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Love wasn’t on my radar. Not in the slightest. I’d given up and resigned myself to the fact that I would be alone. Every date I went on seemed unimpressive.

There was nothing unimpressive about Noah.

After Brandon had come back, I’d been too busy trying to keep us both afloat to worry about things like dating and sex. Great job that I’d done on that front.

But it had led me here. Standing in the snow, being kissed by one of the most gorgeous men I’d ever met in real life.

Of course I was attracted to him. I had been the second I’d seen his picture on the website. Even when I was furious at him, I was attracted to him. This whole time, I’d thought I’d been imagining the chemistry, and he was just helping me.

Now I didn’t want to go inside that barn and face whatever was inside. I wanted to stay here and kiss Noah.

I shoved every last thought out of my head and leaned into him. Wrapped my arms around his neck so I could be closer. Tingling warmth and feelings I thought I’d buried spread from his lips all the way through me.

This was the best kiss I’d ever had.

There wasn’t even a question.

Neither one of us wanted to pull away. I felt it in the way his hands tightened and he pressed me harder against the car. I wished I didn’t need to breathe. When we broke apart, it felt like I’d run a marathon with the way I was trying to catch my breath.

Noah didn’t move away, simply tilted his forehead against mine and breathed with me.

“I thought—” Even talking was a struggle after that. “I thought you didn’t like me. Not like that.”

“Kate.” The roughness in his voice did things to my insides. “I’ve liked you since the first time we met.”

“Oh.”

“But to be clear, I was never helping you so that this would happen. It’s important to me that you know that. I would have helped you either way.”

Of course he would have. Because that’s who Noah was. He helped people who needed it, even if they didn’t deserve it. Like Brandon. “I know.”

“Is this all right?” he asked.

I didn’t speak. Instead, I lifted my mouth to his again. Noah took the hint. The first kiss had been soft and nearly soothing. An experiment.

This kiss?

This kiss was hot, hard, and hungry.

Noah’s hand slipped behind my neck and pulled me closer. Lips slipped over lips. The way his tongue danced with mine had my mind imagining things I couldn’t keep in my brain when I walked through those doors. Even though it was the last place I wanted to go now.

I couldn’t get enough.

“Now,” he growled, “you know when I say that I don’t want to let you go in there alone, it’s not only me being concerned about wanting to take these guys down. If you’re in there and something happens—”

“I’ll be okay.” Despite wanting to stay here and kiss him until the sun rose, the anxiety I’d felt earlier had disappeared with the touch of his lips. I didn’t care that it didn’t make sense. I could do this. “You’ll be in my ear the whole time.”

“I wish it were more than that.”

“It’s just a party,” I said with a shrug, taking on the confidence I was going to need inside. “Just some people. I’ll be fine. And as soon as I get what we need, you call in the cavalry and this will all be over.”

Noah took out his phone and glanced at it. “You have to go, or you’ll be late.”

But he didn’t step away. He kissed me one more time. Just as hot, but this was slow. Deliberate. And over way too soon. “An incentive,” he whispered.

“For what?”

He grinned. “For you to come back quickly.”