Page 81 of The Keeper

I straightened my shoulders with renewed resolve. Fuck it. I was going to have a good time no matter what. But first, I needed to stop hiding.

I pushed off the wall and turned toward the exit. I only made it two steps before a tall, muscled frame blocked the doorway, trapping me in the room.

My heart stuttered, then beat double time.

Broad chest. Crisp shirt. Clean scent.

Noah.

CHAPTER 32

CARINA

The temperature in the room dropped, but my skin flushed hot as a strange mix of unease and exhilaration coasted through me.

Noah dipped his chin. The door had quietly swung shut behind him, and his presence made the spacious room feel impossibly small. “Where’s Samson?” There was a noticeable bite to his question, but his eyes were as opaque and glacial as ever.

“Is that why you followed me here? To ask about another man?” The words slipped out seconds before my survival instinct kicked in. I shouldn’t be provoking him. Not when he was looking at me like that. Not when…

“Answer the question, Carina.”

A shiver rippled down my spine. It wasn’t from fear, though it should’ve been. He was twice my size, and I could feel the coiled tension pouring off him in waves. But I also knew, with bone-deep certainty, that he would never hurt me. If I asked him to step aside, he would.

I didn’t.

Instead, I shrugged, ignoring the twist of nerves in my stomach and adopting a casual tone. “I don’t know. He left a few minutes ago.”

His brows folded toward each other. “I thought you—” He stopped short, a hint of red creeping across his cheeks.

“You thought what? That I’d gone with him to his bedroom to hook up?”

Silence.

It was so quiet I could almost hear the rush of blood in my veins. My mouth tasted like pennies, but I held my ground. He was the one who’d sought me out, which meant he was the one who should be answering my questions.

Noah’s mouth was clamped shut. The muscle in his jaw ticked in rhythm with my escalating heartbeats.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

“The night’s still young. There’s plenty of time to change my mind.” I shrugged again. “I could go after him right now. He’d be down.”

More silence, but the ice was slowly melting from his eyes. They flared with warning, yet I forged ahead anyway.

“It doesn’t even need to be the bedroom. This is his house. He knows all the secret spots,” I continued. “We could hook up in the bathroom. The lounge. Or right here in…” My sentence trailed off with a hitch when Noah cupped my cheek, his thumb grazing the corner of my mouth. His touch was light, but it carried enough dangerous authority to dent my bravado.

“Are you trying to provoke me?” he asked softly.

Yes. The truth lodged deep beneath my ribs.

That was why I was behaving with reckless abandon. I wanted him to break. I needed him to break so I could prove, once and for all, that this wasn’t all in my head, and that I hadn’t fallen prey to my delusions again. I needed to know that he craved me as much as I did him.

“I’m not trying to do anything,” I said, finding my voice. It was a touch shakier than before. “You’re the one who followed me. But if I were trying to provoke you…” I faltered again when his knee edged between my thighs in warning. My thoughts fuzzed with static, but I forced myself to keep going. “I’d tell you to imagine us kissing. Taking each other’s clothes off. Falling onto⁠—”

“Stop.” Harsh. Unyielding. His thumb pressed harder against my mouth, and a traitorous flame flickered to life in my stomach.

“Make me.”

My challenge landed like a gauntlet between us. Every molecule of air crystallized into something combustible, and Noah’s eyes blazed in response. “You don’t want to go down that road.”