Page 30 of Set Me On Fire

“Amelia.” I couldn’t bear to hear him use my nickname, not right now, because that soft voice was the same one that had me falling for him in science class. “I’m Amelia. The girl you rejected for no good reason that I can see, except maybe you got the ick. Maybe all of the sudden you saw something so repulsive in me?—”

“Millie, Amelia, no?—”

Noah Taylor was pleading with me, leaning forward, even as I sat on his teammate’s lap, my chin sporting the beard rash Knox had left there. I was drunk, tired, sad, horny, fuck… my emotions were a messy tumble, and I couldn’t separate one from the other.

“So that’s your truth.” We all turned to see that Charlie had leaned across the table. “But who’re you going to kiss?”

“Millie…”

Knox growled my name when I turned his way, and I’m sure he had something all very noble to say, but I cut him off with a hard, close-mouthed kiss. The wine sung in my blood, telling me all sorts of grandiose stories about having it all. I didn’t need to choose. I could be just like Jamie, bold, and take every damn thing I wanted.

Knox let me go as I slipped from his lap, watching me as I approached Noah, I was willing to bet. In my current state, I could only focus on one guy at a time, and right now that was Noah.

I’d traced the sharp edge of his jaw in my mind so many times. Sneaking glances at him in class, I’d spaced out on the teacher’s discussion of mitosis, having no answer when she called on me. Noah had smiled just a little bit, trying to stifle it, because our science teacher was notoriously volatile, but it made me feel things.

That we were in this together.

Sure enough, I caught him looking at me too. It was like there was a strange kind of light in his eyes, one of hope and hopelessness, fear and desire, and that made sense as teenagers. We were dumb kids with no idea what we were doing, stumbling towards our more adult selves, but that didn’t explain the way he looked at me now. The exact same way, like I was a treat he didn’t dare sample, treasure he didn’t dare steal, even as his hands went up as I slipped into his lap. His very impressive chest was heaving like he’d run a mile, not played stupid games. I let my fingers trail along that jaw, liking the way the shape fitted into my hand, right as my head dropped down, hovering but not going any further.

Just like that night.

I didn’t like to admit I needed anyone, but sometimes, just sometimes, a girl wants to feel like she’s wanted, desired more than anyone in the world, and Knox fulfilled that brief. I wasn’t kissing someone else without that feeling. Noah’s brows creased for just a second, then he whispered something mostly to himself.

“You have no idea how fucking much I’ve wanted you, Amelia McDonald.”

Right before he kissed me.

Chapter 17

Noah

Watching Millie kiss Knox was a punch to the guts, one of those really hard ones that drives all the wind out of you, leaving you gasping, aching. So why couldn’t I feel one iota of that pain when my lips grazed Millie’s? Because this was happening, finally happening. Ten years too late, and that was all my fucking fault.

Well, mine and her brothers.

I wanted to tell her, willed the coin to land on my last dare, forcing her to call her family and find out the truth. She needed that. I needed that. But when she came sauntering over, I forgot about them, Knox, about Charlie, about everything else but her. When she sat in my lap, she was the perfect weight, keeping me pinned to the chair when I felt like I’d just float off, untethered.

I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I knew the mechanics of a kiss, lips pressed against each other, but just like that night, my heart beat way too hard and way too fast in anticipation. In the end, I needn’t have worried. Some instinct kicked in and had my hand going to her hair as I tugged her closer.

Soft. She was so damn soft and her lips gave beneath mine as I claimed hers. That tiny little whistle of breath, was that irritation or…? No, a small moan followed it, one I echoed gladly because I was rigid. Millie was sitting on my cock, grinding it against my zipper, and I couldn’t even feel the pain, not while I was kissing her. My lips moved, trying to tell her, show her, all that I felt.

That I wanted to claim every part of her, map every curve with my mouth, and call it mine. That I wanted her, needed her, loved her? I didn’t know the woman she’d become, but there wasn’t anything I wanted more. My throat swelled, threatening to cut off my breath at the feel of her, but I still couldn’t stop kissing her, not even when her tongue slid between my lips. Mine surged forward, tangling with hers, the kiss going on and on and on until we were forced back, gasping.

She stared at me like she was seeing me for the first time, and I sucked up every moment of that. My arms flexed, mostly to stop myself from reaching for her and tugging her back down again, but I felt a surge of pride as she took them in.

“Huh.” She half smiled as she touched her lips, then blinked. “So that’s what it would’ve been like.”

More, better, that’s what I wanted to tell her, but we weren’t in my room at my place, instead still in the conference room, and that’s when Charlie decided to butt in.

“So, are we done playing?”

There was a weird kind of tension in his voice, but I couldn’t bring myself to wonder about it, not when Millie was close, but his words made her stiffen. Before I could grab her, she pulled free, sitting in her own chair. Her eyes remained resolutely on her wine glass as she sipped it, but her cheeks gave her away. They were bright red, making clear how she felt.

Embarrassed.

My eyes raked across the room, ready to jump on anyone who’d give her shit. I didn’t see mocking smiles, but a feeling I could easily identify.

Hunger.

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