“Holding you. Kissing you. Touching you. Driving you crazy.”

With every word, he became more frantic. “I dream about making love to you, Lexa. Over and over again.”

His forehead dropped to her shoulder, his biceps bulging as he poised above her.

“Lexa,” he moaned. “God, Lexa.” He was panting, hard. Desperate. Out of control. And so was she.

Hot, surging pleasure flooded her limbs. She was so close. So close. And he seemed to know it, because he ground against her pelvis, and she was gone. Her whole body shook and then stiffened as she cried his name over and over, fingers digging into the mattress, head thrown back, heart exploding.

In the next instant, Noah let out a shudder and a guttural groan.

And followed her into the abyss.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Noah couldn’t move.

If he could stay here like this forever, he would. Wrapped in her arms, tangled in her body, his energy spent and his skin slick. Buried inside her forever.

He was only vaguely aware of the skim of her fingertips up his spine, of her breath against his neck, of the tandem pounding of their hearts. Her body surrounded him, welcomed him, embraced him, enlightened him.

He pressed his forehead to her neck and choked back the swell of emotion that made his throat thick and his eyes burn. Great. Just what he needed. To fucking cry after making love to her. But he had never experienced this before. He had never made love before. Not until now. Not until her. It had never felt like that for him.

Giving a woman pleasure had never been so fucking good for him.

She turned her face and nuzzled him with her cheek. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” he murmured.

“We just had sex.”

He puffed out a laugh. “Is that what that was?”

“It’s been a while for me, but I’m pretty sure.”

“I enjoyed it,” he said, slowly regaining control of senses.

She mmm’d and burrowed her face into his neck. “So did I.”

He was probably crushing her beneath his weight, so he forced himself up on his elbows, every muscle protesting.

“Hey.” She smiled up at him.

He responded with a kiss. “Don’t move, okay?”

She nodded.

Noah padded naked to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. He paused at the sink and splashed several handfuls of cold water on his face. When he stared in the mirror he was shocked to see the same face staring back at him that had been there before. Something should be different, shouldn’t it? When a man experienced the most important sexual experience of his life, shouldn’t it reflect on his face?

Or maybe that was the point. Nothing had changed, because this was always supposed to happen between them. They didn’t change each other. They were perfect together as they were.

When he returned to bed, he found her curled on her side, head resting on her arm. She smiled as he crawled in next to her and brushed a wayward curl off her cheek.

“Now what?” She smiled.

“We could always do it again.”

Her laugh was light and airy, and it made his heart turn over in his chest.

“God, I love that sound,” he breathed.

“You always make me laugh.”

“I hope I always do.”

Her smiled turned coy. “I wasn’t laughing two minutes ago.”

“I know. Give me twenty, and we can start making that noise again too.”

She pressed her hand to his stomach. “The noise I’m most concerned about right now is the rumbling coming from here.”

“I missed dinner. Someone stole my shoes.”

Alexis barked out a laugh. “Should we order room service?”

“Either that, or we could go dig around in the Russian’s suitcase.”

She laughed again and sat up. “Want me to get the menu?”

Noah tugged her back down. “I’ll do it. You’ve cooked enough meals for me. The least I can do is scrounge up some room service.”

Alexis sank against her pillows and tucked her arms behind her head as he slid from bed. “I could get used to this,” she called as he walked out of the room.

“Get used to what?” He found the room service binder on the coffee table in the sitting room. “Me feeding you?”

“You walking around naked.”

He returned to the bedroom. “Let’s add that to the list of things we hope change after this.”

He plopped back down on the bed, and she snuggled against him as he flipped open the binder. “See anything that looks good?”

“Besides you?”

He chuckled. “I could get used to that.”

“What?”

“You openly lusting after me.”

Her giggle made his chest swell.

“Do you think everyone has figured out what we’re doing yet?” she asked, resting her head against his shoulder.

“Yes. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, are you?”

He flipped a page in the menu. “Hell yes. I want everyone to know.”

