RetroCog (a Power Up! story) (20 page)

“Damn, Frank.” Noah glanced around the room. “You’re all going to love what I saw in the library.” Resigned to telling the truth, even if he did alienate Lara, Noah had to put her safety before his feelings. “I saw Finn’s brother and Finn in a fight. Michael Fury was shot. He vowed to have Cecilia, Finn’s
whore
—his words, not mine. Then he shot the doctor who stitched him up.” He studied Lara, seeing in her his future if they could make it out of this in one piece. “But at the end, I saw Michael’s face, and he was me.”

Lara blinked. “No way. You’re Finn.”

Frank shook his head. “Lara, I think it’s time for you to go. Get away from all this. Let’s get you out of town and keep you safe until we figure out what this means.”

“I have to agree with Frank.” Much as it killed him to think of no longer spending time with her.

“No, no. We’ve got interference.” Chloe shushed them when they started asking questions. While they waited for her to explain, Noah reached for Lara’s hand, pleased when she gripped his tight.

Lara smiled at him. “I trust you, Noah.”

Despite everything, all the strange coincidences, Cecilia’s warnings, and his own revelations. The woman
trusted
him. The remaining wall shielding his heart crumbled and fell at her feet. “Baby, I wanted to tell you this last night. You don’t know how I—”

“It’s got to be Finnegan Fury’s brother,” Chloe interrupted. “He’s interfering in this because you’re close to breaking the pattern. He’s here, like Cecilia and Finn still are. Their energy won’t leave, not until we stop this from happening again.”

“So we’re dealing with not one, but three ghosts. Christ, I can’t believe I just said that.” Frank rubbed his forehead and started pacing. “Cecilia, Finn, and dear brother Michael. But which one of them wants Lara dead?”

Lara spoke. “Cecilia warned me earlier.
Beware the jealous lover
. Cecilia had a lot of men, but from what Noah said, it sounds like Michael Fury was the jealous lover.”

Frank stopped in his tracks. “So Finn really didn’t kill her after all. Mike did and got away with it.”

“Perfect. Now what do we do with what we know?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I need a rest.” Noah sighed. “I’m finding it hard to concentrate.”
On more than Lara’s sexy body so close to mine
. “Lara, go with Frank and Chloe. Don’t leave her alone for a minute,” he warned them.

“No. I’m staying right here.”

“No, you’re not.” Noah glared. Until he knew for certain he couldn’t be the cause of her harm, he didn’t want her around him.

“Yes, I am.”

Chloe cleared her throat. “Need I remind you this is
my
room?”

Noah and Lara stared at one another, neither breaking eye contact.

Chloe muttered something under her breath. “Fine. Come on, Ian.”

“It’s Frank now, dammit.”

“Frank. You and I have some work to do. Let’s leave the lovebirds while we find Mike Buckman and see what’s he’s really been up to.”

Frank scowled. “But Noah—”

“He won’t harm a hair on her head, trust me. Noah’s not built that way.” She dragged Frank out the door with her and slammed it behind them.

Leaving him and Lara all alone.
Finally.

He couldn’t believe he’d almost blurted out loud that he loved her. Noah started to sweat, needing to tell her but feeling as if he’d just had a narrow escape. What if she didn’t feel the same way? The woman was no one’s fool. They’d hadn’t known each other very long. Embroiled in an unsolved murder and possibly targeted by a killer, Lara wouldn’t be receptive to hearing his emotional crap now, would she? For all she knew, he was behind everything. He’d arrived in her life, bringing her nothing but trouble.

Yet she’d said she trusted him.

He didn’t know how to put into words how much her faith meant. His mother had never seen him as anything more than a burden and a freak. He didn’t know his father. The one woman he’d tried to share his life with had freaked out when she’d learned of his ability. In hindsight, his method of proof had sucked. Reciting the list of other lovers Deirdre had fucked, and exactly what she’d done with them, hadn’t been smart, but she’d refused to believe him. When the truth finally sank in, she’d broken a heavy-ass vase on his head and shoved him out the door. The scar remained, though the pain of her distrust had faded in time, if not the memory.

He touched the bandage over his left brow, conscious the wound lay right over his scar.

Lara scooted closer to him. Carefully easing herself over his middle, she straddled him and stared at his head. “Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore.” He wondered at this chance he’d been given. Lara knew about him, and she didn’t seem to mind about his ability. Like him, she had her own demons to bear. “Lara?”

“I—” She swallowed hard. “I… Do you like it here?”

He blinked. “In the hotel?”

“No, I mean Brownville.”

“I guess. It’s an okay town when the ghosts aren’t scaring people. The library is going to be one popular place for a while. And hey, the Lady Fine Inn has the best porn in town,” he joked, still a little loopy on the pain meds. If he let himself, he could see the outlines of some sexual escapades against the wall across the bed.

Lara didn’t seem amused.

He blinked away the vision. “I’m just kidding, honey. I really do like your place. I—”

She cut him off by kissing him. The kiss started out soft, sweet. Her breath washed over him like a cottony dream. And then she pushed her tongue between his lips.

He groaned and tried to hold her when she gently pushed him back.

“No, let me.”

Giving in because he was too tired to argue, his body nevertheless responded to her touch.

“You just rest and let me help you feel better.” She lifted the scrub top from his torso, carefully pulling it over his injuries. Then she scooted down and removed his shoes and socks. When she leaned over him to unbutton his jeans, her fingers brushed over that insistent part of him wanting more.

