Page 26 of Negotiating Tactics

He didn’t answer, at least not at first.

Instead, he tugged at one of the coils that had come out of my ponytail, then trailed his fingers along my cheek.

He brushed his thumb across my forehead, then let his fingers linger there.

“I can see that big brain of yours working,” he said.

“How do you know my brain is big?” I said, too late realizing I sounded like a fucking moron.

A slow, lazy smile crossed his face, showing off his adorable dimple. “Call it a hunch,” he said, his deep voice the most delicious rasp.

He stroked the space between my eyebrows again, his calloused thumb worrying my skin and driving me to distraction.

Alex, or at least the Alex that I thought I was, would have slapped his hand away.

Whoever this woman I was now wanted to beg for more.

But there was also curiosity at play, curiosity that I wanted to be satisfied.

“You were explaining something?” I asked.

“No, actually you were explaining something,” he said. “What happened there?”

I scoffed, suddenly feeling a spike of anger.

Went to move but was stopped by his hand on my shoulder.

His grip wasn’t tight, but even still, I could feel the strength in his hand and the way he held that strength in check.

It showed control, the kind I hadn’t expected from Noah, not when I had looked at him for the first time. When he’d come into my apartment, he’d seemed wild, but I realized now that that was a front.

Everything Noah did was calculating and calculated, which only made what he was doing now that much worse.

I felt a hot prick of tears, but I refused to let them fall.

Still, to think that I had been so stupid.

To think I had been on the verge of taking what he’d offered.

“It’s nothing. I just came to my senses,” I said, my voice lacking all inflection.

“About what?” he asked.

“For a second there, I believed you might actually…you know.”

“You know?” he said, the dimple appearing again as he pressed his full lips into a thin line.

I rolled my eyes. “You know,” I repeated.

He stood still, and even though he was a stranger to me, I somehow knew he wouldn’t move, wouldn’t do anything else at all until I gave in.

Still, I pushed back. “Are you insisting I say it?”

“Yes, I am,” he said.

I huffed. “Fine, dick. I was going to say I actually believed that you wanted me. But I should have known better, especially after?—”

I cut off quickly, glad that caught myself but knowing Noah hadn’t missed it.

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