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  “Stop breathing on me!” she exclaimed.

  I kissed her neck. “Ah, you like it.”

  “Jerk.”

  I kissed her again and smiled against her neck when she laughed. She turned around so she was facing me and she pulled me down to her to kiss her. I never dreamed that I would get to kiss her as much as I was currently doing. I don’t think she understood the crazy things that she did to me.

  She pulled away. “Goodnight, Noah.”

  “Night, Dinah.”

  She shifted position again so she was on her side, and I pulled her close to me again. In a moment, her quiet breathing filled the room and I knew that she had finally fallen asleep. I wanted this moment to last forever. I wanted to be here in her bed, holding her tight for as long as I could. I couldn’t believe my luck that Dinah Lace not only wanted me as much as I wanted her, but she was totally okay with actually dating me. Now, I just needed to get her to fall in love with me as hard as I had fallen in love with her. I honestly still thought it was a dream. I drifted off to sleep with probably the dumbest grin on my face.

  I WOKE UP THE NEXT morning on my back, and Dinah’s small frame was curled into me, her head leaning on my arm. I slowly slid myself out of her bed as carefully as I could, and put her head back on her pillow. She stirred, but didn’t wake, so I went into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. I’ve known Dinah long enough to know to not fucking talk to her until she had her morning coffee. Her words, not mine.

  Dinah was one of those people who liked to grind her own coffee, and she usually kept the freshly ground stuff in a plastic container in her kitchen cabinet. Luckily there was some already ground, so I didn’t have to wake her up with the sound of her super loud old coffee grinder. I should look into getting her a new one, she always complained about how much this one sucked. What did it say about me that my first thought was to get the woman I was dating a practical gift that she actually wanted?

  I shook my head to myself and started the coffee maker. I opened the fridge and inspected her groceries. I didn’t know how this woman was alive, but something told me maybe her insane brothers were more than just overprotective. She complained more than once about how her brother Frankie “momed” her too much. Her fridge was practically empty, but she had some eggs at least, so I cracked them into a pan and started making breakfast. I was buttering toast when I heard her feet pitter-patter across the tile in her kitchen behind me.

  I turned to her with a smile and she had her hands on her hips. “Um, excuse me? What are you doing?” she asked but she was grinning.

  I took the plates over to her kitchen table, but didn’t answer her. She got herself a cup of coffee and joined me at her table. She took a sip of coffee like a nicotine addict took a drag off a cigarette.

  I poked her in the arm. “You’re an addict.”

  “Hush!” she remarked, but had a twinkle in her eyes.

  “Did you just hush me?”

  “Shut up! Did you seriously make me breakfast?”

  I shrugged. “It’s just eggs & toast.”

  She glanced over at her fridge. “I’m honestly surprised I even had that in there. Sometimes Frankie brings me food. You really didn’t have to.”

  We were quiet for a moment as she dug her fork into her eggs and drank her coffee. She was still sluggish and sleepy, which just made her look even cuter. In my wildest dreams, I never thought we would get here. When I met her she had been happily married, so there was no shot in hell. I had to admit I did feel a little guilty being with her even though I knew her husband was gone. I liked to think we still would have been friends if he was still around. I wasn’t the kind of guy that was going to try to get a woman to cheat, so thinking of the what-ifs was kind of a waste. After everything she went through, all that loss, she deserved to be happy and I wanted to be the man who could give that to her.

  She looked at me curiously from over her cup of coffee. “You okay?” she asked.

  I nodded and smiled at her. “Fine, just thinking.”

  “You had your brooding face on. Are you sure?”

  I smiled at her again and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “I’m fine.”

  She narrowed her eyes and I knew she didn’t believe me. I pulled away, and we ate breakfast in silence. I took her plate when she was finished, despite her protests that she could get it. She finished her coffee and joined me at the sink, wrapping her arms around my waist from behind and leaning up on her tip-toes to kiss my shoulder.

  “It’s kind of sexy when a man does housework,” she joked with a wink.

