“Colbie, it’s been too long.” She knew he was grinning just from the sound of his voice. “How are things?”
Every one of Mia’s brothers was good-looking and charming, but she’d always felt the most comfortable with Rafe. Which was a good thing, considering the very embarrassing favor Mia wanted her to ask of him.
“Mia’s helping me get my new store ready to open tomorrow morning.”
Okay, she told herself as she answered his questions about the store, even if Rafe did find Noah, it didn’t mean she had to marry him. She could just ask him on a date and then, depending on how that went, they could see if it made sense to go on another one. Really, there was no need to be so nervous about seeing him again. It wasn’t like he was going to declare his undying love to her or anything.
Besides, given that Mia would never let her hear the end of it if she didn’t bite the bullet—she knew her friend was only trying to look out for her, even if her methods were a bit unorthodox—Colbie took a breath and barreled ahead.
“The thing is, Rafe, I was wondering if you could help me find someone.”
An hour later...
MIA WAS SURPRISED to find her brother waiting in her real estate office when she got back from helping Colbie a short while later. Not, of course, that any of the Sullivan Realty staff minded keeping Rafe entertained in her absence. Fortunately, her brother knew she’d kill him if he so much as looked at any of her employees the wrong way. As far as she was concerned, any woman in Seattle was fair game for her charming brothers—except for the six women who worked for her.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she told him when he finally extricated himself from her staff and closed her office door behind him. She handed him a color printout she’d been saving for him. “I found the perfect summer cabin for you.”
“I don’t need a summer cabin,” he told her, but when he looked at the picture of the cabin and started reading, she smiled and sat back in her chair to watch him. As kids, their parents used to rent a cabin on a lake in the Cascades every summer. All of them had a good time swimming and fishing and hiking, but Rafe had loved it more than any of them.
Sure, Mia thought, Rafe might not need a summer cabin, but it didn’t mean his life wouldn’t be better for owning one. He tucked the paper into his pocket before sitting on her leather couch.
“I’ve got a funny story to tell you,” he said. “You remember that guy I went to college with? The one you were all drooly over when you were in high school and you came to visit us one weekend? He works with the Maverick Group now.”
Mia thought about it for a second before snapping her fingers. “How could I possibly forget Noah?” She heaved a sigh of remembered appreciation. “Tall. Dark. Gorgeous.” She shook her head. “I’ve always thought it was too bad he wasn’t into fifteen-year-old girls.”
“I would have killed him,” Rafe growled, before telling her, “He hired me to find a woman he met a week ago in Lake Tahoe.”
Mia’s eyes grew big. “No way. Noah’s the guy Colbie bailed on at the top of the mountain? And he came to you to find her?”
Rafe grinned. “And now she’s hired me to find him, too. About time I had a couple of easy cases like this.”
Mia grinned back, the wicked spark in her eyes matching her brother’s perfectly. “Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day, you know.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“How about instead of just calling them with the info, we have a little fun with this? Because I think I’ve got the perfect plan...”
CHAPTER FIVE
February 14, Valentine’s Day
AT 7:15 P.M., a full hour and fifteen minutes after her store should already have closed, Colbie rang up a beautiful pair of handmade earrings for an extremely relieved-looking man.
When she waved goodbye and finally locked the door behind him, she sagged against the glass. Her feet were killing her and she was miles beyond exhausted, but she couldn’t stop smiling.
It had officially been the best day of her life.
Her girlfriends had been the first ones inside the store that morning, and she’d been touched by how sweet it was for them all to drop by. Even her old coworkers came by to see what Indulgence was all about. More than one of them had bought a gift for his girlfriend or wife. Just that alone would have been enough to make it a great first day. But her friends had gone one step further and told their friends about her store. And, of course, Mia had spent half the day on Twitter and Facebook letting everyone on the planet know about the new store they simply had to check out.
She’d barely had a chance to think about Noah all day. Or to wonder if Rafe had made any progress in finding him. Or to daydream about how right it had felt when his arms were around her and she was—
Colbie had to laugh at herself as she grabbed her purse and shut off the lights. Mia was waiting for her at the swanky new cocktail bar down the street to celebrate, so instead of cleaning up now, she’d come back early the next morning to restock.
Stepping out the back door of her store into the damp, cold Seattle night, she took a deep breath. She loved the Pacific Northwest, and even when a steady stream of cloudy days had her praying for slivers of blue sky, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
There were red-and-pink hearts plastered to every storefront in honor of Valentine’s Day. Last year she’d spent it with Rob at an overpriced restaurant with food that had been far too rich for her taste. Of course, her ex had loved it because it was the hottest place in town. If only she’d had the confidence then that she had now, she would never have wasted her time with him.
Quitting her job had been a risk. Opening up the store had been a risk. But so far both of those had paid off in spades. Asking Rafe to find Noah was a risk, too, but, with this track record, Colbie was starting to feel pretty good about her odds...
