The one that resulted in him killing himself.
AJ’s heart rate surged, blood rising to her face. “Is Oregon still part of the plan?”
Noah’s eyes were burning. “Yes,” he said finally.
AJ shook her head. “No,” she said, and immediately felt a sob gather in her chest. She forced it back down. “For fuck’s sake,” she whispered.
Noah glared at her. “This isn’t up for debate.”
Cold fury detonated through AJ like a blast of liquid nitrogen, and in that instant, time slowed.
Even if she couldn’t sense him minute by minute, she knew whatwas inside. That black mass, yes—and caged deep within it, his love and his hope. AJ would have bet her life that those hounds were raising hell right now, whaling on the inside of that great glass dome.
And she was going to break them out, whatever it took.
“There it is,” she said, stepping toward him.
Noah gave her a forbidding look. “What?”
AJ held his gaze. “Your game,” she said. “The Noah Drew Dies Alone game.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “Hey, Age,” he said. “You might want to be careful. You’re starting to talk out of your ass.”
“Am I?” she said, inching forward. “We once sat together, not a mile from here, and you told me that having closeness didn’t feel like your life. That you were always waiting for the other shoe to drop. That having to leave felt inevitable.”
This enraged him. AJ could see his temple throb. “AJ,” he said warningly.
“Noah,” she retorted, stepping closer. “Be honest. When you were diagnosed, was a little part of you secretly vindicated? Like, yeah, it’s devastating, but it must have felt alittlegood to be soright.To have your proof. To be able to say, definitively, you’d be alone for the rest of your life.”
Noah seethed, his massive shoulders heaving, his cheeks redder than AJ had ever seen them. His eyes were on fire. “Stop talking now.”
AJsmiled. “Oh, right, it’s ‘not up for debate,’ ” she said blithely. “My bad. I mean, why wouldanyonegive up all that yummy certainty? Seems like a fair trade for yourentirelife.”
She was close enough to breathe him in. His jaw was clenched, and he was inhaling hard through his nose. Heat cycled off his chest like a reactor. As AJ looked up into his incensed eyes, she felt the tiniest pulse from the depths of that shadowy mass, a distant flare, the spark of a fuse.
“Fuck the plan.Noah,” she said softly. “What do youwant?”
In an instant, his hands were on her waist, pulling her flush against his groin. AJ felt hunger pang between her legs. She gasped as his left arm encircled her back, his right hand whisking aside the front flap ofher dress. His face was an inch from hers, his pupils so dilated his eyes were black.
He went straight to her senses, his scent, the heat of his hand smoothing over her hip to the small of her back, then over her bare ass. He was checking whether she was wearing underwear, which she wasn’t, thanks to Libby’s snark. His eyelids sank as he confirmed this for himself.
“I knew it,” he muttered. He was looking at her lips now, and AJ was glad he was holding her; her legs were about to give. He inclined his face toward hers, scanning.
“Was that…okay?” he asked, suddenly shy. AJ could feel his heart through their clothing. The anger was gone from his eyes. Instead he looked…starved. He looked like how she felt.
AJ held his gaze. She nodded. Noah swallowed, momentarily stunned.
Then he was walking her backward toward the couch. AJ heard a scraping sound as he shoved the coffee table out of the way with his knee. She fell onto the cushions, and he knelt down, his hands running up her calves then catching the back of her knees and pulling her forward so her ass was on the edge of the seat.
AJ felt a thrum of anticipation as he stared at the place where her wrap dress now dangled between her legs, two limp black corners. Slowly, he ran his hands over her knees and up the inside of her thighs, stopping right at the flaps.
“Is this okay?” he asked, glancing up at her. AJ nodded again.
The dress fell open at the push of his fingers, and his hands roved over her hips and down her back, grasping her buttocks, pulling her close. AJ felt him shudder as his lips pressed into her pubic bone. He lifted her toward him and inhaled.
Holy shit.
Then he tasted her, and AJ felt the waters of her body stir.Oh.Noah tasted her again, more fully this time, and groaned like he hadcravedthis, like he had dreamed of her swelling and rising on his tongue.
