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“We’re not going. I cancelled it a few minutes ago.”
For some reason, a spark of irritation fizzed through her at his answer. She put her wine down. “I’m sitting right here, Noah. You could have asked me what I wanted before you cancelled it.”
His gaze narrowed on her face. “You have shadows under your eyes, and you’ve yawned three times in the last five minutes. At the very least you need to be awake for an experience like that. Otherwise it’s stupid and dangerous, and I don’t risk what’s mine.”
The possessive stamp in his voice rattled her further. “Be that as it may. I’d like a say in whatever plans you made on my behalf.”
“I want to take care of you?—”
“I can take care of myself!”
His gaze sharpened. “I get the feeling this isn’t about a cancelled trip. What’s really going on, Leia? And please do me the courtesy of not saying ‘nothing.’”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Great. Let’s hear it.”
“Last night… What you said?—”
“That you’re mine? You are.”
She swallowed. “I don’t… I’m not sure if I can be yours.”
His face froze into a taut mask, his eyes boring into her like lasers. “Why the hell not? It isn’t arrogance to believe that youwouldn’t be here doing what you’ve been doing with me if you weren’t free to be mine. You’re not a liar and you’re not into mind games. But I’ll ask you anyway. Are you fucking someone else back in Miami?”
“No!”
He visibly relaxed, but his eyes didn’t waver. “Do you plan to?”
She pressed her mouth together and shook her head.
“Vocalize, Leia. I need to hear the words.”
“Why?” she flung at him. A part of her recognized that she was picking a fight purely based on the overwhelming need to give in to what he wanted, what she’d begun to crave… Noah King and everything he had to give her. “You can have any woman you want, Noah. Why do you want me when you barely know anything about me?”
“I want you for the same reason you want me. For the same reason you let me tie you to the bench last night. We connect beyond the here and now. Beyond the fact that we’ve only known each other four days. I crave your surrender. You crave my control. I promised you the stars, and I intend to give it to you. You just need to be brave enough to take it.”
“My ghosts are very real, Noah.”
His fist clenched. “Those are fucking excuses.” His deep voice vibrated in the space between them. “I warned you when we met that I don’t do light. I never have. The one-night stands were different, but they were not light. You don’t get to walk away because you’re scared, Leia. So if you want out of this incredible thing we’ve created, you need to find a better deal-breaker besides your ghosts.”
She toyed with the rim of her glass, not wanting to hope, not wanting to contemplate what awaited her back in Miami. If she was daring to dream of the possibility of Noah in her future, there was a lot she’d have to tell him. “Even if I was selfishenough to ask you to accommodate all my baggage, what’s to stop you hating me if I can’t accommodate yours?”
His jaw flexed. “Explain.”
Her pulse jumped under the searing intensity of his stare. “From what I overheard of your conversation yesterday, Ashley is waiting for you in Miami,” she blurted. It was something she’d pushed to the back of her mind, not wanting it to taint the precious few days they had in their erotic bubble. Now it loomed large.
“My lawyers are taking care of it.”
“She doesn’t strike me as the type to let herself be handled.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she wants. One way or the other, shewillbe handled. She has no hold over me, Leia. Not anymore.”
“But she gets to you.”
His eyes swept down, then back up. “Yes, she does. It’s not easy to admit that she brought out traits in me that made me despise myself. But it’s over and done with. Now, do you have any other issues you want me to address, or can I take you back to bed and remind you why you won’t be walking away when we get back to Miami?”
He was angry. And aroused. But she caught the underlying vulnerability in his voice when he spoke of his ex. Sure, he’d layered it with thick anger, but it was there. Whatever number she’d done on him still festered beneath all the raw masculine alpha male posturing. She’d wounded him. And he hated the reminder.