Wildflower (Colors #4) (17 page)

“Oh God, Noah,” she gasped, her eyes going wide at my shocking admission, but I wasn’t done.

“I managed to graduate by the skin of my teeth after I lost my scholarship. My parents were
pissed
they had to shell out the cash for the rest of my education, but I worked my ass off to pull myself out of the hole I’d dug, and I paid them back. I moved back here all alone. My folks were already in Florida by then. I had no family, the few friends I had knew exactly what I’d done to lose you, so saying it wasn’t easy is the fuckin’
definition
of an understatement. But you wanna know why I did it?”

“Please, stop,” she pleaded with me on a whisper. Her bright eyes were shining with tears, the sight of them cutting into me like a white-hot blade. But I had to get it out. I had to lay everything out there.

“Because this was the last place I had you,” I told her, my voice going softer. “Because I kept telling myself that maybe one day you’d come back. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I wanted to be here. I
needed
to be here, because this town is the only place I’ve been able to feel close to you for over five years.”

“Stop,” she breathed.

“You know why I push you, Harlow?” She shook her head frantically, her eyes squeezed closed tightly. “Because you’re the love of my life, wildflower. You were then, and you are now. Always will be. There’s nothing that could ever change that.”

I had barely gotten the last word out before she launched herself at me, her arms going around my neck, her legs around my waist, as she held on with a vise-like grip. And the instant her lips smashed against mine, I lost what little rational thought I had left.

I didn’t think, I just acted. My body reacted to Noah’s impassioned speech of its own accord and before I knew it, I was flying into his arms and taking his lips in a brutal kiss, drinking in the groan and grunt that came from deep in his chest.

It was fierce and hungry, clashing teeth and tongues battling for dominance. It was passionate and addictive… and one hundred percent
us
.

Noah growled down my throat as my back connected hard with the cool surface of a wall. I vaguely heard the sounds of pictures falling and glass breaking, but neither of us disengaged.

My hands were everywhere, frantically roaming across as much of Noah as I could reach, wanting to touch him everywhere all at once. His lips left mine. My whimper at the loss of them quickly turned into a moan as he trailed tiny biting kisses along the length of my throat.

“Oh, God,” I gasped, my hips rocking against the rock-hard erection pressing through his pants, causing a deep growl to vibrate up Noah’s chest.

His head lifted, his lips brushing against my ear as his breath tickled my skin. “I still remember exactly what you taste like,” his voice rumbled as he pressed his clothed cock against me even harder. “I remember what you smell like, what you sound like, what you fucking
look
like when you come around me.”

“Noah…” my voice came out in a choked beg as he continued to move, stoking a fire deep in my belly.

He cupped my ass in one hand, holding me firmly to the wall as his free hand trailed up my side, brushing against the swell of my breast before coming up to wrap firmly in my hair.

“Never forgot, baby,” he said against my lips, twisting my head to get it at just the right angle for him to devour my mouth like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

That pressure in my belly continued to grow, sending jolts of electricity straight between my thighs. “Oh, God… I need…” I needed what? At that very moment, I was so overwhelmed by
everything
Noah was doing to me, I couldn’t figure out what I needed.

“Know what you need, wildflower,” he grunted. “You want me to give it to you?”

I did.

I
so
did.

“Yes,” I panted deliriously. “
Please
.”

That was all it took.

Noah dropped me to my feet just long enough to whip all clothing from my body. I was naked in a matter of seconds. It had to have been some sort of land-speed record. The instant my panties hit the floor, I was back up, legs wrapped tightly around his waist, back thrown against the wall.

Noah’s hand worked between us as he freed his thick cock from the confines of his pants. Just the sight of it was enough to render me speechless. I remembered everything about our time together as well. And
that
had definitely gotten bigger.

“Noah, hurry,” I pleaded.

With one powerful thrust, Noah entered me, stretching me fuller than I’d ever been before. My head flew back, hitting drywall as I cried out loudly in a sweet combination of pleasure and pain. It had been so long, and he was so big, it hurt a lot more than I’d expected.

“Jesus
fuckin
g Christ,” he groaned between clenched teeth. His warm amber eyes held mine as he pulled out and pushed back in. I watched in fascination as his pupils dilated and his gaze went glassy. “So tight, baby. Shit. I don’t know how long I’ll last.”

