What He Demands (What He Wants, Book Three) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

I looked at Josh incredulously.
 
Did he really think I was going to let
him get away with what I just saw him doing?
 
“There was no mouse,” I said, my heart rate accelerating.
 
“Josh went into my room and started
going through my things.
 
I caught
him jerking off into a pair of my panties.”

I looked at Julia expectantly, waiting
for her to become outraged and kick Josh out.
 
Maybe we should even call the police.
 

“What?” Josh asked, sounding
shocked.
 
“You’re joking, right?”

“No, I’m not joking.”
 
I crossed into my room and pulled out
the pair of underwear he’d just been holding.
 
“It was this one.”

“That’s not funny, Charlotte,” Julia
said, putting her had on Josh’s shoulder.
 
“Not even as a joke.”

“I’m not joking,” I said.
 
“He was jerking off right in my room,
Julia.”

“You’re crazy,” Josh said.
 
He shook his head and looked at
Julia.
 
“I would never do something
like that.”

“Charlotte, that’s a really fucked up
thing to lie about,” Julia said.
 
Her eyes got steely and hard, and she stared me down.
 
“You really need to think about what
you say before you say it.”

“Julia,” I said calmly.
 
“I’m not lying.”
  
The two of them were standing in
the doorway staring at me like I was some kind of deranged criminal.
 
I felt scared, and ganged up on, not to
mention the violation of having someone come into my bedroom and go through my
underwear drawer.

“Charlotte, enough!” Julia said.
 

“No,” I said.
 
“I won’t.
 
He
was jerking off using my panties.”

“Stop saying that!” Julia said.
 
“He saw a mouse in your room.
 
He wouldn’t have…” She trailed off,
looking embarrassed, and I knew what she had been about to say.
 
That Josh wouldn’t have been so turned
on by me that he needed to sneak into my room and ruffle through my pantry
drawer.
 
I wasn’t hot enough.

“It’s okay,” Josh said, rubbing Julia’s
back.
 
“She’s obviously upset that
we’re hanging out.
 
Maybe we should
get out of here.”

“Yeah, we definitely should,” Julia
said.
 
“I’ve lost my appetite
anyway.”
 
She threw me a dirty look
over her shoulder and grabbed Josh’s hand.

A second later I heard the door open and
close.

I sat down on my bed.
 
My hands were shaking and I could feel
the blood rushing through my body, pounding in my ears.
 
My stomach turned.
 
I felt dirty somehow, like I wanted to
get in the shower and stay under the spray for a long, long, time.

Relax,
I told myself.
 
He’s gone now.
 
He didn’t
hurt you.
 
He didn’t touch
you.
 
You’re safe.

My phone began ringing, and I glanced at
the caller ID.

Noah.

I picked up.

“Hello?”

“I’ve been driving around your
neighborhood for the past fifteen minutes, wondering what possible excuse I
could come up with to see you again.”

The sound of his voice was so comforting,
so warm, that I immediately burst into tears.

“Charlotte,” Noah said, his voice
darkening.
 
“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” I said.
 
“It’s stupid.
 
It’s just… remember that guy Josh, the one who came to your
office with me the other night?”

“I’ll be right there.”
 
The line went dead.

He swept into my apartment a couple of minutes
later, gathering me into his arms as I cried.
 

“Shh,” he said, stroking my hair.
 
“Shh, you’re fine, it’s okay.”

He led me over to the couch, sat me down
and got me water from the kitchen.

“Thanks,” I said, accepting it gratefully
and trying not to gulp it down.

“Tell me what happened.”

“It was nothing, really.
 
I’m overreacting.”
 
I took in a shuddering breath and wiped
my eyes with the back of my hand.
  
“It’s just that when I got back here tonight, my roommate had Josh over,
you know, the guy from Professor Worthington’s class.
 
She was making him spaghetti sauce.”

“And?” He prompted.

“And when.... when I got to my room, I
caught him jerking off into a pair of my underwear.”
 
I blushed saying the words out loud.
 
It was ridiculous to be embarrassed or
shy about saying something like that after what Noah and I had done
tonight.
 
But I was.

“Where is he?” Noah demanded, rising from
the coach.
 
“Where is the little
bastard?”
 
He began striding toward
the hallway, like he was going to find Josh hiding in one of the bedrooms.

“He’s gone,” I said.
 
“He left with Julia.”

“He’s lucky.”
 
He took in a long slow breath through his nose and sat back
down on the couch.

“No, it’s not… you don’t…it was just
scary, you know?”

“Of course it was.”
 
He pulled me close, letting me bury my
head against his chest.
 
He felt
strong, safe, protective.
 
I liked
that he was here.
 
Just a second
ago I’d been afraid, nervous, feeling dirty or like maybe I’d done something
wrong, overreacted in some way.
 
But now that Noah was here, I felt like everything was going to be okay.

“My roommate made me feel like I was
overreacting,” I said, pulling away from him.

He shook his head, like Julia’s opinion
meant nothing, like she was a gnat who could be squashed at any moment without
anyone noticing or caring.
 
