Wildflower (Colors #4) (15 page)

“We’ve met.” I offered Derrick a small, tight smile as he reached out to shake my hand.

“Good to see you again, beautiful.” Oozing far more charm and charisma than was healthy for one mere mortal, he lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a light kiss to my knuckles. I was so caught off guard by the bold move that it took me a few seconds too many to realize Chloe’s normally cheerful expression had morphed into one of pain. I knew it was more than likely a harmless gesture, and from the way his smiling eyes cut to Noah, I knew he was doing it mainly to tease his friend, but I still couldn’t sit by and let my friend be hurt. At the same time I snatched my hand back, Noah’s elbow connected with Derrick’s ribs, causing him to grunt and bend slightly in pain.

“Keep your fucking lips to yourself or I’ll rip ‘em off and kiss my own ass with them,” he growled in a warning so ridiculous Chloe and I both choked on our laughter.

Ignoring his friend’s discomfort, Noah turned back to the table and offered us a brilliant smile. “Mind if we join you lovely ladies?”

“Yes, we mind,” I bit at the same time Chloe—the disloyal whore—scooted to the side of her booth to make room, eyes on Derrick as she insisted, “Not at all!”

Not needing any further invitation, Noah plopped down next to me and pushed me into the corner, sitting so close he was pressed against me, hip to thigh. And damn if my va-jay-jay didn’t cry out in joy at his close proximity.

I tried with all my power to shoot laser beams from my eyeballs as Noah casually snatched up a handful of
my
fries and began chowing down before turning to Chloe and giving the bitch a hard, swift kick to the shin under the table.

“Ow! Shit!” she yelp, turning to glower at me.

“You okay, Sunshine?” Derrick asked and Chloe’s head shot to the side, her cheeks flushed as she smiled shyly.

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “Just bumped my leg.”

For the love of God, that girl had it bad. I don’t think I’d ever seen my friend turn into such a simpering
female
around anyone other than Derrick. It would be adorable if I didn’t hate her disloyal ass.

“You smell fantastic,” Noah murmured in my ear, giving me a start.

“Can you please move over?” I asked, hating the way my voice quivered. How could I expect him to take me seriously when my request sounded weak to my own ears?

“I like it right here,” he said in a low, seductive voice.

“You just don’t stop, do you?” I asked, scooting as close to the side of the booth as possible, freeing up no more than a measly few centimeters of space between us.

“I told you,” he started, all playfulness having disappeared from his voice. “Not when something so important is at stake.”

I could feel the irritation seeping out of me.

“You’re not playing fair,” I leaned in to whisper.

Noah smiled and I felt it in the pit of my stomach. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied cheekily.

I frowned skeptically as I looked over at our two friends, so lost in conversation they weren’t even paying attention to us. “Really? So you’re telling me, living in such a small town and all, that you’ve never, not once, noticed Chloe’s complete inability to form a coherent sentence whenever your friend is around?”

I raised one brow in challenge as Noah’s warm eyes lit with laughter. “I might have noticed once or twice.”

“Be hard not to, seeing as she lights up like roadside flare every damn time,” I found myself joking, my own lips tilting up to match his. It was almost impossible not to feel somewhat lighter whenever he was around and in a playful mood. For some reason, we just fell right back into our old routine.

I watched carefully from the corner of my eye as Derrick muttered something quietly to Chloe, causing her whole face to burn bright red before she broke into a loud laugh, quickly followed by his deep, attractive chuckle.

“She really likes him,” I told Noah as I turned my attention back to him. “Your friend better not hurt her.”

“Derrick’s a good guy, baby. You can trust him.”

I studied his expression, looking for any signs of dishonesty and finding none. “I’ll take your word for that then.” I replied softly.

“You can trust me, too, you know.”

Closing my eyes against the riot of emotions I saw in the honeyed depths of his, I tried to breathe through the sensation of my stomach plummeting. It felt like I was on a rollercoaster and falling from the highest peak.

“Stop pushing,” I warned weakly as I met his gaze once again.

He leaned in, his lips just a hairsbreadth away from mine as he spoke. “Never.”

I shifted to face the table and picked up my beer, downing the rest as I wracked my brain for a change of topic before coming up with the perfect subject. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened to your football career?” I asked as I placed the now empty beer bottle on the distressed wood table.

“Depends,” he responded casually. He leaned against the back of the booth and stretched one arm along the top of it, his fingers dangerously close to my hair. I had to fight back my instinct to lean into him.

“On what?”

“On if you’ll go to dinner with me.”

I rolled my eyes and let out a laugh. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure we’re doing dinner now.”

“Call me old fashioned, but I’d prefer our next dinner not be under duress.”

“Not sure that’ll ever happen,” I mumbled under my breath.

Noah raised his arm to flag down a passing waiter and ordered a beer for himself and another for me before saying, “I’ll wear you down eventually, baby.”

“Oh yes,” I deadpanned. “Because I find arrogance
so
attractive.”

In the blink of an eye, Noah was in my space completely, nearly nose-to-nose as he said in a low, sultry voice that wreaked havoc on my heart, “It has nothing to do with arrogance and everything to do with the fact that we were made to be together. You think I’m pushy now? Just wait, wildflower. You were
created
for me—that knowledge hasn’t changed in the past half-decade. I know it now just as much as I knew it back then. I fucked up, but I swear to God, if it’s the last thing I do, I
will
get you back. In my life
and
in my bed.”

