Page 23 of Catching My Dreams

“Tell that to Ella’s face,” Chris chimed in, making them all chuckle except for Riley, who winced.

The doorbell rang before Ella could tell them she was perfectly fine. When no one else moved to answer the door, she bit back a groan and trudged out of the room to let in the missing member of their party.

“Warner,” she bit out after opening the front door and finding a stack of board games in front of her.

“Montgomery.”

Noah’s reply came from behind the wavering pile of boxes. He started turning, the ten or so board games shifting to the side with him.

“Want to make yourself useful and help me with the—”

His words cut off when their eyes met, and Ella stumbled back when Clue, Monopoly, and Catan lurched and sent the whole stack falling toward her. They crashed at her feet, but Noah didn’t seem to give even an iota of a fuck about them as he stepped over them and gently grabbed her face, his fingers sinking into her hair and tilting her head up.

Ella sucked in a sharp breath, her body instinctively swaying toward his. He was so close that she could see every one of the darker blue flecks in his ocean-colored eyes and feel the touch of his breath on her skin.

Every thought fled her mind. There was nothing but the feel of his fingers in her hair and his palms cupping her face. Nothing but the heat of his hands on her skin.

“Who the fuck did this to you?” Noah growled. His thumb carefully traced over the discolored flesh below her eye, and his stormy gaze seared into the mark.

Ella blinked, her lips parting but no words leaving her.

“Ella,” he pressed, his eyes clashing with hers and demanding an answer. “Who did this to you?”

“Riley.” The name was a hitched whisper.

It was Noah’s turn to blink at her, his eyebrows pulling together into a frown.

“We were at a self-defense class, and she accidentally caught me with her elbow,” Ella explained, her voice still low and soft as though she were afraid that speaking any louder would pop the warm and heady bubble they currently existed within.

“Riley did this to you?”

Ella nodded.

Noah closed his eyes and sighed out a breath of relief, letting his forehead tip down to rest against hers.

Ella swallowed.

And within one blink of her eyes and the next, the bubble shattered. Noah wrenched his hands away from her face as though her skin was coated in acid. He backed up, nearly tripping over the discarded board games.

“Shit,” he muttered, bending down to gather them up.

She couldn’t help the flash of pain that went through her at his need to get away from her, but Noah was too busy stuffing crinkled notes into the Monopoly box to see it in her expression.

She felt like she’d been slapped with a blast of bitingly cold air, the chill chasing away the heat that had suffused her body only seconds earlier.

“Let me help,” Ella offered, leaning down and picking up the property cards that had fallen from the box.

“It’s fine.” His hands got in her way, hastily grabbing up the rest of the cards and fake banknotes. “I’ve got it.”

Ella bit the inside of her cheek. “Fine,” she replied, and the tremble in her voice revealed how much of a failure she’d been at hiding her hurt.

Noah’s eyes lifted, and she saw something worse than anger in them. She saw pity. “Ella—”

“We’ll be inside when you’re done cleaning up your mess,” she told him in an as steady and cold a tone as possible. “Don’t leave any of your shit on my front steps, Warner.”

His lips pressed into a thin line. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Montgomery. We both know you’re the one who likes to leave things behind.”

Ella felt her forehead crease with a frown. “What are you talking about?”

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