Learning the Ropes (16 page)
Read Learning the Ropes Online
Authors: Remy Richard
Rory took a deep breath. No matter how much she deserved his anger, it still cut deep that he wouldn’t look at her. “I want to apologize. I—there’s no excuse for how I acted.”
“I got your voice mails. There was no need to come down here and say it in person.”
Rory picked up a stray cocktail napkin and began to pleat it, something to keep her nervous fingers busy as she continued on. “Noah, please look at me.”
She waited for long moments as he stared straight ahead and didn’t answer her. Finally he turned towards her on his bar stool and raised a bored eyebrow at her. His face was completely impassive. Rory searched for any trace of the man who had held her, teased her, and made her fall in love with him, but found no compassion. He had offered it freely and she had turned it away. Now she would have to bare her soul to earn it back.
“There’s so many things that I’m sorry for that a voice mail couldn’t possibly cover it. I’m sorry for how I treated you—and not just when Grant and Celeste found us the other night. I’m sorry that I was so mean to you for so long. I just… it was my way of keeping away from you. My way of making sure I never forgot that you used me all that time ago.”
Noah set his beer down on the counter with more force than was necessary. “So what was this? Some kind of revenge for that? I told you what happened and I apologized for it. You can’t make me pay for it forever.”
“No!” Rory held up a hand to placate him. “God, no. This was never about revenge. This was about me being too stupid and too scared to go after what I really wanted: you.”
He didn’t comment so she continued on. “Because it didn’t matter that I thought you had used me and then pushed me aside—I still wanted you. Not just for sex, either; I wanted to be with you, laughing and having fun. I’m not so good at some of that if you’ll remember. It just seemed like we kept getting thrown together and every time it got harder and harder to resist you. So I made myself believe that I was only with you for the sex and the adventure. But it turned into so much more.”
Noah sighed and began peeling the label from his bottle. “Maybe you were right the first time, Rory. It’s just too hard with us. Too much water under the bridge.”
Rory blinked back the tears that flooded her eyes and forged on. “I don’t want to walk away because it’s too hard or I might get embarrassed. All of this, keeping our relationship a secret, lying and sneaking around, it was never because I was ashamed of you. It was always because I thought it was a foregone conclusion that you would leave me. I mean, look at me and look at you.”
Noah dropped his couldn’t-care-less demeanor then and took a hold of her shoulders to shake her. “I don’t ever want to hear you say that again. You’re beautiful, Rory. I can’t believe you would think otherwise, or believe that I was that shallow.”
Rory closed her eyes, thrilled to have his hands back on her again. Thrilled to be able to smell his cologne and feel his heat. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I was a coward. Afraid to take a chance on love. On you.”
Noah’s throat worked as he stared into her eyes. She had to blink a few times so that the tears would fall and she could see him clearly. “What are you saying, Rory?”
“That I’m in love with you. That I want to be with you.” Rory leaned closer to him and kissed him with all of the passion in her heart. It wasn’t timid or questioning or polite; she put every ounce of feeling she had for him into it. It was a kiss of possession and heat and need. It was a declaration.
Neither one of them came up for air until it was an absolute necessity. Through her lust-induced haze, she heard cheers and whistles coming from all over the room. Most especially from the small table where her best friends sat. She looked around and realized that somehow she had moved from her barstool to his lap and was clenching deep handfuls of his shirt to pull him closer. Grant grinned at them from down the bar and she guessed that he had a pretty good visual of what had gone on in his office.
Rory looked at Noah and saw wonder in his eyes. “So I think that tells everyone we know just how I feel about you. How do you feel about
me
?” Rory’s heart pounded double time in her ears. He drew out the moment and she knew this was his way of punishing her for the pain she had caused him.
Wrapping one arm carefully around her waist and bringing the other up to stroke her face, Noah waited a few seconds longer than was comfortable. “I’m in love with you and I want to try to make this work.”
Rory gripped him tightly around the neck and buried her face in his chest, hot tears of joy staining his shirt. “That’s not supposed to make you cry, sweetheart.”
She lifted her face. “They’re happy tears, I promise.”
Noah gave her a quick kiss before sliding his hand to her hip. “Why don’t we go somewhere a little more private and celebrate, hmm? Maybe work on a few more quiz questions.”
“Oh, that reminds me!” Rory jumped off his lap and leaned down for her purse, which had somehow gotten knocked on the floor. Withdrawing a single sheet of paper, her cheeks blushed red as she handed it to him.
He studied it for a few seconds before looking at her askance. “What is this?”
“It’s a one-of-a-kind quiz I made up for you. It’s a fantasy quiz and you get to fill in the blanks. I think we’ve just about covered all of the material on the last one.”
“Ah—and are you going to be the one grading this quiz?”
Rory looped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “Nope. We’re going to learn the ropes together this time.”
***
How do you stack up against Rory and the girls? Head over to www.remyrichard.com to take the “Pleasure and Positions” sex quiz now!
Celeste Benning lost her phone—the lifeline that connects her to everything social. Luckily, she’s able to retrace her steps and find not just her phone, but a hot bartender who leaves her head spinning and a mystery man who sends her sexy text messages that leave her phone smoking.
When a gorgeous woman comes into his bar looking for her phone, Grant is only too happy to save the day…and ask her to go out with him the next night. Then he impulsively sends her some anonymous text messages designed to tease and titillate, realizing only too late that he’s just become his own romantic competition.
While Celeste wonders how to choose between the sexy, exciting mystery man and lovable, gorgeous Grant, Grant wonders how Celeste will react when she realizes that both men are the same person…and how he can convince her to stay with him forever.
Check out
Sexting the Limits
and other titles by Remy Richard today!
Editor: Debbie Brunettin
Copyright © 2012 by Remy Richard
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All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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