Page 118 of Your Fault

“Then you would do it… If I went with you, you’d do it.”

She wasn’t asking, and to be honest, I hadn’t thought about it.

“I’m fine where I am, Noah. I like where I work, and I like the way my future looks.” I wasn’t elated about inheriting my father’s business because before that, I’d have to work for him for who knew how many years, but that was an insignificant detail compared to what it meant to be on the Leister company’s team.

I looked into Noah’s eyes and tried to decipher what was happening in her head.

“You’re not even going to ask me?”

I frowned. “You want to go to New York with me?”

“No.”

“Then…?” I replied, sighing with frustration and looking at the ceiling.

“I don’t want to go, obviously, because I just started college here. It’s barely been a year since I left Canada… But…if it’s really that important to you, Nicholas, then…I guess I’d be willing to do it for you.”

I looked down at her again. “You’d do that for me?” I asked, trying to see whether something in her face indicated she wasn’t telling the truth. But I could tell she was being sincere.

“Nicholas…I love you,” she whispered. “It doesn’t matter that we’re not doing well right now. If you asked me, and it was important to you, I’d say yes. I’d go anywhere with you, you know that…”

A wave of infinite love crested in the center of my chest rightwhere I had felt that gaping absence during the two weeks we’d been apart. Christ, that distance had ached!

Coming close to her, I wrapped a hand around her waist, almost pinching one of her ribs, and all I wanted her to know was how I would do everything, give everything, to be with her and make her happy.

She held her breath. I think I could even hear her heart beating faster.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

I brushed her hair aside, touching her neck. I wanted to smell her aroma, recall that essence unique to her and her alone.

I rubbed the tip of my nose on her chin and neck, inhaling and closing my eyes.

Her breathing sped up in time with mine. She grabbed my arm, and her whole body trembled.

“I miss you,” I said into her ear. “I’m so happy you want to go with me, but I can’t accept that job. Not yet. I want to stay here, and I know you do, too, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, okay?”

I didn’t wait for her to respond before kissing her on the throat. She moaned. Softly, I ran the tip of my tongue from her clavicle to her earlobe and bit down gently. Our bodies reacted in time with each other. I pulled away to observe her. Her excitement, her longing, were so evident that I had to stop myself from taking her on the spot.

“Have you had enough time?” I asked.

“I…I don’t know.”

I didn’t like that answer. Maybe I needed to remind her of how much she’d missed me.

“I’m not going to do anything you don’t want to do, my love,” I whispered, grabbing her around the waist. “I’ll just take it slow, and you can tell me to stop anytime.”

She said nothing, and I lifted her on the counter, delicately opening her legs and nestling between them.

I smiled, hoping to ease her mind because my gut told me she was nervous. I knew a lot had happened between us and that I hadn’t dealt with it well, especially over the past month. That’s why I had wanted to take those two weeks to understand her, to try to figure out what I was doing wrong.

I touched her face, rubbed those freckles that drove me mad, traced the line of her jaw, her thick lips… Noah’s breathing was speeding up; I could see that under the fabric of her dress. Normally I would have stripped her bare, taken her to the bedroom, touched all the places her clothing kept concealed.

But I wasn’t going to keep making the same mistakes. I was going to take it slow and be sure she was comfortable the whole time.

“I want to kiss you.”

She looked back at me in silence, but her eyes seemed to tell me she wouldn’t refuse, that she wanted it as badly as I did.