She sat at the foot of the bed when he exited the bathroom following his shower. His sleep pants at his hips, his chest bare.
He looked at her curiously. “You okay?” he asked as he stepped into her room from the hall.
“Now will you come back to our bed Noah?”
“Eden, look, what happened –“
She stood up abruptly. “Don’t!” she warned. “Don’t you dare say it shouldn’t have happened. Or I wasn’t ready.” She hastily wiped the tear that slid down her cheek. “I’m not some china doll.”
Here was Eden. Her determination shining brightly. The ironic part about it was she was now arguing the completely opposite argument she used to. Instead of arguing for him to not get his hopes up that a little sex was going to make things right, she was arguing…what?
“I wanted you Noah,” she said softly. “And, don’t you dare say you didn’t want me.”
He stood before her, his hands on her shoulders to hold her at arm’s length. “I want you, Eden,” he softly confessed as his eyes gazed into hers. “I just don’t know the rules of the game.”
He saw the hurt fill her eyes. “You think I’m playing a game?” she asked him.
He released his hold on her and paced a little. “I mean the whole amnesia thing. Eden, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” I know what I should do. Stay away from you until your memories return and we can figure all of this out.
“Why not just not think?” she asked. “I don’t know what to do either, Noah. But, I don’t want to be in this limbo anymore.”
Limbo. There was a good word, he thought. How long would they be there until her memories came crashing in around him?
She could see how conflicted he was. She walked over to him and placed her hand on his arm. “Noah, what’s wrong with me?” His confusion could be seen in his eyes. “Why don’t you want to be with me?” she further probed.
He pulled from her light hold. “It isn’t that I don’t want to be with you,” he tried to explain.
“Noah, you said it had never been like that with us before. Why?”
Oh great. How did he explain this?
“You were different. Before,” he finally told her.
“How?”
This Eden was too inquisitive for his own good. The Eden before the accident didn’t give a rip how he felt about anything. This one forced him to face his feelings.
She watched as he went through his thought process.
“Don’t give me broad terms Noah,” she warned. “I want to know.”
No you don’t.
As if reading his mind, her eyes told him yes, I do.
Live for today, Jake’s words repeated in his mind.
Noah took the few steps needed to be in front of her. His hands back on her shoulders, his eyes looking in hers, he told her, “You were,” he paused. Then, he sharply pulled free and jammed his hands into his hair. “Different!”
She couldn’t understand why this was so difficult for him. What on earth could have been so different he couldn’t tell her?
She walked to stand before him. Her eyes searching his. She placed her hands flat on his bare chest, and she felt that pull again. She felt his heart rate rise as his eyes looked into hers.
Slowly her hands slid up his chest. Her bottom lip between her teeth. “Noah, am I…” she chewed her lip a second, “inadequate?”
He was taken back by her question. “No!” He couldn’t go through that again. There was absolutely nothing inadequate about her. Not in the beginning and sure as hell not now. Tonight she’d been the woman he’d only dreamed his Eden would become.
“I don’t understand,” her voice soft. “Even now, all I can think about is your mouth and hands on me.”
He just looked at her. She seriously didn’t just say what he thought she did.
Her hands went to the back of his head and pulled him in for a soft kiss as she rose on tip toes. He didn’t hesitate when she wanted passage and her tongue slipped inside. Softly exploring, tasting.
His hands went to her waist for a moment before caressing to her back.
The feel of his hands on her flesh sent a sensation through her. She lifted her lips from his. “Yes, Noah,” she sighed. “I love your touch.”
They kissed a moment longer before he snuggled her close. “This Eden,” his voice a soft whisper. “This is what’s different.”
Her head spun from his delicate kisses at her neck and shoulder. He was intoxicating.
“What Noah,” she whispered back, returning feather light kisses of her own to his chest. “Tell me, what’s different?”
She was like a drug. An addiction. She had a way of getting through she hadn’t possessed before. How was that possible?
He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to experience these new feelings. New sensations. To overdose on this new Eden and shore up all of it.
He pulled back and looked at her. “Eden, what happened downstairs shouldn’t…”
“Don’t say it,” she softly warned again.
“Shouldn’t have happened – the way it did.”
“I don’t understand,” she replied in a whisper.
Her breath caught as he slid his hand along the nape of her neck. “You okay?” he asked, taking his hand back. It was possible she’d hurt her head or something with their excursion in the kitchen.
“I love when you do that,” she replied.
A soft smile lit his face as he repeated the action. She closed her eyes at the sensations flowing through her from the motion.
“Eden,” he whispered before giving her lips a butterfly kiss. “The first time should not have been in the kitchen.”
Her head fell back, giving him better access to her neck and throat. “I don’t believe I was complaining,” she answered.
“It still shouldn’t have been.”
“Then how should it have been?” she huskily asked.
Ignoring every lecture he’d given himself in the shower, “Let me show you,” he answered, burrowing his hands in her hair, angling her head to the best advantage for the deepest kiss possible.
Randi had been pouring over files for hours. The entire office was dark as all the staff had left for the weekend. Her eyes burned from exhaustion. She leaned back in her chair and rested her eyes.
Todd Michaels is the billionaire playboy of the Michaels family of Austin, Texas. For almost two decades, he’s successfully run the Midwest branch of his family’s business when he unexpectedly encounters Samantha “Sam” Winslow, a relentless, surprisingly astute up and comer in Minnesota, who’s hell bent on one upping Todd.