She took a few more long sips of her coffee while the sun shined through the window, promising a beautiful day. This week with Noah was going to change her life forever, of that she was certain. But what was she going to do for him? When they walked away from each other at the end of their week, what would he take with him?
She stared into the bathroom again, hearing him whistling some tune she couldn’t make out. Part of her wanted to go in there and join him. The other part of her knew the second she did she would not be able to think straight.
Before she could settle on a solid plan, her cellphone beeped. She grabbed it off the end table and saw a text from her mother.
I’ve missed hearing your voice the past couple days. Call when you can.
Olivia smiled. She was close to her mom. They typically talked every couple of days. She texted back: I’m out of town with a friend. I’ll be home tomorrow. Call then. Love you.
She took the final few sips of her coffee then set the empty mug on the end table while keeping her phone in her other hand. She opened Google and began searching for things to do in Bedford, New York. The very first thing on that list could not have been more perfect. She clicked the website with a smile, and minutes later, her booking was confirmed.
That was when she realized she wasn’t alone anymore.
She set her phone down on the bed and glanced up, discovering Noah had exited the bathroom, steam following him. He was stark naked and using a towel to rub the beads of water from his hair.
She admired his masculine form and his semi-hard cock before focusing away from all that. “I’ve made plans for us this morning.” She hopped out of bed, quickly moving to her bag on the floor to grab some clothes. “Get dressed.”
“You made plans?” he asked behind her.
She searched her bag for a pair of shorts and a blouse. “Yup, and it’s a surprise.”
He hesitated. Then his voice lowered, “A surprise?”
She sighed and glanced over her shoulder, trying not to notice how unbelievably hot he looked wearing nothing but that towel around his shoulders. “Yes, and if you’d hurry up and get ready then you’ll find out what we’re doing.”
Two things happened almost simultaneously: He hurried to get her panties off and a condom on. Then they had an incredible quickie that left her screaming in pleasure.
And an hour later, Olivia was still tingling in all the right places when they drove up to the empty field. Right in the middle was a hot air balloon. She took a quick look at Noah who had turned off the car.
He gave her a side glance. “We’re going on a hot air balloon ride?”
“Surprise.” She smiled, not seeing any signs of horror crossing his face. “It’s the number one thing to do in Bedford, and it’ll take us right over Westchester. I hope you’re not afraid of heights.”
His eyes laughed at her, then he opened the door and got out. She supposed he wasn’t afraid of much. But as he stared out at the balloon, she caught his smile. A new smile. A little freer and full of intrigue. “What made you do this?” he asked, turning to her.
She figured honesty was the best way to go. “Because I thought you’d like to do something non–work related. Was I right?”
He snatched up her hand and pulled her close against all his strength and warmth. Holding her tight against him, he dropped a soft kiss to her forehead. “Most definitely right.”
Point for her—he liked this.
“Olivia Watts?”
She leaned away from Noah and spotted a salt-and-pepper-haired man near the basket. “Yes, that’s me,” she called.
“Come, then.” He waved them forward and patted the basket. “Let’s enjoy this beautiful day.”
She turned to Noah and smiled. “Ready?”
He leaned down, getting close again, and lowered his voice to a sexy rumble. “You should be well aware by now that I’m always ready.” He chuckled, probably at the heat flooding her cheeks, and leaned away. He took her hand and they strode side by side toward the basket.
Olivia learned something about herself right then and there. She felt really good making other people happy. That smile on Noah’s face made her day complete. Even more so, because that smile lasted from the time they got up in the air and through the last hour while their pilot guided the hot air balloon high above the city then took them lower along the river and farms.
“God, this view is beautiful,” she said, stunned by the beauty of the world from up high. She’d never photographed nature, always people, but this view took her breath away. The world seemed so different from up here. Like all the big problems that people created simply didn’t exist anymore. Or at least, seemed smaller and less important.
“You’re right, the view is stunning,” Noah said.
When she glanced his way, she found his hands resting on the side of the basket, but he wasn’t looking at the nature below. She laughed and nudged his arm. “This view, silly. The trees and stuff.”
He gathered her in his arms. Those warm eyes of his melted her on the spot. “I prefer the other view better.”
She rested her palms against the hardness of his chest. “You’re happy?”
“I’m happy.” He smiled.
“Good,” she said with a sigh of relief. “Because this whole thing was beginning to feel very one-sided.” At that, he lost some of the softness in his expression, so she added, “You can’t be the only one making someone’s life better.”
He stared at her for so long she began to wonder if she had said something wrong. But then his mouth dropped to hers and he kissed her passionately. Far more intimately than he’d done before. His kiss tasted like emotion and realness and so much more.
By the time he pulled away, Olivia had forgotten how to work her legs, and leaned against the basket for support.
He brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “Thank you for today, Olivia. This is…”—his honest smile caught her breath—“…no one has ever done anything like this for me before. I’ve enjoyed this day immensely.”
