“Yes, I want kids. For the longest time, I didn’t think I wanted kids, or any of it.”
“You didn’t?” she asked.
He’d never told her he loved her. Not said a word about how he truly felt with her. There was sex, and lots of it, but Sage didn’t know the real truth of his obsession with her.
Running his fingers across her knuckles, he realized he was holding the hand that would one day bear her wedding ring. He rubbed his thumb against the naked flesh, wanting so much to put his mark right there.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever make a good father, Sage, but I know I want to try. I would love to have kids with you. A whole flock of them if I can.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I don’t lie. At least not to you.”
He loved the smile on her lips.
This woman, he couldn’t believe at times how lucky he was that no one else had snatched her away.
Their waiter came back with their meals.
He watched as Sage tried her pasta. Her eyes closed, and he waited as she twirled some spaghetti onto her fork and presented it to him. “You have got to try this.”
She leaned over the table, and of course, he tried it. “Delicious.”
Sage smiled at him. “I love you,” she said.
Noah stared at her, not sure what to say. The words he knew he should say didn’t come out.
“I … I just wanted you to know.”
He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, wanting her to know more than anything that he felt the same way, only he couldn’t say it.
The flash of pain in her eyes would stay with him forever. Never had he felt like more of an asshole than he did in that very moment.
She stared down at her food, circling her fork into her spaghetti. All conversation ceased, and Noah wanted to kick himself.
They finished their food, and he grabbed the check before they left. He felt the distance she created. He didn’t know what to do to make it stop.
Once in the car, they didn’t speak. He drove the short distance to his home, and Sage was out of the car first.
He couldn’t let it end like this. The words wouldn’t come out of his mouth, but that didn’t mean for a second he didn’t feel them. He did love Sage, more than anything.
Sage had let herself into their home, and he closed the door, locking it.
He heard her moving around upstairs, and he gritted his teeth. Glancing at his office, he was tempted to have a glass of whiskey, but right now, that wouldn’t help him. Instead, he went to his bedroom. The light was out, but he saw Sage curled up in their bed. At least a bag wasn’t packed.
Noah went to their en-suite, stripping down. He took a quick shower and dried himself faster than he ever had before. Then he walked back into his bedroom, toward his side of the bed, and slid inside. He refused to wait.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her into the center of the bed and kissed her. At first, she wasn’t responsive, and Noah didn’t want to cross any line. As he went to move away to give her some time, Sage grabbed his arm, stopping him. Pulling him down, she pressed her lips to his, and he kissed her.
She spread her legs open, and Noah showed her with his body, rather than words, what he felt for her. He wanted her to know that he did love her.
He was fucking obsessed with her, but the words didn’t come, not once. Sliding inside her, he moved within her hard and deep, feeling her flutter around him. He gave her everything, drawing her orgasm from her and feeling her come before taking his own pleasure.
His name echoed around the room as Sage came again.
Wrapping his arms around her, he felt so complete, but he knew it didn’t matter. He hadn’t said the words Sage wanted to hear, and in doing so, he’d caused this distance between them. Even as he held her tightly against him, he knew her mind was elsewhere.
Their bodies were so attuned, but right now, their minds were not, and Noah didn’t know what to do to bring her back to him.
****
It doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t say it back. He’s not under any obligation to tell me he loves me. Not at all.
Sage had been repeating the same words for the past week. She’d tried to use every single excuse she could think of as to why Noah wouldn’t just say the words. If a man was so desperate to get a woman in bed for sex, would he even bother to move her in? Noah had gone to extreme methods to get her to be with him, and now as she stood in his office, alone, she had to wonder why.