The Vintner's Vixen (River Hill Book 1)

by Rebecca Norinne

  “Naomi and I are old friends. She told you that.”

  “Right. Old, close friends.”

  Noah didn’t mistake the hurt in Angelica’s eyes, but he wasn’t going to lie to her either. “Yes, we’re close.”

  “Like you and I’ve been close?” she asked, as the elevator lurched to a stop and she stumbled into his arms.

  “What the?” he exclaimed, catching her and planting his feet before they both tumbled to the ground. Setting Angelica away, he turned to the electrical panel and muttered, “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “I’m sorry,” she responded from behind, her voice filled with frost.

  Noah looked at her over his shoulder. “Sorry, that wasn’t about you. I love it when you throw yourself at me,” he said with a wink. “I was talking about this damn elevator.” He brought his face back around and stared at the buttons in front of him. Every single one of them was lit up and blinking.

  He took off his wool overcoat and set it lengthwise on the floor. Dropping down onto it, he patted the space next to him. “You better get comfortable. We’re going to be here awhile.”

  Angelica jutted out her chin. “I’ll stand, thank you.”

  Noah decided not to force the issue. She was wearing impossibly high heels; it was only a matter of time until they’d start to pinch, and she’d join him on the floor. He shrugged. “Suit yourself; but like I said, we’re going to be here awhile.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked distrustfully, balancing on the ball of one foot and then the other.

  Yeah, she’d be joining him very soon, he thought with an inward chuckle.

  “Would you believe it if I told you this was the third time this has happened to me?”

  “You’re kidding!”

  “Nope,” he said, his lips popping on the p. “A bunch of us got trapped in here during Naomi’s bat mitzvah. And then again when I was leaving a wedding a few years back. That time, I was alone, and as you’ll soon learn, there’s no cell reception in here. God, that sucked.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why people keep having events up here when this shit happens all the damn time. They never fix it.”

  Angelica’s throat bobbed with a deep swallow. “How long were you stuck?”

  Noah scrunched up his face, trying to remember back to Naomi’s thirteenth birthday. “The first time, maybe an hour or two. There were six of us, and being idiot kids, we thought it was a grand old time. Naomi was pissed because she was missing her party, but the rest of us decided to use our time wisely to play spin the paperclip.”

  “Spin the paperclip?”

  He smiled wolfishly. “In the absence of a bottle, we got creative. Someone had one in their pockets.”

  She nodded, but Noah noticed the color had drained from her face. “And the second time?”

  If she didn’t like his first answer, she was really going to hate this one. “Four hours.”

  She blew out a breath and her knees buckled before she caught herself. “Four hours?”

  He nodded. “And I was alone, with nobody to talk to. At least this time I have you.”

  Angelica closed her eyes and slid down the length of the wall until she was sitting on the floor across from him.

  “Come sit with me,” he said coaxingly. “You’re going to ruin your dress.”

  Angelica shook her head.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m mad at you.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  Her eyes slid open and she fixed him with an unreadable look. “Because you lied to me.”

  That wasn’t the answer he’d expected; he’d been prepared for her to say something more about his friendship with Naomi. “When did I lie to you?”

  Angelica blew out a breath. “You didn’t lie outright, I guess, but you weren’t very truthful with me either. We’ve spent hours together, getting to know one another, and you never once told me about this Noah.” She flicked her wrist up and down between them. “I thought you were this small town, salt-of-the-earth man who was more farmer than … whatever—whoever—you are tonight.”

  “I am a small town, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy,” Noah protested.

  Angelica raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And yet here we are.”

  “And yet here we are,” he agreed slowly. “But I didn’t want to be here tonight. I would have given anything to be sitting on my deck in front of the fire, sipping a beer with Molly at my feet. But yes, I also come from this world. My mom is … well, let’s just say in the San Francisco socialite pecking order, she’s at the top of the heap.”

  “And you never thought to mention you had this whole other life.”

  He stared at her a few beats. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Why?”

  Noah blew out a frustrated breath. “For a long time, there’ve been expectations placed on me. From my mother, her friends, their daughters. Pretty much every woman except Naomi. Since I was eighteen, they’ve all wanted a piece of me. Over the years, I dated a few of them, but it was always the same thing. None of them cared what my interests are, what I wanted out of life. All they cared about was the size of my trust fund and the name on my birth certificate. To them, I’m not Noah Bradstone, winemaker; I’m Noah Bradstone, social stepping stone.”

  Angelica’s eyes flashed with sympathy but then cooled. “I’m sorry you’ve experienced that, but that’s not me. And I’ve done nothing to give you the impression that I am.”

  “Except here you are.”

  Her eyes sparked with indignation. “Working,” she said from between clenched teeth. “I’m here because my producers need more advertisers. Their ad department can’t muster up the right sort of sponsorships, so they poured me into this dress and sent me along as bait instead. If I had my way, I’d be at home bundled in a robe, drinking a glass of wine, and painting my toenails while watching a Scandal marathon.” She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her hands over her exposed arms.

  “Are you cold?”

  Angelica shook her head and gave him her profile. “No.”

