Page 103 of The Addict

Noah observed me as I took a breath before I continued. “Thanks for helping me through it, but I don’t need anything else from you. I’m fine now. So, what do you want?”

We seemed closer somehow. I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

“I want to get to know you,” his lips formed a warm smile.

My heart started a heaving pulsing that I felt in my cheeks. Noah leaned forward, emphasizing, “More.”

I nearly threw my hands up in indignation. This was the messiest game of tug of war I’d ever been part of. “You can’t be serious. Look, Noah, I don’t think your boyfriend would be very happy if he knew you asked me that.”

Noah raised an eyebrow, unfazed. “Oh, Alex? Nah, he’s not my boyfriend.”

His words were like a slap to the face. I wasn’t that ignorant.

“Okay, it might take me a bit longer to understand some things, but you two were literally making out,” I snapped. I hadn’t been staring directly at them, but I knew exactly what they were doing before I was directed to get more popcorn.

“You of all people should know how clingy your friend is,” Noah spoke playfully. He looked as though he was enjoying my discomfort. “Alex is my best friend. I brought him so that Chelsea would leave me alone. I didn’t know you would be here. This kiss, well–”

He winked, “I needed a distraction that she’d believe, so that I could come out here and talk to you privately.”

My cheeks flushed.

“Wait– So you’re not...g-gay?” I questioned meekly, afraid to offend him.

He shook his head. “Bi, yes. Gay, no.”

I stared at him icily, completely confused. “How do you know that?”

“Delane,” he said with a little laugh, “I know.”

“But how can you be sure?” I persisted, unbelieving. I knew what a true kiss looked like, at least, I thought so. What I witnessed seemed too passionate to be faked.

“Because I’ve sampled both women and men,” he grinned wickedly, “and I like not having to choose.”

I was too stunned to speak. Noah inched closer to me, and I mirrored his motion with a step backwards. A fire blossomed down within me—slowly, like embers searching desperately for oxygen to ignite them. Noah’s confidence wasn’t just visible, it radiated off of his body, like heat from the pavement in a blinding summer. He had no problem explaining his sexuality to me, in fact, he spoke about it with ease, and that only fed my fire. It made me ache to understand him, to peel back the layers, as if learning more about him might quiet the chaos stirring inside me.

“I do find certain men appealing, but…” his eyes skimmed over my blouse, resting on my chest area. My breath escaped me as his eyes returned to mine. “I cannot disregard my...intense attraction to women. I build connections with people, regardless of gender. I only care about the feelings two people can make together.”

I said nothing as he took another step, a predatory gleam forming in the corners of his eyes. I shivered, but made no move to walk away this time.

“And might I say, Miss Delane, you have thoroughly spiked my interest.”

My ears weren’t really processing what I heard.

“I–” I stammered.

He stepped closer again, too close for comfort now, and I countered in reverse only to be met with the smooth surface of a wall behind me. He laughed quietly as I squished myself against it, trying my best to bleed through the annoying solid to get to the other side.

It didn’t work, unfortunately.

“Don’t tell me you aren’t curious,” he purred, slipping so close that I felt his cool breath touch my chest. “About me. About everything. Don’t you want to know me?”

“I know enough.”

He seemed enthused. “Do you?”

“Yes,” I squeaked out.

He crossed his arms. “Well, that doesn’t seem very fair: that you know so much about me, and I know so little of you.”