Val’s stomach lurched. “He did what?”
“I told him how I felt about her, and he said I should let her know.” His eyebrows drew together. “He told me to give you another night, first.”
“Oh, God.” Val dropped into a chair. “Of course he knew you were seeing me.”
“I didn’t tell him anything.”
She bit her lip. “Okay. Okay. Fine.” It wasn’t fine. Information in Dane’s hand was a ticking time bomb. She’d have to find a way to detonate it first. What had he already started?
She remembered Anthony stood across from her. “You can go.”
His expression of shock mirrored hers, but he staggered back out of the office.
Val turned to her laptop and opened her email program. She hit Reply.
Geraldo,
So good to hear from you again. I enjoyed your descriptions of the conference. You can’t imagine my surprise to see those pictures of Dane with Noelle. Dane’s been very busy. A friend of mine took the attached photos while he was dining recently. I’m sure you’ll find these every bit as tantalizing as the ones you sent me. Selena is a lovely girl. Congratulations.
Take care,
Val
Dane woke with the sun. The light entered through the hotel windows and brightened the whole room. He turned over on his pillow to find Noelle propped on her elbow, watching him. She smiled. “Did you know you laugh in your sleep?”
“Do I?” He punched and fluffed the pillow behind his back and leaned against it. “Did you know your eyelashes flutter whenyousleep?”
He’d never spent so much time watching the same woman. She revealed so many different facets the longer he spent in her company. She kept up with him verbally. Since the first night, she hadn’t treated him with quite so much reverence, and he loved her willingness to call him out on his bullshit without making the bullshit an obstacle to showering him with her kisses. She kept up with him physically. They’d spent themselves in every way they could imagine, and then they imagined more.
Between sating their lust, they dressed up to go down to the conference but spent more time at the bar, teasing each other until they couldn’t wait to return upstairs. Sometimes their clothes came off. Often they didn’t. They worked around it. They drew the line just shy of fucking in public. Whether anyone knew what they were doing in private didn’t matter to them, but Noelle didn’t want to completely ruin her career with a scandal. Dane no longer gave a fuck.
Dane kissed the crook of Noelle’s elbow, watching her eyes close with the pleasure of his touch. He loved that he could bring that look to her face so easily. “How have we spent this many years apart? Think of all that time.”
She stretched and threw an arm over his exposed chest. “We have right now. Let’s not regret the past. Let’s plan for the future.”
“Whatever you plan, just make sure I’m there.”
She slid the sheet down the rest of him and smiled at the morning wood. “You’re there.”
He flipped her onto her back and pressed his body against her. “Are you there?”
“I’m there.”
He slid in, the motion familiar now. He loved how her head fell away from him at the moment he entered. He loved how she cooed when he laid gentle kisses on her neck. He loved how she groaned when he sucked on her skin. She rocked her hips in time with his, and they found a rhythm that caused their hearts to beat quicker, their breaths to increase. He wanted the moment to last longer, but then he couldn’t help chase after the bliss of a second even though he knew it would come to a crashing end. As long as he could keep her when it was over, everything would be fine.
They looked into each other’s eyes as they reached for climax. He hugged her to him and said, “I’ve never been happier than I am in this moment.”
He phoned for breakfast service, and they showered together, dressed, and then ate. Dane casually lobbied Noelle to drop everything and run away with him. “We have nothing waiting for us.” Nothing and no one but Noelle could drag him back to the drudgery of his former existence. He’d kissed the sun. He had no desire to fall back to earth.
Noelle took a more pragmatic approach. She’d laid out a timeline that involved the two of them working at Fleetwood, moving in together, sharing the routine of their former lives. And he’d agreed because at the end of her plan, they left together. He couldn’t persuade her to leave immediately. He was just happy to know she wanted him in her world. Val wouldn’t like it one bit, but she’d already exhausted her ammunition on him. There wasn’t anything she could do about it.
She laid his suit on the bed. “Come on. Let’s head back down to see if there’s anyone worth rubbing elbows with or any speakers who might enlighten us.”
He actually wanted to get out of the room. “Sure. I’m getting cabin fever anyway.”
After wandering through the conference, Noelle yawned and excused herself to get an hour or two of needed sleep. “Will you come join me before lunch?”
Dane wrapped his hands around her and sent her off with a pat to her ass that made her jump and giggle. Then he settled in at the bar over a glass of scotch. It was only ten o’clock in the morning, but he was at a conference that felt like a vacation. And why not celebrate the unexpected turn of events?
