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"I can't trust you entirely, Noah. But I do think we had something good, and I would like to see if it's still there."
She knew he meant everything, but that didn’t mean her mind and heart were going to immediately jump on board. It would take time for her to really be able to trust him as she did before.
As they started to eat, she hoped she wasn't opening herself up to be let down a second time.
FIVE
NOAH
Seeing Becca again after not having been able to gaze upon her soft features for years was like being cured of an ailment he didn’t know he had. He had been carrying the weight of not only his brother’s sin but his own, causing him to hunch, his jaw taut, his soul held together by an iron will. Seeing Becca again changed all that; all of the tension in his body melted away like snow in the sun.
It wasn’t just that she was a gorgeous specimen to behold with the shining, honey-brown hair that flowed down her back like a tapestry and the sage-gray eyes that gave her an air of intrigue. She was kind but also firm and blunt. She had a solemn way of staring into someone’s soul that made them want to confess their darkest vices. Her smile didn’t come easily because she never felt she owed it to the world the way society implied. But when it did, it was as immaculate as a dawn.
All of these considerations crashed into Noah when he first entered the ice cream shop, and they lingered as they had the much-anticipated conversation where he laid his heart bare. He had vowed to himself that he would keep her in the loop as much as possible, even to the point of oversharing.
He had abandoned her without explanation, thinking that he could keep her safe by keeping secrets. What it had actually done was the opposite. He had harmed the most loving and vital relationship he would likely ever have in his shifter life.
God, he had been such a fucking fool.
Looking to set his swirling mind straight before he was alone with her again, Noah waited outside the restaurant as Becca went to the restroom before leaving. As he leaned against the entrance, he noticed he had a mild erection poking up and tenting his slacks.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Noah hadn’t taken a lover since he had left Becca. A part of him thought he was punishing himself for leaving her, even subconsciously. He even limited his own self-pleasuring sessions. He simply hadn’t the desire or energy for it. Sex was a luxury he felt he didn’t deserve, no matter the capacity.
The last thing he needed was his former girlfriend to see him standing there hard as stone after offering to take her home. She’d think he was fucking vile.
His erection was going down just before he heard Becca’s voice. She was speaking to another woman. Becca was charming without even trying. Noah was positively enchanted.
He slid his hands into his pockets, scolding himself. “Keep it together, man. It’s just a drive.”
He escorted her to the truck and helped her in like any gentleman would. Noah started the engine, her presence next to him vibrating.
“Same place?” he asked.
Becca’s hands folded into her lap. “Same place, good sir.”
Noah drove through the quiet streets, memories coming back to him like a haunting. It really hadn’t been that long, but he had truly believed that he wasn’t ever going to be able to return. Everything that had happened was so dire and tragic.
As Noah was brooding, Becca spoke up as if in response to his thoughts.
“Are you glad to be back?”
Tension had returned to his body like an old friend, and he tried to swat it away by pinning his gaze onto the road. Tiny homes sat gloomily in the dark as they flickered by.
“I am actually very glad,” he said, trying to fuse his body into the driver’s seat. “I know it hasn’t been very long, but it feels like I’ve been gone forever ….”
A silence hung between them, but not for very long. Becca was a master at cutting the tension with her honesty.
“It felt like an eternity for me.”
Noah took a bold look at her in the passenger’s seat, catching the increase in her breathing. He caught a sneaky peek of her breasts, looking perky and delicious in her gray shirt. She was giving him that grave stare, one that did not ask but commanded that henot fuck this up.
He looked back to the road quickly, his heart fluttering, his cock maddeningly rising.
“I’m sorry, Becca. I really am. I hope you know that. Hurting you was the last thing on my mind.”
They had arrived at Lev’s home where his brother, Noah, and the rest of his family had spent most of their lives, raised by bear shifters and living an overall content lifestyle. Then, disaster struck. His stomach coiled at the thought of where the twine of his life had been severed, placed upon a rotten and spoiled trail that only redirected him back to where he knew he was supposed to be all along.
