She made it about two steps from her car when a hand wrapped around her wrist and tugged her to a stop. Jane gasped, seeing her escape plan wither and die as she was spun around to meet the eyes of her captor.
Noah peered down at her, anger and pain flashing in his eyes. There was so much she should be saying right now—so much shecouldsay. But her words died on her tongue before she could release them.
There was nowhere left to go, nowhere to hide, and Noah was about to tear down every defensive wall she’d erected since she’d moved out of her parents’ house to set out on her own.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
He could practically hearthe erratic beat of her heart.
That wasn’t right. It was his heart that beat at a tempo that was definitely unhealthy.
Jane’s skin was hot and electric beneath his grasp. Her eyes flashed with fear and embarrassment—but there was something else there, too.
Or it was possible that he’d completely gone off the deep end with his own feelings, and he was seeing what he wanted to see?
Noah wouldn’t have thought it was possible for him to want for more in this life—not when he had everything he could need, not when he could just write a check and get whatever he didn’t already have.
It wasn’t until Jane breezed back into his life that he realized he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Jane.
He wanted her. He wanted her smiles, her laughter, her gentle touch. He wanted everything he knew he shouldn’t becauseshe’d made it abundantly clear exactly what side of the fence she stood.
Noah swallowed hard, his eyes bouncing to each of hers as he attempted to form the words he knew he needed to say. This tension between them had gone on far too long, and there was a feral part of him that wanted very much to just lay his cards out on the table.
“Noah,” she whispered.
His focus dipped to the way her plump lips formed his name, and it took everything in his power not to pull her into his embrace and show her exactly what she’d be getting if she’d just give in.
But he couldn’t do that to her.
“What do you want?” he murmured.
Jane blinked. Her eyes searched his, confusion pooling there for a moment before her cheeks flushed. “I don’t know what you?—”
He shook his head. “Don’t do that, Jane. I asked you a question. What do you want?”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek and made a half-hearted attempt to pull away from him. “I need a date to my dad’s birth?—”
“That’s not why you’re here,” he insisted, shaking his head.
“Noah—”
His hold on her tightened, and he lowered his face to hers. They were nearly nose-to-nose, and his voice came out in what might be described as a growl. “We’ve been spending all this time together. Whenever you’re not at work, you’re here. To anyoneelse, it looks like…” he trailed off, not sure if he was ready to put a label on it himself. His brows pulled together, and he frowned at her. “You know how I feel.”
Her lips parted, and that coloring in her cheeks intensified to a maddening extent.
“Youknowhow I feel,” he repeated, harsher this time. “You can’t deny it. There’s no use hiding it or lying about it, either. So stop jerking me around.”
Jane’s lashes fluttered, but she didn’t attempt to pull away from him. Instead, it seemed her body was leaning closer. “Noah…”
The way she said his name, it did things to him he wasn’t proud of. Jane was his endgame. Already, he knew that. He’d wanted her from the moment he’d seen her when they were teens. His brother thought he was crazy for making that marriage pact, but he knew what he was doing.
Noah was in love, and love did strange things to people. He cupped her cheek in his hand and closed his eyes briefly, reveling in the knowledge that she wasn’t withdrawing from him. His whispered words cracked in his throat. “You’re holding back. Whether or not you want to admit it doesn’t change the facts.”
When he opened his eyes, he found that she’d closed hers. Jane’s breathing had turned shallow, but the color in her cheeks remained the same. Goosebumps had risen all along her arms despite the lack of chill in the air.
This was it. He was so close. All he had to do was push her over the edge just a little bit and…
