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“I hope you can too, Becca. We’ll talk in the morning. Goodnight, my queen.”
She lit up. It took everything within him to ignore the beast that crooned within, needing her mouth on his like he needed air to breathe.
Noah nearly ran down the hallway, down the stairs, and into the living room. He forced himself onto the couch, telling himself that the time would come for physical entanglement. He knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep, so he planned out the weekend events in his mind like counting sheep that allowed his body to relax, albeit briefly.
* * *
The water lookedlike an aquamarine crystal generally reserved for somewhere far more exotic and tropical in temperature. Noah sat on the back porch with a coffee in hand, having been awake since sunrise. The sight was breathtaking, a burning orange eye gliding across the water like a dragonfly. He took it in as a good sign; beautiful things were on the horizon.
Noah let Becca sleep for as long as her body required. He had made coffee with the expensive-looking chrome-colored machine that made him feel like he was operating a train engine. Lev had instructed him to indulge in anything and everything he wanted. It enhanced the notion of a utopia, which he hoped would guide him thoughtfully along the right track into the warmth of Becca’s heart.
He sat with a second cup on the porch when he heard the back door slide open. Becca, in all of her captivating effortless grace, stood there in the morning sun. Noah felt like a little puppy staring at her.
“Good morning, my queen,” Noah said, rising to his feet. “Would you like a cup of coffee that costs more than your annual salary?”
Becca let out her charming laugh. She wore black leggings and just her T-shirt, her chestnut hair pushed to one shoulder in a lovely mess. She peered back into the kitchen, still grinning.
“I think I’d like to take a stab at it,” she said.
Noah tried to move past her, but she raised her hand with a solemn look, then delicately touched his chest with the tip of her fingers. She looked up at him with hooded eyes, those slate gray mysteries.She must know what she’s doing to me, right?
“Nuh-uh,” she scoffed. “The queen has got this.”
“I thought you might be hungry,” Noah said with a crooked smile.
“Not yet. I want to sit here, drink my coffee, and look out on this gorgeous lake with you. That’s all I ever wanted.”
She retreated back into the kitchen before Noah had time to respond. He thought about following her inside to show her how to use the intricate machine, but she would wave him off anyway. So he sat there, the cry of the loon cutting through the stillness of the forest.
Becca came back a few minutes later, carrying her mug like it was made of gold. She sat next to him on the bench, pulling up her bare feet to sit cross-legged.
For a few moments, there was nothing to say. Despite the way Noah’s heart raged inside him, their ability to not have to speak also said something about their fated bond.
He hoped so, anyway.
“Becca, I wanted to tell you something before it gets lost while we’re here. I don’t want there to be any lies or omissions between us anymore. I’m serious about getting us back to where we were.”
Becca had been looking over the water when he began speaking, then turned her head to gaze at him with a lazy stare. Noah tried not to read into it, but he knew there remained echoes of sadness between the beatings of her heart. It was his job to soothe that.
“Go ahead,” she said.
“The rogue bear that I told you about, Lev and I think it’s one of Dustin’s,” Noah said, waiting a few seconds for the bomb to go off.
When he didn’t see any sparks of the past in her eyes, he went on, trying to go with the momentum he was finding with his confidence.
“That was why Lev suggested I bring you up here. He knows that I want you back and that the option for me to leave again wouldn't ever be on the table. So you’re here for two reasons … to keep you away from these bastards and for us to have time alone to get back what we had.”
Noah waited with bated breath, having turned away from the angelic waters to look into the face of the woman he loved more than anything in the universe. More than the universe itself, even. Becca had a masterful way of looking unaffected to the untrained eye. But to the eyes of a man who knew every micro-expression the way a choreographer knew his dancers’ movements, her facial expressions were a damn ballet.
His heart hammered in his chest as Becca’s eyes glided away from his, a thoughtful, reflective look to them, then watched as the watermelon hue of her lips bowed upward into a radiant smile. Noah thought he was going to pass out with relief.
“I think I’m a pretty big girl and can take care of myself,” Becca said, shuffling closer to him on the bench. “But I like that you chose this option this time. I want this, too, Noah. I really do.”
Noah placed his coffee mug on the rustic table next to them, then did the same with Becca’s. He took her hand and brought it to his lips in a chivalrous act of intimacy. He breathed her in, that rose water scent, the same way he breathed in the sight of the lake at dawn.
He traced her knuckles tenderly with his lips as he spoke, closing his eyes to take in her elixir of life, and proclaimed a rumbly, passionate plea.
“I know you must have your doubts. I understand that. But I want you to know, Becca, that I love you. I have always loved you. I am never going to leave you again.”
