He cursed, pulling away from her just long enough to line up the swollen head of his cock with her entrance. He moved his fingers to her clit as he plunged himself into her heat, cursing as he filled her. At this angle, she was unbelievably tight.
“Fuck, that’s good,” she groaned.
He pumped into her. The wet slap of their hips meeting resounded in the shower as he worked her clit harder. Her thighs shook, her ass quivering against him as he fucked her, and white spots danced in front of his eyes as he neared his own orgasm.
“Please make me come,” she begged. He grinned, working her harder, rubbing her clit exactly the way she liked. “Come with me. Oh, God, please.”
Her legs shook and her breath shuddered as her climax moved through her. He held her tighter, savoring the feel of her trembling in his arms. A second later he followed her over the edge, lightning flying along his nerve endings as he pumped his release into her. He bit back the three words that pounded through his blood and threatened to break loose, instead roaring her name as he gave himself over to the pleasure.
He came back to himself slowly, those unspoken words echoing in his head as he washed his cum from between her legs and wrapped her in a fluffy towel. She hesitated in the doorway to their bedroom, her eyes narrowing as she searched his face. “Noah…”
“Yeah?”Say it,he silently begged.Say you feel it too.
The tension in her eyes melted away, replaced by a little smirk he wanted to kiss off her face. “Totally worth being late.”
He smiled back, tamping down the disappointment. What had he expected? He’d explicitly told her they had no future—a few days and nothing more. Even if she felt the way he did, could he really expect her to say it? Not when he was the one who had put a deadline on their arrangement. If someone was going to say it first, it would have to be him.
He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “You better go before I get ideas about round two.”
She laughed, dropping her towel as she disappeared into the bedroom, leaving him with the image of her plump ass as she walked away.I love you, he whispered in his head.
He would tell her for real. Just not yet. Not with the smell of their sex hanging in the air, and not on Liv’s wedding day.
When we get back to New York.I’ll tell her when we get home.
Chapter 22
Wolf MacMillan was a mountain of a man—tall, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested with a carefully styled shock of silver hair. When Noah was a boy and Wolf would visit his father, he always had peppermint hard candies in the pockets of his ubiquitous blazers. “So he can freshen his breath before he meets important people,” his father had told him. Wolf had worked with former presidents, celebrities doing work for the UN, heads of major international organizations—and if he hadn’t worked with them, he’d likely sat next to them at a dinner party somewhere along the line. Noah had always loved Wolf’s stories—which actress insisted on sparkling water even when she visited war-torn parts of the world to deliver rice and baby formula, which Hollywood bigwig had testified in front of Congress with lipstick still on his collar from his State House bathroom tryst with a Senate intern, which former first lady made the best Sunday dinner (and who didn’t even know how to turn on the oven).
That morning, sitting across the small table tucked in the corner of The Barclay’s restaurant, was the first time Noah wasn’t completely delighted to see his father’s childhood friend. Despite the delicious meal they’d just shared, he could still taste the bitter resentment at the back of his tongue at having to prove his character to this man who had been there to witness the first time he rode a bicycle without training wheels. As if their lifelong acquaintance wasn’t sufficient. As if his music didn’t stand on its own merits.
“Your uncle tells me you’ve got yourself a girl,” Wolf said with a glance at Uncle Stu.
Noah hated that phrase. It implied Callie was an item on a grocery list, something to acquire and not someone to win, someone to cherish. He took a sip of his coffee and nodded tightly. “She’s the maid of honor. You’ll meet her at the wedding.”
Wolf raised a snowy eyebrow. “Is it serious?”
He nodded, swallowing around the realization that, for the first time, it wasn’t a lie. He was serious about Callie, even if she didn’t know it yet. “Yes, sir. She’s…everything.”
The suspicion cleared from Wolf’s face, replaced by something that might be relief. “Excellent news. I’m glad to hear it. So, there will be no more newspaper articles.”
Noah wasn’t sure if it was a question or a command.
“Student newspaper,” he corrected. “And while you should know better than anyone that you can’t control the press—” Wolf chuckled “—I doubt my students will find my love life newsworthy.”
“Good. We can’t have anyone associated with the project who might cause trouble for the senator. She has too many important causes to discuss to have the damn vultures circling because of her staff’s indiscretions.”
“Is the documentary’s composer considered part of the senator’s staff?” Noah asked.
Wolf laughed, sharing a look with his uncle that spoke volumes about how naïve Noah’s question had been. “Yes. The senator has hired me to do a job for her, so anyone I hire is, by extension, working for her as well.” Noah nodded. “Your girl understands you’ll need to be on the road with us for three months at minimum?”
“At minimum?” Noah glanced between Wolf and his uncle. “I was under the impression that filming wrapped after the election, and I’d be completing my work from my studio in New York.”
“If she loses. But if she’s re-elected, we’ll follow her through her first ninety-days in office.”
Ninety days? That would be six months all together. His mind rebelled at the idea. Three months had felt doable, though he knew it would be hard—but six months? Could he really ask Callie to wait for him for six months? And what if he went away for half a year only to return and find the passion between them had cooled? They were just getting started, just discovering this new facet to their relationship. He’d be leaving before they’d even scratched the surface.
“I wasn’t aware the outcome of the election could alter the timeline,” he said slowly, hoping the practiced calm of his voice hid the nausea building in his gut and the sudden need to find Callie and hold her.
