Page 16 of Million Dollar High

“You don’t need to be an asshole, Noah.” The plea was laced with anger. Looking down, he saw her nails digging into her palm.

Good.

He smiled. “This was never going to be pretty, baby. I don’t play fair and I can’t promise that I won’t tear chunks out of you every time I see you.”

“You can actively choose not to.”

“Really? Where’s the fun in that? I’ve never aspired to be the strong, silent type. Pissed and very vocal is more my speed. Now, about my T-shirt.”

“Is it worth me saying that I never intended to hurt you?”

“Fuck, no. Intention or not, harm was done. And I’m fucking, hugely pissed. My T-shirt?”

“I… I’ll have it couriered to your condo tomorrow.”

“You could do that, but I don’t live there anymore.”

“What?”

“You’re not deaf, Leia.”

Questions flitted over her expressive face as she stared wide-eyed at him. A couple of times she opened her mouth to ask them but then shook her head. Noah knew his caustic behavior had made her wary but perversely, he wanted her to ask. Because asking meant she was still interested in his life. In him.

When she opened her mouth for the third time, he held his breath.

“Two coffees and a bottle of water, on the house.” Red set their order down in front of them.

Noah nodded thanks without taking his eyes off Leia, who had better manners and smiled at Red.

“I’ll leave you two to it, then.”

His friend retreated and a minute later, he heard the back door close and the motorcycle she rode gun to life.

“You have a question, spit it out.”

She drank half of the water, then picked up her cup. Her eyes caught his as she took a sip. A new tension drifted across her face. He didn’t need a crystal ball to guess where her thoughts had veered.

They were alone. In a place with enough surfaces to accommodate any type of fucking either of them chose to initiate. The thought hadn’t escaped him. And as much as he’d wanted her to believe that spiel he’d given a moment ago about finding a willing fuck tonight, there was only one woman his cock was interested in. And she was sitting less than three feet from him.

She drank a few more gulps and cleared her throat. “Umm… where… where are you staying? I mean, where would you like me to send your T-shirt?”

“You don’t want to know why I’ve moved out of my condo?”

“It’s really none of my business.”

A hurt-laced dart arrowed between his ribs. “Right. Of course not.”

She set the cup down with a thump.

“What do you want from me, Noah? You told me she had no hold on you. Turns out you were wrong. She has the ultimate hold on you. I’m trying to do the right thing and all you can do is condemn me for it?”

“The right thing by whose standards?”

“By normal human beings’ standards!”

“That’s just another fucking excuse! People deal with broken relationships and the fallout from them all the time. So yeah, mine’s fucked up beyond description. The bottom line is I thought we had an understanding. We accept each other the way we are. The rest is background noise. Or at least it was supposed to be. You were supposed to take me, just me, no one else. I was supposed to take you as you were. I was evenprepared to tolerate Snyder, as long as he stayed out of my fucking way.”

“It’s not that simple, Noah.”

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