ArousingMemories (5 page)

Noah’s hips twitched to hump him in her hand. His breath
quickened and his hand grabbed her arm as his cock pulsed. Hot liquid burst
from its tip, coating Haley’s fingers, easing their way as she continued to pump
his shaft. His fingers dug into her skin while he groaned his way through the
climax. Breath as hot as his cum tickled her face. And then he was still. His
breathing slowed and his fingers lost their grip.

“I should,” he started to say in a voice barely audible
before he went silent. Moments later, Haley heard the steady, even breathing of
a sleeping man.

She nudged him over onto his back and lay on her own, both
satisfied at a job well done and miserable because her body throbbed in its own
unfulfilled arousal. Undoubtedly Noah was going to say he should reciprocate,
but the poor man was in no position to do so this night. She didn’t expect it
in any event. The whole idea of slipping in beside him was to help him sleep,
not get her own rocks off, so to speak. Besides, she was an old pro at
satisfying herself.

Her fingers still slick from Noah’s semen, Haley reached
down to rub her clit. Hot as she was, her body jerked at her own touch. She
circled her clit only a few times before her body exploded in orgasm. It wanted
to buck with the intensity. She worked to stay as still and quiet as possible,
biting back the cry of release clawing to get out. White points burst behind
her eyelids and she went deaf to all but her own blood singing. And when she
was done, she turned and wrapped herself around Noah once more and fell asleep.

Chapter Three

Noah woke up feeling much better than he had the day before.
His head didn’t ache, but other, more fun parts did. It meant he was definitely
on the mend, and his cock was looking for a playmate to celebrate. It was
looking for Haley. She wasn’t there, though. Glancing about his room, he saw
the male nurse who had been tending to him bending over a medical cart. Noah
tried to suppress the sigh of disappointment. Tried and failed as the nurse
turned from his task and smiled.

“Good morning, Mr. Turner. How are you feeling today?”

“Better, thanks.” Sitting up, he maneuvered to hide his
condition and ignored the subtle, yet clear signals the nurse was putting out.
This guy was interested, but despite Noah’s appreciation of Severin, there was
no thought of asking this other man to ease his morning wood. This was not the
sort of man he was looking for apparently. Those aspects of Haley as a woman
that he appreciated, soft roundness, grace, beauty, were not what he was
looking for in a man. He wanted hard strength, a commanding presence, an alpha
male. Nurse Whatshisname, for all that he was a kind person who took good care
of his patient, did nothing for Noah.

The nurse approached the bed. “Would you like a bedpan, or
do you think you’re up for a trip to the bathroom?”

Oh, Christ!
Noah had no idea what kind of man he was,
but he knew he’d had enough of playing the invalid. No more bedpans, but he
wasn’t interested in having this earnest guy help him and his hard-on over to
the bathroom, either. Time to stop feeling sorry for himself and time to start
taking charge of his own life again. He summoned up a smile.

“Neither, thanks. I’d rather have breakfast first.”

“All righty, then,” was the cheerful reply. “But first we
need to take your temperature.”

With a sigh, Noah looked up at the ceiling and prayed the
thermometer would not be the rectal kind.

* * * * *

“Haley, wait up.” Severin picked up speed and caught his
quarry at the end of the hall. He’d been looking for her for a good half-hour,
always missing her by mere minutes. The woman never stopped. She had now,
though, and was waiting for him with obvious annoyance plastered on her face.
She also tapped the folder in her hand against her leg with impatience.

“What?” she asked before he had even arrived.

Now that he had found her, he was reluctant to talk. The
subject matter was touchy. He took a quick look around to confirm there was no
one within earshot before he spoke. “I, ah, wanted to talk to you about Noah.”

The look on Haley’s face morphed into concern. “Is he all
right?”

Shit!
“Yeah, he’s fine,” Severin was quick to
reassure her, and was glad when the alarm that had played across her face
disappeared. “I mean, I heard he’s doing much better this morning.”

Haley smiled, and man, when she did, Sev wished it were
directed toward him. It had been once upon a time and he’d blown it.
Move
on, moron
, he told himself. Dwelling on the past didn’t help anyone, least
of all Noah, and their focus needed to be on him.

