It was easy to kiss him back. After all, gravity was in Noah’s favor. All she needed to do was relax—relax into him. It was all too easy.
He didn’t grope. He didn’t come on too strong or too fast. It was all seamless and smooth. She realized it took a lot of skill to make things seem so natural.
She was barely aware of his fingers slipping up her stockinged thigh, raising her skirt in the process, until his hand slid between her legs and made contact with the spot that was already hot and wet and wanting him.
She felt his touch—light, feathery and quick—and tensed against it. They really shouldn’t be doing this.
Still, he was evoking a response from her. She moaned, pressing into his hand. Being with Noah felt delicious, wicked and, yes, forbidden.
“Let go, Kayla,” he breathed into her ear. “Let go.”
Yes. The whisper of his breath in her ear was the last push that led to her unraveling. She came then, responding to the sure touch of his fingers at her center, the tension of the evening rolling away from her, leaving her sapped and languid.
Slumped against him, she let out a shaky breath, surprised to find tears pricking her eyes, her head relaxing on the curve of his shoulder.
He stroked her back, not saying anything. At some point he caressed her hair, moving the sheet of it back to uncover her face.
She found it all very soothing—tender, really, which was the last emotion that she would have expected to experience with Noah.
“All right, now?” he said, his voice deep, and she felt his question as it rumbled up from his chest.
“Yes,” she said quietly. And yet, she’d never been less all right in her life. A lot of things that she’d accepted as fixtures in her life had come unstuck tonight, and there was no putting them back into place.
Over the next few days, Kayla had a lot of time to ponder what had almost happened in her apartment on Saturday night and what, in fact, had.
Noah had taken down her defenses and had had a glimpse of what lay behind them, and there was no undoing that. He’d just been so persistent, but she couldn’t seem to find it in her to get mad about it.
She’d also seen a side of him that, she was sure, was rarely on public display. He’d been amazingly kind and concerned when he’d seen her reaction to Bentley Mathison.
The only problem was that along with the newly found peace that had descended on her relationship with Noah came the realization she’d gotten intimately involved with the subject for her news story. A definite nono in journalism.
And, she couldn’t let herself forget, Noah was well skilled at seduction, just like Bentley Mathison had been twenty-eight years ago.
Therefore, there was no doubt in her mind, as she followed Noah around Whittaker Enterprises later that week, that she had to lay down the law: no kissing, no sexual touching and, above all, no orgasms. Just thinking about how she’d responded to him on Saturday night caused her to heat.
She jotted notes as Noah kept up a running monologue about nanotechnology, among other things, as they strolled the halls, occasionally stopping to talk to a team leader or other tech employee. The conversations were sprinkled with references to proton-powered molecular biomotors, zero-dimensional objects, quantum computing and entangled particles.
Finally Noah stopped and slanted her a look. “Are you getting all this?”
She looked up from her scribbling. “Yes.”
“Great.” He looked at his watch. “It’s already after six. Want to catch some dinner?”
She took a deep breath. She had to do this. “Sorry. I can’t.”
“How about tomorrow night then?”
She shook her head.
Following him around today had been doing fluttery things to her pulse, not to mention making her all nervous and quivery. Being so close to him now, looking into his deep green eyes, she felt the full force of his compelling charisma, the type of charisma shared by the best sports stars and that sent their fans into paroxysms of screaming worshipfulness.
Plus, now that she’d experienced his warm and caring side the other night, she’d just lost her best defense against him. But resist him, she had to.
“Okay,” he said easily, “what about the night after next?”
She took another fortifying breath. “Noah, we—I can’t. It would be wrong. I’m here to do a story about Whittaker Enterprises. I can’t compromise that. Thank you for being so supportive when I needed a shoulder to lean on after the charity benefit on Saturday night, but what happened afterward…”
“Shouldn’t have?”
“Right.” This was so hard, especially since she wanted him like crazy, and even though she was crazy for wanting him.
He took his time answering, shoving his hands into his pockets. “You should know I don’t give up easily. Saturday night something started between us. I don’t know about you but I vote for doing some more exploring.”
She experienced a little thrill at his words despite herself. Stop it, she warned herself. Aloud, she said, “You promised you’d cooperate for this story.”
He smiled wolfishly and leaned down toward her. “Yeah, but I didn’t promise not to pursue you.”
Suddenly she felt as if she’d been caught in a Venus flytrap. From what she’d already seen, Noah’s seduction skills were well honed. And she was weak. Weak.
He searched her face, then sighed and straightened. “How much more time did I promise you for this story?”
“Two weeks.”
“Okay, you’ve got them, but after that, sweetheart—” he gave her an intense look “—the gloves come off. You’ve got two more weeks to finish this story. After that, I’m coming after you.”
She should have responded that he could pursue all he wanted—she had no intention of giving in—but the words wouldn’t come. Weak. Weak. All she managed to say was a lame “But people will think we were involved while I was writing this story, despite all our denials up until now. It’ll undermine everything.”
He took a step forward and rested his hands on the cubicle wall behind her so that she was trapped between his outstretched arms. Fortunately, it was after regular business hours and most of the staff had already departed.
“Let people think what they want,” he said, gazing into her eyes. “I got used to ignoring most of what people say a long time ago.”
“But—”
He ducked in for a quick kiss. “But nothing. Are you going to deny you’re attracted to me?”