Page 16 of Dangerously Yours

At that point, he didn’t demand for the driver to stop, so I reached out to touch him. I cupped his face between my hands, and realized how soft and warm his skin was. I hadn’t had a man’s hands on me in a long time it seemed, although it had truly only been a few months. Cade was no man, though. He was a snake... a louse... and the very last man I wanted to even think about when with someone like Noah.

I stroked his chiseled jawline with my thumbs. I then kept my gaze centered on his full lips. I didn’t dare raise it higher because I didn’t want to see whatever he was feeling reflected in his eyes. In the past, I would’ve never allowed myself to get into a situation where I had to worry about what I might say or do. One of my thumbs moved to his lips, and I ran it over his bottom one. Seconds later, he pressed his lips to the inside of my hand.

“We’re at your place. I’ll make sure you get upstairs safely,” he told me when the car came to a sudden stop. I quickly realized all the liquor I had previously thrown up hadn’t been all of it. I closed my mouth tightly, then as soon as we were out of the car, I turned away from him, then let it all out right there on a curb on Michigan Avenue.

“I-I’m sorry,” I stammered, but he shushed me.

“It’s okay. Let’s get you upstairs, okay.”

I made a jerky movement with my head, afraid to actually nod for fear of embarrassing myself more. I had never been able to hold my liquor, which was something Cade constantly pointed out over the course of our marriage. He would sometimes tease me about being a cheap date, and I had never thought of it as anything more. Now, however, I was pretty sure he would tell the world that I was an alcoholic next. Tears sprang to my eyes, and as I tried to keep up with Noah’s longer strides, I became dizzier.

“Lulu,” he called out moments before everything turned blurry. I couldn’t make out Noah, or anything in the ornate lobby of the building. I had no idea where I was, and as the waves kept piling atop one another, my hand slipped from his. Everything turned dark, and I fell to the floor.

I wasn’t sure how many minutes later it had been, but when I slowly opened my eyes, I was back in my own place, and Noah was in the kitchen near the sink. I ached in many places, especially my head. I put my hand to it, then felt something sticky. When I pulled my hand back, there was blood on my hand. I tried scrambling upright, but only managed to bring on another dizzy spell.

Noah returned to me, then urged me to lay back down. “It’s okay. You fell and bumped your cheek on those god-awful tables near the elevators.”

At least, I hadn’t done it in the center of the busy lobby. I knew exactly which tables he was referring to, and they were hideous to put it nicely. The damp towel he placed on the side of my face was warm until the coolness from the ice permeated through. I hissed slightly at the iciness, but he began to stroke my uninjured cheek, and the warmth from that touch made me forget the other.

“Do you know?” I finally asked him, then grabbed the towel so I could hold it myself.

“About Cade? Yes.”

“It’s not true what he said about me. I was not the one to?—”

“Of course you weren’t. Anyone who knows Cade knows he was in the wrong. Is that what made you go drinking alone tonight?”

I nodded, then winced as my headache reminded me of my other current ailments. “You don’t have to stay,” I told him when I saw him reach for the bottle of aspirin and water.

NOAH

As I tended to Lulu, I was so relieved that I had turned down a night out on the town with the guys to hang out alone. I was no longer solo, but this had to have been a sign. I was put in that bar for a reason, just as she had chosen to go to that one herself. It wasn’t the type of place that attracted many women, so she had to be fresh meat to the perverts there. If she hadn’t left when she did...

I stopped that line of thinking altogether, shuddering to think about what kind of trouble she could’ve found herself in. The reasons she was there were very understandable though, and I kept that in mind as I had picked her up off the floor in front of the elevator and carried her upstairs. I had also been fussing over her ever since. Not sure if the wound required a hospital visit or not, I had called my concierge doctor and sent a few photographs of the wound. I hadn’t told her who the patient was, and for privacy reasons, I had wanted to shield Lulu from any further embarrassment tonight.

“She got a nasty cut, but it doesn’t look deep enough to warrant stitches. I would just suggest keeping an eye on her for a while,and make sure she doesn’t go straight to sleep. We don’t know if she has a concussion or not, so it’s better safe than sorry,” Dr. Rice had told me, and respecting her opinion, I agreed with her before disconnecting the call.

I had a concussion during my first season in the league, and even though I acted as if all was good so I could play the next week, it had actually taken about three or four of them to feel like my normal self. As the doctor had said, there was no telling whether she had one or not from the encounter with the foyer table, so I grabbed some ice and was now making sure she kept the cool compress against her face.

“I am okay, Noah,” she told me before repeating what she had said a few seconds earlier. “You really don’t have to stay.”

“I would like to,” I finally responded, and her eyes widened.

“Surely, you would rather be out with your friends, or some?—”

“Actually, you might not believe this, but it’s true. Being here with you now has probably been the best part of my night. If you don’t mind, I would like to savor it a little longer.”

She seemed a bit shocked, but then winced as she gave me a nod. “I rarely ever drink.”

I didn’t take her for one of those society alcoholics, and I had known plenty in my day. “It never even crossed my mind,” I answered honestly.

“Tonight has just been...” she paused, then after taking a short breath, continued. “It’s been a rough one. I’d been expecting the divorce news to hit, but then he said that I... Cade told them... Those men...”

Her thoughts were broken and I suspected that it wasn’t just due to her intoxication, either. There was true pain in her eyes as she spoke, and it made me want to pummel Cade for causing it all. He was right now partying at the Vault, alongside my friends and other patrons, while his ex was devastated and alone. The double standard when it came to men was never more pressing than now, and I actually felt sorry for her.

I continued to stroke her other cheek, then her lips as she turned toward my palm. There was an electricity between us, and I doubted she was sober enough to notice. I was, though. My gaze stayed locked in on her face, and when her eyes closed, I cleared my throat.

“Lulu,” I said, and those long lashes of hers fluttered open.

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