Page 24 of Noel
Her laugh is brittle.
“Safe?Noel, that note was inside the hotel.They knew where I’d be.How—how do you call that safe?”
Her eyes are glassy, panic pushing at the edges.I can see the moment the adrenaline that’s been holding her together starts to crash.
“Easy, Tinsel,” I murmur, softer than I mean to.“We’re going to find whoever’s doing this.”
She shakes her head, fingers twisting together.
“I should’ve told my bosses I couldn’t handle it.I thought I could.I told Clem I would, but maybe I’m not strong enough for the big city.I thought—” Her voice breaks, and that sound punches straight through my armor.
I reach out, meaning only to steady her.But she flinches, and it breaks my heart.
“Shit, I’m sorry.I can’t stop shaking.I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“Holly.”
She swallows hard, still not looking at me.
“You must think I’m ridiculous.I plan events for a living, and here I am?—”
“Stop.”I hear the roughness in my own voice.“I don’t think that.Not for a second.”
Her gaze snaps to mine, wet and furious.
“Then what do you think?Because I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.Every time you look at me, I can’t tell if you’re about to bark an order or?—”
She cuts herself off, biting her lip.
“Or what?”I ask quietly.
Her chin lifts, defiant even through the tears.
“Or kiss me stupid.”
The air goes still.My brain tells me to stand up, to walk out, to remember every line in the Sigma handbook.
But my heart—my gut, the part that’s been humming since the first time she swung her purse at me—doesn’t listen.
I rise slowly, pulling her to her feet with me, closing the inch between us until her knees brush my thighs.
My hand finds her jaw, thumb resting just under the tremor in her lip.
“You sure this is what you want right now?”
Her breath hitches.
“I don’t know what I want, Noel.But I’ve thought aboutdoingthissince I met you.”
“Yeah,” I say.“Me too.”
And then I kiss her.
Not hard, not yet—just enough to stop the trembling.Enough to replace fear with something real and grounding.
Fuck, she feels good.Too good to be honest.
Holly exhales into me, a soft, shaky sound, and my control slips another inch.
