Page 39 of If The Fates Allow
And she couldn’t stop herself from responding in kind. This man was everything she had ever dreamed of. A fantasy come to life. Kind, caring, and able to let her fly as only he could, Noah held her trust, and Wilhelmina Fairweather never trusted anyone.
“You will not cut me out,” he growled as she clung to him for more. “You will not get lost in that extraordinary mind of yours. It overthinks everything, and while I usually marvel at the way it works, I’ll not allow it to push me away.”
It wasn’t as if she could stop her tears and let them fall. “Noah…”
“No.”
No.
And he thought she was the stubborn one. He uttered the word as if he could change their circumstances with his will alone.
Holding them pressed together, he rested his forehead on hers, and she didn’t try to pull away, too desperate for the intimacy.
“If you could have any future, what would it be?” he asked. “A husband? A home?”
Ah, so he meant to emotionally ruin her before the evening was over. How delightful.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What you want is all that matters,” he said, determined to make her see things his way. “Now answer me. What kind of future? A life with Richards? A life here at Haven House? If you could choose anything, what would it be?”
Afraid she would become even more distraught if she spoke, Willa shook her head.
“Say it.” His nostrils flared at her refusal to speak. “Please.”
He was begging, and seeing him do so might be the end of her yet. “If I were free, I would not want those things,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
When she didn’t continue, Noah brushed his lips across hers. “Tell me.”
Could she do it?
Could she say it out loud?
He might laugh.
But what if he didn’t?
Scrunching her face tight, she spoke the truth. “You.”
As if coming out of a nightmare, the tension on Noah’s face lessened. “Me.”
Her mouth worked to form what she wanted to say, but even with her brain racing to articulate a reply, it didn’t matter. The truth all came tumbling out anyway. “I want you. I want to be with you. If I could have any future, I would have one with you. A life. A home. Children?” She took a shaky inhale as the gravity of what she was confessing struck her fully. “And I want what happened on the beach to happen every day.”
“Every day?” Her wicked man returned with his carefree smirk at the ready. “My, my, I have my work cut out for me.”
“And I want more.” If she were going to burn in eternal damnation, she might as well arrive at the pits of hell good and well on fire from embarrassment. “I want to do to you what Katie was doing to Paul. I want to be in control yet completely under your power.”
Noah’s head lowered, his lips and tongue tracing the column of her neck. “Continue,” he ordered. “Don’t stop now.”
“I want you in my mouth and between my legs,” she went on. Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him close when the scrape of his canine met her flesh. “I want you to fill me and give me babies. I want to be your wife, Noah Anderson. The only woman you love.”
He backed her up, hiding them in the forest directly off the drive. “I do believe you just proposed to me, Ms. Fairweather.” Her back landed against a tree with a thud, and Noah stared down at her in a wholly possessive way. “And if that is the case, I accept.”
Willa’s knees promptly buckled. He could not mean it. He could not possibly mean to whisk her away. She didn’t deserve it. Not when her sister would be crushed by Paul’s betrayal.
“Lucy.”
“I know she’ll be upset about Paul, but I have an idea. She’s been writing to Mr. Richards on your behalf?”
