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Was he fucking obsessed?Yes.
Was he going to have the longest, hardest night of his life? Yes. Even though he’d gone through plenty of shitty nights in places he didn’t want to name. Being here, in Noelle’s home, having her so close, was the worst torture he could imagine.
Nope. Not true.The worst thing he could imagine would be coming home and finding out that Noelle had been hurt. Or worse, killed. Hadn’t it been bad enough when he’d gone away each time and feared that he’d return to find her engaged—or, fucking forbid, married to some dumbass? He’d known that was a possibility. More than a possibility. Noelle was freaking gorgeous with her witchy green eyes and that long mane of dark hair. She’d cast a spell on him long ago, and he’d never been able to break free. Not that she knew. He’d made it a point of not letting her know. No sense telling her about the hell of his own making.
But when he’d come homethistime and Elliot had met him at the airport in Charlotte, Brady had known something was wrong. Elliott’s expression had been too tense, and behind the lenses of his glasses, anxiety filled his stare.
For a minute, Brady’s world had seemed to stop. All he’d been able to do was grit out one word. “Noelle.”
And on the two hour drive from Charlotte to Charm, Elliott had spilled everything. The masked man who’d been waiting in the house. The fear that seemed to cloak Noelle’s normally outgoing personality. The mysterious flowers. The worry that maybe something else sinister would happen.
“I have her.” Brady’s response, even as fear and fury had pumped within him. Vaguely, he recalled that Elliot had frowned at him, but Brady had just rolled right on, saying some BS about being her bodyguard and crashing at her place, and being happy to look out for her because they were practically family.
Oh, hell, no, we are not.He was not her freaking brother. Not related to her inanyway, and he was way past the point of holding back the desire he felt for Noelle.
He wanted her with every fiber of his being.
The problem?
Sometimes, she seemed to hate him. Probably because he was an asshole.
A faint creak reached his ears as he lay in bed, glaring up at the ceiling and trying to figure out hownotto be an asshole with her. His body stiffened at that little creak, and in the next instant, he’d bolted for the door. Brady yanked it open and rushed into the hallway.
He immediately collided with Noelle. Noelle and her soft curves and silken skin and the super short and skimpy black robe that she had around her body.
She screamed when they collided. A fierce shriek that had surely been intended to burst his eardrums. When his ears stopped ringing, he shook his head and realized his arms had curled around her, and he held her far too tightly.
The way I always want to hold her.
“What are you doing?” She’d screamed a moment before, but now Noelle spoke in a low hush. “Trying to scare me to death?”
His heart thundered in his chest. “I was…” Ah, what had he been doing? “Coming to protect you?”
“From what? My midnight snack attack?”
So he’d gone overboard. The last mission had been a particular bitch, not that he ever talked about the missions with anyone outside his team. He’d come back far more ragged around the edges than normal. And then to learn about the danger Noelle had faced while he couldn’t help her…
Get it together, man. Now. Before you scare her even more.Because he’d always had to be careful not to scare Noelle. She didn’t understand who he truly was. His plan was to keep it that way. “Thought there might be an intruder. I’m doing bodyguard duty, remember?”
“As if I could forget.” A grumble. She looked around the well-lit hallway. “As you can see, though, there’s no threat. Just little old me, trying to tiptoe down the stairs and get something to drink.”
A smile pulled at his lips. “You still go for chocolate milk when you can’t sleep?” An old habit, one he remembered from his days sleeping over at her house when he’d been a teen. A few nights, he’d even joined Noelle in her parents’ kitchen while everyone else had been asleep.
Four years younger than him, Noelle had originally just been a sweet kid, the younger sister of the guy who had the foolish luck to become his best friend. But then, over time, Noelle had stopped being a kid.
She’d become a beautiful, smart, and charming woman.
A woman he could not get out of his head.
Brady remembered exactly when he’d realized she’d grown up on him. She’d been sixteen and heading out to homecoming. He’d been on leave, and he’d come in to visit with Elliott and the Lennon family. His own parents had passed away. An accident that no one really talked about, at least not above gossipy whispers.
His best friend had stood by his side and sweet Noelle had gripped his hand at the funeral service. The Lennon crew had always been there for him.
So where else would he have gone during his leave time but to the Lennon house?
And he’d seen Noelle. In the dress that had been way too short and her date had been practically drooling. Good thing Brady had paused to have a private chat with the little prick about how important it was toalwaysbe a gentleman around Noelle.Because if you don’t treat her with one hundred percent respect, I will kick your ass.The warning he’d delivered to her shaking date.
“You’re still holding me.”
