He should be happy, so he didn’t understand the shaft of disappointment shooting through his chest.
Giving his head a little shake, he cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s basically it, although we are an MC. But you see, you don’t have to worry. And you don’t have to stay to help. Let us do this. We’re the professionals.”
“That guy, Blake, he’s the boss, right?” She waited for his nod before she continued. “He seems to think you guys can use my help. And he said I won’t be in any danger. You’re just going to be scoping out the situation. I can handle that, and my skills can help. I wasn’t lying when I said I can hack.”
“Lily, no. Go back to Virginia. You don’t need to do this.”
She set her shoulders stubbornly as she regarded him with her unusual blue eyes, and he knew before she spoke that she wasn’t going to go home.
It should bother him. It should piss him off and he should order her to go home. Going anywhere with her, just him and her, in close quarters was a recipe for disaster. He was way too attracted to her, and more than that, he liked her as a person too much.
But it was also for those reasons that he couldn’t seem to make himself feel upset. The whole thing was an epically bad idea, and he still had to try to talk her out of it, but there was a part of him that didn’t want to.
“Lily, I don’t—”
“Lily, is it?” Damara said, popping up next them. “Let me show you to your room so you can get settled in. And I’m sorry for startling you earlier. I didn’t mean to. I just genuinely wanted to know if the meeting was interesting before I walked in.”
Before Noah could say anything else, Damara was leading Lily away, throwing a wink over her shoulder at him, like they were conspirators. They weren’t, though. She might think she was making it easier for him to stay close to Lily, but that wasn’t what he wanted.
His lion growled inside him, but that time the sound didn’t startle him. He almost expected it, because even he could hear the lie in his thoughts.
Chapter Four
Lily followed behind Damara as the other woman carried her suitcase upstairs. She’d tried to protest that she could do it on her own, but Damara insisted, and she gave in fairly easily. It was getting late and she’d been driving most of the day, and she was worn out.
She’d never understood how sitting still in a seat while she drove for a day could wear her out so much, but it always had. And it took her two and a half days of driving to get to Nevada.
Damara stopped to open a door and gestured to the one next to it. “That’s Noah’s room, in case you need to talk to him at some point.”
Lily felt her mouth pop open as Damara waggled her eyebrows at her before walking in. Sputtering, she followed her in. “No, you’ve got this all wrong. It’s not like that with Noah and I.”
Damara looked at her innocently. “Like what?”
“It’s not—we’re not—not that I—”
“Oh, stop messing with her,” came another woman’s voice from the doorway. Lily turned to see the woman who’d been at the meeting walk in. “Hi, Lily. I’m Tarun.”
Lily smiled at her, grateful that she’d interrupted her broken ramblings. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Have you known Noah long?” Tarun asked as she came into the room and sat on the chair.
Damara tsked as she sat on the edge of the bed. “So I have to stop messing with her, but you’re allowed to grill her?”
“I’m not grilling her. I’m just trying to get to know her better.” Tarun switched her gaze to her. “So?”
She felt her lips curling with amusement as she arched an eyebrow. “Oh, is it my turn to speak now?”
Damara laughed. “I like her already.”
Shaking her head, she sat on the other end of the mattress. “To answer your question, I’ve known him for about six years now. We lost touch about three years ago, though.”
“That’s about when he and Luke joined the Enforcers,” Tarun mused.
“Luke?”
Tarun smiled. “My ma—husband. He and Noah have known each other since they were little kids.”
“Is that what you guys call your branch of law enforcement? Enforcers?”