“I heard that, too,” she confirmed. “In fact, I’m heading to
his room now. I, ah, want to see for myself.” Holding up the folder, she added,
“I’ve cleared it with the doctor to show him surveillance photos of the Sons,
although not of Markowitz. The doctor said that might prove too traumatic at
this point. These might jog his memories, though, or they might also agitate
him and repress his memories even more. Either way we have to take the risk. We
have to try anything that might work even at the risk of doing Noah more harm.”

Her eyes flicked away from him and wasn’t that an
interesting tell. She was ready to put her Plan B into action, assuming she
hadn’t done so already as her Plan A. There was a stab deep in his gut, a bad
one, one unfamiliar to him, yet he knew instinctively what it was. Jealousy.
And didn’t it just suck! He had never been jealous in his life, but he’d also
never been in love before. Try as he might, there was no denying he loved Haley
still, and while the general knowledge that she was sleeping with someone else
hadn’t really registered with him before, this actual knowledge did not sit
well with him. The hell of it was, he really liked Noah and cared about him,
was worried about him. Yet a nasty little voice inside his head told him maybe
he had set out to seduce the other man as a way to get to Haley, to get back at
her.

Damn! No, he wasn’t going there. He couldn’t have sunk so
low. He wasn’t going to succumb to jealousy either, and yet why else had he
tracked her all morning? To prove otherwise, he decided right on the spot he
wasn’t going to simply pry into her plans, he was going to encourage them. It
was best for Noah, best for the people of Boston. It’s what he told himself,
and he was determined to believe it.

“You really think you can fuck him into getting his memories
back?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he winced. It wasn’t the way
to support her plan, but maybe his subconscious wasn’t in quite the same noble
mood as his conscious.

Haley’s eyes narrowed. “You can be such an asshole. But for
the record, yes, I think there’s a chance it could work. Do you really think
I’m so out of line about this?”

“No,” he replied in a far more petulant voice than he’d ever
used in his life. His gaze dropped. It wasn’t in his nature to be so
self-indulgent, and he sucked it up and looked her straight in the eye. “No, I
don’t think so. In fact I think it’s a good idea.”

“Good enough for you to try the same thing?” Typical Haley,
direct as always. He admired that about her. He had to answer honestly, though,
because there was too much on the line.

“Probably not,” he admitted.

She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. Classic Haley
move telling him she was pondering the facts. He could all but see the cogs turning
in her beautiful head. He waited patiently for the inevitable question. “Why
not?” she finally asked.

He considered not telling her the truth, then figured what
the hell? He gained nothing by keeping his thoughts to himself and lost nothing
in telling them, except maybe some pride. Pride had always been his Achilles’
heel. It wouldn’t kill him to put it aside once in a while. “I’m not sure Noah
would be receptive to my attention.”

Haley frowned. “Noah isn’t exactly a kiss-and-tell kind of
guy, but he left me with the distinct impression something happened between you
two.”

“Yeah, something, a few somethings, happened between us,” he
admitted, hands jammed inside his front pockets like a schoolboy confessing to
his teacher or mother.
Shit
.
“He’s a great guy and a really
promising operative. I wanted him the moment I met him. The same way I wanted
you from the start.” Now that was a real confession, and he’d be damned if he
knew what made him say it. Haley, bless her, made him move past it.

“Don’t go there,” she commanded with a thrust of her finger
and a hard set of her jaw.

The thought of placing a row of kisses along that delicate
line, as he had many times before, popped up unbidden. He felt the loss keenly.
“Sorry,” he said with regret and forced himself to go back to the topic at
hand. “Anyway, he was as eager as me, but I didn’t have a chance to get to know
him well. I can’t say if he’s as comfortable being bi as I am. I’m afraid to
chance making a move. What if I upset him, setting him back even more?”

She was thinking again as if weighing something. Finally,
she spoke. “Look, Sev, if there wasn’t so much at stake, I’d cut out my own
tongue before giving you a sexual leg up with anyone. But Noah getting his
memories back is too important for me to play some kind of game with you. I
don’t know how Noah feels about you exactly, except I do know he likes you and
admires you. I also know he’s quite comfortable being attracted to both men and
women. His experience with either is nothing like yours, of course.”

