Silence lingered while I held my breath, until I felt Noah’s lips brush against my scar. My whole body turned hot and then cold. I blinked back the tears gathering. His kiss was tender and comforting and made me feel something I never had before.
I felt loved.
“Waffle time?” I asked through a tight throat, absolutely terrified of how potent the feeling was.
Noah pulled back, and I used the reprieve to quickly wipe my eyes as he slid off the bed and grabbed the to-go box before rejoining me. I scooted back around, licking my lips. I eagerly grabbed a fork.
Noah pulled back the top, and the sweet smell of freshly made waffles permeated the room. “I hope I ordered enough.”
Little dark dots in the waffles caught my eye, and I froze. “Chocolate chips? I thought the cafeteria didn’t have those.”
“They don’t,” Noah said. “I ran to the store. That’s where I found syrup, too.”
That took a little time to compute, and I stared. “You took chocolate chips to the cafeteria and asked the staff to make waffles with them?”
Noah smiled in answer.
I frowned, feeling a little betrayed. I’d personally asked them three different times to add chocolate chips. “I didn’t think they took special requests.”
“They didn’t want to, but I told them I was in love with a girl and I couldn’t go back to her without chocolate chip waffles.”
If human bodies were liquefiable, I would’ve melted on the spot.
“Careful, Noah.” I drizzled a generous amount of sugary goodness over the steaming stack of waffles. “This is exactly how you make a girl fall even more in love with you.”
He didn’t bat an eye at me basically drowning the waffles in syrup, and his hand met my back in a featherlight touch—stroking up and down the bare expanse of skin. “Good. My plan is working.”
* * *
The waffles were gone in less than ten minutes, and I’d happily eaten two containers by myself. Noah and I spent some time naked-cuddling in bed, sipping on coffees, and avoiding Mr. Elephant’s paternal stare. I was the happiest I’d ever been, and it was honestly making me a little loopy—enough so that I’d told Noah all about my dream where unicorn-shaped waffles frolicked through a forest of Aurora Ipsilons. He found it amusing, which in turn made me even more happy at seeing his smile.
Once Noah gave me the green light to polish off the last bite, we settled into my mountain of pillows and I prepared for a food coma. The day was young, and my heart had never felt lighter, but Noah was unusually quiet as I babbled on about the many health benefits of eating waffles. He stared at the ceiling and randomly chimed in with a word or two whenever I bothered to take a breath.
“What’s wrong?” I gently poked at his side when he failed to realize I’d even asked a question. “Regretting last night?”
Noah’s gaze met mine head-on at that, and the green in his hazel eyes was so prominent it almost looked like they didn’t belong to him. His hand cupped my cheek, and the way his calloused skin brushed against mine did things to my stomach that should’ve been illegal.
“No, I was just thinking about work for a minute. And the only thing I regret about last night is that it ended.” Noah’s voice didn’t leave a shadow of a doubt as he leaned closer and placed an equally warm kiss on my opposite cheek.
The butterflies were in a full-blown tizzy, but it was too tempting to poke fun at him. “Are you sure it wasn’t the part where you fell off the foot of my bed?”
Noah’s cheeks tinted a light shade of red, much to my amusement, and his eyes squinted at me in warning.
“Careful with the teasing, beautiful.” His own lips twitched as I burst out laughing. “I don’t recall you being too upset with what I did once I was down there.”
All laughter ceased, and my face flushed twenty shades darker than Noah’s. I couldn’t resist flicking my gaze to his lips when I recalled the feel of his mouth on me.
“Nope, definitely didn’t have a problem with that,” I squeaked out. “No complaints here.”
Noah’s grin was all male, and it reached his eyes in a way that made my toes curl.
“I didn’t think so,” he drawled. He grabbed another pillow from the mountain and propped it under his head. It took effort not to roll my eyes at his unexpected ego.
But it didn’t stop me from snuggling back against him, convinced the smile on my face would become a permanent fixture.
CHAPTER33
A Midterm
