Brynn pressed her lips together. There was no way Noah would know all of that unless someone had told him. No, not someone. Rudy. Her throat felt tight. Whoa, she hadn’t been expecting that.
“When did he figure that out?” she asked quietly.
“It wasn’t until he was here and looking back.” Noah took a final step that put him right in front of her. “He told me that you would bring textbooks to dinner.”
“I only did that twice.”
“Twice was enough.”
She swallowed. “I just knew he thought I was weird and being weird just…worked.”
“Did it work with other people too?” he asked.
She tipped her head. “What do you mean?” She totally knew what he meant.
“Come on,” he said. “Did you use weirdness to keep other people away?”
“The lab in my high school was really quiet,” she confessed. “Quieter than the library. No one came to the lab if they didn’t have to. It was full of this intimidating stuff that people didn’t want to mess with.”
“So you hid out in there.”
She nodded. “Everyone assumed that I loved science since I spent so much time in there. I was actually just reading and writing and drawing a lot of the time. I mean, sometimes it was about science, but not always.”
“But you went into science.”
She shrugged. “I did like it. And I was good at it.” She paused, then continued, “And one of my science teachers nominated me for an award, that I won, that led to a fellowship and a scholarship.”
“You didn’t need a scholarship, Ms. Carmichael,” Noah pointed out.
“No. But it made Mr. Calebus feel good to have gotten it for me.”
Noah nodded. “Exactly. Brynn, you let people take care of you. You don’t need it. But you let them do it because they need it.”
She swallowed. It was true. It was a little pathetic too, and was something that would change when she went back to New York without her sisters. She lifted her shoulder. “It’s an old habit.”
“Yeah.” He took another deep breath. “Well, I’m one of those people.”
She knew that. He was a natural caretaker. Probably why she was going along with all of this. “And you want to take care of me because of Rudy.”
“Yes.”
Dammit. There was something about the idea of Noah taking care of her that made her feel warm and tingly. Until she remembered that the way he was going to do that was to set her up with other men. “Okay,” she finally said.
“I will fix this,” he told her, his voice dropping lower.
“This?”
“The bad date thing. That won’t happen again.”
“Noah, you can’t mandate how my dates go.”
“Yes, I can.”
She gave a soft laugh. Actually, she believed that he could. He knew all of the guys here that would be eligible. And he was not only strong and built big, he was also well respected. She had the impression he didn’t put his foot down often or get growly for no reason. If he started acting like that, the guys here would pay attention.
“You’re going to tell them where to take me and what to do?” she asked.
He was studying her eyes. “Maybe.”
“Write them a script?”
“Possibly.”
On impulse, Brynn moved closer to him. “And will there be kissing at the end of these dates?”
His jaw clenched and his eyes flashed. “No.”
She’d been expecting that answer. “But I want there to be kissing.”
“I can’t handle that part, B.”
The use of B instead of her name made her start. He’d never used a nickname for her before. And she liked it. A lot. Parker called Ava Boss, and it always sounded affectionate and sexy when he did it.
“You’re going to specifically tell them not to kiss me, aren’t you?” she asked.
His eyes were swirling with emotion. “Yes.”
She nodded, her mind working through the situation. “The idea of this dating thing was to help me experience it in a safe, controlled environment, right?” she asked. “My dad was worried that I was hiding away and not getting out and socializing and that I wouldn’t know what I was getting into if I did decide to start dating.”
“Right.”
She drew herself straighter as she made her decision. Noah wanted to do what her father had asked of him. But she knew that he was going to have a very hard time saying no to her. And if it came down to choosing between protecting her for Rudy or making her happy, she needed to know which side he’d come down on.
“Then I want that.” She said it firmly. “If I’m going to do this, then I might as well make it count. I need to experience all the parts of dating. When it’s over, I want to feel confident that I really know what it’s all about. I want to be prepared for anything.”
He groaned and ran a hand over his face. “Dammit,” he muttered.
“What?”
He took a deep breath and met her eyes again. “That’s what I want,” he said. “For you to feel confident. To know that people want you. To know that you are awesome even without your sisters or your money. And I want you to feel like you can handle anything.”
Fine. That’s what Noah needed. But she was getting inspired to ask for a few things she needed too. “And I need kissing.” And more, but she didn’t add that part. She had a feeling he knew. “And I think there’s really only one solution that will make sure you fulfill your promise to my dad, will make me happy, and will keep you from going crazy.”
He looked at her for a long moment. Finally, he asked, “And what’s that?”
His voice was gruff and it sent a shiver of pleasure and sense of rightness down her spine.
“You’re going to have to be the one kissing me.”
4
Yeah, that made sense.
Noah was ninety-six percent sure.
