Page 59 of Keeping Guard
As soon as the elevator door closed, he stepped in front of her and put his hands on the wall behind her head. He stared into the blue eyes looking up at him, and what he saw messed with his heart, making the damn organ bang against his chest.
“We’re supposed to talk before this happens,” he said. “I’ll condense it down to one sentence. Don’t fall in love with me.” Hearing the words come out of his mouth...well, wasn’t he an arrogant son of a bitch? All she knew of him was that he was a moody, grumpy asshole who refused to share with her what was going on in his life. What was there to fall in love with?
She smirked as she saluted him. “Copy that, SEAL boy. All I want from you are mind-blowing tingles.”
“Those I can give you, princess.” The elevator door opened, and he grabbed her hand again.
The second they were inside her loft, he dropped Lucky’s leash, then scooped Peyton up, grinning when she screeched. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and when she sucked on his earlobe, he grunted.
“We’re not going to make it to the bedroom if you keep doing that.”
Her response was to lick the shell of his ear. He walked faster. When he reached her bedroom, he kicked the door shut before Lucky could follow them in. He stopped at the edge of the bed and dropped her on it, smiling when she laughed. The box of condoms got dropped on the nightstand.
How to start? Where to start? He’d never been nervous before when taking a woman to bed, but he was with this one. Peyton wanted him to show her what she’d been missing. He didn’t doubt he could do that, but he wanted this to be special for her. That wasn’t something he’d ever worried about before. Someone like her should be romanced, but that kind of stuff...he was clueless.
“Not sure how I’m supposed to get tingles with you just standing there, staring at me,” she grumbled.
He choked down a laugh. “I’m thinking.” This was the first time he’d been in her bedroom, and he glanced around. Spying a bookshelf similar to the one in the living room, he switched on the lamp, then walked over to it. “How many vinyls do you own?”
“Not sure of the exact number, but over a thousand.”
“I have over two thousand.”
“Braggart.”
He glanced over at her and grinned. “Just saying.” As was his collection, hers were in alphabetical order by the artists’ names. Perfect. Each album should run about thirty to forty-five minutes, so he flipped through the collection, pulling out four: Marvin Gaye, Usher, Al Green, and Sade. After putting them on the turntable, starting with Marvin Gaye, he returned to the edge of the bed and held out his hand.
“Come dance with me.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, then she smiled and put her hand in his. When she was on her feet, he kneeled in front of her. “Shoes off.” He unbuckled the ankle strap of her sandals, then slipped them off. After removing his boots and socks, he reached over and turned off the lamp, then took her hand and brought her to the center of the room.
As Marvin Gaye sang “If I Should Die Tonight,” Noah wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. The window shades were up, and the lights of downtown Asheville gave the room a soft glow, enough to see her. And he wanted to see her.
They swayed to the soulful magic of Gaye’s voice, and when she rested her head on his chest, Noah sighed. Peace covered him like a warm blanket on a cold night. It wouldn’t last. He knew that. But he was going to hold on to it as long as he could.
The next song came on, and he trailed his hand along the back of her dress. To his delight, he discovered a zipper. He found the pull and slowly lowered it. The end of the zipper stopped at the bottom of her spine. Perfect. Her dress was sleeveless, making it easy to remove her bra. He unhooked the clasp.
She lifted her head and peered up at him. “You want me to take it off?”
He put a finger over her lips. “Shhh. Put your head back on my chest, close your eyes, and let the magic in.” He smiled against her hair. For a woman who usually had a lot to say, she obeyed without a word.
“I’m going to take off your bra now, princess. You don’t have to do a thing except bend your elbow when I tell you to.” He found the strap on her right shoulder and pulled it down. “Elbow.” After that side was done, he moved to the left strap.
“You’re very good at that,” Peyton said after Noah tossed her bra away while leaving on her dress. It was both sexy and intimidating. How many bras had he removed? For sure, the women he’d been with were experienced, knew what they were doing. All she knew of sex was that it was boring. How was she supposed to compete?
“Stop thinking, princess.”
Easy for him to say, but she needed to unless she wanted to ruin tonight. And she so did not want to. How did he know where her mind had gone, anyway?
“Relax,” he murmured in her ear.
He was right, she had tensed up when thinking of him taking off the bras of all those stupid women. She pushed their faceless faces out of her mind. This was her night, and she wasn’t going to let them mess it up.
She let her body go soft against his and breathed him in. He smelled so good, like musk and man and spices. She wanted to lick him. Would he think she was weird if she did that? He trailed his fingers over the skin of her back, and his doing that sent tingling heat straight to her sex.
Mercy and heaven help her. She’d never been so wet and aching, and if just baring her back, taking off her bra, and his fingers dancing along her spine made her feel things she never had before, she might die when they got to the main meal. Literally.
He rocked his hips against her. “Feel that? That’s what you do to me. I’m so hard it hurts. But before we take care of me, I’m going to taste every inch of you.”
