Andi
What the hell was going on? Noah couldn't possibly believe Marcus, could he? He knew the kind of man Marcus was. But watching Noah and Marcus match wits in my living room, I couldn't get a clear indication if Noah was buying what Marcus had said.
Once Noah had ushered Marcus out, I wanted to feel triumphant that the plan had worked, but when Noah turned around and looked at me, saying I had some explaining to do, I wondered if maybe he didn't believe Marcus. Surely, he knew I'd never betrayed Margaret or his brothers, but then again, hadn't I doubted him? He certainly had evidence to suggest that I could've betrayed them. I met with Marcus several times during our trip to Hong Kong. Marcus had planted something incriminating in my computer. Wasn’t Noah tech savvy enough to know I’d been set up?
Instinct had me putting my guard up and wanting to be angry that Noah might believe Marcus. But I recognized that lashing out might not be the best way to convince Noah that I was innocent.
Noah stood looking at me with his arms crossed over his broad chest. How come he and I only connected in two ways; in bed and when arguing? Perhaps he’d been right all the long in that attempting a relationship was foolish.
"Tell me you don't believe him. You know I would never betray Margaret,” I said.
He studied me. "Like you believed me when I told you that what Marcus said was a lie?"
I looked down in shame. "That was wrong of me."
"Yes, it was."
I found the courage to look at him again. "So, you believe him? Is he right and that Margaret and your brothers and you believe that I gave him access to the computers?"
"I was sent here to talk to you about it. Actually, my brothers wanted to send Hunter to come talk to you about it, but I told them that it should be me."
I wanted to cry and yell at the same time. I was feeling like a desperate caged animal needing Noah to believe me and knowing how ironic that was because when our roles had been switched, I hadn't believed him. At least not without a doubt.
"Maybe it would have been better if it were Hunter,” I said, unable to hide my defeat.
Noah frowned. "Why?"
"Because it's more difficult to look at you and think that you don't believe me."
"Except I do believe you and I'm the only one who does right now."
I felt relief at Noah's admitting he believed me, but on top of that was anger that he would toy with me like this. And unfortunately for me, anger almost always overwhelmed any of my other emotions.
“Why didn’t you say so?” I snapped.
“I just did,” he said.
I huffed out a breath. “Why didn’t you give any indication when Marcus was here?”
He shook his head. “I love how headstrong you can be, but sometimes you should be chagrined, not pissed,” he said with the first hint of annoyance in his voice since we started talking.
He was right of course. But if I didn’t hold onto my irritation, I might cry, and I didn’t want that.
“It would also be nice if you trusted me.”
“Why do I always end up being the bad guy?” All the steam ran out of me. I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.
“Because you don’t trust me when you should.” He moved closer to me.
I looked up at him. “Do you trust me?”
“I do.” He put his hands on his arms, rubbing up and down.
“Why?” I dropped my head against his chest, inhaling the scent of him, letting his warmth wrap around me even though I wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
He shrugged. “Because I love you. And while there's a lot I don't know about you, I do know that you're fiercely loyal to my grandmother and to this company. I have no doubt about that."
My head jerked up. "What did you say?"