Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (40 page)

Instead, it was beginning to look like he was going to have to do this the hard way and Jack was both the beginning of the ordeal
and
the toughest barrier to cross.

“She’s nice,” Jack said, vaguely gesturing with the bottle in his hand to Maggie, who was laughing with Cal and Ella. “You were right; Izzy
does
like her.”

“Of course she’s nice,” Noah said, frowning.

Jack rolled his eyes. “I love how you’ve conveniently forgotten that you haven’t always had stellar choice in girlfriends.
Especially
when you’re actually dating the sister of one of those particularly outstanding decisions.”

“Okay, so some of us don’t get it right the first time around,” Noah grumbled, taking a long drink of beer. Maybe this conversation would get improve if he had more alcohol in him.

“Just more evidence that I’m awesome,” Jack said, always so modest.

Noah finished his beer.

“But even though she’s nice, she’s not worth giving up everything you’ve worked towards,” Jack said, his tone turning decidedly more serious.

Noah couldn’t help it, he just gaped at his best friend. “Is that really what you think I’m doing?”

“You can’t blame me for wondering.”

“She’s not why I’m retiring. I’m retiring because I literally
can’t play
.”

“Yet,” Jack pointed out. “You can’t play
yet
. What if that concussion expert tells you something different? Are you still going to throw it all away?”

Noah had purposefully not let his mind go down that particular path. He’d done his thinking resolutely keeping to the assumption that he was unable to clear the concussion protocol.

“I don’t know,” he had to confess and he kind of hated Jack for even bringing it up.

“But,” Noah added, “it’s not
throwing it all away
. Maybe I want to have a life, a
better
life even, after baseball. Maybe I want to believe that the best years of my life haven’t already passed me by.”

Jack shot him a level, frank stare. “Awfully philosophical tonight, Foxy.”

Noah just shrugged. “When I came here, my life was kind of falling apart. I had to figure out how to put it together again.”

“With no baseball,” Jack stated incredulously, and Noah was getting really sick of reminding him that he couldn’t actually play. He could want it more than anything on earth and that wouldn’t make one bit of difference.

“No
professional
baseball,” Noah corrected. “I can play a pick-up game any day of the week. Go to the batting cages. I’ve even thought of buying my own pitching machine. I don’t have to give up baseball completely.”

But Jack still shook his head, obviously mystified, and Noah had to remind himself not to be disappointed that Jack hadn’t understood. Noah hadn’t expected him to, but it turned out to hurt all the same.

“It’ll just be so weird without you,” Jack finally said. It dawned on Noah then that maybe Jack’s refusal to accept Noah’s retirement was more about their friendship than about not playing baseball.

Noah clapped a hand on Jack’s back and gave him a reassuring smile. “You know you’ll never be able to get rid of me, right?”

“Of course. You’re practically a stalker,” Jack spluttered and Noah felt another bit of uncertainty evaporate.

“You’re so hot, I can’t help myself.” Noah grinned and Jack grinned back even brighter and that was how Maggie discovered them a few moments later.

“What’s so funny?” she asked brightly.

“Maggie,” Jack said, turning to her with a serious expression and even more serious tone of voice, “I’m afraid that Noah’s just confessed his true love for me. We’re eloping.”

Izzy joined them, rolling her eyes. “In your dreams, darling.”

Maggie giggled. “Are they always like this?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Izzy replied.

“I think it’s adorable,” Maggie said, all while gazing up at him like he was her very favorite person in the entire universe.

“It’s adorable that your boyfriend is jerking you around?” Jack yelped, shaking his head solemnly. “Maggie, I have to tell you I’m gravely concerned.”

“Trust me, I don’t want to be the one doing the jerking around,” Noah said with a knowing smirk. He glanced over at Maggie and watched with growing fascination as a blush crept up her neck, leaving her cheeks flushed and pink. She reached out and licked her lips with her tongue and Noah felt his jeans grow a little tighter.

For a second, he was afraid he’d made not only Maggie uncomfortable, but the entire group, because for a moment, there was a strained silence. Then Maggie looked straight at him, her eyes dark and intense, and said, “Trust me, you won’t be.”

The casual affection stretching between them was instantly supplanted by an electric desire that snapped into place practically like a tangible cord pulling him closer to Maggie. Noah’s jaw dropped and he realized suddenly how warm it had suddenly become in the room.

“Noah,” Maggie said again, and there was an undeniably fond, yet determined tone in her voice, “I think I need some help in the back.”

“Sure, sure, of course.” Noah knew he was tripping all over his words, and that Jack and Izzy were going to just watch as Maggie led him to the empty kitchen for whatever sinister and completely, utterly sexy plan she’d just come up with. Noah decided that he could give a fuck whatever his best friend and his girlfriend thought and even managed to shoot Jack a semi-triumphant glance as Maggie grabbed his arm and practically dragged him away.

But it wasn’t the kitchen Maggie dragged him to, but her office. She playfully shoved him in, closed the door and with a pointed, exaggerated movement, flipped the lock.

“Maggie,” Noah said and to his own surprise, her name came out all breathless. The Noah Fox who only had to look at a woman the right way to get her go home with him seemed like a fictitious memory from a barely remembered past. Maggie was a brand under his skin, her name echoing on every stuttering beat of his heart. He could never imagine wanting anyone else more than he wanted her right now, and from the knowing desire ripe in her gaze, he had a feeling she felt much the same.

She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, her slightly calloused fingertips rubbing the sensitive skin just underneath his hair line. He couldn’t help it; he groaned. It was practically disgusting how much he loved her touching him. Why hadn’t they been here, in this office, doing this hours ago? Any moment in time when he wasn’t touching Maggie or the other way around was a plain waste, in his eyes.

