“I know, kitten. I’m sorry,” I said, and I fucking meant it. “I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere until you tell me you don’t want me here anymore.”
“Good. Because I swear to God, Noah Patrick Crawford, if you leave me again, I’m going to be the one holding you down while Dez cuts your balls off,” she said, and then there were more tears.
I sat there with her, rocking her back and forth while she got it all out. Her tears, her rants, her frustrations, her sadness, all of it. After a while she grew quiet, and at first I thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she looked up at me through swollen eyes and smiled. I kissed the tip of her little nose, tinged pink from her crying, before returning her smile.
“I’ve ruined your shirt,” she said with a hoarse voice.
“It’s only a shirt, Lanie. It’ll be fine,” I said, rubbing her arm. “I’m more worried about you.”
“I’m sorry I broke down on you like that, taking you hostage on board the train to Crazy Town. Not many people know this about me, but I take regular trips there, just so you know,” she said with an embarrassed shrug. She reached forward and grabbed a tissue out of the box on the table.
I chuckled lightly in response. “It’s not a secret. But I happen to find that trait very endearing about you.”
She laughed halfheartedly and dabbed at her tearstained cheeks. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long enough.” I took the tissue and finished the job for her. “Congratulations on having gotten a donor, by the way.”
“You did that, didn’t you?”
Looking at myself through her eyes should’ve made me feel twenty feet tall, but I knew the truth, and so should she. “I hardly have that kind of power, Lanie.”
“Bullcrap. You can do anything, Noah Crawford. You got Daniel to come, didn’t you?”
“I may have asked him to oversee your mother’s care, yes.”
“Then you’re her savior by default, because if he hadn’t stepped in, Mom wouldn’t have gotten that donor heart.”
I sighed and took her chin in my hand and looked into her eyes. “I’m no superhero, Lanie. But I’d take a speeding bullet for you, maybe face down a powerful locomotive with nothing but a raised hand in defense, or even leap tall buildings in a single bound to get to you. Anything it takes to make you happy … because I love you, and that’s all the reason I need.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
The blood in my veins surged and my heart swelled to the point I thought it might burst right out of my chest. She loved me. My million-dollar baby loved me.
“I may not have all kinds of pretty words to express it like you do, but—”
“Hey,” I said, stopping her rambling before she got going again. “That’s all I need—to know you love me.”
Lanie closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. When she opened them again, she looked into mine and said, “Noah Crawford, I love you so much sometimes it’s like I can’t breathe because my heart is smothering my lungs.”
That did it for me.
Slowly leaning forward, I nipped at her bottom lip before taking it between my own for a sensual kiss. She fisted my shirt as I pulled away slightly and then kissed her again and again, each time deepening it a little more. It wasn’t enough for her, and truthfully, it wasn’t enough for me, either. Thankful the door was still locked, I maneuvered out from under her so she could lie back on the couch before settling on one bended knee between her legs. Just as anxious as I, Lanie tugged on my shirt, pulling me down to her until our chests were flush.
We were making out like a couple of teenagers on the couch in my uncle’s office, and I felt so alive. My hand traveled up her thigh and under the hem of her dress, and I stopped abruptly when I got to her hip. Something was very much out of place.
I hooked my fingers under the elastic band there and snapped it. “What the hell is this, Miss Talbot?” I asked against her lips.
“Panties,” she answered breathlessly and then started a trail of suckling kisses down my neck.
“I know that. What are they doing on your body?” Panties had been expressly forbidden after Lanie had decided to throw a bitch tantrum and destroyed the very expensive collection of undergarments I had purchased for her. True, she had done it because the shop owner was my ex-lover and Lanie had been jealous of her, but the no-panties rule had remained in effect.
“Polly brought them to me along with the dress.” She cupped my ass and pulled my hips into hers.
“But you didn’t have to put them on,” I said, cupping her ass as well—her bare ass. Well, at least it was a thong.
She cursed and arched her back when I nipped at her neck and sucked languidly. “No, but you left me, and even though I didn’t really think you’d get a chance to see them, in my head, I’d gotten a little bit even. Besides, you ripped up the contract.” Her breathing was ragged, just like mine.
“Contract be damned, you still belong to me,” I said, grinding against her center and eliciting a moan from her to prove my point. “And you’ve been a naughty little girl, Delaine.”
She wrapped her legs around my hips. “Mmm, I love it when you get all possessive and threatening.”
This was what I loved about our relationship. We’d just confessed our undying love for each other, and there we were, about to get all kinds of kinky in my uncle’s office.
“Kitten, I would love nothing more than to dole out your punishment, but we have to stop before we get carried away,” I said, pulling back.
Lanie sighed and let her head fall onto the armrest, unwrapping her legs from around my waist. “You’re right.” With closed eyes, she took a deep breath to calm herself. Without warning, she huffed, shoved on my chest, and then scrambled into a sitting position to right her clothes. “See? This is the kind of stuff you do to me, Noah Crawford. You come in here and get me all riled up, knowing that we can’t do anything about it, and my mother’s right down the hall, about to go into surgery. I have half a mind to tell my father all about how you’ve taken advantage of his sweet, innocent little girl and turned her into a walking poster for teenage hormones.”
She stopped abruptly. “Crap! Mack!”
I laughed. “What about him?”
“How am I going to explain you to him?”
“How about ‘Dad, this is my very rich, very hot boyfriend. He’s got a colossal cock and a wicked tongue’?” I licked my bottom lip to tease her, but she grabbed my tongue to stop me and narrowed her eyes at me.