She pulled his jeans over his hips and soon followed with his underwear. She managed to get him naked with little effort but didn’t undress herself.

“Lara?” he sounded drowsy, but as much of his lassitude was from the pleasure leeching his will as from the drugs. “Baby, let me see you naked.”

She removed her top and jeans, leaving her in a lacy confection of silk barely covering her breasts and pussy.

“You’re so fuckin’ pretty.”

She flushed, and he loved this shyness so at odds with her aggressiveness. It took her way too long to remove her bra, and by the time it came off, he ached to thrust inside her.

“Now the panties.”

Toying with the silken waistband, she slowly rolled the garment down her hips to pool at the floor. Lara Graham, a wet dream come to life.

“Lara, please. Come over here and sit on me.”

“No more talking. Lay back and relax. Noah, let me help you.”

He nodded, then groaned when she swallowed his cock. Hot and wet, her mouth tightened around him, stroking up and down as her tongue danced along his shaft. She cupped his balls, rubbing them with tender hands while her lips worked their magic.

He had a hard time breathing when she firmed her grasp on his sac before gripping the base of his cock.

“Yeah, Lara. Damn, that’s good.”

She glanced up at him, bent low with her ass in the air, and sucked hard.

He caught his breath. “I’m going to come if you keep that up.” He groaned and stroked her soft hair, the ends curling around her shoulders and grazing his hips. “You’re so sweet. So fucking fine.”

She stroked his thighs, careful of the bruising along his left side that complemented his torso and arm. His entire body radiated a hungry tension, but one that felt surreal, too perfect to be true. The drugs couldn’t make him feel this good. Only Lara. Pleasure built at the base of his spine, tingled in his balls, and radiated from the center of his body, obliterating the pain from his injuries as if they’d never happened.

“Please, baby. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”

She stroked him all over with her hands, giving him the tenderness he’d never had before. And all the while, she kissed, licked, and sucked him to heaven. When she concentrated the focus of her hands on his hips and ass, her wicked fingers danced closer and closer to his anus. A fingertip rimmed him, and she sucked even harder.

Then her tongue stroked the sweet spot just under his cockhead. He saw stars. The pressure to come flowed from his balls up his shaft. The little witch sucked harder and penetrated his ass with her finger, and he erupted, jetting inside her mouth.

“Yes, yes, baby. Fuck, yes.” He couldn’t help holding her hair, petting her as she sucked what little of his sense remained. “I love you, Lara. God, you’re perfect.”

She didn’t respond, but he didn’t expect her to. Instead he drifted into a perfect place. Surrounded by warmth, comfort, and the woman he never wanted to leave his side.

Lara let him drop from her mouth, saturated with his taste and the feel of him under her palms. Noah had slurred something that sounded a lot like the word
love
before passing out. Between the drugs he’d been forced to take and that blowjob, the man looked like he’d been given the golden ring. He smiled as he slept.

Had he really said he loved her, or had he said he loved
it
, as in, her mouth? She wished she knew, but she admitted either way, it didn’t change how she felt about him. She loved him. The large man with intense eyes who saw what others could not. He had a deepness to him, layers beneath layers. Rough, aggressive, tender, yet caring. He wanted to protect her first and foremost. He believed her and believed
in
her, a rarity in her world.

She’d always been a planner but now had no idea what to do with tomorrow. Her job at the inn remained the same, but everything else in her life had changed. She wanted Noah, wanted to be with him and see where this relationship could take them. But leaving the home she’d made here… Could she do it?
Should
she?

A small part of her wondered why she had to be the one to change. If Noah really did love her, why couldn’t he move to town to be with her here? She grimaced. Truth be told, Brownville was a perfect little tourist town, but aside from some clever galleries, restaurants, and quaint inns, the local job market wasn’t exactly thriving. And for Noah, it was a town where he’d always be on his guard with the past. Lara had a feeling she’d never be able to look at anyone after this and not think of murder and death. That poor girl had been raped and stabbed repeatedly just days ago in a town Lara used to consider safe.

Noah had mentioned Bend, Oregon, as a place where others like them lived. Psychics who understood what it meant to be different. Sure, Brownville had temperamental artists and the odd kook blending into the diverse environment. But even here, Lara had never felt as if she truly fit in. This wouldn’t be her home; she knew that now. Not because Noah would soon leave, but because she finally realized she’d been looking in all the wrong places for what she wanted.

Acceptance, love, belonging.

A glance at Noah made her feel warm inside. Right now, at least for the foreseeable future, Noah was home. Maybe with his help, she could understand more about the world around her and come to accept her differences, not as a freakish mutation, but as something better.

She yawned, knowing she needed to get back to the inn but unable to muster the energy. After staying up so late last night, then getting up early, she’d just about exhausted her reserves. Frank and Chloe would have to take care of things. And Shelly too, if the blasted girl ever showed up for work again.

Lara visited the bathroom, then checked the lock on the hotel door and secured the deadbolt. After making a quick call to Frank to let him know she had no intention of leaving Noah’s side, she settled next to the big guy and snuggled close to him. In moments, she fell into a deep sleep.

She couldn’t have said how much time had passed when warmth curled in her womb. Her breasts, her belly, her thighs. She blinked her eyes open. Noah lay between her legs and fondled her, his eyes intent on what he was doing.