“Aw, hell, it’s already too late for you, isn’t it?”
It had been too late for Noah the moment he’d met Claire—and she’d taken a swing at him in that Chicago alley.
“What are you doing?” Now real concern was in Drake’s voice. “Don’t let her push you too far.”
But how far was too far?
“Reporters were at the Towers most of the day, trying to get to her. They even asked me if she was involved in the death of a certain Senator Colby Harrison.” Drake’s brows rose. “Seems he died in D.C., right during your recent little visit there with the tempting Claire.”
Noah fired another fast glance at the bedroom door. “When she was sixteen, Claire’s boyfriend killed her parents. He put a gun to Claire’s head, and he was going to kill her, too.”
“What?”
“That boyfriend was Ethan Harrison, Senator Harrison’s younger son. Instead of just admitting that he had one screwed-up kid, the senator tried to paint Claire as a seductress who’d led the boy down the wrong path.”
Drake rocked back on his heels. “She said her past was blood and death.”
“It is.” Her future wouldn’t be. “The senator harassed her for years, and now she’s free of him.”
Drake absorbed that, then muttered, “Free, right at the same time you two hook up.”
Noah didn’t let his expression change. “Sometimes, that’s how fate works.”
“Don’t be cute, Noah…did you do it?”
“If I had, then I wouldn’t be so worried about keeping a watch on Claire.” He did not want Claire overhearing this conversation. “Before she moved in here at the Towers, someone trashed her hotel room at the Hamlet. That asshole Ethan Harrison, he’s been watching her—from prison. He’s got a PI on her. Ethan had photos of her, recent damn photos, all over his cell.”
“So that’s where you went on your little trip.”
“I needed to see him with my own eyes. Needed to talk to him.”
Drake assessed him. “You were measuring your enemy.”
It was the way they’d worked when they were in the military. Know your enemy. Learn his weaknesses. Exploit them.
Take out that enemy.
“He’s as obsessed with her now as he was nine years ago.” Actually, the guy might even be more obsessed. Time should have made the bastard let her go.
The bedroom door squeaked open. “Noah?” Claire slipped out of the darkness and into the light of the main room. A smile swept over her face. The smile that he loved. The one that started with her lips, that flashed her dimples, and made her eyes shine.
Every muscle in his body locked down.
“I don’t think he’s the only one obsessed,” Drake said, voice low. “I’m telling you…watch yourself. Because you’re headed for an implosion.” Then Drake raised his voice as he drawled, “I’ll be seeing you again soon, Claire Kramer.”
Then he left them.
Noah drank in the sight of Claire.
“How was your trip?” Claire asked him as she crept toward him. A few seconds later, she stood in front of him. Her hands lifted, then hesitated.
He didn’t want Claire to hesitate when it came to touching him. He started to reach for her, but Noah locked his muscles down. He wanted the next move to be hers.
After a moment, she pressed herself against him. Hugged him. It only lasted a moment, but he felt the impact of that embrace rock through his whole body.
“I’m glad you’re back.” Her words were faint as she drew back. She put her hands behind her. Stared up at him with those big blues that always seemed to make him a little weak.
I missed you, Claire.
When he’d never missed anyone, not until her.
This wasn’t about just repaying some debt anymore. Wasn’t about trying to fix the hole in Claire’s life that her sister’s death had left behind.
It was about more.
“Did you finish your business?” Claire asked him.
He put his hand on her cheek. Like touching silk. “Not yet,” he told her. “But I will, soon.”
Her breath caught as she stared up at him. “Noah?”
“I need you.” So badly that his whole body seemed to be burning. He hadn’t been able to get back to her fast enough. She’d been the only thing he could think about on the flight home.
She wore a dark robe. Her hands lifted. Unbelted that robe. It fell at her feet.
Claire took his hand. She led him back to the bedroom. The woman had no idea just how close to pouncing on her he truly was.
He should be careful with her. After their last time together, she was probably sore.
“I want you.” Her voice was pure sin, like a stroke right over his aroused cock.
His control was shredding. Every second with her ripped it a bit more.
“I want to give you pleasure,” Claire told him as she stared up into his eyes. “Teach me how?”
Right then, he couldn’t. He could only push her back onto the bed. Part her thighs. See the perfect pink flesh that waited. “This gives me pleasure.” He put his mouth on her and feasted.
She bucked beneath him. Arched. Her taste drove him insane.
Get her ready. Take her.
When her nails raked down his back, Noah rose. He positioned his cock right at the entrance to her body. He’d put on a condom, pausing just those few seconds—one day I’ll have all of her—and he drove deep into her.
Only then, only then, the frantic tension left his body. The fear. The fury. The lethal combination that seeing Ethan Harrison had roused within him.
Claire will tease and she will flirt, but she won’t sleep with you…She can’t. Claire knows she belongs to me.
Ethan was so wrong.
Noah thrust harder into Claire. She whispered his name. Her sex squeezed around him. So hot and tight and wet. Perfect for him.
She climaxed, crying out and her sex clenched him even tighter.
Noah’s thrusts became faster then. Deeper. The bed shook beneath them. The headboard thudded into the wall. He didn’t care.
Nothing could have stopped him at that moment.
He plunged into her. Lost sight of everything but Claire.
And when he came, he roared her name.
Mine. Always.
Noah would do anything necessary in order to protect what was his.
***