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Chapter Seven

Jade

Jade felt the hum of satisfaction radiating off Noah as she lay next to him.Close to a week ago when they’d met, she couldn’t fathom Noah being interested in getting to know her, much less being so open about the fact that he was her mate and seemed to be accepting of his new reality.

But she had spent the last few hours tracing every inch of his skin and still didn’t feel as if she knew him well enough.She savored the sounds she drew from his throat and whenever he moaned, she felt as though she’d been given a gift.

Noah, by nature, was an observer.He learned a lot about people by the way they acted, and if he silently stood apart from everyone, they would eventually forget he was there and give way to their true selves.So when he trained with the assassins, she thought of him as standoffish and uninterested in her, but he needed time to process what she might mean to him in his life.She understood perfectly, and as the only sound in the cave was the humming of the heaters and their deep breathing, she found herself more content than she’d ever been.

“What are you thinking about?”

Jade brought her head up and met his eyes.“I’m trying to figure you out, I suppose.I can understand you not wanting to get involved with more immortals, especially what happened after Sam, but today, you seemed to have…I don’t know, reconciled your feelings.”

Noah turned toward her, still cradling her pliable body against his.When he caught her gaze, she noticed his eyes sparked with something unidentifiable.

“My judging you and the assassins before I met them was a mistake.But the way everyone welcomed me and talking to them made me understand exactly how wrong I was.I know you kept your distance because you didn’t want to pressure me into anything.It gave me time to think about the feelings you stirred in me from the moment we met.”

Jade opened her mouth to ask the question she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to, but Noah beat her to the chase.

“And no, the feelings are partly because of how beautiful you are.Although you’re a highly trained and deadly assassin, your concentration on being the best in everything you do, whether it be with your family, or with Silas, or being the deadliest assassin out of the group—you do it with your whole heart.You put others before yourself and even though I hurt your feelings, you never held it against me.”

She was stunned silent and he cupped the back of her head and kissed her.

“I’m curious to see you with your red hair.”Noah moaned into her mouth as he deepened the kiss, until she shook in his arms from the pent-up desire.“Can I make you feel good?”

Jade breathed, “Yes.”

Noah rolled Jade on her back and when he pressed his body down on hers, she sucked in a breath as her nerve endings exploded with sensations.She wrapped her arms around his torso and begged him silently for more.

He gripped her wrists in one hand and moved her arms above her head as he pressed his mouth against her neck and nipped the sensitive skin around her ear.Her hips jerked up and she felt his renewed hardness against her thigh and moaned aloud.

The sound spurred Noah in movement and he kissed down her neck.

She arched toward Noah’s mouth, wanting to feel his mouth on her breasts for the first time in her life.They ached for his touch and when he drew one nipple into his mouth, flicking his tongue against the hardened nub, the keening sound that left her mouth sounded so foreign, it took her several moments to realize it came from her.Instead of stopping, he continued between the two until she could feel her body shaking and she clutched Noah close.

“Yes, I love being able to touch you.”

Noah’s mouth trailed down her stomach and when he kissed around her belly button, she tensed.

“What…what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to make you come in my mouth using my tongue and fingers, and after, if you want, I’m going to make love to you.”

Everything froze in that one moment.She opened her mouth to beg for exactly that but no sound came out.Noah, misunderstanding her silence, surged back up and cupped her face.

“It’s okay, baby.We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

Jade shook her head and forced herself to speak.“No, no, I want that, what you said, but I think my brain stumbled over itself when I tried to picture it in my head.”

Noah chuckled and buried his face into her neck.“I love your innocent reactions.They are an unbelievable turn-on.”

“Everything you do makes my body vibrate.”

“Then you’re going to love this.”

Noah kissed down her body again, but this time, he settled in between her thighs.“Let me know if you want me to stop.”

She barely nodded when his head bent down and he licked a small swath of skin on her inner thigh.She sucked in a deep breath and waited for more.He licked the other one and without further teasing, pressed his lips around her clit and gently pulled it into his mouth.And if that wasn’t devastating enough, he swirled his tongue around it in a way that had her bucking her hips and moaning his name.