After the anticlimactic departure of Mrs. Garrison from Forbidden, I was ready to move past that scene though, while Noel obviously was not.
“I mean, what the hell?” He glanced across the interior of my car toward me. “I don’t get it. The woman came all the way from Florida to tell Lowe a lie he would’ve caught on to eventually. Why even bother?”
I focused on his question because I didn’t like thinking about how perilously public our relationship was becoming, and that was the only thing zooming through my mind right now.
“Women like her use whatever they can to manipulate people,” I told him. “She knows she’s a quick thinker. Maybe she was hoping Mason would blindly follow her back to Florida so she could bank on the chance she could come up with something else to use against him to keep him there.”
Noel snorted. “Yeah, but...why go through all that trouble for someone who wants nothing to do with you?”
I shrugged, picturing my mother. “It’s all about control. She thrives on managing the people in her life. And every little thing they do.”
“I like control,” he argued. “I’m the freaking quarterback of my team, and I consider myself the head of my family. Hell, I’ve practically taken over at Forbidden. But I’ve never—”
Reaching out, I set my hand on his to stop his drumming fingers. “That’s because you know the difference between leadership and dictatorship. And you have a rational functioning brain. She does not. I doubt either of us could understand the way she thinks. She’s gotten so used to manipulating, blackmailing, and doing whatever she wants to get her way, she has this whole ego trip going on and thinks she can’t fail at anything. In her own mind, she’s invincible.”
Turning his hand over so our palms were facing, he laced our fingers together and gave a warm squeeze. “You sound like you have some experience with people like her.”
I nodded and paused at a four-way. “I do. Mrs. Garrison is the spitting image of my mother. I know her type well.”
He brought my knuckles up to his mouth to kiss them. “I knew there was a reason I already didn’t like your mother.” Then he changed gears, holding up the bag containing my pregnancy test and shaking it. “You’re still taking this when we get home, right?”
A rush of air exited my lungs. “Of course.”
His fingers returned to tapping. Silence filled the car. I was actually tempted to reach out and turn on the radio to kill the tension.
“So, tonight kind of turned into baby-palooza, huh?” Noel glanced over and sent me an unreadable look. “I mean, what with that lady coming in to harass Lowe, then the chick with his girlfriend who really was pregnant. My sister’s knocked up. And now you...”
When his eyes revealed just how nervous he was, I realized that was why he’d been rambling about Lowe’s problems. He’d been afraid to bring up the real issue.
Us.
“I’m probably not,” I tried to reassure him. “Like I said, I’ve never been regular. But it’s been long enough to get some accurate results, so—”
“No, it’s fine,” he told me. “I get it. And I’m with you one hundred percent. I don’t want to wait to find out. I want to know tonight.”
I nodded and pulled into my drive. After I killed the car, we both continued to sit there, facing forward without moving, until Noel burst out, “Okay, is it totally weird that I’m completely turned on right now?”
I twisted to gape at him. “What?”
He turned to me, too. “I can’t stop thinking about it.” He reached out and touched my shoulder tentatively before his fingers slid down my arm. “What if a part of me is growing in there? In you? I feel like I branded you, like we’re just so explosively amazing together, a whole new life form developed to contain the overflow.” His touch scaled my abdomen before pressing lightly. “It’s so fucking hot. We could’ve just created art together, Aspen. A masterpiece.”
Leaning across the center console, he nipped at my mouth and then slid his tongue inside. The kiss started warm and slow, but it didn’t take long to gain heat and fervor. Before I knew it, we were both panting and straining across the front seat to reach for more of each other.
“I can’t wait.” He peeled my shirt up over my head and flung it into the backseat before grasping my waist and hauling me into his lap. “Get over here, woman.”