  I turned around to kiss her then, long and tender. She pulled away abruptly, and I cocked my head in question.

  She sighed heavily. “If you continue to kiss me like that, I will never start working.”

  I grinned and bopped her on the nose. “Oh, that’s my evil plan.”

  “It’s working! I just want to rip your clothes off you right now.”

  “You still going to work from home today?” I asked, trying to ignore that last part. Although, my cock didn’t get the memo, as it was lifting up in interest right now.

  She nodded. “You have practice today?”

  “Yeah, I should probably go see if TJ’s gonna leave without me. I think he thinks I moved out.”

  “Did he have a girl over last night?”

  I nodded.

  “He’s just ploughing through all of Philadelphia isn’t he?”

  I tried not to laugh. “Um, I guess? I’m starting to worry about him.”

  She cocked her head at me. “How so?”

  I shrugged. “I worry he’s going to wake up so utterly alone one day because he didn’t allow himself to find love.”

  Her green eyes softened and were shiny with her admiration of my words. “Aw, Noah!” she cooed.

  I kissed her cheek. “I just want him to be happy.”

  She patted me on the arm. “He’ll figure it out. By the way, thanks for dinner last night, you totally didn’t need to pay.”

  I slid my arms down her frame to rest onto her waist, and I smiled as she shivered at my touch. “Just let me,” I insisted.

  She made a face, which I silenced with another kiss. So that was how we ended up in her bed again, writhing together in a mess of kisses and tangled sweaty limbs. So much so that afterwards she jumped out of bed and got dressed in a hurry.

  “What’s the rush?” I asked with a laugh.

  “I have a conference call in thirty minutes! Oh, boy, you’re trouble for me!” she exclaimed. But she leaned down and kissed me again. “I got to go.”

  She disappeared behind her office door, and I leaned back on her bed with a sigh of contentment. I wasn’t really planning for that one, but I was by no means complaining. I showered in her bathroom and got dressed in the clothes I brought over last night. I flopped down on the bed and checked my phone. I had a message from TJ.

  TJ: HA HA. I thought you weren’t coming home.

  ME: I just needed to get some things.

  TJ: Are you legit moving in next door?

  ME: NO!

  TJ: haha, yeah right. You’re whipped already.

  ME: I’m not complaining.

  TJ: gross.

  I laughed at him and set my phone down. It was probably time for me to slip out since Dinah had to get work done and I needed to get my ass to practice. I got up from the bed and walked into her living room. I saw her office door was ajar and she waved me in. She was still on the phone, but she must have had it on mute.

  “Do you need to head out?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I have practice.” I bent down to kiss her cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Okay. I had a good time last night.”

  “You want to do it again?”

  She grinned from ear-to-ear. “Oh most definitely.”

  At practice I was all smiles, so much so that my teammates wouldn’t stop giving me shit about it. TJ hit me in the leg with his stick, but I skated around it and went through
the puck carrying drills. I was even smiling when I completely fucked up on a shot on Metzy.

  Metzy pulled his cage off his head and gave me a confused look. “What’s up with you today?”

  “He’s lovesick!” TJ called.

  I gave him the finger, and the guys laughed. Hallsy clapped me on the back. “It’s a good look on you, I’m glad to see you happy.”

  And I was happy, so disgustingly happy. I was sure that past me would have wanted to punch present me in the face.

  17

  DINAH

  After I finished work for the day, I spent the rest of it working on my edits. I was so close to getting all these done. I just needed that extra push, but by the end of the day I had burnt myself out. So when Noah asked me if he could come over, I jumped at the chance. We sat on my couch watching tv, and I put my feet in his lap. Without me having to ask him, he started rubbing my feet.

  “Babe! I can’t have possibly whipped you that much already,” I mused.

  He glared at me and tickled the bottom of my feet, to which I squealed. It made him grin at me. “Don’t be mean,” he teased.

