Free Vain - Part Two (The Vain Series Book 2) by Deborah Bladon

"We're friends."
    The words surprise me. The only friend I've heard Noah speak of is Brighton and since the encounter at the gallery, I highly doubt that they're on speaking terms. "Friends?"
    His jaw tightens. "Yes." The word is clipped and direct. "Why are you asking?"
    This is the point where I should confess that I read the text message from Ari about Camilla. This is where honesty becomes the best policy. This is where I hide behind my insecurities because I don't want to fuck this up by sounding accusatory when he was only helping a friend.
    "She was intense at the gallery." I pull on the edge of the sheet. The tactic affords me an escape from having to make eye contact with him. "She really wanted to talk to you."
    He leans forward until his forehead is pressing against mine. "If you have something you want to ask, Alexa, spit it out."
    My breath hitches. I pull my hand across my breasts, pushing the soft sheet into them, wanting a barrier between Noah and me. I part my lips; my intention is to ask about Camilla. I need to ask. I'll doubt our connection if I don't.
    "She's my friend, Alexa." He kisses the tip of my nose softly. "She's nothing more to me. Nothing."
    "I…" my voice trails into the distance as he pulls his large frame from the bed and disappears down the hallway.

Chapter 19
     
    "I booked us a table to Axel for eleven tonight." I stand at the doorway of his office, fully dressed. "We need to leave soon."
    "Why would you do that?" He doesn't turn to look at me, his eyes holding steady on one of the portraits of my body hanging on the wall.
    "The restaurant will be empty." I tread softly across the floor until I'm standing next to him. "Sadie arranged it for me."
    He glances down at me. "Maybe another night. I'm not hungry."
    I sigh softly, disappointment skirting the edges of it. "I am so I think I may just go."
    "I don't know how to do this anymore."
    My stomach drops at the confession. "Do what?"
    "This." His gaze is back on the photograph. "Take pictures of women."
    I feel a sigh of relief race through me. "I thought…"
    "Don't think that, Alexa." He reaches for my hand without looking at me. "I don't know how to breathe without you anymore. Don't ever think that."
    The tenderness in the words doesn't match his body language. He's withdrawn, distant and holding back. The only reassurance he's offering is his fingers woven together with mine.
    "What do you mean, Noah?" I squeeze his hand looking for something, anything that he can offer to me. "Why can't you take pictures?"
    "That is perfection." He pulls both our hands up into the air, his index finger pointing at my pictures on the wall. "You're perfection. How do I go back to taking pictures after this?"
    "I'm not perfect," I shoot back. "I'm far from perfect."
    "You can't see what I see." His tone is insistent and determined. "When I came to your birthday party I looked at women walking by while I sat on that bench. None of them compared to you. Not one was like you."
    I stare up at him, the light catching his scar and illuminating it. "You can't see what I see either."
    His eyes dart down to my face, his gaze searching mine. "No one sees me the way you do." Something sparks within him and a small smile pulls over his lips. "We have a date. Let me get dressed."
     
    ***
     
    "How did you get a driver to come pick us up so quickly?" I stare across the candle lit table at his handsome face. "He was there right after you called for him."
    "He works for my father." He takes a sip from the glass of red wine he ordered once we were seated.  He had hesitated only briefly when we walked through the front doors of Axel. The moment he saw how dimly lit the room was and that the restaurant was vacant, the tightness in his shoulders had washed away.
    "I'd like to meet your father."
    "You've met him." He taps his fingers against the table. I can tell he's not completely comfortable by the way his eyes dart around the empty space.
    "I've met your father?" I