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Oh, that wasn’t necessarily true, Sabella admitted to herself. Nathan had been jealous, he just hid it, even from her. He’d been easygoing, filled with laughter, always polite, but there had been a core of seething emotion inside her husband that was finally free. And one of those emotions was jealousy. She had known even years before that Nathan, the man he had once been, had capped that particular emotion. He had fought it, because he trusted her. Because he had known there was no way to lock her away while he was on a mission or while he was home. But that hadn’t meant he hadn’t felt it, and that she hadn’t felt the echoes of it.
“No. He never got jealous,” Sabella agreed.
That was something else Sienna didn’t know, and Sabella admitted she had no intention of telling her. Noah was hiding, obviously for a reason. She couldn’t risk endangering whatever he was doing. She refused to risk his life.
“Is he anything like Nathan?” Sienna lifted her head, her gaze direct as she met Sabella’s.
Sabella stared back at her friend, hating the suspicion that raged inside her. She didn’t trust her best and dearest friend in the world. And that hurt.
“No,” she finally said, and in some ways, it was the truth. “Nathan was easier going. Always smiling. Always loving. Noah is more intense, quieter. More dominant maybe.”
“An animal.” Kira pretended a shudder. “He looks like he would be wild in the sack.”
“Would you shut up,” Sabella said, laughing.
“Is he an animal in bed, Belle?” Sienna snickered.
“He’s an animal all right. All growls and snapping and snarling around,” she said. “And what he’s like in bed has nothing to do with it.”
Kira and Sienna both lifted their heads and stared at her in shock.
“Since when?” Kira arched a perfect brow in false surprise.
“After marriage, definitely,” Sienna grunted. “It’s hump hump, sleep sleep.”
Kira and Sabella jerked their gazes to Sienna. She lifted her brows, waggled them then laughed and laid her head back to the padded table.
But there was something about her statement, that laugh, that made Sabella wonder if there wasn’t more to her comment than she was letting on.
Conversation eased then. The massage wrapped up, and soon after, Sabella was dressed and paying her bill. She was waxed and oiled, styled and pedicured. Her nails had been buffed and trimmed. She felt like a woman again. She hadn’t felt like a woman in so many years. It felt like forever. She felt like a lover, almost like a wife, and excited, exhilarated by the emotions and the sexuality that flowed freely within her again.
She felt the excitement moving with her. Noah had an edge now, a hard-core, hungry edge that called to that part of her that she’d always kept a rein on during their previous relationship.
He talked dirty to her. He was naughty and he made her feel naughty. He made her want to push him, challenge him. He made her want things she would have never asked him for before. Because he had controlled their sexuality. Because she hadn’t had him with her nearly enough in those two years. The missions he had gone on had been steady; sometimes, she had done without him for weeks at a time. When he came home, she gave her husband what her husband needed, though she had known that as the years passed, they would grow into each other. If they had had those years to share.
As she waved back to Sienna, who had managed to find a parking spot close to the entrance, Sabella and Kira walked at a slow pace, silent. The tension between them wasn’t hostile, but it was there, thick and heavy.
“How’s Noah doing?” Kira tucked her hands in the pockets of her shorts as they walked, glancing over at her curiously. “His wounds are doing okay?”
“So far.” She nodded, swallowing deeply. Kira knew something, as did her husband Ian, and Sabella knew it. And she hated the lies, though she was trying to understand them.
“You didn’t tell Sienna about the attack,” Kira mentioned then. “Why not?”
Sabella paused at the back of her car and turned to meet Kira’s gaze. “Because I don’t know how widespread that knowledge is. If no one knows he’s wounded, then they won’t think he’s weak and come after him again. They reported the attempted hit-and-run on Toby, but Sienna asked about that this morning. There was no sense in saying more about it.”
Kira’s too perceptive gaze met her own then.
“How do you feel about a few hours and a few glasses of wine?” Kira finally asked. “Ian’s going to be out of the house until morning, and like for Sienna, the house gets too quiet sometimes.”
Sabella doubted that. She stared around the parking lot for a long moment before turning back to the other woman.
“Why don’t you come to my house instead.” She turned back to her. “My husband had a nice stock of wine in the basement. We could uncork one of his favorites.”
Wouldn’t that horrify Noah? “Get drunk and trash men.”
“You’re still angry with him?” Kira asked, a curious glint in her eye.
“I can always find a reason to be angry at a man that lies to me,” she informed the other woman. “It’s in the rule book. We’re allowed.”
