Sugarbaby (13 page)

Ripped
, I thought as I watched Noah, my desires pooling to a sharp point in the center of me. I pulsed for him in my most sensitive place and, right now, it wasn't my heart.

It was as if he sensed a disturbance in the room, and he lowered his fists, the bag still swinging. He faced us, the cut notches of his abs, the definition in his arms, and the glistening sheen of his skin tormenting me even more. He had that V look to his body that made a primitive tune scream through me.

I couldn't think. I hoped I wasn't drooling. Sure, I'd seen him shirtless before, but, my gosh.

When I got a hold of myself, I offered the plate. “Surprise?”

Simmons hadn't gone anywhere, and Noah glared at him. That's right—glared.

“What's she doing in here?” he asked.

Stunned, I lowered the plate, suddenly feeling like an intruder. Had something happened to Noah since I'd texted with him earlier?

I remembered how he'd had to take a phone call during our texting, and I started doing the math. Who had screwed up his day?

Simmons's voice was level. “She came to visit you.”

Hello? I was right here?

When Noah looked at me, he balled up his hands at his sides and stared at the ground, his chest heaving, his breath coming hard.

Simmons glanced at me, then back at Noah, who gave him a lowered look in return, and it still wasn't friendly.

Time for me to say something. “I was just stopping by, but it's clear you're not in the mood for company.”

“Company is the best thing for him,” Simmons said.

What were these guys up to?

My neurotic instincts told me to get out, so I found a good place to set the cupcakes—the floor—and began to leave.

“Jadyn,” Noah said, and his tone was dark. As dark as what I'd seen on his face in that picture from one of the articles I'd read about Harry Diamont.

Simmons gave me one last perusal, and I could've sworn I saw hope in his gaze.

I didn't have the chance to wonder because he left us alone.

Noah kept breathing on his side of the room. I was breathing on my side, too, erratically but functionally. What was new?

“I didn't mean to interrupt your workout,” I said, thinking that might've been the reason he was bothered. But the Noah I'd met before was confident, and I couldn't imagine that he'd be ashamed of a little sweat.

“Workout,” he repeated in a monotone. “It isn't so much that as a desperate attempt to hoard all the endorphins I can get.”

Some people called endorphins nature's way of relieving pain, and I could feel that in him right now. “Does this have something to do with the phone call you took earlier, when we were texting?”

For the first time, he sent me a look that completely shut me out, a guarded angle to his lips, a hooded gaze. But then he caught himself, the muscles in his arms bunching as he fisted his hands again.

As if he wanted to ignore me, he went toward the two poles with the hooks on them. I remembered what this was now—a salmon ladder. Uncle Joseph used to watch programs where ninja guys trained on them for competitions.

Noah jumped to the pole on the first rung, swinging, then using his momentum to heave it up with his body and hook it into the second notch. His torso flexed with those muscles. “The call isn't important.”

So he wanted to treat me like I was something inconsequential who didn't deserve explanations? My mouth ran away from me.

“Remember how I signed that NDA? It means I won't be blabbing all over the place about whatever you deign to share with me. Besides, you wanted me to open up to you. How about returning the favor sometime?”

He gathered strength, then arced the pole from the second rung and whipped it up to the next, his body still swinging. My Lord, those muscles, clenching. The sight was so raw that I nearly toppled over. But, dammit, this was serious. Was he trying to keep me off-balance by showing me his physical prowess?

Was that what he'd been doing with climbing the tree at the lake, too?

He swung himself up to the next rung, ignoring me.

I didn't give up. “Was this call from the same person who contacted you the other night, when I brought over the brownies?”

Swinging up again, he didn't say anything, probably still thinking that all those bunched abs would distract me enough to shut me up.

Let's see about that
. “I read about Harry Diamont.”

Noah dropped down to the ground, every inch of him constricting with obvious anger, sweat making him slick as he took in long breaths between words.

“Why did you have to do that, Jadyn? Dammit . . . the last thing I need is for you to get too curious and—”

“Spoil your Roman holiday?”

He cursed raggedly—boy, was he in a mood—and he paced to the other side of the room with his hands on his hips. Such a stranger to me right now. Where had the Great Gatsby gone?

“Did Diamont work you over as much as the Internet says?” I asked. “No use pretending I don't have the ability to look things up, Noah. I just didn't get around to the nitty-gritty until now.”

“And what is the Internet saying today?” he asked, his voice echoing in the spare room. “Is it the same shit they hurled around all summer? Did you learn that Diamont worked his way into my family and poured poison into most of their ears so they'd turn on my father and me?”

“Yes.”