  The goose pimples dotting her skin told a different tale. Noah gathered his coat and moved to Angelica’s side. “Liar,” he teased as he draped the wool over her shoulders.

  Angelica didn’t respond to his taunt. Instead, a few tense moments passed between them until she asked, “Why didn’t you ask me to come with you tonight?”

  Noah sighed, and wrapped his arm around her back. Pulling her flush against him, he kissed the top of her head. “I should have, but I’ve been confused about some things.”

  “What sort of things?” she asked, shifting to rest her cheek on his shoulder.

  “Things about you and me. About how I feel about you.” He chuckled. “You know you make me crazy.”

  She harrumphed. “I make you grumpy.”

  “Nah, I’m always grumpy.” Noah smiled and reached down to lift Angelica’s chin so their mouths were only inches apart. “But you do something to me I can’t explain. From the very first moment we met, I haven’t been able to control myself around you.” He dropped his head closer so their lips were almost touching. “You make me burn, Angelica.”

  He kissed her then, and when she opened to him and their tongues tangled, Noah couldn’t remember why they hadn’t been doing this every single day. Every single hour. When Angelica’s arms came around his neck, he groaned into her mouth and took the kiss deeper. His hands roamed the contours of her body, the thin silk slipping and sliding over her skin. And when he eased her onto her back, she went willingly with a sigh of longing.

  “I want you,” he told her, nipping at the spot where her neck met her collarbone. “Please, let me have you. I need to be inside of you.”

  When Angelica’s thighs slid open in invitation, Noah skated his hand up under her dress to find her bare and ready for him. “You’re not wearing underwear.”

  She giggled, and then gasped, when he slipped a finger inside. “Not in this dress,” she croaked, w
hen that finger twisted and curved exactly how she liked it.

  “I fucking love this dress,” he said moments before claiming her mouth again.

  Angelica reached between them to undo his belt and lower his zipper. And then, her hand circled his aching cock, and she pulled him free. “I want you too,” she said, guiding him to her entrance.

  Noah levered his body over hers, and then pushed in halfway and held still, luxuriating in the feel of her gripping him tight. When Angelica canted her hips and begged for more, he happily obliged. Sheathing himself to the root in one fluid stroke, he said, “I never want to be anywhere else.” He pulled all the way out and then slid home again.

  “I never want you anywhere else either,” Angelica panted as she ground up against his pelvis. “You feel so good.”

  “You feel like heaven,” he sighed with another thrust.

  A few rolls of her hips later, Angelica’s eyes screwed shut and she arched her back. This time, when her body broke out in goose pimples, Noah knew it wasn’t because she was cold. And neither was he. He hadn’t lied before; he was burning up for this woman.

  “I’m coming,” he said against her mouth.

  She dropped her hands to his ass and pulled him close. “In me,” she said. “I want all of you.”

  And so he gave her every piece of himself, including his heart.

  Forty minutes later when they were rescued, Noah couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He knew it was wrong, but he’d been hoping they’d have hours alone together so they could talk. They’d only scratched the surface of what needed to be said.

  Stepping out onto the sidewalk side-by-side, Angelica looked at him uncertainly. “Now what?”

  He pulled her against him. “Come home with me tonight.”

  Angelica chewed her lip. “I would, but I got a room. All my stuff is there.”

  He looked out over the street, still full of cars at nearly midnight. “Where?”

  “At the Courtyard Marriott in Union Square.” She dropped her eyes and looked away.

  “Hey,” he said, touching her chin lightly to pull it up so their eyes met. “What’s that all about?”

  “I’d invite you back, but you know.” She shrugged.

  No, he didn’t. “Know what?”

  “It’s not exactly the St. Regis,” she answered.

  “The St. Regis?” And then he understood. The money thing.

  “The producers didn’t spring for a hotel, but I didn’t want to have to drive home tonight exhausted, so I booked my own room. I’m on a budget, so I went with something cheap. I just figured you’re probably used to staying somewhere really nice. And expensive. And that’s not the Courtyard.” Abruptly, she quit talking and her eyes went wide with worry. “Sorry, I babble when I’m nervous.”

  “Why are you nervous?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I’m still weirded out about this whole thing. I thought I was fall—” she quickly cleared her throat “—getting to know one man, and now I find out there’s a whole other side of him I hadn’t counted on.”

  Noah chuckled. “That’s what relationships are about though, aren’t they? Learning all about a person, knowing what makes them tick, who they are in the best and worst-case scenarios.”

  She peered up at him from lowered lashes. “Is that what this is? A relationship?”

  Noah swallowed. He’d never intended to fall for this woman, and yet tonight he realized he had. He’d fallen hard, fast, and deep, and he hoped she felt even an inkling of the same way about him. “It can be, if you want it.” Friends with benefits would never be enough for him now.

  Angelica took a step back and he let her go. That wasn’t a good sign. She put her hand to her forehand and scanned the sidewalk. Then she touched her palm to her cheek and laughed nervously. Her eyes flicked between his, and he saw a question there, but still she didn’t speak. Shit, that was a terrible sign.

  His self-preservation instincts kicking in, Noah took a step back. “Forget it. It was a silly thing to say.”

