Page 248
What if he really meant that? What if I’m selling him short?
Noah wraps his fingers around my arm. “Wait.”
“You lucky bastard,” Gilbert murmurs to Danson as he approaches the double glass doors. “Noah’s loss is your gain.”
“Absolutely,” Noah calls, wearing a plastic smile.
I barely hear them. My attention is too focused on his touch. He barely has a hand on me, and it burns. What the hell will I do if he kisses me, burst into flames?
“Better luck next time,” Danson jokes, pushing the heavy door wide.
Within moments, they’re all gone, leaving Noah and me alone in the conference room. I squirm under his intent stare, wishing he didn’t look so beautifully familiar and that I didn’t know how wonderfully pleasure-filled and full of feminine power he can make me feel. I look away. It would be so easy to touch him, confess my feelings… But is that wise?
I don’t know anymore.
Discreetly, I pull from his grip. “How are you?”
He lets me go without a fight. “It was a great presentation, Lauren.”
Noah sounds like a colleague. Nothing more. And I hate that professional note in his voice. It’s stupid and contrary, but I wish he hadn’t let me go so easily, that he’d gone caveman and demanded…something. Or that he told me one more time that he loves me. Even if it isn’t true, the words make my heart sing.
Yes, I’m being contrary, but I can’t help what I feel.
When I look at Noah again—really look—he appears exhausted, with dark-smudged and hollowed eyes. And, despite his professional voice, he looks horribly resigned.
Is he…upset about how things ended between us? Noah never mourns the end of a relationship; he just moves on. Most likely, I’m reading too much into his demeanor. Maybe something else is bothering him.
What if he really loves you? a pesky voice in my head asks.
“Thanks. I learned a lot about preparing and making these presentations from you.” It’s the truth, and I owe him a lot for my success today.
“You pulled this one off all by yourself.”
“I noticed that you didn’t participate in the group decision.”
He nods. “I understand that you need to complete this on your own, without my interference.”
He figured that out? And acted completely against his own instinct to make me happy? Wow. Why would he bother to curb his instincts, unless…
What if he actually does love you? There’s that little voice again.
“Thanks. I’m happy about the outcome.”
He nods, but pain laces his expression. “That’s all I ever wanted, for you to be happy.”
Really? Then why lie to me about his identity while he was buried deep inside my body? Why manipulate me? Why not just shoot straight?
After years in business, the strategizing comes naturally to him. Soul-baring honesty doesn’t.
Maybe he’s been telling the truth, that he simply didn’t know another way to make me see him as not just a boss or Tim’s buddy, but a man. A lover. Maybe he looks so unhappy now because he gambled his heart…and lost.
Maybe he really does love you.
The thought makes me tremble and my knees weak. My belly flutters, my breathing tightens. Oh, god. What if I made a mistake in turning him away…
I swallow. “Let’s just…leave it.”
“If that’s what you want.” His voice sounds like sandpaper on gravel.
