Page 97 of Love In Hiding

He was going through his calendar. He’d learned already to stop saying he was available when she stopped in. She was doing it more and more and most times it was something that could have been handled via an email.

“I don’t have much going on that I can’t rearrange,” Noelle said when he was going through his calendar and workload.

“How about eleven,” he said. “I should be off my call by then.”

He was getting on it soon with London. He could walk down to see her, but he knew if he did, he’d be there longer than necessary.

They were going over a few things from their trip to Maine. Which was over a month ago at this point.

She and Paris were still working on summaries from their trip to Florida. There was more going on there and thetwins were flying back on Wednesday morning for another few days without him.

There was no reason for him to go again and they could have more than this trip in the future on top of it with the amount of work to do.

They were staying a few extra days and visiting with their parents for the weekend and returning on Sunday night.

He wasn’t the clingy type, but maybe he didn’t want to be away from her that long either.

Noelle nodded and strode out as if she had something clawing its way from her belly to shoot out her lips.

Maybe she’d figure it out before they met. Or he hoped.

He got up to get some water, then shut his door to call London.

“Hi,” she said. “You’re a few minutes early. You know how I feel about that.”

“You didn’t have to answer,” he said.

“And keep you waiting? Maybe I should have and see if it worked you up any.”

“Not likely. Do you think you’d be the first person who has kept me waiting in life?”

She laughed and the sound shot bullets of excitement through his veins.

He didn’t remember the last time a woman did this to him.

And that was why he’d opened the window of his emotions a tiny crack to her the Saturday they returned from their trip.

She’d been worked up over her mother finding out about them. Almost angry.

He had to feel out her reasons for that. To hide the hurtit might cause that she didn’t want even her parents to know.

Then he reminded himself that his parents hadn’t known either.

He had called Coy last week, spoken to his brother-in-law and Angel, told them he was dating London, then made the call to his parents.

His mother, she’d been thrilled with the news and wanted to know as much as she could about the woman who was taking up a lot more space in his brain than he’d given anyone else.

“I think you enjoy it,” she purred, her voice velvet-soft and sharp enough to slice through him, even make his dick move some in his pants. “You like seeing how long it takes before someone cracks.”

He rocked back in his seat, glad the closed door was hiding the stupidly wide grin threatening to give away what he was thinking and feeling.

“You enjoyed it yesterday,” he murmured.

She laughed, a low, warm sound that wrapped around him like a hand sliding under his shirt. He could feel it skating across his skin, and settling in places it had no business settling. No business taking up residence in his thoughts while he should be working.

If he were with her in person right now, he would want to reach out. To touch her. Pull her close to his side.

And she’d come.