‘It’s okay,’ he said, patting her hand as he tried to extricate his. ‘I get it.’
‘No! I don’t think you do.’ She angled her body towards him. ‘Noah, the reason I told you about my anxiety was so you’d understand—’ Freezing, she stared at him. Swallowed the lump in her throat. Tried to conquer her fear. ‘So you’d understand when I tell you that I’ve never …’
Squeezing her eyes shut, she huffed impatiently and finally blurted, ‘That I’ve never been intimate with anyone.’
Silence washed over them as she let the dust settle.
Eventually, she cracked her eyes open. ‘I’d never even kissed anyone until that day at your house. So, no, you don’t get it, Noah. Because I want you to kiss me so badly it hurts. I’ve just been terrified of having to explain that I might need to take this slowly. Like,reallyslowly.’
A tiny crease formed on his brow. ‘Why would telling me this terrify you?’
Exasperated, she threw her hands in the air. ‘Because I’m a twenty-six-year-old woman who’s never even been on a date. It’s pathetic!’
Reeling back slightly, Noah expelled a puff of air between his lips and shrugged. ‘I’m going to be honest with you, Beth. All I heard was that you want me to kiss you.’
A beat passed before she grinned, slowly at first, but once she realised that her inexperience didn’t matter, she was powerless against the force of it.
Noah leaned closer, lifted a hand to her cheek and dipped his chin to look at her. ‘I promise we can take this as slowly as you want. You’re in the driver’s seat, okay?’
‘Okay,’ she breathed, dizzy with need.
Touching his nose to hers, he murmured, ‘Can I kiss you now?’
She nodded. ‘Now would be good.’
His breath caressed her lips and then he was kissing her, slowly, but very, very thoroughly.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Beth tossed her bag over her shoulder, rounded the house and found Noah right where she’d expected—halfway up a ladder as he installed cladding with Zack, the young kid he’d recruited to help out on the weekends, mostly as a favour to Zack’s dad, who was at his wit’s end with his son’s rebellious nature, but also because he needed the extra pair of hands occasionally.
‘Hey!’ Noah grinned when he saw her, then said to Zack, ‘I think you’ve earned yourself a break, mate.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Zack scoffed as he jumped down from his own ladder. ‘More like you wanna break so you can make out with your girlfriend.’
Stepping off his ladder, Noah didn’t even bother glancing at Zack when he said, ‘Doesn’t bother me if you want to stay and watch.’
Zack mumbled something under his breath but didn’t waste time in disappearing around the side of the house.
‘He seems like hard work,’ Beth said, making a face.
‘Who, him? Nah, he’s all bark and no bite.’ Noah winked at her, and when he pulled her into his arms, a frisson of something delicious fizzled in her core. She was still reeling at the way their relationship had evolved over the past few weeks, but this would never grow old. She snuggled closer.
‘What are you doing here? I thought you were working at the cafe today.’
‘There was a mistake with the roster,’ she murmured, utterly content. ‘Turns out Marge doesn’t need me.’
‘So you thought you’d come say hi?’ Noah kissed the top of her head. ‘Kinda wish I didn’t have to supervise the kid. We could’ve done something special.’
‘Like?’
‘Maybe a swim in the river? Or I could’ve taken you to my favourite spot.’
‘Which is where?’
‘You’ll have to wait to find out.’ He gave her a quick kiss and grinned. ‘I’ll surprise you another day.’
