CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Cat relaxed as a woman with the shoulders of a linebacker and soothing magic fingers rubbed creamy crap over her face. She felt like she’d run a marathon. Between finalizing tomorrow’s filming locations with Paige, installing and covering her super cool present to Merry, and taking care of her secret project, she was beat.
A swarthy masseuse named Teddy had worked out the kinks in her back and shoulders. Her nails were a pretty, festive plum, and after the facial and blowout, she’d be camera ready for tomorrow.
“This. Is. The. Best.” Sara sighed across the room. She was sporting new caramel highlights that were probably going to make Noah lose his shit because of how grown up they made her look. She and April had gone for matching red glitter nail polish. Perfect for the Christmas reveal.
“Mmm,” Cat’s mother purred as Teddy worked on a delicate spot on the arch of her foot.
Paige, Kathy, and Mellody were animatedly discussing Mellody and Ricky’s upcoming wedding.
“You’re all set here,” Magic Fingers announced in a thick Austrian accent. “Don’t move.”
The woman shoved a warm towel around Cat’s neck and lumbered out the door. Cat could appreciate efficiency over friendliness. Especially when the results spoke for themselves. She’d been pampered to within an inch of her life and was content to just sit.
Her phone buzzed in her lap. Cracking one eye open she held the phone aloft.
Noah: We’ve had some drinks.
The attached picture made her grin wide enough to crack the facial and get antioxidants in her mouth. One of Gabby’s socked feet poked out from under the coffee table as did most of Drake’s lower body. Gannon was sound asleep, mouth open on the couch, while a grinning Henry carefully dotted his face with stickers. Ricky was either dancing in front of the TV or having some sort of seizure.
Cat quickly snapped a selfie and sent it back.
Cat: I’m busy getting beautiful.
Noah: Waste of time. You’re already beautiful. The most beautiful. Is that mayonnaise?
Cat: It’s not mayonnaise. It’s something very expensive and French sounding.
Noah: Have I mentioned I had some drinks?
Cat: You may have said something about that.
Noah: I’m probably going to ask you to stay tomorrow even though I know the answer’s no. But I hate surprises, so I thought I’d warn you anyway. Also, there were drinks.
Cat didn’t know how to respond. He’d gotten attached, just as she’d feared. And damn if he wasn’t the only one. She loved Noah’s grumpy predictability. His sexy nerd glasses. His unfaltering devotion to his daughter. His drive to do the best for everyone.
And just what the hell was she supposed to do about it?
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By the time the spa circus rolled up to Noah’s front door, they’d all been primped and polished to a new shine. They piled out of the SUV and trooped up the steps to the front door. A now mostly sober Noah opened the door with an enthusiastic flourish. “Ladies!”
Cat patted him on the cheek as she walked past him into the foyer. The living room was full of men. Sound asleep men. Gabby was sitting on Gannon’s lap happily watching creepy puppets sing on TV while her dad snored.
“Oh, my,” Paige sighed. “Looks like you guys had a big day.” She picked Gabby up and pressed a kiss to Gannon’s forehead.
Gannon pulled her down to sprawl on top of him.
“Hey now, sister present,” Cat said, pretending to gag.
“This is nothing compared to what I had to listen to today,” Gannon yawned. “Come on wife. Let’s go home and do bad things to each other.”
“Fffffck.” Gabby chirped, clapping her hands together.
“What was that that just came out of my sweet child’s mouth?” Paige asked sharply.
“She said funk,” Drake said, his head popping up from the pillow.
“Clearly,” Henry agreed from his position on the floor.
“Definitely did not say ‘fuck.’” Ricky announced.
Jasper kicked Ricky in the shin.
“Ouch!”
Cat smothered a laugh and watched Noah try not to flip out over Sara’s hair.
The party over, they left in families and twosomes carting leftovers and kids until it was just the two of them.
Noah slipped his arm around Cat’s shoulder as they waved Sara, Mellody, and Ricky off. And by the time the headlights came on in Mellody’s car, Noah was dragging Cat back inside.
He kissed her, and she tasted sweetness.
“Don’t you think we should talk?” she asked.
“Talk later.” He bent low tossing her over his shoulder and headed for the stairs. Cat shrieked as he jogged up them, his shoulder shoving its way into her solar plexus with every bounce. He tossed her with less ceremony and more enthusiasm onto the mattress.
Laughing, she bounced once against the wall of pillows. “Just how many drinks have you had?”
“Why?” Noah asked, kicking off his slippers and yanking his t-shirt over his head.
“Because there are rules about taking advantage of partners when they’re inebriated,” Cat reminded him.
