Page 16 of Light Me Up

But her frustration made her feel guilty. He couldn’t be blamed, not after Midlands and what happened to all of them a couple months ago. The danger from Obsidian was real, and Noah was absolutely justified in his hyper-vigilance.

But oh, how she just wished he could take an occasional break from that mindset.

She dropped the soap, and banged her head picking it up, which didn’t help her mood. Awwww. Poor little her. Such hardship. Bring out the violins.

She worried about him. Noah’s stress level just kept steadily intensifying, and she had no idea what his upper limit was. Or what would happen whenhe reached it.

Caro toweled herself off and used the hair dryer on her dark, curly mane for as long as she could stand it. She shook the damp waves out over her shoulders to finish drying on their own, shrugging on one of the thick terrycloth robes that thehotel provided.

Noah had made inroads on the food while she’d been in the shower. The amount he ate never ceased to amaze her. And he was a slab of solid muscle. Not a pinch of fat to be found on the guy.

He needed a lot of fuel to keep that massive engine purring along. And what an engine it was. He still had only the towel around his hips. His massivechest was bare.

His gaze flicked up as she approached, dragging over her body. “I liked the other robe better,” he said.

“I’m still kind of wet.” She sat down and watched him polish off a slice of chewy bread piled with prosciutto and pecorino cheese. The plate before him was heaped with eggshells, fruit rinds, pastry crumbs.He’d been busy.

“Yeah?” Noah licked his fingers. “I like you wet. Correction. Iwantyou wet.”

His smoldering gaze made her skin tingle with awareness. “Oh, shut up. Are you feeling better?”

“Theanswer is yes.”

The sensual awareness sharpened into a sweet hot ache of hunger low in her body. She knew that Noah could see it. Every detail, painted in the colors around her.

Whatever. All she could do was behave with what dignity she could.

“Looks like you sampled everything.” She selected a crimson strawberry to nibble.

“Got to keep my strength up.” Noah snagged another slice of prosciutto and tucked it into his mouth, smiling at her as he chewed.

“You animal,” she murmured, slowly eating another strawberry.

Noah was watching with intense fascination as she put the fruit to her lips, so she made a big, showy thing of it, for his benefit. Licking her lips. Biting into it, slowly, sensually. Closing her eyes with a low moan of pleasure at the burst ofripe sweetness.

When she opened her eyes, the look in his would have made her knees give out if she hadn’t already been sitting down. He exuded pure sex, but he was still playing it cool.

“There are croissants,” he informed her, lifting the lid of a server. “Filled with that creamy goop you like. Can I tempt you?”

She laughed. “Hell, yes.”

“That’s my girl.” Noah put a flaky croissant dripping with crème Chantilly on a plate and placed it in front of her. He poured her coffee, dosing it with hot foamed milk and a half spoonful of sugar. Exactly how she liked it. Down to the smallest detail. He saw everything. Analyzed everything. Recorded everything.

It was nerve-wracking sometimes. To be watched so closely. Seen so clearly.

Noah’s expression didn’t change, but she felt the energy in the air shift as he turned away, picked up an Italian newspaper and started to read. Deliberately withdrawing, just to give her somevisual privacy.

Which made it possible to breathe a little, and do something prosaic, like devouring her pastry and licking the cream off hersticky fingers.

After that, maybe she’d just start licking him. Mmmm, delicious. They could have their big fat serious discussion of their various issues some other time.

Or not, if Noah had his way.

Caro took a huge bite, getting crumbs all over the table and not caring. She opened her tablet to an online newspaper, going straight to the Arts section.

And there it was, front and center, like a bad joke. A long article about the Cross of Orazio. Full of tantalizing high-res color photographs.

“What is it?” Noah’s voice was sharp.

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