With each thrust of Noah’s hips, the pain lessened and something inside me twisted tighter and tighter, eagerly waiting to snap and send me spinning out of control.

“Harder,” I coaxed, doing my best to move against him, meeting him stroke for stroke. “Faster, honey. Need it harder and faster.”

“That’s right,” he grunted as he pulled out before shoving back in as hard as he could. My back banged into the wall over and over, the remaining frames rattling each time he plunged into me. “Go crazy for me. I wanna see you lose control.”

His words, combined with each powerful, delicious thrust of his cock drove me closer and closer. My moans turned into keening whimpers.

“Oh shit,” I panted, my chest rising and falling frantically as my vision clouded. “It’s too much… Noah…” I wanted him to stop at the same time I prayed he never would. The tension I was feeling was stronger than any orgasm I’d ever experienced in my life.

“No one can make you feel like this,” he huffed as he continued to work my body.

“No,” I agreed, completely lost to the frenzied motions of our sweat slick bodies.

“Only me.”

“Only you, honey.”

With that, one of Noah’s hands moved between us, his thumb hitting my clit with perfect accuracy as he fucked me faster and harder.

“Come on my cock, Harlow. Wanna feel you squeeze everything outta me.”

And I did. At his deep, gravelly words, I fell over that ledge into pure, unadulterated bliss. Blood rushed through my ears as I threw my head back, crying nonsensical words.

Noah thrust one, two, three more times before planting himself to the root, filling me up as he buried his face in my neck on a low, ragged groan as he came, twitching inside me as he emptied himself completely.

“Holy shit,” I gasped once my lungs filled with air. “That was…” I was at a loss for words.

Noah wasn’t. “In-
fucking
-credible,” he finished for me, his forehead resting on my shoulder. He still had me pinned against the wall as we breathed heavily. “Jesus, wildflower. I think I might have blacked out.”

A nervous giggle worked its way up my throat as images of what just happened bombarded me. Thoughts of ‘
holy shit, what did I just do?’
warred with ‘
when can we do it again?’
in my head. I had no clue what I was supposed to feel, how I was supposed to react, to what just happened.

I tried to convince myself it was just the heat of the moment, but I knew, deep down inside, that it was more than that. It was something that had been building between us since the moment we laid eyes on each other once again, growing more tense until it finally combusted into what had just happened.

I was so busy trying to wrap my brain around what we’d done that I barely heard Noah’s whispered voice in my ear. “Baby.”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t use a condom.”

Noah’s arms grew so tight it was a struggle to breathe.

“Noah,” I wheezed, hoping he’d loosen his hold. He didn’t. His head came up, those honey eyes full of tension as he stared at me.

“Shit. I’m sorry, Harlow. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Noah, please…” I wheezed again. “I can’t breathe.”

“
Fuck
,” he ground out, his iron-like hold loosening enough that I was able to suck in some much needed oxygen. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” I replied. Normally his admission would have been like a bucket full of ice water being dumped over our heads, extinguishing any remaining smoldering embers of our heated encounter. But his anguished expression tugged at something in my chest. The need to comfort him overpowered the panic that should have been roiling around in my gut. “It’s all right, I’m covered. I have an IUD.”

“Okay,” he sighed, his large frame sagging in relief as he pushed me farther into the wall.

“You can let me down now.”

His arms twitched, squeezing me slightly before he pulled away just enough for his softening erection to slip out. I felt an immediate sense of loss, but tried to push it to the back of my mind as I unwrapped my legs from his waist. But my feet never hit the ground.

“Noah, you can let go now,” I pressed.

With a simple no, he kept a firm lock around my body and walked toward the couch. Holding me against him as he sat, then laid back and rested me so I was laying half on top of him, my other half resting against the back of the couch.

My heart rate kicked up at the intimacy of our position. “What are you doing?”

“Just…” his voice trailed off as his chest rose with a deep sigh against my cheek. “Just let me hold you for a little while longer. Please.”

I couldn’t argue. If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t
want
to argue. I had no idea what was happening between us, what we’d just done meant. But the thing that was at the forefront of my mind was how comforting it felt to be in his arms. I felt more secure just then than I had in years. So I was giving myself a little more time, snuggling into the warmth of his chest before the real world had a chance to seep back in on us.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked in a low, gravelly voice after several minutes of content silence.

“Nothing,” I responded immediately.