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“Possibly.”
He laughed. “Guess I have my work cut out for me, huh?”
“Work?”
“To win you over.”
“Really, that won’t be necessary.”
“Now I can’t have you walking around hating my guts, can I?”
Well, forgiving you is going to be easier said than done. After all, I’d carried this hurt for eight long years. It wasn’t just going to go away overnight. But I couldn’t let him know how much he’d hurt me. “It’s really not a big deal,” I replied, trying to sound casual.
“It is to me. I couldn’t live with myself if you did.” Noah’s gaze then dipped from mine to trail down my body. The heat of his stare singed the exposed parts of my skin, especially the tops of my breasts that he seemed to linger on. “Now that I think about it, we could make your hate for me work to our advantage.”
“Excuse me?”
He waggled his brows. “Hate sex can be very hot.”
Wait, what? Had he seriously just made the leap from wanting me not to hate him to wanting to sleep with me? What an asshole. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not at all.”
I jabbed my finger at him. “You must be out of your fucking mind if you think I’m remotely interested in having sex with you.” Okay, so maybe that was a lie. I had never gotten tingly just from a man’s stare like I had from Noah’s. That fact made me hate not only myself, but him as well.
Licking his lips, he closed the gap between us. He stood so close I could feel the heat radiating off his body. It singed the bare skin of my abdomen, causing me to warm between my legs. “You obviously had a crush on me back in the day. Why not see if the fantasy lives up to the real thing?”
Damn him. How could he possibly know I fantasized about him when I was a teenager? Since I was only fourteen, the fantasies weren’t too illicit, but he’d still left an impression. Was he right? Could hate sex actually be hot? I’d never partaken in anything like that. I’d never really gotten busy with anyone outside of a relationship. There was also the pesky fact I was in a sex drought after my breakup with Ashton. Perhaps, it made sense, considering hookups among members of a wedding party were notorious.
Before I could tell him maybe I might be down for some hate-filled horizontal action, a tall, willowy blonde appeared at our side. Ignoring me, she gave Noah a sexy smile. “Here’s my number,” she said before waving a slip of paper in front of his face.
Noah had the audacity not only not to tell her to get lost, but then he took the slip of paper from her. “Thanks…”
Of course, he hadn’t been bothered to get her name. For reasons I couldn’t understand, it didn’t seem to bother the girl. “It’s Emily.”
Noah jerked his head. After giving him one lastcome-fuck-megrin, Emily gave me a disgusted look before walking off. Without breaking eye contact with me, Noah shoved the piece of paper in his pocket. “So, what’s it going to be?”
My eyes narrowed at his continued audacity. “Are you seriously asking if I want to fuck you after you took some random chick’s number right in front of me?”
He had the unmitigated gall not to appear even remotely embarrassed by his behavior. “Maybe.”
I shook my head at him. “You know what? I was right to loathe you all these years. Your treatment of me and women in general is seriously disgusting. Unlike that bimbo who slipped you her number, I’m not desperate enough to lower my standards to be treated as nothing more than a warm hole for you to put your dick in.” Shoving him away, I added, “It would be a cold day in hell before I would ever let an asshole like you touch me.”
And with Noah’s utter and total disbelief at my words, I whirled around and started hightailing it away from him. When I got to the exit of the ballroom, I kept right on going. I couldn’t bear to be anywhere close to that egotistical bastard.
I might have to walk down the aisle with the man, but so help me God, it would be the only interaction I would have with him this weekend.
Chapter Four: Noah
My mouth dropped open as I watched Gaby stalk away from me. What the hell had just happened? Even after I had set her straight about the past, she still hadn’t wanted anything to do with me. That sure as hell was a first.
Everything I’d told her about my recollection of the party’s events had been the truth. I didn’t remember her being chunky or nerdy with glasses. Yeah, we’d known each other since we were kids, but I only knew her as a friend of Mason’s kid sisters. I maybe saw her once a year at Maya and Sara’s Birthday parties, and I sure as hell wasn’t playing dolls or Barbies with them. I was off doing boy shit with Mason and my other cousins.
As for the night in question, I remembered being mortified that this kid was asking me to dance in front of some of my older cousins. They’d already snuck me a glass of champagne. I would’ve come off as an absolute lame ass if I’d gone and danced with Gaby. Not to mention getting ragged to no end about my new kiddie girlfriend. In hindsight, since they were all in their twenties, I guess I should be glad they weren’t perverts who scammed underage girls.
And just what the hell was wrong with getting a woman’s number? It wasn’t like we were in a committed relationship or anything. I barely knew her. She was obviously way too sensitive about that.
At the sound of a low whistle behind me, I jerked my gaze over my shoulder to see Liam grinning at me. “Damn, bro, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get shot down so hard.”
