Pure Seduction by Frank, Ella (first ebook reader .txt) 📕

into Jake’s life. I’d always made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t disrupt him for my personal relationships unless I saw a future with that person. So far, no one had fit the bill.

“Honestly? I don’t know, and that’s what worries me,” I replied.

“Why? You’re single, gorgeous, and deserve to have some fun. Jake’s not going to care if you date someone.”

“Who said anything about dating?”

“Ah, okay. I see what you’re thinking. More like a quick one and done? I mean, who could blame you? The guy is seriously doable.”

“Willa.” I didn’t know why I was so shocked—she wasn’t wrong. But not having anything remotely intelligent to contribute to that, I found myself thinking about the way I’d caught Noah looking at my mouth every now and then this past week, as though he wanted to…devour it.

“What?” Willa said. “He is. And Ryan said he can’t keep his eyes off you.”

I almost choked on my drink. “He did?”

“Mhmm. Said he gets all stupid whenever you walk in a room.” She sat up and leaned across the arm of her chair toward me. “Ryan said he almost fell off the golf cart yesterday trying to look at you when they were heading out to the vines.”

A flash of the two of them leaving the production facility came to mind. I’d been updating the winery’s website out on the back deck, enjoying the sun with my feet propped up on one of the benches.

“I…uh, don’t remember that.”

“Sure you don’t.” Willa aimed a conspiratorial grin my way. “Sooo, what are you going to do about it?”

“Shh.” I looked around to make sure none of her guests were in the sitting room with us. Well, one guest in particular.

“Don’t worry. He’s not here.”

“I wasn’t looking.”

“Yes you were, but if you want to stay in denial a little while longer, that’s okay.”

“I’m not in denial.”

Willa held her thumb and index finger a couple inches apart. “Maybe just a little?”

“No. I have eyes.” Noah’s striking face came to mind, and a low heat swirled between my thighs. Quickly, I got to my feet. “I’m aware of how good-looking he is. With that thick black hair and the stubble to match. Not to mention how tall he is now.”

I looked down at Willa, who nodded.

“I swear it feels like he’s grown several inches, but that’s stupid. Maybe it’s just all those muscles and those suits that fit him so well. I don’t know.”

As I paced back and forth, I took another sip of my drink, my mind suddenly filled with images of the man I couldn’t seem to shake.

“He’s smart, too. Knows this business like the back of his hand. And he keeps asking me to go over the blasted menus with him like I suggested, but…” I let out a sigh and turned to face Willa. “The idea of sitting in a dining room with him and having a glass of wine and tasting expensive food makes me…flustered. He makes me flustered.”

“That’s great.”

“No. It’s not great. Every time he walks in a room, my entire body goes into hyperdrive. My heart thumps, my pulse goes crazy, and this delicious ache starts and— God, I think I forgot what it feels like to really want someone. I need it to stop.”

Willa opened her mouth, about to respond, when a familiar, deep voice interrupted her.

“Now why would you ever want that?”

15

Noah

WHEN I’D LEFT Gallagher’s tonight I had one goal in mind: to work out a quick legal way that I could get out of this fucked-up situation that Harry had put us all in. But as I stood in the entryway of Willa’s sitting room staring at Laurel’s curvaceous figure, every thought other than getting closer to her instantly left my mind.

I leaned against the doorframe, knowing there was no way Laurel hadn’t heard me, and when she finally turned and I caught the obvious flush in her cheeks, my suspicions were confirmed.

“Please, don’t stop on my account.” I started toward her as though being drawn like a moth to a flame, and when the tip of her tongue worried her plump lower lip, my body responded as though she’d just flicked it over the head of my cock. “I believe you were discussing wanting someone?”

“Um…” Willa popped up from where she was sitting. But my eyes were firmly locked on Laurel. “I think that maybe I’m going to, you know, go. Unless of course you, um, need something, Noah?”

“I’m good, thanks.” I ran my eyes down Laurel’s chic dress. “I’ve got everything I need right here.”

“Okaaay, then I’m leaving.”

Laurel didn’t say a word to stop Willa, which surprised me. I almost expected her to protest. All week she’d gone out of her way to make sure we were never alone, and if we were, it was only for a handful of minutes each time. But as Willa left the room and the two of us remained, the only movement from Laurel was her fingers, which had tightened around her frosty cocktail glass.

“Did you have a good night?” she finally said, angling her chin up a fraction, revealing the lovely lines of her elegant neck.

“No, actually, I didn’t. But I have a feeling that’s about to change.”

“Oh?”

“Hmm. What are you drinking?”

Laurel took a sip from the straw poking out of the glass, and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the thing. Even as a teenager, her mouth had always fascinated me.

No, that was a lie—as a teenager, her mouth had fucking tormented me. With her pouty, bow-shaped lips, it had been a never-ending source of distraction. That clearly hadn’t changed over the years we’d been apart, and I wasn’t about to let her leave tonight until I’d had a taste of them.

“A Screaming Orgasm,” she said, and the smile on that fantasy-inspiring mouth almost brought me to my knees. Fuck, she was gorgeous.

“Felt like one of those tonight, huh?”

“I’ve felt like one of those all week.”

And just like that, I had a sudden