  I stuck my tongue out at him and took a sip of my beer. He had an afternoon game tomorrow, so he wasn’t drinking, and probably wanted to go to sleep early. I was probably going to stay up and play video games to keep my mind off of the book I really needed to finish edits on.

  “Did you want me to come to your game tomorrow?” I asked suddenly.

  “Of course I do.”

  “Okay.”

  He gave me a quizzical look. “Did you finish your edits yet?”

  I looked away from him and drank more of my beer.

  “D!”

  I gave him the finger. “Stay out of it.”

  “Then, no, I don’t want you to come. I think you should finish your edits first.”

  I groaned and leaned my head back against the couch. “You suck.”

  He poked my arm. “You know you need to do it.”

  I shifted position on the couch so now my head was laying in his lap. I pouted, “FINE!”

  He smiled down at me and stroked my hair. I was pretty sure I purred at that, his long fingers threading through my hair had this calming effect on me. He tweaked my nose. “You’re cute when you’re all pouty.”

  I gave him the finger again.

  “Ah, there’s my girl,” he said with a laugh and continued to stroke my hair.

  I never thought that things would feel so easy with someone who wasn’t Jason. I never really had anyone but him, but I always cherished that I could be myself around Noah. I valued his friendship so much, and now that we were trying this dating thing, I was happy, but really scared. If I fucked this up with him, if I drove him away, I didn’t think I would ever forgive myself. I didn’t want to lose my best friend.

  His big hand ran down my cheek. “Hey, why are you giving me that look?”

  I snapped away from my thoughts and smiled up at him. “What?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Were you spacing?”

  “Just thinking,” I answered and leaned up to kiss him. He kissed me back, but broke it quickly. “Hey! What’s that?” I asked, insulted that he was depriving me of those good kisses.

  He cradled me in his arms, and was giving me this amused look. “I don’t know...I think I need to hold back my kisses until you finish your edits.”

  I sprung up and tickled underneath his arms until he laughed so hard he let me go. “MEAN!” I squealed, and we both noticed that I was back to straddling his hips. “Does this mean I don’t get to take you into my bedroom and have my way with you?”

  He shifted beneath me, and the hardness of his erection pressing against me told me why.

  I grinned evilly and ground myself against him.

  “NOPE!” he teased and tried to shift away from me.

  I kissed his neck. “Uh huh, sure, you can’t last,” I whispered in his ear.

  He pushed me off him and down onto the couch. “Nuh uh. You can have your way with me after you finish your edits.”

  “Please, Noah!” I whined with a pout. “Give me that good dicking.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut. “Christ, Lovey, don’t tempt me.”

  I laughed and returned back to my place on the other side of the couch. I took a swig of my beer, but I was still smiling. My phone buzzed on the coffee table and I picked it up to see it was TJ.

  TJ: Hey, need to talk.

  ME: Okay...

  TJ: Sorry, realized Kens’ over there. I don’t want to interrupt.

  ME: Not interrupting. What’s up?

  He didn’t answer my text because then he was at the door. Noah cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “It’s TJ,” I explained.

  His brow furrowed a little bit more, but he stood up to open the door to see his roommate standing there.

  TJ walked in and he looked really upset. He flopped down on the couch next to me. “Ugh! I don’t know what to do! D, help me understand women!”

  Noah looked amused and sat on the other end of the couch. I gave him a questioning look, but he just shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, honey, tell me what’s wrong,” I insisted.

  “Taylor broke up with me,” he explained. His hand went to the bridge of his nose and he rubbed it. “Oh, man,” he turned to Noah. “Am I being a total cockblock? Dude, sorry.”

  I laughed. “TJ, you’re good. Apparently I’m not getting any until I finish the edits on my book.”

  Noah’s face was beet red at that. He just shook his head at me in disbelief, but TJ laughed. “That shit won’t last.”

  “I know, right? Anyway, who’s Taylor? And why is this the first time I’m hearing about her?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “I was casually seeing her,” TJ explained

  “Isn’t that a good thing, that she broke up with you?” Noah interjected.