She returned the smile. The sincerity in his voice, and the emotion in his potent kiss made her realize that today might have been the first time in a long time that anyone had done something for Noah without a motive behind it.
Maybe sometimes she didn’t get anything right. She fumbled a lot in this crazy thing called life. But this…this moment, she got perfectly right.
* * *
—
Late that night, and after Noah had parked his car next to the elevator in the parking garage of his building, he opened the car door and knelt by Olivia who was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat. She had fallen asleep early on the drive back to New York City and hadn’t stirred once. He brushed the hair off her face, examining this woman who had done something incredibly sweet for him today. He hadn’t tasted that feeling in a really long time, and it tasted good.
She breathed deep with sleep and he gently tucked her hair behind her ear. Over the years, he had shaken thousands of hands, talked to thousands of people throughout his life, and not one of them had been like Olivia. She had every reason to feel jilted, but she still offered warmth to him. More importantly, she saw beauty in a world where many saw only negativity.
Cameron was a damn fool. To cheat on this woman. It made no sense.
Though Noah knew men like Cameron. Men who were hungry to have every little bit of the world and then wanted only to claim more of it. He understood that passion since that drive also ran through his blood. But Noah had morals, something Cameron obviously did not. Yet what Olivia had given him today was something new. Something undiscovered. Something real.
He kept waiting for that moment when he would become less interested in her. The moment never came. If anything, she only fascinated him more. Determined to keep her close tonight, he gathered her in his arms and her head
gently fell onto his chest. He smiled to himself, unsurprised she didn’t rouse. She seemed to like to sleep.
In quick time, he made it into his penthouse and carried her to the bedroom. His plan to leave her there while he stripped to join her was thwarted when she opened her eyes.
“Am I home?” she croaked.
“We’re at my place.” He gently pulled his arm out from under her neck.
She slowly began to sit up. “I need to work tomorrow.”
“I’ll get you home in time in the morning.” She lowered her head back to the pillow, and he added, “Just sleep.” Truth was, he wanted her there with him tonight. He wanted her there in the morning tucked in next to him. Warm, soft, and perfect in his arms. And that wasn’t anything he needed to think about anymore.
She tilted her face slightly, close enough that he could kiss her. “Are you coming to bed too?”
With the lights off in his room, the moonlight cascaded through the window and onto her beautiful face, and his cock swelled. Something this woman seemed to do to him without any effort. He suspected, on an intellectual level, he understood why. The connection with Olivia was not only about desire alone but also was centered around need. There was an emotional element between them that had been there from the second he met her. A connection he could not ignore, nor pretend did not exist. “That depends if you want to go back to sleep.”
His expression must have showed a lot of what he wanted because she nibbled her lip and slowly shook her head. “I don’t want to sleep,” she said softly.
Damn, he regretted there wasn’t more light in the room. He missed seeing the way her eyes darkened and became hooded with her arousal. Equally drawn into her, he began undressing her. First her shirt then her bra, and he didn’t get distracted from his task until he had her naked. Only then did he close his mouth over hers and kiss her passionately. A slow kiss. An intimate kiss. One that he had never given to any woman in his bed before, because it crossed lines he had refused to ever cross before.
In no time, her sweet mouth and ripe body awaiting him had his cock throbbing in desperation to sink into her. He breathlessly broke away, trailing his fingers over her bare thigh, moving toward her sex. The sweet moan and needy wiggle only brought out his carnal urges more.
Instead of touching her where she wanted him to, he unbuttoned his shirt then shed the rest of his clothing. She lay perfectly still, ready and waiting, her nipples hard, her mouth, made puffy from his kiss, parted waiting for more.
He grabbed a condom from the bedside drawer and wasted no time in applying the latex. The need to get closer to her overwhelmed him, and those thoughts followed him as he covered her body with his. He dropped his mouth to hers, tasting all the things she was offering, and maybe things she didn’t even know she was giving him. He rested his hands next to her head, keeping her pinned to the mattress exactly where he wanted her. Beneath him.
The tip of him found her easily, and he devoured her soft moan when he entered her. His lips paused on hers, a groan spilling from his mouth as her tight heat encased him. He gave long, slow thrusts of his hips, allowing himself to feel the way her inner walls hugged him.
Vanilla sex. Oh, how long it had been since he’d had a taste of sex without intensity. Where the only exchange was the potent connection between them. But this, with her, was nice. She clung to him, her legs wrapped around his thighs, her hands sliding across his back. And soon, he became lost in how well they fit together.
Needing to be closer still, he cupped her shoulder, keeping her tight to him while he rode her. She was soft and warm and everything perfect beneath him. So perfect that he broke the kiss, consumed by the pleasure she drew out in him. He dropped his head onto her neck to inhale the sweetness of her natural aroma. He placed his ear right by her mouth to hear every single one of her soft, breathy moans. A sound that confirmed he was doing right by her; this incredible woman who had fallen into his life and somehow made him want this. To be as close as he could get and then somehow only want to get closer.
