Page 21 of Guarded
“Hi,” I said breathily as Noah stopped on the other side. “Thank you for coming.”
Noah’s eyes wandered over the many cups littering my table. “I see you’ve been here for a while.”
Flushing, I righted my chair before gathering the cups in my hands. “A little. Had to make sure I didn’t waste any of my sixty minutes. Anyway, what can I get you?”
Noah’s brows twitched. “I can get my own coffee.”
I hesitated. I knew what I’d normally say, how I’d act, but I’d fucked up so much with Noah, what if I did so again?
He went to walk to the counter and I threw all my fears out of the window. If fate had put us together, that had to mean Noah would like me for me, right? Not some manufactured version that didn’t truly exist.
Dashing around to the other side of the table, I drew back the chair with the hand not juggling cups. “Please, allow me. I need to take these cups back anyway.”
Noah eyed me warily. “You do?”
“Yeah.” I leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, “I’ve been being a model customer so they wouldn’t kick me out before you arrived.”
“Ah, so you do know how to behave in polite society.”
My eyes dropped to his mouth of their own accord. “About as much as I know how not to in impolite society.”
Noah’s lips parted. The lower one in particular was so plump—just begging for me to sink my teeth into it. “Interesting.”
Was I imagining the heat in Noah’s gaze? I drifted closer without thinking, our mouths only inches apart now.
He gave a breathy gasp. “Jeremiah?—”
The crash of china interrupted whatever he’d beenabout to say. I glanced around to see a bloke at another table apologising profusely to a barista for dropping a mug. When I turned back to Noah, he’d sat down, and his face was so cold and distant that I wondered if I’d imagined the brief moment we’d shared.
With a brittle smile, he laced his hands together on the table. “I’ll take an iced oat milk latte with caramel syrup. Thank you.”
I nodded, giving him a smile. It didn’t matter if his guard was up. I had time.
All the time in the world, in fact.
When I returned with his drink in hand, it was obvious he hadn’t relaxed at all. If anything, he was even more tense. He wasn’t fidgeting though—there were no obvious tells as to how he was feeling.
Nothing apart from how still he was, that is. Noah was as rigid as a statue, nodding at me stiffly as I slid his drink in front of him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I took the seat opposite him and wondered what it was that was making him so uncomfortable. “Is being here with me bothering you?”
Noah’s eyes flicked over me and away. “No. But you only have fifty-three minutes of time remaining.”
“You’re counting down?”
“Yep.” He wrapped his lips around his straw and sucked. I shifted in my seat, trying desperately not to imagine other situations where he might do that.
That wasn’t what this was about. Sure, I wanted to fuck Noah. But I’d wanted to fuck a lot of people over the years. And I had.
This was different. Fate had determined that Noah was meant to be mine. If that were true, then I was going to follow this to its inevitable end.
And I’d just have to hope Noah didn’t leave me before we got there.
“Are you going to talk or…?” Noah arched a brow and looked pointedly at his watch. “I’m happy if you want to stare into space for another ninety seconds, but I got the impression that you had things you wanted to say.”
My lips twitched. Fuck, he was fiery. I loved it. I’d grown up playing with fire—nothing excited me more. “I do. I have lots I want to say. Forgive me though, seeing you up close is…it’s thrown me off.”
“Didn’t the first time you saw me,” he muttered darkly, scowling as he sucked up more coffee.
