Page 75 of Play On

“Trust me with who you really are,” I tell him.

His eyes lock with mine. I see hesitation there, but I don’t blink. I’m not letting this go, not this time.

Noah looks away for a moment. He clears his throat, and then turns back to me.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “Let me take Mila out, and then we can go sit on the terrace and talk.”

I’m not scared of what he’s going to tell me. Every instinct I have tells me this man in front of me is someone very special. Someone worth knowing, and someone I could come to care deeply about.

And if he’s willing to be vulnerable and trust me with his truth?

I know I’m with the right man.

He takes my hand and links it with his. We walk up the path towards the cottage, and when Noah unlocks the door, I can hear Mila barking on the other side. As soon as he opens it, she greets him, her tail swishing back and forth in excitement.

“Hello,” he says, bending down and rubbing her head. “Want to go outside?”

She barks happily.

We step back out the front door, and she runs across the grass to take care of business. As soon as Mila is done, we head back inside the house. Noah flips on the lights, and I gasp in awe.

There’s a short hallway in front of us, with doors on the right and the left. At the end is a flight of stairs that go down a level, and that is the view that has me gasping. There are massive floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, and they overlook the terrace and the sea.

“Oh, Noah,” I breathe, walking towards the stairs. “This view!”

“I know. It’s brilliant, isn’t it?”

I shift my attention back to him, and now that I can see him in the light, I can’t help but grin.

“What?” he asks, a crease appearing on the bridge of his nose.

“I’ve left my mark on you,” I say, brushing my thumb over the faint smear of red lipstick on his mouth. “But we must have been kissing pretty hard because even that has been smudged away.”

A knowing smile forms underneath my thumb, and my stomach flips upon sight of it.

“Yeah, you’re a bit smudgy, too. I’ll have to work on removing the rest of that later,” he teases. “Come on, let’s go sit outside. I can grab a blanket so you don’t get cold.”

I nod. We head down the stairs, with Mila eagerly leading the way, and Noah turns on more lights when we reach the floor. The rooms are very modern, with an open floor plan between the kitchen and living area. I step into the living room, admiring the sleek Scandinavian design with a grey sectional sofa and a round coffee table. There’s a cutting-edge electric fireplace mounted to the ivory stone wall, with a large flat-screen TV above that. There’s also a round kitchen table in front of the window, with a glass top, surrounded by four bucket chairs upholstered in ivory fabric.

“This is so nice,” I say, running my fingertips over the back of one of the chairs. I shift my gaze once again out of the large window, taking in the sea. “And this view is spectacular.”

“It’s a view I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to have,” Noah says.

I turn and find he’s staring at me. I feel my cheeks grow warm, and he moves over to the sofa, picking up a thick blanket that has been folded up and placed on one end of it. “Come on, let’s go sit outside,” he says.

Noah opens the back door, and I step out onto the terrace, which has an outdoor kitchen, a table, and chairs, and then a separate seating area, where there are two oversized chairs. He heads over to the chairs and sinks down in one.

I don’t even hesitate before making my move. “I think I’d prefer to sit in your lap this evening.”

“I think I’d prefer that, too,” he says softly.

I sit down on his lap, swinging my legs over to the side. Noah drapes the blanket over me, and I move my hands so they’re locked around the back of his neck. One of his hands moves around my waist, the other rests across the top of my legs. He drops his head and buries his face into my hair, nuzzling it.

“I don’t expect you to be perfect, Noah,” I say softly. “Nobody is. God knows you’ve heard all the ways I’m not.”

He lifts his head. “I see the way you look at me. When I say things or do things, you get this look in your eyes, Violet. But I can’t let you think I can’t be real, because believe me, I am.”

“Do you want to tell me why you say that?” I ask, caressing the back of his head with my hand in a comforting manner.

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