Page 27 of Catching My Dreams

“Do you want me?”

She sucked in a surprised breath, but he could see her racing pulse beating in her neck. “No.”

He smiled, lowering his head to whisper his response in her ear. “Liar.”

She might not have liked him, and she certainly didn’t think he was good enough for her, but her body betrayed her. She wanted him. There was no way she would have slept with him before if she didn’t at least want him in the carnal sense of the word. She could hate him as much as she wanted to, but she couldn’t deny that she’d come alive under his touch.

She shoved against his chest, and Noah allowed a fraction of space more between their bodies. If she asked him to leave, he would, but he needed her to acknowledge that what had happened between them had been real.

“And what about you, Warner?” Her voice was filled with venom. “Do you want me?”

He didn’t hesitate. There was no point in lying. “You know I do.”

She blinked, surprise wiping the anger from her face.

He lifted his hand and stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “I told you that day that I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

“You were lying,” she said, but the accusation was too breathy to sound certain.

“I never lied to you. I wanted you, Ella.” His eyes lowered to the lips he knew tasted like heavenly sin. “I still do.”

“You used me.”

Noah shook his head. “No. I would never do something like that.”

She closed her eyes, pain etched onto her face in a way that made Noah want to wrap her in his arms and hold her until the expression disappeared. “You just wanted to soften me up, so I’d agree when you asked me to spiritwalk to find Asher.”

Noah swallowed the growing lump in his throat. He hated that she believed that. “Ella, look at me,” he said, the demand more of a soft plea.

She opened her eyes, but there was so much wariness in her gaze and far too little trust.

“I—” He cut himself off before he could say the three words she would undoubtedly scoff at and reject. “I came here that day because I felt terrible for how I reacted after finding Asher’s watch in your bedroom.”

His mistrustful reaction had less to do with being suspicious of Ella being involved in Asher’s disappearance and more to do with him thinking Ella and Asher might have slept together, after which Asher had left his watch in her room. But either way, he’d acted badly, and he regretted it.

“I wanted to apologize to you, but I also wanted to talk to you about how I felt about you.”

Her lips parted. “How you felt about me?”

“How I still feel about you.” His fingers sank into her hair. “I want you, Ella. I want you so badly that it hurts to look at you because I know I can’t have you. I want you so badly that I can barely breathe when you’re around.”

Her eyes searched his, flitting back and forth in time with his out-of-control pulse. “How do I know you’re not messing with me?”

Noah sighed soundlessly and rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t know how to prove I’d never do that. All I can say is that every moment I can look at you but not touch you is torture. That every second I can look at those lips and not kiss them is agony. I can’t even escape you in my dreams because you haunt me there too.”

He’d begun closing the gap between their lips before he’d finished speaking, and when the last word fell between them, he eradicated that small space. His mouth wasn’t gentle as it pressed against hers. It was demanding and brutal and contained every ounce of desire that had been building up in him since that day in her bedroom.

And just like on that day, she met his ferocity with her own. Her tongue stroked into his mouth, sending a charge of electricity and heat down Noah’s spine and earning a groan from him. She swallowed the sound, devouring it before biting down on his bottom lip and tugging on it hard enough for Noah to worry she was going to break his skin.

But she didn’t. She kissed the spot better before tugging on his shirt to pull him closer against her. And Noah, well, Noah lost the last semblance of control he had.

9

Noah’s hands lowered to Ella’s waist, and he lifted her onto the table as though she weighed only a handful of feathers. The move sent heat to her already warm core.

She moaned, the sound half-smothered by his lips. Before the noise could end, his hands were on her, his fingers pressing into her heated skin and parting her legs.

Ella didn’t resist as he stepped between her parted thighs. She probably should have, but not even an earthquake would have been able to stop her from threading her fingers into his hair and pulling him closer.

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