“You have to stop.”
She pinched his nipple.
Lex grabbed her hips. Pulled her into him and across the dance floor. Through the crowd of dancers who gave him knowing looks. But he didn’t pay them any mind. His body was making all the decisions for him, guiding her toward the place in the club where more than a few couples often ended up. It was a hidden corner under the speakers, dark and intimate with the throb of the music pounding even harder, the bass shuddering over his skin. Lex pushed her back into the wall and she moved willingly with him, hands around his neck, meeting his mouth in a hot kiss even before her back properly settled into the wall.
Theirs was no tentative press of lips, no hesitant kiss but the instant and devouring opening of mouths. A tongue-sucking, back-gripping, deep-groaning call to mate that shook Lex’s thighs, hardened him even more in his jeans. Noelle tasted so damn good. Fresh toothpaste. The faintly waxy texture of her lipstick. She moved with him, grabbing his back as he grasped her hips. They pushed together, groaned as one when she opened her legs and he felt the hot clasp of her thighs, imagined the even hotter grip of her cleft around him. Noelle rubbed her chest against his, her nipples pressing into him through his thin shirt and her thinner dress.
And still they kissed, open-mouthed and wet, only pulling back to gasp for air. All the while, their bodies moved steadily together, hips circling and firm, Noelle’s hand under Lex’s shirt pinching and twisting his nipple.
Come home with me. The words were right there, ready for him to say.
“Do you want to come to my place?” She met his eyes fearlessly, her mouth lipstick-smeared and wet. Everything in him shouted YES.
But Margot. His celibacy. The truth Noelle needed to know before anything else happened between them.
Lex spat a silent curse. “We should take it slow.” He cursed himself out with every stupid word he said, knowing he was putting out mixed signals, telling her no when his body was obviously ready for her. “This feels good right now, but I don’t think we’ll be okay with it in the morning.”
The spasm of rejection on her face made him instantly reach out to her. But Noelle stepped back from him and took a deep breath. “You may be right.” She rolled her shoulders and straightened the front of her dress. “I think it’s time for me to go home. It’s getting late.”
Lex mentally howled the scream of the damned but eventually jerked his head in a nod. He desperately wanted a drink, and by drink he meant the liquor between her thighs. When she turned away to push through the dance floor and head toward the door, he took a moment to press down on the hardness in his jeans. Frustrated pleasure shuddered through him, the rough stimulation only adding to the ache of wanting her. He followed her.
In the parking lot, Noelle pulled the single key from where she’d stored it in her cleavage. Lex eyed the swell of breasts. Where did she have room for that and her ID? But she was already opening her car door.
“Thanks for inviting me out tonight,” she said.
It was impossible not to notice she’d said nothing about having a good time. Both of you could have had an even better time, a voice whispered in Lex’s head.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
Then an awkward silence settled between them.
“Well, I’ll—”
“It’s—”
They both started talking at the same time and then stopped at the same time. It was painful.
“Drive safely,” he said after it looked like she wasn’t going to say anything else.
“Yeah, you too.”
Her leg disappeared into the car and the door slammed shut. She wasted no time in starting the car and pulling out of the parking space, forcing Lex to step out of the way or risk getting run over.
That was stupid. He was stupid.
Lex lingered in the parking lot, the music from inside the club thudding its insistent beat, although it wasn’t as loud from outside. He thought about going back inside but then dismissed the idea nearly as soon as it came. The music was good, as always, but, even this far away from the big homemade speakers, the sound of the heavy bass only made him think of Noelle and the feel of her pressed against him, thick-thighed and wet-mouthed, her nipples swollen with want, begging him to touch them.
Come to my place. Her words echoed inside his head.
The ring of them followed him all the way to his car, during the drive home and through the front door of his house. When he lay on the bed, naked and damp from his shower, her invitation echoed still.
Do you want to come to my place?
How he wanted to say yes. Could easily imagine giving her the answer they both wanted and allowing the night to run its natural course. He licked his lips and imagined it all in hip-jerking detail.
But, no, that couldn’t happen.
This has to end, he thought. He couldn’t do this to himself or to Noelle another night. He had to tell her the truth.
Chapter 10
Lex wanted to look Margot in the face when he told her that Noelle was suffering more with her meddling than without. He called her to meet up after work at the same place as last time. He got there first, settling into the booth by the window that had a small postcard propped up in the middle of the table advertising the day’s specials. Oxtail and stew peas.
He was worn out from his work day, mentally exhausted and impatient with the code that didn’t want to act right. He’d manipulated every variable, came at it from just about every angle, but it still didn’t do what it was supposed to. Maybe he just needed to step away from it, come back with a fresh perspective. His forced manipulation wasn’t working. Maybe he needed to just chill and let it tell him what it needed. The irony of his sudden decision wasn’t lost on him.
Margot needed to leave Noelle alone, let her have her life in peace.
