Page 59 of Noah

“I am not,” she replied in affront.

“Yes, you are.”

“I am not. Take it back.”

“No way. I’m planning to give people fair warning!” Adrienne pinched him and Noah laughed. “See violent.”

“Very funny,” she muttered, her shoulders shaking. She shook her head soberly and said, “Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re trying to distract me.”

Noah sighed and rubbed his hand down her back. He was enjoying their banter, but she was right. He avoided answering because he was only interested in her.

He had a feeling if he said that Adrienne wouldn’t be happy.

“I will try harder,” he promised. “And if it helps you believe I’m settling down here…” Which made him sound like a baby being soothed. “Then I will seriously consider what I want to do.” She started to lift her head away from him. He held her there, stopping her from moving away, whispering, “If you promise me one thing.”

“What is it?” she asked curiously.

“You do the same.” She didn’t see art as a career choice.

Noah could sense how she loved it. She wouldn’t get so lost in it if it wasn’t her passion and he knew she’d make beautiful art. The strange female couldn’t hide her emotions. He doubted she hid them in her art, and he wanted to see what she created with those emotions.

“This isn’t about me,” she groaned.

“No, but it should be. You keep thinking about jobs and college. Don’t you think you should give yourself and your art a chance?”

“I do give myself chances,” she replied, her chest tight with hurt.

He wanted to claw himself for wounding her and his beast agreed, growling at him.

Noah tilted her head and kissed her lips gently, slowly.

He nipped her lips, and she opened up to him, curling into his body.

This was what they were supposed to be. He knew there was only room for one person in his arms, and that person had fire and art in her soul.

He pulled back and murmured, “I’m sorry. I just meant you should pursue your art.”

“I’ve never thought about it…not as a career choice.” She rubbed her nose on his chest and even through his shirt he could feel how warm she was.

His body was attuned to hers. The tiny hairs on his body stood at attention, and his senses stretched to the max until it felt like he would never get rid of her. And he immediately scowled at that thought—he didn’t want to get rid of her.

She was like molten fire in his veins. His heart continued to beat because her name was emblazoned on it. His mind only functioned because she was his…in his dreams, in his reality, and in every way that he could think. She was his!

His possessive thoughts weren’t surprising. His lie had become his truth.

No way to know if his original lie put the idea there or if the lie was built on feelings from the start.

The foundations of his thoughts and feelings cemented into something deeper and needier until he couldn’t breathe with how narrowly focused they were.

It was impossible not to feel her when she tugged so tightly at him, so he spun her in a tight circle, so she didn’t see his possessive thoughts.

She laughed. He swayed with her. “If we have the chance to grasp something we should, right?”

Adrienne’s hands tightened on his. “We should try,” she whispered so low he almost didn’t catch it.

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