Page 19 of Bond Strength

The scent that belonged purely to Noah seeped into me and woke up my senses. My cock grew a little harder in response. While Noah was different from my normal stimulus—women—I couldn’t say I had a fair sample study on men. I’d only ever gone on dates or hooked up with women, so there was a high chance I’d been missing out on an untapped market. I shifted, brushing against his leg. Sparks exploded through me.

“Okay, okay,” Noah said, his voice a little strained. “Let’s go get some towels.”

He unwrapped himself from me, which I hated at once. The loss of comfort was stark, and I opened my mouth but closed it again, the words simmering under the surface. Noah strode toward the steps, the beam from the flashlight bobbing. I started after him as if I’d snapped out of a stupor.

This was Noah Langston, not some stranger. The guy who’d gotten weird on me in high school, who was in such high demand that he always got pulled in a thousand different directions. However, a prickling feeling pierced through me as if I had missed a piece of the puzzle. Which wasn’t uncommon for me, albeit no less irritating.

I ascended, the steps creaking, and the trickling of water pouring into my basement set my nerves on edge again. Seeing the dripping wet charger I’d worked ages on delivered a sharp shard through my chest.

Right, my dreams were suffering a major setback. That was enough to make my cock wilt.

I swallowed hard and continued to my first-floor bathroom. The flashlight beam sliced through the murky dark. Judging by the shuffle and banging of doors, Noah had already found it, and when I looped around the door, he was pulling out towels from the closet.

“Grab a stack,” he said, offering a few over as the beams from the flashlight traveled back and forth with the movement. Outside, the storm still raged, a combination of the boom of thunder and the flash of lighting, and I hoped with all my might that no more trees would be dropping. At least, the few in the backyard wouldn’t hit anything detrimental.

Not like the massive one keeping us from leaving my house.

Which meant Noah was stuck here with me until someone managed to remove the tree. I licked my lower lip, unsure how to feel about that.

I managed to grunt, grabbing the towels and pivoting on my heel to head back down to the basement. My mind reeled as if it kept skipping over a step in a process, rewinding until I figured it out.

Seeping wetness leaked onto the concrete floors of my basement. A shot of adrenaline coursed through me, and I swept over at once, dropping towels to try to soak up some of the mess. Noah had moved my charger to the table, but the delicate mechanics wouldn’t be easily fixable after a drowning like that.

Noah’s footsteps alerted me of his arrival, a thump, thump, thump that matched the erratic beat of my heart.

Another towel was dropped onto the puddle, drawing up more of the liquid.

“I grabbed a bucket too,” he said, “so we can wring out the water and keep sopping up what we need to.”

“Mmm.” I pulled up one of my towels and did like he suggested, words still difficult. The monotonous movements and work steadied me, and we both lapsed into quiet as we maneuvered around each other to clear up the flooding. Even though the floor still glistened when we finished, the rain wasn’t at a roaranymore, so unless the storm intensified again, we should be good. The bucket was almost full from the water we’d gathered from the floor.

I still cursed myself a thousand times over for leaving the charger on the floor.

“Want to head up to where there’s some outside light?” Noah grabbed the bucket by the handle and lifted it as if it weighed nothing.

“Most definitely.” I followed him up the stairs and to the kitchen, where he dumped the water in the sink. Then we made our way to the living room.

The idea of lying on the couch with him, his arms wrapped around me, popped into my brain, and fuck, I wanted that. Instead, we both plunked into seats beside each other.

He glanced my way, and our gazes locked.

“We’ve dodged around it for over a decade, Dec,” he said. “What changed between us? Why don’t we hang out anymore?”

Well, that was one way to step on a minefield.

Chapter eight

Noah

My heart lodged in my throat.

I’d gone and done it. Tossed out the question that had plagued me for so long. However, we were trapped in Declan’s house, and there was nowhere for us to retreat. I’d never get a better chance than this of finding out the truth.

Declan stared at me, his mouth open. Fuck. We were finally getting along better, finally talking again, and I’d tossed the question out there that could destroy every subtle win between us over the past few weeks.

I squeezed my nape and ducked my head. “If you don’t want to answer—”

“Sorry, the question just threw me. You ask what changed—well, you did.”

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