Page 216 of I Never Stopped Loving You

“So when do you want to move in?” I ask.

“Well…Jenna and Jeremy have already started moving some of my stuff over. So is now okay?”

“Now is perfect.”

I can’t keep the excitement out of my voice.

“Perfect,” she mimics as she pulls me back to her for another kiss.

Perfect.

CHAPTER 92

WILLOW

TWO MONTHS LATER

“Noah, where are we going?” I ask as he rushes me out the front door and into the cool night air.

It’s February. We’ve been home for just over two months. I’m fully moved in, and we’ve moved on with life, living as normally as we can. I started working at Andersons’ and Sons, alongside Jeremy for a while, shadowing him and helping with his cases until my probation period ends. Noah was only coming in and working part-time for the first month and a half due to him still recovering from the stab wound.

The case involving Noah and his mysterious stabber is still unsolved and will remain that way. The cops never found prints or any trace of the mystery man, but thanks to Jeremy, it’s basically been forgotten.

We’ve been taking things easy, despite Noah’s insistence that he’s perfectly fine. There have been a few times we’ve been starting to get intimate, and I can tell the pain is too much. The doctor said it could take up to a year for all the internal damage to be fully healed, so I’ve been forcing him to take it slow.

We haven’t talked much about that night, and he’s only had a handful of nightmares since then. He says he doesn’t remember them, so I try not to pry. I know what happened down there changed him. He’s always been protective since the day I met him, but now it’s as if he’s worried that James Parker isn’t really gone. He didn’t get to take care of the disposal, so in his mind, he never got the closure that the monster was really dead.

“Noah? Tell me where we’re going,” I demand as he races off out of our driveway and onto the open road.

“Here, put this on.”

He hands me a black blindfold with a smile on his lips. He seems genuinely happy right now and finally content with life. I’ll do whatever he needs me to do for this surprise of his to go perfectly.

“Fine. But for how long?” I ask as I wrap the blindfold around my eyes and tie it tight.

It’s already dark out, so the blindfold makes it nearly pitch black. I can’t even see the soft blue glow of the dashboard lights through it.

“Can you see anything?” he asks as his hand rests on my mid-thigh.

When I don’t answer, his hand shifts and his fingers curl into my inner thigh, making the butterflies in my stomach flutter.

“Nope.”

“You’re not lying to me, are you, Little Rabbit?”

His voice is low and dark as his fingers begin to slowly move upward between my parted thighs. He told me to wear a dress tonight, but didn’t say how fancy. So, I just went with a simple black skater dress that Jenna designed, paired with the black boots that I love. I’m also wearing the new black leather jacket that Noah got me last week when we were out on a date.

“No,” I practically whimper as his finger teases along the edge of my thong.

“You better not be, or else you’ll ruin your surprise.”

His fingers retreat, causing my body to gasp at the lack of connection. I can hear his soft chuckle from beside me before he flips the center console up and has me unbuckle to scoot over to the middle seat.

I blindly fumble for the seatbelt before he thankfully helps me. I swear I’m not incompetent, just flustered from his teasing. It’s been three months since we’ve been able to really be intimate. Nothing but snuggling and kisses, keeping my body on edge for the last three months.

He told me he could help me take care of things, but without him being able to enjoy it too, I didn’t want to.

“Do I get a hint of where we’re going?” I ask as his arm wraps around my shoulders, and he pulls me protectively to his side.