Free Playing with Fire by Amy O'Neill Page A

the darkness, his chocolate brown eyes made her feel
like she was melting a little, sending warmth across her
skin.
    “I’ll listen any time you want to talk
about her.”
    Noelle could feel her throat tighten
as her eyes grew damp. After a moment she found her voice and
whispered again, “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    He smiled at her, and she wanted more
than anything in that moment to lean in and let him kiss her. But
she stayed where she was, afraid of what opening that door would
bring.
    They laid back and watched the sky
progress overhead as the minutes ticked away. Noelle snuggled
closer to him as a cool breeze floated across them.
    “I have a sweatshirt in the trunk if
you’d like it.”
    She shook her head. “No, this is
fine.”
    His teeth gleamed white in the
moonlight when he smiled at her. “I’m enjoying myself. I hope you
are too.”
    “I am. More so than I thought I
would.”
    “Do I really seem like I’m that bad a
guy?”
    She looked at him for a moment. “It
was never that you seemed like a bad guy, it was that you seemed
like you wanted to charm the pants off me.”
    He laughed. “I will admit that was my
initial thought, but I promise you it turned into something more
very quickly.”
    “Well, I figured you were either
really persistent or totally desperate.”
    He laughed again. “I don’t know if
I’ve even been desperate, but you definitely make me want to work
to win you over. How am I doing so far?”
    She squinted at him. “Hmmm, I’m not
sure I want to answer that just yet.”
    Had she been standing at that moment,
the look he gave her would have had her knees buckling. Her breath
caught in her throat as the air around them seemed to grow thick
with anticipation.
    “Will this help my case?”
    He leaned in and pressed his lips
softly to hers. Slowly, he increased the pressure and she couldn’t
stop the moan that escaped her. The kiss was brief, but left her
lips feeling as if they would be permanently marked as
his.
    After a moment, he drew back and
brought his hand up to cradle the side of her neck. He rested his
forehead on hers and let out a labored breath. “I’m sorry, I
shouldn’t have done that. I told myself I wasn’t going to rush
this.”
    Noelle pulled away to look at him. She
rested her hand on his chest for balance and felt the rhythmic
cadence of his heartbeat. “Don’t be sorry. I’ve wanted you to do
that all night.”
    He smiled. “Really?”
    She bit her lip and nodded. “Honestly
I’ve had a few thoughts about it these last few days.”
    He raised her hand off his chest and
to his lips, where he placed a kiss on the back of it. “I hope it
lived up to your expectations.”
    Noelle tried not to smile, wanting to
make him squirm just a bit longer. She shrugged. “Eh, it was
alright.”
    Trent froze for a moment and then
laughed. “I’ll show you alright!”
    And for the next while he did just
that as he kissed her senseless under the stars.

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    The next morning Noelle clocked in
almost an hour late. She forgot to set her alarm when she’d
returned from her date and overslept. But it was well worth
it.
    She ducked her head as she opened the
office door and muttered an apology to Delphine.
    To her surprise, Delphine
laughed in response. “It was that good of a date?”
    Noelle couldn’t stop herself from
smiling. “Yeah, it was that good.”
    Delphine whistled. “Well, look at you
Miss Thang. I told you he was your lover boy!”
    Noelle batted the comment
away. “It wasn’t that great! It was just ‘stayed up all night and kissed into the
wee hours of the morning’ great.”
    “I told you he wasn’t a bad
guy.”
    Noelle walked back to the supply
closet and started preparing her housekeeping cart. “You were
right. But we aren’t talking about it.”
    Delphine tucked a stack of fresh
towels onto the second rack and shook her head. “Honey, with a
smile like you got, you don’t need to say a word.”
    Noelle