As he kept to his side of the room, I told him everything I knew: how Diamont had persuaded nearly everyone on the board that Noah's dad was inept, how he'd convinced them of Noah's unsuitableness to take over after Nathaniel Reeves had been forced out and then died.

When I finished, I asked, “What did Diamont say about you to get almost everyone on his side?”

“That I was reckless. But you could testify to that. You've been around me enough to know. Haven't you?”

It was as if he was asking me something I had no answer to, even though I had the feeling I should have.

That dark look was on him again, and he took a step toward me. My heart seized up.

“What's wrong with you today?” I asked.

He didn't make another move, instead closed his eyes as if trying to collect himself. While he tensed up, I had no doubt that he was fighting whatever was in his head.

I stepped toward
him
. “Who was on the phone earlier?” I asked softly. “What made you like this?”

For a second, I wasn't sure he would indulge me. I was even afraid he'd tell me to get the hell out.

But then he quietly said, “It was the answering service on the phone the other night, then again today. My youngest brother, Eli, has been trying to get in touch with me.” He laughed cuttingly. “He's begging me to come back under Diamont's terms. Supposedly, that bastard's going to make The Group stronger than ever. Diamont's like family, Eli said, and he cares a lot about me and wants me back. Eli's so young and green that he doesn't realize Diamont's game. Having me back would be a real PR coup.”

Noah began to cross the space that separated us, his stride purposeful and sure, almost a stalk. I couldn't go anywhere. It was as if my veins had wrapped me up, holding me in place while thumping, thumping inside me.

The closer he got, the more his scar stood out on his neck. He was still damp with sweat and had that primal scent of hard work, someone used to labor. It traveled through me like wicked steam.

I wanted to run. I wanted to stay. I wanted to just reach out to touch him, to soothe away what was haunting him so that his eyes would go back to being that laughing, daring shade of green.

“Jadyn,” he whispered.

He closed his eyes again, and when he bent down to lean his forehead against mine, I instinctively raised up my hands, just as Carley had done when Bret had kissed her in front of me, turning her world on end.

Dropping my purse, I touched his chest, his sweat-misted skin, his hard muscles. Lord, so hard.

Then, with a gentle move that made me bite my lower lip, he touched me, too, the feel of his fingertips over my heart reducing me to nothing.

And everything.

He had to feel my heart flailing around as it tried to get as close to him as possible. I was at the mercy of his fingertips as he caged them over every beat of my pulse.

He was emotional, and I could understand why. His business was coming to a head in New York, and he was going to have to step out of the shadows to deal with it. I couldn't imagine how that must feel—to confront all the forces that conspired against you in life. I'd done that on a small scale with Rex, but this was another thing altogether.

“Are you going back to New York?” I whispered.

“Yes.” He pressed his lips against my temple, stirring my hair. “Since Diamont made his move, I've been keeping my activities quiet, traveling around, talking to different shareholders, making them see that Diamont isn't what's best for The Reeves Group. I thought if I could just get the majority of stockholders and the other board members on my side, I could oust that son of a bitch. It looks like that could very well happen soon.”

So Noah was . . . leaving?

It shouldn't have affected me. “It sounds like your own family welcomed Diamont's takeover. Can you change their minds about him?”

“I've been hearing that my middle brother, Thomas, and one of my uncles regret taking up with Diamont, and it's going to require more than talking on the phone to persuade both of them that I've got power on my side, that I'm in the right about this.”

He kissed my temple, slow and so longingly that I could feel every emotion in him—sadness that his family hadn't backed him, loss. But the darkness was still there, and I flattened my hand against his chest, feeling the steady pounding in him.

He pressed over my heart, too, and it wasn't entirely sexual—there was an innocence in his gesture, as if he wanted to draw hope from me.

“Jade,” he said, low and tight.

Then his touch went from innocence to something more carnal, just that fast, his fingers tracing over my breast.

At first, I let him do it, holding my breath, wondering what would happen next. But when he cupped me, using his thumb to trace my nipple, I held back a moan. My fingers spidered over his chest and, without thinking, I scratched them down his damp skin.

He kissed his way from my temple to my ear, his breath coming short, as if he was trying his damnedest to control it.

There was a humming sound in my head, lulling me, making me weaker than ever, weaker than I'd been with any man.

“I'm going to miss you,” I said before I even knew I wanted to say it.

“You don't have to miss me.”

My mind scrambled to latch onto his meaning, but when he swiftly and surely bent to cup his hands under my bottom and bring me up against him, my brain turned to fuzz. Soft, swoony, pink fuzz that immediately started to melt like cotton candy.

