I chuckle. “They’re really not.”
“I’ve got you all night—well, evening. We played rock, paper, scissors for it. Cipher always goes rock and still hasn’t figured out that we know. I missed you. I know it was only two days you were gone, and I know how that sounds, but I’m told I love hard, so . . .”
“The text limit was a bit much,” I reply with a laugh.
He groans and drops his head. “The betrayal, who told you?”
I snort. “You did, remember? You told your own secret.”
“That does sound like me.” He lifts his head with a grin. “You’ve been on your feet all day. I have a proposal, and I want you to hear the whole thing before you laugh.”
“I’m listening.”
“Hot water, me washing your hair, candles, and simply being with me, in any way you want. I need to feel your skin against mine.”
I stand and hold out my hand. “Bring a candle.”
He grabs four and we go into the bathroom. He places them around the room, and we leave the lights off as he runs the water, steam filling the room.
I take a washcloth and help him remove his zombie makeup, revealing underneath the man I’m falling for, all sun-brown skin, a crooked nose, and a big smile full of pearly white teeth.
“There you are.”
“Here I am,” he says. “You’re staring.”
“You’re gorgeous.”
“I know, it’s a burden.”
I lean forward and kiss the joke right off his lips. Our pace increases—everything is zero to one hundred with Noa. His hands find my shirt, he peels it up, and he mutters, “Goodbye shirt,” against my jaw, and I’m laughing while he strips me naked.
He pulls back and strips off his own clothes as I step into the shower; the water is hot and melts away the day. Noa gets in and I tip my head beneath the spray, then he picks up the shampoo and does what he promised. He washes my hair, his fingers working slowly against my scalp until my knees go weak.
“Good?” he asks.
“If you stop, I’ll have you buried in your own cemetery.”
“That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
He rinses my hair, and his mouth lands on the curve of my neck, his hands roam over my breasts, his thumbs dragging until I gasp, trailing down my stomach, gripping my hips, and pulling me into his body so I can feel how hard he is.
“You feel so good. I have thought so much about having you by myself and all the things I would do.”
“Show me,” I whisper.
He turns me and walks me back until I hit the tiled wall, his body caging mine until he drops to his knees and looks up at me through wet lashes, water running off his ridiculously handsome face.
“I talk too much, so let me put my mouth to better use.”
His tongue finds my clit, and my head thuds back against the wall.
When it comes to sex, Noa is exactly like always—enthusiastic and relentless. He works me over with his tongue and curls two fingers inside me. He pays attention to every whimper, and when my thighs shake, he hooks my knee over his shoulder and holds me open. Noa keeps me pinned, and I come with my fingers in his hair and crying out his name.
Noa surfaces, grinning like he won the lottery. “Better use?”
“Get up here,” I demand with a laugh. He slides up my body, kissing wet skin as he goes.
I wrap my hand around his cock when it gets within range, and his forehead drops to mine.