* * *
NOAH LOOSENED HIS TIE and settled into one of the chairs in the cocktail lounge to wait for Rafe. He’d been surprised when Rafe had texted about meeting tonight, and Noah hadn’t been able to reach his friend all day to find out what was up. But hoping it was good news about Colbie, he’d immediately agreed.
He’d had a busy week at the Maverick Group’s Seattle office, with a big deal he’d been working on for months finally closing. Still, he couldn’t shake his discontent. He couldn’t stop thinking about Colbie and wondering if he was ever going to see her again.
If it turned out that Rafe hadn’t found her yet, Noah was finally going to do what he should have done a week ago: he was going to call every goddamned number in Lake Tahoe, no matter how long it took to find her. And then he was going to do a hell of a lot better job of convincing her to give him a chance than he’d done last week.
So many things about her had resonated with him in those first few minutes they’d spent together. The jolt of pure physical attraction, obviously—the fact that she was his exact ideal of what a woman should look and feel and smell like. But more than that, Colbie was the kind of person who tried to help a child she thought was in trouble, even when helping someone else meant she was going to get herself into more trouble. She was the kind of woman who went tumbling down a mountain in a stranger’s arms and was far more concerned about making sure she hadn’t hurt him than she was for her own bruises.
Noah’s parents were in a good, loving relationship. Baggage and commitment issues weren’t the reason he hadn’t married and started a family. He simply hadn’t found the right woman yet.
But after only a handful of minutes in Lake Tahoe, hadn’t he known that he was looking at a woman he could fall in love with? Hadn’t his soul recognized his mate...even as his intellect had tried to get him to look at things rationally?
His phone buzzed with an incoming text. He saw Rafe’s name and figured he was just checking in about being late. But that wa
sn’t what the message said.
I found her.
Hallelujah! Noah wanted to cheer and pump his fist in the air.
Where is she?
Rafe’s answer came a beat later.
In the bar.
Noah blinked at the words once, twice, three times before believing them. At which point he stood up so quickly he knocked his drink over on the table. But he didn’t stop to right it, not when he was too busy scanning every face in the room to care about the beer dripping onto his shoes.
And then he saw her. She was standing across the bar with a friend. A friend who was pointing straight at him.
My God, he thought, just as he had on the mountaintop in Lake Tahoe. She really is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
And so damn sweet, from the inside out, that it made his chest hurt just looking at her.
Noah wasn’t the kind of guy who had a bunch of check boxes he was trying to fill. Ideas came when it was their time; business flowed when it was meant to be. And he’d always known a wife and a family would come, too, when they should.
Now. He realized it suddenly and intensely. He wanted her now.
He moved swiftly through the crowd toward her and she stood and stared at him as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Noah?”
Just seeing her and hearing his name on those gorgeous lips had him instantly as aroused as he had ever been. But it wasn’t just his body responding to her. This time he was all in, heart and soul.
He’d learned his lesson in Lake Tahoe, knew how bad it had been to lose her once.
He wouldn’t lose her again.
“Colbie.” Her name was a caress on his lips as he smiled down at her beautifully expressive face. “I’ve been thinking about you all week. And now—” he couldn’t stop himself from touching her, from brushing his knuckles across the soft skin of her lightly flushed cheek “—here you are. My very own wish come true.”
“I’ve thought about you, too.” She looked away for a moment as though she was embarrassed. “Maybe a little more than I should have.”
They were standing in the middle of a crowded bar on one of the busiest nights of the year, but all he saw was Colbie, and all he heard were her quickening breaths as the crowd jostled them into each other’s arms.
Until someone said, “It’s nice to see you again, Noah.”
He was hard-pressed to pull his gaze away from Colbie, but when he did, he finally recognized her friend. “Mia Sullivan?”
“I’m glad you remember,” Mia said with a grin. “I’m not fifteen anymore, but you’re clearly taken, so I’ll catch up with both of you later. Oh, and Rafe says to tell both of you this one is on the house.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Have fun, you two.” A moment later, she’d disappeared into the crowd and he was alone again with Colbie.
“You know Rafe?” she asked.
“He was my roommate in college,” Noah explained. “And you—?”
“Practically grew up in the Sullivan house.”
“I asked him to look for you,” he told her.
“So did I,” she admitted. “Small world, isn’t it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why did you leave me in Lake Tahoe without any way to find you?”
She looked uncertain for a long moment. Finally, she admitted, “I was scared.” She bit her lip. “Of all the things you were making me feel, even though we’d just met.”
He could tell how big a deal it was for her to admit that to him, and it pleased him to know that she was trying to trust him. At least a little bit.
“Tell me, Colbie. Tell me what I made you feel.”
“The same things you’re making me feel right now,” she said in a soft voice that he had to lean closer to hear. Her scent wrapped around him again, drew him in even further. He wanted to breathe her in everywhere, wanted to know what her skin tasted like in all those same places. “Like my heart is going to beat out of my chest just because you’re here.”