But what did that mean for any relationship he hoped to have with Noelle?
He clenched his jaw, arms stretching out on either side of him on the back of the booth.
The restaurant was more than half full with the after-work crowd, some settling in to avoid traffic with a beer and a full meal while others ate patties out of the white bags and watched the pedestrians pass by.
Lex was watching slow-moving vehicles and thinking about Noelle when he saw Margot walking toward the restaurant. She was immaculate in a white pantsuit. A tall woman with a confident stride, too skinny and with enough attitude to put off any man who even thought of talking to her. She saw him through the window and dipped her head in acknowledgment before making her careful way over the threshold and into the restaurant. People turned to stare, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Alexander.” She looked tense as she sat down, the corners of her mouth pinched tight.
“You look a little pent-up,” he said. “You want a drink?”
She flashed him a look that said she was far from amused by him. “No, nothing alcoholic, but I could use a ginger beer.” She looked around for the waitress and waved her over when she caught her eye. “I’m not hungry, but I could use something to tide me over until my dinner meeting tonight.”
“That’s a late meeting. Hopefully it’s not all business.”
She ignored his less-than-subtle inquiry into the state of her love life and ordered a ginger beer from the waitress once she came over, pretty in her jeans, Red Stripe–beer tank top that bared her belly and a tattoo of a naked woman rising up her hip. She gave Lex an appreciative once-over but otherwise kept it professional.
“A ginger beer for me too, please,” Lex ordered when it was his turn.
The young girl, who looked like she was still in college, swished away to put in their orders.
“I see hanging out with Noelle hasn’t dimmed your appreciation for other women.”
Was she irritated on Noell
e’s behalf? “I’m not blind,” he said. “But I’m also not seeing anyone else right now. Noelle is it.” He braced his forearms against the edge of the table. “Since you brought it up, I don’t think your sister needs your help.”
“You said that before and I still disagree,” Margot said.
“Your disagreement doesn’t make it any less true. That guy may have screwed her over, but he didn’t destroy her. You were wrong about what she needs, and what she wants.” Like when you said she doesn’t have a sex drive.
Lex shifted in the booth as he thought exactly about where that sex drive of hers had almost brought them.
The waitress came back with their order and Lex immediately took a long pull from his ginger beer, the fizz and bite of the soda on his tongue a welcome distraction from the memory of the club.
“Why are you saying any of this?” Margot poured her ginger beer into a glass and daintily sipped from it with a straw. “She seemed happily distracted on the boat.”
“I’ve talked to her for more than a few minutes at a time and actually listened to what she’s saying.” He gave her a meaningful look and felt a momentary sense of triumph when she squirmed. Lex sighed. He took another drink before he said anything else.
“Noelle is a grown woman,” he said. “She’s not some rare flower ready to get blown away by the slightest breeze. Obviously she’s dealing with issues from that man who didn’t have the good sense to hold on to a good thing when he had it, but who wouldn’t?”
Now it was Margot’s turn to give him a look. Suspicion flared in her dark eyes. “A good thing?”
“Your sister is a good woman—” A fine-ass woman, Lex thought, but he tactfully left that part out. “Any man with eyes and a brain knows she’s got a lot going for her. I’m not saying anything you don’t know.”
Margot crossed her arms on the table. She looked as implacable as always, ready to double down on an opinion she absolutely believed in. “The whole point of having you escort her around town—” Lex winced at the word “—is to make her feel good about herself and forget about that damn man who broke her heart.”
“That’s just it—her heart may have been broken, but she isn’t. You don’t need me to spy on her and give her something she doesn’t need. She’s fine.”
“You don’t know her as well as you think you do.”
“You don’t know her as well you should.”
Her glass of ginger beer settled on the table with a thump. “That’s not very nice.”
“You don’t care about nice. You care about truth, and that’s what I’m giving you. Noelle is fine. I don’t need to show her a good time or any foolishness like that.” He paused, remembering their night at the club. “She has no trouble finding men to date or whatever.”
Margot’s head tilted as suspicion narrowed her eyes. “Did you sleep with her?”
Lex was surprised she had just now gotten around to asking him that question. “No. I didn’t.” He left it at that.
She blew in a sigh, carefully watching him. “Obviously you don’t have to continue with this if you don’t want to, but I think she still needs that...buttress to her self-esteem.”
“She doesn’t. The last thing she needs is fake support. Actually...” He paused when his phone vibrated in the breast pocket of his blazer. Frowning, he pulled it out to glance at the incoming call but didn’t answer. “I want to tell her the truth.”
“What truth?” Margot asked. Her upraised eyebrow chided him for looking at his phone during their conversation, but Lex ignored her. He wasn’t a naive kid anymore, nervous about pissing her off with his less-than-polite manners.
“Don’t play dumb,” he said. “It doesn’t suit you.” He put his phone facedown next to his plate. It vibrated once, a notification that he had a new voice mail.
