A warm hand closed around her shoulder. “You okay?”
Nicole felt her eyes prickle. “Don’t. Please, just don’t.”
Noah didn’t let go. He turned her to face him, gentle but unrelenting. Nicole kept her gaze on his shoes. If he was laughing, even slightly amused, she’d die from embarrassment.
“Nikki…” He slid a finger under her chin, tilting her face up.
He wasn’t smiling. His expression was as sternly neutral as it always was and that was a comfort, as real and warm as his hands.
“I’ll take you back to yours,” he said. “Come on.”
He slid an arm around her and her whole body tingled with beautiful electricity.
Chapter 4
The street outside was packed and throbbing with the music from the bar. Nicole looked around for a taxi, but Noah took her arm. “I’m parked in the side street.”
“You drove?”
“Yup, only had two beers.”
Her mortification doubled. He’d remember in HD sobriety the way she’d propositioned him and chin-stacked and all the other humiliating crap she’d done tonight. She shook her arm, trying to break his grasp. “I have to go back. I left my bag inside.”
Noah didn’t budge. “You didn’t bring a bag. Come on, Nikki. When you hit the deck, the night’s over. That’s the rules.”
She’d have told him to shove his rules, but a crowd of lads walked past, hollering and whooping to line up at the door. With Noah at her side, they acted like she was invisible, but if she had to queue to get back in, she doubted they’d be polite. And her knees and chin and palmswerestill stinging. “Fine. Let’s go.”
He led her to his van, walking slowly so she could match his stride. “Is your head okay?”
“I landed on my chin,” she said, trying to sound like it didn’t matter. As though none of this mattered. Noah’s half smile said she wasn’t pulling it off.
Noah’s van sat white and dusty on the side-street. He opened the passenger side door for her. “You okay?”
“Yes.” She practically leapt inside trying to prove it. It made her wounded knees ache. She’d ridden in Noah’s van before and the smell was familiar—cigarettes, dust and a cinnamon sweetness she couldn’t place. It was nice. In fact, everything about being out of the noise and heat of the bar was nice.
Noah climbed into the driver seat, pulling his seatbelt across his chest. The sight made her giggle. The sight and all the gin.
He frowned. “What?”
“You’re too scary-looking to put safety first.”
Noah didn’t smile, but the lines beside his mouth got a little deeper. “You want food or something before I take you home?”
“Can’t we go back to your place?” she asked, emboldened by his almost-grin.
Noah’s jaw worked like he was chewing gum. “I said I was taking you to yours.”
“…and coming inside…?”
“No.”
This time the rejection stung. She must be sobering up. “Why not? You’re always looking at me like you want to see me naked. Or are you making fun of me?”
Noah leaned over, grabbing her seatbelt buckle. She flinched. “What are you doing?”
He smiled then, a cold flash of teeth, and he drew the seatbelt across her chest, snapping it into place.
“Oh, um, thanks.”