  Angelica took a step forward. “It’s not silly, it’s just …”

  “Just what?”

  “Unexpected,” she answered. “We talked about this. Friends with benefits. I thought that’s all you wanted.”

  Noah ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I thought that’s what I wanted too, but tonight changed something for me. In the elevator earlier, I meant what I said.”

  Angelica’s face softened, and her eyes went hazy. “Can you give me a couple of days to think about it?”

  He swallowed and bit his tongue. Noah wanted to tell her to take it or leave it—to take him or leave him. He wasn’t used to women turning him down, and the longer this conversation went on, the worse his pride fared. This isn’t about your pride, he chided himself. It was about building something lasting with Angelica, and Noah could swallow his pride in the short term if it meant claiming her as his. Decision made, he shoved his hands in the pocket of his slacks. “Sure. Take all the time you need.” He took a step back, and then another.

  Angelica shrugged out of his coat and held it out. “Here, your jacket.”

  He reached his arm out and a taxi crossed two lanes of traffic to pull up next to him. Noah opened the door and stepped aside. “Keep it.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, taking a half step forward.

  “Absolutely.” He gestured toward the open door of the waiting cab. “Your chariot awaits.”

  “I can walk,” she answered, even as she took a few halting steps toward the waiting vehicle.

  Noah chuckled. “Not in those shoes, you can’t. But even if you were in flats, I’d still put you in a cab.”

  “Okay, if you insist.” She brushed past him and slid into the empty back seat. Leaning forward so their eyes connected, she asked, “Are we okay?”

  He smiled down at her. “We will be.”

  And then he closed the door, smacked the roof of the taxi, and waved as the car pulled away from the curb.

  Chapter Sixteen

  He wants a relationship. Angelica turned the words over in her head as she tossed and turned in her hotel bed that night, the sheets sliding uncomfortably along her skin as she remembered the hot, eager sensation of Noah’s hands and lips on her body.

  The r-word continued burning its way through her brain hours later while she gulped down her mediocre continental breakfast, scalding the roof of her mouth with terrible coffee, before heading back to her beloved new home.

  And it didn’t go away as she had her hair and makeup done for the day, nor as she ruined Leah’s work by scraping away layers of grime from the grout of the third guest bathroom on camera. When she rubbed the grit out of her eyebrows, she swore she heard it whisper relationshiiiiiiiip as it fell into the sink.

  Later, she held up wood stain samples to compare them to the original wood floor of the second bedroom, where they’d had to put in a patch of new wood to replace a rotting section. Noah’s face looked back at her from the empty air between the pieces of wood, and she put them down hastily.

  She heard a tiny beep and turned to Roger, who was frowning at her from next to a camera.

  “What’s wrong with you?” The cameraman was nothing if not blunt.

  “What do you mean?” Angelica glanced at the camera. The little red ‘recording’ light was off. The beep she’d heard had been Roger powering the unit down.

  “You’re a thousand miles away, Angelica. And you’re not giving good face.”

  She could feel herself blanching. “I’m not—” she started to argue, but it was no use because he wouldn’t let her bullshit her way out of what she knew to be true.

  “You’re not.” His tone was firm. “I’m not trying to be a dick, but get it together.” He gathered up a few cables in one arm and used the other hand to flip his baseball cap from backwards to forwards, a sign he wouldn’t be looking into the viewscreen anytime soon. “Let’s take a break.”

  “I don’t ne
ed—”

  He held up a hand. “You do need a break, and so does everyone else.” He paused, and Angelica thought he looked uncomfortable. “Do you … want me to get Leah? To, I don’t know, talk?”

  Angelica could feel her eyebrows going up, and she leaned toward him curiously. Just what was the state of affairs between those two? “Do you have the ability to ‘get Leah’ now?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “In a professional sense, yes. In a personal sense, that’s none of your damn business.”

  “She’ll tell me.”

  “That’s her choice, not mine. And this is about you, not me. But nice try.” He pointed a finger toward her head. “You still have grout in your hair.” With that volley, he left the room, dodging the stain sample she threw halfheartedly after him.

  She sank down against the wall, sitting on the freshly patched section of wood.

  Noah wanted a relationship. But did she want one? Her last few forays into the dating game hadn’t been spectacular. One promotional relationship with a co-star that had continued into a halfhearted fling; a three-month stint with a producer friend of Jai’s; a couple of weeks with a corporate lawyer. None of them had made her feel the way Noah did.

  Each of those men and her time with them had been uncomplicated … and uninspiring. Sure, they didn’t often behave like Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, nor did they have muddied familial relationships she hadn’t known about. And there definitely hadn’t been shouting matches over inexplicable arguments. But there also hadn’t been days exploring ewok forests, or quiet conversations over great food with laughter. And the sex? Well, there was no ignoring that sex with Noah was simply the best she’d ever had.

  But a relationship? She’d already broken her own rules by sleeping with him, her business partner. She’d practically fucked him on top of their signed contract for the vineyard deal.

  She nibbled on the skin around her thumbnail, worrying it between her teeth, while she considered her options.

  “Angelica?” Leah’s voice came from the hall.