I automatically wrapped my legs around him, my jean skirt riding up, my thighs bare against his sweaty waist. Just below me, I felt a hardness, and the realization of how
much
he would miss me made me plumped and swollen and hurting in such a good way.

I didn't care that my work clothes would be damp with him as I cradled his head and captured his mouth in a kiss that made my sight bang into a shower of different colors. That kiss was sloppy, needy, perfect in its imperfection as we grappled, wanting, having. I could feel him moving, walking a few steps until my back hit a wall and I nearly slid down it in boneless ecstasy.

My brain finally kicked in.
Way too fast . . . another mistake . . . stop now
 . . .

But my adrenaline was already streaming through me, drugging me, hopping me up like Noah was the only fix that could ever make me feel this way.

He pressed his forehead to mine again, panting, looking down at my body as his hands got busier. Almost desperately, he smoothed them up the sides of my waist, bunching up my shirt, bringing me to stand on my tiptoes with the delightful pressure. I raised my hands while he explored my ribs, then palmed my breasts, bringing them to sensual fullness as he massaged them. When he bent to kiss the top of one, then the other, I hugged my arms over my head, not knowing how I could take much more of this, even though I wanted him to keep going.

Rash, reckless,
I kept thinking, even as my pulse said,
More . . . more . . . more . . .

Then a thought knocked at my head, something about how he'd said I didn't have to miss him, but even that turned to fuzz again as he pressed his face between my breasts and nipped his way down my body, over my stomach, my belly.

I hauled in a jagged breath as he got to a knee, sliding his hands down the sides of my legs until he arrived at
my
knees, nestling his fingers against the backs of them. The light touch tickled, sending a zing to the sweet spot between my legs.

He looked up at me, his gaze still dark with an added flicker of madness in them. Or maybe it was brightness, lust for me . . .

I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure about
anything
when it came to Noah.

Keeping eye contact, he slid his fingertips from the backs of my knees to my thighs. I bucked, tightening my arms over my head.

He obviously took that as a green light, because he went higher, pushing up my skirt, bunching it around my hips.

I was pounding in that sweet spot now, pounding all over, feeling slick and vulnerable and so very ready, even as another fleeting thought tore through me—
what panties did I put on today? Please have them be pretty . . .

Then the other thoughts tried to crowd that one out.
Careful, make him stop . . .

My gathered skirt blocked my view of whatever I was wearing as he traced one hand down my thighs, ending up between my knees, where he gently nudged them apart.

Was he really going to do this? Was I really going to stand here and make this mistake with a guy who was leaving soon?

Apparently, yes, because when he kissed the bared top of one thigh, then the other, I let him. My legs were trembling as he urged them farther apart.

“Relax, Jade,” he said against my skin. “Let me make you feel good, too.”

“I . . .” What was I going to say?
No, stop this at once
?

Maybe I'd get around to something like that in a few minutes, but I couldn't summon the will for it while he gave the inside of one of my thighs a tiny bite that made me strain toward him, while he scraped his bottom teeth higher, forcing me onto my tiptoes again.

Nearly losing my balance, I rested my hand on his head. His hair was sweat-thickened, and I bunched my fingers in it.

I could feel him smile against my skin, feel the shape of his words on me.

“I want to make you feel so good.”

Then he pressed his face against me, there, in my center, and a strangled sound of passion curled in my throat.

He slowly nipped at me through my panties, and I began to slide down that wall.

Stop him . . . oh, Lord, don't stop . . .

His hands held me up, gripping my bottom, guiding one of my legs over his shoulder to open me farther.

Something he'd said before bumped through my head.
I told myself that today you were going to start opening up to me
. He'd said it yesterday morning, in front of that painting of Nyi Roro Kidul, the mermaid goddess. And as he forcefully pulled at my panties, making the seams pop until they were nothing but scrap material that he tossed away, I felt more open than ever, rapturously exposed, his breath touching the very center of me.

I gasped at the sensation then bit my lip, pounding, pounding, pounding for him.

“You're beautiful,” he whispered, “so beautiful, Jade.”

I was beating so hard that I thought I might explode, and it got even worse as he used his fingers to spread apart my folds. I could hear just how wet I was for him, and heat flushed through me.

“I gave you diamonds,” he said, “but you've got a pearl for me.”

Laughing softly, he pressed against my clitoris, and a sob pushed up and through me, not because I was sad, but because I actually did feel desired and beautiful and awake for the first time in months. I felt like I could finally shine for someone.

Someone who'd be leaving . . .

Then the sadness came, but it drizzled to nothing when Noah circled my clit with his thumb, making me move my hips with his every motion. At the same time, he nipped at my thigh, and the combination was too much.

