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ike thinking about how perilously public our relationship was becoming, and that was the only thing zooming through my mind right now.
“Women like her use whatever they can to manipulate people,” I told him. “She knows she’s a quick thinker. Maybe she was hoping Mason would blindly follow her back to Florida so she could bank on the chance she could come up with something else to use against him to keep him there.”
Noel snorted. “Yeah, but...why go through all that trouble for someone who wants nothing to do with you?”
I shrugged, picturing my mother. “It’s all about control. She thrives on managing the people in her life. And every little thing they do.”
“I like control,” he argued. “I’m the freaking quarterback of my team, and I consider myself the head of my family. Hell, I’ve practically taken over at Forbidden. But I’ve never—”
Reaching out, I set my hand on his to stop his drumming fingers. “That’s because you know the difference between leadership and dictatorship. And you have a rational functioning brain. She does not. I doubt either of us could understand the way she thinks. She’s gotten so used to manipulating, blackmailing, and doing whatever she wants to get her way, she has this whole ego trip going on and thinks she can’t fail at anything. In her own mind, she’s invincible.”
Turning his hand over so our palms were facing, he laced our fingers together and gave a warm squeeze. “You sound like you have some experience with people like her.”
I nodded and paused at a four-way. “I do. Mrs. Garrison is the spitting image of my mother. I know her type well.”
He brought my knuckles up to his mouth to kiss them. “I knew there was a reason I already didn’t like your mother.” Then he changed gears, holding up the bag containing my pregnancy test and shaking it. “You’re still taking this when we get home, right?”
A rush of air exited my lungs. “Of course.”
His fingers returned to tapping. Silence filled the car. I was actually tempted to reach out and turn on the radio to kill the tension.
“So, tonight kind of turned into baby-palooza, huh?” Noel glanced over and sent me an unreadable look. “I mean, what with that lady coming in to harass Lowe, then the chick with his girlfriend who really was pregnant. My sister’s knocked up. And now you...”
When his eyes revealed just how nervous he was, I realized that was why he’d been rambling about Lowe’s problems. He’d been afraid to bring up the real issue.
Us.
“I’m probably not,” I tried to reassure him. “Like I said, I’ve never been regular. But it’s been long enough to get some accurate results, so—”
“No, it’s fine,” he told me. “I get it. And I’m with you one hundred percent. I don’t want to wait to find out. I want to know tonight.”
I nodded and pulled into my drive. After I killed the car, we both continued to sit there, facing forward without moving, until Noel burst out, “Okay, is it totally weird that I’m completely turned on right now?”
I twisted to gape at him. “What?”
He turned to me, too. “I can’t stop thinking about it.” He reached out and touched my shoulder tentatively before his fingers slid down my arm. “What if a part of me is growing in there? In you? I feel like I branded you, like we’re just so explosively amazing together, a whole new life form developed to contain the overflow.” His touch scaled my abdomen before pressing lightly. “It’s so fucking hot. We could’ve just created art together, Aspen. A masterpiece.”
Leaning across the center console, he nipped at my mouth and then slid his tongue inside. The kiss started warm and slow, but it didn’t take long to gain heat and fervor. Before I knew it, we were both panting and straining across the front seat to reach for more of each other.
“I can’t wait.” He peeled my shirt up over my head and flung it into the backseat before grasping my waist and hauling me into his lap. “Get over here, woman.”
“But what about—” We were still in my car, the front steps were only a few feet away. It was dark, yeah, but still...anyone could walk by and see.
“I don’t care,” he rasped, pushing down the cups of my bra. “I need you. Now.”
When he sucked one of my aching nipples into his mouth, it rendered me brain dead from thereon out, and suddenly, I didn’t care either. I cupped his head and gathered fistfuls of his hair into my hands as I rode his erection through our clothes. The suction he had on me seemed to tug on a nerve linked directly to the bundled core between my legs because it lit me up until I was writhing against him, begging him as I fumbled between him to tear open the fly of his jeans.
Pulling him into my hand, I pumped him, loving the feel of velvet over steel. His mouth popped free of my nipple so he could groan and slam his skull back against the seat’s headrest.
“Damn, that feels good.” He jerked his hips up, letting me know he wanted more. I squeezed harder and went faster. “Yes,” he hissed, bowing his head forward and straining. But just as quickly, he grabbed my hand and pulled me away. “Wait. I want to come inside you.”
Getting my pants off was quite a trick. We both fumbled clumsily, he cursed in frustration, and I had to throw my head back to laugh over the silliness of it. But as soon as they were out of the way and smacked against the driver’s side window, Noel grasped my hips and led my body where he needed me.
Since my legs draped over his, he spread his own knees as far as he could in the confines of the seat so he could in effect spread me apart. Then he yanked me down and impaled me. The shock of it caused me to gasp. The muscles inside me clenched around him, needing something to hold on to, to ground me to this moment so I couldn’t just float away.
“God damn.” His fingers bit into my hips and he yanked me up, only to jerk me back down. It was just as filling as his first thrust. I bit my lip and gripped his shoulders, hanging on for dear life. “I love this,” he panted. “I fucking love being inside you.” His breathing was rough and eyes hooded as he met my gaze. “You’re so gorgeous. Jesus, Aspen.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Nothing should be this good. I don’t want it to end.”
The literature professor in me immediately had a Robert Frost moment. Nothing gold can stay. Well, Noel Gamble was the golden pot of happily ever after at the end of my rainbow. Did that make him my fleeting glimpse of joy? My gold that could not stay?
