Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (26 page)

Maggie’s alarm went off, an absolute fright of a buzz, and Noah jerked against her. “Sorry,” she mumbled into the pillow, “loud alarm.”

He nuzzled into the silken skin of her bare shoulder and wished again that they’d never have to leave this bed.

“Have to get up,” she groaned. “And so do you.”

He knew he did. Cal was expecting him bright and early this morning, for a consult with the framer on the addition. He didn’t know why Cal had decided to relent and include him so thoroughly on the project, but each day it seemed, there was more and more he wanted to show him, to teach him. Noah was sucking it all up like he was in the middle of the Sahara and the knowledge was an oasis. He’d always been handy, as he liked to say, but this was real construction and Noah found that he liked it, and that wasn’t just because it was
his
house they were constructing.

“Just a minute,” he whispered. “Just one more minute.” He pushed a hand gently through the soft waves of her hair, untangling it as he went.

She turned towards him and he knew he grunted a little at the loss of her warmth, all tucked up against him. He loved having her like that. If he could sleep like that for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t feel even the slightest bit of hesitation.

Truthfully, Maggie was just a very comfortable person.

“I was wrong,” she giggled a little, her eyes taking him in very thoroughly, and he just frowned.

“What?” he asked.

“I wondered how you’d look in the morning, if maybe sleep would disrupt the hotness that is Noah Fox. But I was wrong. You’re still hot.”

It was hard not to smile when she sounded so dismayed by this fact. So he did just that. “I’ve wished I was ugly plenty of times, actually.”

She tucked her head into the crook of his neck, breath hot against his skin, and hooked one leg around his waist, pressing closer to him. Noah’s heart stuttered and then raced. He’d woken up in a bit of situation downstairs—being pressed to Maggie would do that to a man—but this was just ridiculous. Unless she wanted him to wrap himself around her body and sink into her heat, she was going to have to cut it out.

But Maggie appeared to have very little intention of cutting anything out. In fact, she appeared determined to do just the opposite.

Suddenly he was on his back, as she pushed him over and like an agile monkey, she was suddenly straddling his hips, rocking into his morning erection, which was rapidly turning into something way more than just the time of day.

“Maggie,” he groaned raggedly. “Unless you’re serious. . .”

Her smile was so bright it could have eclipsed the sun. “Oh, I’m definitely serious.”

And just like that, she reached over to her bedside table, snagged a condom packet and before he could really comprehend what was happening, she was tugging down his boxer briefs, and using those quick, efficient, terrifyingly sexy hands to roll the condom down his cock.

“Maggie,” he couldn’t help but stutter again, because she’d just taken away most of the thought in his brain and it just didn’t feel right to be doing this without asking, but then it hit him like a ton of bricks—
she
was doing this to
him
. Permission seemed a little unnecessary.

“Want you,” she breathed out as her legs straddled his hips again, and like it was the simplest thing in the world, she sank down onto him.

“You’ve got me,” he groaned. “As much as you want. Every time you want.”

And that was the last coherent, conscious thought he had for a while as Maggie threw back her hair, braced her hands on his chest and proceeded to ride him with a single-minded determination that had his brain melting from the heat of her. He tried to use his hands as best as he could, to trace over her smooth curves, to enhance her pleasure but frankly, Noah thought it was pretty impressive that he hadn’t come the moment she began to move.

When she tightened around him with a curse, and he followed right behind her, explosions of stars behind his eyes, Noah was also pretty damn impressed that he didn’t just confess all the love flowing through him. There was just something about Maggie that short-circuited his brain. Both of them, apparently.

She’d slid off him with a cocky, sly grin and had practically danced off to the shower, naked as the day as she’d been born. And Noah was left in her bed, sweaty and hot and expecting to be reeling from all the feelings that had crept in so sneakily, but all he felt was sweet relief. He’d wanted to not be alone for so long, really since way before Tabitha, and now he wouldn’t be anymore.

It was kind of the greatest day of Noah’s life and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet.

“I’m not even going to ask what happened between you two, because it’s not hard to guess. You didn’t even finish hanging the lights, Mags.”

Maggie looked up and saw Cal standing in the doorway to the kitchen. It was the lull between breakfast and lunch, and Rosa was taking a break and having a bite to eat before the noon crowd showed up. Maggie was in the middle of soup preparation, dicing about a hundred thousand carrots, all with a ludicrous, sappy smile on her face.

You’d think she’d never seen a carrot before today.

Cal apparently knew exactly why she was so happy, which made her even happier. It was
so
good that Noah couldn’t hide it either, Maggie thought, hugging the thought close to her chest. He was so good and sweet and sappy and she loved that about him. Actually just loved him, period.

Maggie glanced up at her best friend, worried that he’d be either hurt or mad. Neither of those reactions would change her course at this point, but she dreaded the possibility. Cal was still one of the most important parts of her life. But to her relief, he seemed more amused than anything else.

