Chapter 13
Emma
It felt like everything was happening in slow motion. In one moment, Noah was standing above the flipped over table, surrounded by the glass shards and spilled alcohol, and the next he was heading toward me. Oh my God. This was turning into a complete catastrophe. What was he doing?
My heart climbed up to my throat, the flutters in my stomach making an appearance. I was afraid of the aggression that was coming out of him in powerful waves, taken aback by the fury on his face, but there was something else beside fear. As I watched Noah stalk his way toward me, I felt awe.
Despite my better judgment, my body warmed at the sight of sheer strength and determination as he moved closer to me. His friends tried to stop him but unsuccessfully.
“Oh gosh!” Melanie said next to me. “What the heck is going on?”
Josh moved in front of me to shield me, and alarms activated in my head. Oh no. I didn’t want this to escalate into something ugly. I didn’t want Josh hurt because of me.
But Josh spoke before I could stop him, “Please, calm down.”
For a moment, I was sure Noah would hit him, but to my immense relief, he ignored him and stopped so close to me, that tingles appeared all over my skin.
After so many years, we were finally this close to each other, and the lines were blurred. My heart and body were prevailing over my reason, and I hated it.
“Emma, can I talk to you alone? Please?” Noah asked me, and his pleading voice created an ache in my chest that grew stronger the more we looked at each other in what seemed like a never-ending moment.
“Man, I don’t know what your problem is, but there is no way for me to let you get away with this,” Josh tried to but in again, but then Noah sliced him with his eyes, and Josh actually hunched and recoiled from him.
“Stay out of it,” he sneered at him, getting into his face. “I’ll break your jaw if you say one more word.”
Oh God. He was crazy!
“No fighting in the bar,” the bartender chimed in. “You will leave, or I’ll call the security,” he said to Noah, but Noah looked like he didn’t care about this warning at all.
I pressed my hand against my chest to calm down my racing heart. “Noah, don’t you dare make a scene here! And Josh didn’t do anything wrong, so stop acting like this.”
I turned toward Josh, ashamed and saddened that he had to witness this. “I’m so sorry because of him.”
Josh looked between Noah and me, his face worried. “I’m just worried about you. Do you know this guy?”
I met Noah’s steely gaze, noticing the muscle in his jaw ticking. He crossed his arms across his chest, glowering at me. “Yes, I know him,” I answered Josh, my eyes still on Noah, before I turned toward the bartender. “And I’ll leave.”
I looked at my friends and sent them a smile to assuage them. “I’ll be fine, girls. I’ll call a taxi and go home.”
“Do you want me to accompany you?” Josh asked me, and Noah raised his eyebrow at him.
“You sure are desperate,” he told him, looking at him like he was the dirt beneath his shoe, and it made me so angry. “Go away.”
He didn’t have the right to do this to me. Sure, I didn’t want anything with Josh, anyway, but I didn’t deserve to be put through this after how he left me. He was making a scene right in the middle of this bar, acting like a brute. And the worst part was that I wasn’t totally repulsed by it. If I was completely honest with myself, I enjoyed seeing him like this—this flustered.
Shit. I must be drunk because only that could explain my illogical and horrid thoughts.
“No, Noah. You go away. I don’t want to talk with you, so go to hell.” I stood up to leave.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Clarissa asked me.
“Yeah, don’t worry about me.” I looked at Josh. “Thanks for this evening, and once more, I’m sorry.”
I moved toward the exit, and I could feel Noah following me, but then the bartender stopped him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I heard him say. “You need to pay for the damage you made first.”
Noah just snatched his wallet out of his pants and slammed a couple of bills on the bar. “Here. Happy now?”
He caught up with me and moved closely behind me as I exited the bar. I tried my best not to turn around, fuming because of how everything played out.
Whenever I imagined meeting Noah again, this was not how I thought it would be. I didn’t imagine a furious stranger who could stoop so low as to act this violently. What was going on to him? Was he that jealous of Josh? Was that why he approached me and demanded to talk with me?
The evening breeze caressed my naked arms, and more than ever, I felt exposed in the short dress I was wearing. I could practically feel his eyes of me, the continuing silence between us making my blood rush faster in my veins. He was close to me, too close, making me remember all those times when I felt lonelier than ever, hoping for a miracle that would allow me to be with him again. That was before I moved on, but at the moment, I felt like I had never actually moved on. Like it was just an illusion my brain fed me with to help me cope with the situation.
I had enough of this. I wouldn’t let him play with me anymore. I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about or why, but I didn’t care.
Once we reached the parking lot, I spun around to face him. “Get lost. There is nothing for us to talk about.”
I could see Noah’s demeanor change, anger giving place to pleading. “Please, let me explain.”
My heart wasn’t in sync with my mind. My heart beat faster after those words, and it was torturous. I was too tempted.
“There is nothing to explain, Noah. You left and stopped speaking to me.” I could feel my anger rising, and I tried not to scream at him. “It’s as if it wasn’t enough for you to chose the army over me, but you also didn’t try to fight for us at all. You didn’t care. And now, after all those years, you think you can just waltz back into my life and try to explain yourself?”
His frown deepened and he took a step closer to me. “It’s not like that, Emma. I… I wanted to contact you at first—”
I snorted. “At first? Nice.” Tears formed at the brim of my eyes. “Get out of my sight, Noah.”
I turned to leave, but he grabbed my upper arm. “Don’t go. Just… Please, just listen to me.”
My body grew hotter at his nearness, his scent making my heart beat even faster. As angry as I was at him, I couldn’t help but be completely attracted to him. My eyes slid all over his face, studying every spot and line, and it was too much because he was too beautiful and I wanted nothing more but to kiss him.