“What do you want?” she asked in a husky whisper right into the curve of his ear. Her tongue reached out and flicked at his lobe and he shuddered.

“You. I want you,” he could only mumble as her lips drifted down the curve of his cheek and she finally kissed him, hard and fast and passionate.

He let her think for a minute or two that she had the upper hand, then when she’d gone all pliant and soft in his arms, making greedy, needy noises into his mouth, Noah gripped her waist and lifted her, setting her on the desk. Her fingers tightened in his hair and her legs wrapped around his, pulling him in close, then closer.

Noah reached up under the hem of her sparkly tank top and sighed with pleasure as his fingers brushed across her soft skin. Maggie wiggled insistently, scooting nearer to the edge of the desk and it wasn’t until she tore her mouth from his, panting as she insisted, “get your shirt off,” that he even realized what she really wanted.

He hadn’t really thought with his brain in the five minutes since Maggie had locked them in her office, but if he’d considered it, he might have concluded she just wanted a hot, quick makeout session or maybe to fool around a little, but from the way she’d just unbuttoned her jeans and was sliding them down her legs as he just gaped at her, clearly he would have guessed wrong.

While he’d never been a saint himself and he certainly had never expected Maggie to be one either, it was blindingly, searingly hot that she couldn’t get enough of him. Couldn’t even wait until midnight struck soon and they could head home to their bed. And suddenly Noah couldn’t help her out of her clothes fast enough.

“So hot,” he mumbled into the bare curve of her shoulder, mouthing at the silky skin that stretched over her collarbone, as she reached over for the button on his jeans. “I love you like this.”

“I love you too,” she murmured back, voice breathy and high with excitement.

Noah also never would have guessed that those three little words would get him going, but as soon as she said them, he couldn’t imagine waiting even a
minute
longer to get his hands all over her. He reached for the hem of her panties and was about to slide them down to join her jeans on the floor when he heard the breathy little moans escaping her mouth. He glanced up and found himself absolutely mesmerized by the sight of Maggie, her head thrown back, blond hair falling around her face, eyes wild and desperate, and lips swollen and red from his own mouth. He never wanted to look away, wanted to memorize this image so that if he ever had to leave her, he’d have it forever.

“Noah,” Maggie pleaded, bucking her hips up and he slid his fingertips teasingly along the silky fabric of her panties. Her eyes seemingly went a whole other shade darker and his cock felt like it was actually throbbing in his boxers.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured, leaning down and kissing her again. He pulled her panties off and loved the way the muscles of her thighs tightened as he dipped one fingertip and then another into her wetness. He rubbed his thumb against her clit and swallowed her moans into his mouth.

“Wanted you all night. Every minute. Stop teasing.”

Noah quickly shucked his jeans and pulled his boxers down. Not exactly the most suave of moves, but he was too desperate to be in Maggie to really care what he might look like. It was maybe the first time he’d ever had sex with his socks on, and he decided he didn’t give a shit.

He leaned down and was just about to grab a condom from his wallet, when she reached out and stopped him. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’m on the pill. And I’m clean. Just. . .stop teasing,” she repeated insistently, her voice was raspy and tortured. She sounded just about like he felt.

He dropped the condom packet like it was on fire. “Clean too,” he said. He couldn’t help the moan that seemed dredged from his soul as he slid slowly into her. Maggie let out a shaky breath. “More,
more
,” she begged as her mouth latched onto his shoulder. Her teeth dug in and he couldn’t help but shudder and give her exactly what she asked for, tucking his hands under her amazingly curvy butt and lifting her up towards him.

It was so good and so crazy hot that they were doing this only a few feet away from a dozen of their closest friends and that probably most of those friends had seen them disappear in the first place. Noah had never considered himself particularly into exhibitionism, but he definitely loved it when he rocked hard into Maggie and she let out a long, drawn out moan that the partiers definitely could hear.

His long strokes turned hard and fast and desperate and Maggie bucked into him, chasing her own orgasm as he desperately tried to give it to her. When she shuddered and clenched around him, he lasted barely a moment after her, vision going fuzzy and blank as his own orgasms hit him like a freight train.

Maggie rested her head on his chest and let out a groan. He couldn’t see her face through the curtain of hair but he thought he felt her smile against him. “Wow,” she said. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

He couldn’t really believe it either, but next time Jack accused him of heading past the honeymoon stage too quickly, he was going to have a really great comeback. He wouldn’t give any details, just one long knowing smirk and a single comment of “New Year’s,” would probably do it.

“It was so great though,” Maggie continued and she actually giggled. “Really, really great.”

“No complaints from this end,” Noah said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head and refusing to be embarrassed when his heart stumbled at the scent of her coconut shampoo. “None whatsoever.”

“We should. . .” Maggie vaguely gestured to the clothes littering the desk and floor. “Clean up I guess.”

“Or not,” Noah said, gathering up tighter against him. “We could just stay here forever.”

“Forever’s a long time,” Maggie said, and he couldn’t help but hear the hesitancy in her tone. Not hesitancy at the length of time, Noah thought, but maybe at his own desire to commit to it—and he didn’t want her to have any doubts. Not about him. Not about them.

“Yeah,” he said, trying to make it casual. “But a long time’s a good thing, when it’s you.”

He was just about to lean down and tilt her head up so he could kiss her again when he was interrupted by a sudden cheer and the staccato popping of champagne corks.

“I guess it’s midnight,” Maggie giggled. “We seem to have missed it.”

“Nope,” Noah teased. “There were plenty of fireworks right here.”

It was well past midnight and the start of the New Year when Maggie and Noah finally walked back to her house through the darkened, silent streets. Shivering even under her heavy sweater, Maggie folded herself tighter against Noah.