Page 85 of Before We Fell

I was halfway through the neatly mulched path Noah had done weeks ago when a shadow fell in front of me.

Instantly, my heart sped up. “What are you doing here?” I asked Noah. He stood at the entrance to the path on his side.

“Needed a minute alone with you first.”

“Oh.”

He ate up the space between us in quick, long strides, and then his hands were at my cheeks. His mouth pressed to mine, and his tongue easily sliding inside. My hands went to his hips, gripping the muscle at his sides, I could feel beneath his long sleeve henley. And then I succumbed as he stepped forward, pushing me backward until my back was against a tree. The tree bark scraped against my sweater, but it was the pressure and weight of Noah pushing into me at the front that made me moan.

Beauty. He was pure beauty I’d never before experienced and never wanted to lose.

“Missed you last night,” he said, pulling back, ending the kiss slowly. “My bed was too cold.”

I grinned against his mouth. “So was mine. And too empty.”

“Shit.” His forehead hit mine, and he exhaled. “What are you doing to me, Lauren? I can’t even go a day without missing the hell out of you.”

“I know.” I felt the same exact way. But this was the first time he’d intimated how much he cared for me. And God, my pounding heart reveled in it, right down to the thumping at my needy core. His scent, the fresh air and smell of pine in the air. His warm breath. The thickness of him pressing against me.

I wanted to do crazy things. Wildly inappropriate things in a small hidden wooden path outside.

“Lauren!”

Riley’s voice cut through the thoughts fogging my brain and common sense. Noah pulled back, groaning into my shoulder.

“Go on ahead. I need a minute.”

To check that he was telling the truth, my hand slid down the front of him, brushing over the evidence of his honesty.

“Woman.”

“Later.” I turned and called out to Riley who was pirouetting all over the back patio. “Coming, sweetie!”

Noah playfully bit down on my shoulder and sent shockwaves rioting through my veins. “Yeah, you’ll be coming later.”

“Shush.” I slapped his arm and pushed him back, scooting around him and finished dashing through the path. At the last second, two strong arms wrapped around me, and flung me into the air. “Eek!”

I was swiveled in the air, and came back down, cradled in Noah’s arms. “Hey, Squirt. Look who I found?”

Riley stopped mid-spin and planted her hands on her tutu-covered hips. “Candy time!”

She threw her arms into the air, waved them wildly, and ran into the house.

Noah set me on my feet and tangled our fingers together.

“Her hair,” I said, grinning up at him. It hadn’t been wild and wavy like the rest of her. It was set into a perfect bun on the top of her head, like a regular ballerina.

He squeezed my hand, smiled down at me. “YouTube. Riley found a bunch of hairstyle videos and has forced me to watch them. Took me an entire week to figure it out.”

My feet rooted to the ground and I tugged him to an abrupt halt.

His expression softened as he stopped, looking at me over his shoulder.

I love you.It wasn’t the bun. It was that he took the time to make her costume perfect. It was that he would do anything for his niece. Give up his career, his life. Give up everything he knew and loved in order to do what was best for someone else.

It was his playfulness, even if done in a bossy way.

It was everything about him.

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