When the heck had she become poetic about men’s torsos?
“Hey,” he said, gruffly, rubbing his eyes.
“Hi, did I catch you sleeping?”
“Yeah, took half the day to move in. The guys ditched me once the furniture got inside, so I carried up all the boxes on my own.”
At the mention of boxes, Noel tore her eyes away from his pecs and held the one in her hands out to him. “Well, here is one more left on my doorstep by mistake.”
Nick took it, using one hand to rummage through it. Noel’s gaze trailed over his sculpted forearm as the sinew twisted under the tan skin.
Get it together, girl. They are just arms. You have seen half-naked men before.
The familiar sound of a turbo engine broke through the fog of lust and she didn’t even look over the railing to check the parking lot. She pushed Nick back into his apartment and slammed the door, her back pressed against the white wood.
“What the— Noel! What’s wrong with you?”
“Shhhh! Turn the light off.” She ran over to his window, setting her food on one of the boxes strewn about the floor. She dropped the blinds and squatted down, peeking through discreetly.
“What is going on?”
Trip came up the stairs two at a time and disappeared to the right, no doubt heading for her apartment.
Nick hunkered down next to her. “What are you looking at—”
Even three doors down, an eruption of wall-shaking knocks shut him up.
“Noel! I can’t believe you’d fucking dine and ditch me! I come to you with my heart open, offering you the chance of a lifetime, and you run out on me? Take advantage of my generosity?”
Nick nudged her shoulder. “His heart open?”
“Not the way you are thinking,” she hissed. “He offered to buy me dinner because he wanted me to invest the money from my parents’ estate into his microbrewery.”
“Microbrewery,” Nick snorted. “Douche.”
“Exactly. So, after I listened to his pitch, I grabbed my dinner to go and bounced. On his tab.”
Nick grinned. “Clever girl.”
“I thought so.”
Trip kept knocking and cursing. “I know you’re here! I saw your car in the parking lot. You could have just said no, instead of being a fucking cowardly bitch.”
“Fuck this,” Nick said, standing straight. “I’m gonna knock his teeth in.”
Nick took a step toward the door, but Noel tackled him before he could get further. They landed on the floor with an oof, Noel plastered across Nick’s chest. She pushed herself up onto her arms, shaking her head.
“Just stay here, okay? He’ll go away.”
“I’m not going to sit in here listening to him call you names.”
Noel rolled her eyes. “I don’t care what he calls me. Besides, he’s not wrong. What I did was a bitch move, no matter how bad he deserved it.”
“Still, if he says one more thing…”
“Believe me, I’ve been called worse tonight and I don’t need you to defend my honor.”
“What are you talking about? By who?”
Noel didn’t know if Nick noticed his hands drifted over her hips, but she couldn’t ignore the heat of his palms through her jeans. She swallowed, resisting the urge to press her hips against him.
“Noel? Who called you names?”
“Amber. She was talking about Gabby behind her back and we got into it in the lady’s bathroom.”
Nick leaned his head back against the floor, closing his eyes with a groan. “Why does so much drama always occur in women’s restrooms? It’s a theme in every chick flick I’ve ever seen.”
“Because art imitates life?”
“So how did it escalate from there?”
Noel didn’t answer right away, listening to Trip’s diatribe of her transgressions against him. When he started shouting about her giving him blue balls she cursed.
“Please tell me about the altercation with Amber so I don’t have to listen to him bitch about your sexcapades. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
Funny how Nick sounded almost jealous, making Noel’s body warm. He still hadn’t seemed to notice she was practically straddling him. Or maybe he had and was trying to behave.
“She called me a slut, which is a little hard to defend right now with my ex-fuck buddy screaming about me leaving him hanging. Then she said I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“Wait how did it go from shit talking Gabby to me?”