  TJ gave him a weird look. “We wanted different things, at least I thought I did.”

  “Oh no, Noah! I think our robot TJ caught feelings, what do we do?” I joked.

  “Not funny!” TJ exclaimed.

  Noah was trying to hold back his laughter, but I maintained my composure. TJ was kind of hopeless, he said he didn’t do relationships, but I had a feeling that wasn’t really true. Something told me there was a reason why he did a lot of casual hookups. I remembered his sister saying off-hand that she figured out she was bisexual when TJ’s high school girlfriend kissed her on a dare when they were all drunk at a party. I had to wonder if that had something to do with it, but I never really felt like it was my place to ask.

  “TJ, how do you feel about this girl?” I asked him.

  He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, but I’m really upset that she broke up with me.”

  “Maybe you should give it a couple days, see how you feel,” I suggested.

  He nodded. “I just miss her already.”

  I squeezed his shoulder. “Oh, honey, I think you’re in love.”

  TJ ran his hand down his face. “I...don’t...no...that...”

  Noah was smirking. “I told you it would creep up on you. One day you’ll just be sitting there laughing, and then the next you’ll notice how the light hits her face whenever she smiles and how you feel all warm inside when you’re with her. That’s love.”

  It took me a couple more sips of beer to realize that Noah was talking about me. No way, we had just started dating. We were a little handsy and smitten with each other now, but it was too soon for him to be so in love with me. But when he smiled at me, it made my heart melt, and I started to wonder if maybe I loved him too. My brother Eddie had said Noah was in love with me, so maybe it wasn’t too soon for Noah, but it was for me.

  TJ was still sitting there with his head in his hands. “I still feel like I don’t know what to do.”

  “What does your heart say?” I asked him.

  He just shrugged.

  “If you miss this girl already, what does that tell you?” I asked.

  �
��That the sex was really good?”

  I shook my head. “You clearly have feelings for this girl!”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “I don’t fall in love with people, that’s not me.”

  I patted him on the back. “It’ll be okay, you’ll figure it out.”

  “Maybe you should just talk to her,” Noah suggested. “Tell her how you feel. Also groveling helps.”

  Noah rolled his eyes at me over the top of TJ’s head. I just smiled, but tried to not make it obvious to TJ. TJ glanced back and forth between the two of us and glared at me. “You two are insufferable together.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him and downed the rest of my beer. “You need a beer?” I asked him.

  TJ shook his head, but ran his hands down his face. “Nah, we have an afternoon game tomorrow, I should get to bed. Thanks for listening to me.”

  I hugged him. “Hey, you know anytime.”

  He nodded and stood up. Noah stood up with him, but then he bent over and gave me a quick kiss. “I’m going to go sleep in my own bed tonight,” he explained.

  I pouted, but I knew he needed to be refreshed for his game tomorrow, and if he slept over tonight I wasn’t going to let him get a lot of sleep. “Good luck tomorrow!” I told him.

  He smiled. “Finish your edits.”

  “Text me when you get back, okay?” I asked.

  He nodded and walked out the door with TJ. I stood up to lock the door behind them. I sat down back on my couch and shot off a text to TJ’s twin sister, Rox.

  ME: Hey...any chance you have spoken to your other half?

  ROX: Lisa??

  ROX: She broke up with me.

  ME: WAIT...What? CALL ME!

  Within seconds my phone was ringing with Rox’s name on the screen. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  She sighed on the other end. “Not sure, D, she cheated on me.”

  Rox sounded so dejected. I wasn’t that close with TJ’s sister, but we talked here and there. She was one of the coolest chicks I knew, so fearless. She didn’t visit a lot, but that’s mostly because her and Benny hate each other and there was so much drama with them. Although, I really suspected it was just both of them trying to deny their feelings. I think Benny had a thing for her, and he said all the wrong things to her. Plus, I’ve noticed her checking him out when she thought no one was looking.