I liked
that he agreed with me, liked even more that we were having a real
conversation, one that had nothing to do with his case or sex.
 
I was having a problem with my life,
and here he was, showing up and helping me to take care of it.

“You’re not saying here tonight,” Noah
said.
 
“Go pack your things.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said.
 
But I said it just to be polite.
 
Because the truth was, I was desperate
to go to his apartment, and not just because I was scared. I wanted to be with
him.

“Get your things,” he said, ignoring me.

I went to the bedroom and grabbed my
suitcase out of the closet, the suitcase my mom had given me before I started
law school in the city. You can use it when you come to visit, she’d said.
 
I wondered what she would think if she
knew I was using it to go to a man’s apartment, a man who might have been a
killer, a man who I’d fucked minutes after meeting him.

I gathered some clothes and toiletries,
grabbed my schoolbooks and laptop, just in case Josh and Julia came back and
decided they wanted to go through more of my things.
 
The thought of leaving my stuff unattended, that Josh might
come back and be able to finish what he started… it made my stomach turn.
 
The only thing worse would be being
here when that happened.

“Ready?” Noah asked when I got back to
the living room.

“Ready.”

***

Noah’s apartment felt warm and inviting
after the drama that had gone down at my place.
 
He fixed me a plate of cheese and crackers and served it to
me with a ginger ale.

“Thanks,” I said.

“You’re welcome.”
  
He poured himself a glass of
water and sat down at the table with me.

“Thank you, um, for letting me stay
here,” I said.

“You don’t have to thank me, Charlotte,
for something that is the decent thing to do.”
 

The cracker I was eating suddenly felt
stuck in my throat.
 
Did he mean
that he’d only invited me here because he felt sorry for me?
 
That he thought I was some poor little
girl who had no place to go?

“Is that why you invited me here?”
 
I pressed.
 
“Because you thought it was the decent thing to do?”

“Wasn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes, but I was hoping you’d have more of
a reason than that, that maybe you actually wanted me here.”
 

“I wanted you here,” he said, reaching
out and taking my hand across the table.
 
He ran his finger over my palm.
 
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you.
 
It was driving me insane, having to be away from you.”
 

My heart raced as his lips met mine.
 

When he pulled away from me, I saw that
fire in his eyes, the fire that told me he wanted to get me naked.

But his phone rang then.

I got a look at the caller ID.

Katie, it said.

“Excuse me,” Noah said.
 
“I have to take this.”

He disappeared down the hall, and I tried
to push down my disappointment.
 
Just because I was here didn’t mean he didn’t have a life.
 
And Katie didn’t have to be a woman he
was seeing.
 
It could be his sister
for all I knew.

I finished my food and brought my plate
to the sink.
 
The dishwasher was
empty, so I rinsed my dishes and put them inside.

Noah still wasn’t back, so I sat down at
the table and waited.

He returned a moment later, looking
agitated.

“Is everything okay?”
 
I asked.

He nodded.
 
“Just work stuff.”

“Oh.”
 
I’d forgotten for a moment that Noah was a top attorney in his
own right. Just because he was having legal trouble didn’t mean all his cases
had stopped.
 
“Anything I can help
with?”

He shook his head.
 
“No.
 
I’ll have to go in early tomorrow and take care of it.”

“On a Sunday?”

He smiled.
 
“Get used to it, Charlotte.
 
If you’re going to be a lawyer, this is going to be your
life.”

He crossed the room and wrapped his arms
around my waist, scooping me up and off my chair.

“Noah!” I squealed as I wrapped my arms
around his neck.
 
He carried me to
his bedroom, where he set me down in front of the bathroom.
 
He’d already brought my things in, and
my bag was sitting on the bed.

I was grateful to see I’d be sleeping in
here with him, not in some guest room.

“There are towels in the bathroom,” he
told me.
 
“They might be hard to
find.”

“Why?” I asked, confused.
 
“Where are they?”

“In the closet.”

“Then why would they be hard to find?”

“You might need my help.”
 
He grinned, and I shook my head.
 

“No way,” I said.
 
“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.”
 
He shrugged.
 
“But I’ll be here if you need me.”

I took a long shower, letting the day
wash off me.
 
Noah’s bathroom was
filled with all kinds of expensive, yummy-smelling shampoos and I used them on
my hair, working them into a rich lather, enjoying the way they felt.

When I was done, I wrapped myself in a
fluffy towel, dried my hair until it was somewhat behaving, and then pulled on
my sleep t-shirt.

When I got to the bedroom, Noah was
laying on top of the bed, a stack of papers spread out in front of him, reading
something.
 
He was shirtless, his
tris and bis and everything else ripped and huge.
 

I felt self-conscious coming into the
room in just my t-shirt.
 
I should
have through to pack something else to sleep in, something sexier.
 
The women Noah was used to dating
probably had all kinds of expensive lingerie, teddies and garters and
nighties.
 

But as soon as Noah saw me, his eyes
smoldered.

“You’re going to have to pay for coming
out here in that little t-shirt, Charlotte.”
 
He sat up and gathered his papers, setting them on his night
table.