With that impassioned speech, my brain malfunctioned and I forgot to breathe. Once my synapses were firing correctly again, only one thought bounced through my mind.

I was undeniably fucked.

I couldn’t remember ever feeling more exhausted in my life. I thought being an assistant was hard. But spending all day teaching a bunch of horny, irritating kids? Well, I felt like I should have been nominated for sainthood.

I needed wine… or tequila. STAT.

On top of the torture that was teaching high school, I was working hourly trying to build up my defenses to protect against all things Noah. But the man was nothing if not persistent. Each day since that night at the Drunken Moose, my shield had taken one hit after another. From him bringing me coffee from Sinful Sweets every day to finding him shoveling the snow off my windshield in the parking lot on his off-periods, he was slowly but surely causing irreparable damage to what had once been a steel-enforced, barbed wire wall.

I didn’t know whether to scream in frustration or tackle him to the ground and rip his clothes off. Needless to say, my current dilemma had led to many sleepless nights and I was more than just a little cranky.

I pushed through the front door, dumping my bags on the table in the entry before hanging my purse and coat on the hook. I made a beeline for the kitchen with the wine I’d wisely purchased on the way home in hand. I’d been so desperate while standing in the aisle at Smith’s that I wasn’t worried about quality. All I had in mind was quantity. Hence the box of wine I had clutched to my chest like it was my precious baby.

“Ethan!” I yelled toward the staircase. “You home?” I listened for any sounds of him as I rummaged through the cabinets, looking for my stem-less wine glasses. I might have planned to drink my weight in boxed wine, but I refused to do it in anything other than a wine glass. After all, I wasn’t an animal.

The faint thump of music from Ethan’s room became more distinct as I climbed the stairs, freshly-poured glass in hand.

“Hey, Ethan, I was thinking Chinese for dinner,” I called out. I took a gulp and pushed his bedroom door open. “What do you thi—
ARGH! MY EYES
!”

The glass fell from my hand and shattered against the wood floor as I tried to block out what I was seeing in front of me.

“What the hell, Harlow!” Ethan shouted as the sounds of a girl shrieking stabbed at my eardrums.

“What the
hell
?” I yelled back. “You don’t say
what the hell
! I say
what the hell
! What the hell, Ethan! Ohmigod! You have
two
fucking seconds to get dressed and get your ass downstairs, and so help me God, if your…
friend
isn’t out of this house by then I’m gonna lose my shit!”

Uncovering my eyes, I turned and rushed down the stairs like my ass was on fire.

Fuck having standards. I needed booze and I needed it
before
my eyeballs were seared at the sight of my little brother hooking up with a girl. Grabbing one of the ginormous plastic cups I got at the dollar store, I held it under the spout and filled it to the brim, chugging half of it as footsteps thundered down the staircase. I heard the front door open and slam closed just as I finished my wine off and went back for more.

Seconds after the door slammed, a
very
unhappy Ethan came charging into the kitchen, geared for battle. Unfortunately for him, being driven to near blindness pissed me the ever-loving-hell off and I had ten years on him.

“What the fuck was that?!” he all but shouted at me. “Do you have any idea what you just did? Shannon’s never gonna talk to me again.”

“Hey! Watch your mouth!”

“Oh my God! You cuss all the time!”

“Because
I’m
the adult and
you’re
the kid, and you’ll show me some respect.” I stumbled back a step and put my hand on the counter to gain my balance. “Oh, dear Lord. I sound like a fucking grownup. And it’s all your fault!” I pointed at my brother.

Okay, so I might have been a little irrational at that point, but who could blame me? I mean, really.

“You two are fourteen years old! You have no business having sex. For the love of God, you’re not even supposed to know how to
use
it yet,” I cried as I waved in the direction of the front of his jeans. Then I gagged a little.

“We weren’t having sex, crazy! We were just making out.”

“Neither of you were wearing shirts and your pants were undone. And believe me, that’s the
last
thing I ever wanted to see. Two fourteen year olds have no business being alone in a bedroom when no one’s home, Ethan!”

“Shannon’s not fourteen. She’s sixteen. And she’s the most popular girl in school, so thanks for ruining my reputation.”

My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. “She’s
sixteen
?” I shrieked so loud the windows rattled. “That little
slut
! Get me your phone. I’m calling her mother.”

“You’ve lost your mind! You’re not calling her mother. Are you
trying
to ruin the rest of high school for me?”

“If all you do is spend your time with fast little girls like
Shannon
, then yeah, I am!”

“She’s not fast! God, you’re being so lame! She’s friends with Kyle’s girlfriend. She’s really cool, and she likes me, or at least she did, until my sister turned into a psycho.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well then you need to start picking better friends. Clearly Kyle has piss-poor taste.”

“He does not! And I don’t need new friends. I’ve got the team.”

“That’s part of the problem, Ethan. You’re the youngest one on the team by at least a year. You don’t hang out with anyone your own age.”

Ethan let out a humorless bark. “You’ve lost it,” he said as he turned to storm up the stairs.

“I haven’t lost shit!” I shouted after him, even though I was pretty sure I
had
lost it. “And you’re grounded, mister!”

Yep, I’d totally lost it.