“Thanks, sugar,” he grinned at the backhanded compliment.

Tugging a stray piece of hair behind her ear, she shrugged.
“I’m saying if you want to try calling up his memories by seducing him, I’m
hardly in a position to tell you it’s a stupid idea or a dangerous one. Just
don’t ask me to help you.” This last bit was said in a quiet voice. It told him
more than any shouting how much he had hurt her.

“Haley?” Sev lifted his hand to touch her. She didn’t give
him the chance.

Backing away, she said, “Look, do what you think is best.
I’m going to, but I don’t have time to talk to you about it. I’m going to spend
some time with Noah now. Don’t get in my way.”

He watched her hurry down the hall. Get in her way? How? Did
she really think he was going to walk in on her and Noah, and what, join them?
Hell, no, except he’d had that fantasy only yesterday outside Noah’s room.
Haley and Noah and Sev in the middle, or maybe Haley in the middle, or Noah. A
laugh barked past his lips. A crazy idea. So why did his cock twitch inside his
pants? It didn’t think it was such a crazy idea.

“Knock it off,” he commanded the less intelligent part of
him and went to find something useful to do.

* * * * *

Haley paused before knocking on Noah’s door. Even the long
walk through the building hadn’t given her time enough to calm down from her
encounter with Sev. She worked so hard to appear calm and in control around
him. The truth was he had a way of getting to her that no one else had. She’d
actually felt a pang of jealousy at the idea of Sev seducing Noah. Yet, here
she was doing the very same thing. Her sense of fairness had made it
impossible, too, for her to ignore the insecurity and even sadness she had seen
in his eyes when he spoke about Noah. It wasn’t a bad thing really for them to
make the same effort. Better for one to succeed than both fail because they
tripped all over each other. One thing was certain, however. They were going to
be making separate efforts. No way they would work it as a threesome. Not that
the idea of making love to two men at the same time bothered her. But touching
Severin Blake again, letting him touch her? No. Way. An ache deep inside her
screamed
Liar!
She ignored it and took several deep breaths.

More centered, she knocked and entered Noah’s bedroom when
she didn’t hear a response. The bed was empty and her heart raced with concern
for a second before she saw him leave the bathroom. He staggered out, actually,
with a towel wrapped around his narrow hips. She rushed over to help him by
placing an arm around his waist. His body was warm, not hot from a fever, and
slightly damp.

“Hey,” she admonished. “What are you doing?”

Noah draped his arm without hesitation across her shoulders
and leaned into her a bit. “Thanks, Haley. I wanted to take a shower and I guess
I overestimated my strength.”

“Why didn’t you ask your nurse for help? It’s his job, you
know.”

As he lowered himself into a large wing chair, he gave a
rueful smile. “I didn’t want help. I’m tired of playing the invalid.”

Arms folded, she looked down at him and shook her head.
“Stubborn.”

“Sorry. Am I usually stubborn?”

The question was asked lightly enough, but she knew there
was tension in it. Still, she kept her answer light as well. “Most men are.”

“I bet Severin Blake is,” he replied.

Oh God, just what she wanted to talk about, Sev. A subtext
underlined the question, or maybe it was her jealous imagination at work. In
any event, not interfering with Sev’s plans did not include acting as
matchmaker for the two men. “Yes,” she confirmed in as neutral a tone as
possible. “He most certainly is.”

For a second she thought he was going to ask a follow-up
question. He said something completely unexpected instead. “I was disappointed
you weren’t here when I woke up this morning.”

This simple admission brought both tears to her eyes and
blood to all the right places. The familiar heaviness filled the space between
her legs. “I’m sorry, I had an early meeting. And,” she continued blinking back
the tears and dropping down to kneel on the floor by his feet, “I wasn’t sure
you’d appreciate everyone knowing our business.”

He took a strand of her hair between thumb and forefinger.
She had deliberately kept it down because she knew he liked it that way. So did
Sev, but she wasn’t going there again. He contemplated what he held for a few
seconds. “Would it be trouble for you if people knew?” It was sweet for him to
care, classic Noah. It was a good sign that he was still the same basic person,
memories or not.