“You’re a really good person, you know that?” Noah insisted as he unzipped his jeans.
Cat bit her lip as they slipped low over his hips offering a view of that v of muscles she loved to bite.
“I am pretty great,” she agreed.
“It’s no wonder I’m in love with you,” he said conversationally.
Cat blinked.
With jeans low on his hips, Noah crossed to the dresser. He opened a drawer with a flourish and pulled out a matchbook. Striking one, he lit the two pillar candles in front of the mirror.
“Noah.” She said his name softly, not even sure of what she could or should say next.
“It’s funny how you can go through life and be as careful as possible, follow all the rules, and then BAM!” He plugged something into the wall and the floor lit up. He’d strung Christmas lights over every piece of furniture and the floor the whole way around the room.
“Anyway,” he hooked his thumbs into his jeans and slid them down his thighs. “I’m going to ask you to stay tomorrow. And I’m giving you a head’s up on that because I want you to really think about it.”
He was hard already, a spectacular specimen in the soft glow of Christmas lights.
He crawled up the foot of the bed toward her. Cat felt her breath catch in her throat at the beautiful man who loved her, covering her body with his. He pressed her into the mattress with his weight.
“Tonight, I’m either going to convince you to stay or give you a memory that will stay with you forever.”
“And ruin me for other men,” Cat guessed.
“That too,” Noah said, cupping her chin in his hand.
“I love you, Catalina King. I didn’t mean to, and I’m not sure how it happened. But I’d be a fool if I just let you walk away.”
His mouth finally shut the hell up and got to work brushing soft kisses over her mouth, her nose, her eyelids. Together, they wrestled her shirt free and then her pants. He stroked her, every inch of her massaged, oiled body, igniting wants so terrifying that Cat wished she could forget them.
Her bra seemed to disintegrate, her underwear evaporated, and then it was just skin against skin. He kissed her from forehead to toes and back again, unhurried despite her begging him for more, despite how his hard-on throbbed against her. He tickled and teased her with his tongue, stroking between those slick lips at the apex of her thighs until she trembled over the edge into a breathtakingly beautiful orgasm. It was like having the sun rise in her body, bit by bit, flooding her with light.
When she moved to take control, to touch him back, Noah cuffed her hands over her head. “Just take.”
It was an order she’d obey this time. Every cell in her body tingled, primed for more pleasure.
He settled himself between her legs, lazily rolling on a condom, pausing to lap at both breasts until she was writhing again. Helpless, vulnerable, deprived, she opened for him, tempting him with rolls of her hips.
When she felt like she’d die if he didn’t slide home into her body, she begged him tearfully to fill her. And he did. One languorous push, and he was sheathed inside her. Whole. Full. Joined. Her body recognized his as part of itself.
And the glow began to build all over again.
Slowly, languidly he circled his hips. This wasn’t the fast, reckless sex she’d preferred in a past life. This was love in physical form. Worshipping each other. Carrying each other to an unexplored heaven.
Tears leaked from beneath her lashes at the beauty of it. And the smart bastard knew that she’d never forget this moment. Never forget their connection. She would come, exploding around him like a super nova, and she’d never be able to move on.
She squeezed him tight between her thighs. “Noah. Wait.”
He stopped, still as a statue even as his cock twitched inside her in protest. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “If we’re going to make this the most memorable experience in the history of sex, I want you to come inside me.”
“Anything you want,” Noah agreed.
“Without the condom.”
His body coiled tightly against her. “Are you sure?” His voice was gruff.
She’d never not used a condom. Never in her sixteen years of sex-having.
“I’m sure.” She was. She wanted there to be nothing between them this time.
Noah braced himself on one arm, gently pulling out of her. She heard the slick slide of the condom coming off. Felt him positioned at her entrance. Nothing but heat between them now.
“Really sure?” he asked again.
“Positive,” she breathed.
And with that affirmation, Noah drove into her in one exquisite thrust.
They cried out together, and Cat clung to him as he began to move in her. Different than before. So much more.
Noah groaned against her throat, and she knew he felt it too. That connection that perhaps she’d hidden from, ignored. There was no denying it, not like this.
He moved in her, slow, measured strokes that made her lose her mind. She flowed with him, letting him carry her closer and closer to the sun.
He whispered dark promises of love in her ear. Cat dug her nails into his shoulders when the first flutter of release awakened.
“Noah!”
“I’m here. I’m with you,” he promised.
She jumped, open-armed into the sun, letting it blaze within until she was sure they both would burn up. But he was there with her, his cock releasing his orgasm into her very core. Wave for wave, they met each other eagerly, desperately.