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After a few moments, we disengaged, and he looked down at me. “Are you okay?” he asked. “I got carried away.”
“I’m fine. It was perfect. You were perfect,” I said softly.
Noah pulled away and went to clean up. When he came back, I expected him to say he needed to leave. I braced myself for it, but he pulled back the sheet and comforter and slid under it, lifted the covers for me to slide in beside him.
“All right if I stay?” he said easily. I felt a glow of happiness wash over me. I nodded.
It had to be a one-night stand. I knew that. I didn’t want my heart broken, and any man who could make my body do those things could turn my entire life inside out. I burrowed into his embrace greedily, soaking up the warmth and affection, the elusive feeling I was safe and belonged there.
When I woke in the morning, Noah was gone.
13
Noah
For the next week, I had bigger things to worry about than whether Nicole was pissed that I ran out on her while she was asleep. The investigation that shut us down for two days yielded nothing except the fact that the security cameras had been destroyed before the fires were set. So I got state-of-the-art equipment set up for surveillance, the kind that alerts local law enforcement and the security corporation instantly if cameras are tampered with. There was the waiting game with insurance claims and the headache of replacing materials and trying to reassure my crew that they weren’t in immediate danger. No physical threats had been made, just damage to the work site when it was empty.
The work of a coward, I insisted to my foreman, someone who wouldn’t come at me face to face. Forrester, I was sure of it, but he might have help since somebody was clever enough to cover their tracks. He was slimy and opportunistic, but I never pegged him as smart enough to pull of this kind of sabotage without leaving a trail a mile wide. I focused all my energy on the project and the search for clues. Otherwise, I’d think about Nicole and the night we spent together.
I felt like an ass for leaving her, but the fact was, neither one of us was looking for anything serious. Also, we had to work together for the foreseeable future and there was no sense mixing business with pleasure on a troubled project like this especially. It was better to be one and done. I hadn’t texted her or anything. But she hadn’t reached out to me either. We were both busy, and I knew she’d been fielding a million calls from city and county officials about the fire. We both had our hands full and no time for a personal life anyway, I told myself.
Brody had deputies doing drive-by patrols of the site at different times day and night so there wasn’t a predictable schedule. It was quiet for now. We were doing all we could to secure the build site, but I thought it was only a matter of time before the sabotage escalated.
When Max brought out the restock of lumber for the stalls and shelter for the farmer’s market, he hung around while my guys and I framed up a couple of the stalls. He mainly stood around busting my balls about Nicole.
“If you’re staying, hold this,” I said, nodding to the framing I was raising and securing into place. The other guy helping me moved off to take his break so Max and I could speak freely.
“So, you spend half your time staring at her office. Good thing they’re not paying you for your time,” he said.
“I do not. It’s just awkward. The night of the fire, I went home with her.”
“Good,” he said. “Now why aren’t you in a better mood? Was it bad?”
“The opposite. So good I thought my eyes would melt out of my skull,” I smirked.
“That sounds disgusting, but I guess it’s supposed to be a compliment to her. How long have you been hanging out? Was that the first time?”
“The only time,” I said firmly.
“What? She didn’t come back for more?” he teased.
“I haven’t talked to her. We’ve both been busy, and she hasn’t reached out either—”
“Maybe it’s weird because you have feelings for her. I couldn’t put enough distance between Rach and me after we fell into bed the first time. You kept telling me it was inevitable, and I wasn’t having it. I went to fucking New York. So take my advice and don’t be an ass about this. I was, and I damn near lost the love of my life over it. Learn from my mistakes, bro.”
I shook my head, “This isn’t like you and Rachel. This was a one-off. No more no less.”