She laughed. “I guess they need to find out sooner or later. I mean, if we’re going to keep doing, you know . . .”

He gaped down at her. “Please, God, tell me that’s not even a question at this point.”

“I didn’t want to make assumptions.”

He closed the binder and tossed it off the bed. Then he rolled on top of her, lacing their fingers together on either side of her pillow. “I’ve waited a long time for you. You can safely assume that I want to do it as often as possible.”

They kissed once more. And before too long, she started making that noise again, and he forgot all about room service.

* * *

* * *

“I think you might have killed me that time.”

Alexis laughed as Noah rolled onto his back, panting. A moment passed, and he awkwardly sat up. Just like before, he ordered her to stay put as he got up to deal with the less sexy part of sex. She watched him pad toward the bathroom, and as soon as the door swung shut, she disobeyed and got out of bed. His shirt was in a ball on the floor. She grabbed it and pulled it on and wandered to the window overlooking Beale Street.

The bathroom door swung open. “I told you to stay put,” he joked, coming up behind her. His arms circled her waist and tugged her tightly against his chest. They stood like that for a quiet moment, content again to just feel each other. Finally.

She covered his arms with her own. “I wish we could stay here forever,” she sighed.

His lips brushed her hair. “Not me. Because I can’t wait to take you home and start doing all those naked things we talked about.”

She managed a laugh, but it came out thick and watery. He squeezed her. “Hey,” he soothed. “What’s that?”

“I’m sorry. Emotional after sex and all that. I’ll stop. Just give me a minute.”

His lips came down on her shoulder. “You don’t have to apologize for being emotional. We’re kind of on a roller coaster right now. I’ve been one step away from losing it since the minute you opened your hotel room door.”

Alexis twisted in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his chest. His heart pounded beneath her cheek. Strong. Solid. Reassuring. He held her and let her catch her breath, pressing gentle kisses to the top of her head and rubbing his hands up and down her back and being so fucking perfect that she wanted to melt.

She finally risked a look at his face. “Why did we wait so long?”

“Because we weren’t ready.”

“But you said you’ve wanted this for a long time.”

“I have. Longer than you know.”

“But I kissed you, Noah.”

He sighed wearily and rested his brow on hers. “And if the adrenaline had worn off and you regretted it, it would have fucking gutted me.”

“I shouldn’t have just run out that night. I’m sorry—”

He kissed her and shook his head gently. “No more apologies.”

“I need to get this out. I had a whole speech planned.”

He acquiesced with a resigned sigh. He slid his hands around her waist and gripped her hips. “I’m listening.”

“It was disrespectful of me to not give you a chance to explain things,” she said, heart pounding. “Our friendship deserved better than that.”

He lifted a hand from her hip to her cheek. “Lexa—”

“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, and that’s the thing that I don’t want to change.”

“It won’t.” He lowered his mouth to hers, his kiss gentle and sweet. “Just promise me you won’t ever go a week without talking to me again, okay? This was the worst week of my life.”

She managed a small smile. “I have a hard time believing that.”

He understood what she meant. “I was numb after my father died. I felt nothing. But I felt every second of you needing space.”

Her voice caught. “I don’t want any more space.”

“Neither do I.”

And then he kissed her.

Another apology. Another promise.

And within minutes the shirt was gone.

* * *

* * *

Alexis woke up the next morning disoriented. Sore, but in the best way.

Then she heard the soft snore behind her, and everything fell into place.

Noah.

His arm was heavy across her waist, his breath warm against her back. Her body hummed with desire but also the burning need to use the bathroom. Alexis stretched and slid out from under his arm.

Noah made a tired sound and tugged her back. “Not yet.”

“But I have to pee.”

He finally released her but told her to hurry back. She did the bathroom thing, tried to twist her hair into something less Medusa-like, and then brushed her teeth. When she returned, she found him awake and splayed on top of the covers, gloriously and confidently naked, legs crossed at the ankles and one arm curled beneath his head as he scrolled through his phone.