Page 83 of Play On

Noah moves to walk with the group, but I stop him. “I want to give you my tour of the library,” I say, unhooking the velvet rope. “It’s a perk I only give very, very special guests.”

Noah’s eyes lock with mine. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yes,” I say. “But first we have to take off our shoes. The carpet is from 1862, and it’s fragile.”

“Wow, that’s amazing,” he says, bending down to remove his shoes.

Once we have our shoes off, I step into the library. He moves to follow me, but I re-hook the rope to block his path. “Oh, I’m sorry, you’ll need to pay for admission, sir.”

A smile breaks across his beautiful face. “Is that so?”

“Yes. But only specific forms of payment are accepted.”

“Like twenty pounds?”

“No,” I say, smiling flirtatiously at him. “I don’t accept pounds. Or credit cards.”

“Interesting. That leaves limited options for payment.”

I put my hands on his face. “I am incredibly creative when it comes to forms of currency.”

“Like?” Noah asks, his voice low.

“One kiss please.”

He grins. “Just one? I’d expect an estate such as this to charge a lot more.”

I laugh. “I forgot to ask you if you would like the gardens included in your admission. Would you like to see the gardens? If so, that will be two kisses.”

He lowers his head and presses his lips against mine. “One,” he murmurs against my mouth. “And two.”

This time, Noah parts my lips and sweetly kisses me, his tongue doing a slow, leisurely exploration of my mouth that sends goosebumps rippling across my skin. Soon I can feel himsmile against my lips, and it makes me not only smile, but my pulse quicken, too.

He breaks the kiss, and I grin and unclick the rope. “Please, come in.”

Noah chuckles and steps inside the room. I hang up the rope behind him and then walk across the hardwood floor, stopping in front of the portrait of Lady Lily.

“You asked about her because she looks like me,” I say.

Noah moves beside me, his hand finding the small of my back. “I did. I remember you saying that she was the one redhead you could find in paintings.”

“I’ve always been attracted to this portrait because of that. Now, as you can see, there’s a yellow veil on the canvas. That’s damage from being in this room with a fireplace for all these years.”

Noah moves closer to the painting for a closer inspection. “I never would have noticed that.”

“It’s my training in art. I recognise stuff like that.” I’m about to make a self-deprecating joke about how I got to roll out and use my education for once, but in a moment of self-awareness, I stop myself.

Because I’m not a joke.

For a second, I lose all train of thought because I never would have had this realisation two weeks ago.

I glance at Noah.It’s because of the way he sees me.

He doesn’t see me that way, and his view of me has changed my view of myself.

“Violet?”

I snap out of my realisation and focus on Noah. “Hmm?”

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