It was like a storm was gathering in my core, debris being blown around, whisking against the lining of my belly, tickling with a growing force as
everything
began to circle, imitating his thumb on my clit, mocking it with churning fluidity.

On the backs of my eyelids, I could see petals, detached from their stems, sucked into this vortex that was taking me over.

When Noah dragged his mouth from my thigh to my center, licking his way up to my clit, a burst of colors electrified me, all those petals seared, burning their way down my body.

Red sparks. That was all I could see now as he kissed me with carnal devotion, using his tongue in ways I never imagined, laving me, sucking until all those sparks gathered together into an inferno, building, building, burning—

When I came, I pulled his hair, crying out, opening my eyes. My lips stayed parted as I winced with another inner shock, sliding the rest of the way down the wall, right into Noah's arms.

Right against his erection.

I must've been just as crazy—or crazed—as he was, because I cupped him, feeling him through the sweatpants, every hard bit of him.

“Don't be a tease,” he gritted.

“No teasing.”

And I meant it. Damn, did I ever, and before I knew it, I was lunging toward my purse. I carried condoms as a rule—it wasn't like I was a virgin—and I groped for them, then wrestled one out of its packaging.

Ready. So ready for this. Can't stop. Won't stop.

Noah took the rubber from me, and as I pulled his sweatpants down, he sheathed himself.

The pants never made it to the ground because I pulled him toward me, twining my legs around him and—

Oh
.

He'd driven inside me so easily, filling me, stretching me with his size. I surged up to him as we moved together. It was madness, slick and sweaty insanity that had my brain spinning with colors and light, dots that swirled and crashed together in an explosion that rocked me a second time.

Destroyed me.

Satiated me.

I couldn't breathe right, but I didn't care. If I died right now, I'd be happy, buzzing with him, still feeling his mouth on mine, still feeling him inside me as he thrust into me, faster, more forceful until he finally came.

In the aftermath, he smiled down at me, cradling me, pushing my hair back from my face. “No more waiting.”

“You got me.” I sounded like a drunk, so I tried not to slur anymore. “I didn't visit you, thinking that this would happen.”

“It was bound to happen sometime. I can't keep my hands off you.”

Or his mouth. And such a talented mouth.

Absently, I reached up, touching his face, letting my fingertips ease down until they rested against the scar on his neck. He gripped my hand as if he was afraid I'd ask how he got it.

Fair enough. “Now I'm really going to miss you.”

“I told you, you don't have to miss me.” He grinned in a hesitant way that surprised me, as if he wasn't sure he should go on. Him, Noah Reeves.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“What if I told you that I wanted you to take a trip with me?”

I heated up again, fumbling for words, not understanding. Maybe he'd given me brain damage with that orgasm. Maybe brain damage was my punishment for doing something that I shouldn't have done with him.

But I had done it, fast and hard and wonderfully. What had I expected—love?

I pushed back at the regret, the needs of my body that I never seemed able to fight off. When would I learn?

He laughed at my frown. “You don't believe me about a trip.”

“I'm not sure.”

“All I'm talking about is a short hop to New York.”

A beat of time hovered in the air. I still thought I hadn't heard Noah correctly. Had he just said . . . ?

“Jade, I'm telling you to get your bags packed. Take a few days off from work and school, and bring that pink chiffon dress. I don't want to leave you behind while I take care of some business.”

Now I was utterly confused, and I sat up, inching my skirt down over my panty-less nethers. “Stop joking around, Noah.”

He started to put himself together, too. “I'm serious. I need to go back to finally talk to my uncle Silas and my brother Thomas face-to-face now that I'm prepared, and I want you to be with me. I want you to . . .” He didn't seem to know where he was going from there, so he flashed a smile at me. The dimple was back, although it seemed buried. “Before you came over here today, I was at a low, but you make the world right, Jade. Just say yes. Make us both happy.”

My practical side barged into the room, stomping all over the post-orgasms Jadyn. “But I've got classes, papers coming up, tests, labs, work.”

“Surely you've got a few days of vacation coming,” he said. “I could even reserve the café for the next few days, closing it down without your boss losing money. Then they'd have to give you the days off.”

“Noah—”

“Just thinking outside the box.” He ran his thumb over my chin. “And don't tell me you've never skipped classes before.”

“I haven't.” Strange but true.

“Not even when you get sick?”

“I don't get sick.”

He paused, breaking into a bigger smile. My heart danced as if it'd just scored a touchdown. I liked making him happy, just as he'd liked doing it for me, but maybe that was the nurturer in me.

Always the nurturer.