And then someone was banging on the front door.
“Noah?” Beth's voice called from the door. “It's Beth. I need to talk to you.”
He groaned and sunk into the bed. I pouted; he shrugged.
“Tell a girl she has the day off, and all she wants to do is work,” he mumbled. Beth's knocking was incessant. There was no way we were going to be able to ignore her and get back to what we were doing. Noah made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat and sat up, swinging his legs off the bed. He stood, giving me a fantastic view of his na**d body, and picked his shorts up off the floor. I sighed as his perfect ass disappeared into the fabric. At least he didn't put on a shirt.
“I'll be right back.” He leaned over the bed and kissed me. I reached up, and made sure to show him exactly what he was coming back to. He made a low sound of masculine approval as he broke away and hurried to the front door.
“Beth, I told you,” he said, opening the door. “No business today.”
I slid out of bed, wrapping the sheet around my body and peeking out the bedroom door. I couldn't see Beth, but I had an excellent view of Noah's backside. I had plans for that backside... I wanted him out of those shorts and back in bed.
“The lawyers called, Noah. It's happening today. Now.” Beth sounded calm and professional, but I could see her words’ had a worrysome effect on Noah. He stiffened and ran a hand through his hair.
“Now?” he growled, his voice serious. I could only assume Beth nodded as he added, “I'll get dressed then.”
He closed the front door and turned to see me watching him. His eyes softened, and his shoulders dropped a little as he walked back to me. Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. It sounded like there would be storms this afternoon.
“I'm really sorry, Izzy,” he said quietly, pushing a lock of sun-bleached hair from my cheek. “I have to take care of this. It's very important.”
I sighed and looked longingly at the bed. So much for never leaving it. I turned back to face big blue eyes. He felt terrible about this. It was written all over his face. I touched his cheek. He had to be able to run his business from here if he wanted to stay on the island. I was willing to do just about anything to make that happen. I would have swum an internet cable back to the mainland if it made it possible for him to stay with me.
“I hate saying that,” he said with a sigh and another rake of his hand through his hair. I loved that gesture. It made his muscles pop in all the right places, and he didn't even know he was doing it. “I hate saying it, because it's not more important than you.”
I smiled. “You going to tell me what you do for a living?”
He frowned, confusion tightening his brows. “I thought I wasn't supposed to tell you until I was leaving?”
“Well, if you aren't leaving, then go do your job so you don't have to tell me.” I grinned at him. His face relaxed into a gentle smile. “I'll get to see you tomorrow.”
He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug, giving me a peck on the cheek. “And many days after that,” he whispered. A thrill went through me. I could go for many days.
When he let me go, I dropped the sheet, watching his pupils dilate as he took in the view of my body. Just because I was okay with him working didn't mean I wasn't going to show him what he was missing. His eyes followed me hungrily, the bulge in his pants telling me that he was enjoying the show. I bent over to pick up my swimsuit bottoms and wiggled my ass at him. He let out a quiet sound of pure longing.
“I'm just glad you have a job that you can do here,” I said, straightening up. His pants seemed like they were about to bust through the zipper. “I'm glad you don't have to leave.”
“Me too,” he murmured, his face awash with desire. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. “If I had time, I would show you just how glad.”
With that he dropped his shorts. I gasped, feeling my body react to the sight of him hard and ready to go. He winked and shook his head in a slow 'no' before walking to his closet and pulling out a suit. I pouted as he also took out a pair of boxers. Reluctantly, I put on my own bottoms as he dressed.
I gathered the rest of my things and then sat on the bed to watch as he got ready. The suit looked expensive and fit him like a glove. I still loved his na**d form better, but he looked damn fine in a suit. He held up two ties as if to ask me which one he should wear. One was blue and the other green. I stood and took the blue one, wrapping it around his neck and easily tying a double Windsor knot.
“Where'd you learn to do that?” he asked softly.
“In high school. My crush was in orchestra with me and could never get his right for concerts. It was the perfect excuse to get to touch him.” I smoothed the tie down his shirt. I liked having a reason to be near Noah. “It worked. I got a date out of it.”
“Lucky guy,” he whispered. I grinned up at him.
“You have no idea. I am the best tie-tyer around.” I didn't tell him that the guy had gone on to break my heart when he left for college. It didn’t matter so much now.
“You're definitely pretty good at it,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss me. “I should let you do all of my ties, too. Beth always messes them up.”
Our lips met, soft and sweet. This felt good, like it could become normal. I could get very used to tying his ties for him in the morning. I pressed into the kiss until Beth started knocking on the door again.
“I'll call you as soon as I can,” he promised, pulling back but not letting me go. “If I get this done early...”
I went up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “Don't worry about it. I'll help Brooke with some shark-tagging today. Maybe I'll even bring you dinner from Adele's when I'm done.”
His face lit up at the idea. “You are wonderful. Fantastic. Amazing.”
I gave him a gentle push toward the door. “Flatterer.”
He turned and grinned. “Is it flattery if it's true?”
“Noah? You ready?” Beth called through the door. I pushed him again.
“Go to work. I'll see you this evening,” I told him as I slipped on my sandals and followed him. His hand went to the knob, but he didn't open it. Instead he just turned and kissed me again.
“I love you,” he said simply as he straightened up and opened the door.
“Me too.” I stepped out, nearly running into a now very businesslike Beth. She had a full dress suit that made her look professional instead of like a pixie. He winked at me before taking a file from Beth's hands. I grinned at him one last time before turning to head up the path back to the beach. This wasn't quite the way I had been expecting the day to turn out, but as I played with my shark tooth necklace, I figured it was still a pretty damn good day.