“I assure you it’s not what you think,” he added, and I was so close to losing it.
“It’s not what I think? And what should I think, Noah?” I fisted my hands, angrier by second. “You left me! You didn’t send me even one letter. You didn’t care what was going on with me or whether I was alright or not. You didn’t care that you ripped my heart out and left me to bleed.”
With each spiteful sentence, he winced, his eyes containing pain and fury. He looked like he was on the verge of losing his control himself, shaking hard.
“You have no idea,” he gritted out, veins bulging out on his neck as his face went red, and grabbed my other arm, pulling me against him. Our bodies were flush against each other now, his breath fanning my face. “You have no idea what I’ve gone through.”
We were breathing heavily, both of us aware of the way our bodies touched, and it was all we needed to let desire consumes us. Our anger hit a breakpoint, and we crashed into a passionate kiss, our hands clutching each other desperately.
Not breaking our kiss, he backed me to the nearest wall and pressed me against it, his hands running up and down my waist like he was starving for me. Our kiss grew deeper, our tongues dancing a fervid dance, our worlds colliding and creating a potent bubble of lust that erased all reason.
His hands slid my dress up, revealing my panties to him, but he didn’t even lean away to look at me, pushing my underwear aside with one hand while working on his zipper with his other one.
“Fuck, Emma. You have no idea how much I needed this. I need to be inside of you. Right now.”
His voice carried a plead and an order at the same time, his urgency matching mine. A brief glimpse of our surroundings in the alleyway told me we were completely alone and hidden in darkness, and it was all I needed to know to get lost in him.
“And why do you think I’d let you have me, hm?” I raised my eyebrow at him, staring at him challengingly. I was mad at him, and I wanted to hurt him, but my pussy throbbed for him, hungry for his cock. Oh God, his cock.
“Because you want this as much as I do,” he growled, glaring at me. Roughly, he pushed his two fingers into my mound and smirked. “Just as I thought. Already wet.” He pulled out his fingers, and I almost whimpered in protest. I wanted them back inside, but I didn’t say it aloud.
“Maybe I’m imagining someone else instead of you.”
His smirk was menacing, his hands handling me none too gently as he picked me up and placed my legs around his waist.
“And maybe you’re a big liar.” He ground his cock against my pussy, creating the most delicious friction. “I see it in your eyes. You want this as much as I do.” He brought his tip to my entrance, but he didn’t enter me, his stare challenging. “But I won’t fuck you until you say you want it.” He bit into my neck and left a series of wet kisses there. “Come on. Say you want me.”
I dug my nails into his shoulders, hating him and myself for succumbing to this, but I couldn’t keep denying myself what I wanted for so long.
“Fuck me,” I ordered him and tugged at his lower lip, sucking it into my mouth.
The next instant, he was deep within me, claiming my mouth like a hungry beast, and my walls clenched around his massive shaft. He wasn’t gentle, fucking me fast and with boiling anger that intensified the pleasure in me, but his eyes… His eyes were pure fire, looking at me like I was his everything.
In an instant, I was transported to that happy time when we loved each other. It was the same—his loving eyes penetrating into me as he gave me the pleasure that was out of this world. He was like my drug, infiltrating me and leaving nothing but bliss and addiction.
“You feel so damn good, baby. Just like before. Damn, I missed you so much.”
My throat closed up, and I wrapped my arms around him in a hug that spoke more than any words could. His words sounded sincere, coated with misery and loneliness, and they spoke to some hidden, sleeping parts of me that were coming awake after so much time. His words gave me hope and fed me with joy.
Oh my God. I was starting to care again…
“You missed me?” I asked, my voice too hopeful.
His lips curled into the gentlest smile, but his thrusts remained merciful, and the contrast was mesmerizing. I felt my orgasm building quickly in me, and it was the best feeling ever. It could never compare to being with all those guys I didn’t care about. It felt like seven years ago, but at the same time, it felt much, much better.
“You have no idea how fucking much. To the point of losing my sanity.”
He increased his tempo, his cock hitting my cervix hard, and it pushed me over the edge. I screamed, but he pressed his lips against mine and muffled my screams, not stopping his movements, which prolonged my orgasm.
“Fuck. This. This is what I longed for for so long… Damn it. I’m going to cum…”
“Yes. Cum. Cum inside of me.”
“Emma!” He shouted my name and plunged into me one more time before he started spurting his sperm into me, his lips making love to mine.
And just like that, my resolve to stay away from him vanished into thin air. All of a sudden, everything had sense again and the world wasn’t gray anymore…
I was falling for him all over again.
He didn’t say anything for quite some time, staying inside of me long after his last jet of seed ended in me, breathing into my neck.
“Damn. I can’t believe I forgot about the condom.”
“Don’t worry. I’m still on the pill.”
I could feel him smile against my shoulder. “That’s good.” He finally raised his head to look me in the eyes, and the longing in them made my heart ache for him. “Thank you,” he said sheepishly, taking me aback with his sudden awkwardness. “This was more than amazing.” I wanted to laugh at the blush that covered his cheeks. He was so cute like this, and I remembered I’d always liked this side of him.
He lowered me to my feet, and I smiled encouragingly at him. “What’s up with this sudden change in attitude? I’m not going to bite you, you know?”
The surprise on his face was clear. “You won’t?”
“Nope.”
He slid his hand over my cheek, his gaze amorous, and it was stealing my breath. “Then, do you want to go back to your place?”
For some reason that I couldn’t explain to myself even if I wanted to, I didn’t need to think about this answer. My pussy pulsated at the thought that I was going to have Noah in my home.
“Yes. I want to,” I agreed.