Page 203 of Forever Relentless

“What about you?” she asked quietly. “What happens to you?”

I shrugged. “I can stay, or I can go play football somewhere else.” I gave her a tight smile. “I have options.”

Her gaze hardened again. “And you’re just . . . okay with that?”

“No.”

“Then why aren’t you angry, Noah?”

I held her eyes for a long moment. “Who says I’m not?”

“Then where is it, where is your anger?”

I leaned back against the desk again. “Who am I supposed to be angry at, B? It’s done. In time it will be over, and even if it isn’t, two more semesters, we’re gone.”

She studied me carefully. “I don’t recognize you.”

“Yes, you do.” I looked her over. “This is who I’ve always been.”

“No.” Her voice softened. “You would have handed me, them, the matches, to burn this all down.”

Would I? I was no longer sure. “Maybe.”

“What changed?”

I looked at the door, then back at her. “Nothing. I just made sure the people I cared about walked away unscathed.”

Briar leaned against the closet door. Her eyes held mine. “So that’s it?”

I shrugged. “That’s it.” I looked away from the intensity of her stare. “Why are you still here?”

She scoffed. “I thought we were having a conversation?” She pushed off the closet door. “I’ll go.”

“I didn’t mean here,” I said, hearing my exasperation. “I mean, Wrighton. You were free and clear Tuesday morning.”

She made a sound of contempt. “Free and clear?” The fire was back in her eyes. “Was I?”

“I don’t know. What are you waiting for?” I moved toward her, reaching out my hand, and I cupped her cheek. “Who were you waiting for?”

She looked up at me. “Noah, I—”

I kissed her, not in a hurried way like some of our other kisses. I took my time and gave her the chance to push me away if she needed to. And the longer she kissed me back, the more the misalignment in the center of my chest realigned itself.

Her hands fisted into my T-shirt and pulled me closer. With my hands under her ass, I lifted her higher, easing the bend to reach her, pressing her lightly into the door as I devoured her mouth.

Her hands slid up over my shoulders and into my hair.

“I’m still mad,” she whispered against my lips. “But I missed you.” she silenced me with a kiss. “I missed you, and I don’t want you to leave here.”

“Why?” My lips traced down her throat, gently sucking just beneath her ear, the spot that made her fingers tighten in my hair and her thighs squeeze my waist.

“Because you stood up to him, and you won.” She pulled my mouth back to hers. “He doesn’t get to avoid facing you every day, reminding him that you won. Every time he looks at you for the rest of next season, he’ll know he took on Noah Matthews, and he lost.”

I pulled my head back. “I don’t think he thinks like that.”

She smiled with a wicked glint in her eyes. “Oh, he does. Men like him? They think they’re untouchable. And you dented his ego. He’ll hate that forever, and you need to be here to rub it in his smug face.” She kissed me deeply. “For me,” she whispered between kisses. “For Mason. For Tiffany. And for you.”

“You’re really fucking hot when you’re being vindictive.”