Sure, the endorphins and lust and jealousy coursing through his system might have been making it seem clearer than it really was, but it really did seem like a great solution.
Brynn needed to date other men and she wanted to experience kissing. But he wasn’t going to survive her kissing other men. So he’d have to be the one kissing her.
Yep, that definitely made a ton of sense.
He was ninety-two percent sure.
“Do you want to kiss me?” Her voice was soft, her eyes wide. But she didn’t look shocked. She looked excited.
This might kill him.
“I definitely want to kiss you, Brynn,” he said sincerely. He was absolutely sure he’d never wanted anything more in his life. And that was a staggering thought. Because he knew a lot about wanting things—things to be different, to have made different choices, to be a better man.
“Right now?”
Heat flared through him and he had to clench his fists to keep from reaching for her. “No, not right now.” He had to get his head straight about this. How it was going to work. What he was going to do. How he was going to survive it. How to make it everything she needed it to be. How to somehow also make it something they could both walk away from in the end.
“But you said you’d fix this bad date thing. And I did have a bad date. And I think I need a really great kiss to make it all better.”
“I’m not…” Prepared. What you need. Who you think I am. Good enough for you. All of those thoughts tripped through his head as he trailed off.
But then Brynn reached out and grabbed his forearm, gave it a squeeze, and said, “Yes, you are.”
He didn’t know what exactly she thought she was reassuring him of, but those three words rocked through him. If he had been a better guy, he would have just turned and walked away.
But he wasn’t.
He was selfish and stubborn, and he really wanted someone to fucking want him for something for a change. Not to need him. Lots of people needed his help and his expertise under the hood. Not to reluctantly put up with him like Mag
gie did. He needed someone to want him. He wanted someone to have a choice and to choose him.
Okay, Brynn wasn’t really choosing him. He was manipulating this situation. But he didn’t care.
Because she was looking up at him with big blue eyes filled with hope and anticipation, and pretty pink lips that hadn’t been kissed in a really long time and probably never the way he was going to kiss them, and he had to be the one to do this. He had to.
“You’re still going back to New York in March,” he said. It wasn’t a question. It was a reminder.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“So this is…me taking care of you, helping you.” That’s what this had to be. No matter what else it felt like. Already.
“That’s exactly what this is,” she agreed.
Well, okay then.
He lifted a hand to her face, then slid it around to the back of her head, threading his fingers into her silky hair. He tugged her forward slightly and she came, nearly stepping on his toes, and bumping into his chest in an adorably awkward way that emphasized how uncommon it was for her to be this close to a man. And he fucking loved that. He loved that now that he could pick the guys and knew that he’d be the only one touching her, he wouldn’t want to constantly hit someone.
“And you want me to show you how you should have been kissed tonight?” he asked her, his voice low.
“I do.” She said it in a breathless way that shot an arrow of want straight to his cock.
Had a woman ever made him hard just looking up at him like he was the best thing since they’d made Reese’s peanut butter cups into a cereal? No. Because no woman had ever looked at him like that.
“Okay, Brynn. This is definitely what should have happened tonight.”
He leaned in and put his lips against her forehead, lingering there, breathing her in. God, he’d wanted to do that for months now. Then he dragged his lips over her temple slowly, feeling the silky, warmth of her skin against his mouth, her hair tickling his nose, her soft sigh against his neck. That warm puff of breath on his skin fired his blood, and he put his other hand on her hip and moved her up against him. They were touching chest to thigh. Barely. Layers of clothing between them. Yet he’d never been more turned on in his life.
He moved his lips down to her cheek, pressing a soft kiss there and feeling her hands curl into the front of his shirt. It felt better than any of the times other women had touched his chest. Even naked. Then he slid his lips along her jaw, his stubble rasping over her soft skin. He felt more than heard her little intake of air, and he smiled. And did it again. Then he continued to her ear where he said hoarsely, “This is how a guy who adores you kisses you on the first date.” Then he nipped her earlobe gently. And stepped back.
Her fingers slowly uncurled from his shirt and she blinked up at him a few times, as if trying to focus. She was breathing rapidly and her pupils were dilated, and she looked dazed.
Noah fucking loved everything about it.
She pulled in a deep, shaky breath, and said, “Wow.”
That one word was probably the best thing she could have said to him. He hadn’t wowed anyone in a really long time. And he’d never wanted to wow someone like he did Brynn.
And that was from a kiss on the cheek.
Kind of.
It was definitely a hell of a lot more chaste than what he wanted to do to her tonight.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her, before his thoughts wandered too far in that direction.
She nodded, pressing her lips together. Lips he hadn’t even touched. Yet.
“Brynn?” he asked, as she continued to stand there.
“Yes?”
“Go back inside.”