“Well, suddenly turning up the noble gentleman doesn’t suit you either.”
Lex turned from the phone to give her his full attention. “Really? What are you saying exactly?”
She shook her head, pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Alexander, she’s my little sister. I’m worried for her. I want to give her the best of everything, the best opportunity, the best love.”
“Some things she has to find for herself. You can’t smother her with love and expect her to embrace it like it’s not squeezing the life out of her.”
“You’ve become quite the uh...Dr. Phil since Jamaica.”
Margot’s comment didn’t even deserve a reply. In response to his silence, she also fell quiet, thoughtfully sipping from the glass of ginger beer, her lips closed tight around the straw. Finally, she seemed to make up her mind about whatever was tossing around in that brain of hers.
“Go ahead and pull back from seeing her. Let me just talk to her and see how she’s doing. Give me a little while to check in on her before you tell her anything.” Then she frowned again, her red lips drawing into a thin line. “Where is all this coming from anyway?”
“I told you, she’s an incredible woman. She deserves more than to be manipulated like this.” He considered telling Margot that he was genuinely interested in Noelle and he wanted to take her out on dates that weren’t interrupted by the phantom of her overbearing sister. But he kept his mouth shut. “Okay. I won’t say anything to her. Not right now, but you need to think about how to resolve this whole situation. I thought doing this favor would make me feel better, but instead I feel like a total shit. This almost feels like something that the old me would do.”
And as he said it, Lex realized it was the truth. As an idiot boy in Jamaica, he used his body and his charm to get what he wanted and didn’t care about the collateral damage. Maybe the only difference was that he often found women to play with who were like him and didn’t look beyond the evening or the afternoon. The pleasure was shared and then it was a memory, leaving nothing worth holding on to. A feeling of sickness roiled in Lex’s stomach.
Lex blindly reached for the bottle of ginger beer and drank the rest of it in long, necessary gulps.
“Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
Lex signaled the waitress for the check and then, once it came, quickly paid it.
“I wish I could say it was good to see you again, Margot.” He walked her to the door and out to her car.
“It’s a good thing this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that,” Margot said, “or I’d take offense.”
“I’m probably the least offensive guy you know,” he said and closed the door of her black Benz. “These days, anyway.”
Margot smiled faintly at him, though her eyes remained cool. “I’ll see you again soon.”
She started her car and put it in gear. Lex turned to head to his own car and did not watch her drive away. Instead, he pulled out his phone and redialed his last incoming call.
“Hey,” Noelle’s voice came warmly through the phone. “I hope I didn’t interrupt something.”
“Nothing important.” He started walking toward his car. “What’s up?”
“Come to dinner with me this weekend,” she said.
As she talked, his footsteps slowed and then stopped. He stood in the parking lot with the phone held loosely to his ear. “After what happened the other night, I didn’t think...” He didn’t know what else to say about that night of regrets. “Never mind. Sure, dinner sounds great. Any place in mind?”
“Yes.”
She gave him the name of a restaurant his sister Alice was always raving about and he said he’d meet her there at seven o’clock on Friday evening.
“No,” she said. “Come pick me up.”
Lex was so surprised he almost missed the address she rattled off. “Oh, sorry. Tell me your address again.”
She repeated the address, laughter threading through her voice.
“I’ll see you then. Okay?”
What else could he say? “Okay.”
* * *
Lex showed up too early for their dinner date.
He sat in Noelle’s driveway with fifteen minutes to burn, his car off, the phone sitting dark in its cradle, watching the lights in the window of her front room. Tonight, he would tell her the truth. No matter the distraction, no matter what he stood to lose in the process.
The car’s dark leather hugged his back and thighs, a comfort while he quaked inside with mild terror. Her front door was barely fifteen feet away. All he had to do was get out, walk those few feet, tell her what he needed to and then let her decide whether or not she wanted to eat with him. His hand reached for the door handle.
He jerked it back when his phone rang, a jarring and loud sound from the car’s speaker. Noelle’s number and face glowed from the cell phone.
“Is that you sitting in my driveway?” she asked when he answered.
Shit.
In the front room, a pair of slats in the blinds gapped like someone’s fingers were holding them apart. Watching him. The car’s clock showed he’d been sitting in the silent car for at least ten minutes. He adjusted the air at the back of his throat, fighting his embarrassment.
“I am. Are you ready?”
Her silence was as loud as any laughter. “Sure. Let me grab my purse and lock up.”
She stepped out of the house three minutes later at seven on the dot. Although nothing she wore could disguise her body’s sensual curves and mouthwatering thickness, tonight’s outfit was not as provocative as the one from the last time. This dress, electric blue and sleeveless, sat high over her breasts, revealing not even a hint of cleavage. The skirt was wide and loose and touched just below her knees, fluttering with every step.
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