“Noah,” Alec breathed, taking a step back. She wasn’t sure why until his eyes traveled up and down her body, taking her in completely. Noah felt her face warm. She wasn’t used to being studied so thoroughly. The only person who did something like that was Aaron, and it was only to point out if something was wrong with her. Not because he was awed by her beauty. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Noah said. For some reason, she didn’t feel shy. Just surprised. She hated to admit it, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, like he was going to say she was beautiful but her stomach was too soft or the freckles across her chest were too ugly or she had the world’s smallest nose. Except, Alec hadn’t said any of that.
“If you, uh…” He reached up to cup the back of his neck with his palm, and suddenly looked so much younger that Noah wanted to take him in her arms and hold him. “If you don’t want to do this, I understand.”
“Alec, I already told you,” she said, catching his eye. “I want you.”
“I just, once we start, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop. And I want you to know that now before anything happens. You always have that option. To stop. Obviously. But… but stopping now would be less painful than stopping later.”
Noah smiled at that moment and took a step towards Alec, then another, until she was right in front of him. Rolling onto her toes, she pulled Alec in for a deep kiss. His arms wrapped around her. He led her to the bed. When the back of her knees hit the mattress, he gently eased her down and crawled on top of it.
“You have protection?” she asked through each kiss.
“Always,” he said. He pulled off of her to retrieve a condom. In seconds, he ripped open the foil and slid it on before climbing back on top of her and kissing her again and again.
Alec slid inside of her with ease, filling her up more than Noah expected. She wrapped her arms around him, sinking her nails into his flesh. He hissed and her pelvis twinged. There was something powerful about making Alec Sinclair hiss and groan and anything else.
Once she relaxed slightly, he began to build up speed. Her eyes closed on their own accord, but she held onto him, pressing against him. She needed him. She needed this release. She needed to feel what pleasure felt like with someone who cared.
It wasn’t long before her orgasm began to build. Slowly, at first. And then all at once, until she was falling off the precipice before she even realized she had been placed there.
Alec’s own breathing grew ragged and it wasn’t long before he followed her bliss, clutching her to him tightly. She could barely hold onto herself, let alone him, but the warmth that filled her body, both physically and emotionally, stayed with her for the rest of the night.
15
Alec
“You slept with my best friend?” Lily asked in a low voice, her eyes trailing over to Alec’s bedroom door. Her hands were tightly bunched up against her chest, her jaw locked even as she spoke words. “Are you insane? Do you not think with your brain at all? I don’t understand how you could think that that would be okay? Like, where do you get off –“ She stopped herself. “Oh, I know where you get off.” She wrinkled her nose. “You are so gross.”
“Oh, but it’s okay for you to sleep with mine?” Alec returned, arching a brow. The last thing he wanted to do was pull himself away from Noah, but a couple of hours after their time together, he had had to pee. He shifted gently, not wanting to wake her, and managed to pull away without doing just that. She must have been tired, probably because of all the stress she had had to endure.
Lily opened her mouth, thought about it, and then closed it. She cleared her throat and looked away, shifting her weight. They were in the kitchen. Lily happened to be awake – something Alec found odd since Lily was not a night person – and when she saw Alec, she demanded to know where Noah was. Alec, not thinking quickly, came up with some ridiculous answer that even he couldn’t remember currently.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, Lil.” He smirked.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s beside the point, Alec,” she said. Her eyes kept going to the door, her mouth twisted into a scowl, though he could tell she was doing her best to keep her voice down. She began to pace, all but stomping across the carpet. Even that she did softly, probably not wanting to disturb their downstairs neighbors.
“Then, what is the point?” he asked.
“The point is, you shouldn’t be sleeping with my friends,” she said again. “I don’t have a reputation of loving and leaving women.”
“Well, neither do I,” he returned, turning so he could face her. “I don’t love anyone, except for myself, so your entire evidentiary claim is false.”
“Just because you watch Legally Blonde with me does not mean you’re suddenly a legal expert, Alec,” Lily said. “We both know you have a reputation. Noah is in a vulnerable place right now, and you took advantage of that. You slept with her, and she wasn’t ready for that! I can’t believe you.”
“Hey,” he said. “She kissed me. Without going into too much detail, I gave her plenty of opportunities to back out.”
“That’s you going