She seemed to shake herself and glanced toward the porch. “Yeah. Okay.”
But she didn’t move. She looked back at him.
This was all really good for his ego. Really good. She needed to go inside before he rushed through the next several lessons of the physical side of dating all at once. Right now. On the front lawn of her house.
He stepped forward, put his hands on her shoulders, turned her to face the house, and gave her a little nudge. “Go.”
She took one step. Then another. Then she turned around. He almost groaned out loud.
“When will you kiss me again?”
Yeah, this was going to kill him.
“After your next date, I’ll show you how you should be kissed after a second date.”
“When will that be?”
“Soon.” He could promise her that. He needed to get this dating thing over with. He also couldn’t wait to get his mouth on her again. But he needed to go over his list of candidates and have a few conversations first.
She nodded. “Okay. Goodnight.”
“’Night.”
He waited until the door had closed behind her to blow out a big breath and drop his chin to his chest. He’d kissed her forehead and cheek and was more wound up than he’d ever been over a woman.
This was the craziest damned situation he’d ever been in.
And he suddenly realized that it was possible Rudy hadn’t chosen him to take care of Brynn because Noah needed a win in the Good Guy department. He might have chosen him to take care of Brynn because Noah needed a lesson in self-control.
* * *
Brynn shut the front door behind her and actually slumped back against it. She felt like every heroine in every cheesy romantic movie she’d ever seen. And he hadn’t even kissed her. Not really. But just being that close to him, feeling his body heat, drawing in his scent, actually having his hand and mouth on her, no matter where it had been, had made her knees melt and her heart pound.
She could only imagine what having him actually kiss her would be like.
Yeah, this was a great plan. An amazing plan. A perfect plan.
This was what was known as having her cake and eating it too.
She made her way back into the dining room. She could feel the goofy smile on her face but could not hide it or even tone it down.
“Is everything okay?” Ava asked, looking up. Then she arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I guess so.”
Everyone else looked too, and Brynn could see that they could see exactly what she was feeling. “Noah and I have a plan.” She sat back down in her chair from earlier. “It’s all going to work out great.”
“Let me guess,” Cori said. “Big Sexy found a loophole in the will.”
Parker made a choking noise and Ava snorted. Brynn lifted a brow. “Big Sexy?”
Cori grinned. “That’s my new nickname for Noah.”
Well it fit.
“Please, I’m begging you, don’t call him that,” Evan said to Cori.
She shrugged. “Already a done deal.” She leaned over and kissed Evan on the cheek. “You’ll be okay.”
Evan groaned and looked at Brynn. “Please at least tell me the loophole is easy. Tell me it’s obvious.”
“I’m going to be dating five more guys,” Brynn told him.
He let out a breath. “Okay. “
“But Noah’s going to help me with the kissing stuff.”
Her sisters exchanged a look and Evan cleared his throat.
“That’s awesome,” Cori said.
“It is?” Evan asked her with a small frown.
“Of course. Who better to teach her about all of that than Noah?” Cori asked. “I already mentioned the big and sexy part, right?”
Evan narrowed his eyes.
Cori didn’t seem a bit worried as she grinned. “She knows and trusts him,” Cori went on. “He would never do anything to hurt her. He’s really perfect for it.”
Brynn agreed. One thousand percent. With all of it. The big and sexy part too. For sure. And now instead of nervous about the dating stuff, she was now looking forward to it. Almost enthusiastically. She could have dinner or whatever with the five guys. They were each taking her out on one date. It didn’t matter how it went because she wasn’t going to be thinking about a sec
ond date…or even what was going to happen at the end of the first date. The guy would be taking her home to Noah.
That sounded weird when she put it like that, but it was true. She had no doubt Noah would be there waiting for her. Especially if she asked him to be.
She’d eat a million mushy cheeseballs if she knew she’d get to kiss Noah at the end of the night.
And then some.
Her whole body broke out in goose bumps at that thought.
“So,” Brynn said to Evan, “as long as I only have to go out with each guy once to count as a date and it doesn’t matter who I end the night with, then we’re fine.”
Evan thought about it. “I guess that does meet the provisions,” he said after a moment. “We all know that Rudy’s intention was just to get you out socializing.”
She nodded and then stood. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
But on her way up the steps she heard Even tell Cori, “You have no idea how glad I am that you weren’t quadruplets.”
* * *
“You can’t orchestrate every single one of her dates,” Evan told Noah the next morning at breakfast.
Noah pinned him with a look. “Are you saying that as a lawyer or a friend?”
If it was concern over what setting Brynn up on six dates with other men would do to his mental health, he could understand Evan’s concern. If it was against the rules of the will, that was something else. The first he could blow off. The second not as much.
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