“You’re right. It’s not your business,” Maggie retorted, but there was no heat in it. She didn’t have the heart. Not after the glory of last night and then the double glory of this morning.

“So you’ve made your decision, then,” Cal said casually, as if they were discussing what the lunch special was today.

Maggie shot him a chiding look. “Calvin, you know I did. I told you on Thanksgiving I had.”

He shrugged. “More like, I guess I should tell you that you were right.”

Maggie’s eyes flew up from the carrots she was chopping. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to repeat that again.”

Cal just sighed, leaning against one of the counters. “You were right, okay? We would have been a total disaster as a couple.”

“I can’t even tell you how glorious that sounds to my ears,” Maggie crowed, happiness and relief flooding her in equal parts. She had been just the tiniest bit worried that Cal’s jealousy had been rooted in some deep, secret love. Now she was fairly certain that his love had been never been anything but platonic, and his jealousy had instead originated in loneliness.

“Yeah, well, it’s not going to happen often so don’t get used to it,” Cal growled good-naturedly.

“Don’t I know it,” Maggie said, returning to her carrots. She had about twenty gallons of carrot curry soup to make before the lunch service started.

“Carrot curry?” he asked, coming to stand by her and she just nodded as she kept chopping.

“You know,” he continued after a long pause, “I’m glad you’re happy. And for the record you were right about him too. He’s a good guy.”

She grinned up at Cal then, smile so wide her jaw almost ached. “Would it be rude to say I told you so?”

“Yes, but you’d do it anyway,” he said, chuckling as he tweaked her ponytail, and Maggie felt the last bit of worry evaporate. She and Cal were going to be just fine. She hadn’t ruined their lifelong friendship by hooking up with Noah.

No, she corrected herself as she contemplated her piles of carrots, she hadn’t just hooked up with him. They were hooked together, tangled like the whisks in her utensil drawer, and she didn’t ever want to let go.

It had been a week since Maggie had made the impromptu decision that Noah was a lot better pastime than hanging Christmas lights, and she was more convinced with each passing day that it was maybe one of the best decisions she’d ever made.

It was only a Thursday morning, but Maggie had made Noah swear he wouldn’t get up early to help Calvin because she’d convinced Rosa to manage breakfast alone so they could sleep in. Even though it wasn’t
technically
the weekend, she wanted to create that kind of lazy sleepy cuddling she knew people liked to do on a Saturday morning. Planning ahead, she’d even brought home some orange marmalade rolls the night before. Lying tangled up with Noah, his breath slow and even as he slept, she couldn’t help thinking about heating one of them up and persuading him to let her smear the sticky sweet goodness over his chest so she could lick it off.

That was the one downside to normally getting up at the crack of dawn; when she didn’t
have to get up that early, she usually woke up anyway. But the idea of the morning was still good, Maggie thought with deep affection, gazing down at Noah’s face. She could still enjoy it, even though she was awake.

Gently untangling her legs from Noah’s, Maggie carefully slid out of the bed, trying not to wake him. After slipping on one of Noah’s t-shirts over just her panties, she quietly she padded from the bedroom to the kitchen, huffing at how cold the wood floor was under her feet. She wished she had the extra money to install the floor heating system that Noah had just decided to put into
his
house. They still hadn’t had that conversation where she asked him why he was determined to make his house stupidly special and perfect, but that wasn’t because she’d chickened out. No, Maggie thought as she pulled the pan of marmalade rolls from the fridge, she’d brought it up enough times. He was just really,
really
good at changing the subject. Her face flushed as she remembered some of those nights, as she slid two rolls onto one plate and stuck it in the microwave.

Yes, all in all a very good decision, she decided. Definitely one of her better ones.

The microwave beeped and Maggie poked at the rolls, deciding they were not quite warm enough. She was just about to stick them in for another thirty seconds when the sound of a key in a lock jerked her out of her sleepy trance.

She stuck her head out of the kitchen doorway and froze as she saw the front door open and Maggie realized it was her sister, beautiful and impeccably groomed even though it was 8 AM, framed in the doorway in the morning light.

Her sister.
Tabitha
. Tabitha, carrying what looked to be some insanely expensive purse on one arm and pulling a Louis Vuitton suitcase with the other. Tabitha, who looked like she was coming to stay with
Maggie
.

Clearly, they were stuck in some sort of an alternate universe.

But underneath her shock, there was one thought and only one running through Maggie’s head on repeat:
shit, shit, oh shit.

“Maggie!” Tabitha exclaimed, dropping her luggage in the narrow entry with a loud crash, and throwing herself into Maggie’s arms with the kind of enthusiasm that only Tabitha could dredge up. It was only then that Maggie thought of Noah. Noah sleeping soundly in
Maggie’s
bed. Noah who would likely come investigate what the sudden noise and squealing female voices meant.

Noah, who was currently wearing a pair of navy blue boxer briefs and nothing else.