He was unafraid. He held on tighter and hooked her leg onto his arm, spreading her wider. Her sweet pussy welcomed his cock in deep until he was thrusting his hips hard and fast. His deep grunts echoed her moans, and each little quiver she gave as his pelvis connected with her clit had him thrusting his hips faster now, needing her to get there first.
She gasped, her fingernails digging into his back. “Noah.”
The desperation in her voice echoed around him. He pumped his hips harder…faster. Though desperation filled him too. He pressed his body against her, pinning her to the mattress. She was safe. Protected. All his to pleasure. And as that single declaration echoed in his mind, he increased his thrusts until her moans all blended together. Her breath hitched and her legs straightened with her rising pleasure. She was taking him along with her, and he unleashed himself, skin slapping against skin, until she began quivering beneath him.
Then there was nothing but her pleasure, then his.
Until his mind returned to him many, many minutes later. He slid off her and grabbed a tissue off the bedside table and removed the condom. She was breathless and silent, her eyes closed, her body lax and sated. He scooped her up in his arms, spooning her, and tucked his face into her neck to catch his breath.
“Noah,” she said a little while later.
“Mm hmm,” he managed.
She turned over and her warm breath brushed across his face. “Thank you for this weekend. All of it. It was perfect.”
He slowly opened his eyes, and he caught her grateful expression in the moonlight. He slid a hand across her warm cheek and smiled. “It was only perfect because you were there with me.”
Chapter 9
The following morning, Noah kept his promise to deliver Olivia home early enough for her to make it to work on time. Though the second she sat behind her desk and stared at the mountain views on her computer screen’s desktop, all she could think about was Noah. There had been only one other time in her life that she’d felt as grateful as she did now. And that’s when Paige took her in after she walked in on Cameron and Lacie. Everyone needed someone backing them up sometimes. But she found that during these past days with Noah, he wasn’t only there for her, but he was always changing her in unexpected ways.
Every sizzling touch and every moment they spent talking was not transforming her into the new woman she thought she would discover on this journey. She felt like she was coming back to the woman she had been a long time ago. The carefree woman who had existed before she took the web designer job. The person who’d had a spark for life and wanted things for herself. The woman who had believed in hope. And spent her days doing what she loved, not just following along to keep everyone else happy.
She stared across the hallway as Isaac rose from behind his desk and, in grand style, barked orders at his assistant then vanished down the hallway. She began to wonder when it was exactly she lost sight of that woman she used to be. Knowing full well that answer would not come today, she glanced at her monitor, which revealed it was already lunchtime. The morning had whizzed by, and Olivia smiled, anticipating what came next.
Mario’s. Noon? The text from Noah had come around ten o’clock this morning. Her heart had jumped then, and her heart still jumped now in anticipation of seeing him again. She got only an hour for lunch, so she gathered her purse from the drawer, not intending to waste those minutes with him.
Of course, the moment she rose, the phone on her desk rang. She grabbed the receiver and said, “Olivia speaking.”
Shawanda, the receptionist replied, “There is a Cameron Kline here to see you.”
Her stomach promptly jumped to her throat, things coming to her mind. A problem with her house was at the top of that list. “Okay, thanks. I’ll be right there.” She returned the phone to the cradle then hurried down the hallway, hoping like hell for no
other distractions.
She caught sight of Cameron standing near the reception desk. The closer she got to him, the more her earlier thoughts returned. Had Cameron been the reason she had changed along the way and became a woman she didn’t recognize anymore? Or had it been all the responsibilities piling up on top of responsibilities and life simply happening? Or maybe even Noah had been right—Cameron had his own insecurities and to hide them he made her dreams small, and for whatever reasons, she hadn’t seen that at the time? By the time she reached him, she still didn’t know the answer to what had happened along the way. The only thing she knew anymore, when she looked at the man she once loved, was sadness. Deep sadness. Sadness that all she had hoped for them would never be. Sadness that he had taken something beautiful and thrown it all away. Sadness that all her happy memories would be forever tainted by his cheating.
“Hi.” He gave a tight smile when she reached him.
She noted he wore a navy-blue suit and tie she’d never seen him in before. “Hey. What’s up?”
He tucked his hands into his pockets, straightening his shoulders. Once she thought Cameron always looked imposing. Now, after meeting Noah, maybe not so much. “The agent called this morning,” Cameron said. “She’s got some showings lined up, so I figured I’d let you know.”
“Okay, cool.” She returned the tight smile, pretending this wasn’t totally weird. Cameron worked a good twenty minutes away. He never just showed up at her work. Hell, now that she thought about it, they had never even done lunch together. Besides, he usually called about any dealings with the house. She waited for him to explain himself. When he failed to say anything more, she asked, “Sorry, is there something more you needed to talk about?”
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