Page 26 of If The Fates Allow
And she must have dozed off because the next thing Willa knew, she was in yet another dream with Noah. This time, they were in the forest. Hidden from the world like the mill worker and his sweetheart. With her back against an old oak tree, Noah’s lips ravaged hers while his hand made its way up her skirt.
It had been deliciously wicked, not at all proper, and absolutely everything Willa wanted to experience. But she wanted more—so much more.
She just wasn’t surewhat exactly.
The heavy ache that always followed these Noah-filled dreams settled in her bones. Crawling around in the very marrow, making demands that she could never fulfill.
The dream over, Willa stretched with a wide yawn. Her waking consciousness slowly rose to greet life again, and as it did, a keen sense of being watched sent a warning down her spine.
Popping one eye open, a second quickly followed, both taking in the sight of Noah sitting directly across from her in the only other chair on the lower level. He wore his usual white shirt, his suspenders showing since he must have left his jacket somewhere. The dark wool pants he wore were blotchy from the rain, while his hair was more than a littlesoaked and brushed back from those hypnotic blue eyes with which he studied her. Behind him, the pitter-patter of rain against the glass wall had lessened substantially compared to when she first settled down to read.
“You look quite peaceful when you sleep.”
Lifting herself into a sitting position, Willa patted the bun atop her head to ensure it had remained properly intact. It had, but at the first touch, the shell black rubber comb came loose, and her hair fell in a cascade across her shoulders. The small smile on Noah’s lips faltered, and she blushed—truly blushed—thinking she must look a sight.
“My apologies,” Noah murmured. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Willa swung her legs to the side of the chaise lounge, unsettling the cats and accidentally knocking her book onto the brick floor. She and Noah swept down simultaneously to pick up the tome, nearly colliding with one another in the process.
And with him crouched low and her barely hanging off the settee, they froze, each with a hand on the book.
“I want you to walk with me,” Noah whispered, his throat bobbing as he worked through whatever was going on in his head. “When the rain stops.”
“You know my lungs don’t do well in moist air,” she whispered in return. “I can’t go out in the rain.”
Noah released his grip on the book, but not before his index finger slid delicately down hers. The touch was simple, an accident perhaps, but that didn’t stop the rush of its effects on her body. Suddenly, she was back in the forest of her dreams, allowing this man to have her however he wanted.
“What did I tell you at The Gathering?” His whispering deepened to an almost sinful level, and Willa fought a sigh. She was getting to be as bad as Lucy. “With me, you can do anything. I’ll never allow you to come to harm and will always judge every situation accordingly. You’re what’s important, Willa.”
Willa snapped up to sitting, almost smacking Noah’s perfectly proportioned face with her forehead. “Th-the rain will probably fa-all until dusk.”
Was she stuttering?
“A-and I can’t go out at night.” Shewasstuttering, and for some reason, her mouth thought it a good idea to continue talking. “We can go another day.”
“Why can’t you go out at night?”
She really had no idea. Alone in the dark with Noah sounded like a perfectly solid plan. “My mother.”
The threat of Margaret Fairweather would have been enough to give any sane man pause, but too bad for her, Noah Anderson decided to prove he was indeed not sane.
“You’re a grown woman.” He straightened to settle back in his chair. “Besides, I need to speak with you in private.”
“About?”
“Private things.” He studied her for a moment. “This house has ears, and I do not wish for what I have to say to be known.”
Willa didn’t need to turn and look. The warning was there. Bonnie must be lingering in the doorway.
“It could take hours for the rain to stop.”
He gave an arrogant shrug. “It won’t.”
And it would seem that even God Almighty wasn’t immune to Noah Anderson’s charm. Not but a second passed, and the storm abruptly ended. There was no tapering off, just a complete halt as if commanded.
Noah stood and held out his hand. “Shall we?”
Willa gasped as the horse turned unexpectedly.
