Page 65 of Falling for Fury

I am so completely gone for this man.

Addison

“Come with me to Chicago next week.”

My head snaps up so quickly I almost sprain it. “Wait… really?”

“Why would I be joking?” He chuckles at me as he twirls his fingers in my hair. My head rests on his chest as we lay naked in my bed. The last few weeks have been a euphoric bliss of Noah and I. After the night in the bath, Noah sat with me for an hour, adding extra hot water as I remembered why I loved them so much. Plying me with wine and strawberries, making comfortable conversation. He laughed with me, teased me, kissed me, and said all of those dirty words that have me melting in the palm of his hands. I have managed to keep the familiar dark and miserable part of my mind at bay since then, and it feels like I’ve been floating in a dream. A dream I hope no one wakes me from.

“You want me to meet your mom? Why?”

He chuckles at my expression, his eyes continue to caress my body, because that is how it feels when he looks at me. They burn soft teasing paths over every inch that they cover. I can never watch him do this without instantly needing to jump his bones. “Because, could be fun.” He shrugs, but there is more in his eyes than what he says. Words and feelings we seem to have skipped around of late. The words I feel and see in his gestures and hear in his sweet nothings, but words we haven’t had the courage to say. I mean, we haven’t even had the courage to label this thing between us. Also, too afraid to touch those feelings, I narrow my eyes skeptically.

“Fun?”

“Yeah, could show you where I grew up, where all the cool kids hung out. Where I had my first kiss, the first time I crashed my bike…” His tone trails off, eyes darting around before he drags them to mine, holding his heart right in their center.

“You know… the normal things a guy would show their… girlfriend.” Uncertainty laces his words, vulnerability on full display across his face.

Girlfriend. My swallow is audible and my heart races. I want this—I do. I do, right? Yes, I do. Just the fact that it is here, in front of me, actually happening, and so far no bad repercussions, is making me think perhaps this is one of those times it’s too good to be true, like landing a job at a big law firm before being let go, having a mind-blowing sexual awakening before I’m ghosted. Peak of a high right before a severe low. You know, those kinds of things.

“Okay, before you spiral on the worst-case scenarios, let me be clear.” His words sting, and I flinch, but decide to hear him out. I move to sit up, bringing the sheets up to cover my naked body, and he almost looks disappointed.

“I know the things we said at the start still hover around us like plagues we can’t shake, but I need you to know that I am serious. This isn’t a fling. I don’t do this ever and never have.” He gestures between us, his eyes never leaving mine. He isn’t wrong; these last few weeks have felt like anything but a fling. “I might not do relationships, Addy, but I sure as shit do you.” I can’t even stop myself—the laugh tumbles out and I slap a hand over my mouth. He levels me with a deadpan grin as he realizes what he said.

“Really?”

“Do-you.” A full-blown laugh sputters from my lips as I try to remember I am twenty-five and not five. “Sorry, sorry… continue.” I cough to clear my throat and mind of childish thoughts. He smirks, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at me.

“What I mean, you child, is that if the definition of this is ‘a serious relationship’, then I’m all in. Because I want it. I want all of it. With you. As much as I can have. And if you don’t want labels, that’s cool, too. I just want you for myself and I want to shout it from the rooftops.”

Swooning.

His expression morphs from laughing at my childish jokes to something so deadly serious. His face and eyes are at odds with each other. The latter giving me his entire heart on a plater, the former is all stern strength and assurance. His declaration is a huge step, but sigh.

“Addison?” His voice is laced with nervous energy.

Landing my hands on either cheek and climbing onto his lap, straddling him as the blanket falls away, leaving nothing between our skin.

“I do-you too, Noah.” His head shoots up, his relief and joy look like it is out of a golden retriever sales brochure, and it spears me right in the chest, my organ in there restricting intensely.

“I didn’t… scare you?” He brings his arms around my lower back, and I let my arms fall behind his neck, playing with the ends of his hair.

“Please. I always knew you were obsessed with me.” I give him a playful wink and that deep chuckle of his vibrates my chest, making me instantly ready for him.

“Oh, shortcake, you’re an arrogant little thing, aren’t you?” His smirk should be downright illegal as he pulls me closer to his chest and lowers me to the bed, his thickness instantly awake and already pressing at my entrance.

“I mean, I get it. I can’t imagine not being obsessed with me.” My words are barely more than strangled moans, aware of every inch of him that hums with warm desire, and he reaches a hand between us.

“Oh, baby, I think it might be you who is obsessed with me.” The words are warm syrup over my skin as his fingers find out that if any part of me is obsessed with him, it’s the place currently begging for him.

“Noah.”

“You moaning my name haunts me in my dreams, Addison.”

“I need you.”

“I know, Addy, I know.” He places soft kisses to my cheeks, across my jawline, and my collarbone. He goes to pull away. “Wait.”

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