Page 133 of The Addict

“Stocks?” Noah asked playfully, and I smiled at the inside joke.

“No, Noah. Not stocks.”

“Well, will you have any…samples…leftover?”

Instantly, I clutched the phone tighter to my ear. Noah was way too smart for his own good sometimes. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Fuck’s sake, Silas, it was a joke. Don’t crease your tie.”

Something in me told me that it was not, in fact, a joke.

“You sure you can’t stop on your way? I can make it quick, I promise.” I could picture him licking his pretty lips from the other side.

“I wish I could.”

“Ah. Some other time then.” The disappointment in his voice was palpable.

“Hey,” I said. I was unable to stop myself.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be with you.” This was the truth.

Noah exhaled audibly on the other end of the line.

“I get it, Silas. This is important to your uncle and your business, so you have to go. We were just going to fuck anyways. It can wait.”

His labeling didn’t sit well with me. His statement that we were “just going to fuck” bothered me, but I wasn’t sure why. I knew Noah well enough that when he was pissed, he would twist the knife a bit. He chose to vent his anger in deliberate, passive aggressive ways.

“You’re upset,” I added, wishing I could figure him out. Or at least figure out what I needed to do to rectify the situation.

“No, I’m not. I’ll talk to you later. If I have my phone, that is. Damian is threatening to cut it off.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Click.

Chapter thirty-seven

No Denying

DELANE

Istopped when I saw him, reclining nonchalantly against the cool metal as though it were his most natural position. Noah scanned through the crowd with his gaze, and I beamed, knowing that it was me he was searching for. It had to be. He was at our lunch table, waiting for me. I mean, it wasn’t technically our table, but we had started meeting at the same one, about the same time each day after our classes ended. He was going to Composition I, and I was heading from Chemistry to Composition II, so we had about an hour in between our next classes. Since he entered school later than me, we didn’t actually have any classes together, which made this time that much more important to me.

With the exception of the work I completed over the summer, this was officially my third semester of college. It was kind of nice because I was able to help him with some of the topics I already knew well. Noah’s professor was one of my favorites last year. I still had all of my notes, so I’d make it a point to share with him and help him study.

Really, though, I just wanted to be around him more.

“Hello, Noah,” I said happily, approaching him to sit down.

His eyes sparkled and he smiled. “Good morning, Delane. How are you?”

“Just fine,” I answered with a nod, ushering him to sit with me. “You?”

“Unchanging,” he replied.

I raised an eyebrow. “You sound a little bored.”