Page 47 of Uprising

“Are you getting to the point of this?” I ask. Crossing my arms over my bare chest, I take a step further into the room.

“I always have a point, and it’s not my fault you can’t see it.” Noah snaps. His right hand curls into a fist against the granite top. The sharp rise and fall of his chest and the clench have me stopping in my tracks. He was on edge, which I expected, but he was speaking in riddles to me, and I couldn’t understand what he was trying to correlate a fictional movie to the present.

“You’re right. Then tell me, pretend I’m dumb and tell me what you’re talking about.”

Noah glares at me, his expression twisting with frustration and sheer desperation to keep control. His lips form into a thin line, his nostrils flaring as he thinks about all the words he wants to throw at me. My upper lip tips into a smirk only to die when a glimmer of betrayal crosses his eyes.

I step forward, wanting to reassure him that it’s okay when a single tear slips down his cheek.

“Don’t come near me!” Noah screams. He sucks in a sharp, furious breath and shakes his head as if he’s trying to get rid of the thoughts pouring into his head. “So fucking stupid,” he mutters.

“You’re not stupid,” I say softly.

“Yes, yes I am,” his voice breaks. His hand wipes at his face roughly, trying to scrub away the tears like it was a weakness. He fights against his natural body's defense. His body wants him to feel a certain way, but his mind is telling him it’s wrong.

Ignoring the warning bells going off in my head, I make my way over to Noah’s side. He presses his back against the island, refusing to look at me. He hates being seen like this, hates feeling weak. But the harder he fights against it, the more it spills over—ragged breaths, angry sniffles, and his eyes burn with emotions as he stares up at me.

“You know I think you’re one of the strongest people I’ve seen,” I mutter. Pressing my hands on either side of his hips, I lean in. “I think since the moment I saw you, I knew you were going to be a pain in my ass.”

Noah laughs weakly, more tears seeping from his eyes.

“You’ve killed people,” he whispers.

“I have, and I’ll kill again, especially if that means protecting you.”

“But why?”

“Why do I kill people, or why would I kill to protect you?”

Noah frowns at my questions, like he wasn’t prepared for me to ask him anything back.

“It was a job. I was good at it?—”

“How can someone just be good at killing?”

“I was dealt a shitty childhood; I became the monster instead of the prey. I took the power back and became something that people feared. It was something simple that turned into much more. A job, and then the world went to shit, and while I don’t get contracts to take people out anymore, I have the resources to survive out there.”

Noah swallows, my words hanging around us like a gunshot—loud, deafening, and impossible to ignore. He blinks, trying to gather his scrambled brain so he can process my words. His breath comes in a little too fast; his muscles tense as his adrenaline creeps in. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out he’s debating on his fight or flight instinct. Trying to see if he should be afraid of me. His life hangs on by a thread. I could kill him in a second where he stands, and it has nothing to do with the guns hanging on the walls or me snapping his neck.

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” I reminded him.

“How can you say that?”

“Because I never cared for those that I killed. They were a faceless thing to me.”

“Yeah, so?”

“And you’re all I see now, Noah. You consume my entire being. My existence has fused to yours, and I can’t break away. I see the way you breathe; your every moment plays on repeat to me. Your happiness swells in my chest; your pain makes my ribs hurt.” Placing my hand against his chest, I lean in further. “Your heartbeat might as well be mine. I only breathe because you do. Somewhere along the midst of being with you, I’ve forgotten where you end and I begin.”

Noah opens his mouth to say something; only he doesn’t have the words. The tears in his eyes have seemed to fade, leaving behind angry red splotches across his face. Moving my hand from his chest, I snake it over his collarbone and to the back of his neck. In a firm grip, Noah gasps, giving me perfect access, so before he can think twice about it, I lean down and press my lips against his.

CHAPTER28

Noah

Iwas kissing a killer.

No—akiller waskissing me.

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