Chapter Thirty-Three
Noah
I wanted to kiss her.
It’s been weeks since I last saw her, and now that I was finally looking at her beautiful face, all I could think about was kissing her until we both ran out of breath. Those beautiful plump lips I’d been fantasizing about for weeks were my fucking weakness. They tasted of ripe cherries, their sweetness exploding on my tongue every time I kissed her. God, it felt like yesterday when they were mine, no matter how brief. Yet it seemed like forever since I claimed them.
Green eyes threaded with gold couldn’t hide her surprise as she stared at me. “Noah.” She breathed my name like it was pure oxygen, and I wanted her to say it over and over again. I wanted her to whisper my name against my lips while I kissed her. I wanted to hear her say it as I touched her skin, setting her body aflame. And I wanted my name to be her curse and prayer as her orgasm peaked with my cock inside her.
I locked my gaze with hers. “Hey, baby girl.”
She merely stared at me, her eyes wide and shimmering.
While crouched, I looked down. “I know you probably hate me right now.”
She didn’t say a word, and it was unlike her. The Sienna I knew would lash out, scream and curse, and tell me what a cruel motherfucker I was for leaving in the middle of the night. She’d tear into me, wanting to inflict the same amount of pain she had been forced to endure because I left her without an explanation. Without closure.
But not now. Sienna simply shifted, pushing her back harder against the wall as if she was trying to get away from me. I hated it. All I wanted to do was touch her, tell her that I was sorry and wrap my arms around her so I could comfort her if she’d let me. But as I met her pained gaze, I knew she’d break if I had to touch her now. A single tear had already escaped, and the sight broke my fucking heart.
I pulled a palm down my face. “Sienna, listen—”
“No. Don’t you fucking dare.” She barely moved as she trembled. “Don’t apologize.”
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Sienna, come on.”
“By apologizing, it means you think that what you did to me is actually forgivable.”
“An apology would mean I’m sorry, not that I expect you to forgive me.”
“I don’t care.”
“Sienna.” Her name sounded fucking perfect as it left my lips. “It’s so much more complicated than you think.”
“Of course, it is.”
I sighed, roughing my hand through my hair before pulling out my pocketknife.
Sienna stiffened, pulling her legs as far up to her chest as possible.
“Jesus. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You already have.” Her voice cracked, her words riddled with animosity slowly turning into hurt. It stung. It fucking ached hearing her say it even though I knew it to be true. The moment I decided to leave while she was sleeping so soundly in my arms, I knew I’d hurt her more than she deserved in one lifetime. But my past left me no choice. After having the fear of God forced into me the day Oakley took her, I knew I was risking too much by being with her.
She was risking too much.
I glanced down at her tied feet. “You going to run if I untie you?”
“Yes.”
“You going to assault me if I untie your hands?”
“Yup.”
I snorted, reaching for her feet, and easily sliced through the rope. She didn’t move at all; her body and every muscle rigid as I leaned forward. But I wasn’t prepared for her familiar sweet smell, breathing in those warm vanilla notes that emitted a heady, sensual scent that made me acutely aware of just how much my body had been aching for her.