Page 55 of Guarded
“You don’t say.” The twin rolled his eyes. “Fucking mates coming out of the woodwork.”
Micah stepped up to the twin and slid his arms around his shoulders. “Yours will turn up soon, Nate. Just you wait and see.”
Nate shoved him away and smiled. Even barely knowing him, I could see how fake it was. “Nah. I’m all good waiting.”
He took off before anyone could say another word. Sam stared after him, worrying at his lip. “I’ll go see if he’s okay.”
My brows drew together. Obviously, there was a story there. Had Nate’s mate run away too? Rejected him? Or was he just impatient to meet them?
“Noah’s upstairs,” Nox said, still munching his way through an apple. The irony of him being a demon andeating an apple in the home of God’s most loyal soldiers was not lost on me. “Told us to send you up.”
“Ouch,” I said lightly. “Guess the romance is dead already.”
He and Micah exchanged a knowing look. “Think you’ll find it’s the opposite, actually. Anyway, it’s up both flights of stairs, second door on the right.”
I nodded at Nox in thanks.
Within a few seconds, I was outside Noah’s door. The racing patter of my heart was so loud that surely everyone could hear it. I didn’t even care. I didn’t care if the whole fucking world knew I was excited to see Noah.
This…strength of feeling was terrifying. Exhilarating. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
But I wasn’t hiding it. I liked Noah, and I didn’t give a fuck who knew it.
I took a steadying breath then knocked on his door.
“Come in.”
Twisting the knob, I took a single step into Noah’s space before coming to an abrupt stop. “Holy Satan.”
“Hi.” Noah wriggled his fingers from his chair. He was sat sideways in it, his legs crossed over one of the arms.
His long, stocking-clad legs.
He tilted his head in amusement, his lilac hair falling over the corset he wore. It was black, like the stockings, the shining material just begging me to explore it. “Are you going to set my furniture on fire, Jem?”
“It’s a real possibility,” I said hoarsely. “I really hope everything is flame retardant.”
Noah got to his feet in one fluid movement, all sinuous grace as he stalked over to greet me. “Don’t worry. You look like a guy who’s used to playing withfire.”
My hands circled his waist before I’d even considered what I was doing. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.”
He chuckled and brushed his lips over my cheek. “Maybe later you can show me.”
“Later?” My mind was a beat behind, too fixated on the fact that Noah’s hands were on my biceps.I fought the urge to flex them. I might let the cheesy comments out, but I didn’t need to give in to all my juvenile impulses.
“Mm-hmm. You’ve got a debt to repay, remember?”
The art.A slow smile curled my lips. “Oh, I remember. I seem to believe there was a dress code requested.”
“Hence why I’m dressed like this. Couldn’t tease you with all my ‘lacy temptations’ and then not bring them out to play.”
Noah pulled out of my arms and moved to the door. Closing it behind us, he flicked the lock. The confusion must’ve shown on my face, because he said, “The Seraphim are wonderful. Wonderfully interfering and terribly nosy. They got far too excited when I told them we were having a romantic date in here, and I don’t want us to be interrupted.”
I caught him by the waist as he went to move past me. “You admit it then. This is a date.”
Noah smirked. “I don’t put this underwear on for just anyone, Jem.”
I backed him up until we crashed into the now-locked door. When I spoke, my voice was dangerously low, my demon close to the surface. “I think you mean you don’t put this on foranyonebut me.”
