belly. His fingers trail lower, teasing me before dipping inside me.
He groans into my mouth. “My Tressa.”
The words spike my blood with desire until I feel drunk from wanting him, and as he works me toward a climax, I reach between us and wrap my hand around him. The lazy pleasure of the past minutes evaporates, his tongue plundering my mouth, hands busy as my heartbeat quickens. Noel’s breath pants hot on my neck, and he pushes me onto my back, positioning himself over me.
His fingers abandon their teasing strokes, and he lowers his mouth to my breasts, paying them such maddening attention I start to shake with need. He nudges my legs apart as his lips find mine again, hovering above me as he’s done so many times before. The knowledge that this time will be different flutters my heart.
Noel opens his eyes and grins, gaze full of impish delight. “Are you sure?”
It’s a question he’s asked me a hundred times before, and the instinct to tease back dies before it catches, dimmed by the enormity of the question, of the overhaul his life has taken in the past twenty-four hours.
This is everything I’ve wanted, but in this moment, I’m scared he doesn’t. Or that he won’t tomorrow when he wakes up with me and not her and wonders what in the fuck he’s done.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Tressa. I’ll never do that.” He closes his eyes, running a hand down my neck and cupping my breast, his thumb tracing firm circles. “You terrify me. But you also challenge me. I want to wake up every morning feeling alive.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“Yes, gorgeous girl. This is where I want to be.” He grins, the serious expression dissolving. “Well, not quite where I want to be.”
When Noel pushes inside me for the first time, I cry. I can’t help it. There’s too much past, too little present, and the idea of an endless supply of future undoes me. He groans and presses his forehead to mine.
I tip up my hips, wrapping my legs around his back, and invite him deeper. Noel lowers his lips and kisses my neck, then the hollow of my collarbone, and my body tightens around him as pleasure shudders through me.
I roll him over until I straddle his hips, moving back and forth as he throbs inside of me. Our pace increases, our bodies in unspoken agreement. Sweat beads up between our skin and our breath mingles in panted gasps. Ecstasy starts in my center and builds, rolling outward until my limbs tremble, until I ride the waves of bliss with my face buried against his neck, sobbing by the end.
