Page 90 of Colton's Last Resort

Her hands gentled on his face. She kissed the broad plane of his cheek. Then the space between his eyes before placing both palms around the back of his head and drawing him against her once more. “It’s okay,” she said, blinking back tears. “It’s going to be okay.”

He didn’t pull away. They remained that way, still in the upheaval, for a while.

“Noah?” she whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Will you?” she asked. “Come home with me?”

He shoveled out a breath. Then he nodded, reluctantly.

When he stood, he extended a hand. She took it and let him pull her to her feet. Switching off the lamp on her desk, she grabbed her purse. On their way out, she stopped to lock the door.

“You lock your office but not your front door,” he grumbled.

She stuffed the keys in her purse and reached for the handle of the glass door that led out of L Building. He beat her to it, shouldering it open and propping it until she’d passed through. He took her hand. “Wait.”

She stopped moving. At the sight of his frown returning, she gave in. “I’ll start locking my front door if it bothers you that much.”

“Yes,” he said with a nod. “But there’s something else.”

She was stunned when he gathered both her hands in his. As his thumbs stroked her knuckles in fast repetitions, she tried to read him. “What is it?”

“Promise me, Pearl,” he murmured. “Promise me you won’t approach DeGraw while I’m off property. I can’t leave you here if I think you’ll put yourself in harm’s way for even a second.”

She nodded. “All right.”

“You promise?” he pressed.

“I promise.” Unable to watch the conflict clash on the inside of him, she raised her lips to his.

As he inclined his head toward hers and his hand cupped the back of her head, he let it be soft—let himself be, drawing out her sigh with a head-to-toe shudder.

He took her home, where they soaked in the pool. He remained close to her as she reclined on the steps. It was easy with him, she thought, not to cut through the water but to rest and let the moment stretch.

She offered to order in, but he found pesto, grape tomatoes, green beans, tortellini and chicken in her fridge. As she sat with her wine and watched him throw it all together in a pan over the stove, she saw someone channeling his demons. Filling another glass, she took it to him. He stopped long enough to clink it to hers, holding her gaze as he took the first sip. She did the same, then rubbed the bones that had been etched on the left side of his spine, leaving the right side blank.

She half expected to feel the inscribed tears in the flesh that separated the unmarked side of his back from the tattoos as she ran her fingers across his vertebrae. Warm, smooth skin greeted them instead, and she marveled again over the level of artistry he’d placed upon his body.

Noah mixed and flipped the contents of the pan so that the pesto coated everything.

He’d stirred, mixed and flipped her, Laura mused. He’d come at her like a demolition expert, knocking down walls, making a mess, hauling complete sections of those walls out.

He’d rearranged things.

Allison had called Laura a “classic Taurus,” no more open to change than she was to heartbreak.It’s why you won’t play with risk, she’d told her.

Laura had shrugged that off.Risk is overrated.

Maybe, Allison had replied. Her wise eyes had flickered knowingly.I’m just afraid that when you find someone who’s right for you—reallyright for you—you’ll shy away from the risk and lose the chance to get everything you’ve ever wanted.

The sentiment had made Laura reevaluate everything. What if she’d already done that? What if she’d missed her shot because the risk scared her?

She and Noah were so different. Night and day, as a matter of fact. But as she watched the hair on the back of his head fan through her fingertips, as the tense line of his body eased and he lifted his face to the ceiling briefly to dig into her touch, she caught her lower lip between her teeth.

Could they be this different and this right for each other all at once? All the candles he lit inside her just by being whisperedyes.

“You keep this up and I’m going to burn the first dinner I prep for you,” he noted.

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