Page 96 of I Shouldn't Feel This Way

Hah!

“Are you admitting you’re a sadist?”

Cricket-chirping silence.

Noah chuckled. “How did we go from arguing over traditional parenting styles to S&M?”

I laughed. “You’re the one who wants tospank me.”

“Yeah, well, clearly you’ve out grown the spanking stage—and I was just kidding, by the way.”

Just kidding?I couldn’t help but feel a little thwarted. The idea of him bending me over, pulling my panties down roughly, and spanking me was a really hot fantasy. I’d had many dreams about him doing exactly that before he shoved his steel-hard shaft inside me and banged my brains out. I’m hellspawn, I know.

We stared at each other for the longest while. I wished I knew what he was thinking.

“Don’t lose that wristband,” he finally said.

“I won’t.” I would guard it with my life.

“I’ll see you at home, then.”

Unable to resist, I gave him one last hug and kissed the corner of his mouth. I let my lips linger there for as long as possible, so he could get more familiar with them. Yes, this was my idea of sneaky seduction. There was a certain look in his eyes that I wasn’t able to read, but he just smiled and told me to hurry along.

We parted ways, leaving our secrets behind to take root underneath that weeping willow—buried possibilities of all the different ways our conversation could have transpired there. It would have been so romantic if he’d kissed me, but he didn’t. Maybe I was hopelessly holding on to a dream that would never come to life. I refused to believe that there was nothing going on between us. There had to be something. There just had to.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ARIA

The weeks flew right by, and before I knew it, April was finally here. It was going to be a long weekend for me because I didn’t have school next Monday due to an all-day staff meeting for teachers.

Vienna had flown in on a Tuesday afternoon. She was a little shorter than my stepmom, and unlike her sis, she had dark brown hair, didn’t hide her brown eyes behind blue contact lenses, and nothing was surgically altered on her face or body. Vienna was a graphic artist and had taken six months off from work to travel around the world. Noah was right—she wasn’t high maintenance at all. In fact, if you saw her and Vanessa standing next to one another, you’d never think they were sisters. I guess that was because of all the plastic surgery my stepmom had done to her face. Vienna didn’t seem too happy about that, of course … I heard them arguing about it in the yard when she first arrived. My stepmom had brushed off her sister’s concerns and insisted that she wasn’t going to go under the knife anymore. (Though I seriously doubted that.)

Vienna planned to make her visit short. She was staying only through the weekend and flying out to New Jersey to see her parents on Monday.

My Friday had gone by quite sluggishly, but things started to liven up toward the evening. I called Ryan like I said I would, however it wasn’t to say yes to him asking me out. I was inviting him over for dinner tomorrow evening because Vanessa insisted she host a small birthday dinner for me. There was no way out of it, so I decided to give her what she wanted and be a good stepdaughter. I had extended the invitation to Jessica as well, but she’d said that she wouldn’t be available in the evening, so she promised to take me out to lunch on my b-day.

Noah, Vanessa, Vienna, and I were going to the Sunset Festival. He’d told me it was okay to invite some friends, and I also had the option of going solo with my gal pals, but he pretty much begged me not to leave him alone with Vanessa and his sister-in-law. So it wasn’t a difficult decision to make, I would tag along with them.

I was getting ready in my room, listening to some music while doing my hair, when I heard a knock on my door.

“Come in!”

My heart leaped in my chest when I saw Noah walk into my bedroom.

“Do you ever not have that iPod playing?” he said.

I smiled and thought for a moment before replying, “Nope—love music—can’t live without it.”

He sauntered over to my bed, sat down, and dropped his weight back on my mattress. Noah was looking amazing as usual, in a pair of dark denim trousers and a gray V-neck T-shirt that was perfectly fitted around his torso. The fabric only accentuated the muscles hidden underneath, and he had just got a fresh haircut as well, so his hair was looking flawless. I loved it, and often imagined running my fingers through his thick mane while kissing him. If they ever needed someone to advertise shampoo for men, Noah was their guy. He could’ve sold anything with that killer body and charismatic smile.

A long sigh escaped his lips as he folded his hands behind his head.

I glanced over at him. “Something on your mind?”

“Not really.”

That clearly meant something was up. “All right, talk to me.” I quickly painted some gloss on my lips and turned around, sitting astride my chair. “I’m all ears.”

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