AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I felt his heartbeat pounding strongly against my palm.
“There’s no room for any other woman inside—not romantically,” he clarified. “The key to my heart is your fingerprint. I don’t care what the world thinks anymore. If love is madness, then consider me a madman. I want to take you in my arms, and I want to kiss you, and touch you, and show you how desperately in love I am with you.”
Tears spilled down my face as I looked at him in shock. This was the ultimate expression of love. My words could never surpass his confession. What could I say?
“Noah, I—”
“Let me finish, baby.” He stroked my cheek. “I felt a powerful pull from the second I saw your beautiful face last year. I didn’t know what it meant, but as our relationship progressed, I knew I had wrongful desires for you. Once I wrapped my mind around it, I ignored our attraction because I love you too much to hurt you and take advantage of you. That’s why I never acted on those desires until you had. I just wanted to snuff out those flames. But I realize now that loving you the way I want isn’t wrong.”
Noah paused, intensifying his stare. “It’s so right. My heart knows it, my soul knows it, and my body yearns to feel it.” He held my hands. “You are embedded in me, and if you find me worthy enough to give yourself to me, I promise to show you how much I worship and adore you. I promise to give you all of me. No barriers, no resistance. Not anymore.”
I couldn’t stop crying as he patiently wiped my tears away, leaving me speechless. Many times, I had daydreamed aboutNoah confessing his love for me. Living in this moment was a thousand times better than anything I ever envisioned.
“Please say something,” he whispered, looking worried. His eyes betrayed his vulnerability. “I’m sorry if I’ve overwhelmed you.”
This was a lot to process.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” I asked, aware of my demon of doubt.
“I’ve felt this way about you for a while now. I just didn’t want to admit it. You’re my daughter, and this unchangeable fact has always messed with my mind. When I read what you wrote in your diary, it hurt me badly. I understood why you wanted to be with Ryan, but it absolutely crushed me inside. You were planning to fly back the next day without telling me… This isn’t some desperate attempt to make you stay; this is me revealing my feelings with no mask, no rules, and no third party in the equation. Vanessa’s out of the picture. It’s just you and me, Aria. I’m risking it all for you.”
The truth was in his eyes, and I believed him. Maybe all my suffering had been for a reason: how can you appreciate the best moments in life if you never experienced the worst?
“I’m in love with you,” he openly confessed. “I want to protect you the way a father protects his daughter, but I can’t love you the same way because my every instinct tells me to show you my affection in romantic ways.” Reaching for my hips, Noah murmured, “It’s been tremendously hard for me to ignore these impulses. You’ve been the biggest test of my life, Aria.”
Staring into his eyes, I was afraid to trust his truth as he squeezed my waist and said, “I wish I could read your mind. Please tell me what you’re thinking.”
Lost in his handsome features, it took me a while to find my voice.
“Noah, you know how I feel about you—that’s no secret. I’ve just been waiting… hoping you would return my feelings, too. I’m so happy… and in shock. I wasn’t expecting this. Nothing I say can describe how I feel right now.”
I was dying for his kiss.
“If anyone found out about us, they’d be quick to judge and accuse me of the worst things,” he continued. “But my love for you is real; it’s the purest thing I’ve ever felt in my life. We don’t even have to cross any physical boundaries with each other. I could sacrifice those needs for you. I just want to love you and make you happy without hiding my feelings. I can hide them from the world, but I don’t want to hide them from you.”
There was no way I was going to walk out of this lavish hotel room without kissing him. I wanted him. I always wanted him.
“I don’t want to fight fate any longer,” Noah said. “I don’t want to have to convince myself day in and day out that I shouldn’t love you this way”—he pulled me closer—“because I should.” The seduction in his voice made my heart palpitate as he caressed my back.
All this time I had been waiting, wishing, and praying for this moment. And now that it was here, I was terrified.
What if I won’t be good enough for him?
“You’re shaking,” he said. “Are you cold?”
I withdrew my trembling hands from his chest, but he took them into his own and warmed me up. Noah’s body was always like a furnace.
“Aria, I would never force you, you know that. We could just order room service, cuddle all night, and I would be happy.”
God, no!I was so done with the PG stuff between us.
“I want you. I’m just nervous.”
I was about to be intimate with the sexiest man in the universe. Who wouldn’t be freaking out if they were in my shoes?
Noah smiled faintly, removing his shirt before he dropped it on the floor.
Staring at his muscled chest, I fixated on his tattoo and couldn’t wait to cover his flawless skin with kisses, like I’d often imagined in my head.
