Page 15 of Noah
“Oh ye of little experience,” I intoned, rolling my eyes to the heavens. “Must I teach you everything?”
He put a hand in my hair and twisted it slowly, moving his face closer to mine until I could feel the heat coming from his lips. “That depends on what you want to teach me.”
My breath hitched and I bit my lip. I’d been having fun flirting with the guy, but hadn’t expected him to get so close to me so quickly. I wasn’t sure I liked it. And I definitely didn’t like that my body was reacting to him. My back arched, pushing me closer to him, and I could feel heat blooming between my legs. God damn the instinctive reaction to attention from a guy. Damn those charming green eyes and smirking mouth. I realized I was staring at that mouth and jerked my gaze back up to see those eyes laughing at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
When he leaned in and brushed his lips over mine, I almost moaned out loud.
Then my phone started going off in my pocket and I jerked, breaking the kiss. His expression went confused, and then cold and scornful, and he drew back with a scowl.
“What’s that?”
“Phone,” I said unnecessarily, jerking it out of my pocket and scanning the screen. New email, evidently. And I could just let it sit. After all, it was Friday night and I was off work, officially speaking. But I was also new to the job. And expecting important information. I’d turned my NDAs in to Janette earlier in the week but still hadn’t had any confirmation about when I was leaving, or who I was going on tour with. I’d been eating, sleeping, and dreaming about the question ever since she told me, and I knew for a fact she’d still been working when we left the office.
Maybe she’d sent me an update.
I hit the icon for email and scanned the new messages. Spam, spam, spam, email about meetings next week in the office, and something from one of my new friends about plans for the weekend. Nothing interesting. Then I saw the email from Janette. Labeled ‘Tour Information.’
This was it. I was actually getting my first assignment.
I hit the message to open it and read through it quickly. Then I paused, gulped, and read through it again.
No. This couldn’t be right. Maybe there were two photographers going out on the road and she’d sent me the wrong email. Surely she wouldn’t have done this.
Although maybe she didn’t know.
Or maybe she did, and she’d done it all on purpose as some sort of publicity stunt. Maybe she’d thought it was a good idea–or that I’d appreciate the idea of being sent home again.
“Anything important?” Dimpled Guy asked, scooting closer.
I glanced up at him and then got off my bar stool, already on my way to the door. I needed to get home and start packing, because according to this email, I was going to be leaving the day after tomorrow. And I had some research to do.
Or rather... I needed to figure out how I was going to handle this.
“Very important. Good to meet you. I’ve got to run,” I said quickly.
I didn’t wait to hear his answer. My mind was back on the email, and jumping ahead of me to try to figure out what I was going to do about it. Because I wasn’t just going on tour with some unknown band.
I was being sent to the Global Authors tour.
With orders to focus on the lead singer–Rivers Shine–and his best friend in the world, Noah Michael. The magazine wanted to run a feature on the two of them, and my photographs were going to provide the color for the story.
I’d run from Noah, wanting to make my own life and find a career of my own. And now I was going right back to covering Noah. This time, as a photographer for the biggest magazine in the country.
9
NOAH
It had been a week since Molly left.
And I didn’t give a single fuck, in case you’re wondering. I hadn’t been counting the days, and I sure as hell hadn’t woken up every morning trying to remember which room she was in. I hadn’t been looking for her whenever I needed somethingorwondering what she was doing in LA. Because I learned a long time ago that letting someone control you was a bad idea, and needing someone by your side was basically the same thing as letting them control you. The moment you admitted you needed them or missed them or even wanted them, they had a hold on you that you couldn’t take away.
I’d needed my mom, once. Until I realized that letting that woman control me was dangerous. She forgot to cook dinner. Didn’t remember to pick me up. Hell, there were times when I wondered if she even knew I existed. She was so caught up in her own world, so drunk or high or distracted with a man that I had been the furthest thing from her mind. When she did remember I was around, she was usually pissed about it, which had taught me that I wasn’t worthwhile.
Once I got to the orphanage and got a little older, I realized I was wrong about that. It wasn’t me that was defective. It was her. And I hadn’t trusted anyone after that.
Until Molly came along. And look where that got me.
I rolled out of bed, grumbling at the thought, and headed for the shower. When it came down to it, I guessed it was actually better that she was gone. Gave me less to hold onto. Took away the one person who’d still had control over me. But God damn did I miss the girl. She hadn’t called or texted since she left. Not even an email to let me know she got to LA in one piece. And all that stuff I said above? Yeah, it was a lie. Ihadbeen checking. I’d been looking at my phone every five minutes since the moment she got on that elevator, waiting to hear from her.