He knew she was being honest with him, but at the same time, he could tell she was still cautious. Still nervous about being with him. He wanted to know not only all her secret desires, her secret pleasures... He wanted to know the secret to her heart.
“Don’t run again, Colbie.” He smiled down at her. “I’m not sure Rafe would be up for helping us a second time.”
As her hesitation gave way to a smile, his breath caught in his throat. Beautiful didn’t even begin to describe the woman standing before him. Stunning didn’t cut it, either.
She was perfect.
“Finding you again like this proves what I’ve known since the moment I saw you.” He caressed her cheek again, pausing with his hand just cupping her chin, loving the anticipation in her gaze, the way she was all but begging him to kiss her with that hungry look in her eyes.
“What did you know?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“That we are a perfect fit.” He leaned in close, close enough that he could have kissed her. Instead he said, “And that we belong together.”
He could almost taste the sweetness of her lips, was about to pull her soft curves against him, when a flicker of doubt flashed in her eyes at the very last second and she pulled away from him.
Just as she had on the ski slopes right before she’d left him.
He watched her force a laugh, as if he’d been kidding about being soul mates. “I’ve never heard a pickup line quite like that one before. Does it usually work?”
She was clearly pushing for a reaction, trying to see if she could get him to walk away this time. But he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “I’ve never said it to anyone before.”
He heard her breath catch, watched as her cheeks flushed an even deeper rose. “But we hardly know each other.”
Noah wanted to find out who had put that wariness into her eyes. Not only was he going to kill the sorry bastard; he was also going to spend the rest of his life making sure no one ever hurt her again.
“What if I can prove to you that it’s true?”
Interest sparked at his challenging words, but too quickly the wariness came back. “How could you possibly do that?”
“You gave me one perfect day in Lake Tahoe. Now I want one night.” He moved closer again and took one of her trembling hands in his. “One night with you.” He entwined his fingers with hers and she stopped shaking as he held her tight. “One night to love you the way you’ve always wanted to be loved.” He dipped his head down so that he could whisper in her ear. “One perfect night to make all of your secret desires and dreams come true.”
When he pulled back slightly to take in her reaction, he could see the pulse point at the base of her neck moving wildly beneath her creamy skin. She shook her head, desire now warring with caution in her beautiful blue eyes.
“You could do all that in one night?”
Noah had always followed his instincts, whether with family or friends or business. And right now, his instincts were telling him to stop thinking, stop talking, stop trying to convince Colbie of his intentions...and just do.
Gently cupping her face with his free hand, her skin so soft beneath his palm, the heat from her skin searing him, he tilted her face up to his and whispered, “Yes,” right before taking her mouth with his.
CHAPTER SIX
NOAH KISSED HER the way she’d always wanted to be kissed. With passion. With decadent, sinful purpose.
And with more sweet emotion than she’d even known was possible.
Even though it was their first kiss, he wasn’t afraid to sweep his tongue between her teeth, and his boldness gave her the courage to take what she wanted.
Him.
Their tongues danced, mating so beautifully that she heated u
p as much behind her breastbone as she did everywhere else. It was blissful being with a man who wasn’t worried about moving too fast or too slow, only with making love to her mouth.
He led their dance, and although she was more than glad to follow wherever he took her, she was tasting him, too. Learning the corners where his lips came together with the tip of her tongue, gently biting his lower lip between her teeth and sucking it into her mouth.
A groan of pleasure vibrated from his chest to hers, and she was powerless against the urge to press her breasts against his hard chest. His groan turned into a growl of desire, and then his hand moved from her face to thread through her hair as he tilted her head back so that he could have better access to her mouth.
Noah didn’t ask her to tell him what she wanted. He didn’t stop to ask if what he was doing was okay, if it felt good. He simply gave her pleasure, anticipating exactly what she wanted without her having to spell it out for him.
And the truth was that standing in a crowded bar while a gorgeous man kissed her senseless was every fantasy she’d ever had come true.
Eventually he pulled away from her. “Come home with me, Colbie.”
Missing his kiss already, instead of answering his request, she put her hands on either side of his face and pulled his mouth back down to hers. This time, she was the one kissing him as if her life depended on it.
When they finally drew back from one another, he asked, “Is that a yes?”
She’d never wanted to say yes to any question as much as she did right now. But hurt—and the fear of being hurt again—was a tricky thing, she was learning. Tricky enough that even Noah’s kisses couldn’t completely eradicate it.
“You’re so sure,” she said. “So certain. But what if one night ends up being a mistake?”
Another man might have gotten frustrated, might have tried to rush her from the bar to his house so that they could get out of their clothes and down to business. Noah simply stroked her gently with his hands still in her hair and asked, “Do you remember what I said to you up on the ski slopes?”
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